Chapter 48: Like a Ghost
His eyes still running thermal, Levi kept them locked on the heat signatures as he crept to a side door of the warehouse.
He waited—hand on the handle—until the timing was right. No movement. No line of sight.
He slipped inside.
Quiet.
Closed the door soft, then pressed flat against it, crouching low.
He was tucked into the front corner now, shadowed behind a stack of crates beneath the steel walkway. One last sweep—no sudden movement—then he killed the thermal and switched back to normal sight.
One woman was still on the boat. One of the men—not Carl—was headed down to retrieve her. Levi crept up to the railing and vaulted the gap, landing on the deck without so much as a creak.
The ship was an old war barge—heavy, hollowed, and waiting to be stripped for parts. His weight didn't even register.
As he snuck toward the aft cabin, he wondered how these women got here in the first place.
'Did this just get in?... maybe it came in quiet. Carl could get a ghost fleet past the dock guards if he wanted.'
Carl ran the demolition crew. Any ship passing through the yard went through him first. If anyone could bury a boat in plain sight, it was him.
Reaching the cabin door, Levi flipped his vision back to thermal.
The man was close now. Moving below deck. He could hear boots on steel. Faint shifting. Labored breathing.
Slipping through the door of the cabin, Levi moved fast, ducking into the far corner behind a rusted stairwell that led down.
He held position. Watched.
The target had augments. Both legs lit bright, with the clear pulse of a small ember core at his hip.
He was armed—a bolter slung low.
Levi narrowed his eyes.
'Gotta make this clean.'
Soft. Slow. He flexed the right muscles, elbow cocking just enough for the blade to slide free with a quiet metallic click.
"…Quit it! Next warning comes with blood. Now move!"
The voice echoed up the stairwell. Heavy. Irritated.
Steps followed—light ones. The woman. Native. Levi's eyes shifted back to normal. Legs tensed. Muscle and mesh pulled tight.
He saw the top of her head first—rising slow. Her hands were raw, fingers shaking as she climbed.
Too scared. Too tired. Either way, she didn't see him.
But the man was right behind her.
Levi moved.
SLNK!
Steel flashed.
He burst from cover and drove the elbow blade straight through the back of the man's neck. Clean. Deep.
The body crumpled. The head bounced once. Then both dropped into the dark below.
Levi didn't stop.
"Sorry."
THMP!
He caught the woman just as her mouth opened—drove his fist into her gut before a scream could rise. She folded, and he caught her, easing her down to the deck.
Now it started. Time would start bleeding out fast.
She'd wake. Or they'd come looking. So he needed to finish this quick.
Levi checked his wraps—still tight. Disguise held. He switched back to thermals.
Carl and the other man were standing at the open back of the warehouse near a second boat—smaller, plain. Looked like a fishing vessel. Wouldn't guess it was loaded with captives below deck.
They were getting antsy. Levi could see them glancing toward the warship, shifting their weight. Waiting.
Made sense.
He mapped the layout in his head, tracing possible paths, exits, and lines of sight.
'One of 'em's gonna come check what's takin' so long. Shortest path brings him across the back deck from that side. If I time it right… clean and fast—I end this before it gets loud. Just need one of 'em to stay put.'
The back deck of the gutted warship faced Carl's position almost directly. From the cabin door to the tied boat, it was nearly a straight line.
And just like clockwork—dirt never waited—Carl stayed put while the smaller man broke off, bolter drawn as he made for the ship.
Jumpy. Not dumb. But jumpy was good enough.
Levi smiled under the wraps.
'Just like I thought.'
He moved from the cabin, slow and silent, keeping his thermals fixed on the man's glowing silhouette as it approached. He didn't need the elbow blade this time—already retracted it.
This had to be done different.
Levi crouched at the cabin's edge, just beneath the windows. Had to keep low—glass ran the length of the wall. But with his augments, he could see the man step aboard.
'Perfect.'
The idiot was headed straight for him. Direct route. No hesitation.
Levi's eyes glowed—normal vision now. Breaths slow, listening.
Step. Step.
A hushed shout.
"Marve!"
Closer.
"Marve, what's goin' on?!"
'Now!'
Levi rose in one smooth motion, driving his palm upward into the man's chin—Blacksteel meeting bone.
But no crack. No snap...just stillness.
The man froze. Wide-eyed. Head propped like it was resting in Levi's palm.
Then—
Psst—TWMP!
A short vapor burst from the back of Levi's hand. The body dropped limp.
But not his bolter.
Psst—TWNG!
It screamed, steam-primed, and discharged. The bolt ripped into the braceway behind Levi, sending a shock through the warehouse.
"Shit."
Levi snapped back to thermals—Carl was moving. Already untying the rope from the dock.
"Leavin' already?"
Not if he had anything to say about it.
Levi bolted—mesh flared, muscles primed. He cleared the deck in a blink and jumped.
Straight at Carl.
Silent. Precise. He dropped like a hawk.
Carl didn't even glance back. Last loop of rope still in hand when Levi's full weight came down on him.
CRCH—BOOM!
Dust shot out. One strangled scream—then nothing. The floor trembled. Beneath him, Carl's spine folded in half, loud and final.
Blood pooled. Foam bubbled from Carl's mouth. Still breathing—but barely.
Levi stood to check on the native women when—
"Aaahhhh!"
