Snatched from Earth by Bruce Coville

Author:Bruce Coville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2021-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

The odor of fear that Pleskit emitted at the mention of the evil hamster-woman who had once tried to drain his and Tim’s brains almost sent me into kleptra myself.

“If this information makes you think that Mikta-makta-mookta was a more serious threat than Tim and Pleskit realized when they first faced her, you would be correct,” continued Ellico vec Bur. “She is, to be frank, one of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy.”

“Is Harr-giss involved too?” asked Pleskit, after he had recovered from his initial shock. Harr-giss had been Mikta-makta-mookta’s partner back when she was spying on the Fatherly One.

“That is hard to say. As far as we know, he is still in confinement. Even so, it’s possible he has a hand in this plot.”

Despite the Trader(s)’ explanation, their motives remained unclear, and I still did not entirely trust them. On the other hand, what they had told us fit perfectly with the secret message the Motherly One had given me to carry to Meenom.

“Here is one thing I still do not understand,” I said. “Why did you take our side during that debate about whether we should have a party in the embassy?”

Both of Ellico vec Bur’s faces looked startled. “Because we thought it was a good idea,” they said simultaneously.

“It wasn’t to cause some sort of trouble?” I asked.

“This wretched childling is even more suspicious than we thought,” muttered Bur in disgust.

“And what about that rapid takeoff?” I persisted. “Why were you in such a hurry to get away from Earth?”

“We received an urgent message from our informer that the plotters have accelerated their plan. Our goal was not to escape Earth; it was to intercept a ship carrying a being important to this scheme. Unfortunately, we failed in that attempt.”

“I have a question,” said Linnsy. “After we pulled you out of the ship, why did you go back in?”

“To retrieve some information we need to stop the schemers,” said Bur.

“What kind of information?” I asked.

“That does not concern you, Maktel,” snapped the Trader(s), both of them speaking simultaneously.

I got the impression they did not like me very much.

“What happened to the ship?” continued Linnsy. “Did it blow up?”

“No. It is crippled but capable of being salvaged.” The Ellico portion sighed. “Such a beautiful little ship. It was very painful to have it crash on its first journey.”

“What was that all about, anyway?” asked Tim. “Who attacked us?”

“We’re not sure,” said Bur, its voice angry. “But it’s a good guess that it was someone involved with this plot. The ringleaders are based here, after all. According to my informant, their scheme is set to launch in thirty kerbleckki.”

“But that’s less than two days!” gasped Pleskit.

“Precisely,” said Ellico. “Which means we have to get to the city as soon as possible if we’re going to stop this madness. We don’t particularly want the four of you tagging along. On the other hand, we don’t want you wandering around loose, either, since you might do something to alert them that we’re coming.

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.