Hunters Ch. 06

Read, review, and rip it apart. Most importantly have a merry holiday whether you're Christian or pagan or whatever your religious or cultural affiliation may be.

I highly recommend going back and reading the first 5 chapters if you have time, this will make better sense if you do.

The Darkness

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The sequin studded crimson gown hugged the singer's curvy body. Max's well-trained eyes could see that even before the spot light hit her. Her head was down and her hair draped over her face, falling in two thick curtains on either side. The spot light irised open quickly on her and her head came up; her midnight blue hair fell into place like a silken drape. There wasn't a smile on her face, and her steel blue eyes were molten pools of lust, chilled by contemptuous boredom, and lit by a wondrous excitement.

Her sultry voice started wafting out over the crowded room, mingling with the cigarette smoke in the unlit house seating. Max was trying to listen to her, but a crackle came over his ear bud and Anders' voice broke his concentration.

"He's moving, Morgan. He's coming straight for you at your 4."

Max listened carefully and he heard the man's boots sliding across the floor, trying to be quiet as he navigated the maze of tables and chairs and patrons that were concentrating on the soft lyrics of the crooning singer. Max heard him step up behind him and heard something being pulled out of a heavy leather coat pocket, the leather creaking softly.

"You should probably sit down, and at least enjoy the show," Max said quietly, grabbing the pack of cigarettes from next to his half full glass of scotch and rocks. He put on in his mouth and then he felt the barrel of the gun press against his neck. 'Rounded slide and frame, heavy barrel, thick slide. Feels like an old 1911..." Max thought and slowly grabbed the lighter from beside where his pack of cigarettes was sitting. "Only two hunters I know use 1911's anymore," Max thought, striking the lighter. "And one of them..." his thoughts continued and he inhaled the smoke deep into his lungs.

"Hi there, Maxy," said a sultry female voice, the voice's lips tickling his ear right as the sound tantalized him to the core.

"Is a real bitch," Max's thoughts finished. Max exhaled thickly, the cloud of his breath mingling with the haze of cigarette smoke already in the room. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth and set it in the ashtray, watching the thin trails of smoke twist and writhe as they became phantom wisps in the air.

"Sit down Gillian, you're blocking the view of the people behind you," Max said softly. Gillian giggled and pulled the gun from Max's neck and set it on the table. She pulled the chair out and Max raised his hand. A waitress was over before Gillian had her jacket off.

"Two scotches, one on the rocks, the other straight," Max whispered to the waitress. Max saw her nod out of the corner of his eye and then stop. He'd guessed her eyes hit the .45 sitting on the table. "Don't worry about that, there won't be trouble," Max said non-chalantly.

"Morgan, what the hell is going on?" Anders said softly in his left, a high degree of concern in her voice. It almost sounded like she was trembling. Max had told Anders about Gillian Vallemara and that she was a person to be avoided at all costs. Now he had just welcomed her to sit down with him and she wasn't even the guy that was supposed to be after Max.

"Anders, get back to Mars," Max said softly as he took a drink from his scotch. Gillian sat down. If she had heard Max speak, she didn't make any notice of it. Max noticed the leather long coat she was wearing had a hole in it and a dark stain on the inside liner. She sat down and snuggled into Max's arm, listening in silence for a second to the sultry tones of the singer.

"Nice coat. I take it Sakura won't be needing it anymore?" Max asked. He brought his cigarette back to his mouth and inhaled slowly, savoring the taste of the smoke mingling with the taste of the scotch. Gillian giggled.
"I don't know about a coat, but he could definitely use a sheet," she responded. Max couldn't say he was sad. Sakura had chased them to Venus from Earth and fully intended on cashing in on the bounty that was on both of them. Sakura was one of the worst hunters to have tracking you, too. He was trained by the Syndicate to track down their members who had felt they could simply leave. But even good hunters could be surprised, and if it was Gillian who killed him instead of finding him dead, Max couldn't help but feel a little twinge of pity for him. The waitress brought their drinks and quickly walked away.

"So what are you going to do with me then? Simply march me out of here and down to the police?" Max asked after a moment of silence. He took the last pull of his cigarette and Gillian slowly reached up and grabbed her gun.

