5. The Good, The Bad and The Aesthetically Challenged

“I see Gia took issue with the whole sleepy-time thing...”

Simon takes the ice-pack off his eye, and returns Mal’s badly-concealed smirk with a grim smile.

“The female of the species fights dirty.”

“What did she hit you with?”

“River.”

“Ouch.”

Their little pilot is not a fan of unscheduled napping.

“So, do we mount another daring rescue, or is this another adventure in sitting?”

“Don’t know the countryside, so I guess we just have to wait for a sign.” Mal’s mouth twitches. “Woulda been kinda fun to go rescue Jayne from a bunch of nuns, though.”

Simon sniggers, winces, then puts the ice back over his eye.

“Not the other way around?”

“You din’t meet that Mother Superior.” Mal shivers. “Anyhow, our ‘guests’ are leaving, and they gave us back our winnings.”

0000

It’s a glum team heading back to town. Rik is sacked out across the back seat. He’d been up until the small hours with the gun collection. Only G seems unaffected by the mood. Pancho is grumbling.

“All that way, and we nearly had him. A chance to really clean up the streets.”

“We know he was alive last night.” Dodge ventures.

“Yeah, and instead of sitting pretty, he’s gone walkabout in the woods.”

Dubious looks.

“They don’t like strangers up there.” Honey grimaces. “Remember those film students?”

“We know the ground, but they know the man.” G breaks in on the bickering. “We have a whole crew who think he’ll be back.”

“So what we gonna do? Sit on the riverbank and wait for him to float downstream?” Rik jibes angrily. G ignores him.

“We have to find him before he meets up with the ship. I don’t think they would stay around anywhere for legal proceedings.”

“Hell!” Rik jolts upright. “They got a bounty on ‘em?”

A very cold gaze.

“We are solving a robbery. They haven’t committed a crime on this planet...”

(“That we know of...” mutters Honey.)

“...so we ca