CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Lord Fragg waited expectantly as Squad 6 came running back, eagerly waving their guns. “Abe, sir! We’ve got Abe pinned down in that canyon!”
The Glukkon felt an unexpected and uncharacteristic rise of enthusiasm. “Good, good! Mow him down!”
“We’re trying to, sir!” The Slig made a motion indicating the box canyon. “There was a Wolvark a minute ago that was trying to kill him from down there with him, but Abe shot him –”
“Abe shot him?!” Fragg thundered. He put a hand to his forehead. “Oh, this can’t be good.”
“We just knocked him out with a grenade, sir.”
Fragg whirled around, eyes going wide. “Go on, then! Finish the job! Kill Abe – that’s what we came here for!”
The Slig nodded. “Right away, sir!”
Fragg watched as Squad 6 hustled back the way they had come, all of them eagerly chattering something about blowing Abe’s brains out the back of his head, about being promoted to the top of the barracks and becoming Slig generals. Fragg thought about it for a moment, then he hurried down after them; with these Sligs Glok had given him, you could never tell how competent they were going to be.
He stopped to grab someone’s binoculars before following the Sligs to the top of the hill. His heart beating madly in his chest at the thought of finishing his mission already, he lifted the glass to his eyes and looked down to the canyon floor.
There he was: Abe. Lying stunned on the canyon floor, with two other Mudokons lying beside him. Another pair were crouched beside them, both trying frantically to revive the unconscious ones. Fragg took great notice of the blood trickling from the shrapnel wounds in Abe’s back – and wondered, not for the first time in his life, why the terrorist’s skin was blue instead of green like the others.
He motioned down toward the Mudokons. “Charge!” he yelled. “Kill them all, now!”
“Right away, boss!”
All twelve in Squad 4 and another twelve from Squad 6 charged down the hill, raising their weapons high above their heads and roaring war cries. Fragg smiled as they went down; this would be a day to remember.
The day Abe died.
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