Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos Simpson, A. (new books to read .txt) 📖

The angry reptilian that filled his screen warned of dire consequences if he was ever found anywhere else in the galaxy. The Queens protection was only honored in her system and his life would be short. He held up his fist and crushed a metal drinking cup, told the insignificant worm he’d do the same to him if they met again. He had killed pirate men and destroyed pirate ships. They didn’t forget or forgive.

No one fired on them but they had to dodge spinning wrecks that came out of nowhere on a collision course with their ship.

31

The Collectors Men

“Not here.” Drashad said. “They didn’t fire on them; they must have the Queen’s protection.”

His brother agreed and they stayed hidden in the space junk. The tracker Prashad had attached to their ship before it left port would lead them to where ever they went. The Consortium and the pirates had a grudging respect for each other and usually didn’t interfere but nobody crossed the Queen and lived very long. They had hoped the pirates would be able to destroy their ship and they could safely collect her body. Over the past month, as they’d tailed them at a safe distance waiting on the equipment, they’d grown to have respect for their flying and gunning abilities. They didn’t want to try to take them head on, it might be a difficult battle. They couldn’t attack here, though. If their quarry had gotten safe passage from the Queen they would follow to the next jump. It had taken them a long time to gather the required supplies they needed, the titanium box and the polarity circuits had to be custom built, but they were finally ready.

They had to wait until they were in a lightly populated system before they made their move. In the outer reaches where there was no other traffic, they would notice if a ship came within missile range. They didn’t want to spook them until there was no chance of escape. They followed at a safe distance and watched for a chance to take them out near a jump gate with enough other crafts to mask their approach and no Federation patrols nearby. They could destroy the unusual ship easily with their seeker missiles but it would take time to find her body, encase it in the polymer and get it back to the titanium box.

They’d gotten tired of trying to guess why they needed to take such precautions but Chala had never steered them wrong. All they could figure was she had some kind of data in her head and that was the only way to preserve it or stop it from being transmitted. It wasn’t the type of job they normally did. Chala the Collector either, for that matter. He must be following orders that came down from one of the powerful conglomerates. It didn’t matter. They would do the job they were paid to do, collect their credits and maybe it would lead to bigger opportunities when the powers that be saw they were dependable and competent. It would be nice to only do two or three big jobs a year and quit the petty kidnappings or leg breaking that barely paid the bills.

“Next jump.” Drashad said. “It’s a mining and agro system, it’ll have plenty of automated freighter traffic. I’ll scan for Federation ships but I doubt there will be any, not this far out. If it’s clear, we come in fast and before they know we’re close, we’ll send a few signature seeking missiles up their boosters. They’ll never know what hit ‘em, maybe won’t even have time to send out a mayday.”

“They’re starting their run.” Maddy said as she watched the blip on her screen accelerate.

“Better strap in.” Jessie said as he slowly eased into the portal then shimmered out of sight. When they came out in the strip mining and terraformed agricultural planets in one of the conglomerates systems, he shoved the thrusters to the max and pulled the yoke all the way back. The ship shot straight up to the top of the shimmering jump point and he looped then cut the thrust.

“If they’re following us, they can’t get a reading until they come through.” Maddy said. “We’ll watch their reaction. If they realize we’re behind them and take evasive maneuvers then we know for sure.”

“This’ll be the fifth time.” Jessie said. “I’m already pretty sure they’re pirates and I’m pretty sure they’re following us.”

“Likely.” She agreed. “But this will tell us for sure.”

They started to settle in for the wait. Maddy had noticed the same transponder number coming through a jump point about a half hour after they did three times in a row as they jumped across the galaxy. That wasn’t unusual, eight other ships had done the same. She informed Jessie when they started skirting the central system and it followed.

Moments later the ship shimmered into being and rocketed away. They had entered at full throttle and exited the same way, a dangerous practice, but they were on the chase. Seconds after they come through, they cut their engines and banked hard, circling around to find the ship that was now behind them.

“That’s our answer.” Jessie said and engaged all four of the ion thrusters to max throttle. The once sleek craft, the pride of the Madroleeka, shot forward like a blast and if it hadn’t been equipped with g-force equalizing modules he would have been crushed in his seat. Maddy opened up with the plasma cannons, cut off their escape back through the wormhole and forced them to run or be hit with plasma blasts halfway through their turn. Jessie caught up fast, hailed them on the communicator and was ignored. As Maddy sent sending warning shots past their bow, Jessie engaged the force override system native to the command ship and it smashed through their privacy blocker. The screen opened and they saw two reptilians, one at the controls and the other in