The Soldier: Escape Vector Read online

  Cade began to play in earnest during the fifth hour. Some big-game hunters sat down at his table, as it had turned into the table with the largest chip stacks. By skillful and sometimes lucky play, the soldier added to his stack until he had one thousand in chips.

  A few of the big-game hunters tossed more credit notes onto the table, rebuying their lost stacks. Two card sharks joined the game, bringing huge stacks with them.

  Cade forged on, adding here, adding there, never pushing all in with these blokes. He figured himself better at post-flop play, focusing on the fish at the table.

  Finally, he had two thousand in chips. That, he decided, might be enough. If it wasn’t, he would resort to ugly tactics.

  He got up from the table with his chips stacked in trays and weaved unsteadily as if he’d drunk too much. He went to the bar and got credit notes for the chips. These notes, he stuffed in an inner pocket. Then he drank ale at the bar, waiting until Chulik the dealer was finished for the night.

  The old man with the forehead scar and white head of hair finally bundled up in the antechamber. Cade did as well. They both put their breathers in and walked out the door into the bitter cold, Chulik ahead of Cade.

  The old man headed for the log-built barracks at the end of the small town. Cade headed in the opposite direction. It was dark, with the stars shining brilliantly in the freezing heavens. Even with all his garments, Cade felt the chill sink through him.

  He hurried, with icy snow crunching underfoot. He ran around a building, going in the back, racing through the snow, feeling chill air come through his tube because he was breathing too hard. He hurried nevertheless, needing to beat Chulik to the barracks.

  Cade reached the place and walked toward the front of the long low building. He saw swathed Chulik nearing. Cade heaved a sigh. He didn’t really want to do this to the old-timer, but Handsome Dan was hidden on Trinor. Cade didn’t have time to search for the cunning starmenter using normal methods.

  Chulik tramped through the snow, heading for the main door.

  Cade waited in darkness, surging as Chulik neared the entrance. “Hey,” Cade said past his breather.

  Chulik turned to look at him.

  Cade rushed him, grabbing the older man in a bear hug, lifting him and racing around for the edge of the barracks. Chulik struggled to free himself.

  “Feel that,” Cade said past the breather. He put the old man down and pressed his knife against his back.

  Chulik must have understood, as his shoulders slumped and he no attempt to flee.

  In moments, Cade quit walking and pulled Chulik around, pushing the old man’s back against the barrack’s side wall.

  “See this?” Cade asked, showing him the knife.

  Chulik stared at him through the folds of his woolen facemask.

  “Now, do you see this?” Cade asked, showing him the two thousand in credit notes in the other gloved hand. “You can have either. I don’t care. But I want the truth.”

  “What truth?” Chulik asked dully.

  “I’m here for Handsome Dan.”

  Chulik closed his eyes as if in pain.

  “Does that bother you?” Cade asked.

  Without opening his eyes, Chulik nodded.

  “Why?” asked Cade.

  “He cut my shoulder ten years ago, maiming me,” the old-timer said in a tired voice as he opened his eyes.

  “Tell me who he is. I’ll do the rest.”

  “I can’t do that,” Chulik said. “I have to kill him myself.”

  “You know who he is, though, right?”

  “Of course, I do.”

  “I need him alive.”

  “Because he’s worth more money to you alive?” Chulik asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t finger him for you.”

  “I believe you,” Cade said. “I can tell that you’re a man of honor.”

  Chulik said nothing.

  “How do you plan to kill him?” Cade asked.

  “What does that matter to you?”

  “Fine,” Cade said. He pocketed the two thousand. Then he put a gloved hand on Chulik’s right sleeve and started dragging him toward the nearby forest.

  Chulik struggled. It didn’t matter, though, as Cade was far stronger.

  “What are you doing?” the other protested.

  “Taking you to the forest,” Cade said. “You’ve chosen the knife.” He dragged the older man farther.

  “Wait,” Chulik rasped.

  Cade stopped and turned around, staring at the older man.

