The distance between them and the island the tracker was leading them to was closing. The shape of the warehouses and piles of junk were becoming better defined and the airborne craft behind them was speeding up.

  “Chop shop!” JoLane yelled. She swerved as shots walked across the waves before them. “The craft behind us is shooting at us.”

  “I noticed! I hope I’m close enough.”

  “Close enough for what?”

  “Close enough to activate my sentry security on my cruiser.” Shilo flipped setting through his device before he pushed a red button three times. A ball of flame exploded from a warehouse along with the sound of a machine gun. Shilo turned towards the warehouse.

  The craft chasing them fired another round at them. JoLane braked hard, turned her bike on about and pulled her small pistol out from her ankle holster. She pulled back on the bike and leapt above the chasing craft where she fired off shots until the pilot of the ship slumped over onto the controls and the craft shot off continuing in its trajectory overshooting them. “That was close. I don’t like being outgunned.”

  Shilo pointed to rising smoke. “We’re not outgunned anymore.” A small sowbu personal glider shot out from the smoke and Shilo’s tracker signaled that it was Halpo fleeing.

  JoLane started pursuing him.

  “Don’t bother. We are looking for the big catch. Stay out here and cutoff anyone else from escaping.” Shilo turned to circle the rising smoke. He waited for the wind to blow it ocean ward and pulled up his shirt and headed into the thickest smoke.

  Slowing his bike was required as the junk yard flowed with stacked crates, haphazardly arranged parts and pieces of junk. Everyone working in the yard was either running towards the fire or fleeing. Shilo’s cruiser was now hovering aboard the burned-down warehouse where two other ships and a new stack of parts waited. Its drop-down machine gun had stopped firing but there was a clearly marked out square area riddled with bullet holes. In the center area were three mechanics with their hands up trying not to cough when smoke blew into the area.

  Shilo plowed his bike into someone who was taking aim on his cruiser with a rocket. The human male still fired off the rocket, but the shot went wide hitting another warehouse. He was trying to point the empty launcher threateningly at Shilo when Shilo punched the man square in the nose. Shilo retrieved the launcher and reloaded with a second rocket near the unconscious man. He walked towards his cruiser and was relieved to see his watch flash green as the spaceship recognized him. He sent it on a two-mile patrol and stood over the three mechanics.

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  The sirens could be heard over the waves as the local forces responded. Shilo recalled his cruiser. He worked quick to recall the drop-down gun and verified that the mechanics hadn’t done anything to his ship. Whoever had stolen it had broken the central console to get it started. He’d expected such vandalism but was glad to see nothing else was torn up. He provided it with a low altitude flight path to circle the area in an evasive manner and to return to the fishing docks long after nightfall. Shilo hopped on his flying bike and took a last glance at the incoming siren’s. He wanted to stay to take credit and make sure the police captured the crooks, but he also didn’t want to deal with the heaps of paperwork and endless amount of questions.

  He found JoLane guarding a Gunk that had tried escaping on a small, motorized boat. “Has he said anything about who he works for?”

  JoLane shook her head. “No. I thought you split on your ship.”

  “I sent it away. I didn’t want the local police to ask any questions about my ride. Best it is assumed lost in the fire right now. And best if we are also not here.”

  “Don’t you trust the local police.”

  “I have no reason not to. But I don’t want to explain why we are here. Or why my ship peppered the dock yards with machine gun fire.”

  “What about this Gunk?”

  Shilo looked at the alien. “Are you working for a Hosaness mobster? Chop shops sound like something they would do.”

  The gunk grunted.

  “I thought so. The whole island here is probably owned by a shell company, owned by a shell company. A remarkably lucrative junk yard with hard to find part as long as people don’t care to look too closely at how the parts are sourced.”

  “This doesn’t sound like a clean ending.”

  Shilo shrugged. “Stun the gunk. Leave him here the police will pick him up for questioning.” Shilo frowned. “But you’re right it’s not a very satisfying ending. It doesn’t matter if this gunk was the one who pulled the trigger or any of those back there. The true criminal in this is the Hosaness mobster whose hands are never dirty and yet somehow their money is always involved in the matter.”

  JoLane pulled the trigger stunning the gunk, and they flew their bikes back to the rental place.

  The rental booth was furious, they’d flown outside the radius tacking on additionals onto Shilo’s bill. It also tagged Shilo’s bike damaged where a single bullet hole was punctured in the rear. The damage billed to his account drained his Elysian pass of the remaining credits.

  JoLane asked, “What do we do next?”

  Shilo said, “I heard the whale watching was good around here. Hopefully the fishing ship is willing to honor taking us out.”

  “But we’ll be late for the shuttle.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll have a flight back to Elysian’s Breath. We just have to wait around long enough. Sorry this vacation wasn’t the most relaxing.”

  “Don’t be. This was the best start to a vacation I could ask for. Those flying bikes were a blast.”