Chapter 9, as promised!

9

Ossie Chen was clearing his office. He made it a rule never to stay in one place too long, and the money Niska had sent his way was burning a hole in his pocket. He hadn’t misled Reynolds on that point, at least – it was his retirement fund, or at least it would be if most of it wasn’t already marked for his creditors. He’d already decided, however, that his creditors could go spin.

So he’d had to step on a few decent folk to get hold of it, but that was okay. His conscience had remarkable wipe-clean properties, which was good considering how many people he’d stung in the past.

He was attempting to stuff the last of his bond papers into a bulging attaché case, when a change in the light made him look up.

His mouth popped open.

Jayne Cobb was standing tall and wide in the doorway. There was a big knife in his hand, and the glint on the silver blade matched the one in his eyes.

“ Ta ma duh !” Ossie exclaimed, at once shocked and terrified. He fumbled on his desk for a weapon, but he had already packed them away. He snatched up a radio ‘com instead, which he brandished like a grenade. Another perk to having money was the amount of hired muscle it could purchase, and his goons were more muscled than most.

“Hey, now don’t go startin nothin’ – I can have this room full a’ my people in a coupla seconds…”

“You mean, all these big, tough hwoon-dans out here?” Jayne indicated the room behind with a flick of his dagger. “The ones lyin’ on their backs an’ faces?”

Ossie weighed up this information and turned to run out the other door, but there was a slip of a thing standing there in a summer dress and boots, hands folded behind her back, head tilted demurely to one side. The way she was smiling made him think twice about trying to barge past her.

“Where you goin’, Chen?” Jayne stepped into the circular room, grinning evilly. “Got us some catchin’ up ta do.”

“Cobb – listen… ‘bout the job… it was all Niska, he threatened me, forced me to dupe you guy