Surprisingly, Jack is now working with Ken-Zin-Tel, the Tahni, as part of his crew. That happened because Rhonda Lebeck, the Fleet Intel Agent decided to stay in Wellspring to gather more intel on the cartel and the Predecessor Cult located there. Jack didn’t necessary like the idea of working with a Tahni, but he was getting used to it.
He’s got another bounty, Antonie Telle located in Belial, an orbital city of Alpha Centuri. They find Teller relatively easily. He’s supposed to arrange for a weapons shippment with some representatives of the Predecessor Cult on Belial. Since the Cult doesn’t know what Teller looks like, Birdy will play-act as Teller and try to make the deal or at least find out who’s involved.
Of course things don’t go so well and a huge fight breaks out. There are Acolytes all over the place and they are well armed. To make matters worse, there’s also another Bounty Hunter hunting for Jack. Jack gets stabbed in the back by this Bounty Hunter, but he and Birdy manage to escape via escape pods for the orbital city.
Jack and company go back to Wellspring to find a contact named Carmelita. She tells Jack she knows of a warehouse where it appears the Corporate Council is stockpiling weapons for the Cult. Jack goes to investigate only to be double-crossed by Carmelita. Of course another big fight breaks out with Jack barely getting out alive.
Jack did manage to capture a guy named Chistophe, who under interrogation, admits the Corporate Council is supplying weapons to the Cult. Jack wants to know who at the Corporate Council is running this operation, but Christophe doesn’t know. All he knows is that it’s someone from Corporate Council HQ on Eden.
Jack makes Birdy take him to Eden although Birdy and Ken-Zin-Tel both want to report back to Val on Hausos. Jack gets dropped off on Eden. He finds the Cult is operating on Eden to his regret and has a compound just outside of town. He goes to investigate. Of course, he’s going to start another war with the Cult and get a lot of people killed. He does witness Bannock killing a Corporate Council Executive name Roland Xi. Jack eventually gets arrested again and is again bailed out by Larienne Bonheur, another Corporate Council Executive.
She wants something simple from Jack. If he does this tasking, she’ll lift any corprate bounties and get the Cult to lift there bounties so he can walkabout as a free man again. All she wants is for Jack to kill Xander Bannock!
What happens next will not be good. One of the crew gets killed and a ship destroyed. It’s probably Jack’s fault, but what isn’t?
The next book, “Smuggler’s Bounty”, is available on Amazon as part of this six-book set.