Death Dealer Read online

  DEATH DEALER

  HAND’S ASSASSIN – BOOK 1

  BY T.G. AYER & M. D. COOPER

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers

  Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bruyn

  Lisa L. Richman

  Marti Panikkar

  Scott Reid

  Manie Kilian

  James Dean

  David Wilson

  Gene Bryan

  Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper & T.G. Ayer

  Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper

  Version 1.0.0

  Cover Art by Andrew Dobell

  Editing by

  Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

  MAPS

  ANTICIPATION

  THE COMMODORE LOUNGE

  THE MARK

  FLETCHER

  ESCALATION

  DO OR DIE

  EXFILTRATE

  FREEZER BURN

  DINNER AND A SHOW

  DUST AND OWLS

  A DEEPER GAME

  TEAMWORK

  AI’S GAME

  JERIAH

  THE GREEN WOMAN

  AI’S WORK IS NEVER DONE

  UPDATES

  WARES

  A CHAT

  DISEMBARKATION

  SUBTERFUGE

  VALKRIS

  UNION

  BRIEF

  THE TEAM

  CAVES OF INNOA

  WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

  DECAY

  GROUND ZERO

  LEADS

  GATES

  UNDERSTANDING

  CONFESSIONS

  YAZATA

  BREACH

  BINGO

  KABLOOEY

  MISDIRECTION

  ISHTAR

  GENERALITY

  CONTINGENCIES

  EGRESS

  MISDIRECTION

  CAPTIVE

  LAST RESORT

  DRESDEN

  LAST FLIGHT OUT

  UNVEILING

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  FOREWORD

  Welcome to the next chapter in the Aeon 14 saga!

  If you’ve traveled the stars with characters such as Tanis, Sera, Jessica, Andy, Kylie, or Rika, then you’re going to feel right at home with Nerishka and her adventures. If this is the first time you’ve dipped your toes into the waters of Aeon 14, I’ve written up an intro at the end of this foreword to help you out. Even if you have read many Aeon 14 books, I recommend the section following this to ground yourself in the time and setting of this story.

  I’ve always enjoyed having Tee as an editor. Since she’s also a writer, she possesses a very good understanding of the ‘music’ we try to create with words when crafting our stories. Her feedback has always been insightful and very helpful.

  Bit-by-bit, she became more and more invested in the universe of Aeon 14, and the characters who inhabit it. Ultimately, we decided (I forget who suggested it first) that she should write a story in the ‘verse.

  It was the character of Nadine in the Perilous Alliance series that really got Tee thinking about what to write in Aeon 14. She liked the idea of the Hand, and the assassins they employed in the Inner Stars, working alone, often on missions that take years to complete—these operatives are the best humanity has ever produced and, coupled with their AIs, are formidable opponents.

  And so Nerishka was born; Nadine’s cousin, who has also been an operative in the Hand for many decades. She’s a seasoned operative who utilizes toxins for many of her kills and has earned the moniker Death Dealer amongst her peers as her missions have become almost exclusively assassinations.

  Tee and I have worked closely to craft an exciting tale that will launch you into Nerishka’s adventures, while ensuring that this is an Aeon 14 story that is both deeply entwined with the main storylines while also being accessible to new readers.

  It’s been a joy to work with her on this, and I am positive you’re going to love the result.

  M. D. Cooper

  Danvers, 2018

  WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

  Where in the galaxy are we?

  First off, for the new reader, this is the setting we find ourselves in. In the distant future, humanity has spread out into an area of the Milky Way Galaxy which contains roughly ten billion stars (about 5% of the galaxy).

  There are regions where humans are well-nigh immortal, living hundreds and thousands of years (one such region is the Transcend) and other areas where humans are barely scratching out an existence on marginally habitable worlds. Then, much like now, it is as William Gibson said, “The future is here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.”

  The primary driver of humanity’s woes is FTL (Faster Than Light) travel. You often see this in fiction described as ‘hyperspace’ or ‘warp drive’. In Aeon 14, it is facilitated by transitioning into a sub-layer of space, known as the Dark Layer. In the DL, ships travel at roughly 500 times the speed of light.

  However, on a galactic scale, this is still quite slow. Travelling across all of human space takes decades. This has largely been what has saved humanity from self-annihilation.

  Before FTL, making war between the stars took centuries. There was little reason to do so because no soldier would take hundreds of years away from their families, and there was little economic value. Once FTL arrived, peoples could travel to other stars in days, or weeks, and interstellar war crushed humanity.

  That time was known as the FTL Wars.

