Cat and Company Read Free Page A

shot.”
    “Try your second best.”
    “Right.” Brant stepped closer to Bedivere, swinging his right fist in a roundhouse to the jaw. Bedivere reacted as anyone would. He twisted to his right, moving his head out of the way. That opened him up to Brant’s left fist. He jabbed hard, straight at Bedivere’s throat. The blow was hard enough to crush his larynx. Brant didn’t wait to check results. As Bedivere made a choking sound he stepped around his folding body and leapt for the other edge of the pad.
    “Now!” he said sharply.
    The oblong metal object came arcing out of the jostling audience, high over any heads, heading directly for Brant. He got his hand up and snatched the miniature rattler out of the air, flipped it so it was the right way around, turned and aimed at Bedivere as the man came at him yet again.
    Brant’s heart leapt. He made himself fire.
    The blast threw Bedivere backward. If he hadn’t been so close to Brant when he fired, Bedivere would have been flung out over the edge of the pad into the vacuum below. Instead, he skidded along the metal on his back, his arms and legs useless.
    He came to a stop only a few centimeters short of the edge and lay still, his sightless gaze turned upward.
    “And I’m out of here,” Connell breathed. He couldn’t speak loudly, for the dock was totally silent and absolutely still with surprise. Brant had broken the rules, what rules there were. He had killed their champion.
    Then, the sounds of outrage and anger leapt from every throat in the room. If the pad had not been separated from the crowd by fatal vacuum, they would have lynched him on the spot.
    As the catwalks extended out toward the pad and the handlers lined up with rattlers of their own pointed at him, Brant pressed the muzzle of the rattler against his heart, which was beating unevenly. He glanced at Bedivere’s still body one last time, then pulled the trigger.

Chapter Two
    Charlton Space City, New Cathay (Ji Xiu Prime), Ji Xiu System, Perseus Arm. FY 10.187
    Lilly was deep into the latest city immigration requests when Yennifer buzzed her desk.
    “May I come in?” Yennifer’s voice was a sweet soprano, which matched Yennifer completely.
    Lilly put the board down and let the door open. “Of course you can. Who else can I talk to if you don’t?”
    Yennifer looked around the big room as she moved past the piano, crossed over the numerous rugs and rounded the sofa that was placed to take full advantage of the lead-lighted and high peaked windows and the view they offered. Beyond the windows was the edges of the city, then nothing but stars. Ji Xiu itself was on the far side of the city at the moment and New Cathay was far below. The planet that provided anchorage for the city never hove into view.
    “Yesterday, I saw pictures of houses that looked like this room,” Yennifer said, moving over to the desk Lilly sat behind. “They were from centuries and centuries ago. I didn’t realize you had been inspired by history when you created it.”
    Lilly smiled. “I borrowed. The style has been repeated many times, far back into history. It’s out of fashion at the moment but I like how cozy it makes things feel. Is there a problem?”
    Yennifer smiled. She was a petite woman, with a heart-shaped face and masses of rich brown hair. “I thought I would tell you in person that Connell just docked.”
    “He did?” Lilly breathed deeply, calming herself. “Six weeks…and now they turn up again.”
    Yennifer shook her head with a tiny movement. “It’s just Connell.”
    Lilly swallowed, fear blooming in her chest. “Do you know where they went?”
    Yennifer looked sad. “I do, only because I am the citymind. If I told you, I would be giving you privileged information.” She looked over her shoulder as Connell pushed open the big, heavy door to the suite and stepped inside.
    Lilly had long ago got used to how much Connell looked like Fareed. He kept his hair shorter and was a clothes horse,