Gremlin and Ferret nodded.
Lynx squared his shoulders and twisted the doorknob, then shoved, prepared to sell his life dearly, if necessary, to safeguard Melody.
But there weren’t one hundred Superiors waiting for them.
There wasn’t a Superior anywhere in sight.
There were dozens of vehicles, and a number of mutants and humans moving from the parking lot to the Medical Building or going the other way.
Lynx moved outside. He saw an entranceway 30 yards to the right.
Then he looked to the left.
Fifty yards distant, resting on a concrete helipad, was a sleek white helicopter.
“Do you see what I see?” Lynx asked.
“I see it,” Ferret confirmed.
“If the pilot is still on board,” Lynx said, “we’ll have our ticket out of here.”
They hurried toward the helipad.
Melody repeatedly glanced at the parking lot, hoping no one would become unduly curious if they beheld two mutants in loincloths hastening from the Medical Building. She breathed an audible sigh of relief when they reached the edge of the helipad, and she eagerly scrambled over the top after the others. A startling thought slowed her down, though, as she stood on the concrete: if Lynx, Ferret, and Gremlin all wore those deplorable loincloths, was it possible all mutants, even the women, wore them where Lynx was from? She saw Lynx approaching an open sliding door on the side of the chopper, and she opened her mouth to question him.
Lynx was just about to climb onto the copter when a glimmering pair of revolver barrels poked around the right edge of the door. He leaped back, crouching, his claws extended, snarling in fury at being thwarted when they were so close to freedom. So close!
That was when a grinning blond man in buckskins appeared in the doorway, a revolver in each hand. “Howdy, runt,” he said to Lynx. “What’s the matter with you? Have you got ants in your britches?”
Melody would never forget Lynx’s response. She’d failed to recognize, until that very moment, exactly how many curse words there were in the English langauge.
Chapter Nineteen
Two months later the Family celebrated the arrival of their missing members with the biggest bash ever held at the Home. After imbibing enough wine to drown a horse, Sherry publicly declared she was chaining Hickok to their bed and not letting him go for a week. She did not live up to her word, however, as the gunman was seen three days later walking rather stiffly around the compound.
Melody and Roger were formally accepted into the Family. After Melody recited her pledge of Loyalty, the Family women collectively presented her with a welcoming gift consisting of three hand-sewn outfits.
No one could quite understand her reaction, though, when she actually hugged the clothing and kept saying, over and over again, “Thank you! Thank you!”
One month after their return, Blade and Hickok officiated at the induction of three new Warriors and the creation of a new Triad. Bravo Triad was formed, and its member Warriors were the only three male mutants in the Family. Lynx was ecstatic, Gremlin expressed genuine happiness, but Ferret was oddly reserved. Later that night, while Blade was patrolling the east wall, he saw Ferret standing by himself in a secluded section of the Home and gazing up at the stars. He distinctly overheard Ferret ask aloud: “Why me?”