Jack is now on Brigantia in the Periphery. He’s looking for another bounty, Kal Siles. Things to not start off well with this hunt. When sitting in a local bar trying to find the location of Siles, Siles walks in with four Predecessor Cult Acolytes with him. While Jack tries not to get their attention, they immediately recognize him and, of course, a huge fight breaks out.
Jack finds himself arrested by the local police, but during the fight he noticed that Max was part of the Cults in the bar. Jack doesn’t seen any of the Cultist getting arrested, only him. But, while he sits in his cell, he has a visitor name Dak Sheppard. Dak is the Mayor and Founder of Brigantia and wants to know what Jack is here for and wants him to leave immediately.
Fortunately for Jack, the local authorities had Kal Siles in custody and were willing to turn him over to Jack if he agrees to never come back to the planet. While going through Siles stuff after securing him in the *Lost Horizon’s* brig, he comes across a mug with the Hesperides Trade Association logo. This is the second time he’s found something of Philip and Anna’s shipping company involved with a weapons smuggler.
Jack has to go back to Eden to find out the connection between the smugglers and this shipping company. He’s afraid that Philip and Anna are doing something very illegal and could destroy everything they have worked for on Eden. Jack still has feelings for his ex-fiancée and doesn’t want her to come to harm.
He does find Anna who is at one of their main offices and warehouses. She is once again pregnat. He asks if Philip is around and wants to talk to him. Anna says he’s back with a customer showing him the warehouse and discussing shipping business. Jack insists he needs to talk to Philip and goes into the warehouse to find him.
Unfortunately, Jack does see Philip and is startled to see him talking to none other than Max, the Cult enforcer. There are also several Cult Acolytes with Max but that doesn’t stop Jack from acting. He’s going to kil Max one way or another, but it’s going to be difficult with the Acolyte army he always has around. This time it’s no different. A gun fight starts, but Jack can’t get to Max. Max grabs Philip and uses him as a shield until he can get back to his hopper and flies off.
Jack believes the Cultist spaceship is at the Avalon spaceport and he has to get there quick. Anna insists on flying him and Kan-Zin-Tel even though she’s in no condition to fly anything. Still, she is as stuborn as Jack and she gets her way. Of course the Cultist space ship is surrounded by Acolytes, but they haven’t taken off just yet.
So Jack has another fight on his hands. Luckily he’s got some strange support coming that help out in the battle at the Avalon spaceport. Once this action is over, Jack wants to find out who the next weapons smuggler the Corporate Council will be hiring so he can get ahead of this game.
He goes to meet with Larienne Bonheur again and she gives him the name of Sasha Cruz. She also says she’s on Hudson Bay. Jack doesn’t want to deal with Commander Grieg, but it looks like he might have to. Oh, and another problem, Cruz is wanted for anything. No bounty and no reason for Jack to apprehend her, unless of course he catches her smuggling weapons!
So Jack heads back to Hudson Bay and into a whole lot more trouble than Sasha Cruz. One good thing though, Jack finally captures Max. Now he’s going to spill his guts or else!
There’s a lot going on in this book, although it sounds like more of the same. I don’t know if we’re actually getting closer to finding what what the deal is with the weapons smuggling, but more should be revealed in the next book, “Terminal Bounty”, now available on Amazon.