Knock on Wood

by C. J. Clemens

  So far, so typical.

  “I’ll have one charser,” Milo said in a haughty voice, then cast a dismissive look at Remy. “And give my servant here a ferrara.”

  The dworg seemed to be enjoying himself just a little too much.

  The tall, lanky, young bartender, sporting an unruly mop of black hair, simply nodded and stepped away to fill their order. When he returned a few moments later with their drinks, Milo handed him a card, which was imprinted with his DNA and contained all of the credits Lady Ris had given them.

  No doubt the bartender would scan the card to see how much the opulent dworg was worth. As he walked away to do just that, Milo took a sip from his cocktail. Remy, meanwhile, downed his entire glass.

  “Not bad,” he whispered to Milo. “Tastes just like beer.” Then he belched for good measure.

  Milo flashed him an annoyed look, but the bartender returned before he could reprimand his “servant.”

  Ignoring Milo, Remy caught the bartender’s eye. Time to get this party started.

  “My employer would also like to speak to the madam,” Remy said as meekly as he could.

  The bartender gazed down at Milo for confirmation and then nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said, addressing Milo. “I will get Madame Couche for you.”

  Remy laughed inwardly at the name “Couche.” How appropriate. He must’ve looked too amused with himself because Milo shot him a warning glance. Then the dworg’s focus shifted to a point behind him.

  He turned to follow Milo’s gaze.

  A woman approached them. Perhaps in her mid-fifties, but still quite attractive. Remy figured she’d been a working girl who’d eventually risen to the position of madam. She wore a sexy yet conservative dress with a soft woolen sweater draped across her shoulders and a pair of cat-eye glasses perched on her slender nose—the sexy librarian look.

  “Madame Couche,” she said in a silken voice, holding out her long-nailed hand.

  Milo accepted her hand, kissed it, and then turned to Remy, as if prompting him.

  “My employer,” Remy said, his gaze flitting between the madam’s violet eyes and the scuffed carpet, “would like to request the services of one of your ladies… perhaps two.”

  How many cons had Remy pulled in his lifetime? Too many to count. Naturally, he had played the role of servant before. He had even once pretended to be a member of the high clergy on Nevis 7, and Dreyla often enjoyed reminding him of the dress he’d worn on the Prisby job. He had to admit, that one did make him chuckle.

  This is just another job... no big deal.

  “I’m sure we can accommodate you,” Madame Couche said with a benevolent smile.

  “Only your finest,” Remy added.

  The ever-widening grin on her face indicated the girls would be very expensive. She obviously thought she had a whale on the hook.

  “Please, follow me,” she said.

  She led them to a back elevator, which whooshed them up to a suite on the twelfth floor. Soon afterward, Remy and Milo found themselves sitting stiffly on a sofa made more for fashion than comfort, waiting for Madame Couche and the two ladies they’d requested.

  As the seconds ticked by, Remy removed his hat, fiddled with it, and then put it on again, not sure which way looked best. Milo, meanwhile, fidgeted with the gold buttons on his waistcoat.

  The suite seemed way classier than the dive bar below—and probably most of the other rooms in the brothel. It featured a variety of plush surfaces and lavish, black-and-silver furnishings—and there was no dust. Obviously a suite intended for the richest clientele.

  Eventually, Remy pulled out a vial of liquid they had fashioned into fake blood. It was a mixture of some hot sauce they’d picked up in one of the local markets and a bit of green makeup that the ever-resourceful Lady Ris had supplied. Blending them had created a greenish-red color, a spot-on match for the blood of an average dworg.

  Milo accepted the vial and walked toward one of the many mirrors in the suite. He dabbed a droplet on his left ear, just enough to be visible, and added another tiny amount to his left eye. The final touch: a few drops in his nostrils.

  He pivoted toward Remy. “What do you think?”

  “A vast improvement.”

  The dworg curled his lip.

