Where could he be? Had Melissa lied about Rikki being here? He didn’t have much time! The other Knights were certain to investigate the gunfire and discover Melissa and the dead guard.
Where?
Blade reached a stairwell and, on a hunch, darted into it and began descending to the lower levels of the library. If the Leather Knights had converted a portion of the library into a dungeon or jail, logic dictated the holding cells might be located in the basement.
If the library even had a basement!
Blade reached a landing and paused, listening.
The night was deathly quiet.
Strange.
They should have found the bodies by now. Why wasn’t there an uproar, or at least the sounds of pursuit?
Very strange.
Blade opened the landing door and found himself in a dingy hallway. It branched to the left and the right.
Terrific!
Which branch should he take?
Blade opted for the right branch and jogged along the hallway until he reached a closed door. He grabbed the doorknob, tensed, and pushed the door open.
Another damn office!
Annoyed, Blade continued his hunt. He ran another 15 yards and spied a door to his left. The doors, constructed of wood and painted or stained a pale yellow, stood out against the gloomy hallway walls.
Here goes nothing!
Blade shoved the door open.
Bingo!
This room gave every indication of being a recent fabrication. The walls were made from brick, and the floor was barren dirt. A musty scent permeated the chamber. The room was circular, perhaps 30 feet in diameter. And secured to the far wall across from the doorway, their arms locked in chains, were a man and a woman.
Rikki and another.
Blade easily recognized his small companion, despite the lack of light.
“Rikki!” Blade called. “Are you all right?”
There was a muffled noise from the other side of the chamber.
Blade took a step forward. He could see Rikki and the woman thrashing, striving to slip free from their chains, and he could hear the chains clanking against the brick wall. There was black patches over Rikki’s and the woman’s mouths.
They were gagged!
“Hang on!” Blade yelled. “I’ll have you out of there in no time.”
The huge Warrior started toward the hapless pair. He reached the center of the room.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was surging against his chains like a madman.
“Calm down!” Blade said. “I’m almost there! I’ll get you out.”
“No, you won’t,” said a harsh feminine voice from above.
Even as Blade glanced upward, something heavy fell onto his broad shoulders and covered his arms and torso, pinning his arms to his sides, rendering the Commando useless.
Light flooded the chamber.
A net! He was snared in a net!
Blade caught a glimpse of a balcony encircling the room, a balcony swarming with Leather Knights. He strained his arms, attempting to loosen the net, to bring the Commando into play.
His effort was wasted.
Leather Knights, men and women, poured into the chamber through three recessed doorways. They rushed to the middle of the chamber and tackled the Warrior, tightening the net until movement was impossible.
Blade, mentally berating his stupidity, wound up flat on his back staring through the strands of the nylon net at a dozen hostile faces. Now he knew what Rikki had been trying to do: warn him about the trap.
The Leather Knights parted and a brunette bearing a scar under her right eye appeared, standing over the Warrior’s head. She was grinning in triumph. “Ain’t you the big one?” she asked playfully.
Blade refused to respond.
“The name is Terza,” she said. “And you must be the friend of Lex’s hunk! Am I right?”
Lex’s hunk?
Terza chuckled. “The strong, silent type, huh? Fine. There’s no need to talk right now. You’ll do enough talking later. I can promise you that!” She paused, then kicked the net with her right foot. “Not bad, eh? Jeff told us all about you. We knew you were coming in to save your buddy. Did you think we’d let you walk right in here and take him?”
Blade didn’t answer. He was feeling monumentally dumb.
“If so,” Terza continued, “you ain’t as bright as you look.” She laughed.
“Why don’t you get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll get down to cases in the morning.” She glanced at a man with a blue Mohawk. “Cardew, why don’t you tuck him in?”
“My pleasure.” Cardew replied.
Blade saw the biker named Cardew walk beyond his line of vision. What was the Knight planning to do?
“Nighty-night!” Cardew said, from just beyond Blade’s head.
What the—
Something crashed into Blade’s face, something hard, smashing his right cheek and jarring his jaw.
Blade heaved, his arms bulging, vainly attempting to remove the net.
“One more time,” Cardew stated.
The bastard must be using a club! Blade tried to roll to the left, away from Cardew’s blow.
They mustn’t knock him out! If they succeeded, they’d disarm him!
He’d be at their mercy! They’d be…
Chapter Nine
He thought he was going to puke!
The gunman felt as if he were bobbing on the surface of a lake. Nausea engulfed him. His stomach was contracting, threatening to expel the venison jerky he’d consumed earlier.
Where the blazes was he?
What was that weird noise?
His eyelids fluttered open, and he glimpsed men in uniform seated on both sides of him. Brown uniforms with red stars on the collars. Who were they? He couldn’t seem to focus, to concentrate. Why? He closed his eyes and drifted into dreamland.
Chapter Ten
Dear Spirit! How he hurt!
Blade’s senses responded sluggishly as he struggled to regain consciousness. He vividly recalled being clobbered by the Leather Knight called Cardew, and as his eyes opened and a wave of agony washed over his head he inadvertently flinched, expecting to be struck again.
But Cardew was gone. And so were the others. The circular chamber was empty except for the nylon net in the middle of the dirt floor.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said someone to his left.
Blade slowly turned, discovering his arms in chains.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was shackled to the brick wall not four feet away. He had succeeded in slipping the gag from his mouth. Beyond him hung a redheaded woman with her gag still in place.
Was she the woman named Lex?
Rikki scanned the balcony to insure it was unoccupied. “Is Hickok with you?” he asked in a low voice.
Blade shook his head and immediately regretted the movement. The right side of his face was lanced by an acute pain. “I came alone,” he mumbled through swollen lips.
“I noticed you found my katana,” Rikki stated.
Blade looked down. The Leather Knights had stripped all of his weapons: the Bowes, the Commando, the katana, everything.
“They took them last night,” Rikki revealed, accurately deducing Blade’s train of thought, “after Cardew knocked you out. I saw them carry my sword away.” He paused, his jaw muscles taut. “I intend to retrieve it.”
Blade tried to speak, but his throbbing mouth balked at the effort.
What had that bastard Cardew done to him? He licked his puffy lips and mustered his resolve. “Do you…” He said haltingly, “have… any idea what they plan to do with us?”
Rikki nodded. “Their leader, Terza, wants to know who we are and where we come from. She wants to question us.”
“She’ll be wasting her breath,” Blade muttered.
Rikki glanced at the closed doors. “Why did you come in alone?” he inquired. “Why didn’t you use the SEAL?”