Charlie banked hard to the left. Sweat poured down his face. And the sirens had him constantly scanning the rearview. His lip twitched. Easy job, she’d said. The pay just happened to be what he needed to get off this swamp infested rat trap of a planet. Just pick up the package and deliver it. And, oh yeah, don’t let the package bite you. That should have been a clue.

Charlie stole a glance at the package. It tilted its head up and blinked with large black eyes. A fur ball, with sharp claws and sharper teeth. Thankfully, he hadn’t found out how sharp yet.

Just get it to the drop off point.

He careened around a corner and slammed on the brakes. A barricade! Had Josephine skipped paying the arrangement this month? Charlie slammed his foot on the accelerator and threw the car into reverse.

Lights and sirens came at him. Pinned on both sides. Even if Josephine had missed two payments, the locals would never work this hard. Although he had held up the foreign customs to relieve them of the package. But he hadn’t shot anyone, had barely pointed the gun at them. No, this level of gumption had the mark of one man. A shiver of disgust rippled through Charlie.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that, Reiter,” Charlie shouted out the window. The fur ball cocked its head at him as if sizing him up.

Charlie cackled and slammed the accelerator, driving full speed toward an alley definitely skinnier than the width of the car. He tried to block out the squeaks of protest coming from the passenger seat as he gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles went white.

“Don’t worry, fur ball. I’ve done this before.”

At the last possible second, before the very solid brick buildings making up the sides of the alley ripped the car to pieces, Charlie pumped the gas and the brake at the same time and leaned to the left. The right side of the car popped up and the right wheels rolled along the wall, scraping their way through the alley. Not his car, not his problem.

The drop was only minutes from here.

Radio static grew louder. “Don’t even think of coming back if you can’t catch him!”

The hysterical voice floated on the breeze and Charlie grinned larger than maybe he should have, but the sound of Reiter twelve shakes passed furious was like taking a sip of sweet, sweet tonic. He couldn’t think of a time Reiter had come on this strong. Maybe he knew Charlie was inches from ditching this pox generator for good.

He grinned at the fur ball, but his smile fell as the smelly thing sprouted furry ears and hovered over the seat like a baby, furry helicopter.

“What’s this?” Charlie asked, never a fan of the unexpected.

The alley narrowed, and the car screeched to a stop.

“Did you see that coming?”

The fur ball hovered close to the open window and looked back.

“Don’t do that.” Charlie reached out, and the fur ball barred its teeth. “Don’t go out that window.”

The creature didn’t take its eyes off him as it helicoptered right out the window.

“Jesus wept.”

Movement in the rearview caught Charlie’s eye. Riot police with shields up coming in hot from both directions. Charlie lunged for the fur ball again and again missed. He could not watch his ticket off this rotting corpse of a planet just buzz away. He sprang out of the car, stood on the tipped edge of the door and jumped up, seizing a window ledge.

“Stop.” He screamed at the fur ball.

“Stop!” the riot police echoed back at him.

The fur ball continued to climb.

“Do you have any idea how much money you’re worth?” Charlie shouted as he climbed faster than he had in years.

The fur ball stopped, maybe to rest, maybe to watch a cat. He didn’t care which, but Charlie threw himself through the air at the creature. If he missed, he’d fall several stories and at best break both legs and at worst, well, you know.

His hands locked on course fur, and then the fur ball took flight again. How this creature that seemed to weigh ten pounds could fly a grown man through the air Charlie could not comprehend. Wild shouts from below made it to his ears, and he considered laughing but stopped because he realized he was, in fact, acutely terrified.

He gripped the fur ball tighter, but not too tight as they sailed over the drop building.

“We need to go there!” Charlie pleaded, but the fur ball did not slow down. In fact, it picked up speed.

The concentration of sirens and radio static faded behind him. Charlie’s arms ached, but they were too high for him to let go without this being his last flight on anything. The fur ball picked up speed toward the harbor. The fetid, stagnant harbor.

“Please don’t drop me there.” But Charlie knew as sure as he knew his own name that was the fur ball’s plan.

As soon as they were over water, the creature leaned down and sank its teeth into first one hand, then the other. Charlie’s muscles contracted and his hand released, independent of any request from his brain. The fall seemed to take forever.

And as he fell, Charlie thought of only one thing. “How am I going to catch that fur ball again?”