  Two groups avoided these wars. They were already on the fringes of human expansion. At the time of this story, they are known as the Transcend, and the Orion Freedom Alliance. Both groups are trying to shape the recovery of an area known as the Inner Stars, where the bulk of humanity lives.

  People in the Inner Stars have no idea that the Transcend and the OFA exist—which is entirely on purpose. Both groups know that if the federations, empires, and alliances in the Inner Stars learned of their existence, it could destroy the tentative peace and reconstruction that has finally emerged after the dark ages of the FTL Wars.

  Nerishka works for an organization known as the Hand, which is a directorate operated by the Transcend whose primary mission is to ensure stability in the Inner Stars, and ever so slowly, help them rise out of the prior dark ages.

  They work behind the scenes to foster peace, quash disruptive technology, and sometimes eliminate threats with extreme prejudice.

  Often, Hand agents are paired with AI, that are placed inside their heads. This is not an uncommon thing, either in the Transcend or the Inner Stars, and our heroine, Nerishka, has one such AI in her head, named Lyra.

  People are also connected to ‘the networks’ via something known as the Link. It is, in effect, a wireless connection to their versions of the Internet directly in their heads. They can access data, talk to one another, and tap into virtual realities over the Link.

  When characters speak to one another over the Link, you will see it

  Often data they access will be displayed on their HUD (Head’s Up Display), and they also make copious use of various holo-imaging technologies.

  Nanotechnology is a big part of the ‘verse, and many people have millions of nanobots inside their bodies that defend them from nanoattack and operate to heal them from injuries.

  To the modern reader, many people in the future would be considered cyborgs, but to them it is perfectly normal, no different to than getting a tattoo would be for us—if everyone were to have tattoos.

  This story begins in the year 8948, during the time of the book Orion Rising. For the seasoned Aeo
n 14 reader, you’ll know that these are the days before the outbreak of the Orion War that sweeps across all humanity, and changes the direction of our species forever.

  Nerishka will play a role in that, but first she has to survive the mission at hand, a simple assassination in the Ayra System, not too far from the borders of the Septhian Alliance and the Praesepe Cluster.

  MAPS

  In the grand scheme of things, the Ayra System is very close to Sol. On the map below, it is at the top-right edge of the dot labeled “Nietschea/Praesepe”

  ANTICIPATION

  STELLAR DATE: 10.05.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)

  LOCATION: Palomidae Hotel, Eshnunna

  REGION: Anahita, Ayra System (Independent)

  Nerishka snapped as she tugged the shimmering silver fabric over the curve of her hips. She turned sideways to study the fit of the garment in the holomirror, which revealed a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree image of her body.

  The jewel-encrusted fabric hugged her body and fell to the floor, appearing demure—if you didn’t consider the thigh-high slit and the dangerously low back. Nerishka made a face at her reflection; she would have preferred a nano-infused garment that she could manipulate as needed.

  But, in keeping with the latest Eshnunna fashion, Nerishka had selected a hand-embellished dress, encrusted with gems from the Ayra System’s worlds. Fitting for a woman who was supposed to have more than enough money to spend.

  Nerishka had traveled to Anahita’s capital Eshnunna under her most commonly used identity of a professional gambler. Her clothing, the amethyst-laced uranium gems she wore, the luxurious hotels she stayed at—everything was a facade to convince the people she came into contact with that she was just a high-flying gambler prone to excess.

  Lyra replied, her tone enigmatic. Nerishka could have sworn she’d detected an eye-roll in the AI’s voice—which she chose to ignore.

  Nerishka turned to inspect the pair of sticks currently holding the top half of her long blue-and-silver hair together in a loose chignon. She curled the tendrils touching her cheeks and primped the ones hanging to her bare shoulders. Then she fluffed up the long locks hanging down her bare back.

 

  Pursing her lips, Nerishka crossed the bedroom to open the secure hiding place she and Lyra had constructed. The luxury suite at the Palomidae Hotel was a strange mix of modern clean lines and old-world knickknacks, the decorators echoing the ancient Babylonians every chance they got.

  Nerishka had found a hiding place behind the extravagantly carved wooden headboard which bore images of the naked goddess Ishtar flanked by a pair of lions, their teeth bared in equally vicious growls.

  Reaching between the headboard and the wall, she tapped the biolock on the narrow case wedged into the space and retrieved the three boxes of hand-creme she’d prepared for this particular mission.

  Lyra had researched the fashion and habits of the local people, and she and Nerishka had agreed on a set of three small boxes bearing carvings of a pair of serpents, an owl, and a lion on each lid. Such items were normal for a citizen of Anahita to carry on their person, providing Nerishka with the perfect disguise for her poisons.

