Under Two Moons

Начало книги

The bolt of flame from the gun hissed by, twenty millimeters from his nose.

There was silence, and then the door opened behind him. Light footsteps approached, muffled by the fine, deadly dust on the floor. Gull craned to see the person approaching, but he was tied too tightly for that.

“You are most foolhardy, Meesta Gull’” said the girl’s soft voice. “I beg you, do not drop the fuse again or I must resort to more ‘arsh methods.” And from the corner of his eye Johan Gull saw her slim figure swiftly stoop to recover the half-meter length of rubbery plastic fuse-cord.

As she attempted to jam it into his mouth again he jerked his head aside and managed to ask, “Why are you doing this?”

“Why?” There was the soft hint of a laugh in her voice. “Ah, why indeed!” She caught his head in the crook of an arm and, surprisingly strong, held it still. He felt the stiff strand thrust between his teeth, tasted again the acrid chemical flavor. When she had done the same thing before he had been able to spit the fuse out before she could ignite it. She did not chance his dropping it again; her flame-gun hissed, and the end of the fuse began to sizzle with a tiny green spark.

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