Outer-Rim Rescue, a Novella

By Libby Doyle

Sometimes the strong find each other in unlikely places.

 

When ex-cop Jane Mwanda is hired by a powerful woman to retrieve her runaway daughter, she tracks the girl to a planet controlled by the notorious Rell Syndicate, where she's promptly locked up by sexy henchman Tian Wei. The good news? Jane's pretty sure the girl she's been sent to rescue is in the same facility. The bad news? They're both a hair's breadth away from being sex-trafficked. Jane doesn't know what to think when Tian Wei liberates them, considering she'd written him off as syndicate scum. She'll need his help if she expects to keep the girl safe and escape the Outer Rim, where violence is currency and everyone is on the take. Problem is, she has no idea if she can trust him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Libby Doyle
• Release date: Mar 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781737305224

Libby Doyle

Libby Doyle escapes real life by writing extravagant tales, filled with adventure, sex, and violence. When not tapping away at her fiction, she's been known to work as an attorney and a journalist. Libby loves absurd humor, travel, punk rock, and her husband. She is the author of The Covalent Series, an epic science fantasy in five parts.

Book preview

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

― Robert A. Heinlein

i.

Her days as a cop in New Kentucky had not prepared her for this. Sure, it helped, but the barroom on Dakis IV featured a collection of throat-slitting miscreants unrivaled in the system. Jane reflexively pressed her arm against her concealed weapon.

She walked to the bar, glancing at the patrons nearby. One female humanoid with mottled scales for skin had a glare so fierce Jane thought she might rip out someone’s heart just for the hell of it. That kind of attitude wasn’t a bad idea, so Jane did her best to seem menacing—not easy for a smallish brunette with doe eyes and brown skin instead of scales. It helped to think about Annalee, a young patient of hers who’d stowed away on a space freighter bound for this port. The girl was all of fifteen and would be easy prey. Picturing Annalee in danger made Jane angry. She would wear that anger like a shield.

The barkeep came over. Jane ordered an Anjouan whiskey and tried to keep her poker face as the yellow liquid scorched her throat. As best she could in the dim light, she surveyed the clientele. A group of green-skinned Brĕz started an ungodly caterwauling in the corner, accompanied by dissonant horns. Jane had to laugh as the patrons banged their heads, but she choked it off when a man came in bearing the insignia she’d been watching for—a triskelion of interlocking gold crescents, the mark of the Rell Syndicate, one of the notorious criminal organizations that controlled the outer-rim planets.

Jane had planned to tail the first person she saw with the insignia, hoping to gain access the restricted section of the port to look for Annalee. She blew it. The human man was so attractive—tall, muscular, with a shaved head and high cheekbones—she gawked at him. She guessed his ancestors hailed from somewhere in East Asia. He noticed her, which did not bode well for stealthy following. Jane gave him her best sultry look, hoping he would think all she had on her mind was the delicious way his pulse-pistol hung on his hips.

Truth be told, at the moment that was all she had on her mind. She cursed her middle-aged libido. What was the matter with her? Annalee was in danger and this man was syndicate scum.

A smile tugged at the man’s mouth. He was obviously used to being ogled by women. He held her gaze and injected just the slightest bit of heat. Jane’s sultry look had delivered more than she’d bargained for. She hid her face with her whiskey glass. She could not have screwed this up any worse. Now, she had to abandon this man as a lead.

To get her head back in the game, she thought about Annalee and her mother, Katerine Vadim, who had paid Jane a ridiculous amount of money to retrieve her daughter. In the day-to-day, Katerine also paid Jane a ridiculous amount of money to be Annalee’s therapist, although Jane had told her that a little time with her mother would help the girl more than their sessions. But Katerine had come up hard and didn’t seem able to soften, not even for her daughter. An escapee from the torture brothels of Anjou, Katerine had risen to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful citizens of New Kentucky. You didn’t get that far by being nurturing. You didn’t stay sane after what she’d been through by giving headspace to your emotions. Jane admired Katerine enormously, even if the woman struggled as a mother.

Jane hoped the feeling was mutual. She’d met Katerine after signing on as a psychologist with New Kentucky’s juvenile criminal division. She’d worked with the JCD as a police detective and had found the kids’ stories so heartbreaking she’d gone back to school so she could become their counselor rather than the person who locked them up.

Annalee had been one of Jane’s assigned cases until Katerine hired her privately. The troubled teen was making progress on her self-destructive tendencies, or so Jane thought. Considering this stunt, she’d been dead wrong. Jane wondered if Annalee even remotely understood the danger. Any number of the grim-looking humanoids in that bar would love to get their hands on someone like her. Fortunately, as far as Jane could tell, the girl had never made it out of the port facility. Thanks to Katerine’s money, Jane had traveled to Dakis IV by rapid transport, which arrived before the space freighter. For nearly a rev, she’d kept watch over the port exit. She hadn’t spotted Annalee.

