Police Your Planet | Page 7

Gordon felt something on his suit, and his eyes darted to hands
just finishing an emergency patch. His eyes darted up and met those of
the blonde vixen!
Amazement kept him motionless for a second. There were tears in the
eyes of the girl, and a sniffling sound reached him through her
Marspeaker. Apparently, she hadn't noticed that he had revived, though
her eyes were on him. She finished the patch, and ran perma-sealer
over it. Then she began putting her supplies away, tucking them into a
bag that held notes that could only have been stolen from his
pockets--her share of the loot, apparently.
He was still thinking clumsily as she got to her feet and turned to leave.
She cast a glance back, hesitated, and then began to move off.
He got his feet under him slowly, but he was reviving enough to stand
the pain in his head. He came to his feet, and leaped after her. In the
thin air, his lunge was silent, and he was grabbing her before she knew
he was up.
She swung with a single gasp, and her hand darted down for her knife,
sweeping it up and toward him; he barely caught the wrist coming
toward him. Then he had her firmly, bringing her arm back and up,
until the knife fell from her fingers.
She screamed and began writhing, twisting her hard young body like a
boa constrictor in his hands. But he was stronger. He bent her back over
his knee, until a mangled moan was coming from her speaker; then his
foot kicked out, knocking her feet out from under her. He let her hit the
ground, caught both her wrists in his, and brought his knee down on her
throat, applying more pressure until she lay still. Then he reached for
the pouch.
"Damn you!" Her cry was more in anguish then it had been when he
was threatening to break her back. "You damned firster, I'll kill you if
it's the last thing I do. And after I saved your miserable life...."
"Thanks for that," he grunted. "Next time don't be a fool. When you kill

a man for his money, he doesn't feel very grateful for your reviving
him."
He started to count the money. About a tenth of what he had won--not
even enough to open a cheap poker den, let alone bribe his way back to
Earth.
The girl was out from under his knee at the first relaxation of pressure.
Her hand scooped up the knife, and she came charging toward him, her
mouth a taut slit across half-bared teeth. Gordon rolled out of her swing,
and brought his foot up. It caught her squarely under the chin, and she
went down and out.
He picked up the scattered money and her knife, then made sure she
was still breathing. He ran his hands over her, looking for a hiding
place for more money; there was none.
"Good work, gov'nor," the kid's thin voice approved, and Gordon
swung to see the other getting up painfully. The kid grinned, rubbing
his bruise. "No hard feelings, gov'nor, now! They paid me to stall you,
so I did. You bonused me to protect you, and I bloody well tried.
Honest Izzy, that's me. Gonna buy me a job as a cop. That's why I
needed the scratch. Okay, gov'nor?"
Gordon hauled back his hand to knock the other from his feet, and then
dropped it. A grin writhed onto his face, and broke into sudden
grudging laughter.
"Okay, Izzy," he admitted. "For this stinking planet, I guess you're
something of a saint. Come along, and we'll both apply for that
job--after I get my stuff."
He might as well join the law. Security had wanted him to police their
damned planet for them--and he might as well do it officially.
He tossed the girl's knife down beside her, motioned to Izzy, and began
heading for Mother Corey's.

Chapter III
THE GRAFT IS GREEN
Izzy seemed surprised when he found that Gordon was turning in to the
quasi-secret entrance to Mother Corey's. "Coming here myself," he
explained. "Mother got ahold of a load of snow, and sent me out to
contact a big pusher. Coming back, the goons picked me up and gave
me the job on you. Hey, Mother!"
Bruce Gordon didn't ask how Mother Corey had acquired the dope.
When Earth had deported all addicts two decades before, it had
practically begged for dope smuggling.
The gross hulk of Mother Corey appeared almost at once. "Izzy and
Bruce. Didn't know you'd met, cobbers. Contact, Izzy?"
"Ninety per cent for uncut," Izzy answered.
They went up to Gordon's hole-in-the-wall, with Mother Corey
wheezing behind, while the rotten wood of the stairs groaned under his
grotesque bulk.