RavensDagger

  Chapter Forty-Seven - Wine and Dine

  Reputation, to some, is everything.

  Ivil and Missy returo their booth, esc Pixie back as they went. The tiny womaated as Ivil sat on one side and Missy oher. She gnced betweewo sides, then swallowed hard and sat o Missy. "S-so, Missy, been a while," she said.

  "Isn't that what I said?" Missy asked.

  "Is it?" Pixie asked. "I mean, yes, sorry. But it has been a while. Are you still with that old junker? Uh... the Held Together?"

  "You remember?" Missy asked as she leao the side. She wedged herself in the er of the booth, one leg folded up onto the seat and an elbow oable. She grabbed her drink and swirled it around. "Yeah, still with the Held Together. Maybe. Sorta? It's gotten... plicated."

  "plicated?" Pixie asked. It looked like she wao avoid any sort of actual versation on her own end.

  Missy shrugged. "It's a long story."

  "I have time," Pixie said.

  "You have time?" Missy asked. "Aren't you the one who's stantly busy with something?"

  Pixie made a vague gesture that could have meant anything. "I make time. It's no big deal. Tell me the story?"

  Missy chuckled. "Alright. Might be a few bits that I'll have to keep to myself. You uand? Figured as much. Anyway, started around Ceres. You heard of that Mars fleet flying around? They stopped by the Crevice, usual thing, the fleet came around and it was like letting a cat loose in a hold filled with space mice."

  Ivil smiled. She was rather fond of the mental image. Cats were still carried on several ships. In fact, most Martian warships had a ship's cat with its oecific crash crate. And mice... well, there was ing rid of such small, stealthy pests. Space mice, smie, were well-adapted to living in low-gravity enviros.

  "I heard about that," Pixie said. She looked at the menu oable and tapped out a quick order for a of some sort of soda. "Did you run too?"

  "We weren't carrying any traband, or anything suspicious, we chose to stay. Picked up a few passengers. Miss tall, dark, and mysterious here included."

  "The Held Together wouldn't normally have been my first choice," Ivil replied.

  "Anyway, we got her, another woman, and a Martian Tech-Maid of all things. Then we scampered while the scampering was good."

  Pixie nodded along, paying rapt attention... mostly. She was still tossing looks Ivil's way. Had the little bounty hunter reized Ivil through her disguise? There were only a few images of Ivil out there; the Ivil in all of the propaganda posters was a body double who specifically didn't look exactly like her, despite having some cores that would allow him--the fact that her body double was a man always secretly amused her--to take on anyone's appearance.

  "You ran all the way here?" Pixie asked.

  "Callisto was our inal destination, yeah, but we got wayid on the irates."

  Pixie sat up straighter. "You had to run from pirates?"

  "Ru captured. The Held Together couldn't defend itself from a weather satellite, nevermind any kind of actual resistance, fet about fighting off any sort of pirate. They captured the ship and dragged us back to their station."

  "Which pirates?" Pixie asked.

  ", led by some bitch called... Red Herring, was it?"

  Ivil was aware of Pixie's hand dipping uhe table. She reached into one of the baggy pockets of her cargo pants and gripped a small handgun. "Missy... is this a trap?" Pixie asked. She sounded disappointed, sad, maybe a little surprised, but that was drowned out by the rest.

  "What?" Missy asked.

  "She wants to know if we brought her here as part of a trap. You said she was a bounty hunter? I imagine she's fought and killed her share of pirates," Ivil said.

  Pixie gnced betweewo, then nodded. "That's right. They want me dead, and probably food reason."

  "Damn," Missy said. "No, I see yle. Don't worry. This isn't some eborate trap. We got away from the pirates. Blew up a k of their station, some of their ships. That's why I needed you, shortstack."

  "Don't call me that," Pixie snapped, but she did let go of the gun and rexed a little. "How did you get away from a pirate station?"

