Free Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G. J. Koch

lot of movement. The ’floater was certainly rocking more than it should be, even while in the air. I figured Slinkie was showing why no one was ever going to force her to do anything she didn’t want to do without a huge fight and the potential that they may never be able to have children.
    However, the driver seemed to want to get rid of me. At least, I assumed that was why he flipped the car. I didn’t fall off, thanks to that decorative bar, but I decided getting inside might be a good idea. Naturally, the doors were locked. But I had my laser gun and I was pretty sure Slinkie wasn’t in the front seat.
    I shot at the front passenger’s window. Thankfully I’d shot at an angle, because the laser shot ricocheted off. Laser-proofing was expensive. I figured the Business Bureau wanted insurance in the form of my girl. Well, my soon-to-be girl. Okay, my maybe-one-day girl. But still, she was mine, one way or the other.
    I holstered my laser gun and moved around the passenger board. If I couldn’t shoot them, they couldn’t shoot me. While I moved, I questioned why the Business Bureau was using an ancient autofloater. Maybe they liked to keep a low profile. Or maybe it wasn’t the BB after all.
    The driver tried flipping me off again. Like before it didn’t work, but it did cause me to fall across the windshield. It wasn’t as tinted as the rest of the windows, and I could see three men besides the driver. Like all of Herion’s males, they were larger than me. Slinkie was doing a great job of kicking and hitting the crap out of them, but one of them landed a good uppercut and I saw her go over and down.
    One thing I’d never felt Great-Aunt Clara was wrong about was men who hit women. She felt they deserved to die. I agreed, especially when they hit my woman. I couldn’t get in there to beat the crap out of them in return, but I could do something much worse.
    I moved to the front of the ’floater. Older models like this had failsafes, and I knew where they were. I kicked the front grill at the
emergency release point and the hood flew up. Searched around, yep, it was an engine all right. I didn’t want us crashing to the ground, but I wanted us going down. Found the helium-reactor and hit the emergency overload switch.
    The ’floater shuddered and coughed. Good. I looked over my shoulder. We weren’t heading anywhere comforting. There were buildings around us and nothing all that soft under us. And, since I had the hood up, the driver couldn’t see. We were flying towards what appeared to be a sewage processing plant—the huge vats of stuff that looked fetid from up here, the many tubes running in between, the high and thick external walls, and total lack of other businesses surrounding this plant made it a good guess.
    I considered the dilemma. Seemed to be only one option, really.

CHAPTER 19
    I left the hood up and moved around to the driver’s side. He chose to open his door, marking him as an idiot. But that was good. I’d been planning to kick in the back window and drag Slinkie out before we crashed. Not the greatest plan in the world. A door open made things much simpler.
    He fired, I dodged. Wasn’t hard. His aim was poor—apparently it was hard to drive an out-of-control ’floater and shoot the good guy at the same time.
    I grabbed the door before he could close it, pulled my laser gun, and fired. Missed the driver, got the passenger. In the head. One down, three goons to go. From what I could tell, Slinkie was still out.
    The driver flipped the car while he and I continued to fire at each other. He missed again, possibly because I’d lost my footing and was holding onto the car via the door handle. He leaned out to aim better. I holstered my gun, flung my arm up, and grabbed his arm just before he fired. His shot missed and he was off-balance enough that I pulled him out of the ’floater.
    I heard male voices shouting, but couldn’t pay much attention. The driver still had a hold of the