CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
Abe sat crouched in his cell, his head bowed between his knees in a gesture he faintly recognized as one of despair. The stone walls chilled his spine, and the lack of heat made his toes go numb one by one, but he really didn’t care. He was too busy counting the cracks in the floor. Too busy wondering how the Sligs had made the mortar.
Thinking about anything but what he was doing now.
He had made a total mess of this mission. He’d been unable to kill Fragg – who was now king of Glukksonia – and he’d been unable to find the Bringer of Pain before being captured by those two blasted bounty hunters. He had never failed before.
But now, he was failing catastrophically. And it was really bugging him.
He wondered where Alf, Lowrn, Grunn, and Ferg were. If he knew them well enough, probably hiding for their lives.
* * *
Alf whistled in admiration. “This is quite an army you’ve got.”
Chief Andy shrugged his massive shoulders. “It enough. That all that matters.”
“I suppose so,” Alf agreed.
Chief Andy’s tribe – the Mudankas or something like that – were quite a large tribe, as revealed by their army. Three hundred Tomahawkers and four hundred Mudarchers had mowed their way through all the weakling Slig border patrols they had encountered on their way through No Muds’ Land, and not a single Mud had been lost.
Alf wondered if the Sligs in Mantin City knew what they were in for. Those dirty security forces had actually captured Abe – at least, according to Jake – and Alf intended to make them pay dearly for that offense. No one had held Abe prisoner before, and hopefully no one would ever be able to do so once the Mudanka army mowed the industrialists down.
* * *
Abe had to smile. Yeah, Alf and Co. were probably running back to the Mudokon village right now, trying not to get caught.
The sound of the cell door squealing open alerted his attention, and he looked up from between his knees. It was a pair of BigBro Slig security guards, holding their DonnerPacker rifles in one hand as they opened the door with the other.
Between them stepped the massive, fearsome, and unmistakable shape of a Steef. The Steef that had captured him.
Abe’s lip twisted as he rose to his feet. “What do you want?”
“To…talk with you.” The Steef’s voice was deep, coming from his huge barrel chest. “Discuss…things.”
“The only talking I intend to do is with my fists,” Abe spat.
The Steef snorted. “Then you’re a big…fool. A Mudokon fool.”
Abe held up his two fists. “These two fists have killed more Sligs than you have eaten meals.”
“I…doubt that.”
“I don’t. Not for a second,” Abe growled. “What do you want to discuss?”
“Terms…of release.”
Abe’s forehead wrinkled. “Release terms? What do you mean?”
The Steef shrugged. “If you’re…not interested in leaving, I can –”
“I’m quite interested in leaving,” Abe interrupted quickly. “What did you have in mind?”
“You…pay me. A lot.” The bounty hunter grinned broadly. “And I help you get out…of this cell. I’ll help you…kill Fragg.”
Abe didn’t see very clear motives here. Why bring him into the cell, if he was just going to betray Fragg later? “But why?” he asked.
“I’m inside…the biggest industrialist fortress…on Oddworld,” the Steef said. “They…trust me. Sort of. Why not…use that to my advantage?”
“Do you hate industrialists?” Abe said. When he got a nod, Abe shrugged. “What have they done to you?”
“Not just…to me,” the Steef said. “To…all of us. They’re nothing…but a plague on this land. A…blight.”
He extended one huge hand. “They call me…Stranger. The Stranger.”
Abe took the big Steef hand with both of his own. “I’m with you…Stranger.”
* * *
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