Authors: Cheryl Brooks
"Yeah, and then turned me over to the Nedwuts," he scoffed. "Listen, I've trusted the locals on other planets before, and believe me, between bribes and Nedwut intimidation, they usually crumble pretty fast."
"I didn't," Drusilla reminded him.
"Yes, but you love me," he said, surprised that he could say it so easily and with such conviction. "There's a difference."
"Yeah, I do," she sighed. "Hey, I've got to get back. Jack told me not to dawdle, but I can't go back without some thing." She began to form a thought in her mind, and shouted, "Klog!—oh, there you are. Don't guess there's any reason to tell you," she said as Klog suddenly appeared at her side and handed over a bundle of knives of all shapes and sizes. They might have been intended for cooking, but perhaps the guys could throw them at the Nedwuts if nothing else. "Thanks, Klog," she said gratefully. "You're a prince."
"See you soon, Manx," she called out. "I love you. Don't forget that."
"I won't. Be careful."
"You too."
***
Hustling across the patio to the shelter of the trees with her bundle, Drusilla fell in with her cohorts. "Manx is here, but they've got him trapped downstairs. He's got my pistol, but I brought these. Are any of you good with knives?"
Leo chuckled. "You could say that," he replied.
"He once threw a sword a good thirty meters and killed a guy galloping away from him on horseback," said Tisana, knowing that Leo would never say it. "I'm pretty sure he could take out some Nedwuts with these."
"He was about to run you down, Tisana," Leo said. "I think that had something to do with my aim."
"Why didn't we think of that?" demanded Jack, smacking her temple with the heel of her hand. "We've got knives in the galley."
"We don't have any like these," Leo said, holding up a blade that was surely intended for skewering a wild boar. "Unless you count our swords, and they were confiscated."
"Obviously we should have more cooks on our side," Jack said dryly. "Damn, that's a helluva knife."
Leo tested the edge with his thumb. "Sharp, too," he
remarked. "I can throw the smaller ones, but this one would be better for close combat."
"Against a pulse rifle?" Tisana scoffed. "Surely you don't mean that."
Cat grinned. "We know a great many defenses against such weapons," he assured her. "You have not seen all that we are capable of."
"Okay, enough with the testosterone fest," Jack said, waving her hand for emphasis. "What we need is a plan."
"We could circle around and come up behind them," suggested Leo. "If I could get a clear aim, I could throw the knives."
"Yes, but in a jungle you won't get a clear shot."
"Plenty of natural cover, though."
"Yes, but there's plenty of stuff to step on and trip over too," Jack pointed out. "You'd have to be really stealthy."
Cat rolled his eyes and looked at her witheringly. "We are cats, remember?"
"You are, but we aren't," Jack said, indicating the other women. "What are we supposed to do? Draw their fire?"
"That's actually a good idea," Tisana said. "With my powers, we aren't completely defenseless. I could—"
Just then Max the dog came bounding up out of the depths of the jungle.
"I thought I'd never find you guys!"
he complained, panting heavily.
"I know where the Nedwuts are!"
"Are they all together?"
Tisana asked her pet.
"Sort of," Max reported. "They're spread out through the trees by the lake."
"And we already know which direction they're coming from,"
Tisana mused.
"How many are there?"
"Nine," Max replied. "But one of them seems to be hurt."
"I guess Manx must have gotten one,"
she reflected. "
So, they outnumber us."
"What's he saying?" Leo asked.
Tisana gave them Max's reconnaissance report. "We need a diversion," she said, "something to draw their attention away from the rear so you guys can sneak up behind them."
"That shouldn't be too hard," Drusilla said without hesitation. "I'm supposed to be living here, remember? All I have to do is walk across the beach."
"You might be captured," Leo pointed out.
"I don't care if they do capture me if it will save Manx," Drusilla declared.
Jack grinned. "Spoken like a woman in love with a Zetithian."
"Don't worry, we'll cover you," Tisana said. "Here, you'll want one of these," she added, handing Drusilla a small green stone mounted on a clip.
"Jewelry? At a time like this? What am I supposed to do with it? Use it as a bribe?"
