The Deal, page 1
part #2 of The Renegade Series
J. N. Chaney
Copyrighted Material
The Deal Copyright © 2020 by Variant Publications
Book design and layout copyright © 2020 by JN Chaney
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from JN Chaney.
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1st Edition
Book Description
The Renegade
The Renegade Series #1
Jace Hughes is a Renegade.
That means taking jobs and not asking questions, whether that involves smuggling, transporting runnaways, or performing other, far less wholesome work. Whatever the situation, Jace is willing to do what it takes to achieve his dream and live the life he’s always wanted.
That is, until he comes face to face with an item of unprecedented value—something that could give him everything he needs to pay off his debt and be free.
The only problem is that selling it would also shift the balance of power between the two largest empires in the galaxy.
And spark another intergalactic war.
Unfortunately for Jace, he won’t have long to decide. Renegades, assassins, and government cronies are after the item, too, and unlike Jace, they won’t hesitate to kill.
Books By J.N. Chaney
The Variant Saga:
The Amber Project
Transient Echoes
Hope Everlasting
The Vernal Memory
Renegade Star Series:
Renegade Star
Renegade Atlas
Renegade Moon
Renegade Lost
Renegade Fleet
Renegade Earth
Renegade Dawn
Renegade Children
Renegade Union
Renegade Empire
Renegade Descent
Renegade Rising
Renegade Alliance
Renegade Evolution
Renegade War
Renegade Peace
Renegade Star Universe:
Nameless
The Constable
The Constable Returns
The Warrior Queen
Orion Colony (with Jonathan Yanez)
Orion Uncharted (with Jonathan Yanez)
Orion Awakened (with Jonathan Yanez)
Orion Protected (with Jonathan Yanez)
The Last Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Fear the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Blade of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Wings of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Flight of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Wrath of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Will of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Descent of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Hunt of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
Bastion of the Reaper (with Scott Moon)
The Fifth Column (with Molly Lerma)
The Solaras Initiative (with Molly Lerma)
The Forlorn Hope (with Molly Lerma)
Resonant Son (with Christopher Hopper)
Resonant Abyss (with Christopher Hopper)
Galactic Law (with James S. Aaron)
Galactic Judge (with James S. Aaron)
Galactic Jury (with James S. Aaron)
Galactic Executioner (with James S. Aaron)
Deadland Drifter (with Ell Leigh Clarke)
Deadland Wanderer (with Ell Leigh Clarke)
Deadland Sentinel (with Ell Leigh Clarke)
The Renegade
The Duel (Coming Soon)
Ruins of the Galaxy Series (with Christopher Hopper):
Ruins of the Galaxy
Galactic Breach
Gateway to War
Void Horizon
Black Labyrinth
Imminent Failure
Terminal Fallout
Quantum Assault
Rise of the Gladias
The Messenger Series (with Terry Maggert):
The Messenger
The Dark Between
Star Forged
The Silent Fleet
Dawn of Empire
Worlds Apart
Rage of Night
Heaven’s Door
Radical Dreamer
Cosmic Ride
The Sol Arbiter Series (with Jia Shen):
Sol Arbiter
Intrinsic Immortality
Digital Chimera
Memetic Drift
Standalones:
Their Solitary Way
The Other Side of Nowhere
Forever Family
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Renegade Star Universe
Join the Conversation
Connect with J.N. Chaney
About the Author
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1
“You’ve got two choices,” I said, pressing my arm against the throat of a man named Marcus Richter. I was in an alley nestled between a bar and a tailor on a space station, and no one who mattered could see us. “Either give me what I want or I promise you’ll spend the rest of the afternoon bleeding out in a gutter while you wait for an ambulance.”
Marcus wheezed out a word, but I couldn’t understand him. He was small and squirrely, like the kind of fella you’d find stalking a girl he didn’t know and never had the guts to talk to. Someone without a backbone or an allegiance, who’d swear loyalty for a few credits and then turn on you for a few more.
Exactly the kind of guy I needed right now.
“What’s that?” I asked, easing my arm slightly off his neck. “You say something?”
