Huntresses

“So, we got a new target?” I asked as Dolos sat back down at the metal table.

She tapped her wristwatch a couple of times and a holographic projection of a guy came up. To be honest, I could instantly tell he was a dick. He just had that dick look: all snooty posture, fancy clothes, perfectly groomed brown hair, and an expression that said “I’m better than you, peasants.”

“Salura Zacher,” Dolos explained as I gnawed on a steak-flavored French fry. “Heir to the Zacher Empire.”

“Don’t they sell medical equipment?”

“In a sense. More accurately, they charge ludicrous prices for medical equipment and drugs and refuse to help anyone who can’t pay.”

“Thought he looked like a dick.” I leaned back and stretched my arms above my head, my hands plunging into the branches of the tree right behind me. “Is that the only reason the boss wants him?”

“Why does the boss usually want someone?”

“Revenge.”

“Exactly.” She made the projection disappear a second before our waiter stopped beside our table.

“Can I get you ladies anything else?” he asked with a smile.

“Check, please,” Dolos said before I could respond.

He placed the check on our table and pointed to a small slot in the right side of the table. “Whenever you’re ready, just put it in there. I hope you ladies have a nice day.”

We thanked him and I waited until he was out of earshot before looking back at Dolos. “You know, I kind of wanted pie.”

“Too bad.” She pulled the projection back up and looked at her watch. “Because of him and his father—and the business in general—hundreds of people have died because they couldn’t afford proper drugs or medical equipment and couldn’t go anywhere else because, as you know, the Zacher Company is the only medical equipment provider on this planet.”

“Does Zacher—the one we’re after, not the father—live on this planet?”

“His primary home is here, but he also has homes on Peladon, Sto, Apalapucia, Zanax, the Rexel Planetary Configuration, and Rexacoricofallapatorius.”

“Hate that place,” I grumbled.

“That’s only because you can’t pronounce it.”

I shrugged easily. “It’s true.”

“So.” She pulled out some currency cards, placed them in the slot, stood up, and held her hand out to me. “Ready to go?”

I sighed, sad that we had to leave and get back to work. I took one last drink of my coffee and cracked my neck on both sides. “Yeah, okay.” I took her hand and let her pull me to my feet, our hand staying clasped together as we made our way out of the restaurant and to our motorcycles.

As we separated to go to our bikes, I looked over at her, always loving how the sunlight made her long lemon hair shine brighter and more beautiful than the sun. I never got tired of seeing how the sunlight transformed her. She was always the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, but the light from the sun really made her shine, not only brightening her hair, but changing her eyes from deep-ocean blue to the bright blue-green of a sunlit sea and caressing her tawny skin, illuminating it from within. In her black combat boots, fitted black leather pants, dark blue t-shirt that accentuated her voluptuous bosom, and her fitted black leather jacket with her thick hair tied back in a ponytail, I was once again struck speechless by just how beautiful she was. I truly never got tired of looking at her. She was like a cheetah: gorgeous, lean, strong, and deadly.

“Agro? Hello? Agro? Earth to Agrotora.”

I shook my head to clear it and blinked a couple of times, almost losing it again at the sight of her stunningly gorgeous playful smile, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “You okay there?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just, you know, it’s hard to function properly when looking at an angelic warrior.”

She snorted and looked to her bike, but her smile betrayed the fact that she really was flattered. “Come on, we have to get to work. Zacher is staying in his Apalapucia house; I’ve already got the coordinates in my bike. If we book it, we can be there in about two hours.”

“Well, okay. Let’s get on with it.”

“Oh, Agro,” Dolos said from her bike as I got situated on mine.

“Yeah?”

“Boss wants him alive.”

“Noted.”