"No, it's a comstone," Tisana replied, laughing. "No one ever suspects what it is, so they don't know we can communicate with it. Just tap it and call out the name of whoever you want to talk to."
"It's just a rock, isn't it?" Drusilla said, marveling at the simplicity. "How on earth does it work?"
Tisana shrugged. "No one knows. We bought them on Darconia. They come in real handy sometimes."
"I'll bet they do," Drusilla said, clipping the stone to her shirt. She just wished there was one of them on Manx.
Chapter 19
ARMED WITH KNIVES, LEO AND DAT DIRDLED AROUND TO THE west to come up behind the Nedwut position, making more noise than Manx would have, perhaps, but with considerably more stealth than a Nedwut. At last their quarry was in sight. The Nedwuts were ranged along the edge of the jungle that faced the western shore of the lake, with the house in full view.
Meanwhile, the three women had moved further to the west to try and spot the Nedwuts from the front. Jack's eyesight was keen and she was able to locate some of them holding their position among the trees.
"Do you see them, Tisana?" Jack asked quietly.
"Not really," Tisana whispered back. "My eyes aren't as good as yours."
"There are two of them standing beside that big tree," she went on, pointing them out.
Tisana followed Jack's line of sight, seeing nothing but the trees. "I still don't see them," she said, shaking her head.
"Drop a tree limb on them and you'll see them quick enough," Jack suggested.
Focusing her gaze on a low, heavy limb, Tisana burned through it within mere moments and it fell, crashing down on the two unsuspecting Nedwuts standing beneath it.
"Bingo!" Jack remarked. "You're getting better at that, Tisana."
"Practice makes perfect," Tisana said with a smile. "Plus, I seem to be getting better with age."
"Ha! Aren't we all?" Hoping that the Nedwuts might assume that the tree falling on them was a natural occur rence, Jack pointed out another foe further on up the tree line.
"They'll get suspicious if I do it again, don't you think?" said Tisana.
"Probably," Jack admitted. "Get ready, Drusilla. As soon as the guys are in position, I want you to stroll casu ally around the house and head down toward the lake."
"And then what?" Drusilla asked.
"I don't know," said Jack. "I'm making this up as I go along." Noting Drusilla's horrified expression, she added, "Okay, then, just head for the dock like you don't know there's anything to worry about. You can always take off in the boat if they start shooting at you, but I really don't think they will."
"Wish I shared your optimism," Drusilla said. "If they've been shooting at Manx, how will they ever believe I don't know they're there?"
"Good point," said Tisana. "She wouldn't be that stupid."
Jack rolled her eyes. "This is a
diversion,
Tisana. It doesn't have to make sense."
"Well, that's a relief, because it doesn't."
"Trust me, it'll work." Jack wasn't sure how it would play out, but it would certainly get the Nedwut's attention.
Leo and Cat moved in to collect the Nedwut rifles while their owners struggled to free themselves from the tangle of vines and branches. "Not bad, Tisana," Leo said over his comstone. "You got two of them."
It was a useful addition to their arsenal, but it also served to alert the Nedwuts to their presence. "They have taken our—"
The Nedwut's cry of alarm was cut off by a heavy stun beam. "That should keep them quiet for a while," Leo said.
"I am wondering what they were waiting for," said Cat.
"Us?" Leo suggested.
"But how could that be if they did not know we were here?"
Leo shrugged. "Well, they do now."
"Jacinth," Cat said, tapping his comstone. "You have not told us everything, have you?"
Jack took a deep breath. "Okay, okay, okay! I sent Veluka out to tell them we were here so we could trap them. I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick and tired of having to kill every Nedwut on sight. I want to find out who's paying the bounty and put an end to this. I doubt that it could be a Nedwut; they don't have that kind of money—their planet is notoriously poor, which is why they're such thieving, trouble-making bastards, and why they do a fair amount of bounty hunting. There's got to be someone else holding a grudge against Zetith and I want to find out who it is."
"There were several worlds making war on my planet," Cat said grimly. "It was not just one person or entity."
"Which ones?"