"I would like to, but there's a special bonus on you now," Gillian said sitting up. The singer finished her set and most of the rest of the room clapped. Gillian took a drink of her scotch and drained most of it. Max like wise drank most of his fresh glass. "If I get you and your new little pet Marine, there's a 2 million dollar bonus offered for turning both of you in."

"So that's 15 million for me, 750 for the girl, and a 2 million bonus? That's pretty tidy," Max said and drank the rest of his scotch. Gillian giggled lightly.

"That's what I was thinking. But I can't take you to the police for the bonus, Maxy. I have to take you back to Earth. Seems that the men you took your new little playmate from are very angry with you. Something about blowing up their head quarters and killing 30 of their men," Gillian said. Max turned to look at Gillian and he set his glass down beside its empty partner. Gillian's eyes were twinkling in the dim lights "Here I thought you were against killing, Maxy. From the sounds of it, they didn't even stand a chance."

"Unavoidable. They had guns and I was delivered into a trap," Max said softly.

"Uh huh. From what I heard you walked right in and blew the place to hell. Sounds more like the old Major Morgan than this new little scrap of man I see before me. Like it hardly matters. We're gonna go get your new little friend and we're going back to Earth," Max nodded and pulled the last drag off his cigarette before putting it back in the ash tray to finish burning out. Gillian started to stand and Max stood up as well, scanning the room quickly. He seemed to quite accidentally knock over what was left of his scotch and then dump the ashtray over near it. The scotch quickly soaked into the floor and the fire lit the fumes.

"Ready?" Max said smiling. He pulled his coat on and someone screamed behind him.

"FIRE!" a waitress screamed and Max turned, looking at the floor. The flames were spreading quicker than he thought they should, but then this was a bar, and God only knew how much of what had been spilled and soaked into that carpet after all these years. The sprinklers kicked on and the place was in even more of a panic.

Max stepped back closer to the table and a throng of people erupted around him, pushing Gillian out the door.

"Morgan, damn you!" Gillian screamed above the din of the panicking patrons Max smiled back, and he knew he could see her as her head bobbed up and down in the crush of people heading for the door. Max waved and blew her a kiss before running for the back, jumping over a stretch of carpet that was engulfed in flames that were rapidly headed for the back of the little jazz dive.

"Anders, I need you outside at the back of Sal's and I need you back there like you've been there the whole time," Max said calmly as he shouldered the back door open. He was extremely happy to be blinded by the landing lights of the Twilight and by the snow that her engines were kicking up as Anders hovered her a few feet off the ground. Max felt the cold rip through his snapping clothes, carried by the thrust of the Twilight's engines.

"Never left," she said. Max saw the passenger door open and he didn't even break stride as he jumped up onto the Twilight's forward landing gear and hopped inside.

"Well, Sakura's dead," Max said and fastened his harness.

"Well that's good, I guess," Anders said and piloted the craft up into the dark Venus sky.

"Yes, I suppose that it is," Max said, still feeling a pang of sorrow for the hunter. He knew Gillian probably shot him in the knee from where the bullet hole in the jacket was. He could only imagine what she had done to him after that, but he was sure he didn't want to.

"But?" Anders said after just a second's lull in the conversation. "There was a 'but' there, even though you didn't say it," she added cutting of Max's inevitable question.

"Gillian's here, and she said there's a bounty bonus on us if we're both brought back to Earth. That's bad," Max said and very badly wanted a cigarette.

"Wait, you said 'us.' Morgan, is there a bounty out on me?" Anders asked, stopping the craft by one of the floating terraforming islands that were manufacturing a breathable atmosphere for the planet.

"Yes, yes there is," Max said in a sigh.

"But why, I haven't done anything! Just because my government tried to...oh I see," Anders said, her voice trailing off. There was a moment of silence. "How much?" she asked calmly and quietly.

"750,000," Max said softly.

"Oh. How much is this bonus?" she asked meekly. It almost looked to Max like she was shrinking into her seat.

"2 Mil," Max said softly. There was another very pregnant pause and Max started staring out over the Sea of Athena, waiting for Anders to react.

"How much are you up to?" she asked quietly. The ship's chronometer clicked by over 2 minutes before she had spoken.

