Wild Nines (Mercenaries Book 1) Read online

  Wild Nines

  A.R. Knight

  Contents

  Also by A.R. Knight

  Discover More Stories

  Prologue

  1. A Girl and Her Bot

  2. The Escape

  3. The Day Job

  4. The Wild Nines

  5. Inspectors

  6. Strongman’s Start

  7. Seen through the Scope

  8. Fighter Pilot

  9. Contract Disputes

  10. Terms of Deception

  11. Bar Nights

  12. First Mate, First Round

  13. Two for One

  14. The Real World

  15. Fisticuffs

  16. Run and Hide

  17. Heal Thyself

  18. What It Takes

  19. Video Evidence

  20. Rescue Mission

  21. Outnumbered

  22. Dashing

  23. Assault Tactics

  24. Ready to Leave

  25. Prison Break

  26. Not Gone Yet

  27. Picking up Pieces

  28. A Fresh Start

  29. Post-Mortem

  30. Banter

  31. Alive

  32. Wanted

  33. Space Work

  34. Vagrants Hollow

  35. Puppet Master

  36. Shopping

  37. Past Friends

  38. Old Flame, New Burn

  39. Ambushed

  40. The Metal Man

  41. Start Your Engines

  42. Tunnels

  43. Kidnapped

  44. Risk It All

  45. Save the Ship

  46. Up By Force

  47. Take Off

  48. Jailed

  49. Reconnect

  50. Cell Game

  51. Standoff

  52. Negotiations

  53. Prep the Rescue

  54. Out and About

  55. Shots Fired

  56. Snatch and Run

  57. Goodbye

  58. Blackmail

  59. Operations

  60. Counting Casualties

  61. Distractions

  62. Gin

  63. Plots and Plans

  64. Born Again

  65. Interrupted

  66. To the Viper

  67. First Move

  68. Save the Engines, Save the Ship

  69. Stick Jockey

  70. Catching Breath

  71. Homecoming

  72. Choices

  73. What Could Be

  74. Doubt

  75. Back to Europa

  76. Hijackers

  77. Android Unleashed

  78. Incoming

  79. Sisters

  80. Attacking Ice

  81. Running War

  82. Outclassed

  83. Duel

  84. The Terramorpher

  85. Pain

  86. An End

  87. A New Contract

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2016 by Adam Knight

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN (ebook): 978-1-946554-00-0

  Published by Black Key Books

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

  Black Key Books

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  Madison, WI 53711

  www.blackkeybooks.com

  Also by A.R. Knight

  Wild Nines

  Dark Ice (February 2017)

  One Shot (March 2017)

  Discover More Stories

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  To my mother

  Prologue

  Marl shaded her eyes from the Sun’s glare. The dome over the Martian town cut the light at angles, making seats like her’s blinding. There weren’t any other open spots in the cafe, typical for the late morning. The usual time to meet the Red Voice, to meet her sister. A crowded place made for harder targets.

  “They’re here,” The man sitting next to her, Castor, said. Normally a suit-and-tie guy, like Marl herself, they both wore the traditional ramshackle rags of Martian tradition. Strips of cloth taken from relatives past and present, stitched together into a motley arrangement. The wrap on her left hand came loose as Marl picked up her coffee, a strand of cloth dipping into the brown liquid.

  “About time,” Marl said. “They’re always late.”

  “We have an easier route,” Castor replied.

  True. Alissa would be ducking down allies, slipping through friendly houses. Marl went right down the street. Still, her sister called the meeting. Not Marl’s fault Alissa had to work for it.

  A man appeared out of the crowd, pulled out the two chairs across from Marl and Castor. The wraps around this guy were so thorough Marl couldn’t see his face, only a shaded slit for his eyes. Bulges along the waist indicated he was armed. His loose grip on the chairs, the relaxed shoulders said he knew how to use those weapons he was carrying.

  “Marl. Thank you,” Alissa said, sliding into the chair across from Marl, her own coffee in hand. “I know this was short notice.”

  “I thought you were dead,” Marl said. “The footage of that last attack. How?”

  Alissa glanced at the man behind her, then nodded to the empty chair. The man took the cue, sat down. His hidden face alternated between Castor and Marl, and she suppressed a shiver.

  “Bakr, here, is the only reason I’m alive,” Alissa said. “But there’s no time. I need your help.”

  “Alissa,” Marl interrupted. “I’m going off-world. Eden wants to move me to a new project, on Europa.”

  “And you’re going?” Alissa didn’t sound angry. Strange. Marl expected an outburst, claims of betrayal.

  “Mars is lost, Alissa,” Marl said. “If I stay, Eden will figure it out eventually. Then we’ll both be dead.”

  “Marl,” Castor said, putting a hand on her arm. “Please.”

  “It’s fine, Castor,” Alissa said. “She’s not wrong.”

  Her sister took a deep breath. Marl took a long sip of her coffee.

  “Marl, this new project, what is it? A settlement?”

  “Eventually, yes.” Marl replied.

