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CHAPTER 21
JUST ANOTHER DAY BEHIND THE BAR
“Roll under the table, zip up your jacket, and stay down no matter what.”
“Wha–”
“Be ready, Lia… Now!”
Dargus’ weight left her, and Emilia was suddenly alone on the carpeted floor amid a shootout. The Wild-West-meets-Star-Wars style.
Her body moved on autopilot following Dar’s whispered instructions. Good thing it did, because a burning hole appeared on the carpet close to where she had just been. That got her out of the stupor. She zipped up her jacket while keeping herself as glued to the floor under the table as possible.
Dar knows what he’s doing, Dar knows–
“Dar!” she screamed as she saw green plasma bolts flying towards him.
The courageous idiot was running towards the enemy fire, dodging, jumping over tables, and shooting with his tiny pulser. Couldn’t he see the bad guys had big-ass blasters? He was as agile as a jungle cat but–
She screamed again as a plasma bolt hit him mid-jump, sending him tumbling along with a table. “Dar!”
Oh, my God, is he… dead?Sharp pain pierced her chest at the thought.
A four-fingered hand rose from behind the fallen table, pulser resuming fire.
Thank God!Dar was still alive and sending bolts of white light with remarkable precision, one of the baddies already down.
But the remaining four were shooting like mad, partially hidden behind upturned tables. All the other clients – those not killed at the beginning – were hiding like her, or trying but failing to get out from under the non-budging tent flap. No one was attempting to help Dar. Her man was alone against the criminals.
Hell no.
Emilia looked around, desperate to find a weapon she could use. Getting out to find help was obviously not an option, the baddies having used a high-tech way to block anyone from leaving through the tent flap. You’d think the robot bartender would call the authorities automatically, but the tin can was partially lying over the bar, out of commission, and–
The bar!That was something she could work with.Ifshe got there in one piece.
She looked again towards the far end of the restaurant. Three criminals were still up and shooting, their focus entirely on taking Dar out. He had progressed several tables closer to them already.
Hold on, Dar, help is coming.Hopefully. Here we go…
Emilia began army-crawling out of her hiding spot and towards the nearest table. Then the next. And the next. No one fired at her, but that didn’t stop her from feeling like a bug about to be pinned.
“Give up, Luvian! You’re outnumbered.”
“Yessss, your female shall be ourssss either way. Sssave yourself.”
What? They wantme?What was it with aliens wanting a piece of her?
Well, I’ll give them a piece, all right. See if they’ll like it.
She got up from under the last table and ran the few remaining steps to the bar, bent in half. She heard yells, hissing, and sizzling, but nothing stopped her mad dash for the most familiar thing to her in space.
The bar looked the same as a human one, save for the brands on the bottles and the disturbing colors of some liquids. Oh, and the metal rectangle of a robot on the premises. As well as the three female Cyclops in flimsy matching outfits hiding behind the bar.
The alien women were hugging each other on the floor, the single eye of each mirroring the fear in Emilia’s eyes. But she was not going to let herself be abducted again. Not without a fight.
She peeked over the robot’s back. Dar was almost upon the baddies, hidden two tables away from them but no longer firing. His pulser was back on his hip, perhaps out of juice, and the baddies were turning his cover into target practice. They’d advance on him any moment now.
Unless he was given an opening to advance on them first.