  “You’d really kill me?” Chulik asked.

  “You’ve given me no choice. I have to cover my tracks.”

  “And if I take the two thousand?”

  “You have to earn it first,” Cade said. “But you’d be alive afterward.”

  “I could finger you after taking your money.”

  “You could.”

  “But I won’t,” Chulik said.

  “I know that,” Cade said.

  “How do you know that?”

  “I, also, am a man of honor.”

  Chulik stared at him. “Two men of honor can trust each other?”

  “I’d like to think so.”

  Chulik nodded as the stars twinkled in the frozen heavens. “I’ve finally decided on my weapon, how I’m going to get vengeance on Dan. You’re my weapon. Maybe it will be worse for him this way. You’ll give him to the Concord authorities, I take it?”

  “I will.”

  Chulik held out a gloved hand, palm up.

  “You do realize that I or my partners will come back and kill you slowly if you’re lying to me,” Cade said.

  “Don’t bother threatening me, bounty hunter. Either give me the money or the knife. It’s your choice now.”

  “How do I find Handsome Dan?”

  Chulik told him.

  Cade stared at the old dealer.

  “It’s the truth,” Chulik said.

  Cade gave him the two thousand and started to leave.

  “Wait,” Chulik said.

  Cade stopped and regarded him.

  “Just like that?” Chulik asked.

  Cade said nothing, even though he liked the old timer.

  “Okay,” Chulik said, pocketing the money. “Good luck hunting, Killer.”

  Cade nodded, deciding tonight was the time to do it as he started back for the Bread & Brew.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Cade went to the hotel first to pick up some equipment. The trouble with his forming plan was that he couldn’t sit around drinking ale or go back to the poker table, as he’d used their last cash as his stake, and he’d given it all to Chulik.

  Cade passed an empty lobby desk, walking under an arch into a carpeted area. There, the lobby gunmen gave him a once-over, three guards in sweaters with holstered sidearms. They were sitting on soft chairs, each of them standing to regard him.

  The leader, a pockmarked man with sloping shoulders, looked at a paper. It might have had a face sketch on it. “Are you one of Senior Finch’s servants?” he asked in a gruff voice.

  They’re antsy, nervous. Damn, someone fingered me. See if you can brazen it out.

  Cade lowered his head, trying to walk past as he muttered a reply.

  “Let me see your room key,” the leader said.

  The other two moved, blocking his passage.

  Kill or be killed, Cade told himself. I don’t want to do this, but—

  Something had gone wrong. Maybe Halifax made a mistake when talking to his old contacts. Maybe Earth Intelligence had learned about their rouge nature. Maybe he’d read Chulik wrong and the dealer had already phoned to let the locals know what was up.

  “My key?” asked Cade, stopping, putting a whine in his voice.

  The deception must have worked because the leader grinned at his two henchmen. Maybe they enjoyed bullying others instead of working to be efficient.

  Cade pivoted and rushed the leader, moving like greased death, with t
he seven-inch boot knife in his hands.

  “Rask!” one of the henchmen warned.

  The pockmarked leader stared at Cade as the knife slashed his throat. It was brutal and efficient, and hopefully not done in vain.

  The henchman that had shouted the warning fast-drew his gun and fired a single round. It must have been a panicked shot, though, as it missed Cade, the slug whining off metal embedded in a heavy table to bury itself in a wall.

  Cade threw the knife so it sank into the henchman’s throat, ensuring that he didn’t fire again.

  The last hotel security man didn’t have a chance. Cade’s fist smashed against his face, laying him out on the synthetic lobby rug. Cade bent down and grabbed the man by the labels, shaking him.

  “What? Huh?” the face-battered henchman asked as his teeth rattled against each other.

  “What happened to Senior Finch?” Cade demanded, deciding to start there.

  “Finch is under arrest,” the henchman slurred.

  “Why?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Who arrested him?”

  “A Gretel Metal’s security detail,” the man wheezed. “They have federal authority from Grudd.”

