Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (6 page)

Chapter Four

Vin woke six hours later during the
darkest part of the night when men slept the deepest. He didn’t
move, waiting to hear whatever had pulled him from sleep. He’d
intended to rise an hour before the sun, the best time to hunt.
Recon Marines needed no alarm bells. He could lift himself from
sleep at any hour of his choosing. It was still almost an hour
before his planned rising time.

The dark held no terrors for Vin. His
genetic superiority included enhanced eyesight, hearing and smell.
The thin walls of the shop didn’t keep out the cool air or sound.
The faint scratch of a foot on stones behind the building followed
by another drove Vin from his bed. He’d retired naked, preserving
his few articles of clothing so he had as little laundry to do as
possible. For this night work, he put on his camouflage military
clothing that he wore to hunt. The extraordinary clothing blended
into any variety of backgrounds, but it wasn’t available to
civilians. Emma had already guessed his military background so it
wouldn’t matter if she saw him wearing it.

Vin strapped on his weapons belt
holding his laser pistol and took up a sonic rifle. He judged the
footfalls as heavier than a man though the walls should have kept
the forest beasts out. Then again, he hadn’t examined the entire
surrounding structure. He navigated through the shop, avoiding the
work tables and equipment he’d organized. One of his first chores
had been to fix the door so it made no sound as he
exited.

The boardwalk ran in front of the
buildings for the length of the town, a necessity on the rain days.
The buildings shared walls, three or four homes together, with
narrow alleys cutting between them to give access to the gardens
behind.

Vin slipped into the one on the far
side of Moe’s café and immediately caught the gamey whiff of a
large animal. The slow shuffle of a hoofed foot drew him around the
back corner. The beast stood taller at the shoulder than Vin, with
a back broader than his arm span. Its massive head dipped down to
the herb garden he assumed belonged to Emma. Thick projections of
horn sprouted straight up from its forehead. An herbivore, but that
didn’t mean it was harmless. An animal as massive as it could crush
a man as easily as it stomped on the green plants beneath its wide
hooves and with as little notice. Its antlers didn’t look for show
either.

Most of the houses had small gardens
planted in their rears. Vin could see the path of destruction the
animal had wrecked as it ate its way to Emma’s plantings. He
regretted letting it eat her garden but shooting the sonic rifle
would wake the entire town and alert anything else lurking
about.

He backtracked the animal to where it
had squeezed between two buildings on the north end of the town.
The center street curved slightly east as he followed the
depressions left in the dry surface of the road. The thing must
weigh over a ton.

Vin veered off the trail in the center
of the street and crouched near the corner of the last building on
the east side of the settlement. Ahead of him the north gate should
have blocked the road but the metal-banded panels stood wide open.
The narrow trail bordered by the jungle led away toward the distant
Hadrason Mine twenty miles away. The thick wooden locking bar sat
against the wall as it did during the daylight hours.

The sounds of the wild crept in along
with the scent of damp green rolling down the street like an
invisible mist. After listening for any sound not of nature, Vin
left the cover of the building and edged closer to the opening. He
saw where the large foraging animal had gobbled and trampled the
garden closest to the gates.

No whisper of cloth against cloth nor
scent of man sweat touched Vin’s senses, convincing him the man
who’d opened the gate hadn’t lingered. He would check for man sign
outside the walls after taking care of the creature.

Should he try to herd the garden
destroyer back out of the gate? Then again, the settlement depended
on hunting for a fair portion of their food. Vin started for the
rear of the buildings, hefting his rifle. There was no way to quiet
a sonic rifle. An ear piercing howl followed the rounds when they
cut through the air at three times the speed of sound.

Impatience, an emotion he’d only
learned through his interactions with civilians, spread through
Vin. Why did he care if he woke the entire town? He was here to
keep watch on Emma and only so he could capture her father. Why
should he care if someone sabotaged the colony? Damn it
all!

Vin strode down the street, listening
for any other beasts that might have slunk inside the open gate. A
loud snort echoed off the walls from the large animal behind the
café but otherwise he heard nothing unusual. He’d learned where
Emma and Moe slept before he’d ever entered the town for the first
time and now knew Vannie shared Moe’s quarters.

Vin took the narrow steps three at a
time that led to the rooms above the café. He tapped on the wooden
door at the top.

Movement and gruff voices answered from
behind the thick door but it took a few minutes before the door
opened. Vannie stood before Vin, shirtless and wearing only a pair
of loose trousers. Moe loomed behind him, attired in a similar
fashion.

“
What is it, lad?” Vannie
grumbled.

“
A sound woke me. A large
animal is in the village.”

Moe swore and stomped away.

Vannie groaned. “Give us a few minutes,
and we’ll be with you.”

Vin waited at the bottom of the steps
and listened to the night. Not a single light glowed during this
hour. A dozen solar captures were arrayed on the tallest buildings,
feeding into the large commercial battery that serviced the entire
town. Adequate power but the thrifty miners knew better than to
squander it chasing away night shadows.

The two large men came down the
interior stairs and exited out the front of the café. Though they
moved well for such large men, they made too much noise for Vin to
listen for more intruders. They each carried small gas powered
pistols and thick clubs. Neither weapon would do more than irritate
the animal out back.

“
Holy hell,” Vannie
muttered when Vin led them behind the buildings. “It’s a
moose.”

“
Moose?” Vin had never
heard the word.

Moe snorted. “We just call it that
after some old Earth animal, a large kind of deer. I think this
thing is a lot bigger than those moose ever were.”

Another civilian inane conversation.
“Should we chase it out or kill it?”

“
Kill it?” Moe slapped Vin
on the back, knocking him forward a step. “We could put every shell
we have into it, and it would only shake its head and try to impale
us with those prongs on its head.”

