The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu

Chapter Thirty Nine

Fox was having a hell of a time. He grinned to himself as he tromped towards the village. This town – this whole gorram island – was filled with women. Helpless, defenseless women. Sure, some of them were a fair bit on the manly side, but there were plenty of nubile little pretties out here. If he had known about this place years ago, he would have settled in, taken over, and had the nicest little harem this side of the ‘verse. Hell, even keep the rougher looking ones around – plenty of work to be done. Nearest constabulary station was eighty miles away. Over water. With the proper handling, this could be a right proper little kingdom.

Too bad he would be burning it down.

They had started with the little cottage the shuttle had landed in front of. They didn’t burn the shuttle, of course, just screwed with the fuel intake enough to keep it from lifting – always give your prey an obvious and completely false means of retreat. He had learned that on Boros, during the War. But the cottage, the little sickening sweet and cozy little bitch-shack, with all the flowers and birdhouses, that he took relish in torching. As soon as he had ascertained that his prey was not within, he had chucked an explosive incendiary inside and watched it burn. Then he turned and spelled out the plan with Micah and Tonk.

It was simple: Tonk would conceal himself near the shuttle, while he and Micah would swing around the other third points and come at the town from those directions. They didn’t know who they were looking for, of course, but who ever it was would flee the town and head for the shuttle to escape. Tonk was to let them get in, start her up. When she didn’t fly, they’d likely send a wave to that Firefly, and that he could track.

In the meantime, they got to take a pleasant evening stroll and burn down a bunch of stuff.

He had ordered both of his lackeys not to kill anyone, unless they had to, and not to hurt them too bad if they could help it. And