  Nerishka said absently as she inspected each carved box. One was red, containing her truth serum; one blue, holding an antidote to protect herself. The third was a silver box containing a fatal toxin, the antidote for which she’d already taken. All three compounds were undetectable by even the most detailed of scans and had become Nerishka’s stock in trade.

  Working with poisons—especially ones from Valkris—had its advantages.

  She dropped the boxes into her purse, checked her literal bag of tricks which she always kept with her, and slung it over her shoulder. She’d never been late for a kill and was beginning to fear that Lyra’s attempts at managing every second of a mission were going to drive her crazy.

  Nerishka asked Lyra, her brow furrowing.

 

  Nerishka stiffened. Was she really as nervous as Lyra implied? Nerishka had to admit she was…something, though nervous wasn’t a good enough label.

  Maybe listless. Perhaps one rambled when one was listless.

  Nerishka murmured.

  said the AI drily.

 

  Nerishka pushed the hairsticks tight again. Crafted from interwoven carbon nano strands wrapped in a ceramic sheath, they were carved into intricate dragons, their bodies thinning out into deadly sharp blades. The tips were covered in a decorative—and protective—cap that slid back with a single thought, preparing the weapon for its deadly task.

  Even more impressive were the blades hidden inside her shinbone. Also made of carbon nano strands, they were her last resort, considering she had to access them with a bit more than a single thought, and whole lot more discomfort.

  Nerishka sighed and eyed the headboard. It looked like her blades and her poisons were going to be her only weapons tonight.

  said Lyra kindly. Apparently, she did know Nerishka well.

  It was true that Nerishka wouldn’t need any of her more overt weapons as her mark was far from imposing. A scientist and tech billionaire, Fletcher had proved himself to be a man with far too much money—and, from the looks of it, far too little common sense: he'd mentioned the wrong word to the wrong people.

  Picotech.

  You didn’t play around with that word. Not if you wanted to keep breathing.

  The Commodore Lounge—which Nerishka's Hand contact had named as the meeting point, having arranged an interview for a role on the picotech research team—prohibited guests from entering their establishment with weapons of any sort, requiring them to be checked at the entrance in much the same way you would hand over a hat or a coat. The Lounge’s agreement had cheerfully claimed that you’d even receive a chit to retrieve your items on departure.

  No way was Nerishka leaving her lightwand or her favorite matched pair of flechette pistols in a damned restaurant arms-check no matter how secure management claimed it to be. From what little she’d seen, the people in the Ayra System had no respect for their weapons.

  Still, she had to work around that particular complication. She had no choice having cut it fine, arriving on Anahita the previous night with only enough time for a quick meeting with Karsin, her Hand contact. But Karsin had failed to show up.

  Given how important the mission was, Nerishka was a little concerned that he’d opted not to attend the debrief, but she had to assume he was caught up with something and wasn’t able to get away. Still, he had left her with sufficient intel to proceed without him. She’d just need to remain vigilant. She could be walking into a trap for all she knew.

  The communications that Karsin had sent to Director Jeriah had been forwarded to Nerishka intermittently over the last few months and upon arrival in Anahita, she’d received one in which Karsin had provided the location of meet. Nerishka had a convenient opportunity to complete the mission—swift and clean.

  With any luck, she’d be in and out without a hitch.

  Lyra’s voice brought Nerishka out of her thoughts and she rolled her eyes as she grabbed her purse.

  The AI sighed deeply
.

  Keeping her mouth shut, Nerishka gave the holomirror one last look, glaring at the crazy-high heels Lyra had selected. She scowled at the white platform sandals, the heel made up of a complicated swirl of sparkling clear gems and clear plas.

 

  Nerishka shook her head and walked to the door.

  It opened before she got to the threshold, and as it shut behind her, Lyra confirmed that the whole suite was now on lockdown. The AI had overridden the security and not even the hotel staff would be able to enter the room while Nerishka was absent.

  The suite at the top of the Palomidae would cost the average citizen of this system more than a year’s income for a three-night stay. The credit line the local gambling house had run for her was shockingly high, too, when compared to even the high-rollers in the city of Eshnunna.

  Nerishka avoided the tables and headed to a private exit three floors down. It was an exclusive bay, available only to the most expensive suites’ residents. A skycar hovered in the closest bay—arranged for Nerishka by her industrious AI who’d suggested avoiding the use of a ground-car because it would appear plebeian. The concierge at the bay-door gave Nerishka a respectful bow as she passed, then wiggled her fingers at him while giving a bubbly smile.

 

  Nerishka said, sashaying over to the open door of the waiting skycar.

 

  Nerishka replied, shimmying onto the skycar seat. As the door slid closed, she hid a smile.