  A noise rippled into the cafe from outside, a rumble with a mug-rattling quake. Bakr, the faceless man, stared out through the cafe entrance while Castor swiped away at the comm on his wrist, looking for news.

  “When its ready, tell me,” Alissa said. “If we can’t hold Mars, we’ll need a home.”

  “Eden won’t let that happen.”

  “But you will,” Alissa said, her eyes staring right into Marl’s. She hated that look, hated the way it twisted her mind into knots, pulled Marl into whatever scheme Alissa had planned. The Red Voice followed Alissa because of those eyes.

  “They’re attacking the town,” Castor said Marl. “We need to leave. If Eden finds you here, you’re dead.”

  “I thought you said this place was secure?” Marl asked Alissa.

  Around them, the cafe emptied. People scrambling for the exits, dashing out through back doors. Overhead, through the windows, corporate drones flew overhead. Hunting for targets. Sporadic laser fire blotched the sky, one of the drones erupting in flame as a lucky shot downed the craft. The killing machines returned
fire surgically, one precise beam returning to every bunch of scattered shots.

  “Stay in touch, sister,” Alissa said, getting up from the table. “You may well be the last hope we have.”

  Then Bakr pulled Alissa away, towards the back of the cafe. Marl moved in the opposite direction, Castor next to her. The outside was ruinous now, laser fire everywhere, smoke pouring through the dome as ruptured fuel tanks hit and exploded. Red Martian sand swirled as part of the dome cracked, sucking air towards the hole.

  “We’ll never get out unseen,” Marl said.

  “We have a plan for that,” Castor replied.

  Marl swallowed. Their contingency. A claimed kidnapping, Marl and Castor taken by Red Voice operatives, held for ransom and interrogation, and saved by the opportune attack of Corporate forces. There was only one part necessary to make it hold up.

  “I’ll do it,” Castor said, drawing his sidearm.

  “No,” Marl replied. “It was my idea.”

  Castor nodded, handed her the weapon. Marl raised the sidearm and pulled the trigger, sending a fiery red bolt into Castor’s chest. Behind her, the grind of Corporate war machines drew closer. Marl turned the sidearm on herself. Stared down the small barrel, designed to focus electric energy into a concentrated beam of light, hot enough to burn through her rags and into her skin. It would leave a scar, if the laser didn’t kill her.

  What we did for family.

  Marl pulled the trigger.

  1

  A Girl and Her Bot

  Viola winced as she brought the robot to life. The ash-gray ball on the workbench in front of her, its various plates and parts connected to each other like puzzle pieces. The bot sat in an oval bowl with a cord stranding out from it towards the wall of Viola’s room, drawing power from the Sun’s solar energy slamming into Ganymede.

  “How are you feeling, Puk?” Viola said to the bot. The size of a melon, Puk had small jets, allowing it to hover and float around the room. At least, that was the idea.

  “You ever get a new body?” Puk asked. “Cause it’s a trip.”

  “Consider it an upgrade,” Viola replied, standing up from the chair. “C’mon, let’s see how they work.”

  Puk didn’t have running lights - there wasn’t any sign that the bot was functioning. Not until a soft whirring sound, like a fast-moving fan, filled the room. At first, nothing happened. Then, as the whirring built up speed, Puk floated up from the cradle. The bot wobbled as it reached Viola’s eye-level and started on a slow loop around the room. Viola followed, stepping over various half-done projects and their attendant parts, coils of wire, or racks of batteries.

  “Makes getting around here easier,” Puk said, rolling itself forward, so the jets propelled it faster. When Puk zipped near the door to Viola’s bedroom, it rolled itself sideways and flew through.

  Viola followed the bot and spotted Puk hovering in front of the wall-screen opposite Viola’s twin bed. The screen was showing a waterfall, somewhere on Earth, and the surrounding jungle. It was muted, Puk’s jets providing the only sound in the room.

  “That’s on the list,” Viola said. “An island, Hawaii.”

  “Better than a beach,” Puk replied. “At least there, I won’t get grains in my circuits.”

  “Speaking of… the jets doing fine?”

  “Greens all around,” Puk said, referring to the systems checks the bot ran on itself. “As for how they control, they could be faster, but I suppose I can make this work.”

  “Glad you’re happy,” Viola said, crossing her arms and watching the waterfall flow. The feed wasn’t live. Viola, or rather, her parents subscribed to a service that batched these recordings and delivered them to Ganymede a few times a year. Viola waved at the screen and it shifted, switching channels to the outside camera feed from her parent’s house. Their bubble.

  The screen showed the Ganymede’s blasted surface, the brown rock and great transparent bubbles. Clusters of homes on sat in radiation-blocking domes on the surface, with underground paths connecting each of them. Larger tunnels, populated with carts that sent passengers back and forth, linked the neighborhoods to Ganymede’s nexus, the giant factory and headquarters of Galaxy Forge.

  “You can see the storm tonight,” Puk said, watching the screen. Jupiter often dominated the sky, sometimes blotting out every inch of space. Tonight, the planet’s eternal red storm churned right through their view. Viola shuddered. She'd had nightmares of being caught in that thing.

