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“What happens when he realizes you’re too good at your job to be neutralized through conventional means?

He goes a different route. This guy’s got a long history of being a smart bastard.

You’ve seen how he strategizes and how he works.

His texts were taunting you, too. Like he knew you wanted it bad and that it messed your head up.

If you were someone willing to do anything to keep going with your mission, and the one person who kept threatening to ruin it all and take you down was someone you could trip up with a little seduction, would you?

“...You know what, no. Don’t answer that. You have too good of a heart. But my point is, someone else might be willing.”

“Zann, no—”

“But even further than that, he didn’t just throw you off, did he?

He outright converted you to his cause. You’re his personal fucking champion now.

You go out, take the hits, help him accomplish whatever he wants to get done, and all he has to do is give you some nice pats on the head, tell you he really likes you, and suck your dick a few times. Win, win, right?”

Anger boiled over inside Niko, a white-hot torrent felt in every taut muscle.

Before he realized he’d done it, he found himself standing, glaring down at Zann.

“No, you don’t get it. Don’t try to twist this into something manipulative.

It’s never been like that. He’s not like that.

All he ever wanted was for someone to just fucking listen . And I chose to listen.”

“I’m just saying,” Zann said, not moving an inch, still leaning back languorously against the bench. He raised his eyebrows. “I love you, Niko, but I’m not so sure you’d know how to recognize if that’s what was going on.”

“Of course I would, Zann.” Niko wanted to spit the words at him. “Why don’t you try giving me a little respect? How long have I been hunting bounties successfully before this?”

“Those bounties weren’t Kestrel. They didn’t have his brains. Or looks. How well do you actually know this guy, Niko?” Zann asked.

“Back at the Starlight Awards, when things went south, I’d told him to leave.

To take the Sonadora and get out alive. I wanted him to.

He had every chance to. But he didn’t. He refused.

He came back for me. He fucking sacrificed himself for it.

He had no reason to. If this was only ever just tactics and convenience, he would have left me to it while he got away.

If that other hunter hadn’t… stepped in, he would have ended up caught and dead. That’s not manipulation, Zann.”

“It could be,” Zann said, “if he thought you both still had a chance of getting out at the time. What was it you said when I asked you to come back to hunting? ‘Sunk cost fallacy’ and all that? Could have been trying to protect his investment.”

“Don’t. Don’t make this into that. It’s not that.”

“Look. I’m not saying I don’t empathize with the guy. I do. Of course I do. But there is a non-zero chance he might also be trying to survive this in his own way too. And that might just be through you. In a way you don’t see.”

“No,” Niko said. Memories of Elliott unraveling after their failed hit tore through his mind.

Elliott had been beside himself, all rage and despair.

He’d tried to push Niko away, tried to drive him out of the mission—so he wouldn’t be hurt again.

He’d been almost hysterical about it. He’d started tearing into himself, saying he deserved to die.

Niko shook his head. “I know that’s not what it is, Zann.

And I know you’re looking out for me here.

I appreciate that you are. But you have to trust me with this.

There’s more to him than that. He was tearing himself apart when we got back.

He blamed himself for the whole thing, for almost letting me die.

When it was my fault. I was about to apologize to him for fucking the whole thing up, but he only blamed himself.

That wasn’t manipulation. It was genuine despair. ”

Zann sighed. He leaned forward, fishing out the pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket, but then seemed to think about it some, and simply held it instead.

He looked up at Niko again. “Just— I’m not trying to piss you off, Niko.

But I want you to keep a real careful eye on this, okay?

You don’t have anyone else there in your corner right now, and if he was just pulling your strings, would you even see it? ”

Niko opened his mouth to argue, but stopped short.

As much as he wanted to reject what Zann was saying, his brother had a point.

He had never been great with being able to see betrayal coming, nor lying, even when it was right in front of him.

Aleksi had been a perfect example of that—the man had been cheating for months before Niko caught him.

He’d never even suspected a thing. And now Baouban, too.