I turned on my bike and flipped switches so it rose off the ground, the wheels retracted, small, lean fins emerged from the sides under my feet, and an impenetrable clear shield rose up and over me, slotting into place in front of the handlebars. Once both of our bikes were ready, Dolos’ shot forward and straight up into the sky, mine immediately following, already programmed to follow her bike anywhere. I let out my standard whoop of joy as we hurtled side by side into the sky and even though I’d done it dozens of times, the tingling exhilaration in my stomach never faded, always bringing thrilled laughs out of me.

Once we were out of the atmosphere, Dolos’ bike shot forward and mine followed right beside.

“Never get tired of that,” I declared, my entire body buzzing with the energy.

“So you say every time we do that,” Dolos replied through the coms.

I looked over and saw that she was smiling indulgently while looking straight ahead. “Oh come on, you know you love how excited I get.” I gave another whoop and laugh of joy and excitement.

“It is quite cute,” she admitted, dodging a large hunk of floating space rock.

I was about to respond when I noticed something and looked over to see a star going supernova.

“Whoa! Did you see that?” I asked in amazement when we passed it.

“Not really, but I know we passed it.”

“You know, we could go back,” I suggested, really hoping I would get to see my first supernova.

“Sorry. We’re on a tight schedule.”

“How are we on a tight schedule? The boss never gives us a specific deadline.”

“This one is important.”

“They’re all important.”

“Agrotora.” The way she said it, with her subtle warning tone bordering on not-so-subtle, told me I should drop the subject. I knew she wouldn’t hurt me if I didn’t drop it, but she would be mad at me and might even withhold sex, which would be worse than a punch in the face.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “Can we see a supernova later?”

“Sure. When we’re not working.”

We rode the rest of the way in a comfortable silence with occasional talking.

“Shhhit,” she said when we were close to Apalapucia.

“What? What is it?” Dolos didn’t get worried or ruffled very often, so whenever she did, I had to struggle not to flip out.

She gunned her motor and I followed her as we shot down through the atmosphere and plowed through the clear red sky. After a couple of minutes, she slowed and came to a stop and I matched her speed, seeing what she was worried about. “Dammit.”

A gargantuan pirate ship was hovering over a large ultra-modern house on a hill.

“Jakhar Vein,” Dolos breathed in fear.

We looked on in silence for a moment as people ran around on the ship, yelling and carrying stuff that was probably from Zacher’s house.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

“It might be,” Dolos said, looking at the ship with a stunned expression. “No pirates work for the boss. They might have just been here and noticed Zacher’s wealth. Or they heard about his wealth and decided to come pay him a visit.”

“But now?! Right when we get assigned to him?” Even though I knew that the boss hated pirates and would never hire them—especially when we had already been assigned to do the job—it just didn’t seem to fit with me.

“Look, I don’t really know how they’re here at the same time as us, but that doesn’t change the fact that we need to get Zacher—alive—to the boss.”

“So what do we do?” Not two seconds after I asked, the ship rose up and started out of the planet’s atmosphere, the house bursting into flames below it.

“Follow them, get Zacher.”

I looked at her doubtfully. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Without another word, she took off after the ship and I sighed in resignation, my bike automatically following hers.

“Dolos, we can’t just storm the ship. We need a plan.” I was scared at the thought of going aboard the ship of the most fear pirate in the galaxies and I was irritated that Dolos didn’t have an actual plan. Granted, we had only just seen the pirates, but still. She was good under pressure and could come up with a plan to get out of a problem before I realized that we were in a problem.

“I’m working on it,” she told me, her eyes locked on the ship.

“But—”

“I’m working on it!”

I decided to let it go and focused on the ship that we were quickly gaining on. When we were a couple of miles away, Dolos slowed down so that we kept the same following distance.

“Look at your monitor.”

I looked down and saw an infrared scan of the ship. There were dozens of figures on the deck and down below and on the far right near the bottom of the ship were two figures, separated from the others.

“Zacher,” I murmured.

“Bingo.”

“So how do we get him?” I thought it would work to just shoot it up, grab Zacher, and fly away, but I knew that Dolos would want to go for something a bit more subtle.

