Star Wars - Love is a Warm Blaster - Unpublished Read Online Free PDF Page B

continued toward him, but did not draw her weapon. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

    Love grinned as his left hand slithered in the direction of his powerful blaster. “I knew it… sooner or later you’ll fall for me.”

    The Devaronian was annoyed, jabbing the hold-out into Love’s skull to get his attention. “Idiot! Did you happen to notice I am about to kill you?”

    “Actually,” Love said as he squeezed the trigger of his still-holstered pistol. “No.”

    The pulsing blaster bolt erupted from the barrel, tore a ragged hole through the back of Love’s coat, then caught the Devaronian square in the chest.

    The concussive force blew the alien across the room. The crowd scurried out of the way as the Devaronian came crashing back down between two tables. The impact shattered chairs, sent meals flying everywhere way, and launched an expensive bottle of Cassandran Choholl toward the bar.

    Love tracked the spinning bottle, smoothly snatching it from mid-air.

    He raised the Choholl in a toast, then triumphantly put the bottle to his lips. There was a short pause. He shook it once, twice. Not a drop left.

    Love sighed, tossing the empty container over his shoulder.

    There was an odd ringing sound followed by a jarring thump and the soft tinkle of breaking glass.

    Love slowly turned around.

    Not coincidentally, the bartender had vanished from sight.

    Love leaned over the bar to take a look and winced.

    Everyone in the cantina was now staring at him.

    “So,” Love asked, “who else do you have to kill to get a drink around here?”

    As if on cue, an entire table of scarlet-cloaked Rodians stood up and took aim with nasty-looking blaster carbines.

    Love paused, looking rather nonplussed. “Uh, that was more of a rhetorical question.”

    Daniera stepped beside him. “Those look like more of Mah-Luu’s hired goons!”

    “Oh yeah… did I forget to mention he owns this place, too?”

    The other patrons had sidled away, leaving Love and Dani exposed. Even drunks know trouble when they see it.

    “Then why in the name of Byss did you want to meet here?”

    “I just told you.” Love’s hand was a blur as he tossed a small vial through the air. Blue-tinted liquid sloshed inside as it spun gracefully through the air and landed amidst the Rodians. The vial shattered, spraying the mercs. One second they were standing there ready to shoot… the next second, all six had hit the floor, apparently dead.

    Daniera just stared. “Love, you are a living manifestation of the dark side.”

    “Thank you.”

    Daniera carefully walked over to the bodies.

    “Don’t worry. That stuff evaporates in a second or two after being exposed to a non-liquid medium. Like the air. Of course, it does its job in a quarter of that time.”

    She touched the toe of her boot to the broken vial. “What is it?”

    “A highly concentrated derivative of the Fex-M3 nerve toxin. They call it Blue-8118 because of the color of its liquid agent. Once introduced into the bloodstream, death follows in microseconds.”

    Daniera look back at him. “But the Rodians didn’t have it injected…”

    “Exactly. But Blue-8118 is so powerful, mere contact with the skin is enough to cause a massive systemic overload that shuts down the body.” Love grinned. “They should be up and about in ten minutes or so, but I wouldn’t wish that bodyache on anybody.”

    “Where did you get it?”

    Love nodded his head toward the bar. “I just picked up my order in the back room. And I’m not the only one who made a recent purchase.”

    “Grieve.” Daniera stared at him. “But how did you know?”

    “I didn’t. I suspected.” Love joined Daniera, picking up a piece of the vial. “I smelled something exotic on Odaay’s body. Very sweet and flowery. At first I assumed It was a girl’s perfume, probably Induki’s; but when we found her it wasn’t the same. But I detected the same sickly-sweet smell on her, too.”

    Love