Page 32 of Sublime Target
The big, bad Kordolian must have scared the living daylights out of those poor kids.
Did he get the answers he was looking for?
Jerik strode forward with brutal precision until he reached her.
Nobody dared challenge him.
Suddenly, hundreds of eyes were upon her—upon them.
The protest had effectively stopped, and everyone was staring at them.
“I thought I told you to stay inside,” he growled.
If only she could see his expression right now.
What did he look like under that mask? The curiosity was beginning to kill her.
“You told me to go inside, not stay inside,” she said coolly, her tone disguising the fact that she was a little bit of a hot mess inside. Clarissa looked around at the protesters. “Guys,” she shouted, raising her voice. “This is the one time you should call it a day. You got us, okay? The tower looks spectacular. You definitely made your point.”
A quick glance skyward told her Garner Tower had been hit with multiple pink paint bombs. She suspected the woman with the cannon-looking thing was the culprit. It was barely visible from down here, but the higher windows of the building were decorated in an abstract disaster of pink paint splotches.
“Leave now!” Clarissa yelled at the protesters. “This is not the time or place to be doing this.”
Normally, she would have accepted their right to protest, but there was a real live Kordolian amongst them.
She was more worried for their safety.
At least he hadn’t killed anyone… or so she thought. There was a relieving absence of bodies on the ground, anyway.
Jerik inclined his head. He was close now, about a handspan away from her, so close she could make out the faint red glow of his irises through his semi-translucent visor.
He snorted softly as if amused.
Then he pulled his weapon from a sleek holster against his armor and raised it in the air.
He pulled the trigger.
Boom!
The noise was incredible. Clarissa covered her ears as a bright flare of white-hot energy shot up into the sky, like the tail of a comet.
Holy shit. Clarissa froze in shock. She hadn’t expected him to do something so unpredictable.
“Leave,” Jerik thundered.
The protesters scattered like ants.
Evidently, his method was highly effective.
He’d probably done this a hundred times before.
“I hope this makes your job somewhat easier,” he said dryly.
“Oh, believe me, it will… and it won’t. Did you find the answers you were looking for?”
He stared at her for a moment, silent and bristling with indecipherable tension.
“You were right,” he muttered at last. “It’s a harmless water-soluble compound—according to them, anyway. Should wash off easily. They merely wanted to embarrass your master.”