  "Stole one of their ships. Sweet little... hmm, I guess it's a destroyer? Small torpedo ship, real sleek, called the Sappho. Ours now, I suppose. A the Held Together out too."

  Pixie frowned. "How? Did a Martian patrol happen by?"

  "Nah. See tall, sexy and mysterious here," Missy said with a gesture across the booth.

  "I've been upgraded to sexy?" Ivil asked.

  "Just stating facts, don't get too excited," Missy replied, but a cocky grin stretched on one side of her face.

  Ivil did, in fact, get a little excited.

  "Anyway, she turned out to be a lean, mean, pirate fug mae. We killed our way out of the statio a mess in our wake."

  Pixie eyed Ivil for a moment, then her eyes darted away. "I see. Wait, you need me for the bounty!"

  "Bingo!"

  Pixie sat up straighter. She seemed a lot more fortable now that she knew why they wanted her. Ivil supposed she uood. Everyone always wanted something out of her, be that her power, or for her to leave them alo was hard to please people when she didn't know what their wants were. Not that she often cared to please.

  "Do you have all the details we'd need for that?" Pixie asked. "Actually, how do you want to work that out?"

  Missy worked her jaw. "To be ho, I figured I'd pass that on to you. What would work best? And yeah, we've got sensor reading for days. Both from the Sappho and the Held Together. Not that the old junker's sensors are worth anything."

  "No, that's good, that's good," Pixie said. "I'll have to look over it all, of course, but I'm sure it'll be enough. You did shoot some of the ships?"

  "Torps and missiles, yeah," Missy said. "A few direct hits, and then big explosions. Lots of friendly fire, but I hope that that won't t against us."

  "Pirates actally taking out an ally after you damaged them is somewhat tentious, the bounty office be assholes, but they'll at least sider it, and I have some good pull with them," Pixie said.

  "Cool cool," Missy replied. "So, what's the best way of doing this?"

  Pixie swallowed again. A nervous tick? This woman seemed full of those. "W-well, there's two options. Yister as a bounty hunter yourself, use the first couple of bouo fly past Journeyman, and the your Master accreditation. That means a bigger pertage for a few of the kills, but a much worse one for the others. They'll be looking over everything with a fiooth b, too."

  "Alright," Missy said. "We kinda want the money fast."

  "Then there's another option," Pixie said. "You let me take the credit, at least with the board. I let people know that I'm just calling it in, it's happened before with other hunters. Sometimes a cargo ship with a pea-shets lucky and the captain has some tacts in the guild. A bounty should be collected if it be, you know? Anyway, I'd submit the bounties, and then I take a cut. Say, twenty pert."

  "Twenty pert?" Missy repeated. "You haven't even wined, dined and given me a good time before fug me, huh?"

  Pixie's face turned very red. "Maybe, maybe not twenty pert. Ten?"

  "Ten is still high," Ivil said. "Especially for so little work."

  "F-for you, five," Pixie said. "But no lower! I'm staking my rep on this, you know? If this turns out to be a hoax, then I'm royally fucked."

  "It's not a hoax," Missy dismissed. "We have the ss and the ship to prove it. So, how soon do you think you get this done?"

  "You know, telli's not a hoax and then askio hurry along isn't as reassuring as you might think," Pixie said.

  Ivil leaned forwards, catg Pixie's eyes as she did so. "What Missy said was true. We did destroy a number of pirate ships, and killed quite a few pirates while we were at it. You trust us."

  Pixie shifted in her seat. "W-well, if you say so," she said as she broke eye tact. "Anyway, uh, business aside, it's o see you again, Missy."

  "Heh, yeah, you too. Sorry for, uh, st time. You know how it is."

  "Last time?" Ivil asked.

  "I kinda did a hit and run," Missy said. "But hey, I'm always on the move, you know?"

  "Yeah, yeah, I know," Pixie said. She was trying to sound casual, but there was some hurt there, Ivil noticed.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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