Author's
Note: I said I would finish this story almost a year and a half ago… and I
never did. But perhaps this little extra section I added will help you create
your own ending. Enjoy!
Jim typed in his little computer thingy for the "wanted" list. The
screen shimmered and blinked, finally landing on the page he needed. Jim
scrolled down, carefully searching for a bounty with a location near Centinel
III. His eyes, like an eagle after it's prey, stared intently at the screen. He
spotted one almost instantly.
"Hey Gene! I found someone we could get! It'd pay well too."
Gene yawned and got out of bed, looking down at Jim. Gene's mouth, letting out
another yawn, hung open for a second, then realized suddenly what had been
said, and in a lazy drawl spoke,
"Could it pay off what we owe Fred?"
Jim looked up at him, again. A bit of nervousness seemed to twitter through his
body. He stuttered a moment, and then said,
"Well, the thing is..."
Gene rolled his eyes, what was it? These days the lowest they paid was
five-hundred wong, and even then, they were easy pickings. It wasn't as though
they were bankrupt—yet.
"What is it already? Spit it out!"
"Well, Fred is the one with the money on him, 5,000 wong."
Gene stared. Five thousand wong?!?!?!?!?!
" That'd be like killing two birds with one stone... even three...
considering he's got a serious crush on me... no more debt, and five thousand
wong. Why not?"
"You really want to turn your back on him? Isn't that a little
dirty?"
"You're the one who mentioned it. So where is he? What did he do?"
Jim looked back down at his computer thing, shrugging. He had never had much
love for Fred anyway, but still… it did seem… Well, Gene said so…
"Somewhere in area three. He... my gosh Gene! He stole over a million from
one of those security companies! It doesn't say the name here, but no wonder
he's been able to back us! Oh dear..."
He stopped as he realized something else.
"What if we get into money trouble again? Who will believe us when we say
'We'll pay you back when we make it big' ?
" We won't need money once we get his bounty! Come on! This is too
easy!"
Jim looked at Gene. What a mistake! He could sense it now—Fred gets captured by someone else… they immediately go bankrupt… and they'd be on the streets….
"Are you sure about this Gene?" He asked as Gene got ready the necessary bounty-hunting utilities. "What if someone else catches him? Or we use all our money before we can catch him? What if… what if…"
Gene smiled a benign smile,
"It won't be a problem. Everything'll turn out just fine—you just wait and see."