“Don’t come back in here no more, mutie whoreson,” the man said, his words slurred as he catapulted the dwarf through the air. He landed face-first in a puddle, splashing Grant’s boots and the hem of his coat.
The outlander’s stumpy teeth were bared in a ferocious grimace. Then, as his eyes lifted from the street and took in the sight of the three black-and-gray-clad men standing there, the grimace turned into an openmouthed expression of terror. He mumbled incoherently and stepped back, trying to sidle back into the saloon.
” Freeze !” roared Grant, using the well-practiced tone of intimidation and power. Smoke poured out of his mouth, giving him the aspect of an enraged ebony dragon.
The outlander froze, his feet rooted to the spot.
To Boon, Grant directed, “Check him.”
Boon moved forward, but Kane restrained him with a hand. “No. Make him come to you.”
Taking the scanner from his pocket, the young man shrilled, “Get your slagging ass over here, slagger!”
The outlander weaved down the steps of the saloon, peeling back the cuff of his shirtsleeve. At the same moment, the mud-covered dwarf, looking like a beetle fished out of a cesspool, launched himself from the puddle, voicing a bass howl of rage. The bristly crown of his head barely topped the outlander’s groin, and that’s where he sank his teeth.
Screaming, the outlander whirled in a semicircle, and the dwarf whirled with him, his tiny feet completely leaving the ground. His face was pressed tightly against the man’s pelvis.
The dwarfs feet slapped the scanner out of Boon’s hand, and he shouted angrily, wordlessly. His right hand tensed reflexively, but the edge of Kane’s hand chopped down hard against the Kevlar sleeve just as the Sin Eater filled Boon’s hand.
The gun roared, spit flame, and three rounds plowed into the street, sending up geysers of watery muck. Instantly, as if a giant bell jar had been dropped over the area, all sound and movement halted. The dwarf’s jaws opened, and he alighted silently on the street. The piano stopped tinkling, and the murmur of laughing voices fell still.
Boon glanced first at the dwarf, then at the outlander, then at Kane.
“Leather it,” Kane said, the cigar in one corner of his mouth.
“He assaulted a Magistrate.” The outraged words tumbled so fast from Boon’s lips they were almost incomprehensible. “Fucking outlander and mutie interfered with a Magistrate, and they got to pay the fucking price!”
In a low, calm tone, Kane repeated, “Leather it.”
Slowly, reluctantly Boon shoved the Sin Eater back into its spring-loaded holster.
“Pick up the scanner,” Kane said quietly. “Check ’em.”
Face flushed with rage and shame, Boon plucked the device from the mud and, without wiping it off, grabbed the outlander roughly by his proffered right arm. He stood motionless as Boon ran the sensor prongs over the flesh of his forearm, right below the elbow joint. The scanner emitted a clear, chiming signal, indicating a positive registration.
Boon flung the man’s arm away as though it exuded a noxious odor. He fixed his dark-lensed eyes on the muddy dwarf. “No need to scan this little mutie bastard. Know his chip is bogus.”
“Check him.” Kane bit out the words.
The small man extended his bared arm, and Boon waved the scanner over it. When he heard the positive tone, he repeated the process, with the same result. His face locked in a tight, hard mask of disappointment.
Removing the cigar from his mouth, Kane gestured toward the two Pit dwellers. “Go.”
The tall outlander and the little man obediently backed up, then pushed their way back into the saloon. Kane and Grant turned away and began walking. After a moment’s hesitation, Boon caught up with them.
“I could have sworn that little”
Grant cut him off. “It’s a condition called achondroplasia. Some kind of congenital trait common among outlanders born near hellzones. He’s a dwarf, not a mutie.”
“But that guy called him”
It was Kane’s turn to interrupt. “An insult made in the heat of anger. Like a predark racial slur. Both of them were drunk and both of them are probably apologizing to each other right now.”