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Overview
On Deluros VIII, Jefferson Nighthawk rests in DeepSleep until a cure is found for the disease that dooms him. At least, that would be the case if he wasn’t the Widowmaker, the most remarkable killing machine in the galaxy. There are those who will pay whatever it takes to hire a man with his talents. Or should we say clone . . .
This isn’t the first time Nighthawk has been duplicated, but lessons have been learned. His previous clone was physically perfect but emotionally immature. This second clone is at the peak of his powers, imprinted with all of the memories of his sixty-one-year-old host. His new job: to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a powerful politician and kill her revolutionary captor.
With a handpicked team of an empath, an alien dragon, and his trainer, Kinoshita, Nighthawk sets out for the Frontier. But then he learns the truth about the kidnapping—and the man who’s paying him. Now the future Nighthawk has dreamed of will only be possible if he can get out of his present situation alive . . .
Praise for Mike Resnick
“Resnick is thought-provoking, imaginative . . . and above all galactically grand.” —Los Angeles Times
“Nobody spins a yarn better than Mike Resnick.” —Orson Scott Card, New York Times–bestselling author of Ender’s Game
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781504077286 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Open Road Media |
| Publication date: | 09/13/2022 |
| Series: | Widowmaker Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 255 |
| Sales rank: | 397,123 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
"This cock-and-bull hunt you're sending me out on," said Nighthawk. "It reeks."
"I assure you—"
"Spare me your assurances," said Nighthawk. "I want the truth."
"I told you what you need to know."
"You haven't begun to tell me what I need to know, and I'm not putting my life on the line until you do."
"I'll go over it again," said Dinnisen irritably. He pulled out a tiny, pen-sized holo projector and cast an image of a slender young blonde woman in the middle of the room. "Cassandra Hill, the daughter of Cassius Hill, governor of Pericles V, has been kidnapped by a revolutionary named Ibn ben Khalid." The holograph of a ruggedly handsome man in his early thirties replaced the woman's image. "I have supplied you with dozens of holographs of each of them, and told you that he is presumed to be on the Inner Frontier. You have been given a considerable amount of money to draw from for whatever you need. You'll have your own ship. Ito will accompany you until you're comfortable with the changes that a new century has brought about. What more could you possibly want?"
"Plenty," said Nighthawk. "For starters, why me?"
"You're the best," said Dinnisen. "Or, once upon a time, you were."
"Not good enough," said Nighthawk. "The governor of Pericles V has the entire resources of his planet at his disposal. He can send out the Navy, and post areward that will attract hundreds of bounty hunters. After all, he'll only have to pay one of them." He paused. "But someone has already paid to create me—and they've paid more than the girl is worth. I want to know why."
"Rescuing Cassandra Hill is only part of your mission," said Dinnisen, looking just a bit uncomfortable. He paused almost imperceptibly. "The other part is killing Ibn ben Khalid."
"He's what's worth all those millions, not her," said Nighthawk. Then, sardonically, "My sympathies to the grieving father."
"He is a grieving father," said Dinnisen.
"Sure he is," said Nighthawk. "But if the only way to kill him is to kill her too?"
Dinnisen sighed. "Then you kill them both."
"Yeah, he sure loves his daughter, this politician," said Nighthawk. "How comforting to know that nothing's changed in a century." He paused. "Hell, if I were her, I'd choose Ibn ben Khalid over Cassius Hill every time. Maybe she wasn't kidnapped at all."
"Look," said Dinnisen, "he would much prefer that you rescue his daughter and bring her back to him in one piece. That is the ideal scenario."
"You've been a lawyer too long. You couldn't utter a simple factual sentence if your life depended on it." Nighthawk lit a smokeless cigar. "All right, we'll overlook all the nuances of the father's motives. My job is to rescue her and kill him, and that's what I'll try to do." He paused. "Now, he's enough of a revolutionary that his death is the most important part of this assignment. How big is his army?"
"I don't know," said Dinnisen. "Big."
"So big that Cassius Hill doesn't really expect anyone to try to earn the reward?"
"If someone can find the girl, by herself, of course they'll claim it."
"But they won't go up against Ibn ben Khalid." It was a statement, not a question.
"I doubt it. He's got informants all over the Frontier. It would be almost impossible for anyone to infiltrate his organization." Dinnisen stared at Nighthawk. "Anyone but you. That's one of the reasons Hill made us the offer. Not only are you the best at what you do—but you haven't been around for a century. His agents won't know who you are, won't spot you as a bounty hunter or an employee of Cassius Hill."
"You undercharged," said Nighthawk.
"What?"
"If Hill's afraid to go up against Ibn ben Khalid's men with his own planetary forces, you're not charging him enough."
"It's not a matter of fear. It's a matter of legality and cost. Pericles V has no authority on the Inner Frontier, and even if it did, equipping such a mission could cost billions."
"All the more reason to demand triple what he offered. If the alternative was putting billions into a military operation, with no guarantee of seeing his daughter alive again, he'd have paid."
"You're not going to hold him up for more money again?"
"No, I'm getting what I want," said Nighthawk. "But for a smart lawyer, you're a lousy bargainer, Mr. Dinnisen. It makes me wonder why."
