“What’s wrong, cherié? You’ve barely touched your dinner.”, Marie said, looking at Lucy with concern over the dinner table. Both women had been distressed when they’d learned Danny wasn’t coming home early, like originally planned. The message and money Marie had received only raised more questions. That said, Lucy had been gloomy for weeks now. That was too long to be simple disappointment and worry. When Marie looked in the young girl’s eyes, she saw a darkness there that hadn’t been present before. That look disturbed Marie beyond what she could express.

  Her training hadn’t included all the nuances of raising and guiding a teenage girl. Lucy had always been so well-behaved and precocious that she’d practically raised herself. Now, when the girl really needed her help for the first time, Marie found herself totally out of sorts. She’d tried to give her some space, but things only seemed to get worse. Marie had talked to her professors, and they’d confirmed she’d been more withdrawn in her final summer classes. That problem only worsened when they ended, as Lucy now spent almost all her time in her room. As her friends started the new school year or new jobs, Lucy spent more and more time on the Network. Some of her friends had tried to stay in contact, but she hadn’t gone out with any of them. Julia had even come around twice in person to check up on her. Lucy remained a shut-in. Marie couldn’t let this go on any longer: “Please, Lucy. Talk to me.”

  Marie leaned down, trying to look the girl in the eye, but she wouldn’t meet her gaze. Eventually, Lucy mumbled, “I’m fine, Tata. You worry too much.”

  “…Is this about Danny? I’m worried too, but-“

  “It’s not.”

  Lucy interrupted her, voice increasing in pitch. Gray eyes finally met Marie’s blue, and the Auntie searched her beloved niece’s gaze. Lucy looked like she was trying hard not to cry, putting on a frown and remaining vehement as she continued: “I’m sure Danny’s okay. Well, I’ll admit I’m a little stressed about that, but that’s really not it.”

  She took a deep breath, speaking softly as she moderated her tone a little: “I know you’re just trying to help. But there are some things I need to figure out for myself. Okay?”

  Marie couldn’t stop the pain building up in her chest as she watched Lucy try to shut her out again. Masking her sadness, Marie continued to push ever so gently: “I know that sweetheart. I do. And I trust you. But this would be so much easier for me if you just told-“

  Marie was interrupted again, this time by a knock at the door. Startled, both women jumped a bit, then looked at each other. Who could that be? At this hour? Getting up almost automatically, Marie went to open the front door.

  …

  Jordan gave a big yawn as he strolled through the Ankaran spaceport. Danny had asked him to check on his relatives, and Jordan was a man of his word. Ma had been upset that he’d left as soon as he’d gotten back, but it couldn’t be helped. Da would talk her down and explain to her the importance of promises made between men. He wouldn’t be long anyway.

  After taking a cab from the airport, Jordan strolled through the apartment building’s lobby and past the receptionist. He shook his head when the man didn’t even look up at him. What kind of security did this place even have? Not to mention the fact that the entire lobby was shabby and run down, its paint chipped and flaking. There was a film of dirt and grime on nearly everything, and what few people sat on the furniture were as indifferent and distracted as the receptionist.

  Jordan was no stranger to low-income environs. The old man had always preferred modest accommodations, wanting his children to learn to be tough and ‘not like those spoiled Clan brats’. Jordan had been forced to learn how to live off the land and contribute to the people around him from a very early age. But the log cabin Jordan had grown up in had always been warm and cozy, even if it took some work to keep it that way. They were ‘poor’ in that they didn’t live lives of luxury and didn’t have much in the way of electronics. However, home had always felt like, well, home. They’d never gone without food or medicine, and Ma was always there to make a tasty dinner from whatever you’d killed that day. Even if the people in this building weren’t starving, living in this kind of place would drain the soul out of most.

  As he was waiting for the elevator, however, he did find a small ray of sunshine. A small girl, even shorter than him and around his age, bounced into the lobby and stood beside him. She had short red hair, tied in twin tails, and happy green eyes that flitted all over that place as she walked. She was kept from being terribly attractive by the small army of freckles on her face and a slight case of acne on her nose, but the smile she gave Jordan had an infectious energy. He gave her a big grin of his own as the doors of the elevator opened and they both stepped inside. Jordan moved to hit the number four, asking: “Which floor for you, beautiful?”

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  She smiled a bit wider: “Same as you, handsome.”

  The doors closed and they started moving up. Jordan couldn’t resist more chatter: “You live here, or just visiting?”

  “Got it in two. Visiting a friend from school.”

  “Good friend?”

  “She’s a sweetheart, but she’s been down in the dumps of late. I’m trying to cheer her up.”

  “That’s a shame. I hope she feels better.”

  The doors opened and they stepped out, walking in the same direction and ultimately stopping at apartment 413. Jordan and the mystery girl shared another smile, and he was the first to comment: “Well, now! What a coincidence. You know the Hardgraves?”

  “Yep! Lucy’s one of my best friends. I’m Julia, by the way. Julia Kelly.”