He could at least admit to that personal shortcoming.

But, just as he had with Zann before, Niko wanted to choose faith. He wanted to believe in Elliott. Right now, they were all that each other had. And Elliott had been through so, so much, driven to the point of desperation.

Niko nodded at him. He would relent that much, if nothing more. “I’ll be careful, Zann. I promise.” After a long silence, he spoke again. “There’s something I need to know, too.”

“What’s that?”

“You said you’d heard of Honeybliss. That there were rumors. You said you knew they’d done fucked up shit. Just how much did you know, Zann?”

Zann ran a hand across his face. He chewed at his bottom lip, looking up at the overcast sky.

“Look, can you sit your ass down and stop looming over me?” Niko sank back onto the bench beside him, and he continued.

“Yeah, so. I’ve heard of it. I know it’s a thing.

I know what they do. They kidnap and disappear people.

” He looked at Niko, holding his hands up.

“But I don’t know who’s in it. I couldn’t give you a list to save my life, except for what’s in the files you gave me.

I don’t even know how long they’ve been around, just that they’ve been here a while. ”

“Elliott says he sent those files to Galapol almost three years back. He says he sent them to Station Twelve. Did you know? Did you get them?”

“I didn’t. I didn’t hear a thing about that. Whoever got them was real quiet about it, if that’s the case. I’ve just heard people talk about it over the years. Sometimes cases come up. People come to us to try and investigate some of the missing. But it doesn’t usually get far.”

“Why not?” Niko asked.

“Because, Niko, and this is what you need to understand, here. Honeybliss really is untouchable. When I say untouchable, I mean you do not fucking think about looking at them. You don’t think about thinking about it.

They’re so big and so powerful it’s beyond what we can even do.

This is an entire network of the most influential assholes in the entire galaxy.

Some of them are their governments. They’re more powerful than Galapol.

They’ve fucked up cops before, gotten them fired, killed, even disappeared themselves.

You want proof? Look at what you sent me. ”

Niko winced, remembering some of the files that had included the torture and violations of former Galapol agents. Niko hadn’t connected the dots, hadn’t realized they’d been singled out for actually trying to go against the grain and make some noise.

Zann wasn’t fucking around.

“You have to believe me, Niko,” Zann continued.

“I hate shit like that. I despise it as much as you do. It’s vile, it’s awful.

We went into this whole thing together to help people, and I still want to do that.

But this? This was beyond even our reach.

If we so much as sneezed in their direction, entire governments were going to turn their gazes our way. ”

It all made Niko ache. “That’s why it’s so important. What Elliott and I are doing. I want to make the difference that nobody else can or will. We’re stopping them from hurting anyone else.”

“Yeah, but at what cost, Niko? You already have the entire fucking galaxy out for your head. And every time you go out there, you risk getting yourself killed.”

“How is it any different from bounty hunting? Every time I went out on a job, I had that risk.”

“You know this isn’t the same. You never had every other bounty hunter, Galapol agent, and planetary government out after your ass.”

“That’s—” Niko sighed. “That’s fair. I won’t stop, though, Zann.

Not until every one of them is gone. It’s an ugly business, and what you said before is right.

It is scaring people. They don’t understand.

But I have a plan to change that. We need to stop the copycat murders from happening.

We need to show people why we’re doing what we’re doing. ”

“Yeah? And how are you going to do that, Niko?”

“Lady Death.”

Zann eyed him up and down. “You told me things didn’t end so well with her.”

“No,” Niko admitted. “But I’m going to try and amend it. I’m going to meet with her tomorrow.”

“You’re going to go into the fucking black market, where your ass is worth a quadrillion credits, and hope you’re greeted with open arms and a smile? Here I thought you just said you were going to be careful. Even you can’t be that naive.”

“No. I know. We’re walking into a trap. I know what it is. But I don’t have a choice. We need to get a message out, or more innocent people are going to die for this bounty. And she’s capable of doing that.”

“We? We’re walking into a trap? You’re seriously bringing your boyfriend?”