Rogue Destiny: Beginnings by Paul Tallman

Author:Paul Tallman [Tallman, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Tallman Publishing
Published: 2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

18

Under the Gun

Odd Bod stared at Ren, his lower lip curving in a cruel sneer. He gave a quiet chuckle, and then his expression returned to the emotionless mask he’d held moments before.

“I know you,” the giant said. His voice was deep and menacing. “You’re that doppelganger what turned down Mr. Mordecai’s kind offer of employment way back when. But you haven’t been around in a while, have you? Not since you let your partner go to prison for the Angels of Avalon debacle.”

Odd Bod set his massive frame down onto a chair and pounded a mallet-sized fist on the table. The dishes rattled and cups overturned. “Ha! Mr. Mordecai was not happy when ya told him no. Then ya go and end up working for the Raconteurs. He was not happy about that either, no, sir.” The chair creaked under his weight as he chuckled.

Even sitting, his huge frame loomed over everything around him. His head disappeared directly into a thick neck with small cauliflower ears and a broad nose. The gray-striped suit he wore strained under his sloping shoulders and massive arms. His soulless eyes never left Ren.

“So what brings you to us tonight, little trickster?” Piqwic asked. Ren did not answer.

Odd Bod relaxed his grip on Ren before whacked him on the back of the head with a flick of his other hand. “Mr. York asked you something, little doppelganger.” Ren fell to the table, his head ringing from the blow.

Piqwic laughed. “Please, Bod, there’s no need for violence. We can discuss this like gentlemen.”

Odd Bod’s eyes narrowed to slits as his grin turned sinister. “Speaking of gentlemen, it’s a shame about the old gang, The Gentlemen of Fortune, isn’t it?” he rumbled. “That’s a terrible fate for anyone to suffer.”

Ren’s heart jumped. He rolled over on the table and pushed himself up slowly.

Odd Bod’s deep voice continued. “You were the only one in that motley bunch that was worth a whit. But you knew that, didn’t you? That’s why you left them at the first chance you had to go work for Gideon Dumas and his intrepid troupe of Raconteurs, isn’t it?”

Odd Bod chuckled and continued. “And where’d that get you? Couple years of running around playing hero, until your mentor Claymore Ives was put away for burning down a world. And they call me a criminal. I mean, I’ve killed a lot of people in my time, but never that many at once. I like to look into their eyes right before they realize what’s about to happen to them.”

Ren shook his head to clear the tiny star bursts that blurred his vision. One eye was swollen, and half closed. He tried to come up with something to say, anything that would buy him a few precious moments so he could figure a way out of this predicament.

The hulking giant shifted in his chair and leaned forward as the silence closed in on Ren. “You left your friends alone to deal with the mean streets of Rogue Destiny on their own, and now they’re all dead.

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