A Fistful of Trouble (Outlaws of the Galaxy Book 2) Paul Tomlinson (reading strategies book .TXT) 📖

Danny glanced at his watch. “Almost auction time,” he said.

It was fifteen minutes to noon. “I haven’t seen any sign of the Mayor or the Colonel,” I said.

“Mayor’s probably inside finishing up the council meeting,” Danny said, jerking his head back towards the council house. “I doubt we’ll see the Colonel in person. He’ll probably send Casey.”

“I haven’t seen him either,” I said. “He should be easy to spot. Look for a man with his arm in a sling.”

Danny frowned. “What actually happened last night?”

“I’ll tell you about it over a drink later,” I said.

I hoped the Mayor had persuaded the town council to bid a good price for Floyd. I fully expected the Colonel to make the highest bid – he’d want to maintain his monopoly in bad-boy robots – and I wanted to take as much of the old man’s cash as I could. Harmony had said that she would join in the bidding to force the price up. But that wasn’t going to happen now. I would have to rely on the Mayor. My thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of the village idiots.

“What a collection of trash!” Deke said, sweeping his arm to take in Danny’s line-up of robots.

“That’s exactly what I was just thinking,” I said, staring at him and his compadres.

“We’ve got better robots than this on the scrap pile up at the Colonel’s place,” Deke said. “I wouldn’t give you a dollar for the whole lot of them.”

From the corner of my eye I saw Danny tense and the colour rose in his face. I had to hope that he didn’t do anything stupid – we were outnumbered.

“We could buy ‘em and use ‘em for target practice,” the one with the squint said. “Maybe give ‘em a head start and then hunt them down.”

Deke’s forehead creased as he gave this serious thought. He smiled. “All righty,” he said, “I will give you a dollar for them.” He dug in his pocket for the cash.

“Hate to disappoint you, Dick, but the one on the end already sold for a thousand dollars,” I said. I had no idea how much Madam Fifi was really paying, but it didn’t matter.

“The names Deke,” he said.

“I know that. Is it short for Deke-face or Deke-wad?” I asked.

One of the nameless stooges made hur-hur noises.

Deke’s hand hovered close to his gun. “I’m going to blow a hole in you big enough to put my head through.”

“Eww!” I said. “I don’t want your stinking head near any of my holes.”

Nobody laughed at that and I realised too late that I had pushed too far. Deke went for his gun but the guy with the squint grabbed his arm and restrained him.

“Don’t do it, Deke. You know what the Colonel said...”

Deke glared at me and then tried to spit on the ground near my boots. Most of the spit ended up down his chin.

“I bet if we pushed one of those robots, they’d all go down like dominoes,” Deke said, wiping his chin with the back of his hand.

He was right – I’d done that once. “All except the big blue one on the end,” I said.

Deke glanced towards Floyd and I saw a flicker of doubt on his face. He turned back to me and put his wrinkly features close to mine. I could smell apple and something like a bad burrito.

“You think that robot of yours is pretty hot squit, don’t you?” he said. “Wait until you see what the Colonel’s got coming in. They’ll pulverise that old tank.”

“Deke!”

The colour left Deke’s face. Casey was standing just behind him. I hadn’t seen him approach and neither had the stooges. His right arm was in a sling. A black sling.

“Get lost,” Casey said to Deke. “And keep your stupid mouth shut like you were told.”

Casey hadn’t raised his voice. But the temperature round-about seemed to have dropped a good few degrees. I saw Deke shiver, so he must have felt it too.

“Sorry, boss,” Deke said, looking down at his boots. He turned around and wandered away, the other stooges silently following him.

Casey stared at my face, taking in the cuts and bruises, a hint of a smile on his lips. There was a small purplish bruise low down on the curve of his chin, but otherwise his face was unmarked.

“How’s the arm?” I asked.

“Hurt like a bitch when they set it,” Casey said.

“Want me to sign your cast?”

“I’ll get your autograph on the robot’s papers later.”

“I’ll make the dot over the ‘i’ into a little heart,” I said.

Casey smiled. “You’re a smart man, Quincy. You should think about coming to work for the Colonel,” he said.

“That’d raise the average IQ of your gang,” I said.

“Don’t I know it,” Casey said. “Catch you later.” He turned and moved away but he didn’t wander far. He stood in the shadows near the butcher’s, the half-smile still on his lips.

The bell in the council house clock struck the hour. Auction time.

“Mayor’s here,” Danny said as the echoes of the bell faded.

As predicted, the Colonel was a no-show. Danny had been right about Casey representing the bad guys.

“I’ve never auctioned off a robot,” Danny said.

“Nothing to it,” I said. “I’ve done it dozens of times.”

“Always the same robot?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Always the same robot.”

Danny smiled. “You’re the biggest crook I ever met.”

“I would accept that as a compliment – if it was true,” I said. “But I know for a fact that you once met the biggest crook of them all.”

He frowned. “I’m sure I would have remembered that.”

“Her name was Harmony,” I said.

Realisation dawned. “She stole your heart.”

“She took a darned sight more than that.”

I placed a wooden crate on the ground and stood on it so I could shout over the heads of the shoppers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention please! The auction is about to begin!”

The babble of the crowd faded to a low murmuring and most faces turned our way. Danny brought