The two bounty hunters led Park between the buildings as twilight set in. “Keep movin’, nothin’ sudden”, one of them growled.

They moved to an alley with makeshift tents pitched. “This is where we’re going?” Park snorted.

“Jus keep movin’ ‘till we tell you to stop”, the one named Chan growled.

Park stumbled and tripped over one of the tents, causing it to collapse. Chan’s partner dove down and grabbed him by the collar. “Nice try”, he growled.

“Hey, I haven’t got my world legs yet”, Park lied.

“Ni zĕnme nòng de (What the hell are you doing?)” a new voice demanded.

Chan and his partner turned toward the voice, one of the vagrants living in the alleyway. “This don’t concern you, scrapper”, Chang snapped. “Move on”.

“It does when you’re knockin down my home”, the bum responded. “Now, what’re you doin’?”

“It was their idea”, Park protested.

“Bizui”, Chan’s partner snapped, shoving his gun in Park’s face.

A voice shouted “Hey!” and Chan spun around to see four new vagrants standing behind him holding lanterns. “You got some kinda problem, take it elsewhere”, the old man in front said firmly. “We don’t bother outsiders and they don’t bother us, that’s how we get on around here”.

Chan leveled his weapon at the lead man. “Gibbons an’ me got the guns, we make the rules”, he sneered. “You wanna live you git-“

A cry from behind him made Chan turn his head. Park and the first vagrant had jumped Gibbons and were wrestling him to the ground. Before Chan could turn his gun toward the other four he went down beneath them. The four stood, lifting Chan, struggling, to his feet. “Now”. The lead man picked up his lantern, “you wanna tell us why you’re back here tearing up our shelters?”

Gibbons spat at him. “Son, don’t make us get mad”, the man who’s tent was knocked down responded sternly.

Park broke in. “They’re some kind of bounty hunters or something. They’re after my captain for some reason”.

“We’ve been seeing a few strangers around here lately”, the leader pondered. “What’s he look like?”

Park described Gerrin and Reilly. “Captain’s kinda tall, thin, brown hair a little grey, greenish shirt. The guy with him is tallish, red hair, brown shirt, but no collar”.

After a pause Park heard one of them say “Yeah, we seen ‘em. Said somethin’ ‘bout some guys lookin’ for ‘em”.

Park straightened. “Did you see where they went?”

The man speaking shook his head. “Not since they went out to the street”.

Park sagged slightly. “Any other strangers show up recently?”

The man whose tent had been toppled replied “Yeah, there was that bunch who came in two days ago, actin’ kinda shady”.

“Where are they?”

The leader said “Their ship’s still here, so they must be around somewhere”.

Park thought for a few seconds before asking “Can you help us get our people back?”

“Now, wait a minute”, the tent man balked, “none or us’re up for a firefight. This is something more for local law”.

“’Local law’? What local law?” one of the others scoffed. “This ain’t the Inner Planets, all we got’s a bunch of hired bootlickers in someone or other’s back pocket. Hell”, he huffed, ”what’re we gonna do for weapons?”.

“We got some now”, one of the others chimed in, holding up Chan’s and his partner’s guns. “These’ll do”, one of them rebuked.

“We got more back at our ship”, Park offered.

“You’re still askin’ a lot, son”, the leader chided.

“You wanna leave him to guys like this?” Park gestured toward the two attackers.

“He did offer to get us some food”, the man who took the guns offered.

“He never came back”, the man with the toppled tent reminded them.

“’Cause he got nabbed”, The gun man responded.

“Still”, the leader mused to his men, “You think we’re up for a firefight?”

Suddenly a dark figure appeared around the corner. “Hey, what the hell you – woah!”, Aldous yelped.

The tent men with weapons turned, guns at the ready. “Wait, he’s with me”, Park commanded.

“Who’re they?” Aldous squinted in the near-dark.

“They’re with me”, Park answered.

“What’s that mean?”

“It means we might have some help”, Park offered, gesturing for Aldous to keep his voice down.

