Hard Luck Hank Screw the Galaxy(60)

She recoiled against the wall, eyes wide. Suddenly my appearance seemed to make sense to her. Maybe even my guns. She dropped to her knees and began sobbing uncontrollably.

A few times I tried to interject, but she was hysterical and I could tell she was beyond processing anything I said.

I waited. I mean she had to stop at some point or she was going to get dehydrated.

A half hour passed and she was sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest and her head down, wailing just as loud as when she started.

I teled a guy I knew. Asked him how he was doing. Said we should get together later this week. He asked me what the screaming was in the background. “Work,” I said.

My knees hurt so I sat down as well.

After ages, the crying began to slow a bit and I stood back up to resume my position of menace.

“Houtin?” I began. “Houtin. Hello, Houtin?”

She wiped her eyes but did not look at me.

“You know, I’m not supposed to do this,” I said, “but I just might be able to let you live.”

She finally looked up. Her face was a swollen reddish-purple. I did feel like a heel, but what could I do?

“If you agree to not talk to any military officials regarding what you wrote, I think I can convince my boss you’re trustworthy. You’ll have to sign this, though.”

I handed her my tele, where I had whipped up a couple-sentence agreement while I was waiting for her to finish weeping.

She hesitated.

Great, was she going to start crying again?

“It…,” she said weakly.

“Yes?”

“It…has misspelled words.”

“Oh. Well, it’s not really a legal thing. It’s more you just saying, ‘hey guys, don’t sweat it.’”

She signed it and handed it back.

“So you’re okay with this? You’ll keep your mouth shut?”

She nodded emphatically.

“Great. Um, but you do know what will happen if you don’t, right?” I asked threateningly.

“You’ll…kill me?”

“No. We’ll torture you,” I said, flaring my nostrils. “Have you ever been tortured before?”

She shook her head quickly.

I didn’t know the first thing about torture but I wanted to leave her with an image that stuck, and more importantly, kept her silent.

“First we strap you down with restraints. We have billhooks clasping your ankles and wrists so you’ll cut yourself if you even twist. A cable is attached to a crossbar between your knees and connected to a ceiling pulley where it loops back down to a metal bit between your teeth. A winch…A winch…”

She was terrified, but her eyes blinked rapidly. I could tell she had no idea what I was talking about.

“But it won’t come to that, so don’t worry about it,” I said with a smile.

I walked over and helped her to her feet. She very reluctantly took my hand. I opened the door to leave, but she remained inside, collecting herself.

“I, uh, need to use this room,” I told her.

As we walked back, our footsteps echoed more than I remembered. The woman was behind me somewhat, blowing her nose as quietly as possible.

I came back to the main work area and it was obvious the entire staff had been panicked into submission from Houtin’s bawling. The manager was as far away across the office as possible.

“I need to speak to JonakathR…,” I yelled to the group, who were all staring at me in fear.

It figures. Right by the door.

He took off outside before I could even finish his name.

That was enough nonsense for today. He had to come back to work sometime or go home. But there was no way I was going to catch him at the moment.

Fortunately, time is on your side when you’re hunting someone on a space station.





CHAPTER 22


I got a tele from Leeny, a boss I liked working with because he represented the fleshy business side of Belvaille. He asked me to come over as he wanted to talk in person.

I supposed he wanted to thank me for taking out Ddewn as the two hadn’t gotten along—not that Ddewn had gotten along with anyone.

None of Ddewn’s former rivals had talked to me as of yet. They probably had their hands full dealing with Garm’s new cleaning policies. Either that or they weren’t comfortable with me killing a crime boss. It was not how things were usually handled.

No, usually it was the foot soldiers who got killed until a boss was so weak he had to acquiesce to some buyout or other, and then he would reluctantly leave the station or be absorbed into someone else’s operation. It was rare for bosses to be killed, which usually only happened when they were so intransigent there was no other choice.

I had upset the precious balance, the decorum of criminality, by popping Ddewn. But you know, I was tired of apologizing for it.