A scream from behind. The woman—she'd woken. Must have found the second body.
"Goddammit!"
No time now.
Levi snatched the retreating rope attached to Carl's boat, yanked hard, and wrapped it to the post, jerking the hull back in place. Good enough.
Another scream rang out.
That was it. He broke for the side door.
He shoved through just as shouts echoed from deeper in the yard. Workers. Locals. People coming fast.
Good news was, this side was packed tight with scrap and heavy machinery. Easy cover.
Levi rushed to another building and ducked behind a crate, tore off the makeshift mask, checked his face in a grimy steel panel. All clear. No blood. No cuts. Cream good.
Twist, click. His arm shifted to normal.
He smoothed his breath, fixed his shirt, and strolled out like every other concerned citizen.
"You hear that?!"
He shouted toward the others, doing his best to look rattled but innocent.
Just another bystander.
"I'll go find Jim!"
Levi shouted the line as he blew past the few workers rushing toward the warehouse. He hoped the women would be safe—hoped someone not involved would step in. But he couldn't risk staying.
So, doing his best to find the foreman, he cut away from the commotion and made for Maggie's shop.
Slam!
He threw the door open without knocking, thanking God it wasn't locked. He shut it behind him and leaned back hard against it, chest rising, breath sharp.
"Uh... hello to you too?"
Maggie's voice cut through the haze. She sat behind her bench, goggles pushed up, giving him a look.
Levi looked up, his hat sliding back a bit.
"Sorry. Ain't havin' the best day."
She pulled the goggles off completely and set them aside.
"You want to talk?"
He bumped his head lightly against the door, let it rest there a second. Hat tilted up like a drawn curtain.
"Figure you'll hear about it soon enough."
And he told her.
Told her about church. About slipping out. About what caught his eye. Every detail—the boat, the blood, Carl.
Maggie listened close. At first, her face was calm. Patient. She wasn't big on church herself. Said she belonged to an older kind of believing—something before all the gears and brimstone. An older form of the church.
But as Levi went on, her skin lost color. Her hands turned clammy against the metal of her bench. Horror mixed with something else. Something close to pride.
Then she finally spoke.
"Why didn't you just tell someone?"
The question came soft. Too soft.
Levi recognized that tone. Calm before the storm. So he just waited.
"Mon Dieu... idiot! You could have been killed! Moron! Imbecile!"
She stood now, hands in her hair.
"You should have just run and told someone!"
He kept still, waited for the rest. He knew her brain always caught up to her heart eventually—and with Maggie, that usually didn't take long.
Sure enough, her face tensed. Her eyes shifted, gears turning fast.
"But who would you tell? No... no, no, no. You did right. Stupid—but right."
She sighed, rubbing her temples.
"I'm sorry for yelling. But still... Carl? To think he was involved in something like zis..."
"Met a few slavers before. Native women fetch a high price out east..."
Levi stopped. Brow furrowed.
Maggie saw the change and leaned forward.
"You didn't leave anything behind, right? No trail back to you?"
Levi didn't answer at first. Then he shook his head, stood, and made his way to the cooler.
"Didn't touch anything with my real hand. Face was covered. Nobody saw me come in. So unless someone's psychic, think I'm good."
"You think?"
"I'm good, okay. Trust me. Carl didn't even get a chance to see my boots before I was on him."
He cracked open a beer, took a long pull. Maggie watched him, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
He let out a breath, wiping his mouth. Then he glanced at her and smiled.
"I'll be honest. I don't know what the fuck I was thinkin'."
That's when she noticed. His hand.
It was shaking.
Just a little—but enough.
She thought it was due to just having killed someone. But she didn't know it wasn't the killing that did it.
Levi knew he wasn't a hero. Never planned to be. Never wanted it.
But something had happened. The second his back hit Maggie's door, it was like something dumped out of him. Like up to that point, someone else had been steering.
"When I saw them tied up… it's like somethin' switched."
He took a breath, finished off the last of his beer. Maggie didn't push. She'd gotten better at reading people since Levi showed up. She waited. Let him work through it.
"It wasn't even a choice. Just happened. Like my body already knew what needed doin'. Wasn't till just now I realized how dumb it was. Runnin' in like that… like a damn kid. That's how you get caught."
That was what had him rattled. Not the blood. Not the bodies.
The loss of control.
It scared him—how easy it was to slip.
How fast he went back to that feeling. The feeling that damn stitcher sowed into him.
Bang, bang, bang!
Both of them jumped.
A muffled voice rang through the door.
"Maggie! Jim wants everybody outside now!"
She immediately snapped to the intercom.
"Be right out!"
They both held their breath. Waited.
When the voice didn't return, they exhaled.
Maggie was already moving toward the door, her face covered in worry.
"What do we do?"
"Act normal. I came to find Jim, couldn't, so I came to you. You didn't believe me till they knocked. Sound good?"
"Sacrébleu… you bounty hunters are more pain than you are worth."
Levi gave a tired smirk, straightening his shirt.
"Just don't talk too much. If you can help it."
"Tsk."
She sneered, but nodded.
They stepped outside—and the switch flipped. Faces stiffened. Movements sharpened. Panic mode.
Didn't take long to spot the growing crowd around the demo warehouse.
Levi didn't need to ask what they were looking at.
He already knew.