A Brother's Debt by Karl Jones

out of the restaurant.

 
    Chapter Seventeen
     
     
     
    On the street Step looked up and down briefly. There was no sign of the ground-car that had brought him to the restaurant, but he wasn’t so foolish that he would have gotten in it if it had been there. He was looking for a habota, or some other means of public transportation, none were visible however.
    Since there was no other choice open to him Step started off down the road on foot. He had only a vague idea of where the spaceport was from his current location, but was confident he could find his way back there. At the very least he would eventually find himself somewhere he could get public transportation, and that would take him to the spaceport.
    Before he had gone more than a dozen paces, thoughts of the spaceport and public transportation were pushed from his mind. The thugs he had expected to grab him in the restaurant appeared from the alley that ran along the side of it. There were four of them and before he realised they were there they had him surrounded.
    “Mr Dollier would like a word with you,” the thug immediately in front of Step said.
    Despite being outnumbered Step wasn’t about to meekly go with the thugs. It took no great amount of intelligence to work out that Grange Dollier intended forcing him to hand over Carboni’s package, since he wasn’t willing to sell it.
    He chose not to respond verbally to the order; instead he darted to his left and rammed his shoulder into the man there. He leaped over the man as he fell to the ground and twisted away as a hand reached for him; he was brought up short when the hand grabbed at his clothing, pulling him backwards.
    He yanked himself free with a quick jerk, though not without suffering damage to his top, which was ripped from his shoulder. He paid little heed to the damage to his outfit as he took off down the street; a torn top was a small price to pay in his opinion.
    Behind him Step could hear the pounding footsteps of Dollier’s thugs as they gave chase, but he didn’t dare risk a look over his shoulder to see how close they were. While the street wasn’t packed there were enough people around to force him to keep his attention focused on what lay before him, to avoid running into any of them.
    Though he was successful in dodging in and out of the few people around for a while, his luck ran out after a couple of hundred yards when a figure walked out of a bar and straight into him. The pair of them fell to the ground in a heap, and before Step could get to his feet and take off again Dollier’s thugs were on him.
    Step lashed out instinctively when he was hauled out from under the man who had knocked him down. The blow landed squarely on the jaw of the thug who had hold of him, rocking his head back, and he yanked himself free. “Sorry,” he grunted an apology when he fell on top of the man who had bumped into him, knocking him back to the ground as he was pushing himself up.
    Rolling off the guy beneath him Step lashed out with a foot at the thug who was circling to his left. His foot didn’t connect but the kick was sufficient to drive the thug back, giving him time to turn and face the one moving to his right. He blocked the fist that flew at his face and retaliated with a blow of his own, a jab that broke the man’s nose and made blood spurt.
    Step followed up the jab with a second, further damaging the nose he had broken, and he was swinging his fist for a third time, with the intention of putting the man before him out of the fight completely, when his arm was grabbed. Before he had a chance to get himself free he had been spun round and thrown against the wall of the bar they were outside of.
    Blood trickled from his forehead and down the side of his nose. He was unaware of it however as he pushed himself away from the wall, only to be grabbed and slammed into the wall again. Dazed, Step flung his arm back wildly; the gasp of pain that came when he felt his elbow connect with