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squirming woman in his arms, trying to keep her from burrowing into
the grass.
Some of the passersby had turned around at the frantic scream.
Ken looked at the crowd apologetically.
"Sorry," he said. "She just accepted my proposal. We're engaged!"
Indulgent smiles all round, left them alone. Decent people, giving
decent privacy. They wouldn't be so nice if he told themwhat they
were engaged in.
But he'd miscalculated how much Robbie's system could hold. Her
body lay limp on the ground, but her hands were frantically picking at
the grass.
"No no no no no no . . ." she murmured.
"Hey, baby." Ken turned her over. She drew her knees up to her chest
and screwed her eyes shut.
Ken heard activity nearby, the sound of hurrying footsteps, and
looked up to see the agent dressed like a bum heading his way. He
shook Robbie by the shoulder.
"Robbie, you've got to finish off the concert hallright now !"
"No no no no no no!" She started kicking and lashing out with her
arms. Agent Boudreau was getting closer. He mustn't get Robbie. Ken
tried to gather her up, intending to carry her away from the Moon
Walk.
She smacked him in the face with a wild swing.
All right, so Ken had created a monster but she was his monster! He
couldn't let the agent take her away. Ken wasn't a natural
practitioner. His superiors had equipped him with a few easy spells in
case of emergency. The disappearance charms were all used up. No
way to vanish handily into the crowd. Instead, he had to rely on
offense.
He sprang to his feet and assumed a martial arts stance.
* * *
Boo-Boo saw him assume a bent-knee crouch with his hands out at
right angles. He'd been waiting for something like that. Ken had little
magical ability of his own, or he wouldn't have needed Ms. Robbie in
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the first place. In a moment the agent had taken his opponent's
measure. Ken Lewis had wrestled, most likely in high school, and
hadmaybe a little storefront karate. He was no match for Boo-Boo in
any way that the American agent could think of.
From his pocket Ken whipped out a white envelope and flung it down
on the ground between them. It burst with a puff of white smoke.
"Spirits dark, hear me call you, hold my foe still like a statue!"
Boo-Boo almost scoffed out loud. Standard immobilization spell, only
you were supposed to hit the one you wanted to freeze with the
powder to make it work. Ken had wasted it on maybe an ant hill or a
passing caterpillar. Boo-Boo wasn't impressed. The guy was so jumpy
he was making stupid mistakes.
But Ken was a dirty fighter. Under the cover of the white cloud, he
rushed to close with Boo-Boo, pounding him over the kidneys with his
fists. Luckily for Boo-Boo, his old friend of an army jacket, padded
with years' accumulation of odds and ends, absorbed most of the
force. Boo-Boo twisted out of his hold just in time to keep his ear from
being bitten in half. Ken Lewis must have gone out of his mind. Boo-
Boo grabbed his wrist and flipped it up behind the other man's back.
"Now, you just hold still," he said. He turned his head to look for Ms.
Robbie.
The poor young woman was lying on the ground, mumbling and
writhing, her hands waving in the air. Her eyes were fixed on the
fireworks, the effect of which she must still be transmitting to the
Superdome. Drugged or bespelled, it was hard to say which.
"What did you give her?" Boo-Boo demanded, shaking Ken's wrist.
The other gasped but didn't speak. "What have you done to her?"
An urgent beeping sounded nearby.
"Beauray," Liz's voice, much muffled, came from the depths of his
pocket, "what is happening out there?"
Ken took advantage of Boo-Boo's momentary distraction to kick out
viciously. Boo-Boo took a healthy blow to the shin, but let his weight
drop forward. He ended up sitting on Ken.
"Now, what you're doin' is wrong. Y'all want to make it stop before
anyone gets killed." Boo looked down at Ken, who was gnashing his
teeth. "Or is that just exactly what you want?" He pulled a pair of
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handcuffs from his hip pocket and snapped them on Ken's wrists.
The everchanging crowd had by now noticed that a fight had been
going on in its midst. A few men jumped forward to pull Boo-Boo off
his quarry, no doubt thinking he was an insane vagrant. With regret,
he stood up over his prisoner and produced his billfold with his
Department credentials. The men stood back, surprised.
"Folks, this fellah's in possession of an illegal shipment of pixie dust,"
Boo-Boo said amiably but with fire in his eyes that showed he meant
business. "Y'all want to move along now. Everythin's under control."
To back up his statement, he made a few quick mystic passes of the
"These aren't the droids you're looking for" variety. Distracted, the
crowd went back about its business. Boo-Boo was relieved.
He had let his guard down too soon.
In the darkness he missed the foot sweeping out from underneath
that caught him across the shins. Boo-Boo went flying onto the grass.
The cuffs were now aroundhis wrists. Pretty slick, he thought.
Ken sprang up. Pausing only to kick Boo-Boo once in the ribs, he fled
into the crowd.
Boo gasped, catching his breath around the pain in his midsection.
Lewis was gone, but he was not the real problem. Boo-Boo crawled
over to Robbie, who was lying on her back with her hands and knees
in the air, kicking like a dying fly. Her hair was tangled into a rat's
nest, and her clothes were stained and torn. She looked as though
she'd been assaulted, but it was all from flinging herself around on
the ground.
"Ms. Robbie, can you hear me?"
"Beauray!" his pocket screamed.
Uh-oh. Couldn't let Liz get hot under the collar. The lives of
thousands depended on it. Awkwardly with his pinioned hands, he
fumbled for the cell phone.
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