<div class="floatright">(http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/e3/76/a4/e376a43209d1d3ea7f5b159a29e8a2f9.jpg)</div>"Nonsense.  She can handle it," he responded into the ship's intercom.  "Can't you, girl?" he added, lovingly brushing his hand over the ship's console.  Jules had often joked about the fact that the<em>Ellie May</em>was really who Walter was married to, and that she was just his mistress.   He certainly seemed to go into conniption fits whenever she ended up scratching the paint job or landed too roughly.<br/><br/>"Yep, that's him alright," he added, to Kenzie in the copilot's chair next to him.  "Sneaky sonuvabitch, tried to mimic the heat signature of a meteor.  Would've worked, too, if I hadn't seen his engine blowback."<br/><br/>He kept one eye on the radar--the moving dot that indicated their quarry was moving, just as the fiery speck was moving outside the viewport.   The<em>Ellie May</em>was gaining, rapidly approaching the target.  As they grew closer, Reynolds could see that it was a sloop--slightly bigger than the<em>Ellie May</em>, but nowhere near as nimble.<br/><br/>Suddenly, the sloop shot forward as its engines flared, all manner of pretense gone as it realized it was being followed.  It tried evasive maneuvers, but Black was ready for it, and, with Kenzie's help, pursued the rogue ship like a bloodhound on the trail of a fox.<br/><br/>"Jules, I'm gonna need you on the gun," he said, into the intercom again.  "Just in case."   He was referring to the swiveling 13-inch cannon, mounted underneath the belly of the cutter.  The cannon could be rotated a full 360 degrees to fight off pursuers as well as prey.<br/><br/>He pulled the mouthpiece from its place on the bulkhead as he switched to transmit mode.  "Jethro McClean, this is Walter Black, the captain of the<em>Ellie May</em>.  You can't outrun us, and we have you in our crosshairs.  I get double the bounty if I bring you in alive, so that's what I'm fixin' to do.  You make it hard on us, though, I got no problem with haulin' your dead carcass in instead."<br/><br/>He waited.  After a few seconds, a voice came back on the radio transmitter.  "Kiss my grits, Black!"<br/><br/>Walter shook his head.  "Kenz, bring us in close.  Watch out if he tries to ram us.   Jules, fire away.  Aim for the engines.  Try to disable 'em without blowin' 'em up if you can."