Carson Mach 1: The Atlantis Ship Read Online Free Page B

damaged… much,” he said, nodding to the pile of inert droids. “A reboot and they’ll be fine… mostly.”
    “You better put the horan out of his misery. He’ll be like that for days, trying to regenerate.”
    With a sigh, Mach nodded. “I suppose you’re right, but given what his lot did to our people, a little bit of suffering is due, don’t you think?”
    Under her breath she said, “I do, but Carlo Laverna didn’t offer the bounty for suffering, did he?”
    “No, he didn’t. Oh well, I guess fun time’s over.”
    “For now,” the bartender said with a wink as she headed to the other end of the bar to serve a group of fidesians wearing a nice shade of panic and shock on their faces.  
    Mach staggered over to the writhing horan. He bent over its body. “Ralex, my old buddy, I bet that stings? Well, I can help you with that.”
    The horan gurgled something deep in his throat in response.  
    Bored with the situation now, Mach reloaded and fired his Stinger to put Ralex out of his misery. Using the smart-screen sleeve, he scanned the body for signs of life; there were none. He took a photo of the corpse and a recording of the scan and sent it to the head of the Lavernan crime syndicate, Carlo:

    Scans and evidence of the completed job—as promised. I’ve attached my secure eros account transfer credentials. I’d prefer cryptocurrency on this one. Don’t want it coming back to me if we get audited by Central Accounts.

    Within two ST—Salus Time—minutes, he received a response notification:

    Impressive work, Mach. When you want some more jobs, you know where to come. Funds have cleared. Enjoy your hangover.  

    Mach smiled as he read his account notification. The Lavernans were many things, but they always paid what they promised, and in this case it seemed they’d given him a bonus. The job should have paid three hundred thousand eros, but they’d thrown in an extra fifty grand.  
    They were trying to keep him sweet. The Lavernan Syndicate had been trying to recruit him for years, ever since he got court-martialed from the CW Defense Force. But these days, he preferred to be a freelancer; non-affiliation kept his options open.  
    It also meant he knew who his enemies were: everyone.  
    He waved goodbye to the bartender and exited The Tachyon into the sunny evening of Invidia. They’d only get two hours of darkness tonight and he intended to make the most of it. He decided to head for the beach and drink cocktails until he either passed out or got arrested.  
    Just three steps away from The Tachyon he walked right into an Invidian security droid. With the BuzzKill stim wearing off, he had the reactions of a slug and couldn’t avoid the blow to the head that sent him crashing to the ground as the blackness of unconsciousness took over.

Chapter Four

    Cold air wafted around Mach’s bare limbs, making his skin crawl. The bright light beyond his closed eyes made it seem as though he were behind a red curtain. At least that was an improvement on blackness.  
    The pain in his head made him groan as he tried to move. His face hurt. His spine hurt. His legs, arms, feet, jaw and chest… hurt. At first he wondered if he had been in a ship crash or had decided on an unauthorized naked space walk.  
    Carson Mach had done many odd things in his life, but never that… so why did it feel like it?
    He blinked his eyes, letting the light in slowly so his pupils had time to adjust. The prosthetic had no problem; it dilated automatically down to a tiny aperture if needed, but his real eye, that would take time to adjust.  
    The hard surface he was slumped on told him exactly where he was even before his vision adjusted to the brightness: Invidia prison.  
    Of course! It all came flooding back to him. And then he smiled when he thought of his three and a half grand sitting in an off-planet account.  
    He was in the clink—again. The light gray surfaces only stained slightly but with old blood. A