She would be going to
the airlock. Johnny Simms, shooting at the landscape, might shoot
Holden. A thread of bullet-smoke passed within feet of Holden's body. He
turned and shouted back at the ship.
The inner airlock door clanked open. There was the sound of a shot, and
the dead thing was hit again. The bullet had been fired dangerously
close to Holden. There were voices below. Johnny Simms bellowed
enragedly.
Alicia cried out.
There was silence below, but Cochrane was already plunging toward the
stairs. Babs followed closely.
When they rushed down onto the dining-room deck they found Alicia
deathly white, but with a flaming red mark on her cheek. They found
Johnny Simms roaring with rage, waving the weapon he'd been shooting.
Jamison was uneasily in the act of trying to placate him.
"----!" bellowed Johnny Simms. "I came on this ship to hunt! I'm going
to hunt! Try and stop me!"
He waved his weapon.
"I paid my money!" he shouted. "I won't take orders from anybody! Nobody
can boss me!"
Cochrane said icily:
"I can! Stop being a fool! Put down that gun! You nearly shot Holden!
You might still kill somebody.
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