“I have two ideas.”

“Does one involve excessive shooting?”

“No.”

A bright red light abruptly encompassed both of our bikes and started pulling us in.

“Make that three ideas.”

“Are we being abducted?” I asked, my voice matching hers for total calm.

“Quite possibly.”

“And you have a plan?”

“I do indeed.”

“Care to share?”

“Not yet.”

A door opened in the side of the ship and our bikes were pulled in and docked, several large and angry-looking men standing around us. The one standing closest to Dolos said something to her and gestured for her to get out. She pushed a button on her console and said, “Sorry?” in her fragile, helpless-little-waif voice.

“Get out,” the man growled again, his voice coming through my com scratchier than it actually was. Hopefully. If it was actually that scratchy, that was sad.

She put down her shield and I put down mine and I hopped out of my bike while she scrambled out of hers.

“Did I tell you to get out?” he snarled at me. Really with his large, stout body, bushy black beard, bushy black hair, and hairy arms and chest, he did more than slightly resemble a large and angry dog.

“Well, I did hear you say the words ‘Get out’, so I thought that applied to both of us,” I said to him, my hands in my jacket pockets.

“Hands where I can see them!” Bushy ordered, pointing a laser gun at me.

I immediately pulled out my hands and held them up. “Okay, okay. No need to shoot.”

“Who the hell are you two and what the hell are you doing on this ship?”

“Well, I’m Agrotora Maya and this is my partner Dolos Mordechai.” I gestured to Dolos and looked over to see that she had her hands up and was shaking, her eyes wide and expressing a fear that only I could tell was fake. “We’re here on a job.”

Bushy didn’t lower the gun. “What kind of job?”

I looked at Dolos again and she blinked three times at me, telling me to tell the truth. “We are bounty hunters and have been hired to capture Salura Zacher and bring him back alive to our boss.”

The dozen or so men stared at us for a moment before bursting out laughing. Their laughter was loud and obnoxious and seriously made me want to shoot all of them.

“You two?!” Bushy wheezed through his laughter. “You two don’t look like you could bounty hunt a bunny rabbit.”

“Please. Don’t hurt us,” Dolos begged, her voice scared and trembling.

The men stopped laughing at looked at us like they wanted to eat us. Or worse. Probably worse.

“Sweetheart, you two come onto my ship—” Bushy started, advancing slightly.

“Wait, you’re Jakhar Vein?” I asked in surprise, my fear and aggression retreating. “Woww. Talk about an over-hype. I mean, when we saw this ship, I was like ‘No way am I getting on that thing’, but you seriously seem more like a naughty dog than a fearsome pirate. I mean, really, what—?”

Moving so fast that he was a blur, Jakhar Vein grabbed me by the neck and slammed me against the wall, white spots popping up in my vision. When I recovered from that, I realized that my feet weren’t touching the ground and I couldn’t really breathe properly.

“Look at me.”

I did as the voice commanded and looked up at the pirate who seemed about a hundred times more fearsome than he had a minute ago. His eyes weren’t just black, they were the emptiness of a black hole, the coldness of a frozen corpse, and the hatred of every demon in hell. Those eyes and the strong hand with calloused skin scraping my neck and rough nails digging into my flesh commanded every ounce of my attention and promised agonizing pain if I didn’t give it to him. Yup, I was scared now.

“Let her go!” Was Dolos actually scared or was that acting? If she was actually scared, I was totally screwed.

The pirate squeezed my throat tighter and I wasn’t able to get any oxygen. My logical brain shut down and my panicked brain took over, causing me to kick out and scrabble at his hand to try to get free. Tears came into my eyes and started falling down my face, my vision going blurry. I heard a dim voice say, “Let her go! Please!” and I fell to the ground, gasping and coughing. Someone—Dolos—rushed over to me and held my face, making sure I was okay. She wiped away my tears and whispered that it was going to be okay while I gently rubbed my probably-bruised throat. After I don’t know how long of me coughing and struggling to get my breath back, a shadow loomed over the both of us and we looked up and into the empty eyes of the captain.