Vin rolled his shoulder. The first time
a civilian had hit him like that, Vin had beaten him to the ground.
Only later did he learn it was some strange ritual of male bonding.
So he didn’t hit Moe back, instead he held up his weapon. “This
will take it down with one shot, but will we be able to butcher it
for food?”

Vannie squinted and leaned in for a
closer look at the rifle. “What kind of gun is that? I’ve never
seen anything like it.”

“
It’s a weapon that can
kill any size of moose if you think we can use it for
meat.”

“
Don’t know what moose
tastes like,” Moe said. “Nobody ever brought one in from the
hunt.”

“
Would take a dozen men to
carry the meat back if someone did kill one,” Vannie added. “But
with the days we missed panning and no supplies coming in, maybe we
should think of stocking up.”

“
We’ll need some help.”
Moe scurried back through the alley.

“
It’s a magnificent
creature,” Vannie said.

The moose stopped eating and looked
over its shoulder at them with its jaws still moving over a
mouthful of green.

Vin knew many animals didn’t have good
eyesight, but the moose stared right at them, unafraid. Chances
were it hadn’t encountered many predators it had to fear. Even the
massive Vannie would look small and weak to it.

Noise rose in the streets on the other
side of the buildings as Moe roused the townspeople to help butcher
the animal. But the more he watched it, the more Vin regretted the
plan to kill it. He would hunt other wildlife. Would ten small deer
offset the giving of life to the moose?

Vin scented Emma before he heard her as
she joined them. She nudged Vannie aside and brushed against Vin’s
arm. Heat slammed into his middle, spreading downward and up. The
dark hid the blush rising to his face and a slight turn of his hips
hid what else was rising.

“
My herbs!” Emma
whispered.

The moose heard her and took a step in
their direction. Vannie swung his thick arm in front of Emma and
forced her to back up. At the same time, Moe and a number of men
thundered around the side of the building. The excited men surged
forward, forcing Vin, Vannie and Emma out into the open beyond the
shelter of the alley.

Vin heard the jumbled exclamations of
the civilians behind him, but all he saw was a two ton enemy
snorting aggressively. With the people behind him, no retreat or
cover was possible. The moose charged. He swung his rife up and
took a step forward to put everyone behind him. He fingered the
first trigger that would only answer to his genetic code. He
pressed the fire trigger as a small body slammed into him. The howl
of the sonic round filled the entire world for a fraction of a
split second.

Shouts, curses and other sounds of
panic erupted behind Vin as Emma bounced off of him and stumbled
back into Vannie. The moose folded down to the ground as if its
legs had been cut from beneath it. It slid on its belly across the
gravel, the sharp prongs stopping less than a yard from
Vin.

Silence like the stillness after a
lightning strike fell on the civilians. Vin watched the moose for
movement though he knew his shot had caught it exactly where he’d
aimed it. In all the different worlds he’d traveled, every alien
creature had its brain in the same place behind its eyes. It made
work easier for a killer like him. He didn’t want to see what Emma
thought of him. Hell, she’d thrown herself against him to try and
stop him.

“
Damn good shot, Vin!”
Vannie did the shoulder slapping thing even as he steadied Emma
with his other arm.

Emma stared at Vin with her mouth
agape. She brushed aside Vannie’s aid.

Vin knew what to expect. Despite the
acceptance he and his brothers had found on Crevan Four, most of
the world hated and feared his kind. Though they couldn’t guess his
true nature, Emma and the rest of Hovel Port had seen what an
efficient killer he was.

“
Don’t you ever do that
again,” Moe snapped but he spoke to Emma. “Why do you always do
that?”

A flush rose in Emma’s smooth cheeks.
“I … he was standing right in its path.”

“
Damn it, girl.” Moe
gestured at the dead moose. “He’s a well-armed man and can watch
out for himself.”

“
I’m sorry.” Emma directed
the comment at Vin.

Vin thought his excellent eyesight had
failed him. Emma didn’t look frightened or disgusted.
“Sorry?”

“
She’s always trying to
save everyone,” Vannie said. “Could have got herself killed trying
to push you out of the way like that.”

Vin replayed the killing of the moose.
Emma had been trying to move him out of its path. “Why would you
try to save me?”

Moe put his hand on Vin’s shoulder.
“Don’t try to figure her out, lad. She thinks she’s on this world
to protect everyone.”

The villagers worked their way around
Moe and Vannie, edging closer to the downed moose. They regained
their earlier excitement as they discussed how to dress and save
the meat.

“
I had the gun. The moose
presented more danger to you than to me. You’re unarmed.” Vin swept
his gaze over her. She probably didn’t weight much more than half
his weight. “How did you intend to stop it?”

Emma shrugged, the motion drawing Vin’s
attention to the blonde curls cascading across her shoulders. “I
wasn’t thinking that far ahead. It was coming right at you, and you
didn’t seem to be dodging out of the way.”

Vin waited for her to finish her
bizarre explanation, but she only stared back at him as if she had
no more to say. “But it would have killed you if you had managed to
push me out of the way and made me miss the shot.”

“
She knows that, lad.”
Vannie shook his head. “Why do you think it takes me and Moe both
to watch out for her?”

“
Emma?” A tall gangly man
pushed his way in between Emma and Vannie. He wrapped his hands
around her shoulders and shook her. “What are you doing? You could
have been hurt?”

Vin had noticed the tall man around the
town but hadn’t registered anything hostile about him. The man
putting his hands on Emma in such an aggressive manner ignited
something bred into Vin’s soul and fine-tuned by his brutal
training. Vin caught the young man’s throat with one hand and
tugged him forward as he swept his foot under the man’s scrabbling
legs.