Elektra by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-25T03:42:12.544000+00:00

Tattoo moved up beside Budi and stared down the slope. Sunning itself on a large, flat rock not twenty feet below them was an impressively sized lizard. It was difficult to estimate, but Tattoo would guess the creature was close to two hundred fifty pounds, easily twice the weight of the light-framed Budi. This was exactly what he was looking for; now Tattoo needed only to watch the creature feed.

He could hear the high whine of the insects in the trees behind him, but they were too far away from the shore to hear the waves. Everything was lush and green and, except for their own breathing and the bugs, nearly church quiet. The noxious smell of the fat lizard drifted up to them on the wind, and Tattoo saw it flick its long, yellow tongue out a couple of times as it tasted the air. It did it again, then cocked its big head and swung it in their direction, searching for their smell. After all, in the world of theOra, humans were just one more type of meat.

Pleased, Tattoo turned to look at Budi, but the man had already raised his defenses to the ready; he had backed a few feet away and his dark face had gone suspicious and…hungry. It was a look with which Tattoo was familiar many times over, and it scared him not in the least. In Budi’s right hand was a dirty-looking knife about four inches long that he must have pulled from a belt sheath hidden inside the waist of his loose linen pants. It was Tattoo’s American money that had prompted this decision, of course—Budi knew there was more in Tattoo’s pockets, and greed was always the greatest source of false courage in a foreign country.

“Uang,”Budi demanded roughly.

Tattoo knew what the word meant—money—but he still played stupid, only frowning and shaking his hand. “I don’t understand,” he said with as much wide-eyed innocense as he could manage.

Budi wasn’t fooled. He gestured impatiently at Tattoo’s pockets.“Uang!” he said again, louder, and this time he made a cutting gesture with the blade. Only a fool wouldn’t understand, and few tourists werethat dumb. “Give to me!”

“ ‘Give to me,’ ” Tattoo mimicked with a sneer. He raised one eyebrow but made no move to comply.

“The least you could do is use the English word for what you think you’re going to steal.” Budi stared at him in amazement and Tattoo continued. “It’smoney, remember?Money. I’d tell you to practice getting the accent on the correct syllable, but you’re not going to need it anymore, so why bother?”

Budi scowled at him, and Tattoo guessed the man had understood very little of what he’d been told. A shame, because he wasn’t going to live much longer and a man had a right to comprehend his last conversation. “Give to me,” Budi repeated, and this time he punctuated his sentence with a jab of the knife in Tattoo’s direction. There was too much distance between them for Tattoo to be intimidated, but this routine had probably worked for Budi before.

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