Lethal Combat Read Online Free PDF Page A

if the accused gets off?’ asked Peri.
    Tambo opened his belly-mouth to answer but, before he could, a hole in the floor suddenly opened beneath him. He slid down a chute, screaming the whole way. Peri thought he could hear distant cheering. The trapdoor snapped shut. All was quiet again.
    ‘We have to get out of here!’ Diesel said. He examined the brickwork, searching for gaps with his fingernails.
    ‘What about me?’ Otto said, rattling his chains.
    ‘You deserve the trial,’ Diesel said. ‘This is all your fault!’
    ‘We can’t leave him!’ Peri said. Otto was not exactly his favourite alien, but they were in this together. ‘We’re a team. We have to free Otto and take him with us. Don’t you agree, Selene?’
    ‘Er – yeah, I suppose,’ Selene said uncertainly.
    ‘I’ll call the Phoenix !’ Peri said. ‘That’ll get us out of here.’
    He closed his eyes and tuned into his bionic half. He sent out a telepathic message: Phoenix. We need you. Come here now!
    Nothing happened.
    ‘Maybe the guard’s helmet is blocking the signal,’ Selene said.
    Peri felt sick with disappointment. But he didn’t give up.
    ‘Let’s try the door,’ he said. He ran up the steps. Before he got to the door, he hit an invisible force field which almost knocked him back down the steps.
    ‘Let’s try the window!’ Selene said.
    Peri ran back down. He and Diesel hoisted Selene up so she could reach for the bars, but another invisible force field pushed her backwards. All three of them tumbled to the floor.
    Peri rose to his feet. He seized Otto’s chain, trying to wrench it from the wall. It gave him an electric shock which zapped him right across the dungeon.
    He braced himself to hit the floor hard. But he didn’t.
    Because the floor had opened up again . . .

 
    Chapter 7
     
     
    Peri went whirling down a curly slide in total darkness. He landed with a bump on a sandy surface. Selene, Diesel and Otto tumbled on to the ground next to him.
    A spotlight hit them. Peri saw the other three, looking as bewildered as he felt. Beyond the circle of light it was pitch-black. He heard the buzz and murmur of a crowd. It grew louder as a man stepped into the spotlight.
    The man was dressed in a black gown and wore a white wig. He looked to Peri like the old-time planet Earth lawyers that he had seen in time-travel simulators in his history lessons at the IFA. But the webbed hands and squid-like smell revealed him as a Xion.
    ‘I am your lawyer,’ he said.
    ‘Great!’ Selene said. ‘So you’re going to try to get us off?’
    There was a burst of laughter from the unseen crowd.
    ‘Excuse me,’ Peri said. ‘But why are you in that costume? That’s how lawyers on Earth used to dress –’
    ‘They copied it from us!’ the lawyer said. ‘Lawyers have dressed like this for at least a hundred years on Xion.’
    ‘But they used to dress like that on Earth thousands of years ago!’
    The lawyer looked sternly down his pointed nose at Peri. ‘As I said, Xion lawyers have dressed like this for many thousands of years. Everyone knows that Earthlings are the biggest copycats in the universe!’
    There was a roar of approval from the crowd.
    ‘Now,’ the lawyer said, ‘if you plead guilty to the charges, I can possibly get your sentence reduced to twenty-five years in the sludge mines.’
    ‘What are the charges?’ Diesel asked.
    ‘That,’ said the lawyer, ‘is none of your business.’
    ‘But how can we plead guilty if we don’t know the charges?’ Peri protested.
    ‘You’re being difficult – very difficult!’ said the lawyer. The crowd hissed and booed. ‘Do you plead guilty or not?’
    Peri looked at the others. Selene shrugged. Diesel pointed at Otto. ‘He’s guilty!’
    Otto glared at him.
    ‘We all plead not guilty!’ Peri said. It wouldn’t help to try to make Otto take the rap. Anyway, it wouldn’t be fair – it wasn’t Otto’s fault that the prince had lost his memory. They were all in