Pawn Quest, book 1 by Kate Harrington

Author:Kate Harrington [Harrington, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katherine Harrington
Published: 2019-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

Real Trouble

Pel

Security arrived along with the ambulance.

“Who are you? What happened? Do you know these people?” they asked Pel.

“I’m Peleus Teague. Three of us came for a picnic. Hallie Pollard and Ran Kenelm and I. After we ate, I fell asleep. When I woke, Ran was at the water, working with his boat. I got up to ask him where Hallie went. That’s when we heard her scream. Ran started running. I was on the wrong side of the water. It took me longer to get there.”

Pel shuddered. The park’s layout had been his undoing. The pond had kept him from going straight after Ran. He had pounded over the bridge.

Panic, fury, foes, doom.

Speed, fly, flit, zoom . . .

He didn’t know where Ran had gone. Down the most likely pathway, he paused to listen, impatient with delays.

What will be demanded?

Can I be ready soon?

No time to stumble, fumble, fall . . .

He’d sprawled over a protruding root. No time for songs in the head! Where were they? He scrambled up, pushed forward. Branches clawed at him, blocked his view. He broke free. Green park opened up. In the fading light, the aircar was a silvery blur.

“Then what happened?” demanded the Security officer.

Pel gulped and took a shuddering breath. “Two guys were carrying Hallie. Ran came out from behind the sportscar, a silver Harly Spark I think. Ran tackled the one holding her legs. I yelled and ran toward them. They dropped Hallie. The one who’d been holding her feet threw Ran down and kicked him. Ran got up and yelled for them not to lift, but they did. It rose, blinked out, then reappeared maybe ten feet up. Then it dropped.”

Pel rubbed his face with the backs of his raw hands, trying not to gag. “Ran threw himself over Hallie’s body. I rolled him over to put out the flames and dragged them both farther back.”

Dissatisfied with his answers, one said, “Box him up.”

A pox on their box! At Security headquarters, Pel sat enclosed behind an opaque shimmering curtain whose forcefield repelled him when he came near. His chair, made of strangely configured slats, dug into his back. He compromised by leaning forward, elbows digging into his thighs, resting his head on sore hands. The pain-relieving salve on his palms no longer worked. What did it matter? He was okay. Hallie and Ran were not.

He shivered. The curtain stirred the hairs on the crown of his head. Deaths, even accidental ones, meant big trouble. Pel is in jail. No bail? He’s going to fail.

The curtain disappeared. Pel looked up. “Come with us.”

Two officers—one male, one female—escorted him down a long hallway, Pel’s footsteps tentative between them, to a small chamber where a man in a taupe suit introduced himself.

“Counsel Bilker, appointed by the court for your defense.”

Bilker cleared his throat. “As these officers will have already informed you, you have the right to remain silent, but if you do not choose to speak, your silence may be used against you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.