"15 Million if Gillian was right," Max said softly. His index and middle fingers started unconsciously tapping his knee quickly. He wanted a cigarette really badly now.

It had been a week and a half since Max had broken her out of Rotterdam. They stopped in New York for a quick afternoon to get a few supplies and to let Max go to church. They hadn't heard any news and they were running low on ideas. The Consortium knew they were on Earth and the military would be watching the gates back to Mars. Consequently, the only place they could go this time of the cycle was Venus, and it wasn't much better than their other choices. But, the Consortium wasn't already there and the Martian Military would be looking for them, but it wouldn't be a full-scale operation. Mars and Venus didn't always see eye-to-eye, and landing teams on each other's soil had always been a sticking point between the two governments.

Max was broken out of his thoughts by Anders chuckling softly. His head whipped around and he looked at her, with a confused look on her face. She was looking at him and there was a twinkle in her eye and a little smirk on her face.

"Looks like I have a ways to go if I want to catch you, Major," she said playfully and gently pushed the Twilight into movement again. Max half smiled at her and shook his head. For the first time in a week and a half, Max turned the viewer on and switched it to Channel 237.

The screen came on and that horridly cheesy western music started playing.

"AMIGO!" said the black man in the cowboy get up. Max felt like less of a bounty hunter and more of a clown every time he watched these two. "How y'all doin'!?" His voice came on loudly over the speakers.

"God I hate those two," Max breathed quietly.

"We have a special treat for you today, and we have a show jam packed with bounties for you!" the dizzy blonde said, her shirt almost flopping all the way open under the weight of her braless cleavage beneath. She made a gun with her fingers and pointed it at the screen. "PaChoo! PaChoo!" she said and cocked her hand back after firing each imaginary shot. The screen switched to the "Today's Menu" screen and it quickly dissolved into a side-by-side of Anders and Morgan, both wearing their dress blacks from the Marines.

"Maxwell Morgan is still at large and was last seen around Earth! He's worth an amazing 15 Million Woolongs since we last had him on the show and he's been a very naughty boy since then, too. His new accomplice is Erin Anders, another Marine from Mars! These two blasted their way out of a government building on Earth. IF you catch both of them together and get them back, the government in Rotterdam will pay out a 2 Million Woolong bonus!" the man said again and the words "Bonus Pay!" flashed on the screen a few times before the screen dissolved to the faces of 3 men.

"These 3 desperados are the Colton Clan from Mars!" the man started out. Max perked an eyebrow and Anders stopped the ship. "They are wanted for bio-terrorism and were broken out of custody before their trial! They were last seen in the area of Earth, but have not been spotted for some time. They are each worth 1 and a half million, but if they are brought in all at the same time, Double Bonus!" the man shouted, staring into the camera waving little victory signs around as "Double Bonus!!" flashed up on the screen.

"Oh shit," Max said. He switched the screen off.

"What? I know I've heard of them before, but I can't remember anything about them," Anders said and kicked the Twilight into motion again.

"Remember all that heat that Biotech Intersystem got into about a year and a half back?" Max asked, his face slack and the color drained from it slightly.

"Yeah," Anders responded.

"Ray Colton was one of their chief scientists in bio weapons. He'd take toxins and allergens found in nature and amplify them, purifying them and making them thousands of times worse than what the substance alone was capable of," Max said plainly and started looking out the window. It looked like it was snowing, but it was almost always too warm on Venus for that except at the high altitudes. The plants used for the terraforming were dropping their cottony seedpods and their flowers were blooming and bursting with pollen. It would have been a beautiful sight for Max, especially since he hadn't seen snow since being on Titan, but now it just filled him full of dread.

"I still don't get what the big deal is, Morgan."

"See all this fluffy crap that we're flying through? Those are the seedpods of the plants in the terraforming platforms. That means the plants are starting to pollinate again," Morgan said.

"I thought plants dropped seed only after they had been pollinated," Anders said, a little confused.

"Not these. These plants had some sort of weird-cross pollination mechanism built into them. Some of the plants are male and some are female. What happens is the seeds are dropped and a day or so after they start dropping, the air floods with pollen from the male plants. That's what causes Venus Sickness, all the damn pollen," Max said patiently. "And if Colton and his brothers are here..." Max let his voice trail off.

