Human for hire 3 devil.., p.1
Human for Hire (3) -- Devil's Gate (Collateral Damage Included), page 1
Human for Hire (3) — Devil’s Gate —
Collateral Damage Included
T.R. Harris
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Copyright 2022
by Tom Harris Creations, LLC
Edited by
Lionel Dyck
Sherry Dixon
Grammarly
And of course…
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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Novels by T.R. Harris
Human for Hire Series
Human For Hire
Human for Hire (2) - Soldier of Fortune
Human for Hire (3) — Devil’s Gate
Human for Hire (4) — Frontier Justice
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The Human Chronicles Legacy Series
Raiders of the Shadow
War of Attrition
Secondary Protocol
Lifeforce
Battle Formation
Allied Command
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The Adam Cain Saga
The Dead Worlds
Empires
Battle Plan
Galactic Vortex
Dark Energy
Universal Law
The Formation Code
The Quantum Enigma
Children of the Aris
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The Human Chronicles
The Fringe Worlds
Alien Assassin
The War of Pawns
The Tactics of Revenge
The Legend of Earth
Cain’s Crusaders
The Apex Predator
A Galaxy to Conquer
The Masters of War
Prelude to War
The Unreachable Stars
When Earth Reigned Supreme
A Clash of Aliens
Battlelines
The Copernicus Deception
Scorched Earth
Alien Games
The Cain Legacy
The Andromeda Mission
Last Species Standing
Invasion Force
Force of Gravity
Mission Critical
The Lost Universe
The Immortal War
Destroyer of Worlds
Phantoms
Terminus Rising
The Last Aris
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Box Set #2 – Books 6-10 in the series
Box Set #3 – Books 11-15 in the series
Box Set #4 – Books 16-20 in the series
Box Set #5—Books 21-25 in the series
Box Set #6 — Books 26-29 in the series
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REV: Renegades
REV: Rebirth
REV: Revolution
REV: Retribution
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Jason King – Agent to the Stars Series
The Enclaves of Sylox
Treasure of the Galactic Lights
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The Drone Wars Series
Day of the Drone
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In collaboration with Co-Author George Wier…
The Liberation Series
Captains Malicious
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Available exclusively on Amazon.com and FREE to members of Kindle Unlimited.
Contents
Human for Hire
In a rough and tumble galaxy,
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Coming Next…
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Novels by T.R. Harris
Human for Hire
— Devil’s Gate —
In a rough and tumble galaxy,
ruled by gun and muscle…
* * *
When you need the very best mercenary, bounty hunter, bodyguard or just straight muscle, you find a …
* * *
HUMAN for HIRE
Chapter 1
Callie Morrison came out from taking a Navy shower aboard her cramped, tiny starship, the Angel, feeling refreshed physically, even as her mind was clouded emotionally. In the cockpit, she stretched in all her naked glory, knowing there was no one to see through the viewport for light-years in every direction. It had been a while since she luxuriated in such a way, hoping the brief, enveloping cocoon of warm, soothing water would calm her troubled mind. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Instead, it made her feel even more guilty.
As she began toweling off, she struggled with her conflicted emotions. This wasn’t like her. She was usually a tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners kind of gal, justified by years as a successful con-artist in a them-against-her contest of wills and skills. And she always came out the winner. That wasn’t hard to understand, seeing that she was a Human and all her marks were aliens. It was hardly a fair contest. But this time it was different.
This time she’d screwed over a fellow Human.
And it was someone she really liked.
Callie snuggled into a thick cotton robe and tied the cord around her narrow waist. The material was comforting but it still didn’t relieve her shame.
“Dammit!’ she said aloud. “I deserve the credits!”
After all, it had been her operation from the beginning, an elaborate plan to rob one of the Big Five Banks in the galaxy. She not only researched the facility and its security systems, but she also constructed a detailed cover story that would leave her anonymous and free at the end. And then she went undercover at the bank for four long, grueling months. She hadn’t held down a real job since she left Earth nine years earlier, so the time spent on the planet Tactori was excruciating. More than anyone else in the operation, she put in more time, effort and brainpower. Everyone else who came in afterwards were just bit players.