“You come onto my ship and say that you’ve come to capture my prisoner?” His voice was somehow a lot more fearsome than before, twisting around me and chilling me to the bone. That might have been because he nearly strangled me. Or maybe I just hadn’t noticed it earlier. Either way, if his aim was to scare us, it sure was working. “I don’t know if you’ve been told, but I hate bounty hunters nearly more than anything.”

“The feeling is mutual,” I wheezed out, still rubbing my throat. I tended to say stupid things when I was scared.

He glared at me like he was trying to kill me with his mind and I actually felt like holes were being burned into my brain. I wasn’t able to hold his spin-chilling gaze for more than five seconds before looking down again. I could feel his glare on my face and I had to force myself not to turn away more.

Without warning, he grabbed my neck, lifted me up so that my feet weren’t touching the ground again, and slammed me so hard against the wall that I actually blacked out for a moment. Once I was able to focus again, he gripped my jaw so tightly that I was afraid that my teeth or jaw would break.

“I don’t like people disrespecting me,” he growled softly into my face, his breath smelling like rot and death. “There is a reason why I am the most feared pirate in all the galaxies. Do you want to know why that reason is?”

I already knew and I struggled to look tough, but the terror I felt was so intense and complete that I knew my body was shaking and I knew he could see the fear in my eyes. Hell, he could probably smell it on me.

He shook me almost violently and bared blood-spattered teeth that would be more suited for a wolf. “I asked you a question. Do you want to know why I am the most feared pirate in all the galaxies?”

I shook my head as best I could with him keeping a hold on my jaw and he flung me to the floor, the impact with the floor sending fiery bolts of pain shooting through my side.

“Frisk them and then take them to the brig,” Jakhar Vein growled at his crew, his eyes locked on me and Dolos. “Keep them there for a day or two. After that, do what you want with Blondie, but save the redhead for me.”

We were hauled to our feet by two very large men who roughly ran their hands all over us, finding my two guns, four knives, and laser sword and Dolos’ three guns, two knives, bomb, and laser sword. The men then proceeded to practically dragged us down a long hall and threw us into separate cells beside each other. Half-lying on the grungy, damp concrete floor of the cell, I tenderly felt the back of my head and winced with pain, internally groaning when I felt a rather large spot of blood that I was beginning to feel trickle down my neck. I let my hand fall down, pushing myself so that I was leaning back against the wall of the cell.

“You okay, Agrotora?” I heard Dolos ask from the other side of the wall across from me.

“Peachy.” My voice was still a rasping wheeze, but it was starting to get better. “There’s blood dripping down the back of my head, but hey, at least I’m alive.”

“We’ll get—…”

“What?” I asked with slight fear. I never liked it when she cut herself off and I couldn’t see what she was looking at.

“Zacher.”

I looked up and into the cell across from mine. A young man matching Salura Zacher’s description was crouched and huddling against the bars of his cell, his fancy clothes covered in grime and dirt.

“What the hell, man?” I groaned, letting my head fall back tiredly against the wall before being reminded of the pain in the back of my head and bringing it up again. “Ow.”

“W-what?” Zacher stuttered, looking between me and Dolos with an expression that was half hope and half sadness with a layer of fear on top. Poor idiot probably thought we were coming to rescue him. Well, in a way we were.

“How did you get completely covered in dirt?” I asked him, gently massaging my throat and trying to imagine that my hand was Dolos’. “You haven’t been here that long.”

“H-how do you know how long I’ve been here?” He moved forward on his knees and clutched the bars so tight that his knuckles went white. “A-are you here to rescue me?”

Well, I was right. “Does this look like a rescue mission?” I asked him rhetorically, gesturing to my cell and my throat.