“We’re still not settled on that”, The leader reminded him.

“Look”, Park insisted urgently, “Gerrin is a good man, not worth giving up to that scum”.

“No, but-“

Park played his ace. “Rule 303”, he said slowly but firmly.

The leader stared at him for several seconds before letting out a heavy sigh. “Right”, he concluded. “Rule 303”. After a few more seconds he gestured toward Gibbons and Chan. “Tie them up and stay here and watch ‘em”. Turning to Park and Aldous he said “Let’s talk”.

Park and Aldous fell in with the rest of the tent men moving toward the tents as Aldous murmured “What’s Rule 303?”

“I’ll explain later”, Park murmured back as they disappeared into the darkness.

-

“They’re late”, Blondie growled.

Beard snorted “If they’re not back by first light we go without ‘em”.

“I can wait”, Reilly’s muffled voice murmured through the gag, which prompted Blondie to smack Reilly on the leg with his gun.

The four of them sat in a windowless room with Gerrin and Reilly hog-tied on the floor. Time ticked by slowly as the two bounty hunters played a card game and waited impatiently for their two junior men to return.

Two hours passed. Suddenly there came a soft knock at the door. “Who’s there?” Blondie demanded.

A voice huffed “It’s Chan. Lemme in”.

Beard opened the door and peered behind Chan. “What happened?”

Chan huffed. “We got nabbed”.

Blondie jerked his head toward their prisoners. “Their guys?”

“Dunno”.

Beard peered toward the door. “Where’s Gibbons?”

“Making sure we didn’t get followed”, Chan panted. “They had us tied up but not real good, so we got loose”.

Beard hissed through his teeth before saying “Alright, go get us a wagon, we’re outta here first light”.

Chan departed. Blondie turned toward Gerrin and Reilly. “You two’re gonna take us to that package of yours”.

Reilly eyed him. “It’s buried back at the cave. Like I said, Alliance’ll pay to get it back”.

”Oh, they’ll get it back”, Blondie grinned, “For a price”.

“Grrgh shmah meneh gagh”, Gerrin growled through his gag.

“You blew this one, you’re on your own”, Reilly hissed at him.

“Alright, both of ya”, Beard growled, standing. “On your feet”.

Gerrin and Reilly struggled to their feet. “We’re all gonna go get it. If you’re lying, you both get shot”.

“It’ll be there, right where our boss said”, Reilly insisted.

“Better be”.

The bounty hunters led the bound and gagged Gerrin and Reilly to the back door. Outside the sky was growing lighter blue along the horizon. A wagon pulled up with Chan driving and Gibbons in the seat beside him. In the back of the wagon stood two open cargo containers. “In ya go”, Beard gestured.

Reilly and Gerrin slowly climbed in and laid down in the containers as Gibbons and Blondie closed and locked the lids on them. Once their prisoners were secured Gibbons returned to the front as Blondie and Beard sat down in the back.

-

“These’ll do nicely”.

Aldous, Loomie and Park stood with the homeless veterans in the Troll’s main passageway loading weapons from the ship’s armory.

One of their own came down the passageway. “Couple guys that look like our targets just took a wagon ‘round back of the buildings. They’re gonna move ‘em soon, looks like”

“Okay, so we let ‘em get a few miles out, then we move”, Aldous answered.

“What happened to get them into the cargo bay?” Loomie asked.

“This may work better”, their leader responded.

“How do we get out there?” one of the men asked.

“I know where we can get horses”, one of the others chimed in.

“Let’s go get ‘em and let’s get after them”.

The Troll crew and the veterans started for the cargo bay hatch. Aldous stopped when he noticed his sister in step with the rest of them. “Where you going?”

Loomie double-checked her weapon. “Goin’ with you to get the captain and Reilly back”.

“Loomie, you sure you don’t wanna wait here? Last time you got in a firefight you got shot”.

Loomie slung her rifle over her shoulder. “Captain would do it for one of us”.

Aldous hesitated before rolling his eyes and sighing “Don’t forget to lock the front door”.

