CHAPTER 12Laurance’s Gambit
Captain Rennie hitched at his heavy belt and glowered towards a line of sweating men. They stared back, their faces expressionless, and, as usual, the stocky captain felt his skin crawl to their radiated hate. Grimly he snapped terse commands.
“This is an elimination test. The winners will be in direct line for promotion. The losers...” He shrugged. “You’ve all had hypno-tuition in armed and unarmed combat. Now. You’re going to be divided in two parties and will face each other, man to man. One man will have a knife, the other be unarmed, and the trick is to win.” He grinned. “I’m not too concerned how you win.” His face hardened again. “One other thing. If any bright lad gets the idea of throwing a knife at one of the guards, he will be flayed, strung up by t