"I assure you—"
"So you've said. Now let's get back to the business at hand. Has there been a second ransom demand?"
"No. Nothing since the tragedy on Roosevelt III."
"Let me make sure I've got this straight. Ibn ben Khalid contacted Hill through intermediaries, explained that he'd kidnapped his daughter, and demanded two million credits for her return. Hill sent his bag man to Roosevelt III with the money, as instructed. Once the man landed, he was killed and the money was stolen. Right?"
Dinnisen nodded. "Right."
"Is there any proof that Ibn ben Khalid was responsible for it?"
"Who else could it be?"
"Anyone who wanted two million credits in cash."
"It was him, take my word for it."
"I don't take your word for anything," replied Nighthawk. "In fact, until you tell me how Hill knew that Ibn ben Khalid had his daughter, I don't even take your word that he kidnapped her. He could just be an opportunist who heard she was missing and tried to pry a couple of million credits from a grieving father while she's shacked up somewhere with a lover. It wouldn't be the first time a smart man has pulled a bluff like that."
Dinnisen reached into a pocket, pulled out a small computer cube, and tossed it to Nighthawk.
"Here's a holo duplication of the first ransom demand. I just got it this morning."
"Okay, I see Ibn ben Khalid," said Nighthawk, looking at the cube. "Are you sure the girl's not an actress or a double?"
"The voiceprint checks out. It's her."
"I'll look at it later," said Nighthawk, placing the cube on a table.
"If we get anything further, I'll of course see that you get a copy."
"Fine. And I want everything you have on Hill."
"You have it."
"The father, not the daughter."
"Cassius Hill?" said Dinnisen, surprised. "Why?"
"He's involved. Why not?"
Dinnisen shrugged. "Whatever you say. I'll have it sent here this afternoon." He paused. "Do you have any more questions?"
"When I do, you'll be the first to know."
The lawyer turned to Kinoshita. "How's his progress?"
"He's the fastest and most accurate shot I've ever seen with every weapon he's tried," replied Kinoshita. "I should add that he's very disappointed in his performance. He's the Widowmaker, all right."
"That just means he's an exceptionally able killer."
"And you're an exceptionally able lawyer," said Nighthawk. "Ironic, isn't it?"
"What?"
"You get guilty people off the hook," said Nighthawk. "And eventually I get paid to hunt down your triumphs."
"You haven't liked me from the first moment you opened your eyes," said Dinnisen. "Why? What could I possibly have done to you in your four days of life?"
"To me? Nothing."
"Well, then?" demanded the lawyer.
"You sent my predecessor out without preparing him for what he would face."
"Nonsense. He knew what he had to do."
"Oh, he knew who to kill. But he didn't know how to live, and you didn't give him enough time to learn. That may work here in the heart of the Oligarchy, where you have laws, and lawyers, and more social safety nets than you can count—but out on the Frontier, that's a death sentence. And I think you knew it. I think you were fully prepared to kill him if he made it back alive."
"Kill him? Hell, we'd have rented him out again. He was a valuable commodity!"
"Well, I'm a human being and not a commodity," said Nighthawk. "Do you think you're going to rent me out after this assignment?"
"The firm of Hubbs, Wilkinson, Raith and Jiminez would be happy to enter into any such arrangement as your representative," said Dinnisen. "But I suspect you're too independent. I truly don't foresee us having a working relationship with you."
"You bet your ass."
"Have you any further questions before I leave?" asked Dinnisen.
"Just one," said Nighthawk. "You mentioned that I would have my own ship."
"That's right," replied the lawyer. "Mr. Kinoshita will handle it until you're able to fly it alone."
"Where is it?"
"It's due to be delivered either this evening or tomorrow morning."
"Good. Once we take off, I'll let you know where we're going."
"Your destination will be Innisfree II," said Dinnisen.
"Eventually," said Nighthawk. Both men looked at him questioningly. "I have some unfinished business to take care of first. It won't take long."
"Unfinished? After one hundred and nine years?"
Nighthawk dumped the nub of his smokeless cigar, lit another, and ignored the question.
Interviews
Over the years I came up with some ideas about cloning that I didn't think had ever been addressed. One was the fact that in most of the stories I've read, full-grown clones hop off the table, ready to do whatever they've been created to do (in the case of my book, kill some outlaws). But it seemed to me that a one-day-old clone would be at an enormous disadvantage. He'd have no memories, no education, no social skills -- so I told that story in The Widowmaker.
"It also occurred to me that they'd try to alleviate that problem, perhaps by giving the clone the original's memories. But what if the original had been born over a century ago, and all of his memories were decades out of date? So I told that story too; it's The Widowmaker Reborn.
The third book, The Widowmaker Unleashed, which will be out next summer, tells the story of the original Widowmaker, the one from whom the first two books' protagonists were cloned. He's been frozen for a century with a horribly disfiguring disease, and now they've finally developed a cure and he's revived. Physically he's 63 years old, and all he wants to do is retire and grow flowers. But he keeps running up against enemies the two clones made, enemies he of course doesn't even recognize
—Mike Resnick
