THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION Read Free

all-concealing decorative planking. A solid thump came back, eliminating a second line of attack. Sitting side-by-side at the table, their field of vision covered the whole room, despite the intervening pillars, which Penn felt confident, would slow an attacker down more than hinder him or Ellis.
    “Richard? Where did you get that box?” Ellis asked softly, licking butter delicately off her fingers, and coating her sensuous red lips with the residue, knowing very well what he was doing with the walls.
    “I found it in the Director's office.”
    “And I thought you told me not to stop for souvenirs?” She murmured softly, cocking an eyebrow at him.
    “I don't remember saying that.” Penn lied.
    “Is that why we have two lovely pure silver tankards with the Imperial crest sitting on the bar at home?”
    “Yes and a lovely gold inlaid silver platter that I don't remember owning before.”
    “I needed a center piece for Sunday dinner.” She smiled sweetly at him.
    “Oh I see. Just a little decorative touch to smarten up the table?”
    “Right. That's it exactly.” She wrinkled her nose. “We do want our kids to grow up with some manners and know how to eat properly, don’t we?’ She asked, raising her eyebrows.” Penn flicked his eyes to her lips for a moment, wishing he could lean over and kiss them.
    “You mean you don’t want them running around like little savages with baby raptors as pets like they do now?”
    “Richard, you, and they will shower, change into proper clothes and sit at the dinner table like proper, well mannered, well behaved human beings at least one day a week, instead of the barbarians you usually are.” She huffed.
    “I see. Punishment. Just because you got caught trying to sneak into our fort to capture the flag.” He laughed.
    “That is entirely beside the point.” The grin gave her away. He leaned towards her and they kissed anyway, Richard drawing in her delicate lavender scent as they did.
    At this time of the day, few patrons inhabited the place. The drunk still lay, slumped over the table in a corner, and the two coarsely dressed men playing some sort of card game near the door ignored them, both armed, but then again who wasn’t around this place. The woman and the man at the other end of the bar didn’t appear to be paying any attention to them, and other than the woman’s initial look of envy at Ellis, they continued with their conversation. To all intents and purposes, the female in a revealing dress was the resident hooker, but Penn didn’t believe that for a moment. To Richard, it felt like a setup, not that he cared. Thankfully, the beer was cold, and real. That was enough. How the owner had managed to come up with a pre-invasion beer was anyone's guess. Probably the carefully hidden contents of a high jacked big rig. Whatever communication system the barkeep used was very efficient, almost too efficient as within ten minutes the bat-wing doors opened and in walked a tall, scruffy looking, fair-haired man dressed in rough, albeit clean, western gear. He wore a cowboy hat and a sidearm, a nine-millimeter Browning automatic by the look of it in a low hung holster. Three men followed, but none were dressed as well as the first. Penn whispered something to Ellis, and she laughed playfully. Some signal passed between the barkeep and the fair-haired man, as he changed directions and walked over to their table. Penn and Ellis appeared lost in each other's eyes, but anyone who thought that was sadly mistaken. Even before the man walked into the room they knew he was there to see them by the sound of his purposeful footsteps on the sidewalk. You don't walk like that in this heat unless you are going somewhere important, like a meeting, a dance, or a gunfight. Penn and Ellis were primed for either, and didn't care which way the ball bounced.
    Moody looked cynically at the two teenagers sitting at the table as he walked across the room, gazing into each other’s eyes like