Private No Easy Trust

[Rhyse Vanto]

Yeah, that was the way he figured she would go with it. She had that charisma about her that wanted to go live rather than dead. He didn't doubt she could, and had, killed, but she got a thrill from keeping them alive and bringing them in that way. He knew because of how quickly she'd said it. There was no hesitation. She wanted that thrill again. He grinned at that.

"Alive then," he said in agreement.

He didn't say anything further as she went on, outlining the potential pitfalls of the plan he'd laid out. She wasn't wrong that it was problematic, but she was making a slight miscalculation in her own assessment. See, there was one thing he had taken note of in the time that he had cased the place before deciding to make his move: all of the members of the security staff were human. To be expected from an Imperial, a notoriously xenophobic group, but there were always exceptions. Not this time, though.

Nope, this former imperial had stuck with his xenophobic ways and it was going to backfire spectacularly.

"It's not the problem you think it is," he said, still grinning. "I don't know if you noticed, but the mark and all of the security staff are humans. We, meaning Mirialans, are faster than humans and more nimble. If I take out the roamer, and get him inside, we should have about a minute before he gets noticed as missing. That's more than enough time for me to run past the security office and take out that guard, and then continue forward for two well timed shots on the door guards.

"Where it gets tricky is that I will need you to be right there with me because we're going to have to catch those two to keep the people downstairs from hearing big thumbs as they fall. They do that and we'll be in a firefight for sure."

It was as good a plan as any, and it would work as long as she was committed. He knew it would.

"So, can you keep up? It's gonna be fun seeing the look on the former Imps face when he sees us."

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa listened without interrupting, mentally retracing the compound's layout as he explained his reasoning. By the time he finished, she found herself reluctantly admitting that he had a point. Not because his plan was flawless, but because the assumption underlying her objection had been flawed. She had spent so much time evaluating sightlines, patrol patterns, and security placement that she had overlooked something considerably simpler: every single guard she had seen, the staff downstairs, and Malachar himself were human. It was not the sort of detail most people would consider important, but for a hunter, small details had a habit of becoming critical very quickly.

A faint smile tugged at one corner of her mouth as the admission came easily enough. "It isn't something I thought to notice, actually. I'm glad you did."

Her eyes lingered on him for a moment longer than strictly necessary as she considered the man standing in front of her. The charm was obvious and the confidence even more so, a combination she normally found exhausting. Competence, on the other hand, was considerably harder to ignore.

"And yes, Rhyse," she added, a trace of amusement entering her voice. "I can keep up."

Her gaze traveled briefly from his face to the rest of him before returning again, subtle enough that she could plausibly deny it later, yet obvious enough that she suspected he would notice anyway. "Try not to trip over your own ego while you're showing off, and we'll probably be fine."

The remark lacked any real bite; if anything, it sounded suspiciously close to flirting. Pushing away from the wall, Kessa glanced once more toward the door, her faint smile remaining. "You deal with the patrol. I'll be ready for the others. And if your timing is as good as your sales pitch, this might actually work."

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

Honestly, he was a little surprised she hadn't noticed. Kessa seemed like the type to plan everything and notice everything. She was good. Then again, it was easy to miss something like that when it looked harmless.

"Hey, me too. This would be a lot harder if he wasn't a xenophobe."

Rhyse took a moment to make sure Whisper had a full power pack and gas canister. Going in half-loaded was a great way to discover you were one shot short when things got exciting. That tended to end badly.

Of course, that assumed the security company didn't have more guards nearby just waiting to come running. If they did, ooo boy, that would be no bueno. They might as well kiss each other and off themselves at that point.

When she commented on his ego, he smirked.

"Nice jab."

It wasn't the first time someone had suggested his head was a little too big for his shoulders. It probably wouldn't be the last, either.

"Just stick close when I tell you."

He stepped up to the door and pressed an ear against it. For several minutes he remained there, listening and counting. Timing was everything. Open the door too early and the guard might have time to shout. Too late and catching the body before it hit the floor became a lot harder.

At exactly the right moment, he slapped the door open, raised the blaster, and put a silent shot through the guard's skull.

Whisper was only partially silent because it lacked some of the power of a standard blaster. It didn't blow the guy's head off. It simply punched a round into his brain and scrambled it. The guard fell backward, and Rhyse caught him before he could hit the floor. He dragged the body into the room and lowered it gently to the ground.

