Worldwielder by J.M. Vaughan

Author:J.M. Vaughan [Vaughan, J.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aeternal Books
Published: 2017-07-30T05:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

Ringo was waiting for Melissa outside the door, keeping a wary eye on Pugh, who was seated in a circle of chairs at the entrance to the storage room, fidgeting and vaping under the hazy glow of a solitary bulb.

“He was here?” Ringo asked.

“Yes,” she replied

“So he can tell the truth. Didn't figure.”

Together, they strode up to Pugh, whose ill-at-ease grew in proportion to Melissa's proximity to him. She didn't stop until she was close enough to count the beads of sweat on his face, by which time he was making every effort to squirm himself out of existence. When he began to lift the vaporizer back to his mouth, she reached out, tore it from his hand, and tossed it aside. She'd smelled enough birthday cupcake today to last a lifetime.

“Where'd they take him? Where is he?” she demanded.

His head wiggled back and forth. “I don't know.”

The glare she gave him would have sent spiders scurrying on sight.

Pugh cowered further. “I'm telling the truth!” he moaned. “You know I am.”

“Who are they?”

“I don't know.”

“What do you know?”

He dealt the room a nervous, panoramic glance, just as he had upstairs.

“There's nobody listening!” Melissa prompted.

“They've got ways, kid. Ho buddy, they've got ways.”

The quivering of his voice should have unsettled her, but she hardly registered it. All she heard was what he hadn't said. She felt her earlier rage at him returning.

Fortunately, Fink interceded. “My dear man, if I may, you're already through the wrong end of a halok world if they find out we're here, correct? So it stands to reason there can't be much further harm in talking now, am I right?”

Pugh wrung his hands. “It's not what they'll do to me. I gotta think of Bambi!”

“If you help us, we'll rescue Bambi,” Melissa said.

He turned to her, a sad cynicism at home in his face. “You're not rescuing anybody from them.”

She locked eyes with him. “Watch me.”

Pugh faltered, but only for a moment. He shook his head.

Then Ringo spoke. “Think you'll ever see Bambi again when we hand you over to the Gs?”

Pugh gulped. “When?”

“Providing you won't talk.”

The color drained from the greasy-haired man's face and his eyes fell. Melissa knew they'd won him. “Ho buddy, I'm gonna regret this,” he moaned. “I'll talk, but you gotta be gone in five minutes, you hear? Any longer and we're all slazed, you and me both.”

Melissa nodded madly. “Okay, talk. Fast.”

Pugh hesitated, looking her up and down. “Uh, you gonna keep standing there?”

Her senses took in the world outside Pugh's face for the first time in a full minute, and she realized she'd been standing inches from him the whole time. “Oh. Sorry.” She backed up and dropped into a chair.

Pugh took a deep breath. “So here's how it went down. I was here with Bambi, peacefully abiding, doing nothing to harm no one, keeping to ourselves, minding our own slazing business—”

“Cut to the important part,” Melissa snapped.

“Oh, fine. So when I used to… take things that weren't mine, which—I want it made clear—I don't do anymore.

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