Bounty Hunter 1: The Bounty Hunter's Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page B

his will. Maybe an old rival
that we cut out on a bounty, or someone seeking revenge for a mark we killed,
had forced Adam to turn on me. Each time I ended my thoughts with a pathetic
laugh, knowing that it was unlikely and that I was being naive. It was too big
of a coincidence that it happened during the highest paying job we’d ever had.
He had turned on me for the money.
    It was during the last stretch of night
that I found myself the most depressed, certain that my life could not stoop
any lower. That was when the crawlers came.
     
     
    “Burke.”
    I opened my eyes and saw that Cass had
sealed the faceplate and activated the visor. I tried to look passed the cracks
along the display and out at whatever had caused her to wake me. I was slumped
down in the far corner of the room facing out of the broken wall that I was
using for an entrance. Through the ruins I was able to count four of the
animals, the same as the one I had killed before.
    I felt for the handgun I had kept at my
hip whenever I went to sleep. I knew better than to fire at them from this
range, especially when I wasn’t sure if they had noticed me yet. They were
probably drawn to this area due to whatever smells the bodies of the thieves
were giving off, and I cursed my damaged body for not allowing me to bury them
yet.
    A screech came from the group of animals
that made my skin crawl. One of them had fallen over dead but I couldn’t see
what had caused it. Their scream was chillingly close to that of a human’s and
it unsettled me. I gripped the gun more firmly.
    “Cass, something is going on out there.
Is the night vision still functional on the visor?”
    “I think so, Burke. One moment.”
    The screen flashed brightly, too
brightly, and I was forced to close my eyes. I could see the glow through my
eyelids as a dull red, the light becoming colored as it passed through the thin
skin. When I saw that it dimmed, I opened my eyes again to find half of the
visor displaying in the green tone of night vision. The other half, the side
with the hole in the helmet, was the standard display.
    “Sorry,” Cass said. “Half of it is
broken.”
    The animals looked more alien and
frightening in the night vision. Their fur was a dark green, almost black, and
their eyes shone eerily white. The three of them were crowded around the dead
one in a protective circle, with their backs to the fallen animal. I saw
something skitter quickly on the sand around them. Whatever it was, it was hard
to see even with the low-light vision active.
    A burst of sand suddenly spewed out of
the surface. I saw movement amongst the spray of sand, and when it finally
cleared I saw a cluster of what looked like spiders. They were about half the
size of the rat animals they appeared to be hunting, and crawled rapidly over
the sand on more legs than I could count. Far more than any spider I had ever
seen.
    Another shriek came from the group. I
found myself afraid for one of the first times in my life. I had faced down
alien infestations in my time as a soldier, fending off more waves of
outnumbering masses on missions that I wasn’t even expected to survive. As a
mercenary I had killed over a hundred marks without fear. As a bounty hunter I
had been sent to retrieve the most prized parts of the most dangerous and
exotic alien monsters known to the galaxy. And now, crippled and alone with
only half of my body still working, I was scared. I had never felt more
unprepared.
    “Burke, you have that look on your
face.”
    “What look?”
    “The look you get when you’re unsure of
something. What are you thinking?”
    “Get us upright.”
    Cass responded as quickly as she could,
considering how careful she had to be with my right leg. I kept my eyes fixated
on the hunted animals outside of our shelter. Another one had fallen and the
remaining two were backing away from the dozen or so crawlers, hissing and
grunting as they did so. The crawlers seemed unperturbed, and kept on with