  She held out her hand and Jordan shook it: “Name’s Jordan. Jordan Haraldson. I’m buddies with her brother, Danny.”

  Julia’s face lit up at the mention of Daniel: “You know Danny? He got me my job! It’s a simple gig, but I appreciated the help, especially in this economy.”

  This revelation amused Jordan. Danny was a pretty popular fellow. He gave a sly half-grin: “Danny’s a pretty good guy, isn’t he?”

  When she nodded in agreement, Jordan gestured at the door: “Well, shall we?”

  When she nodded again, Jordan knocked. And waited.

  No answer.

  He knocked again: “Excuse me, Ms. Marie? Ms. Lucy? It’s me, Jordan. I’m a friend of your brother’s.”

  Still no response. Now Julia called out: “Lucy, it’s me, Julia! It’s okay, Luce, this guy’s alright!”

  Nothing. Jordan tried the nob. It turned, the door sliding open and revealing an empty apartment. A little startled, the duo walked inside, calling for Lucy and Marie. They were nowhere to be found. As he looked around, Jordan’s eyes narrowed. On the surface, things looked normal. Most normal people would see nothing but a neat and tidy apartment, but his Eyes of the Hound told him otherwise. A scuffmark here and there told the tale of a brief struggle. When he focused, Jordan saw the shadowy remains of several large footprints across the floor carpet, all male. It looked like the invaders had tried to clean up after themselves, yet little could escape Jordan’s eyes.

  As he examined the carpet, a large orange cat popped into the apartment from the window. Dio gave a few sniffs, then began running around the apartment, startling Julia. Eventually, the feline came to the same realization as Jordan had.

  As Jordan’s face clouded in anger, Dio let out a long, mournful howl.

  …

  Further away, in an even seedier part of town, a black van pulled into the parking lot of an old warehouse. Four large, masked men got out, two of them carrying burdens over their shoulders. They walked inside, where they met up with a squat, rotund Hispanic man with a gold tooth and a shaved head. Flanked by two bodyguards, the fat man watched the quartet of men walk in with beady, calculating eyes. The four kidnappers deposited their burdens onto the two chairs in front of him and ripped their hoods off, revealing the semiconscious faces of two women.

  The rotund man walked forward, examining them both with a critical eye. The girl, perhaps in her mid- or late teens, would fetch an excellent price. The older woman was past her prime, yet she was attractive enough to still be valuable. The fat man grunted, “How much do you want?”

  The man quoted a price, and he frowned. Too low. They could easily get more than that, even selling wholesale: “What’s the catch?”

  “The boss wants them sent to a remote location. Away from prying eyes.”

  Ah. That made sense. One of the ‘best’ and cheapest ways to make people disappear in this day and age was to sell them into slavery. Murder meant bodies, and those were often expensive to deal with effectively. Slavery would net the seller a pretty penny while eliminating a potentially troublesome character: two birds, one stone. The only downside was the possibility of someone looking for the victim and finding them still alive, but you mitigated that risk if the victim was poor and if you had them sent far enough. These poor girls must have upset the wrong person: “You need them outside the Imperium, or can I keep them inside? ‘Shipping’ merchandise like this is a pain in the ass.”

  He was just a middleman, at the end of the day. One meant to find retail buyers for this kind of product. Convenient for those who specialized in areas of crime beyond smuggling and prostitution, but who needed to make people disappear or earn a quick buck. One of the masked four, their leader he assumed, folded his arms in denial: “We’re selling at a discount because we want them ‘shipped’ out of the Empire. A Pioneer is involved, and the boss doesn’t want to take chances.”

  Oho. That changed things up. When the fat man raised an eyebrow at this stooge, the masked man continued: “The Pioneer is just a grunt. He hasn’t been reported KIA yet, nor has he returned from assignment. His exact whereabouts are unknown, but our people suspect he’s either dead or still on mission.”

  The Pioneers were good about keeping their operations a secret, so even knowing this much was good. Still, the big man stroked his chin: “If a Pioneer is involved, I take on a good deal of extra risk, and so do you. Why not just take care of the problem now?”

  It would be a shame to destroy merchandise of this high quality, but it rarely hurt to be too careful in this business. The stooge just shook his head in the negative: “If the goods leave the Empire, they’re as good as dead anyway. You have at least a month to handle things before the Pioneer returns. We trust you can find a buyer and secure shipping in that timeframe.”

  He could. He had contacts in the Free Worlds and Anarchic Space. Once this merchandise was safely out of the Empire, a mere grunt would be powerless to hunt them down. That still left one question: “What if the Pioneer survives and comes for revenge?”

  No matter what they did, that was always a risk. The goon snorted at the prospect: “Accidents happen, even to the Enhanced. Let us handle the worst-case scenario.”

  The fat man hesitated, rubbing his hands together thoughtfully. He eventually clapped once, then smiled, gold tooth glimmering in the lowlight: “Very well then. You have a deal.”