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

Mayor Bacon didn’t let him finish. “Scrack your investigation. I want my robot back. I paid two thousand dollars for that thing. Alliance dollars, mind you.”

“I’ll give you three thousand for it,” a voice called.

“Sold!” Mayor Bacon shouted, before anyone could argue or make a higher bid. He clapped his pudgy hands once and to my ears it sounded like a gunshot.

“Now, wait a minute,” Casey protested. He hadn’t been the one to bid three thousand dollars.

“Auction’s over. When it’s sold it’s sold,” a voice said. The man pushed his way through the crowd. Joe ‘Happy’ Hawkins, the robot trader. He looked up at me and smiled his green-brown smile. “Hello again, Quincy.”

I stepped down off the wooden box. How had things spiralled out of control so quickly? I dug into my jeans pocket for the remote control. My Plan B at this point was to reactivate Floyd and create some sort of diversion so that we could escape. I wished we’d left Floyd with his cannon in place of his left hand.

“Take that from him!” Happy Hawkins yelled, pointing and jabbing Sheriff Galton with his other elbow. “That’s what he uses to steal the robot.”

The sheriff stepped forward and held out his left hand, palm up. I looked down at the little remote, considering my options. Sheriff Galton’s right hand edged towards the gun at his hip. Without my even thinking about it, my fingers twitched and inched closer to my pistol. The sheriff shook his head very slightly. My shoulders sagged and I handed over the remote control. He reached down and took my gun.

“Don’t make me handcuff you in front of all these people,” he said. He had that disappointed look that your father gives you sometimes.

I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender. But I was still considering options. Or rather option. I could see only one way out. I had to create a distraction on my own. I had to get away and then come back and rescue Floyd. I’d lost the remote control, but Floyd and I always had a Plan B.

Deke and his cronies had reappeared, pushing to the front to get a better view of my downfall. Oh, the indignity of it. The gloating and taunts from his entourage and the smug look on his face just made me want to lash out angrily. Which was good, because that’s exactly what the plan called for.

I pulled my arm free of the sheriff’s grip and lunged towards Deke. I’d thought about headbutting him, but figured doing that to such a bone-head would do me more damage than him. I enjoyed the startled look on his face as my roundhouse punch connected with his jaw. He staggered sideways and back, almost ending up on his knees. My knuckles were going to ache like hell tomorrow morning. Assuming I survived this brawl.

Two of Deke’s crew hurled themselves towards me, fists at the ready. This is what I’d hoped for. More people would be drawn into the fight and the scene in the marketplace would be one of absolute chaos – offering me the perfect opportunity to make my escape. It always works in the movies.

Someone hit me from behind and everything went black.

I can only have been unconscious for a few seconds. A minute at most. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on my back in the marketplace. People were standing all around me looking down. I had difficulty focusing both eyes at the same time and the circle of pale faces looked distorted, as if I was seeing them through a goldfish bowl.

Sheriff Galton was standing over me. He seemed to have too many eyes and two moustaches were sliding backwards and forwards across his face. I blinked a few times and things settled down a bit. The sheriff was holding my pistol by its barrel. To add insult to injury, he’d whacked me over the head with my own gun.

“That was just stupid,” he said, shaking his head and giving me that disappointed look again.

I said it was a plan. I didn’t say it was a good plan. I struggled to sit up. I fought the urge puke and closed my eyes when the world started spinning around me.

“You’ve scrambled my brains,” I croaked.

“Son, I don’t believe you have the brains you were born with,” the sheriff’s gentle drawl wasn’t the least bit comforting. He reached down and helped me to my feet. When I threw up, I managed to miss his boots. Mostly.

Sheriff Galton cuffed my hands behind me. As he led me away, I glanced back over my shoulder. Happy Hawkins handed Mayor Bacon a stack of greasy-looking banknotes. Then he turned around so Mayor Bacon could rest the pink ownership papers against his back and sign them over. Among my many regrets at that moment was the fact that I hadn’t managed to punch either of them.

The good folk of Cicada City watched me go. Some of them were shaking their heads. Mayor Brennan looked stunned. Casey was confused. And Danny’s expression was one of dismay. Above the townspeople I could see Floyd’s new head and it struck me that he too had now been taken from me.

There was some sort of commotion going on somewhere to my left but my head hurt and I didn’t want to move it. My eyelids slowly covered my eyes – I didn’t want to be conscious any longer. As the darkness overcame me, I thought I heard a gunshot. Or it may have been a sneeze.

Chapter Fifteen

When I woke up, there was a young man sitting in the chair outside my cell. I thought at first it was Danny Maguire.

“You’re Danny’s cousin,” I said.

“Jed Cole,” he said, setting aside his comic book and getting to his feet. He was taller than Danny and furrier, but he had the same blond hair and dark blue eyes. “Our mothers are sisters,” he said. “Danny