“Listen!” Ferret exclaimed.
There was a crashing in the underbrush, and a man dashed into view, breathing heavily from the strenuous exertion of having run eight miles.
He was a lean blond, with a sweeping handlebar mustache. Buckskins and moccasins covered his muscular frame. Strapped around his waist were a pair of pearl-handled Colt Python revolvers.
“Hickok!” Lynx declared. “We’re having a pajama party! Care to join us?”
The gunman ignored the comment. His blue eyes swept the area, and locked on the unconscious figure of his wife. He ran up to her.
Lynx glanced at Ferret. “Is this what they mean by true love?”
Hickok knelt by Sherry’s side and cradled her in his arms. He carefully examined her but couldn’t find any visible injury.
“Sherry is fine, yes?” Gremlin asked hopefully.
“She’d best be,” Hickok growled. He took her in his arms, then stood.
“Do you need some help?” Ferret asked.
Hickok shook his head. He walked over to the Russian officer, his seething eyes pinpoints of fury. “If you’ve hurt her, you bastard, you’re dead! Nothing will keep me from you! No one will stop me! I’ll kill you inch by miserable inch, until you beg for mercy! You understand me?”
Lieutenant Lysenko scowled.
Lynx looked at Ferret, beaming. “I love it when he talks like that!”
Hickok leaned toward the Russian. “You wipe that off your face, or I’ll kill you right now!”
“Hickok!”
The speaker was new to the scene, a giant of a man, striding toward them, his massive arms and legs bulging with raw power. His hair was dark, his eyes a piercing gray, his complexion rugged. He wore a black leather vest and green fatigue pants, as well as moccasins, the typical Family footwear. A pair of Bowies, his favorite weapons, rested in their sheaths, one on each hip.
“Uh-oh!” Lynx declared. “The party-pooper is here!”
“I need him alive,” the big man said to Hickok.
Hickok’s lips compressed. He glanced at the giant, then nodded. “Fine by me, Blade, but I want him when you’re through.”
“That’s not up to me,” Blade said, “and you know it.”
Hickok gazed at the soldier. “I’ll be seein’ you.” He walked off, Sherry nestled in his arms.
Blade studied the dead men, then stared at Lynx. “I thought I told you I wanted them alive.”
Lynx shrugged. “Couldn’t be helped. Besides, we did save you one of them.”
Blade moved over to Gremlin. “I’ll take him from here.”
“Gremlin can carry to Home for you, yes?” Gremlin asked.
“Thanks,” Blade responded. “But the Warriors will take over now.” He drew his right Bowie.
Gremlin released the Russian.
Lieutenant Lysenko dropped to the ground, landing on his knees. The razor edge of a Bowie was abruptly applied to his neck.
“You give me any trouble,” Blade stated, “and I’ll let Hickok have you!
Stand up! Move!”
Lysenko obeyed.
Blade started ushering the Russian in the direction of the Home.
“Hey!” Lynx called.
Blade paused. “What?”
“What about us?” Lynx inquired. “No thank you’? No pat on the back?
No parade in our honor?”
“I’m sure Hickok will thank you personally,” Blade said. “I appreciate what you did. You three caught up with them much faster than we could have—”
“You got that right,” Lynx commented. “—but I must get this one locked up, and see how Sherry is doing, and send out a detail for the bodies of Jean and Claudia. Talk to you later,” Blade remarked. He took another step, prodding the Russian officer with his Bowie.
“What about these dead troopers?” Ferret inquired. “Want us to leave them here?”
“No,” Blade replied over his right shoulder. “They might attract a mutate, or something worse. Bury them.”
Lynx watched the Warrior chief and the Red disappear in the trees, then turned, gesturing angrily. “How about that? We pull Sherry’s fat out of the fire, and this is the thanks we get! Bury them? I say we leave ’em for the worms!”
“Blade wants them buried,” Ferret said.
“So who is he? Our fairy godmother? Why do we have to listen to him?” Lynx retorted.
“You know why,” Gremlin mentioned. “The Family has been nice to us, yes? Given us a place to live, when no one else would, no? We owe them, yes?”
Lynx sighed. “Yeah, I guess we do. But I’ve got to tell you guys something.” He placed his hands on his hips. “I’m gettin’ real tired of this life. I mean, I’m bored to tears! Oh, sure, the Family is as sweet a bunch of people as you’d ever want to meet. And they’ve been real nice to us. Feedin’ us. Treatin’ us like one of their own.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Gremlin wanted to know. “Is pleasant, yes?”
“Yeah,” Lynx agreed, “but it’s also a pain in the butt! Look! We were just talkin’ about the good Doktor, about how he created us to be killing machines. Well, I don’t know about you two clowns, but I’m dying for some excitement in my life! Something to get the blood flowin’, if you know what I mean.”
“I do,” Ferret said, listening attentively.
“Wasting these morons was the most fun I’ve had in ages,” Lynx went on.
“I did… enjoy… myself,” Ferret acknowledged.
“See?” Lynx said. “I’ll be honest with you. The Family is so devoted to the Spirit, so involved with loving one another and being kind and courteous and all, sometimes they make me want to puke!” Gremlin appeared to be shocked. “You exaggerate, yes?”
“A little,” Lynx confessed. “But you get my drift.”
“So what can we do about it?” Ferret asked.
“There’s nothing we can do, no?” Gremlin stated.
“We could leave the Home,” Ferret suggested.
Gremlin’s mouth dropped. “Ferret not serious, yes?”
“Why not?” Ferret countered. “I like the Family too. But there might be somewhere else in the world where we’d fit in even better.”
“Gremlin never leave Home,” Gremlin stated.
“Neither would I,” Lynx agreed.
“But you just said—” Ferret began.
“I said,” Lynx replied, cutting him off, “I was bored to tears. Not stupid! We’ve never had it so good. The Family are our friends. We’d be idiots to cut out on them.”
“Then how do you plan to inject some excitement into your life?” Ferret inquired skeptically.
“There has to be a way,” Lynx declared.
“I don’t see how,” Ferret said.
“Me neither,” Gremlin remarked.
Lynx sighed. “Well, let’s get to plantin’ these jerks.”
Gremlin scoured the earth for a likely spot. “Too bad we’re not Warriors, yes?” he commented absently, squatting.
Lynx’s ears perked up. “What? What did you say?”
Gremlin began scooping some soft dirt from a small grassy patch. “Too bad we’re not Warriors, yes? Then we could do like Blade and the others, no? Lynx have more excitement than he’d know what to do with, yes?”
Gremlin chuckled at the preposterous notion.
Lynx reacted as if he’d been zapped by a lightning bolt. He straightened, his eyes widening and gleaming from a dawning revelation.
His hands shook with excitement. “That’s it!”
“That’s what?” Ferret asked.
“That’s how we’ll do it!” Lynx, unable to restrain his enthusiasm, jumped up and down several times, cackling.
Ferret and Gremlin exchanged glances.
Lynx ran over to Gremlin and, before Gremlin quite knew what he was about, gave him a fleeting hug. “You did it!” he shouted in delight. “You’re brilliant!”