“…easy, man… I can… I can tell you where he’s at if you… if you just take it easy…” Heavy breaths between words, bloodshot eyes, flushed face. Marcus wasn’t having a good day.
“Where is he, then? I don’t have all day, Marky.” I leaned closer to him. He stared up at me, having to bend his head back to make eye contact.
“Okay!” he blurted out. “Decker spends all his free time with his girls. He—”
“I know about that already,” I snapped. “Which girl is he with?”
I’d traveled three slip tunnels to reach Daldi, a planet in the middle of nowhere with nothing useful on it. The people in this system were mostly criminals. Smugglers, sure, but bandits and slave traders, too. And while Daldi Station had laws and even a sheriff to enforce them, they were the sort you could bend if you had the money. When you came this far out from the borders, individual wealth thrived.
“Oh, um, okay, well…”
My pistol pressed into Marcus’s belly. “Speak up. I didn’t get that.”
“Meadow,” he said, then shook his head. “No, wait. I mean, Bunny. Yeah, that’s the one.”
“You sure about that? Bunny?” I asked, jerking the gun into his rib. “If I end up on the other side of the station and find out you’ve lied to me, I’ll be right back here, and this time I won’t play easy with you. Understand my meaning, Marcus?”
He nodded quickly, like the bobblehead on my dashboard. “Y-yeah! I swear! It’s Wednesday, right? That’s the day he always sees her. She’s his favorite. Goes there every week. He’s got a thing for natural blondes, and she’s the best for the price.”
“The price? I thought you said she was his girlfriend.”
“Ah, well, what’s the difference? He buys her jewelry and she takes care of him. That’s the arrangement. Lives rent-free, too. He’s her job, you know? Ahaha.”
I pulled the gun back and then kneed him in the gut, letting the pain speak for me.
He doubled over, holding his stomach and gasping for air. “W-why?!”
“Because you talk too much, Marcus.”
I turned and left him there to squirm. After about three steps, I could hear him shuffling backward against the nearest wall, taking heavy breaths. Pausing, I turned back to look at him a final time.
We locked eyes, and I could see the fear in him, exactly the right amount. He wouldn’t talk, not now. Not until I was long gone from this station.
I continued out of the alley and back into the street. The bar nearby was bustling with activity, but I walked past the entrance and made my way toward the nearest transport station. “Sigmond,” I said, tapping the comm in my ear that connected me directly to the AI on my ship, the Renegade Star. “I hope you caught all of that.”
“As you requested, sir,” he replied in his usual cheery tone. “There are several references to a Bunny on this station, but no homes registered under that name. I had to break into the security office’s logs to cross reference it with other known aliases before discovering a match. The codes we acquired from Mr. Trinidad were quite useful. I suggest thanking him upon your return to Taurus Station.”
“Skip to the point, Siggy,” I said, rounding another corner, still gripping my pistol inside my coat. “Do you have an address for me?”
“I have an address for you.”
I smiled. “Good man.”
An old rock ballad from before I was born played out of the overhead speaker system in a rundown little coffee shop. The drums crashed with static and the guitar sang incoherently as the singer screamed a string of words I couldn’t understand. Meanwhile, the patrons of Morey’s Brew rabbled about local problems and news that only they cared about, but that was the way it went out here in the lesser colonies. No one gave a shit about the Union or the Sarkonians… or about anything else outside of this system. All that mattered to them was getting up in the morning and putting food on the table.
And whether or not they ever found that Jones boy, who went missing some two weeks back. The sheriff said they saw some rags in the lower decks. Might’ve been killed, but could’ve just as easily ran off with Sara Jennings, his little crush. Gods only knew.
Crowds filtered along the wide walkways, but it was distinctly emptier than most of the space stations I’d spent time on. I scratched the back of my head, glancing again through the front window. A row of tall apartment buildings stretched across the far side of the promenade. Each building had a single exit facing onto the throughway, with a thin alley between them leading to the rear paths and maintenance access.
I only knew any of that because I’d checked in the dead of night. I needed a way into those buildings, but there just wasn’t one I could take without being noticed—and, more importantly, recorded.
There was only one goal right now: to watch who went in and who came out of the apartment complex catty-corner to the café.
