"Like hell I am!" said the girl. "I never saw you before--"
"Run along and play, son," said Johnny. "Or do you want me to change
that diaper of yours?"
That was when it happened. Bo saw the little needler spit from the
Venusian's fingers. Johnny stood there a moment, looking foolishly at
the dart in his stomach. Then his knees buckled and he fell with a
nightmare slowness.
The Venusian was already on the move. He sprang straight up, slammed a
kick at the wall, and arced out the door into the dome corridor beyond.
_A spaceman, that. Knows how to handle himself in low-gee._ It was the
only clear thought which ran in the sudden storm of Bo's head.
The girl screamed. A man cursed and tried to follow the Venusian.
He tangled with another. "Get outta my way!" A roar lifted, someone
slugged, someone else coolly smashed a bottle against the bar and
lifted the jagged end. There was the noise of a fist meeting flesh.
Bo had seen death before. That needle wasn't anesthetic, it was poison.
He knelt in the riot with Johnny's body in his arms.