Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
The new voice at the doorway of the small room Gr’ub and Bug’ger had dragged me to, made me jerk my head up. It must be Vik’tor—somehow he had tracked me down!
But it wasn’t Vik’tor at all, though the long, sallow face was immediately familiar. My heart sank as I saw it was R’xs—my pimp—standing in the doorway and holding a blaster in one hand.
“Who’re you?” Gr’ub asked.
“That doesn’t concern you,” R’xs hissed. “All you need to know is that you’ve got my property and now you’re going to give her back. Now.”
“But we found her, fair and square!” Bug’ger declared, half rising from the chair he was sitting in.
“Bug’ger’s right—she’s ours by right!” Gr’ub protested.
“Well, if you want to fight about it…” Suddenly R’xs had a blaster in his hand. He pumped the trigger twice and both of the vagrants who had grabbed me clutched at their chests. Bug’ger slumped over the table and Gr’ub fell to the floor, twitching and moaning.
“There now.” R’xs re-holstered his weapon and gave me his humorless grin. “That takes care of them, doesn’t it, Natalie my sweet?”
If it had been anyone else but my pimp, I would have felt incredibly relieved. But as it was, I sort of felt like I had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, as my Granny would have said.
“How…how did you find me?” I asked, licking my lips nervously. Though of course I already knew.
“I got a call saying you’d run off.” R’xs glared at me, the grin dropping from his face as he re-holstered his blaster. “That’s not good, Natalie—running away in the middle of a job. Especially with such an important client.”
“But I didn’t run away!” I said quickly. “Honestly, R’xs—”
He slapped me hard across the face.
“Shut up, whore! Don’t lie to me!”
“But…but I’m not…not lying!” I gasped, my head ringing. My face was throbbing where he’d hit me but I had to defend myself!
At that moment a buzzing sound came from the pimp’s pocket. R’xs raised a finger for silence and pulled out his communications device—which looked sort of like a cellphone from Earth, except it had a holographic display instead of a screen.
Flipping the device open, he pressed a button. Immediately, a holo the size of my fist appeared, hovering over the display area. It was Ass-licks, I saw without surprise, and from what I could see of his face, he looked extremely agitated.
“Well, did you find her?” he demanded, glaring at R’xs.
“Yes, your Lordship.” R’xs nodded. “I did just as you said—I took the fastest crawler I could find and I got right to her. You were right—she’s run clean to Gaz’snx! But don’t worry—I plan to punish her right proper.”
A long, silver knife appeared in the other hand—one with an edge sharp enough to peel a face right off a skull.
I felt like someone had dumped a whole bowl if ice cubes into my stomach as I watched the pimp play with that knife. Was it the same one he’d used on poor Ger’tha?
“Yes, yes, I know,” Ass-licks snapped. “Listen, the situation has changed considerably since the last time I talked to you.”
“Oh?” R’xs frowned. “How’s that, your Lordship?”
“It’s no longer enough for you to punish her and trade her away to another pimp,” Ass-licks told him. “I need her killed and I want her body disposed of very carefully—no one must ever find it!”
“What?” R’xs frowned. “But your Lordship, she’s a good earner! The only hsh’frux whore I got!”
“Never mind about that—I’ll pay her entire contract!” Ass-licks exclaimed. “Just kill her and hide the body!”
A look of understanding dawned on R’xs’s sallow face.
“Hey, she’d didn’t run off on her own, did she? You sent her here, didn’t you?”
“What does it matter if I did?” Ass-licks demanded. “She’s a bad influence on the Baron—a very bad influence! I had to get rid of her!”
“You won’t get away with this, Ass-boy!” I shouted, finally finding my voice. “Vik’tor won’t let you!”
“Is that her?” the hologram of Ass-licks demanded.
“Yes, it is, your Lordship,” R’xs purred. “But I’m very much afraid my prices have just gone up.”
“What? What are you talking about?” Ass-licks demanded.
“I’m saying I can do what you want—I can kill the little hsh’frux and get rid of the body,” R’xs told him. “Nothing would give me greater pleasure than carving her into tiny, bloody pieces. But it’s going to cost you more than the total worth of her contract.”
“How dare you extort me, you scum?” Ass-licks snarled. “How much do you want, anyway?”
“At least three times the cost of her contract,” R’xs said decisively. “And that’s more than fair—it’s at least as much as the Baron would pay to get her back alive, I bet!”
“Oh…very well!” Ass-licks snapped, glaring at the pimp. “But you’d better hide the body where no one will ever find it!”