Whether this was good news, Jane had no idea. The girl might wind up in a torture brothel, same as her mother.

While she brooded, a pair of polished black boots entered Jane’s field of vision. She raised her head to find Mr. Cheekbones, looking sinister and hot in his gunmetal-gray uniform with the syndicate crest on its arm.

Hello, there. Can’t say I’ve seen you here before, and I’m here a lot. He spoke the common tongue, the one every person in the Dakis Binary System was taught from childhood.

I’m visiting from New Kentucky. On business, Jane said. No doubt he’d approached her because his job was to keep an eye on things, not because he wanted to flirt. She decided to test his reactions.

What kind of business? he asked.

She looked him up and down with just enough lust to undermine his authority. What are you, a cop?

Anyone who comes to Dakis IV knows the Rell Syndicate owns this planet. Stop pretending you don’t know who I am.

Okay, okay. Jane held up her hands. I’m a psychologist. Traders from Onnalin are here with a wide range of experimental drugs for sale. My employer wants them for research.

Is that so? He narrowed his eyes. Identification?

Jane showed him her JCD credentials.

Have you obtained the permit to trade here? he asked.

No, I have not. Direct me to the nearest extortion payment office and I’ll oblige.

He surprised her by laughing. And god save her, what a laugh. I’ll have one of my men escort you there, he said, but first, your whiskey is looking light. Care for another?

Maybe he was there to flirt after all. Jane hoped her blush was not detectable. Sure. It’s good stuff.

No, it’s not. His eyes scanned the shelves behind the bar. Hey, Cheppet, pour us a couple glasses of Ardbeg, he said to the bartender, then to her: Earth whiskey.

Earth whiskey? That costs a fortune!

Silly woman. I don’t have to pay.

Jane really wished she could dislike this man.

So, silly woman. May I call you Jane?

I don’t respond well to being patronized. You know, for reference, when your goons interrogate me later.

He laughed again. And here I thought you were naïve. Okay, Ms. Mwanda it is.

The barkeep delivered the Ardbeg. Jane needed her wits about her, but this single-malt scotch from Earth was too rare to pass up. Any item from the distant home planet of humans had come to the Dakis Binary System in generation ships more than a standard century before. She figured the only reason this dive had single malt was because the syndicate had robbed some rich bastard’s preservation warehouse.

She took a sip, enjoying the smooth, peaty warmth. That is so good it makes me want to start over. Hello, I’m Jane Mwanda. A pleasure to meet you. She almost renewed the custom of shaking hands. She wanted to feel his skin.

I’m Tian Wei. He bowed slightly. I wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you as well, but I’m going to have to detain you for bringing a concealed weapon into the bar.

What? I’m not carrying a weapon. Jane sputtered in fake indignation.

Come now, Ms. Mwanda. I suspected soon after I saw you. Observing your movements for a little while confirmed it. You’re coming with me, and we’re going to find out what you’re doing here. He jerked his head and two men lined up behind her. If you make any sudden moves, it will end badly, believe me. Take your time with the whiskey, though. To rush through a single malt would be a worse offense than your hidden weapon. He grinned.

Jane kept her expression neutral and sipped her Ardbeg. She sure as hell didn’t feel like grinning, but she didn’t know if she should be scared or pleased. This could very well get her into the restricted area of the port, just where she wanted to be. Of course, it could also get her thrown immediately off the planet, or worse, locked up for as long as the syndicate liked. The only thing that calmed her was the thought that Katerine could eventually buy her way out of there.

Hypothetically speaking, she said with emphasis on the first word, if I had a weapon, could you blame me? Look at this place. Seems dangerous.

Then why did you come in here?

Killing time. Didn’t know any better.

Sure. He sipped his whiskey again.

I have another hypothetical for you, Mr. Wei, Jane continued. If I were to admit I have a weapon and hand it over to you, would you let me be on my way?

Actually, it’s Mr. Tian. Family names come first in my culture. And no, Ms. Mwanda, I won’t let you be on your way. A woman clever enough to get a concealed weapon through port intake is not to be left on her own. It’s doubtful she’s here to conduct some simple trading. He leaned towards her. Tell me why you’re here and it will be easier for you.

Oddly, his nearness soothed her. Maybe it was his scent, like fresh-cut pine. If only she could tell him and get his help to find her wayward girl. But the Rell Syndicate was the foulest sex trafficker in the system. As handsome and charming as he was, if this piece of shit were to get his hands on Annalee, he’d probably rape her then use her to make points with his bosses.

I told you why I’m here.

He sighed. Drink up. As soon as she set down her empty glass, he nodded to the two behind