  “I mean… master, you look so sick,” Remy said, slapping his hand to his cheek.

  “You know what? You’d better go wait over there.” Milo pointed to a chair near a rear window in the adjacent room. “It would be odd if my servant allowed me to be seen with… this. Best if we make out you hadn’t noticed it at all since it just started.”

  Remy considered his suggestion and then grinned. “You’d make a good pirate.”

  “I have no aspirations in that direction, Captain Bechet,” Milo replied.

  “We’ll see.” Remy winked at his diminutive partner in crime.

  Milo sat on the bed while Remy moved toward the window. He had just hunkered down in an ornate but oddly comfortable chair when the door to the suite opened and Madame Couche stepped inside, followed by two Amazonian-type women. They must’ve been nearly twice Milo’s height, and of course, they were both stunning.

  Milo stood and met them at the door.

  “These two ladies entertained the mayor of Yerdua when he last visited us.” Madame Couche indicated the women with a flourish of her hand. “I know dworg men often prefer a woman with some height.”

  “Indeed,” Milo assured her, craning his head to look up at them. “Indeed.”

  Remy rose from his chair and stepped closer to Milo, stopping just behind the dworg. A small drop of the fake blood was about to drip from the dworg’s earlobe.

  One of the girls whispered nervously into Madame Couche’s ear. The women then peered a little closer at Milo, specifically at the inflicted earlobe.

  Madame Couche drew back, her thick eyelashes batting rapidly. “I’m sorry, sir,” she said in a hushed tone. “But you appear to be experiencing symptoms of the Rot. Our girls are not allowed to service anyone who is in advanced stages.”

  Milo wiped his nose and stared at the fake blood with feigned chagrin. “My apologies, Madame, it seems there were some issues with the latest council shipment of nans.”

  “You are behind in your dose?” she asked gently.

  Milo nodded. “Normally, I have reserves, but for some reason, my servant failed to keep track of them, and we ran out. I honestly suspect he may have sold them.”

  Four pairs of accusing eyes shifted to Remy’s face. He forced a gulp.

  The madam produced a tablet and scanned Milo’s card. “Mr. Gimili.”

  Remy clenched his teeth to prevent himself from smiling.

  “I think,” she continued, “I may be able to help you with that.”

  Phase one complete.

  Galactic Blues

  We hope you’ve enjoyed the seventh episode of the Galactic Blues serial. To be notified of new releases, please subscribe to the Newton’s Gate list.

  Join the Newton’s Gate Universe

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  Of course, if you did enjoy this episode of Galactic Blues, please consider leaving a positive review. Thanks in advance!

  PREVIOUS EPISODES

  Galactic Blues Episode 1 - Born Under a Bad Sign

  Good pirates fight. Smart pirates run. The best aim for somewhere in between…

  After pulling off the heist of a lifetime, Captain Remy Bechet faces harrowing space battles, mutinous scumbags, and a vengeful nemesis from the past—all while trying to protect the ragtag crew he considers family.

  Meanwhile, on the planet Vox, Sheriff Lilly Greyson finds herself juggling formidable black-market dealers, horny deputies, and a worldwide crisis in the making.

  And for both, the day’s only half over.

  If you’re a fan of space operas like Firefly, Defiance, and Dark Matte
r, then you’ll love the first action-packed episode of the Galactic Blues serial.

  OTHER NGU RELEASES

  It’s easy to find other Newton’s Gate work. Every release inside the Newton’s Gate Universe will be listed under the C.J. Clemens name. Many of the releases will have other authors listed as well.

  Here are some of the current NGU releases:

  Deliver or Die: A Newton’s Gate Series (The Delivery Mage Book 1)

  By Jamie Davis & C.J. Clemens

  A dangerous tech warlord. A devious damsel. Is this smuggler mage getting paid or played?

