Chapter 2: Crow Bait

Fujikuro was almost done constructing his new Dempadon. He looked at the compact vehicle in admiration; best described as an engine with a harness topped with a giant umbrella; they were quirky little flying craft, but Fujikuro loved them. They were highly versatile, speedy, and maneuverable - ideal for catching up to bounty targets and ambushing them. The trade-off was that they also tended to be fragile.

Lately, every time he paid Iria a visit, it seemed as though his Dempadon suffered. He had barely paid for his last Dempadon before Iria had stolen it to confront Zeiram. It had been destroyed by an army of flying Zeiramoids and, of course, it had been up to him to pull her butt out of the fire with a rescue using the Kreper. Getting out of that one had been tough, but the bill he had presented to Bob for services rendered had been worth it.

Most of the money from that rescue had gone into buying his newest Dempadon. He still hadn't heard back yet if Iria had been successful in taking down Zeiram for good. It seemed like a long bet, but if anyone could do the impossible, it was her.

"She grew into a fine Hunter, Gren," Fukijuro mumbled to the memory of Iria's older brother before he starting working on the Dempadon's electrical system. "She'll be better than all of us in a few years - just as soon as she stops being so impulsive."

He worked in silence for a moment before the communicator on the Dempadon's armrest suddenly started beeping incessantly. Fujikuro inadvertently jumped at the noise and his finger slipped, causing him to brush one of the live wires and giving his hand a good shock. His fingers were already going numb as he cursed loudly before slamming a fist on the receiver.

"Whoever this is had better have one damn good reason for calling me!" he warned angrily.

The person that answered was that of a young male who couldn't quite keep a tone of nervousness out of his voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir, but I got word of a hot job going around Ghomvat Security."

Fujikuro felt his temper slowly ebb away. It was only Jaksan, a snoop he had hired to keep him informed of potential easy-money jobs. Jaksan wasn't too experienced in the art of information gathering yet, he was only a lowly intern after all, but he was always in the office and worked for cheap. It helped Fujikuro to stay informed about the latest in the Ghomvat Security offices without the hassle of going in himself.

Fujikuro felt an unreasonable flash of annoyance that it was only Jaksan and not Bob or Iria, but he let it go. Business was business after all. Still, it wouldn't hurt to keep Jaksan on his toes. He made sure to keep his voice gruff and angry so the intern wouldn't get too comfortable about calling him. "This had better be one sweet job, I can still remember the last one you told me about. Do you remember that job?"

"Yes, sir," Jaksan replied sheepishly. "The way it was described in the job made it sound important-"

"It turned out to be nothing more than a child's toy," Fujikuro interrupted him. "The bounty was barely worth the time and effort it took to find the thing. I was lucky to break even. In other words, I would have been better off ignoring the job altogether. It was a chump job for trainees."

"The parents were very grateful..." Jaksan submitted hesitantly.

"Gratefulness doesn't put Kem into my bank account," Fujikuro retorted with a sigh. "So now is your chance to redeem yourself. What did you find?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. I think this will make up for it. We just got a submission over the job line and the bounty is astronomical. I'm sure that it ranks pretty close to being the highest ever posted." Jaksan paused for a moment. "I could tell you the price but I don't think you'll believe me. Would you mind if I sent a copy of the requisition order to your personal files?"

Fujikuro sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. The kid was probably exaggerating again or he had been suckered by a prank posting. "Why not? I'd be a sucker if I passed up the biggest bounty in history. This had better be the genuine article."

In response he got was a double beep over his communicator to indicate that the file had been sent. "There you go, I think you'll find this one worth the effort."

Fujikuro picked up a nearby data tablet and quickly found the bounty job that Jaksan had sent. His eyes widened when he saw the figure: enough Kem to live on comfortably for months. The client had even sent the reward money to Ghomvak Security's holding account, meaning that it was ready to be paid out as soon as the job was complete. It was the genuine article alright.

He scanned down through the requirements; the subject had to be taken alive with no serious injury or mental conditioning. Then, once this person was captured, the instructions were to bring the quarry back to a designated location and handed off to the client. There were also various sub-requirements about what kind of condition the quarry had to be in order to be paid the full bounty. Fujikuro furrowed his brow as he scanned through the list; essentially the quarry had to be nearly untouched. No broken limbs, no burn marks, no head trauma...

It wasn't impossible, but it would be troublesome to do such a clean capture.

Finally he came across who the actual quarry was supposed to be. He ended up doing a doubletake because he didn't believe what his eyes were telling him the first time he read it. "Son of a- I don't believe this!"

"Well?" Jaksan asked. "I was right, wasn't I?"

Fujikuro nodded even though he knew Jaksan couldn't see him. "You did good this time, kid. Any chance you can misplace the job for a little extra added to your finder's fee?"

"I wish I could, but I'm not the only one who has seen it. It'll be going out over the network within the next hour."

"Okay, keep an eye on it and let me know if any big names decide to pick it up," Fujikuro ordered. "Your money is on the way."

Fujikuro then shut off the communicator and eyed his half-assembled Dempadon critically. A few pieces were missing, but he was confident that he could get it working well enough within the next few minutes to get it into the air. He reached out again for the communicator and tried the frequencies for Bob and Iria, but received nothing but static on both of them.

Bob had mentioned something about using the Stardust Desert as a last resort for Iria's confrontation with Zeiram... and if they were truly all the way out there, then the highly reflective sand particles would basically cut off all communication until they could get off that planet. Fujikuro tried to ignore a growing dread in the pit of his stomach as he called the frequencies again, however this time there was an electrical short and the communicator sparked in response before dying in a puff of smoke.

"Great," Fujikuro growled as he rubbed the hand that had been shocked previously. The feeling was starting to come back to it. "Just perfect. I guess I do this the hard way then."

Grabbing a tool, Fujikuro got to work putting together the frame of the Dempadon as quickly as he could. It just needed to hold together long enough for him to make it to Iria's house. That's where she was bound to return after killing Zeiram and that's where she was likely to get ambushed.

Someone had put a bounty out on Iria and the price ensured that half the Hunters in the quadrant were going to try and collect...