Theme Planet Read Online Free PDF Page B

right,
mate!
     
    “What happened next?”
Unconsciously, Dex had pushed his drink to one side. His hand slipped to his
hip. To his holster. To his Techrim 11mm. Suddenly, his throat was dry. This
was beginning to look bad; friend or no friend, brother-in-law or no
brother-in-law.
     
    “I took an axe,” said Pegg, his
voice strangled. “A long-handled axe.” He looked up then, a sudden spasmodic
jerk. His eyes were red-rimmed, tears glistening like trapped sapphires. “I
didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t want to do it!”
     
    “What did you do?”
     
    “She got me in so much fucking debt as well, Dexter! I started getting these bills, cred cards, dollar cubes, even
bloody clothes catalogues - all in my name. Not only was she humping my best
friend, she was going to leave me financially screwed. I know it! Here!” He
clenched a fist to his breast. “And even worse. Even worse. She was
engineering the whole situation; my whole life! Setting me up. Cleaning me out
like some scumshit shitbag down in the dregs.”
     
    “ What did you do?”
     
    The Techrim was out. Cool in his
hand. Held close against his thigh. A promise. A promise of... justice.
     
    “I deserved more than that!” he
said, tears coursing down his cheeks now. “I deserved more than being used like
that, deserved more than being stabbed in the back. Cheated on for months and
months and months. How could she do that to me, Dex? If she wanted somebody
else, fine, fuck off and find him... but to keep it going for so long, they
were laughing at me Dex, laughing at me even when I banged on the door of the
steamed-up landcar...”
     
    Dex’s voice was low. “Did you
hurt them?”
     
    “She stumbled out into the mud,
her stained knickers round her ankles. I lifted the axe up above my head and I
swear to you, Dex, I swear I didn’t want to do it - but something took hold of
my heart, drove splinters of ice through me, pushed me over the precipice of
reason and into a deep dark pit of hate...”
     
    Dex pointed the 11mm Techrim at
Pegg. His brother-in-law. His wife’s brother. His friend, dammit, his
fucking friend. “You know I’m going to take you in, Pegg. I’m sorry. I
represent the law. You can’t be allowed to do those things.”
     
    “Wait a minute!”
     
    Dex was standing, plasticuffs
out, and within a heartbeat Pegg’s face was on the bar swimming in his own
spilt beer and sorrow. Dex cuffed him. Noticed more blood on the cuffs of his
shirt. Shit.
     
    “Wait, Dex, wait! I didn’t kill
them, oh my god, you really think I killed them?”
     
    Sirens wailed above London.
Through the dark. Through the rain. Backup were coming, triggered by the act of
Dex using his plasticuffs.
     
    “It’s up to the Boys in Blue now,
my friend,” said Dex, glancing up. Glass smashed distantly. He could hear boots
crashing across boards, even through the booming hearty military march playing
from the jukebox in the corner, and the slurping sounds of snogging jujunga
suckers.
     
    “Wait, no Dex, I dropped the axe,
I let them run off laughing through the mud, I didn’t do anything! ”
     
    “What about the blood on your
hand and shirt cuff, dickhead?” snapped Dex. Pegg was glaring up at him through
watery eyes. Yeah, thought Dex. Tears of self-pity. Dex was hard. His eyes were
hard. His lips were grim. If you committed a crime in his city then you
paid the fucking price.
     
    “I cut myself shaving!” wailed Pegg.
     
    “Sure you did.”
     
    The PUF squad burst in from three
different directions at once, and Dex holstered his Techrim and walked away as
they bound Pegg and kicked out his legs. He hit the ground with a grunt, and a
MuttBag went over his head, putting out the lights.
     
    Within thirty seconds, he’d left
the building.
     
    “You sure about this one?”
growled Sergeant Sanders, chewing on his cigar.
     
    “Sue me if I’m wrong,” said Dex,
face hard as granite.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    “Do
I have