  This must be an undercover Earth Intelligence operation, working through their contacts on Grudd. That meant bigger instead of smaller. That meant he had to go on the offense and stay on the offense until he won or died. Anything else would give them the initiative and would end in their defeat and likely death.

  “Where’s Finch now?” Cade demanded.

  “I dunno.”

  Cade had taken the man’s gun, pointing it at him. He now cocked it, pressing the barrel against the forehead.

  “Wait, wait, please don’t kill me.”

  “Give me a reason.”

  “W-we’re supposed to pick up Finch’s servants is all. We heard there’s an illegal bounty hunter among them, a bastard…” The henchmen’s eyes widened as he stared at Cade.

  “You’re talking about me,” Cade said.

  The henchman glanced at his dead friends and then into Cade’s pitiless eyes. “Look, mister, I was just doing my job is all. You can’t think—”

  “Shut up,” Cade said. Where had they taken Finch? That was the place to hit. “Where’s Gretel Metal’s headquarters on the planet?”

  “Mine Seven,” the henchman whined. “It’s fifteen kilometers from here.”

  “You ever been there?”

  “On the outside, yeah,” the henchman said.

  “Shit,” Cade muttered. “This is a cluster—”

  The front hotel door banged open, cutting off his speech. Drunken laughter drifted around the arch where Cade was hidden from their view.

  “Make a noise,” Cade whispered to the henchman, “and you’re dead.”

  The man began shaking. “Look, mister—”

  Cade hit him in the face with his gun hand, breaking the nose and hammering him into unconsciousness. He straightened, fixing his clothes, brushing off some dirt.

  The drunken partiers stumbled inside from the porch, shouting and slamming the main door shut. No one was at the lobby desk. Had the henchmen told whoever had been there to leave earlier, or had the person left of their own volition?

  Cade tightened his grip on the gun. How deep did this go? Was this a mistake from the beginning? Had Group Six personnel boarded the orbital Descartes or was there still time to get away from here?

  Cade shook his head. They were plumb out of money. If they failed to capture Handsome Dan, they would have no reward money to pay for the next refueling and overhaul stop. Soon, they would have nothing to eat either. This stop had to show a profit. But if they had to run—

  Gretel Metals, Cade thought. Had Earth Intelligence bought a stake in the company? How had Handsome Dan moved around unseen? Using Gretel Metals as a front seemed like the easiest explanation, especially as he’d come here from Grudd.

  The drunken men were coming this way.

  Decision time. Cade nodded and tucked the gun behind his back under his belt. He began whistling as he rounded the arch before the drunken men did.

  “Hey,” he said, stopping upon seeing them.

  Two of the five men didn’t see him and kept on talking. The other three stopped talking as they stared bleary-eyed at him.

  Cade recognized them as five of the big-game hunters from Tomb. They were large, bulky individuals.

  “What?” the biggest one asked. He was a brute with thinning red hair and flushed features. Right, his name was Senior Burris.

  “They grabbed Senior Finch,” Cade said.

  “Who did?”

  “Security from Gretel Metals,” Cade said.

  “Why would they do that?” Burris asked, frowning.

  “It’s a setup,” Cade said, deciding on the spot how to play this. He’d use some Halifax-like deception. “I’m from the Patrol. We know Handsome Dan the Starmenter is holed up in Minden. What’s worse is that Gretel Metals backs him.”

  “That’s a cock-and-bull story if I ever heard one,” Burris said.

  “Really? Then how do you explain this?” Cade backed up around the arch and held out a hand toward the synthetic carpet.

  Curious, the five hunters stumbled forward to stare at the two dead men and the one bloody-faced unconscious man.

  “What happened to them?” Burris demanded.

  “They found out about me,” Cade said.

  Senior Burris and the others eyed him with new respect. “You did this?”

  “I did, Senior Burris. Now, the Patrol is requesting your help.”

  “Requesting how?” Burris demanded.