"Ten seconds," he whispered.

He nodded for her to follow and slipped out the door, careful to stay light on his feet.

The security room was ahead, its door standing open. As he crossed the opening, his blaster came up. One precise shot struck the camera operator in the back of the head. The man's body slumped forward and his coffee spilled across the desk, but the sound disappeared into the background noise of the building.

That wasn't the end of it.

Rhyse kept moving, rounding the next corner toward the mark's room. The two guards were exactly where Kessa had said they would be. He fired on the first without hesitation before sweeping the blaster left and putting two rounds into the second. Better safe than sorry when you were closing the distance.

His momentum carried him toward the guard furthest away. He caught the man as he started to collapse and eased him to the floor, all while hoping Kessa was doing the same with the other one.

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

The wink he received in return was brief and entirely devoid of surrender. If anything, it carried the distinct impression that she was allowing him to enjoy the point rather than conceding it. Then, the moment passed. Whatever amusement had briefly surfaced disappeared beneath the calm focus she had carried since entering the compound. The plan was now in motion, and once that happened, there was little value in further discussion.

Kessa watched him move to the door and settle into position. The waiting stretched on while he listened and counted, measuring the rhythm of the patrol outside. She remained perfectly still throughout the silence, her attention fixed on the corridor beyond and the route they would need to take once the first move was made.

When the door finally opened, everything happened exactly as quickly as Rhyse had promised.

The patrol never had an opportunity to react. One moment, the guard was walking the corridor, and the next, he was collapsing into Rhyse's waiting arms before a sound could escape him. Kessa remained near the doorway while the body was pulled inside, listening closely for any indication that something had gone wrong. No alarm followed, and no hurried footsteps came running from deeper within the compound. The building remained blissfully unaware that its security had already begun disappearing.

At Rhyse's whispered signal, she followed him into the hallway, keeping close enough to support the plan while leaving him room to work. The security room came and went in a matter of seconds. By the time she reached the doorway, the operator inside was already slumped forward across his desk, his spilled drink slowly spreading across a surface that would never be cleaned.

Her attention never lingered there, remaining fixed instead on the secured suite ahead. The two guards posted outside it were the final obstacle between them and the reason they had both come to Bracca.

Rhyse moved first. The nearest guard dropped before he could comprehend what was happening, while the second began turning toward the disturbance only to receive an additional shot for his trouble. As the man's knees buckled and gravity took over, Kessa was already moving.

She crossed the remaining distance in a handful of quick strides and caught him before he could strike the floor. Absorbing his weight, she guided him downward as carefully as if she were helping an exhausted friend into a chair rather than lowering a dead man against the wall. The body settled without a sound.

By the time she straightened again, her hand was already moving toward the door, refusing to waste time admiring a successful execution. Every second the dead guards remained undiscovered was a second working in their favor, and Kessa had no intention of squandering them.

A compact slicing tool appeared in her hand almost automatically as she knelt beside the lock. Her attention shifted immediately from the corridor to the mechanism itself, her fingers moving with practiced efficiency while she worked to bypass whatever security Malachar had trusted to protect his privacy.

Only then did she glance briefly toward Rhyse.

"You were right," she said, her voice quiet and almost absent-minded as she kept her focus primarily on the lock. "The guards weren't the difficult part."

A faint click sounded beneath her fingers, leaving it to be seen whether that signaled good news or bad.

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

The relief he felt when he glanced over and saw her lowering the other guard to the floor was immediate.

Success.

"Beauty and capability," he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear, genuine admiration slipping into his voice.

She didn't miss a beat. Moving straight to the door, she put her skills on display and began slicing the controls.

All business, this woman.

Not that he minded. A whole heap of bad juju could come crashing down on them at any moment. He figured they still had some time, but time had a habit of moving a lot faster than you wanted it to when things got dangerous.

The lock clicked.

Rhyse waited.

Nothing.

No alarms. No sudden rush of guards. No fresh hell.

The way she'd talked, he'd half expected the whole job to go sideways by now. Instead, it seemed she was better than she gave herself credit for.

"Getting out is gonna be harder."

He reached for the door and pushed it open just enough to peek through the gap.

