The Lost Colony Read Free Page A

investigator was not working out as well as she’d hoped. This was mainly because the Lower Elements’ most popular current events show had run not one, but two specials on her over the past few months. It was difficult to go undercover when her face was forever popping up on cable reruns.
    “Surgery?” suggested a voice in her head.
    This voice was not the first sign of madness. It was her partner, Mulch Diggums, communicating from his mike to her earpiece.
    “What?” she said, her voice carrying to her own microphone, a tiny flesh-colored chip glued to her throat.
    “I’m looking at a poster of your famous face, and I’m thinking that you should have some cosmetic surgery if we want to stay in business. And I mean real business, not this bounty hunting game. Bounty hunters are the lowest of the low.”
    Holly sighed. Her dwarf partner was right. Even criminals were considered more trustworthy than bounty hunters.
    “A few implants and a reshaped nose, and even your best friend wouldn’t recognize you,” continued Mulch Diggums. “It’s not as if you’re a beauty queen.”
    “Forget it,” said Holly. She was fond of the face she had. It reminded her of her mother’s.
    “What about a skin spray? You could go green, disguise yourself as a sprite.”
    “Mulch? Are you in position?” snapped Holly.
    “Yep,” came the dwarf’s reply. “Any sign of the pixie?”
    “No, he’s not up and about yet, but he will be soon. So stop the chatter and just get ready.”
    “Hey, we’re partners now. No more criminal and police officer. I don’t have to take orders from you.”
    “Get ready, please .”
    “No problem. Mulch Diggums, low-life bounty hunter, signing off.”
    Holly sighed. Sometimes she missed the discipline of the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Squad. When an order was given, it was followed. Although, if she were honest, Holly had to admit she had gotten herself into trouble more than once for disobeying a direct command.
    She had only survived in LEPrecon for as long as she had because of a few high-profile arrests. And because of her mentor, Commander Julius Root.
    Holly felt her heart lurch as she remembered, for the thousandth time, that Julius was dead. She could go for hours without thinking about it, then it would hit her— every time like the first time.
    She had quit the LEP because Julius’s replacement had actually accused her of murdering the commander. Holly figured with a boss like that, she could do the Fairy People more good outside the system. It was starting to look like she had been dead wrong. In her time as LEPrecon Captain she had been involved in putting down a goblin revolution, thwarting a plan to expose the subterranean fairy culture to the humans, and reclaiming stolen fairy technology from a Mud Man in Chicago. Now she was tracking a fish smuggler who had skipped out on his bail. Not exactly national security stuff.
    “What about shin extensions?” said Mulch, interrupting her thoughts. “You could be taller in hours.”
    Holly smiled. As irritating as her partner was, he could always cheer her up. Also, as a dwarf, Mulch had special talents that came in very handy in their new line of business. Until recently, he had used these skills to break into houses and out of prisons, but now he was on the side of the angels, or so he swore. Unfortunately, all fairies knew that a dwarf’s vow to a non-dwarf wasn’t worth the spit-sodden handshake that sealed the deal.
    “Maybe you could get a brain extension,” Holly retorted.
    Mulch chortled. “Oh, brilliant. I must write that one down in my witty retorts book.”
    Holly was trying to come up with an actual witty retort, when their target appeared at the motel room door. He was a harmless-looking pixie, barely two feet high, but you didn’t have to be tall to drive a truck of fish. The smuggling bosses hired pixies as drivers and couriers because they looked so innocent and childlike. Holly had read this