Read Online America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 23 - Bandits by Walter Knight - Free Book Online

strategic weapon, in violation of treaty.  Give it to me!”
         “I'll smash the jar against the rocks unless I receive amnesty for all crimes, past, present, and future.”
         “Your future is not set, but I am authorized to grant amnesty for your current transgressions.”
         Cactus-Claw reluctantly tossed Harold Crack to the spider commander.  The spider commander shook the jar.  Sure enough, the agitated human pestilence ghost glowed in the dark better than fireflies.  “Can you hear me, legionnaire?” asked the spider commander.
         “Cactus-Claw has my gold teeth,” whined Harold Crack.  “So does Czerinski!”
         “Return the teeth,” ordered the spider commander, glaring mad dog with all eight eyes.  “Looting the dead is a war crime, and a punk thing to do.”
         Cactus-Claw grudgingly gave up a small pouch of gold teeth.  “I am no punk.  Can I go now?”
         “The casino heist money, too.”
         “Oh, come on.”
         “Crime doesn't pay.  I'm doing you a favor.  Money can't buy happiness.”
         “Maybe not, but it can buy me a boat.”
         “This is the desert.  No boat for you!”
         Cactus-Claw handed over a Legion duffle along with his dreams of aquatic adventure.  “They call me a bandit.  I'm chump change compared to what the feds steal on both sides of the border.  You would leave us to starve?”
         “Get a job if you don't like being broke.  I suggest you run.  If the Legion finds you, this conversation never happened.”
         “What happens to me?” asked Harold Crack.  “It's a war crime to be abducted by aliens during peacetime.  There will be an accounting.  You will pay.”
         “Shut up, ghost.  Do you want the rest of your teeth back?  If so, you will help fight Czerinski.  You will drive those rats back across the border.  Yes, I know what you did with those rats from the Legion dungeon.  I will get revenge for that.”
         “I didn't have a choice,” explained Harold Crack.  “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
         “You don't have a choice now.  Why is Czerinski digging holes in the Empire's ground?”
         “Why does a  monitor dragon lick its butt?  Because he can.”
         Breaking down Harold Crack's street cred bravado, the spider commander shook the jar violently.  An expert interrogator, the spider commander tolerated no nonsense from human pestilence thugs, dead or alive.
         “Okay!” relented Harold Crack under increasing torture.  “I'll ask around the spirit world, and get back to you.”
         “There's more of you ghosts?” asked the spider commander, alarmed it was becoming increasing difficult to kill human pestilence.  Back in the day, death was forever.
         “You ghosts?” asked Harold Crack, put off by such blatant prejudice and insensitivity.  “We don't use the G-word.”
         “Answer ghost!” ordered the spider commander, shaking the jar like a margarita shaker.
         “Stop that!  Most spirits are benign, but yes, they are everywhere.  If I find out about Czerinski, you will release me?”
         “You legionnaires are in for the duration.  I'll return your gold teeth.  That's the best I can do.”
                                                                              * * * * *
         Cactus-Claw continued east in the vast maze of slot canyons.  Thunder clouds on the horizon threatened flash floods, but Cactus-Claw was not deterred.  Leading his gang was the rock he pushed.  It couldn't get worse, could it?  Well, yes.
         The slot canyons were uphill, both ways.  Scorpion bandits emerged from the sand, pointing automatic weapons.  Broke, unarmed, and hungry, Cactus-Claw sank to his knees, giving up without a fight.  It got worse.
         “Winner winner,