Honestly, this guy had either done a terrible job researching the security contractor he'd hired, or Kessa was way better than she thought she was. Probably a little of both, if he was being honest.

Shame they both usually worked alone.

She'd make one hell of a hunting partner.

"Your move."

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

The compliment reached her ears, and despite herself, Kessa felt the corner of her mouth threaten to lift just enough to acknowledge that she had heard it. Years of working alone had taught her to ignore flattery, but competence was rare, which was perhaps why she found herself less annoyed by Rhyse than she would have expected. For now, however, there were more immediate concerns than his opinions. The lock had yielded without much resistance, a fact that spoke poorly of Malachar's judgment and suggested a man foolishly relying on simple walls and hired guns to keep the galaxy at arm's length.

Kessa rose from her crouch and glanced toward the partially opened door, her voice remaining low.

"Getting in is almost always the easy part. People spend fortunes trying to keep intruders out. Very few of them spend the same effort thinking about what happens after somebody succeeds."

She stepped forward, keeping just behind Rhyse's shoulder as her attention swept across the room beyond to study the layout, furniture, and windows. That was how Kessa approached problems. Not by focusing solely on the objective, but by considering how every object around it could become an obstacle, a tool, or a future problem.

"Let's make sure he's actually here before we start planning how to carry him out," she added, a faint trace of amusement touching her expression as she glanced toward him. "You worked hard enough getting us here. I'd hate to steal all the fun."

Together they slipped through the doorway, but the moment Kessa crossed the threshold, the comfortable certainty of the plan began to unravel. Neither occupant inside appeared to be asleep. The realization came instantly as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, and their assumptions evaporated when one of the figures moved, a weapon rising rapidly toward them.

Years of experience took over before conscious thought could catch up. Reacting on pure instinct, Kessa dropped low and moved sharply away from the doorway toward the nearest substantial cover. In the same fluid motion, her hand swept beneath her jacket to clear her compact stun blaster from its holster and align it with the emerging threat.

With no time to hesitate, the weapon discharged with a sharp crack. A ring of blue energy streaked across the room toward the armed figure while Kessa kept moving, refusing to remain where a return shot was most likely to land.

"Move!"

The warning was directed toward Rhyse, though she doubted he required the reminder. In the span of a few heartbeats, their quiet extraction had turned into something considerably more dangerous, and the next few seconds would determine whether they walked out with a prisoner or fought their way through an entire compound just to survive.

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

"Yeah, that would be smart," he said before following her into the room.

And immediately found himself staring at two very awake occupants.

"Shit."

She didn't need to tell him to move.

The moment she did, he was already going the opposite direction. Splitting up forced their target to divide their attention. At least, that was the theory.

A shot cracked into the floor near his foot.

Rhyse rolled away and shoved Whisper back into its holster. If the rest of the security team hadn't known something was wrong before, they definitely did now. No sense trying to stay quiet anymore.

Riot came out instead.

The heavy blaster barked twice, both shots aimed low at the bed's supports. If he could collapse the thing, maybe it'd dump the occupants onto the floor and give him a chance to put the shock baton to good use.

"We're gonna have more company soon!" he called to Kessa as he scrambled for better cover.

A table sat near one of the windows.

Perfect.

He lunged for it, flipped it over, and dropped behind it just as another shot came his way. Crouched behind the makeshift barricade, he risked a glance toward Kessa to make sure she was still in one piece.

Taking the mark alive was looking less and less likely by the second. Hell, didn't even know if the guy was even one of the people in the bed. Didn't seem like they had much choice anymore.

"Just kill him!"

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

The room erupted into chaos so quickly that there was no longer any point in pretending the operation resembled their original plan. Kessa's initial stun shot disappeared into the sudden confusion as blistering return fire turned their controlled entry into a rapidly deteriorating firefight. It wasn't ideal, but it was still manageable for now.

Refusing to remain stationary long enough for anyone to draw a clean line on her position, she continued moving even after reaching cover. The heavy, booming rhythm of Riot tearing into the room drew her attention just in time to see part of the bed collapse beneath the impacts, sending splintered wood showering across the floor. Rhyse had clearly decided subtlety was dead, a fair assessment considering the guards downstairs had undoubtedly heard the shots and the entire compound was waking up.