  “I need immediate transportation to Mine Seven. It’s fifteen kilometers from here.”

  “That’s where they’re holding Senior Finch?”

  “You see the bloody faced one on the floor?” Cade asked.

  “Of course,” Burris said.

  “That’s what he told me.”

  Burris scratched his balding head. “I’ve heard of Handsome Dan. I thought he was dead.”

  “He’s on the run, hiding,” Cade said.

  “And the Patrol tracked him down to Minden?”

  “To Trinor,” Cade said.

  “Then, how come there aren’t any Patrol ships out here?” Burris asked.

  “There is,” Cade said, “the Patrol Scout Descartes. Captain Halifax is piloting.”

  “Call him down to help you.”

  “That would take too long,” Cade said. “I have to move faster than that. You don’t want to Finch to die, do you?”

  “That’s Senior Finch to you,” Burris said haughtily.

  “My mistake,” Cade said.

  Burris glared at him drunkenly. The scowl slowly departed the hunter’s heavy features. “I’m an excellent judge of character. You’re obviously a hardened tracker, a veteran combat officer. I’ll be damned. I believe you. Yes. We’ll take the heavy lifter, and we’ll go now, all five of us. We can sober up on the way there.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” Cade said.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Senior Burris piloted the heavy lifter, easily finding Mine Seven, several kilometers of cleared ground with tall forest trees surrounding the place. He brought the lifter down into a log-walled compound, with half a dozen metal buildings inside. Three tracked vehicles were parked beside the largest building, clearly the main one.

  Burris waited in the piloting chair until four armed men left the main building and approached the lifter. The main ramp came down and a loudspeaker broadcast Burris’s words. “You come on in.”

  Meanwhile, Cade slipped out the back of the lifter, hunched over as he stayed out the lamplight shining on the snow. He came from the back of the main building and found an unlocked door. He hurried in, taking off his hood, listening.

  He began striding through the corridors, seeing a light under the jam of a closed door. He pulled out the gun he’d liberated earlier and soon put his ear against the door.
>
  A man threatened another. This had to be it.

  Cade tried the door handle. It moved. He opened the door slowly and saw a bound and bloody man tied in a chair. It was Senior Finch. Two other bullyboys were there, one of them the slick-haired man with shaved eyebrows from the poker game earlier. The huge bearded dwarf was the one doing the talking. According to old man Chulik, that was Handsome Dan. The other with the Xian mask often pretended to be Dan, but the real leader, the starmenter, was the charismatic dwarf.

  Cade considered his options. Finch looked like he’d live, but they had badly misused the man. Was this the time to play gentlemanly games?

  Cade almost shot Mr. Oily Hair and the third man of the group, no doubt a dirty Gretel Metals operative or someone from Earth Intelligence. Instead, he crept into the room, but something gave him away.

  The man he didn’t recognize turned toward him while holding a gun against his leg. Cade shot him dead, rushing forward and pistol-whipping Mr. Oily Hair against the side of the head, laying him out cold so he toppled onto the floor.

  The huge dwarf—Handsome Dan—whirled around, holding a Trinor seax in his hand. The blade was bloody. He’d obviously been using it on Finch.

  “You,” Dan said. “I didn’t—”

  Cade’s gun discharged, the bullet smashing Dan’s seax-wielding hand. The long knife fell onto the floor and Dan cradled his blasted hand, biting his lower lip to keep from moaning.

  “Lie on the floor,” Cade said.

  Dan stared at him. “You think I’m going to let—”

  Cade moved fast, striking like a cobra, using the pistol butt so it stroked Dan’s face. The starmenter collapsed, alive but no longer able to plot a tricky move against him.

  The soldier peered here and there, aiming with the gun, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else around. The quick success startled him. But then, a sudden attack often achieved a brilliant surprise.

  He cut Finch free, who grabbed an arm, thanking him with tears in his eyes.

  “You’re okay now, Senior Finch.”

  “Are you really with Earth Intelligence?”