GENERATION WARJUORS

185

“Idiot!” She stood above him, those over-red curls askew. Then lifted them off to show the bald ugliness of her . . . his? . . . head. “Too bad I can’t keep you alive to see what happens to your captain Sassinak.”

The wig plopped back down, still askew. Ford writhed, trying to move away, but one leg would not work. The little dog, wildly excited, bounced up and down, still yipping. The stone she’d used lay on the floor, just out of his reach, Not that he wanted to touch it.

“The green, I think. It has a certain appeal...” She had picked up another stone, and without any attempt to hide her act, dripped an oily liquid on it from another of her rings. “Of course, your poor aunt may suffer a shock of her own—even a fatal one—when she sees you lying there, and picks this off your chest,”

She sauntered back across the small cabin, smiling that pitiless smile. Ford strained against the effects of the first poison. Sweat poured down his face, but he could not move more than a few inches. Then the cabin door opened and his aunt put her head in.