A blaster bolt struck the edge of her cover, spraying scorched fragments into the air. Leaning away from the impact, Kessa risked a fleeting glance into the room to scan for anything that might identify Malachar among the chaos, but there were no convenient labels or helpful introductions. Only frantic movement and a rapidly shrinking window of opportunity.

Then Rhyse shouted for her to just kill him, earning himself an immediate, deadpan look. Even in the middle of a firefight, she managed to communicate exactly what she thought of his sudden tactical pivot.

"Five minutes ago you were lecturing me about how this was my contract," she said, her voice cutting through the noise as she ducked beneath a bolt that slammed violently into the wall nearby. "Now suddenly you're giving orders? Pick one."

Despite the dry retort, she understood his underlying concern. Every passing second made a live capture less likely and increased the odds of them being completely overwhelmed. Shifting position to leverage the distraction of Rhyse's heavy suppressing fire, Kessa brought her blaster up, but her target wasn't the occupants. Aligning her sights with the large window overlooking the compound's perimeter, she fired a tight cluster of high-energy bolts, shattering the reinforced glass and frame into a downpour of glittering shards to secure a viable escape route before they were cornered.

"Let's figure out which one is Malachar before we start deciding who dies," she commanded, her tone strictly practical.

Dead targets still had value, but dead bystanders created an immense amount of administrative tracking, and Kessa hated paperwork almost as much as she hated bad plans. For the moment, identifying their true target remained far more important than blindly shooting him.

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

"It's not an order," he called as he popped off a couple of shots around the edge of the table. "Just a very strong suggestion!"

She shot out a window and he reached inside his bag to pull out two small drones. They were self operating, capable of analysis and detection. Nothing super sophisticated, but he often found them useful. In times like these, it would be easy to miss them, especially since they weren't going to shoot you. What they could do, though, was identify a target among a group of people and mark them. So, he very quickly programmed them to identify Malachar, while offering shots over the table to keep the shooters busy.

He suspected the one doing the shooting was the target, especially since he kept missing, but she wanted to be certain.

Tossing the drones out, they flitted across the room, scanning her and the others in the room. Both of them, as he had suspected, ended above the one that was shooting at them. Both were flashing red, easily missed by the person they were above, but blatantly obvious to the two of them.

"That's the one!"

He reached around the table and fired off a shit, then his weapon dry clicked. He needed to replenish.

"Reloading!"

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa's answer to his explanation was lost beneath another exchange of blasterfire, though the look she sent in his direction suggested she was filing the distinction between order and very strong suggestion into a category she intended to revisit later—assuming they survived long enough for it to matter.

A bolt slammed into the remains of her cover, showering her with sparks and forcing her lower. Shifting position immediately to remain unpredictable, she scanned the chaotic room, her eyes locking onto the two small drones Rhyse had tossed into the fray. The small machines darted through the smoke, flitting from target to target before both abruptly settled above the same individual, their red indicators flashing insistently.

There. Malachar. Rhyse's shout confirming the mark arrived a second later, immediately followed by the unmistakable, dry click of an empty weapon. Kessa glanced toward his makeshift barricade.

"Noted." A stray blaster bolt passed through the exact space her head had occupied a moment earlier, prompting her to duck low and slide into a fresh angle.

"Strong suggestion." The words carried just enough dry amusement to prove she hadn't forgotten the exchange, even as she watched him scrambling to reload. "You know, one day you should consider carrying something with a larger magazine."

The observation was delivered with the casual tone someone might use to discuss the weather rather than active gunfire. But beneath the banter, her focus was absolute. The drones had given them exactly what they needed. No more guessing.

Taking advantage of the confusion caused by the drones and the tail end of Rhyse's suppressing fire, Kessa rose just far enough to line up her sight. She squeezed the trigger, and a sharp crack echoed through the room as a blue ring of energy streaked through the haze, striking Malachar square in the chest.

The rogue Imperial stiffened, his blaster slipping from his fingers before he crumpled heavily onto the floor. The sudden loss of their leader took the fight right out of the remaining defenders, and the frantic exchange of blaster fire died down into a tense, ringing silence. The room was theirs.

Kessa broke cover immediately, her boots crunching over shattered glass as she crossed the floor to secure the target, her eyes already scanning the doorway.