“We are here to rescue you. In a way,” Dolos told him, still using her delicate innocent-girl voice.

“W-what do you mean in a way?” He looked at her like she was his saving grace and I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes and make gagging noises.

I heard her shuffle and I guessed that she was moving closer. “We’re here to get you free. I know you’re scared, but don’t be. I promise that we’ll get you out of here.”

“How, though? You… You’re just a girl.”

Hold your tongue, hold your tongue, hold your tongue. Don’t yell at the target.

“I know. And I know that it looks like I can’t help you, but you have to trust me. We will get you out of here.”

“Hey! No talking!”

A tall, shirtless man came up to the cells and glared at all of us. With his longish dark hair, single gold ring in one ear, tan skin, many muscles, and piercing silver eyes, even I had to admit that he wasn’t exactly bad looking. He had nice architecture. “You do not interact with each other.” Even his voice was slightly attractive. At least it wasn’t as gruff and scratchy as Jakhar Vein’s.

I heard more shuffling and guessed that Dolos stood up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know the rules. Maybe you could teach me.”

Oh, good lord. Hate it when she flirts with men.

“After all,” she continued in her seductive voice, “a big, strong man like you, I bet you would be a good teacher.”

“Uh, I’m not really supposed to be talking to the prisoners,” he said with a lowered voice, walking over to stand in front of her cell and out of my line of sight. Must be new.

“Am I a prisoner? Do I look dangerous to you?”

“Um, well, no, but…”

“Well, I am. I’m very dangerous.” Just hearing her seductive and playful tone was starting to turn me on, so god knew what seeing her and hearing her was doing for the guard.

“Oh, you are, are you?” he asked, his tone matching hers.

“Mm-hmm. Very dangerous.”

“Perhaps I should restrain you, then.”

“Perhaps you should. Who knows what would happen if you don’t.”

“Maybe I should put you in shackles.”

“You know what else you should do?”

“What?”

“Unlock the door.”

I almost cheered in joy when her voice changed from flirtatious to dangerous and deadly. I stood up and had to lean against the wall while the blurriness cleared from my vision.

“What?” the guard asked in confusion.

“Unlock. The door.”

I guessed she had a gun or something pressed against him because I heard a clattering noise and then the sound of a door opening. I tried to see what was happening, but I couldn’t.

“Good boy. Now get in the cell.” Even though I couldn’t see her eyes, I knew that the look in them was scaring the guard. When she wanted, she could transform herself from a fragile seductive girl to a demon from hell that would scare probably even Jakhar Vein.

There was a thumping sound, a groan, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. The cell door closed and there was more clattering and a second later, she was in front of my cell, smiling at me with love and happiness. She unlocked my cell and threw her arms around me, being careful not to hurt me. I returned her hug and moved my face into the crook of her neck, breathing in her comforting scent. I really wished that she didn’t have to be the one to trick guys like that, but considering the fact that I’m five foot ten and she’s five foot three, guys are always more likely to see her as nonthreatening. With my large boobs and long auburn hair, I could still seduce guys, just not as effectively as her. After a moment, we separated and she looked with concern at my neck.

“That looks like it hurts,” she murmured, her fingers lightly ghosting over my skin.

“It’s fine.” In truth, it did hurt, but it wasn’t that bad.

“What about your head?”

“Also fine.” That hurt more than my neck, a lot more, but it still wasn’t bad. I’d had worse.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“Wait, are—are you two…?” Zacher asked with a hesitant kind of wariness.

Dolos turned around and walked up to his cell. “Girlfriends?” she asked with her deadly voice. “Yes. We are. We’re also going to get you out of her. If you behave. If you don’t, then we’ll just leave you here to rot. Which would you prefer?”

He looked at her nervously and gulped. “I’ll behave.”

“Good.” She unlocked the door and he scrambled to his feet, slowly edging out of the cell.

“W-won’t they notice we’re gone?” he asked, looking around with jerky motions.

