Trickster

Excerpt

Trickster
©Copyright Elizabeth Coldwell 2015
All Rights Reserved.

I knew when I found him, hanging there in his chains, that he was going to be trouble. Trouble that would haunt me across galaxies. Those eyes, that insolent pout, that muscular, battle-scarred body. The last thing I expected, but everything I desired. And because of that, I made the first serious mistake of my career.

Though some would call it the second serious mistake, the first being my decision to leave the army. My family never understood why I would choose to give up everything I’d worked so hard to achieve. They saw the rank of Captain before my name, the honour medal I’d been awarded for the part I played in the Mondrian Offensive, and the enviably secure pay and conditions I enjoyed. What they hadn’t seen was the bodies of men I regarded as my brothers lying broken in the mud after three days of hand-to-hand combat on Mondrian. They never knew how close I came to joining the ranks of the fallen, even if they couldn’t fail to notice the slight limp I was left with after the field medics operated on my injuries. It was enough to convince me to get out while I still could.

Becoming a bounty hunter following my discharge seemed like a logical move. It gave me the thrill of the chase, and the opportunity to bring the bad guys to justice. I got to make my own choices about what assignments I took. And it paid well enough that I could start to think I might retire in a couple of years. I’d always had the dream of settling down in one of the little coastal towns on Bencula, spending my evenings on the porch with a brew in my hand, watching the suns setting over the silver-blue sea. Of course, in those fantasies, I had a man to share those long summer evenings with. Most of the rest of the time, I felt as though I was destined to always be alone.

So when I found myself tracking Jobi Wade, I was thinking of nothing more than swelling my retirement fund. In truth, I was surprised our paths hadn’t crossed already. After all, Wade was wanted for felony on half the Federated worlds. He was a hacker and a con man, as light-fingered as he was smooth-tongued. The type who would have been classed as a charming rogue, but for the fact the data he stole was sold on to enemies of the Free Governments. He had information stored on memory chips that could bring down armies and bankrupt all but a handful of nations, and a lot of important people were desperate to get that information back. But Wade was elusive. Several times he had come close to capture, only to wriggle from the grasp of his pursuers. Where other men had failed, I was keen to succeed.