"The higher-paying version it is," she murmured, kicking Malachar's dropped weapon away while checking his pulse. It was thudding, but steady. "Warm is always preferred. Less paperwork, and the client gets to make an example out of him."

Ears straining for the sound of boots rushing up the stairs from the compound below, she glanced back at Rhyse as he finished snapping his fresh magazine into place. They had seconds, not minutes.

"But if his friends downstairs make a clean exit impossible, cold is still an option. Let's move."
Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

"Why?" he shouted back. "Riot's self-modified. Add any more power or gas and it'll blow up, but right now it'll cut through most armor like a hot knife through butter."

Anyone watching a recording of this later would probably be completely baffled by the conversation they were having. It certainly didn't seem professional. Then again, maybe it was for them.

For Rhyse, humor helped. It kept him focused and stopped the danger from becoming the only thing occupying his mind. Panicking got people killed. Cracking jokes was a lot more fun.

When the shooting stopped, he cautiously poked his head above the table and took a look around. Malachar was down. The others didn't seem particularly interested in continuing the fight now that their boss had taken a dirt nap. That was encouraging, though he wasn't about to trust it.

He checked that the fresh power pack was seated properly before standing and moving toward the doors. With a quick shove, he slammed them shut and immediately put a blaster round into the controls.

It wasn't much.

Maybe it'd buy them a few minutes.

Maybe.

"Yeah, you're welcome. Almost forgot I had those on me."

Crossing the room, he crouched beside Malachar's slumped body and slapped a pair of binders around the man's wrists. Then came the less enjoyable part: lifting him.

With a grunt, Rhyse hauled the unconscious man into a fireman's carry. Stars, he hated carrying people.

"If we're going out the window, let's go."

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa's eyes followed him as he explained the modifications to Riot, and despite everything happening around them, she found herself shaking her head slightly. "You modified a weapon until adding anything else would make it explode." The observation sounded less surprised than resigned, as though this revelation merely confirmed several suspicions she already had. "Somehow that explains a lot."

The firefight had ended almost as abruptly as it had begun. Whether Malachar's collapse had broken his associates' morale or they had simply realized they were not being paid enough to die for him was unclear, and Kessa had no interest in finding out. What mattered was that the compound had certainly heard the noise and would soon converge on their position. Rhyse's quick thinking at the door earned an approving look. Destroying the controls would not stop a determined security team forever, but it would slow them down and force them to solve a problem before reaching the room. Right now, a few minutes was worth more than a few hours later.

"Good." The simple word carried genuine approval. "I will take a few extra minutes over a heroic last stand any day."

While he secured Malachar and wrestled with the unpleasant truth that unconscious adults were always heavier than they had any right to be, Kessa swept through the room one last time. Her attention moved across desks, tables, luggage, and datapads, searching for anything obvious that might justify the security presence surrounding the suite. It was a habit more than hope. If someone had gone to this much effort to protect the man, there was always a chance something in the room mattered nearly as much as he did. Only when she was satisfied there was nothing worth delaying their escape did she move toward the shattered window.

The night air rushed in, carrying the distant sounds of the settlement below and, more importantly, the unmistakable noise of people beginning to realize something had gone very wrong. Kessa leaned out slightly, studying the drop, the rooftops, the surrounding structures, and the routes available to them once they were outside. "The good news is that we will not be leaving through the front door."

Her gaze shifted back toward Rhyse and the unconscious bounty draped across his shoulders. "The bad news is that you are carrying him." A faint smile appeared, dry and unbothered. "You have carried your share of this evening." Her eyes dropped briefly to the dead weight slumped against his back, and her smile sharpened. "Unfortunately, you are carrying that share too."

Voices echoed faintly from somewhere beyond the suite. Not close yet, but close enough. They did not have time to waste.
"There is a maintenance roof two buildings over and a service alley beyond that," she said as she stepped onto the sill, already committing to the route. "If we move now, we stay ahead of them. If we wait, we are going to find out exactly how many guards your friend hired."

She glanced back over her shoulder, her gaze locking onto his face. The lingering amusement in her expression sharpened into pure, dry satisfaction.
"Think you can keep up?" The question carried just enough relish to make it clear she remembered him asking her the same thing earlier. Before he could answer, her eyes flicked once more to the slumped form of Malachar. "Try not to drop the expensive part of the contract."