"Then they could be messing around with the Venus Sickness and making it worse," mumbled Anders. She brought the Twilight around in a graceful arc. "But wait, they're still on Earth!"

"So are we," Max reminded. Anders grunted softly; she almost growled. "So basically, we just sit around and wait for something to happen. They're not really terrorists, they're mercenaries. If they were gonna do something like what we're thinking, there'd be a statement made. There would be a demand and a timeframe."

"How would we know about it?" Anders asked as Max watched the twinkling lights in the distance draw closer as they neared the city.

"Well, they'd put it on the..." Max said, cutting himself off and switching the TV back on. Big Shot was just ending and the news was starting. The view of a news anchor at his desk appeared and the channel 237 logo splashed on and then disappeared into the upper right hand corner of the screen, just over the reporter's shoulder. The reporter was an older man, fairly pale, with white hair that was combed neatly to the sides and a thick beard that had some gray in it still. He wore what looked like steel rimmed glasses and he picked up the newssheets and looked at the camera.

"Good evening, I'm Donner Blitzer, and this," he started and then held for a dramatic pause, "is the news. Tonight's top story come from the Venusians capitol city of Mithridates. A fire broke out in Sal's, a club on the lower east side of town that's famous for it's performances of early 20th century jazz, blues, and big band music. Though the cause of the fire was determined to be accidental and no one was hurt, the building and half the adjacent block were razed before the fire department could respond. We now go live to our correspondent, Betty Koric. Betty?" An overhead image of the block that Sal's sat on was shown in the window over the correspondent's shoulder. Betty was standing there and on cue the image switched to the main image and she walked through the devastation and the maze of rescue equipment.

"Thanks Don. What you see behind and around me is what remains of the historic lower east side of Mithridates. The city itself started out from humble beginnings, despite its regal name, and this area was the first to be built as soon as the terraforming project had enough of a stable atmosphere to breathe outside the first bases on Venus."

"I should have known you started that fire," grumbled Anders.

"Got out, didn't I?" Max shot back and Betty started to talk again.

"The start of the fire is not known, and Sal's had no surveillance system, though at least one witness said that this was the work of the fugitive Maxwell Morgan. The witness refused to be interviewed on camera and took off after giving a hasty statement to police," Betty said

"Betty, did any of the other witnesses place this Maxwell Morgan at the scene?" Donner interrupted from the studio.

"Don, there are conflicting reports of the presence of Mr. Morgan. However, the club owner and the wait staff all firmly deny that Mr. Morgan was present. A few of the patrons have said that they saw him there, but due to their degree of drunkenness, it is doubtful that the police will follow up on that lead. Instead the police are now looking for this woman," Betty responded and flashed a picture of a very angry red head in a long leather jacket. She had a black eye and soot on her face; her mascara was also less than perfect and her lipstick was smeared slightly. Max recognized her immediately as Gillian.

"The police say that this is the first and only eye-witness to come forward and say that Maxwell Morgan was present, the other reports coming through only after questioning. This woman, however, had no Identicard on her and submitted a false name to police. If anyone has any knowledge of this woman's identity or whereabouts, the police would like you to call them at the number listed at the bottom of the screen," she said as the number for the Mithridates Police Department flashed up on the screen. "The woman is wanted in conjunction with questioning in the matter of this suspected arson. Anyone who gives information leading to her arrest and conviction will receive an award of 25,000 Woolongs. Don?" Betty finished. The scene moved back to the small display over Donner Blitzer's left shoulder and the studio was once again in the picture.

"Ha! Take that, bitch!" Max shouted. He'd have jumped in his seat if he weren't strapped in it. Anders laughed a little.

Donner started blabbering on about some cookie drive for the Venusians Bear Scouts or something to that extent; Max wasn't really paying attention. Then he heard gunfire in the background and the muffled shout of "Nobody Move!"

"Here we go, Anders, get to the Channel 237 tower," Anders kicked the Twilight into high gear and she arched across the night skyline of Mithridates. The channel 237 tower wasn't hard to find; it was one of the taller buildings in the city and it had a big 237 in red on all four sides of it.