CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Urchyn McAvi checked the power charge on his gun. Seven hundred and fifty laser bolts were ready to be blasted at whoever got in his way. Next he checked his supply of grenades. Three fragmentation and one poison gas. He did a quick checkup on his breathing mask, area scanner, radio, missile launcher, boot rockets, and stealth booster. All functional.
The bounty hunter nodded to himself as he crossed over the hill. It was his equipment that had served him well all these years, even if his clients had sometimes proved to be unworthy. His muscles had failed him occasionally and his mind had grown close to snapping from the mental exhaustion of the stupid beings he was constantly surrounded by, but his equipment had never failed him.
He figured Lord Fragg wouldn’t be that hard to catch up with. It was not so hard to find that the Glukkon was on his way to the Mudokon village to kill Abe, and McAvi knew that his boot rockets could propel him across the land much faster than Fragg’s Slig army could march. Even if his boots grew close to overheating quickly, the solar panels that powered his rockets would recharge faster than a Slig could sleep off his exhaustion.
He twirled his carbine in an almost idle fashion. He wasn’t an idle kind of Wolvark, but when he was walking around in the region known as No-Muds-Land, with nothing but rock and dirt and mud as far as the naked eye could see, he tended to get a little bored. He regaled himself with thoughts of collecting the $12,500 when he returned from killing Lord Fragg.
That was when he heard the gunshots from somewhere close nearby.
Urchyn McAvi was not at all scared at the thought of other people close by with guns. Instead, he figured there might be a bounty on a couple of these people, and since he was a bounty hunter by trade, he could make a little extra moolah along the way.
He turned and activated his boot jets, rocketing toward the source of the sound.
* * *
Lord Fragg felt a brand new surge of pride that he had mechanically enhanced the length of his natural legs, because it allowed him to cover a lot of ground at a decent speed, faster than any other Glukkon alive. With their mechanical strength added to his own, he was also able to keep himself on the march as long as any of the gruff Slig minions marching around him.
All the Sligs were splattered with mud and caked with dust from the long march across No-Muds-Land, but they managed to retain a sense of eagerness. The reason for that behavior probably stemmed out of a desire to kill the terrorist Abe, when no one else had been able to do that for the thirty years Abe had been a threat.
Fragg didn’t mind their enthusiasm; as long as it inspired them, he was all right with it. It helped his soldiers keep their minds on the task at hand, and soldiers who were happy about their task would always be much more willing to accept his orders, as long as they led toward the objective. Killing Abe seemed to be a popular undertaking for all the Sligs.
“Soon, Abe,” the Glukkon whispered. “You’ll be out of the way. I’ll have the political status I need to put Glok out of his place. I don’t have to us MeechCo to become emperor of Glukksonia.”
That was when he heard the gunshots.
He threw up one hand, shouting, “Halt!”
The huge Slig army came to a sudden stumbling stop, all turning toward the sound of the shots. They were four sharp notes, ringing over the sound of Slig legs squealing.
Fragg motioned toward one of the Slig commanders. “You, take a squad up and check out what’s going on.”
“Yes sir!” The Slig gestured to his troops. “Squads 4 and 6, move out. 4 will pacify the situation while 6 scouts out the lay and reports back to us.”
The Sligs threw hasty salutes and hustled off to do his bidding.
* * *
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