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

He scrunched up his face, pursed his lips, and cocked them to one side as though he were genuinely considering what she'd said. What exactly was she trying to imply by pointing out he'd modified a blaster until it was one bad adjustment away from exploding? Did she think he was reckless?

Okay, maybe a little. But weren't they all?

Moving closer to the broken window, he looked outside to assess the situation for himself. It wasn't ideal, but at least they were only on the second floor. Three meters to the ground, maybe a little more. Not enough to kill either of them, but carrying a limp body was going to make the landing considerably less enjoyable. Speaking of which, Malachar was a lot heavier than he'd looked. Rhyse made a mental note to spend more time lifting weights after this was over.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm doing the work and you're getting the money. I know."

He rolled his eyes, though the grin tugging at his lips took most of the sting out of it. Honestly, he didn't mind. He didn't even mind the jab about keeping up. It was fair. He'd been taking shots at her all day, and it was nice to know she was willing to throw a few back.

"Maintenance roof. Service alley. Got it."

Not seeing any reason to wait around, he stepped past her and jumped.

He tried not to tense up on the way down. Let the legs do the work. Thankfully, they did. He landed in a crouch, his thighs immediately protesting the combination of impact and extra weight. Didn't feel great, but it could have been a lot worse. More importantly, he was outside. That was a win.

Kessa would definitely beat him to the meeting point, but he was on his way.

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa watched him go, her gaze lingering on the empty space where he had just been standing.

The exaggerated face he'd made in response to her comment about Riot played back behind her eyes for a beat longer than it strictly should have. It was a classic Rhyse look. With him, it was always a toss-up between a genuine lack of self-awareness and a deliberate, stubborn refusal to admit when she had a point. Both options were equally irritating and equally believable.

"You say that as though the money is the important part."

The words chased him toward the ledge, laced with enough dry amusement to signal she was teasing. Mostly.

The reality was that credits stopped being the sole driving force for a hunter long before they ever got this good at the job. The galaxy was full of easier ways to make a living that didn't involve getting shot at on a regular basis. You stayed in this line of work for the reputation, the friction of the challenge, and the quiet satisfaction of proving you could pull off the impossible. For all his grumbling and performative eye-rolling, Rhyse struck her as someone who understood that trade-off down to his bones.

She offered a faint, nearly imperceptible shake of her head at his parting bravado. Confident to a fault. But then, she really shouldn't have expected anything less from him.

Moving to the edge of the shattered window, Kessa waited just long enough to ensure he didn't snap an ankle on the asphalt below before she made her own descent.

Without a full-grown, unconscious Imperial intelligence rogue draped like a sack of grain over her shoulders, the three-meter drop was trivial. She let her knees absorb the impact, rolling seamlessly out of the landing to bring herself to her feet in a single, fluid motion. She was already scanning the immediate perimeter before the dust from her boots had even settled.

The ambient noise from the compound was shifting, the chaotic backdrop of Bracca's scrapyards suddenly punctuated by sharper, panicked sounds. Voices were rising in pitch and volume. They'd found the ruined door controls, or worse, the empty room. Either way, the clock was ticking down a lot faster than it had been a minute ago.

Her eyes flicked from the darkened escape route back to Rhyse. Watching him manage that drop and actually stick the landing without dropping their high-value cargo earned him a grudging slice of her respect. Naturally, she had absolutely no intention of telling him that.

Instead, she stepped into a low, swift stride, cutting through the shadows toward their first point of cover.

"Come on," she murmured, her voice tight with a sudden, sharp urgency. "If we're lucky, they'll waste the next five minutes pointing fingers and arguing over whose fault this is."

A cold, fleeting smile touched her lips as she glanced over her shoulder at him.

"And if we're not, they're already on the roof. Move."

Without waiting for a reply, she slipped into the dark corridor of the service alley, entirely confident that he would be right on her heels without needing a second invitation.

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

It wasn't the most important thing. She was right about that.

Most bounty hunters would take a job as long as it covered their fuel costs. The money was nice, sure, but for a lot of them it was more about getting the job done. The reputation that came with a high-profile contract wasn't bad either.

She landed beside him and told him to follow. Rhyse nodded and set off after her.

He'd been reasonably confident he could keep up even while hauling a captive over his shoulders. Thankfully, he was right. More importantly, nobody was shooting at him anymore. That alone improved his mood considerably.