“Not if we’re fast enough.” She walked back down the hallway and I followed her, grabbing Zacher’s arm and dragging him with us.

When we got near to the large room where our bikes were docked, I wasn’t entirely surprised to see two pirates lounging in the room. I was about to ask Dolos what the plan was when she walked into the room and started looking at the magnetic locks holding her bike in place. The guards looked at her in surprise for a moment before jumping up and pointing their laser guns at her.

“How the hell did you get out?” the taller one demanded, all testosterone and aggression.

“I got the guard to unlock the door and let me out,” Dolos replied calmly, not reacting at all to the guns pointed at her.

“What do you mean, you got the guard to unlock the door?” the other one with no hair demanded.

“I meant just what I said.”

“What the hell is she doing?” Zacher demanded in a voice that wasn’t really a whisper, causing the men to turn their guns in our direction.

“Who’s there?” the taller one snarled. “Show yourselves!”

I shoved Zacher ahead of me and walked into the room.

“You know, I really expected Jakhar Vein’s people to be at least sort of intelligent,” I told them with slight disappointment.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tall Guy growled while Dolos stretched and yawned silently behind him.

“I don’t know who taught you, but I’ve always been taught that Rule One of…well… having enemies, I guess, is ‘Don’t turn your back on your enemy.’”

Before the men could figure out what I meant, Dolos grabbed the gun from the bald guy and slammed the butt of it into his head, sufficiently knocking him out. Tall Guy spun to shoot her, but I ran up to him and kicked his legs out from under him, sending him to the floor and grabbing his gun in the process. He looked up at us in shock and before he could get his breath back, Dolos leaned over him, said, “You’re boring,” and shot him in the face, leaving a burning, gaping hole where his face used to be.

“That was way too easy,” she complained, putting the gun strap around her shoulders while going over to a table to get her weapons.

“It’s okay, I’m sure we’ll have a good fight soon,” I assured while tucking all my weapons back into place.

“I really hope so.”

She found the mechanism that controlled the locks on our bikes and quickly unlocked them, flipping another switch that slowly opened the side door.

“I’ll take him,” she told me as she walked over to her bike.

“Are you sure?”

“You’d probably stab him.”

I shrugged, not even bothering to act offended. It was true, I probably would stab him.

“Wait, what?” Zacher asked in confusion, looking from me to Dolos.

“You don’t follow things very easily, do you? Get on her bike with her,” I ordered before he could respond.

“Are you rescuing me?”

“In a way,” Dolos responded. “Now get on before they realize that we’ve broken out.”

He hesitantly went up to her bike and awkwardly got on behind her. I got on my bike, we put up our shields, and she blasted out and away from the ship, my bike right beside her. It was faster than we usually went, faster than any ship could go, which I quite enjoyed, but when I looked over, Zacher looked like he was going to throw up.

“You know if you puke in her bike, she’ll cut out your gallbladder and make you eat it,” I warned him with a smile.

He went even paler while she smiled and said, “It’s true.”

“Who are you?” he asked in horrified shock.

“Bounty hunters,” Dolos told him, her voice cold. “And you’re our target.”

He didn’t look any calmer, but he stayed quiet while we rode. When we got far enough away from the ship, we slowed down a bit, but were still going faster than almost anything else in around us. When we got through our planet’s atmosphere, we slowed down to a fairly normal speed and went down to the street, where we put our shields down while driving. I was glad for the chance to ride with my shield down; I loved feeling the wind in my face and my hair blowing behind me. It was such a freeing feeling. Almost like flying.

All too soon, we got to the boss’ building and parked in the secure employee lot.

“Now,” Dolos told Zacher as they got off the bike, “you can either follow me willingly or I can drag you to where we’re going.”

“Is there any chance you’ll tell me where we’re going?” he asked in a fragile voice.

She gestured to the building. “In there.”

I walked up to him. “You have five seconds to decide whether you’ll walk or be dragged.”

