to fade before the Nedwut bodyguards turned their weapons on Pelarus, and a horde of Haedusian women surged toward the dais.
Chapter 23
Klara leaped to her feet as Harlex shouldered his way through the band of mutinous guards and tossed her a pulse rifle. Catching it easily, she swung the barrel around and aimed it at Pelarus’s heart. If indeed he had one.
“Get going,” she snapped. “Unless you want to die right here.”
The son of a bitch had the audacity to smile. “Oh, I don’t think that’s how this will play out, my dear. After all, I control this city and its resources.”
“Kinda slow on the uptake, aren’t you?” Klara motioned with the business end of the rifle. “Your time is over.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Given his total lack of dismay, Klara half expected him to sprout wings and fly.
Which is precisely what he did. He tossed off his richly embellished cloak, extended a pair of glistening wings, and took off.
“How could he possibly…” Klara was more than stunned as Pelarus soared over the stands. She was too flabbergasted to even aim her weapon at him. “Is he a Sympaticon or what?”
“The wings are a genetic modification,” Harlex said. “Keeps them hidden most of the time, though.”
Now that Klara thought about it, she’d never seen him wearing anything that wouldn’t have covered a large pair of wings. “How did you know about this…modification?”
The Nedwut shrugged. “Seen him in the swimming pool. Plus, he takes the occasional flight. If you’d ever had sex with him, you’d know about the wings.”
Somehow, Klara doubted that was a valid reason for actually sleeping with that sleazy bastard. “Why the devil didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugged again. “Figured you must have seen him flying around at some point. You should’ve shot him while you had the chance. I mean, I did give you a rifle.”
“Yeah, well, if I’d known about the wings, I would have.” She shook her head in disbelief. “I’ve lived here my entire life, and I’ve never seen anything in the sky that looked remotely like a man with wings.” She glared at Jaquet, whose smile was nearly as smug as Pelarus’s had been. “You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”
“His reaction was a distinct possibility.”
Klara really wanted to slap the arrogant little bird-woman now, although jamming a rifle butt in her belly would’ve been far more satisfying. “You’d better get lost before I do something I might regret.”
With a smirk and a twitter, Jaquet and her two sidekicks turned to go.
Klara grabbed Jaquet by the arm. “But before you do, any thoughts as to where Pelarus might have gone?”
Jaquet arched a brow. “Do you really think I would tell you?”
Harlex gave Klara a nudge. “Shoot her now and you can interrogate her later. That rifle is set on stun.”
Klara wanted to dial it up to Kill, but somehow managed to restrain herself. “That would take too long.” Besides, with Pelarus gone, her first priority was Moe.
She needn’t have worried. One glance toward the arena proved he was not only unharmed, neither were any of the others. “They all played dead?”
“Yeah,” Harlex replied. “We put the word out that pretending to die was a surefire ticket to freedom.” He nodded toward the arena entrance. “Looks like it worked.”
The prisoners were indeed taking the opportunity to escape, and the Nedwut guards standing by the outer gates weren’t lifting a finger to stop them. In fact, they were waving them on through.
“I’m guessing Pelarus is headed to the spaceport,” Harlex said. “No doubt he has a ship standing by.” With a sniff and a sigh, he added, “Probably keeps a lot of money on it too. Looks like getting rid of him won’t make the rest of us any better off.”
“He couldn’t have taken everything,” Klara insisted.
“Maybe not,” another guard said. “But rumor has it he keeps the bulk of his wealth in offworld accounts. All he has to do is get to a ship, and he’ll be home free.”
Klara stomped her foot. “That slimy bastard! We’ll have to catch him before he gets there.”
“Good luck with that,” Harlex said. “In case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t a speeder in sight, and he’s got one hell of a head start.”
Klara couldn’t argue with that, even if it did make her mad enough to rip someone’s head off. “We’ll just have to find one. Even if we don’t, Moe might be able to catch him.” If the cloud of dust in Moe’s wake was any indication, he