Bounty Hunter 2: Redemption Read Free Page A

He’d had a treadmill
installed when he first got the leg to make sure he was adapting to it enough
to run. Whenever his leg ached he found running could get the pain under
control.
    “There
are hundreds of open contracts. Any preference?” Cass spoke a few minutes into
his run.
    “The
most expensive.”
    “Are
you sure? Shouldn’t we ease back into this?”
    “No,”
he said. “No more Eva Pond’s getting away so easily. The most expensive, as
long as the work meets our standards. Nothing questionable. I’ll trust you to
be the judge of that, you’re good at it.”
    Burke
was sweating by the time Cass had collated the results. He slowed his run to a
comfortable jog so he could speak without losing his breath. His other leg hurt
now as well but it was a good pain, one he was used to.
    “Five
top contracts that meet out criteria,” she began. “Two military contracts.
Three public ones.”
    “Give
me those three first.”
    “First
up is someone willing to pay an absurd amount of money for rhymaw horns? They
want five of them. What are those?” Cass explained.
    “A
large, dangerous, pissed off animal. That would be tough. Do they want the
heads attached as proof?”
    “Uh,
let me see. Yes. Yes they do.”
    “Then
no. The horns grow back. We don’t have the equipment anyway, but we can
restrain and cut them off. I’m not killing the things for no reason.”
    “A
man is looking for his missing wife,” Cass began. “She’s been missing for
several years. This contract has been up for a while now.”
    “No,”
Burke wiped sweat from his forehead. “Maybe when things are slow. Too high of a
chance that she just left him and he’s too rich and stubborn to admit it.
What’s the last one?”
    “Someone
is looking for a thief here in Prime. The pay is better than the other two. It
says there’s no interest in what was stolen, only catching the person who did
it.”
    “Hah,”
Burke shook his head. “Sounds like someone has a lot of pride and even more
money. There are a lot of planets in this system and the ones around it.
Someone would have a lot of hiding places without using a gate. Keep that one
for now. What about the military contracts?”
    “A
criminal and a deserter, I—”
    “Not
interested in deserters. I don’t agree with them but I understand them. They
don’t deserve the execution they would get. Tell me about the criminal.”
    “This
one has a name. Frank Copper. He was last seen the in Stratos system. Wanted
for undisclosed crimes.”
    Burke
let out a low growl. “Is he wanted alive or dead?”
    “Either,
but preferably alive. They are paying much more for that. You usually don’t
like it when they don’t say why they’re wanted.”
    “Yes,”
he said. “But if they want him alive then I’m open to it. That’s the most
promising one, but look into the other thief as well. Will four days be long
enough for you to sort through all the data?”
    “Please,”
she said in such a way that if she had a face, Burke knew she would be smiling.
“I’ll have it done in two. There’s something I don’t understand. Why are these
open contracts paying more than the private ones we get?”
    He
turned off the treadmill and stepped off it. The back of his shirt clung to him
with sweat and his leg no longer hurt. He stretched while he spoke.
    “Some
private ones can be more, but not until we build a name back up. The cheaper ones
usually know the location of their target. They pay less because there’s less
chance involved.
    “The
open contracts usually have little information. They’re open because there’s
too many places for one person to look. They rely on people getting lucky and
looking out because the price is so high, or they attract higher caliber
hunters that have better tools to get the job done.”
    “Tools
like me?” Cass said proudly.
    “Exactly
like you. And the tracer we’ll get in a few days. There’s still a measure of
chance involved. Before I got you, we had