“I’ll walk,” he said immediately, trembling with fear.

Dolos started walking and he followed her with me right behind him to make sure that he didn’t try to run. I kind of hoped that he did, though. That would give me a chance to hurt him and it had been a long time since I had gotten to hurt a target.

Alas, he opted to be a good boy and follow Dolos closely but not too closely as we walked into the building, got into an elevator, and then got out on the tenth and top floor. We walked down a hallway and Dolos stopped in front of the boss’ door, knocking on it softly.

“Enter,” the boss said from within.

Dolos opened the door and I shoved Zacher in when he hesitated. The boss was sitting in her leather chair behind her large glass desk at the far side of the large, granite office, her menacing-looking husband beside her shoulder. Her slanted eyes narrowed when she saw Zacher, her face stony and threatening. Her straight black hair was perfectly cut just above her narrow shoulders, one long-fingered hand resting on her desk, long, navy blue nails drumming quietly. There were bodyguards all against the walls standing statue-still and holding large guns.

“Y-y-you’re their boss?” Zacher asked in surprised fear, standing between me and Dolos.

“Does that surprise you?” The boss might look like a Japanese porcelain doll, but her voice rivaled Jakhar Vein’s for making one’s blood run cold and the only reason why Dolos and I weren’t affected by it was because we had known her for years. And she wasn’t directing her threatening voice at us.

It did, however, affect Zacher, and he started shaking and trembling like he was experiencing an earthquake. “N-n-n-no, I-I just… W-why am I here?”

The boss rose gracefully and walked around her desk, stopping about two feet from Zacher, her black five-inch heels clicking on the floor. “Do you know the name Jun-hi Moon?”

He shook his head like a dog shaking off water.

“Of course you don’t. She was a young girl who lived not far from here. Her parents lost their jobs and they were all forced to move to a smaller house that they could better afford. They got other jobs that didn’t pay much, but they made do. That is, until Jun-hi Moon got very sick. She needed medication, medical care, but, like I said, her family did not have much money, so they could not pay the astronomical costs that the Zacher Company charged. Her parents begged and pleaded with your father, but he refused to help them because they could not afford his help. So she died.” With her navy blue trousers and suit jacket and black silk shirt and her cool, professional tone, she seemed like a boss giving an employee a simple briefing, but I could tell that underneath that cool tone was rage burning hotter than the fires of hell.

“That little girl,” she told Zacher, “Jun-hi Moon, was my niece. Her parents had always refused my offers for help and they had never told me that Jun-hi was sick. Not until she died.

“Your father took a child away from my sister, so I’m taking a child away from him.”

Her husband had come up to her and offered her a gun and she accepted it without looking back, pointing it straight at Zacher’s face.

“No, no, please!!” he begged, falling to the floor and clasping his hands together pleadingly. “Please! I don’t want to die!! Please! I can give you money, lots of money!! I didn’t do anything!!”

“Neither did Jun-hi.” Without blinking, the boss shot Zacher in the face and his body crumbled to the floor.

She took a breath and looked up at me and Dolos, her face a bit warmer. “You two did well. Thank you. Here is your payment,” she said as her boss held out a metal suitcase to Dolos. “You can split it any way you wish.”

“Thank you,” we both said, bowing our heads.

“No, thank you. You two are most valuable assets. You may go now.”

With another bow of respect, we left the office and didn’t talk until we were in the elevator going down.

“Oh my god,” I breathed in relief, the tension leaving my body. “Always hate being in there.”

“It is rather tense,” Dolos agreed.

“More like very.”

The elevator doors opened and we left the building and went over to our bikes.

“So,” Dolos said, sliding the suitcase into a compartment in her bike, “what do you want to do now?”

I thought for a minute before smiling playfully. “Wanna go see a supernova?”

She smiled at me lovingly. “Sure.”

We got on our bikes, put our shields up, and soared off into the sky.