Doc was speechless for a moment, then asked, “What sort of fish?”
Clarissa held up one of the neatly cut slabs. “Sturgeon.”
“Is that good eating?”
“No worry,” Jak said, “When finished, taste like chicken.”
BRODY REJOINED the crew later in the afternoon. “I bet all the jack I had on you at ten to one,” he told Ryan. “You’re sitting at eight to one now.”
“What about you?” Ryan asked.
“Me,” Brody shrugged. “Something like twenty-five to one, but that’s just being kind. No one’s put any jack on me, not even me. Come to think of it, nobody’s put any jack on you except for the people in this crew. They’ve all bet on you.”
A sec man approached them from behind. Ryan’s muscles tensed, ready to strike the man or his blaster if the situation required it.
“All right, you two, your work is over for today,” the sec man said. “Catch a ride on the wag back to your quarters. The baron wants you rested up for tonight’s entertainment.”
The two men stopped pulling weeds and headed for the wag.
Ryan didn’t like to chill anything for sport, but it appeared he wouldn’t be having any choice in the matter this time around.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Baron Fox sat back in his chair behind his desk, looking through the pages of another one of his tattered predark skin mags.
“Nineteen have signed up for the contest, Baron,” Norman Bauer said after waiting several minutes for Baron Fox to finish with his mag.
The baron didn’t lift his eyes from the page. “Who is favored?”
“Mog. One to four.”
The baron nodded. “Who’s got the best odds next after Mog?”
“The one-eyed outlander,” Bauer reported. “Eight to one.”
That seemed to catch the baron’s interest. “The outlander has signed up to save his woman, has he? Oh, that’s precious.”
“From what the sec men tell me, this one-eye is a very dangerous man.”
“Really?”
“We can’t prove it, since none of the slaves will come forward, but the talk is that the one-eye must have chilled Purvis in the shower his first day in the orchards.”
Baron Fox put aside his mag. “In the shower?”
“Everyone says Purvis slipped on some soap, but he and the one-eye were the last ones in the showers.”
“He chilled Purvis in the shower, with his bare hands?”
“Smashed his head on the tiles, it would seem.”
The baron was excited by the thought of it.
“Tell Mog’s crew,” he said at last. “A week free of work for the man who chills the one-eye.”
THERE WAS A KNOCK on the door to the nursery.
“Come,” Mildred said. She was watching over Jasmine, making sure the woman was comfortable. She was still experiencing afterpains in the abdomen and was showing a bloody vaginal discharge. The latter was beginning to clear up, but the pains were still as sharp as ever. And then there was the depression that followed delivery, made worse by the absence of the newborn child.
A sec man entered the nursery first, followed by Krysty Wroth.
“Krysty!” Mildred said warmly. “What brings you here?”
“The baron,” she answered. “He wants me to get checked out to make sure I’m healthy for the winner.”
“Girl, you’re one of the healthiest females I’ve ever known. But if the baron wants you checked out, then we should do that in the examination room.” Mildred smiled and led Krysty away from the sec man and into a small room at the back of the nursery.
When the door was closed behind them, Mildred turned to Krysty. “Looks like they’ve been treating you well.”
Krysty nodded. “The best of everything.”
“Ryan’s signed up for the contest,” Mildred said. “And you saw that woman out in the nursery. Her man will be fighting alongside Ryan.”
“It’s good to know he’s not alone.”
“His work crew’s behind him, as well.”
Krysty lowered her voice some. “I found out that our blasters are being stored in the armory near here. They’ll be having another contest, a shooting contest between sec men to see who gets them.”
“Hopefully we won’t be here that long.”
Krysty nodded. “The door’s locked, but I’ve been told it can be easily broken into.”