The Failing Frontier 5 - Edward Comes Down Hard

     Edward's mouth was parched and dry, and his stomach was twisted with hunger. He rolled onto his side and opened his eyes. The room was dark. Night time. The clock next to the bed read 03:35.

     "Hello Eddie," came a voice from the dark. Edward leapt sideways off the bed and grabbed the nearest thing he could get his hands on, holding out in front of him in a defensive stance. It took a couple of seconds, but he realized that the thing he was holding out was the stuffed octopus toy his mother had bought for him as a child, a stylized version of which he'd had stencilled onto every bike he'd ever owned.

     "Who... who's there?"

     "Ah, come on Eddie," said the voice. "You know me. Titan? The bar fight?"

     "J... Jane?"

     "Jane," she replied. Then she burst out of the darkness from the space between the wardrobe and the table, and smashed Edward, over his nightstand, shattering the lamp in the process, and onwards into the wall.

     "Ow," said Edward. "Whassat for?"

     "You pissed off the wrong guy. Decent money for bringing you down, and I'm gonna claim it. Sorry. Just business," and with that she plunged a blade in to his chest.




Edward woke with a start, and sat bolt upright. His mouth was parched and dry, and his stomach was twisted with hunger. His head was pounding from the Reflect. He rubbed at his eyes. It was dark. Middle of the night. He looked at the clock. 03:35.

     "Hello Eddie."

     Edward didn't hesitate. He went straight for his desk drawer and grabbed the snub-nosed Yutani pistol from its hiding place, pointed it towards the space between the wardrobe and the table and pulled the trigger. The bolt caught Jane mid-air, the blade shimmering in her hand. It didn't arrest her movement, but she doubled up in the middle and landed slumped over him.

   
 
     "Wakey wakey," said Edward, dumping a bucket full of mostly melted ice over Jane's head. She gasped into consciousness. "Hello Jane. Nice to see you. How are you doing?" He'd tied her to the chair using the cord from the coffee maker.

     "You shot me."

     "I stunned you. You're lucky there. I wasn't really thinking in the moment, just pulled the trigger. Didn't have it set to kill, so you're still breathing. How you feeling?"

     "Untie me."

     "Why?"

     "You untie me, I forget this happened."

     "I don't think so. I saw you on Titan, so I know what you're capable of. Can't trust you even one-tenth as far as I can throw you. Only way I can get you to back off is to have something I can threaten you with. Who hired you?"

     Jane sighed. "You know I can't tell you." Edward smiled at her. He picked the pistol back up from the night stand and pointed it at her.

     "Jane, I saw you on Titan, which is why I don't trust you, but you saw me there too, so you can believe me when I tell you that I don't want to kill you, but I will if I have to, and you can also trust me when I tell you that this isn't set to stun anymore." He placed the pistol against Jane's forehead and put his finger on the trigger. Who hired you? Ari?"

     "Ha! Ari. No. He's in a lot more trouble than you are."

     "Then who?" He pressed the barrel hard against her, pushing her head backwards.

     Jane grunted, exasperated. "Oren Spillane. Guy hates you. Said you stole from him. Put an open hit out. Good money. There will be others."

     "Well, shit."

     "Yeah. Untie me?"

     "No. I'll send someone for you once I'm far away. You can wait right here."

     "Fair enough." Edward started shoving his things into his bag. He gathered it all together in a few seconds, stood and made for the door. "Wait, I have a question," said Jane. Edward stopped, and turned.

     "Go ahead," he said.

     "How'd you know where I was. I had a shimmer-field on."

     "Trade secret. Anything else?"

     "Where are you going?"

     "Nice try. You'll have to work that one out the hard way."

     "Not worth it," she said. "Bigger fish to fry. Watch out for yourself."

     "Need anything before I go?"

     "Scratch my nose?"

     Edward smiled, walked over an obliged. Once Jane was satisfied, she playfully snapped at his fingers with her teeth. Edward jerked away, and she laughed at him. "See you later Eddie," she said.

     Edward turned to leave, and before he closed the door behind him he said "it's Edward."




     He stepped onto the elevator, and pressed the button for the parking lot. No way he was walking out of the main entrance. He was likely to catch a bullet that way. Oren Spillane had put the hit out on him for something that had happened years before: something Edward thought he had long since gotten away with. Seems like the old junk trader had found out what Edward had done, and now his chickens were coming home to roost.


     There were very, very few options available to Edward. Jane had told him that the hit was an open one, which meant that every hunter in his general vicinity with a weapon and a dream in was gunning for him. The only way to call them off would be to force Oren to call off the hit, or to make it so that one way of the other, Oren couldn't pay, but before he could do either, Edward would have to find him. Luckily, Edward knew exactly who to ask.