Read Online America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 22: Blue Powder War by Walter Knight - Free Book Online

percentage of my profits. You’ll be rich.”
    “I’m already rich.”
    “There’s no such thing as too much money. It’s as good as cash.”
    “I want more.”
    “There’s no pleasing you, is there, Czerinski? You want power. Do you think if I give you my weapon of mass destruction, you can avoid prison?”
    “Let’s meet.”
    “Ha! Last time, you tried to snipe me. Show me goodwill by allowing my first shipment to pass unmolested. Then, maybe I’ll meet you in a place of my choosing.”
    “Fine.”
    “In the meantime, our story is that the scorpions ate the refugees. Everyone knows scorpions are slaves to their gullets. Too bad, so sad, problem solved for everyone.”
    “Agreed.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    “You can’t be serious,” accused Major Lopez incredulously. “I won’t be a part of treason.”
    “That’s a good one,” I replied sarcastically. “Don’t worry, I’ll kill Blue-Claw, first chance I get. Tell your CIA contacts I want a free pass. I’m working on acquiring Blue-Claw’s secret weapon.”
    “Don’t think you can double-cross the CIA.”
    “You’ve always had trust issues.”
    “Just saying.”
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
    Teamsters Union pickets surrounded the New Phoenix Walmart for their annual Labor Day picnic protest. All deliveries except Outlaw Beer were blocked. The huge protest even stopped commerce out on the highway.
    Blue-Claw’s spider drivers braked at the sight of pickets, not daring to cross Teamsters picket lines. Sheriff Mike McCoy attempted to wave the first truck past, but the spider trucker balked. Annoyed, Sheriff McCoy approached the twitchy spider, asking for identification and a bill of laden.
    “My trailer was searched at the border,” hissed the nervous spider trucker. “I’m just hauling apples and oranges.”
    “Mind if I see for myself,” asked Sheriff McCoy reasonably.
    “Oh, hell, no! What do you think? That I’m carrying blue powder?”
    “It’s just that apples and oranges usually aren’t mixed,” explained Sheriff McCoy as deputies gathered. “Keep your claws where I can see them!”
    “I have Legion certification of my load,” argued the spider trucker, retrieving paperwork from the glove compartment next to his gun. “Czerinski promised you’re not supposed to hassle me!”
    “Gun!” shouted a deputy from the other window. “Hands in the air! Don’t move!”
    “I have claws, not hands,” replied the spider trucker, defiant about the slight as he tried to open the cab door.
    Deputies fired a volley of shots, killing the spider trucker instantly. Sheriff McCoy broke the seal on the back of the trailer. Sure enough, it contained mixed apples and oranges, and underneath, crates of blue powder.
    “Search all trucks, no matter whether they have Legion seals,” ordered Sheriff McCoy. “The Legion is allowing blue powder to be smuggled past the DMZ.”
    Deputies quickly converged on a string of stopped big rigs, arresting more spider drivers. It was the biggest blue powder bust in New Colorado history. Irate spider drivers complained of the Czerinski double-cross, but to no avail. If you do the crime, you do the time.
    Blue-Claw appeared on a small rise overlooking the highway, menacingly shaking his staff at the deputies. “Go back to your doughnut shop, Barney Fifes! You don’t know who you’re messing with!”
    “Arrest that fool!” ordered Sheriff McCoy, leading a phalanx of deputies up the hill.
    Blue-Claw desperately waved his godly staff again and again. Nothing happened. Maybe the batteries were low. He smacked its side a couple times. Not even a twitch of dust rose on the breeze. Examining the controls closer, Blue-Claw turned its dial to maximum. A burst of lighting arched out to heaven, causing Blue-Claw to drop the weapon. A giant vortex of dust and debris rose and consumed all near the highway, raining apples, oranges, and blue powder.
    Teamsters tailgating in the Walmart parking lot dropped their beer