I was waiting for my mark, though he had yet to show. I’d been told he had powerful friends, but that didn’t worry me too much. I’d dealt with powerful people before and had been successful, so it was hardly a deterrent.
A thin ribbon of steam rolled off the surface of my coffee as I cradled the mug between my hands. Hopefully, the shopkeepers—and whatever security guard was watching the cameras—wouldn’t look at me and think I was scoping out something to steal.
I scanned the faces of passersby on the promenade before glancing upward to the open glass ceiling. The dark nothingness of space stretched on, and every now and then I would catch a glimpse of the blue marble planet we orbited.
But I wasn't here for the scenery.
I had to be careful not to stare at the apartment complex I was scoping out, since I was fairly certain this coffee shop was owned by a prominent crime family on the station. A stranger hanging around for a few days, frequenting the same shop—I had probably already drawn attention, but I’d be out of here before they could guess what I was up to.
After all, I didn’t want any of their people, just one of their associates.
I wanted Zacharias Decker.
A bounty-hunting gig, of all things. I still didn’t quite know why the client wanted him. And I didn't usually take bounty jobs as a general rule, but the work had slowed down recently and this was one of the only postings Ollie could give me.
Besides, Decker was a grade-A piece of shit. Murderer, rapist, criminal. His record was worse than most, so much that it was a wonder he was still walking around. He’d weaseled his way out of every arrest to date, although the details on how were vague.
He’d also run trafficking rings, been involved with drug cartels, and was responsible for starting a prison riot that had ended with most of the guards dead and the block in flames. I’d even seen a recording of him aiming a pistol at a young boy about four months ago.
And still, Decker was alive and free. Somehow.
Not much was certain out here in the Deadlands. People stole, shot, and tortured each other if it suited them, depending on the system and the world. It was full of morally grey folk, many of whom were just trying to make a life for themselves, and plenty more who were honest as the day was long. I couldn’t claim the latter, but I liked to think I had my limits on immorality.
The same couldn’t be said for Zacharias Decker.
I had been tracking him for a few days now, trying to find an opportune moment to strike. It was tough, seeing as this station was heavily populated and had little in the way of private areas to apprehend someone.
Decker had heavily armed friends on this station. When I took him, I had to do it before anyone noticed.
The security forces—such as they were—looked the other way, sure, but the crime families didn’t take kindly to a stranger stealing one of their business partners. I would have to be subtle, but I’d done my homework. I knew how to get him out of this place unseen.
So long as he didn’t know I was here.
According to the file I’d received from Ollie, Decker had more contacts and resources than most, and he’d be able to vanish in a heartbeat if I wasn’t careful.
A guy like this had a habit of disappearing when he realized he was being hunted.
Over the last few days of scouting the station and studying Decker's habits, I'd discovered he usually had an entourage of finely dressed lackeys armed to the teeth. It didn't matter where he went—his apartment, the clubs, or the bars around town.
He always had company.
The only time he went anywhere alone was when he went to or from one of his girlfriends’ places.
It seemed like he preferred to keep those matters to himself, which was good for me.
With a growing tension in my shoulders as I continued to wait for my mark, I stared at the high-rise’s door through the nearby window. It wouldn’t be long before he left, and unless this place had a secret exit I didn’t know about, he would have to step out onto the promenade at some point. Hopefully soon.
It was a risk, this waiting. If he was tipped off about my arrival and if my intel was wrong and there really was an alternate route, then I’d have to start my search all over again.
But that possibility was a small one, and I had no reason to think he knew I was here.
And yet, still, no one had left the girlfriend’s apartment.
I almost didn't take this job. Not because of the money. That part was solid. He was a high profile mark, and the client had a large wallet and a vendetta to fill. The problem was that Decker had connections, which could mean trouble later. That kind of risk had deterred others before I finally picked up the job, but it wouldn’t stop everyone.
Clearly.
The listing had suggested Dead or Alive with a preference for breathing, but if things got dicey then I wouldn’t hesitate to put him down. There was a pay cut for a corpse, so I’d certainly try not to put a bullet in his skull if I could help it. I even had a nice chair in the cargo bay prepared for him, complete with handcuffs and shoulder straps.