  Baltimore, 2055. Ex-special ops agent Kurt Carter refuses to resort to killing any longer. Though this mage isn’t above skirting the law with a little magic to smuggle goods through the interstellar portals and back to Earth, he never expected to use the Newton’s gates on a ransom mission for the ex-wife he can’t seem to forget…

  With the help of a trigger-happy sidekick, Kurt has no choice but to break into a government building and steal a mysterious sarcophagus. After his ex throws an unexpected wrinkle into his plan, the smuggler mage must improvise to keep an impatient warlord at bay. Can Kurt save the girl and protect his business all without getting more blood on his hands?

  Deliver or Die is the first book in The Delivery Mage series of urban fantasy novels with a touch of interstellar travel. If you like magical antiheroes, action-packed space fantasies, and unique world-building, then you’ll love Jamie Davis’s rule-bending tale.

  ________________________

  The Realm: A Newton’s Gate Series

  By A.Q. Owen & C.J. Clemens

  HELL. HATH. NO. FURY.

  Orion’s little girl, dead now this last year, haunts his every hour, waking or not. His ex-wife, deep in the grip of her own grief and a drug problem, has abandoned Orion, deserting him and what scraps remained of their life.

  So, Orion drinks. And drinks. And rages. And burns through his fortune. And prays for death. Until he stumbles across his old high-school nemesis, Steve, one night in a dive bar.

  This supposed chance encounter turns out to be anything but. Since the advent of magic and alchemy, now strangely widespread after a recent high-profile scientific accident, Orion’s old rival has been conjuring a “plan” for his distraught adversary. A plan Steve swears comes direct from the Almighty himself.

  At first, his plan sounds crazy. Hell, Orion thinks, it is crazy: use a divine sword, a hiding spell, and the protection of God to invade hell and slay the devil, using good magic to restore order to the world. And to get the one thing he wants more than anything: revenge.

  Not surprisingly, Lucifer has his own plans—and turns out to be the toughest mark this hunter has ever tracked. Not to mention Satan’s legions of bloodthirsty, rapacious demons, who’ve been aching to kill a human for millennia, and his dark agents on Earth, eager to kill their own kind to curry favor with their master.

  ______________________

  Zombie Chaos Book 1: Bloodbath in the Big Easy: A Newton’s Gate series (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Tale)

  WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE. GRAPHIC GORE. GRAPHIC SNARK.

  What would you do if you received a three-week warning of the coming zombie apocalypse? How would you prepare? What if the warning was wrong—and the undead rose a full week before you were ready?

  Joe Daniels may be luckier than most, but heʼs still in a jam. After weeks of prepping, he gets caught in a zombie storm. To accomplish his plans and stay alive, he has to rescue his wife, Clare, and travel 1,300 miles through Americaʼs zombie-infested countryside to the safety of northern Michigan.

  But, first, he has to battle his way out of New Orleans. With his cat, Azazel, in tow.

  Bloodbath in the Big Easy is the first book in the Zombie Chaos series. If you like the drama of The Walking Dead, the gore of Romeroʼs Dead series, and the humor of Shaun of the Dead, follow Joe on his journey through zombie-filled New Orleans.

  _____________________

  MORE RELEASES TO COME!

  Acknowledgments

  Galactic Blues was heavily influenced by the terrific characters and entertaining plots of Firefly, Defiance, and Dark Matter. We’re grateful such awesome sci-fi shows exist, and as with them, we hope that our serial enables other space opera fans to disappear into the universe we’ve created.

  The Newton’s Gate Universe has brought together over thirty sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, and thriller authors, and while the stories might have a common origin, each one creates its own unique world for you, the reader. We hope you enjoy exploring the many worlds of Newton’s Gate, and we thank you for being an important part of this collective journey.

  Characters

  While writing Galactic Blues, we’ve had fun developing images to represent our characters and using them as shortcuts to identify each chapter’s POV.

  Captain Remy Bechet

  Dreyla Bechet

  Sheriff Lilly Greyson

  Commander Tara Shaw