  The door to the workshop beeped. Viola ran over and pressed the keypad's green button. The entrance shot open, sliding into the wall to show a goofy grin on the other side. The bearer of the smile was a slipshod mix of adolescent dreamer and grimed-up shift worker. Roddy split time as the family’s personal mechanic and a Galaxy Forge grease monkey, often taking evenings at the house to put in whatever new toy Viola's dad brought home.

  “Hey Viola, how’s it going?” Roddy said. “You said you needed help?”

  “Hey Roddy!” Viola wrapped her arms around the man for a quick hug, then stepped back. “Wanted you to test something for me. It’s with Puk and, um, might hurt a little.”

  “Hurt a little?” Roddy said, coming into the room. The door slid shut behind him. Puk whirred out into the workshop, rotating so that the black circle camera focused on Roddy.

  “He’s a target,” Viola said to Puk. “Go.”

  Roddy looked at Viola, eyebrows rising into the man’s clay-red hat, part of the Galaxy Forge uniform. Puk didn’t hesitate. The bot shot forward until, a meter away from Roddy, Puk let loose with a hot white laser. The beam hit Roddy on the forearm, causing the mechanic to jump back, curse, and rub at the spot. Puk darted forward after Roddy, shooting more of the stinging lasers. A lot of them.

  “Puk!” Viola yelled. “Stop!”

  The bot paused, rotating to look at Viola.

  “He’s not neutralized,”Puk said. “I should keep shooting at him.”

  “What the hell,Viola?” Roddy said. He’d grabbed a piece of scrap metal and was holding it in front of him like a shield.

  “Puk, go back to the cradle,” Violas aid, though excitement leaked into her voice. “Did you see that,Roddy?”

  “I felt it, all right,” Roddy grumbled.

  “Yeah. Um. Sorry,” Viola said, helping Roddy put the metal slat back on the ground. “I didn’t think Puk would keep shooting, but it means the threat assessment program works. Are you okay?”

  “I’ll survive,” Roddy took a breath, looked at Viola. His face was straight, tight. Roddy never liked being reminded of why Puk was getting a threat assessment program or why they’d been working at night to build the jets for the bot.

  “Still not changing your mind?” Roddy asked.

  “I can’t, Roddy,” Viola said. “If I don’t get out of here now, I won't get another chance. After this semester, I’ll have the degree, Dad will put me in Galaxy Forge, and I'll be stuck.”

  “It’s not so bad,” Roddy replied, continuing to rub his arms where Puk’s lasers hit him. “You’d be good at it.”

  “I’d be trapped,” Viola said, turning and walking over to a large console that dominated one side of the workshop. Viola turned it on, accessed the star chart program, and the console projected Jupiter and its surrounding moons into a swirling hologram in the center of the room.Viola pointed at a smaller, bluish one.

  “Tomorrow will be a perfect launch day,” Viola said. “How’s the ship?”

  “Good,” Roddy said. “Your dad hasn’t used it lately. Been too busy. But Viola, I don’t think—”

  “I know it’s a lot to ask,” Viola interrupted. “Dad will find out it was my idea. I'll leave a note.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” Roddy said. “You don’t know what it’s like out there.”

  “Which is the point. We're not doing this again, Roddy. Please, just tell me you’ll have it set tomorrow.”

  Roddy nodded. Viola could see a dozen arguments start in die in his
eyes. There wasn’t any time for them. Now that Puk’s threat program worked, she had to boost the bot’s laser so it could do more than sting. Then there was the packing. And the note to her parents.

  “I’ll make sure she’s ready to go,Viola. For you.” Roddy said, sighing.

  “Thanks, Roddy,” Viola gave the mechanic another hug as Roddy made his way out the door. As she moved back to the workbench,Viola flipped the console to the streaming headlines. News around the solar system popped up on the screen. Viola paid little attention, except this time almost every headline included the same quote. Viola waved her hand through one article to expand it.

  “You cannot silence the Red Voice,”said Alissa Reinhart in a mass-transmitted message today. The leader, previously presumed dead, continued to state that until the people of Mars have their rights restored, there would be no peace.

  “Thankfully, Europa’s a long way from you,” Viola said to the picture of Reinhart. With another wave of her hand,Viola dismissed the image and went back to work.

  2

  The Escape

  Do you understand the state Europa is in right now? It’s barely civilized. There’s no atmosphere. Stuck in a base where if one thing goes wrong, we’d lose you.

  Viola heard the voices of her parents. That didn’t stop her from approaching the bay where her father’s private ship sat, waiting for Viola to take it. One by one, Viola debated down the arguments. Sure, Europa was full of profit-seeking prospectors. But so was Ganymede! It was just more refined here, after two decades of colonization.

  No atmosphere? Ganymede’s was still thin enough, siphoned away by Jupiter’s gravity, that if you spent more than an hour outside you got lightheaded. Endurance competitions ran to see who could go the farthest without succumbing. Anywhere off of Earth was harsh.

  “Are you sure?” Puk asked. “Cause you do this, it will not be pleasant when daddy finds out,”

  “Don’t care,” Viola said.