Free Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) by Mike Resnick

yelped the dealer.
    “Don’t worry,” said Val. “What I do next won’t hurt a bit.”
    Suddenly there was a knife in her other hand, and before anyone quite realized what she was doing, she held the dealer’s left hand against the table and severed the thumb with a knife.
    “Anyone see any blood?” she said triumphantly.
    There wasn’t any.
    “Take a look,” she said, holding the prosthetic thumb up for everyone to see. She released her grip on the dealer’s hand, and rolled down the skin on the underside of the thumb, revealing a tiny mirror. Then she picked a card up from the table and rubbed the artificial skin back in place with the edge of the pasteboard.
    “Neat trick, isn’t it?” she said. “Some of you hold him while I have a little chat with his partner.” She walked over and stood next to Morrison. “Pay back everything you’ve won since you got to Singapore Station and you can walk away. No one will stop you.”
    “No one’s going to stop me now,” he growled ominously.
    “I was hoping you’d say that,” said Val, landing a roundhouse blow that knocked the huge man off his chair and onto the floor. “Stand back, Cole,” she said. “I’ll take it from here.”
    Cole backed away as Morrison got to his feet.
    “Say a short prayer to your God,” he told Val. “Because you’re not going to live long enough to say a long one.”
    He took a swing at her, one that might well have decapitated her had it landed. She ducked, stepped in, feinted for his groin, and as he bent over to protect himself she jabbed a thumb in his eye. He howled with pain, raised a hand to cover the eye, and as he did so she landed a heavy kick to his left knee. He bellowed again, caught her on the shoulder with a glancing blow, got a broken nose for his trouble, and as he took a step toward her and reached out with both hands to grab her, she landed a powerful kick full in his groin.
    He dropped to his knees, and took four more quick blows to the head. A chop across his throat had him gagging and gasping for air. Another blow demolished what was left of his nose, and he collapsed face-down on the floor.
    Val rolled him over, went through his pockets, pulled out a large wad of bills, rolled him back on his stomach, and removed a miniature burner he had bonded to the small of his back. Finally she stood up.
    “He let himself get out of shape,” she said contemptuously. “Hell, Bull Pampas could have taken him just as easily.”
    She turned and began walking back to the Duke’s table as the crowded parted before her, looking at her with a mixture of awe and fear.
    Cole turned to the assembled gamblers. “They’re all yours,” he said. “But I think we’ve had enough violence on the premises.”
    Some of them dragged the unconscious Morrison to an exit, while others prodded the terrified dealer with their weapons until he, too, went to the exit.
    “They’re going to kill both of them,” said Sharon when Cole and Val had reached the table.
    “Probably,” agreed the Duke. “After all, this is the Frontier. There will be no fast-talking lawyers getting them off on technicalities.”
    “That’s very much like justice,” said David Copperfield. “Certainly Skullcracker Morrison would have killed the Valkyrie if he could have.”
    “He never had a chance,” said Cole.
    “You weren’t worried?”
    “I’ve seen her in action.”
    “Enough chatter,” said Val. “Let’s get down to business.”
    She put the bills on the table and began dividing them. When they were done she handed her half over to Cole. “A little over six hundred thousand,” she announced. “That’s not bad for a one-minute workout.”
    “You are an exceptional woman!” enthused the Duke. “They could have kept that scam going for weeks, and certainly I wasn’t about to challenge Skullcracker Morrison. How can I ever thank you?”
    “Seriously?” said Val.
    “Absolutely,” answered the Duke. “I’m too old and have too