Rating:

Terminal Bounty

Jack has a following-out with Valrey Bolesky. He leaves Hausos with Val threating to take his ship back if he doesn’t listen to her. Still, he’s still a Bounty Hunter and needs the money so he’s after another bounty, Liv Brackett, who is on the planet Dolabella, in the city of Sylvanus. This bounty proves to be pretty easy to collect.

When he returns from cashing in the bounty, he’s got a classified message from Val. She needs him back because she admits that she needs his help. So Jack and the *Lost Horizon* head back to Hausos wondering what Val is going to get them into next.

Val has been interrogating Max for some time now. Her problem is that she can’t break him. Max keeps calling for Jack so that’s why she needs him back. Meanwhile, Val, who has a contingent of Tahni body guards, has a surpring new one, Matlin-Sen. This is the female Tahni that Kan-Zin-Tel perviously worked with on Hudson Bay and Tahni Town. Both Jack and Kan-Zin-Tel are very surprised to she her with Val.

Sitll Jack attempts to get Max to talk. The only thing he’ll say is that they should be careful of whom they trust. That’s about the same time when all heck breaks out on Hausos. This is supposed to be a secret Fleet Intel base, yet now it’s under attack and it’s the Predecessor Cult that is attacking. They are bombing the place to dust and landing squads of Cult Acolytes. Val doesn’t have a lot of Marines on her base, but those she does have know how to fight.

Unfortunately, Matlin-Sen pulls her weapon on Jack and Val and says she’s taking Max with her and going back to the Church of the Ancients. She’s been brained washed to think that the Church is in the right and is now assisting Max to escape. Doubly unfortunate is that she is successful and Max does make his escape, but Matlin-Sen is captured.

Now this is where the whole story-line shifts to something entirely different and unexpected. Oh, there’s still a lot of fighting to take place, but it’s not about what you would think. Kan-Zen-Tel manages to get Matlin-Sen to talk about what she knows about Max’s plans and what the Church of the Ancients are up to. What she tells him and he tells to Jack and Val, changes everything. The weapons smuggling beings a small, very small problem compared to this.

Jack needs an army. Val doesn’t have the resources, but she can call in more from the Fleet. They might not arrive in time to do much good so Jack has an idea. He has to go back to one of the cartels and get them interested in helping him. Fortunately, they have a vested interest on the planet Jack tells them to head for. Even with their help, it’s not going to be easy, in fact, things don’t work out so well.

Jack eventually has to head back to Eden. He firmly believes whatever the Cult and the Corporate Council are up to will culminate on Eden. Val is not so sure. She lets Jack go alone. Again, Jack has to call in some questionable friends to assist him if needed. He’s going to find out that he needs a whole lot of assistance or his entire home planet could be destroyed.

Yeah, this series doesn’t end they way you would expect. But, if you remember you’re reading a Partlow book and he’s got a vast universe that all his characters seem to reside. I don’t know just how Jack Bennett fits in to the overall time-line, but this series is very interesting.

Ok, that finishes the six-book series. I didn’t read them all at once, just two at a time. I also didn’t write a review on each one after reading them which was a big mistake. Going back and trying to remember what happened in each individual book is a nightmare, but I got it done. I hope you enjoy these books and possibly my reviews.

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