"We never knew, but there were different ships and different beings in the war."
"And you'd never seen a Nedwut outside of the vision you had that they destroyed the planet."
"Yes, but—"
"Didn't you think that was strange?"
"Perhaps."
"Did it ever occur to any of you that you were being attacked not by many different worlds, but by different bands of mercenaries that someone hired?"
"That would explain some things," he admitted, "but not why."
"I already know why, or at least suspect it," Jack said. "This wasn't a war to gain wealth or territory; it was an extermination, otherwise why destroy the whole planet? They tried attacking you on the ground and from the air, right?"
"Yes," Cat said, not quite sure what she was getting at.
"But you guys put up such a stiff fight, they had to do something more decisive to kill all of you, so they came up with a way to obliterate the planet. Then they put a bounty on the survivors to make sure your kind was completely eradicated. I just want to find out who that exterminator was."
Leo's head jerked up as he heard a movement in the underbrush. "They are moving this way."
"Let them come," said Cat. "We have weapons now, and Jacinth is right. This needs to end."
Crouching behind a fallen tree, the two Zetithians waited until the sounds moved closer. The Nedwuts were stealthy, but the jungle footing was against them. A twig snapped nearby and, with a quick, mutual nod of agreement, Cat and Leo sprang up and fired.
Three Nedwuts dropped in a dusty, smelly heap.
"These are good rifles," Cat remarked, thoughtfully examining his weapon. "I believe I would like to keep one."
"If the Baradans don't confiscate it," said Leo, "it's all yours."
Cat grinned. "We do not have to tell them everything."
"Larry was right. You and Jack probably
will
end up in the slammer."
"They have to catch us first," said Cat. Tapping his comstone, he called for his wife.
"How many did you get?" Jack asked eagerly.
"Three," Cat reported. "That's five down and four to go and we have plenty of weapons now."
"Better odds than we had before," said Jack. "Okay, Drusilla is going to create a diversion. Get ready to shoot anything that moves."
***
When Xentondu saw Drusilla walking blithely toward the beach, he recognized her immediately as their best leverage against one particular opponent who had eluded them for a very long time. Taking advantage of the natural cover, he moved closer and then began to sprint across the sand.
"Holy shit!" Jack exclaimed as she watched the bold move begin. "Get him, Tisana!"
Leveling her gaze, Tisana shot a ball of fire from her eyes that exploded in the sand just ahead of the Nedwut bounty hunter, who, though momentarily shaken, began running a zigzag pattern. Pulse beams from Cat and Leo's weapons sprayed the area, one singeing the Nedwut's arm, but none of them stopped him.
Drusilla made a dash for the corner of the house in hopes that she might make it to the shelter of the beach room and, therefore, Manx's arms, but Xentondu was too quick for her and she was grabbed roughly from behind just as she turned the corner. The stench of his breath was sickening and his hairy arms gripped her like a vise. Then the barrel of his pistol smacked up against the side of her head, causing her to see stars.
"Surrender your weapons," he roared, "or the female dies!"
Cat and Leo held their fire, fearing to harm Drusilla, but had no intention of surrendering just yet.
Manx heard the scuffle and saw Drusilla with the Nedwut weapon pointed at her head and knew that if Drusilla died, there would be no reason for him to live. Stepping out onto the beach, he took careful aim.
"Let her go," Manx growled.
As Xentondu spun around, the pulse beam from Manx's pistol heading right for his nose was the last thing the Nedwut saw. Xentondu dropped in his tracks and Manx seized Drusilla, pulling her to safety as the other Nedwuts sprayed the area with pulse beams.
"I told you not to come down here!" Manx said, trying to sound angry, but failing miserably.
Drusilla made a muffled, inarticulate noise against his chest.
"What?" he said, reluctantly releasing his tight grip on her.
"I can't breathe!"
"I feel as if I haven't been breathing since I left you," said Manx as he leaned in for a kiss. He drank in her scent as he tasted her lips and was immediately lost in a maelstrom of delight as the effects of Tisana's potion bombarded his senses. Spearing his fingers through her hair, he pulled her even closer to him, vowing never to let her go again.