“A few.”
“Oh, you must tell me about them sometime…in precise detail.”
“If you like.”
The baron raised his hand, summoning both sec chief Grundwold and Norman Bauer to his side. He spoke discreetly in each man’s ear, and they left quickly to carry out their orders.
In minutes, Norman Bauer returned with a young red-haired girl with a full figure and pretty face. The look on her face was a mixture of excitement and fear.
The baron looked over the girl. “Excellent!” he said. Then he leaned back and pulled open his bathrobe to expose himself. Without a moment’s hesitation the girl knelt between the baron’s open legs and took him into her mouth.
“Better,” the baron muttered. “Much better.”
GRUNWOLD APPROACHED Ryan, a hard, angry look in his eye. “The baron wants no surprises this time around. No more extra weapons.”
Ryan looked up at the baron on the stage and saw the girl knelt between his legs, her head moving up and down in a slow and regular rhythm. “The baron wants a lot of things.”
“And he gets what he wants.”
“That so?” Ryan said.
“Yes, always. And now he wants you to take off the rest of your clothes,” the sec chief stated.
“What?” Brody shouted.
Ryan just looked at the sec chief, wondering how such a competent sec man could become the baron’s whipping boy.
The sec chief sighed. “All of you. Mog and his men, too.”
“What if we refuse?” Ryan asked.
Grundwold looked up at one of the towers overlooking the circle and signaled one of the men.
The crackle of blasterfire erupted suddenly, and Ryan could hear the rounds whizzing into the ground by his feet, throwing up small clouds of dust on impact. The sec man firing from the tower drew a line in the sand neatly between Ryan and the sec chief, delivering the sec chiefs message loud and clear.
Ryan began undoing his belt.
“I knew you’d see it the baron’s way.”
The one-eyed man stared at the sec chief. “Does the baron always get what he wants from his sec slaves, too?”
Grundwold seemed confused by Ryan’s words, but slowly their meaning became understood. “If you two are lucky enough to make it out of this circle, I’ll see to it that you wished you hadn’t said that.”
Ryan stood his ground, speaking through slightly clenched teeth. “When I get out of this circle, you’ll be wishing I hadn’t, too.”
Again the sec chief looked at Ryan strangely, not understanding the meaning of his words.
“Sec chief Grundwold!” the baron called out. “Is everything ready?”
Grundwold’s body snapped straight, as if it had just been whipped across the back. “Yes, Baron.”
“Then let’s get on with it.”
The sec chief stared hard into Ryan’s eye. “To the victor go the spoils.”
“Absolutely,” Ryan said.
“And losers like you get fed to the muties.”
Ryan ignored the comment and turned to retrieve his panga. When he was upright again, the sec chief was gone, climbing back onto the stage. “Are you ready?” he asked the men in the circle.
“Yes!” roared the crowd.
“Fight!”
Ryan and Brody moved forward.
Foghat charged at Ryan, while Dorfman, Billingsley and Mog surrounded Brody.
Their intention was clear. The sword-wielding Foghat had separated Ryan from Brody so the other three could easily do away with Brody. But instead of trying to chill Ryan, Foghat was just keeping Ryan away from the others.
It was the man’s first and only mistake.
Ryan circled the outside of the ring until he came upon the extra weapons that had been left on the ground by the combatants. There was a rusty sword, a length of chain and a short-bladed knife. Ryan picked up the knife and, doing his best to remember Jak Lauren’s instructions, threw it in Foghat’s direction.
The knife was unbalanced and fluttered through the air instead of flying true. It also missed the target by more than a foot, but no matter. Foghat leaned far to the right to avoid the flying knife, and Ryan used the opportunity to swing his panga at his off-balance opponent. He caught Foghat on the arm, cutting cleanly through the flesh and tendons of the elbow, exposing the polished white bone beneath.