by Max Chase
“Snake in the trees, then. Let’s push Otto into the air-lock and out into space and let the space-sharks chew on his big, long, rubbery neck!”
The strip of hair on Diesel’s head was bristling like a Betelgeusian pinfish’s spines and glowing bright orange, as it always did when the half-Martian was really angry.
They had just survived a dangerous mission on the planet Xion, supposedly to rescue a kidnapped Meigwor prince. The Meigwors had sent Otto, a bounty hunter, to lead the mission, but he had lied to Diesel and Peri. They had raided the Xion palace and captured someone, but it wasn’t a Meigwor prince.
They hadn’t rescued anyone. They had in fact kidnapped a Xion prince!
“Let’s give Otto what he deserves,” Diesel said.
Peri held up his hand. “If we throw him to the space-sharks, the Meigwors will take it out on Selene.” Their friend was being held on Otto’s home planet. “It’s time we stopped letting Otto boss us around. We need to rescue Selene and then return Prince Onix to Xion.”
“Otto won’t back down without a fight.”
“Then we’ll give him a fight!” Peri said. “There are two of us—we should be able to disarm Otto and take back our ship.”
They were nearly at the bridge now. Peri touched a button on the belt of his Expedition Wear. Diesel did the same. The surfaces of their suits became hard and shiny, like armor. Steel gauntlets emerged from the sleeves and covered their hands. Plastic helmets rose from the necks of the suits, encasing their heads in identical transparent, armored bubbles.
“We might need more protection,” Peri said.
He touched the wall, and a section slid smoothly aside to reveal a chamber filled with vaporizers, blasters, phasers, and jellifiers in countless different shapes and sizes.
“Look,” Peri said. “Otto’s been here.” He pointed to a silver flask on a shelf. It was the flask in which Otto kept his favorite drink, Meigwor Mudcreeper’s Blood. Peri grimaced. “Don’t know how he can drink that stuff.”
Diesel picked up a little black weapon, with a wide, square muzzle. “I’ve seen these in the training manual,” he said. “It’s a duster.”
Diesel took aim at Otto’s flask. He pressed the trigger. The flask dissolved into a small heap of fine gray dust.
“Wow,” Peri said. “Better not use that unless it’s life or death.”
Text copyright © 2012 by Working Partners Limited
Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Sam Hadley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in Great Britain in February 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America in May 2012
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
www.bloomsburykids.com
Electronic edition published in May 2012
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available upon request
ISBN 978-1-59990-931-8 (e-book)
