Supremacy's Outlaw: A Space Opera Thriller Series (Insurgency Saga Book 3) by T.E. Bakutis (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📗

Bharat sat back down and motioned the platinum-haired woman over. “Who are you?”

“No idle threats or small talk.” The woman grinned again. “How refreshing.” She settled into the booth across from him. “You may call me the Golden Widow.”

Bharat had never heard of her, but he didn’t keep a dossier on every small-time criminal on Ceto. He’d look her up later, when he got back home — or Senator Tarack would. “Make it quick. I’ve got a shuttle to catch.”

“I’d like you to help me free Jan Sabato.”

Another name Bharat had never heard. “And what gave you the impression I could do that?”

The Widow leaned forward, curls dangling. “I’m referring, specifically, to your employer. Senator Tarack has hooks in Tantalus prison. That is where Jan is currently incarcerated.”

This woman shouldn’t know about Senator Tarack’s connections to the warden of Tantalus prison, but people on Ceto were turning out to know a lot of stuff they shouldn’t know. Bharat had been foolish to underestimate the natural-born, who’d thrown off a ten-year Supremacy occupation with nothing but a few bombs.

Still, he saw no upside for him or his employer in helping this Golden Widow free her friend. “I’m not sure what you’ve heard, but I don’t know anything about Tantalus prison.”

“And here I thought we were past the preliminary bullshit.” The Widow rapped her knuckles on the table. “We are going to run a job together, Mr. Ember, because we both have much to gain by doing so. Let’s not bother ourselves with lies.”

“What sort of job?” Bharat asked. Tarack would review every moment of this conversation.

“Check your archive,” the Widow said.

Bharat took a moment. “I’m sorry, what?”

“The archive on your PBA,” the Widow continued, her sly smirk returning to her face. “The continuously running program that would normally be recording this conversation. Check your feed. Tell me what you see and hear.”

Was she serious? More out of curiosity than anything more urgent, Bharat brought up an augmented reality window showing the real-time recording his PBA was engaged in right now.

The booth across from him was empty. No Golden Widow sat there. No one sat there at all. Bharat toggled the window away to find the Widow sitting right in front of him, yet for some reason, the archiver on his PBA couldn’t see her.

The Widow’s smirk only grew. “Interesting, yes?”

Bharat felt what might be the first inkling of genuine dread. “How are you doing this?”

If what he was seeing was accurate, someone, somewhere, had hacked into his PBA. That shouldn’t be possible with his level of encryption, but if it was, if someone had gained access to his functions ... he was so absolutely fucked.

“For now, don’t worry about my parlor tricks.” The Widow held his gaze. “I’ll pull the curtain away later, once we’ve negotiated. Now, listen to my deal. Together, we will free Jan Sabato from Tantalus prison, and then, together, we will rescue your family from Senator Tarack’s private island.”

The spike of fear Bharat felt earlier was replaced with a spike of white-hot rage. “And what do you know about my family?” Nothing prevented him from killing this woman.

“Only what I just overheard,” the Widow said, “while eavesdropping on your negotiations with Miss Ryke. To be honest, after your meeting, I pulled this offer out of my ass.”

Bharat frowned. That was candid.

“Originally, I’d simply planned to offer you money to enlist your services, but saving your family from Senator Tarack seems a far more noble cause. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Bharat’s rage cooled, just a little. So the Golden Widow wasn’t threatening his family directly. Yet.

“From what I’ve just learned about how Tarack keeps her people loyal,” the Widow continued, “you must be desperate to get your family off her island. I can easily spirit them to safety after you help me free Jan. Doesn’t this pique your interest?”

This lunatic actually sounded like she believed she could do it. “Who is this person? This ... Jan Sabato?”

“Someone I very much care about.”

Was Jan just a friend, then? Or more? It was difficult to intuit from the woman’s expression. What was obvious, however, was the Golden Widow was deadly serious about getting Jan Sabato freed. That still didn’t explain why she thought Bharat could help her. How had she even learned he’d be here tonight?

“Assuming I’m actually buying into this,” Bharat said, even though he absolutely wasn’t, “how would it even work?”

“I know only how my end would work,” the woman said. “I expect you to figure out how to free Jan. We’ll compare plans, and then I’ll smuggle your family safely to Ceto.”

Ceto? Really? “And what makes you think we would want to live here?”

“This is the one place Senator Tarack cannot touch you.”

The Widow was right — mostly — though Bharat didn’t trust this. “No place is safe from her.” He wouldn’t put it past Tarack to send a hit squad and risk an interplanetary incident. What if Tarack had sent this woman to test his loyalty?

“I’ll get all of you new identities,” the Widow said. “I’ll secure you a house, a job, and even pleasant neighbors. Tarack will never find you unless you do something truly incompetent, and you don’t strike me as the incompetent sort.”

Bharat would certainly like to think so. Though at this point, he was as far out of his element as he could be without getting shot. Could this woman actually get his family away from Senator Tarack? Could he ever believe something so foolish?

“Oh, and I can offer one more favor for free,” the Widow said. “I can tell you how Elena Ryke learned about your family.”

Bharat would very