THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS IS HARD.
PROVERBS 13:15
I looked around and saw no clue.
I did see the kid, though. She was guiding her bloated sugar daddy toward the exit. I raced over to grab her arm.
'Where'd she go?'
The fat man bridled. 'Let go of her, fellah,' he said around the edge of his cigar.
I ignored him. The brat stared up at me defiantly. 'You'd have been watching,' I said with a genuinely angry growl. 'Where'd she go?'
'You're hurting me!' She tried to twist away. 'It was two men in black.'
The fat man became bolder. 'Let go of her, you drunken bastard!'
I tried a bluff. The wrong bluff.
'Vice squad, mister.' I reached up toward my breast pocket.
The man looked worried for an instant. Then he smiled broadly.
'Guards!'
I realized where I was and how the law was welcome. A neural interruptor field switched on, knocking me to my knees. Through a tingle of dulled sensation, I watched four arms seize me. They dragged me to an access tunnel separate from the corridors used by customers.
I tried another bluff. Another winner.
'I'm her father.' Drool passed over my numbed lips. 'I was just trying to talk to her.'
'You should've given her a better home life, rummy.' The voice spoke from far away. 'She's got her freedom here.'
A hatch whined open.
'Wait,' I babbled. 'I was with a woman. I think she's been kidnapped. The girl saw-'
'Right, pal. Kidnapped by a couple of priests. Tell us another.'
The four arms propelled me from the hatch of the underhill city. Except that I was at the top of the hill.
The hatch slammed behind me, and I rolled. The field of insensitivity they'd hit me with still deadened my nerves. I was thankful for that.
Dry grass and dirt patches whisked past me. Something hard hit my waist. It stung. I bounced past it and slid face forward to a stop at the bottom of Bunker Hill.
It didn't take long for pain to overcome the effects of the neural interruptor beam. My body curled up in a convulsion of agony, then snapped back. Shoes scraped against grimy concrete. Hands slid over crumbling pavement. After long moments of struggle, I stood.
The world tilted like some crazy Disney ride. I clambered for a parking sign to lean against, grasping it like a long-lost brother.
Down the block, someone screamed. Someone familiar.
I looked up and down the dark street. My eyes had a little trouble focusing.
I saw her. Two men in dark clothing dragged her toward a car, an arm each around her shoulders. Behind them, the door of a lower level loading dock dropped shut slowly. She struggled, blond hair whipping about.
They were at the far end of the block. I started to run as fast as I could. Pain shot through my left leg up to the hip. I reached for my Colt to find an empty holster. It must have fallen out during the roll.
The car engine whined into life as they stuffed her inside. Tires squealed, and the car roared in my direction. I performed the usual stupid action of jumping in its path. Rubber shrieked again; the car swerved around me.
