toward hers and leered at him. “How about it, Bennie? You want to save a grown-up for a change?”
“Fine,” Ben said, politely. “Do tell me when one comes in.”
Annileen laughed loudly.
At the sound of laughter at Veeka’s expense, Zedd surged forward. Like half the Gault farmhands, the bruiser thought the boss’s daughter lit the stars in the sky. With Mullen still at Ben’s feet with the tub, Zedd grabbed at the shopper’s shoulder in righteous indignation.
That was when it began.
Kallie entered through from the livery yard, to the right of the group. She carried the bantha prod from the Jabe incident, the latest in a series of items she was returning to the tack room in her ongoing effort to see Ben. She saw her dashing hero, all right—standing uneasily, with Veeka perched lasciviously on the counter with a leg on either side of him.
Stunned, infuriated, and long possessed of the view that the wrong Gault twin had died years earlier, Kallie raised the bantha prod. Seeing the hate in Kallie’s eyes, Annileen hurriedly grabbed Veeka’s collar. As her mother attempted to pull the young woman back from danger, Kallie snapped the prod in the direction of Veeka’s dangling right foot.
The next second passed quickly. Annileen saw Ben turn to avoid the prod, raising his right hand ever so slightly. It was that moment that the prod, which had a patented never-slip grip, flew from Kallie’s hand. Its electrified tip glanced harmlessly against the counter, missing Veeka’s boot—and somehow, also, Ben’s torso. He turned ninety degrees as the implement fell past his knees to where it finally came to rest: planted, vertically, into the metal tub that held the rest of Ben’s shopping.
A metal tub still being held by the hand of Mullen Gault.
Skraakkkt! With a crackling discharge, the device expended its entire energy supply in one tumultuous flash. Mullen screeched louder than the Settlers’ Call siren had ever sounded. Startled, Veeka fell backward into Annileen. The sudden weight of Veeka knocked her feet out from under her, and the two landed in a tangle on the floor behind the counter.
Annileen scrambled to extricate herself and rise. The first thing she saw across the counter was Zedd looking stupidly down at Mullen, writhing in agony on the floor. Snarling, Zedd charged Ben. The older, smaller man stepped lithely out of the way, sending the lumbering Zedd into a display of cans of whitewash. The collision wasn’t as loud as Mullen’s scream, but it was quite a bit messier.
Without a word, Ben turned, bowed slightly to Annileen and Kallie—the only others still standing—and slapped a pile of credits on the counter. He grabbed the loaded pillowcase and fled through the door to the livery yard.
Bewildered, Annileen hopped onto the counter and jumped to the other side, her boots just missing the writhing, weeping Mullen. Ben’s tub of purchases was still there, abandoned. She ran to the doorway, where Kallie was calling out after him.
But more chaos waited outside. Mullen’s electric screech seconds earlier had evidently placed the Jawas under the impression that a logra—a burrowing predator with a taste for the short merchants—had surfaced inside the store. Now they were ending all transactions and moving their goods back into the sandcrawler, to the frantic yells of dissatisfied customers. Two unrelated brawls had broken out.
And beyond, past the revving sandcrawler, Ben and Rooh rode off toward the desert. Flummoxed, Annileen started to follow, to alert him to his forgotten goods.
But Erbaly Nap’tee confronted her in the doorway first. “The little glow-eyed man told me to come talk to you,” the Nikto woman said. “Do you work here?”
CHAPTER TEN
ORRIN SPUTTERED AT THE comlink. “I told you not to call me with this garbage!”
He tilted his head back toward his landspeeder, trying to make the glance casual. The old man hadn’t overheard him. Wyle Ulbreck was still inside
“Fine,” Ben said, politely. “Do tell me when one comes in.”
Annileen laughed loudly.
At the sound of laughter at Veeka’s expense, Zedd surged forward. Like half the Gault farmhands, the bruiser thought the boss’s daughter lit the stars in the sky. With Mullen still at Ben’s feet with the tub, Zedd grabbed at the shopper’s shoulder in righteous indignation.
That was when it began.
Kallie entered through from the livery yard, to the right of the group. She carried the bantha prod from the Jabe incident, the latest in a series of items she was returning to the tack room in her ongoing effort to see Ben. She saw her dashing hero, all right—standing uneasily, with Veeka perched lasciviously on the counter with a leg on either side of him.
Stunned, infuriated, and long possessed of the view that the wrong Gault twin had died years earlier, Kallie raised the bantha prod. Seeing the hate in Kallie’s eyes, Annileen hurriedly grabbed Veeka’s collar. As her mother attempted to pull the young woman back from danger, Kallie snapped the prod in the direction of Veeka’s dangling right foot.
The next second passed quickly. Annileen saw Ben turn to avoid the prod, raising his right hand ever so slightly. It was that moment that the prod, which had a patented never-slip grip, flew from Kallie’s hand. Its electrified tip glanced harmlessly against the counter, missing Veeka’s boot—and somehow, also, Ben’s torso. He turned ninety degrees as the implement fell past his knees to where it finally came to rest: planted, vertically, into the metal tub that held the rest of Ben’s shopping.
A metal tub still being held by the hand of Mullen Gault.
Skraakkkt! With a crackling discharge, the device expended its entire energy supply in one tumultuous flash. Mullen screeched louder than the Settlers’ Call siren had ever sounded. Startled, Veeka fell backward into Annileen. The sudden weight of Veeka knocked her feet out from under her, and the two landed in a tangle on the floor behind the counter.
Annileen scrambled to extricate herself and rise. The first thing she saw across the counter was Zedd looking stupidly down at Mullen, writhing in agony on the floor. Snarling, Zedd charged Ben. The older, smaller man stepped lithely out of the way, sending the lumbering Zedd into a display of cans of whitewash. The collision wasn’t as loud as Mullen’s scream, but it was quite a bit messier.
Without a word, Ben turned, bowed slightly to Annileen and Kallie—the only others still standing—and slapped a pile of credits on the counter. He grabbed the loaded pillowcase and fled through the door to the livery yard.
Bewildered, Annileen hopped onto the counter and jumped to the other side, her boots just missing the writhing, weeping Mullen. Ben’s tub of purchases was still there, abandoned. She ran to the doorway, where Kallie was calling out after him.
But more chaos waited outside. Mullen’s electric screech seconds earlier had evidently placed the Jawas under the impression that a logra—a burrowing predator with a taste for the short merchants—had surfaced inside the store. Now they were ending all transactions and moving their goods back into the sandcrawler, to the frantic yells of dissatisfied customers. Two unrelated brawls had broken out.
And beyond, past the revving sandcrawler, Ben and Rooh rode off toward the desert. Flummoxed, Annileen started to follow, to alert him to his forgotten goods.
But Erbaly Nap’tee confronted her in the doorway first. “The little glow-eyed man told me to come talk to you,” the Nikto woman said. “Do you work here?”
CHAPTER TEN
ORRIN SPUTTERED AT THE comlink. “I told you not to call me with this garbage!”
He tilted his head back toward his landspeeder, trying to make the glance casual. The old man hadn’t overheard him. Wyle Ulbreck was still inside
Similar Books