"I suspect they don't care that much about this guy," he said between breaths as he followed her. "Job wasn't worth dying over once they saw all the bodies."

After a while he eased his pace. Things seemed calm for the moment, and he wasn't interested in exhausting himself carrying Malachar any more than necessary.

The plan was simple enough. Get the captive to her ship, say goodbye, and head back to his own. Not exactly the kind of partnership that lasted. Still, she'd been good company. And competent. That counted for a lot more than most people realized.

"Where'd you park your ship?" he asked. "I can at least get this jackass there."

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa listened as they moved, maintaining a pace quick enough to keep their distance from the compound without pushing so hard they exhausted themselves unnecessarily. His assessment of the surviving guards earned a small nod.

"Most hired security develops a strong appreciation for self-preservation once the shooting starts," she observed. The comment held no criticism; if anything, it simply sounded like experience. "Particularly when the person signing their paychecks is unconscious on somebody else's shoulder."

The route carried them across another rooftop and down into a narrow service passage between buildings. By now, the sounds of alarm behind them had begun to fade into the background. Not disappearing entirely, but safely becoming someone else's problem for the moment.

When he asked about her ship, Kessa glanced in the direction they were heading.

"A few streets over," she said, her gaze shifting briefly down the path ahead. "Far enough away that I won't be explaining blasterfire to the local authorities."

Her attention shifted toward Malachar before returning to Rhyse. The fact that he was still carrying the man without complaint said something about him, but the fact that he had followed through on helping despite having no obligation to do so said even more. Hunters talked constantly about professionalism, yet far fewer actually practiced it.

"You know, for somebody who keeps reminding me this isn't his contract anymore, you've done a remarkable amount of work on it," she said, a faint smile appearing as she stepped around a stack of discarded machinery. "So before you tell me you don't want the credits, save yourself the effort. You'll get a cut. At the very least, I'm paying for the fuel you burned getting here."

The statement sounded less like an offer and more like a decision she had already made. For a few moments, she fell quiet again—not awkwardly, but thoughtfully.

"And if I happen to come across another contract that requires crawling through ventilation systems and making terrible first impressions..." The corner of her mouth twitched upward. "...it might be useful to know where to find you."

She left the thought there rather than pushing it any further. Kessa was not offering a partnership, not yet, but competent people were rare enough that letting one disappear back into the galaxy without a way to contact him felt wasteful. Especially after tonight.

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

"The hell you are," he said as he followed. "I lost fair and square. You beat me to the mark. It's your purse, and I'm not taking the money."

She probably already knew that. Rhyse hadn't helped her because he expected a cut. Part of it had been self-preservation. Part of it had been because he hated scumbag Imperials. And part of it had simply been professional courtesy. He'd given his word.

Besides, she'd done the same for him.

What mattered was that they'd both gotten out in one piece.

"I'll consider your contact info payment enough. Might be I need a deadly pretty woman on my arm for a job sometime. Someone who can kick ass just as well as she can turn heads."

That earned a chuckle from him.

"Working with you was payment enough, Kess. I'll be fine on fuel and supplies. Ain't hurting that bad for money."

He continued after her without complaint. No reason to. The job was done. The target was captured. Nobody had died that wasn't trying to kill them. As far as bounty hunting jobs went, that was a pretty good day.

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa listened without interrupting. The refusal did not surprise her nearly as much as it probably should have, given that she already had a fairly good idea of the sort of person Rhyse was. Stubbornness had been established hours ago, and while his generosity was a little less expected, perhaps it should not have been; most people who truly cared about the money talked about it constantly, yet he hadn't.

His compliment earned another shake of her head, though this time she failed to hide the faint smile that followed.

"You have a remarkable talent for making things sound like they're either a job offer or a pickup line," she noted, the amusement in her voice suggesting she had not entirely decided which one it was and maybe he hadn't either.

The rooftops gradually gave way to quieter streets as they continued toward her landing site. The further they moved from the compound, the easier it became to believe they might actually be finished for tonight, at least.

His refusal of the credits drew a small, resigned sigh rather than an annoyed one.

"Alright," she conceded easily, knowing that arguing with someone that stubborn would require more energy than she was willing to spend after the evening they had just survived. A few moments passed before she glanced sideways at him. "Dinner on me, then. After we get him secured on my ship."

