Page 73 of Courting Mayhem

“Baelish! What are you…?”I yelped when he grabbed me, and I was suddenly streaking down the corridor at Mach 5. Whoa! This was so much better than the Tower of Terror, but we were moving so fast, I couldn’t see a thing.

Baelish came to an abrupt stop.

The room spun around me. I shook my head to clear it and gasped.

Giovanni Dragos’s doppelgänger stood in front of the Shebu. He had the mad scientist’s wild, white hair, thick bushy eyebrows, and pale blue eyes. He wore a wilted rose in the lapel of his white lab coat.

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. He was still there. But how? He had died in Sakkara, the ancient city of the dead. Fuck! “You’re a clone.”

“I am. Mallox didn’t want to lose my brilliance.” His shark-like smile didn’t reach his eyes and he wore a gold ring on each finger.

Baelish dumped me on the floor and spouted a bunch of guttural grunts and groans and some clucking.

The mad scientist’s translator kicked in and a mechanical voice said, “I brought you the Berserker. Now give me my sister.”

Right. Neither Giovanni nor Mallox had any psychic abilities. Which explained the neural blocker. I threw a quick look around the cargo hold. Where were Vrax and Mallox?

Giovanni tapped on his communication device. “My scanner shows this female to be a Farin. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Baelish roared more Askole gobbledygook and jerked me to my feet.

“This female defeated me in battle,” the translator spat.

I did what any normal Farin female would do. I fainted and hung limply in Baelish’s grip.

“Farin females are useless in my research, but I might keep her around to fuck,” Giovanni replied.

Oh joy. Who knew my deranged nympho act would be such a big hit? I bit back a cry of pain as Baelish’s grip tightened. He was going to break my arm.

“Sheisa berserker,” the enraged Askole bellowed, shaking me violently.

I shrieked in Galactic Basic, “Don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me.”

Giovanni pulled a 9mm Glock out of his waistband and shot Baelish in the head.

He toppled backwards, dragging me down with him.

I took one look at the hole in the Askole warrior’s forehead, let out a girly scream and fainted on top of his weapon’s belt. Giovanni was going to join his maker in hell after he had a long talk with Zarek. My hand closed around the butt of Baelish’s laser pistol.

“Mine!” The hairy Kellpie shouted.

I cracked an eye open and watched in disbelief as the Kellpie shot Giovanni.

The mad scientist disintegrated into a million little fireflies.

Ballock’s balls! I flipped Baelish’s pistol to the stun setting. The bastard had killed our one chance of finding Mallox’s lab. Before I could fire, the Kellpie took a direct laser hit. For a brief moment fireflies whirled madly.

Two Rodan soldiers stepped into view.

I smiled. I bet they knew where Mallox was.

Derek teleported into the cargo hold and ten seconds later the Rodan soldiers became fireflies.

“Why did you have to shoot them?” I yelled as I climbed off Baelish. “They work for Mallox, and I bet they knew where his lab is.”

“They’re the enemy. You appeared to be injured. I thought I told you to stay put,” Derek replied, surveying me from head-to-toe.

“Well, I saw Baelish head down here and decided to investigate. It was a good thing I did. Mallox cloned Giovanni Dragos,” I added with a flourish.

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