But Adam Cain was different. She really liked him and it crushed her usually hardened soul to see him so depressed and despondent after they left Bandors Bank on Tactori.
Oh, well, she shrugged. He’ll survive; in fact, he’d proved capable of that more than any other living being in the galaxy. And now he was headed back to Tel’oran. Sure, he and the company he worked for didn’t make any money from their latest job; hell, Adam even ended up owing the bank a hundred thousand credits when all was said and done. But there would be other jobs, both for Adam and for Callie. It would just take a little time for her to work through her guilt.
She sat in the pilot’s seat and stared out the viewport at a brilliant cluster of stars and nebulae off to her port side. She sighed, thinking what a beautiful sight it was … and how absolutely immune she was to it. Had nine years in space jaded her that much that she no longer felt the awe and wonder of journeying through the galaxy in a compact starship of her own? Was it that easy for even the glory of outer space to become … ordinary?
“Knock it off, Callie!” she yelled at herself, needing the sound of her voice to remind her what it was like to interact with another Human, if it was only her voice she was hearing.
She considered that for a moment. For the past three years, she hadn’t even seen another Human until Adam appeared on the scene. Was part of her attraction to him simply from the fact that she was lonely and homesick? Nah! Adam Cain was a certifiable hunk of the first degree. An amazingly fit ex-Navy SEAL, who had been cloned back to his twenty-two-year-old-self, yet with all the experiences and confidence of a man approaching sixty who had done and seen everything. He was a truly unique person, and Callie had experienced him firsthand.
And yes, she screwed him over, and in more than the way she regretted.
It had only been two days since they went their separate ways, he back to Tel’oran and Starfire Security, and Callie heading for her semi-permanent digs on the planet Gavon near the Kidis Frontier. She attributed her melancholy mood to the freshness of the breakup after only a brief week-long affair. Give her another week, a
It was almost a relief when the proximity alarm sounded aboard the Angel, giving Callie something new to think about other than Adam Cain. She frowned at the contact on the nav screen. She was in open space, light-years away from the nearest settled star system. The odds of coming this close to another vessel were, well, astronomical.
Callie tapped the control stick, changing course by about five degrees. Sure enough, the following contact changed course with her.
She grimaced. She wasn’t worried, just frustrated. Her ship was small, but it was almost all engines. She had dual Gravtec generators that were massively overrated for the size of her ship, along with four focusing rings. She’d made the improvements a few years back after a particularly lucrative score and they’d paid dividends ever since. She was sure the Angel was the fastest ship in this part of the galaxy, if not the whole Milky Way.
But why was a ship following her? She trusted that Bandors Bank had lifted all warrants against her. Then she chuckled. Bandors wasn’t the only party in the galaxy that she’d wronged. Not even close. So, this ship could be coming after her for any number of reasons. That was fine, let them try to catch up—
And that’s when another alarm blared, signifying a second ship, this one coming in from port.
Okay, so a coordinated operation. That spoke of a more serious adversary. Still, it wouldn’t make a difference. The Angel was cruising along at about half her top speed since it didn’t pay to advertise one’s true capacities. Best to play that close to the vest.
Callie let the ships approach, coming as close as they dared so as to not mix gravity-wells. And then she waited for the inevitable contact. It came only seconds after velocities were matched.
She opened the link.
“Identify yourselves and state your intentions,” she demanded. “I am a private vessel breaking no laws.”
A leathery, green-skinned creature came on the screen, alien yellow eyes staring unblinking at the Human.
“My identity is immaterial; our intention is to board your vessel and retrieve certain property.”
“What property?”
“I believe you know of which I speak.”
Callie pursed her lips. “I honestly don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” And she didn’t. Not to any certainty.
“We are associates of the expired Mada Niac, part of his network of recovery agents and supporters.”
Callie tensed. Did they know? And if so, how?