The offer sounded remarkably matter-of-fact, as though she were merely solving a logistical problem rather than extending an invitation. Her gaze drifted briefly toward Malachar before returning forward.

"And after we trade that contact information. It would be irresponsible to let somebody with a talent for ventilation systems disappear without a way to find him again, and I expect you'll want a way to reach your deadly pretty accomplice, too."

The joke lingered only briefly before her attention shifted back toward the route ahead. In truth, she could have let the conversation end there. The contract was complete, the target was in custody, and they would soon go their separate ways to return to whatever corner of the galaxy happened to need them next. That was usually how these things worked.

For some reason, Kessa found she was not especially eager for that outcome. It was not because she wanted a partner or had suddenly decided to start trusting people, but simply because competent company was rare, and the evening had been considerably better than it had any right to be. Where an exchange of frequencies might lead remained to be seen, but for the first time in a long while, she found herself curious enough to discover the answer.

Rhyse Vanto

 

[Rhyse Vanto]

"Hey, is it working?" he asked when she commented on his ability to mix business with pleasure.

It seemed she'd finally accepted that he wasn't taking her money. Not directly, anyway. Though from the sound of it, she intended to spend some of it on him regardless. Unless there was a five-star restaurant hiding somewhere on Bracca that he'd never heard about, dinner wasn't exactly going to count as splitting the bounty.

Which meant she was probably just looking for a way to say thank you. He could live with that.

"Dinner with you? Sounds suspiciously like a date. Not sure I'm dressed properly for that."

He was already grinning by the time she looked his way.

"And yes, we will exchange details at this dinner date. Always nice having someone you can count on when you need to reach out."

The humor faded slightly as he said it. He meant that part. Over the years he'd worked with plenty of hunters. Most were either incompetent, impossible to work with, or both. Kessa seemed to be neither of those things. That alone made her worth keeping in touch with. Some jobs needed more than one set of hands.

"Let's get this jackass secured, then. He's starting to make my back sore."

Kessa Vex

 

[Kessa Vex]

Kessa glanced sideways at him as they continued through the quiet streets, her expression hovering somewhere between amusement and disbelief.

"The fact that you immediately assumed it was a date is probably answer enough."

The observation was delivered so casually that it was difficult to tell whether she was confirming his suspicion or deliberately avoiding the question, possibly both. Either way, she seemed entirely content to leave him wondering.

Their route eventually carried them beyond the settlement proper and toward one of the less populated sections of the scrapyards. There, rusting hulls and discarded machinery created a maze of shadows large enough to conceal a ship—something considerably more valuable than scrap. It remained hidden until they were nearly on top of it, and even then, Kessa suspected most people would have walked right past without noticing.

"We're here."

The vessel itself was practical rather than flashy, built fast enough to outrun trouble when necessary and durable enough to survive finding it. More importantly, it was hers. A ramp lowered with a quiet hiss as they approached, and Kessa led the way aboard. The familiar interior greeted her immediately, allowing her to relax, if only slightly, for the first time since entering Malachar's compound. The contract was not complete yet, but it was close.

"Cargo hold."

The instruction came with a slight gesture deeper into the ship.

"I have a reinforced containment compartment for guests who aren't traveling voluntarily."

There was enough dry humor in her statement to suggest the compartment saw regular use. Once they reached it, Kessa keyed in a security code and waited for the heavy door to slide open, revealing a cell that was compact yet secure. It was exactly the sort of place designed for transporting difficult people over long distances.

"You can put our friend down now." A faint smile appeared. "Assuming your back survives the experience."

She waited until Malachar had been deposited inside before activating the restraints built into the compartment and sealing the door behind him. A brief glance toward the status panel confirmed exactly what she expected: he was contained, restrained, and going nowhere.

Only then did she finally let out a slow breath. The contract was secure, nobody was actively shooting at them, and for the first time all evening, nothing demanded her immediate attention.

Her gaze shifted back toward Rhyse.

"There." The word carried a distinct note of satisfaction. "Now we can discuss whether this is a date, exchange contact information, and find food in whatever order seems least likely to cause trouble."

The corner of her mouth twitched upward.

"Though after tonight, I'm beginning to suspect trouble would find us anyway."

Rhyse Vanto