They were moving as a unit and he could see that they had done this sort of thing before. One of them went to the left and one went to the right about ten feet on either side of him. They pulled out guns and held them against their legs so they wouldnt be easily seen by the camera; then they faced away from him. The other three moved towards him from the front, and they were holding knives. Fear coursed through his body and he could feel his heart rate go up. He knew that the cameras recording this would take another nine seconds before he was in a blank space in their coverage. He had to wait until that moment to try and escape. I cant let them record my face, he thought.
What do you want? Tag asked. Im not carrying any credits or anything else of value you would want. He kept his head down, looking at the pavement in front of him. He watched them move closer and spread out to block any escape.
I hope you dont mind if we determine that for ourselves, the man to the left said. Your clothes look pretty good to me. He was tall and moved smoothly for his size. The two men on each side of the center man moved to his left and right, holding their knives out. They wore clothes that were old, and their shoes had worn spots on them. One had a pockmarked face that also bore a scar that ran the length of his left cheek. His right hand had scars and looked like it had been burned.
You can make this easy on yourself or we can do it the hard way, the one on his left said.
Tag noticed that they all had on hoods but didnt wear anything to hide their faces from him. The hoods would hide their faces from the camera but not from him.
I think its going to be the hard way even if I wanted it easier, Tag said to the man on the left. Youre letting me see your faces, so I think theres no way youre going to let me walk away from here. Is there anything I can do to leave safely? Tag asked while looking at the ground, because he still had four seconds until the cameras blind spot returned.
The man said, We have a smart one here, boys. I guess if you let us cut out your eyes so you couldnt identify us later, we might consider it. The man cocked his head to the side and then said, But I dont think youll just stand there and let us do that, would you? He then looked at the one on his left and nodded.
At that moment Tag saw he was back in the blind spot of the camera again, just as the man on his left lunged forward to cut his throat. Everything suddenly turned to super slow motion. Tag could see in his mind where the attackers thrust was going to be, and the attackers movements seemed to happen very, very slowly. He stood up, moving at what felt like normal speed, smoothly stepped inside the thrust, placed his hand where the mans hand was going to be, and grabbed his wrist as it arrived. Then, while turning the mans arm, Tag slammed his fist into the mans elbow, breaking it, which caused him to drop his knife. Tag immediately started a roll to his right to avoid the slash of the second attacker, which was aimed at his back. As he started his roll he saw the first attackers knife falling slowly by his head toward the pavement, and he reached up and grabbed it with his right hand. In the middle of his roll he raised the knife up into the path of the second attackers slash, causing the attacker to cut his own wrist, severing his tendons and ligaments, which caused him also to drop his knife. Tag picked up the second knife with his left hand as he came out of his roll. As he straightened up, he immediately saw a psychic shadow the thickness of a pencil running from his right hand toward the gunman in front of him. The gunman had started to lift his gun to shoot, and Tag threw the knife in his right hand at the shadow, connecting him with the gunman. The knife flew through the pencil-shaped shadow at normal speed and entered the gunmans right eye socket as he crouched to take aim. The gunman stood there for just a moment before he slowly fell forward.
As the knife left his hand toward the first gunman, Tag sensed that the other gunman behind him was taking aim, so he followed his throwing motion and did a side roll as a bullet slowly went through the space his head had just occupied. As he rolled he saw another pencil-thin shadow under him, and he threw the second knife between his legs. He noticed during his roll that there was a bird flying overhead that appeared to be almost stationary. He thought that time must have somehow slowed down for him. He was moving at what felt like normal speed, but everything else was moving very, very slowly. The knife he threw at the second gunman also flew along that pencil-thin shadow and struck the second gunman in the heart. The gunman fell backwards, his second shot going wild. Tag came out of his second roll, stepped in front of the first attacker, grabbed the arm that was broken, and swung the man viciously face-first into the wall of the building; he then pivoted toward the attacker, who was still holding his cut wrist, and kicked him between his legs. As the attacker bent forward Tag slammed his knee into the attackers face so hard that the attacker came off the ground and flipped backward so fast that he hit his head on the concrete with a sickening sound. Then Tag sat down next to the wall and lowered his head. The camera was coming back and the psychic shadows were disappearing.
The big man in the center had not even moved during the few moments that the other four had been killed. He stood there, stunned, and thought, This isnt possible; no one can move that fast. This boy killed four men in less than five seconds. He moved faster than my eyes could follow. I was supposed to keep him from running and now here I am, surrounded by four dead men. And these men were good, very good. They scared him; two of them were former soldiers that were proud of how vicious they were. Now what do I do? he wondered. He stood there, afraid to run and afraid to attack, which was fine with Tag, because the blind spot wouldnt be back for another ten seconds.
Tags heart was beating wildly and he was amazed at what happened. He didnt even have a chance to think about what was happening during the attack; his body seemed to react without conscious thought. What now? Tag asked. Do we continue this, or are you going to let me go?
The big man noticed that the boy never raised his head when he spoke. As a matter of fact, while all this happened he did not get a good look at the boys face; he was moving too fast for him to see. The big man had a lot of experience. He was a former naval marine who had seen more than his share of hand-to-hand training. But he had never seen anything close to this. He may not have seen the boys face, but he was certain the boy had seen his. He stood there and struggled with what to do. What do you suggest? he asked in a shaky voice.