“I’m sorry about your associate, but I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We were in contact with Mada, knowing he carried within his vessel ten million energy credits. We also know that after taking your ship within his, certain events took place that resulted in your escape and the subsequent destruction of his vessel. Shortly thereafter, you and an associate returned eight million, four hundred thousand ECs to Bandors Bank.”
“What does that have to do with anything? We negotiated with the bank for the return of credits in exchange for the lifting of all warrants. Mada spent some of the ten million before we recovered it, but the bank accepted the amount returned to them for payment in full. If you are acting on a writ surrounding that transaction, then please check your timestamp. You will find I have been cleared of any culpability.”
“We do not represent Bandors. We represent ourselves.”
“Then I don’t know how I can help you.”
“We know that Mada did not spend the credits you speak of. Therefore, we suspect that it was you who absconded with the shortage of one million, six hundred thousand ECs. That is the property we seek from you. Drop from light speed and allow us to recover these funds and you will be free to go.”
“I don’t have the credits. As I said, Mada spent them, not me. That’s why there was a shortage.”
“Impossible. We know for a fact that Mada had sophisticated weighing equipment aboard his vessel. He measured the credits accurately. He had ten million units. And yet, when you delivered the funds to Bandors, you were short. You took the credits. Do not deny it.”
Well, shit, they had her pretty much dead to rights. That was exactly what happened. Feeling that she was owed at least a little of the money, she raided the security chest and stashed one-point-six million in the Angel, unbeknownst to Adam. She figured she deserved it more than him and his Juirean boss. In reality, it was her money, not theirs. So, she was really stealing from herself.
She smirked at the alien on the screen. “Okay, you got me. I admit it. I took the credits. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to turn them over to you.” Callie’s hand moved toward the gravity-well controls, preparing to kick the Angel into high gear. Afterward, she may keep the alien on the screen just so she could see the startled look on his craggy face when she sprinted away—
A brilliant white flash filled the cockpit at almost the same time Callie’s ship jerked to port. Alarms went off and lights flickered. Not waiting to do a diagnostic, Callie increased the dynamo effect through the generators. The Angel bolted away, but at only a fraction of the speed she was expecting.
A quick check of the systems revealed the awful truth. The Angel had been hit, not by a flash cannon bolt, but a high-intensity and targeted laser beam. Lasers were very effective short-distance weapons that, unlike flash cannon, traveled at the speed of light, magnitudes faster than the bolts. A beam had struck her starboard gravity generator, rendering it inoperable. This was catastrophic damage. It didn’t mean that the Angel was now operating on half power, it was more like one third. The dual generators worked together to produce the dynamo effect, and without both operating, a single generator was ridiculously inefficient.
Callie checked her screens. As expected, the ship that had fired the laser was dead in space and would be for the next couple of hours as it recharged its batteries. That was the problem with laser weapons; they sucked up every spare watt onboard the ship. Unfortunately for Callie, there was another vessel to take up the pursuit.
And it wasn’t much of an effort on their part. The second enemy ship pulled in behind her, placing its gravity-well tantalizingly close to the Angel. The g-well had an even more harmful effect on her forward progress, slowing the ship even more. Only Callie’s well kept her from being sucked into the singularity located on her six. But even as the enemy’s well served to tug on the Angel, Callie’s helped pull the enemy ship along behind her, allowing it to expend less energy even as the Angel ate greedily into her reserves. The trailing ship was in no hurry to attack; they didn’t have to. They would wait until her fuel pod was drained and then simply move into board the ship. And although the Angel had an adequate defensive system, the enemy didn’t want to get into a shooting war. That might destroy the ship and the one-point-six million credits she had aboard.
What her enemy didn’t realize about Callie, however, was that she was a planner. Over the years, she’d plotted out countless scenarios and what it would take to get out of even the hairiest of situations.
And that was why she had a plasma bomb aboard. Afterall, every red-blooded Human con-artist needed a plasma bomb aboard their vessel, right? It made sense. One never knew when it might come in handy.