-

“Alright, where is it?”

The sun was already heating the desert when bounty hunters arrived at the spider hole and opened the cargo crates for Gerrin and Reilly to come out.

Reilly, still gasping for air, winced. “Well, it ain’t actually here here”.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Well, we’re not gonna just leave it out in the open for all to see, are we?” he protested.

Beard raised his weapon and cocked the hammer. “I told you what happens if you’re lying”. He swung his pistol towards Gerrin. “Now you get to watch him die first”.

A shot rang out and the pistol jumped from Beard’s hand. Beard yelped while Gibbons, Blondie and Chan dove for cover.

The Troll crew and the veterans had followed them to the spider hole and taken up positions where Gerrin and Reilly’s original attackers had ambushed them and opened fire. The bounty hunters scrambled from the wagon, Beard scooping up his weapon as he ran, dropping behind the rocks while Gerrin and Reilly struggled to get out of the storage containers. Finally they managed to roll out of the containers and fall to the dirt and crawl toward cover.

The firefight raged for several minutes. Bullets continued to fly as Gerrin and Reilly bellycrawled to where the bounty hunters had taken cover. Gerrin crouched behind a rock near one of the bounty hunters as bullets bounced off the rocks around all of them. Reilly moved slowly toward where another one hid. Gerrin crouched just out of sight from one of the bounty hunters and waited. Once the bounty hunter behind the rock stopped to reload, Gerrin threw himself as hard as he could on the bounty hunter – Beard. Gerrin and Beard wrestled for the gun as bullets continued to crack off the boulder in front of them. Gerrin strained to pull Beard’s arms apart, as Beard fought to hold on to his weapon. Suddenly, Gerrin lunged forward, head-butting Beard. Disoriented, Beard hesitated, which was all Gerrin needed to plunge a fist straight into his nose, then grab the gun with both hands and wrench it from Beard’s grip. Once he had the gun, Gerrin cracked the weapon across Beard’s face, knocking him unconscious.

What seemed like several minutes passed as Gerrin crouched behind the rock and looked around. Reilly was still occupied with his bounty hunter, while another was busy exchanging fire with Gerrin’s would-be rescuers. As he watched, Reilly’s bounty hunter went down. Silence followed. After several seconds Gerrin stood. “That’s it”, he shouted. “It’s over”.

Aldous and the veterans rose slowly. Gerrin looked toward where Reilly stood slowly. Reilly gave a quick nod and Gerrin shouted “We’re good”.

Their rescuers started toward them. Aldous was in the lead, followed by two of the homeless men, whom Gerrin recognized from their encounter the other day. Aldous was the first to reach Gerrin. “Good job”, Gerrin commented.

“We tracked you down through them”, Aldous gestured toward their allies, “found out when they’d be on the move, then just followed them out here”.

Gerrin nodded toward the other two. “Appreciate the assist”.

“Well, you said somethin’ about some food”, the more familiar man remarked.

Gerrin looke puzzled. “When?”

The man’s face hardened. “When you were walkin’ away at the shelters”.

Gerrin nodded slowly. “You’re right, I did, and we’ll make good on it”.

“Shiny”, the man concluded.

Gerrin looked around the battlefield. “What’s our status?”

The fourth man had stood quiet until now. “They winged your other man, but he’ll be fine.” His voice turned somber. “Not so much ours”.

“How bad?”

Aldous grew somber. “Three. Including the leader”.

“The leader?” Gerrin winced, pausing a second before adding “Gaisi(Damn)”. Looking at Aldous, he asked “Where?”

Aldous and his ally led Gerrin to where the leader of the homeless men had fallen. Gerrin looked down on the body and repeated “Gaisi(Damn)”. Bowing his head he added “This wasn’t his fight. He didn’t need to come.”

”He said you’re one of ours”, the man with Aldous answered.

“Really?”

“Yup”, the man answered. ”Rule 303”.

“Yeah”, Gerrin grunted. “Rule 303’s turning out more expensive than it’s worth”.

……….To Be Concluded……….