The Spartan was unable to check his headlong advance.
His boots caught on the Warrior’s form and he lost his balance, toppling over, deliberately adding to the force of the fall by hurling himself even farther, putting more distance between them.
Rikki had expected to rise swiftly and render Thayer unconscious while the Spartan was sprawled on the floor. Instead, he saw the officer slide and roll and heave erect before he could reach him.
Thayer held the katana at the ready position and grinned. “Nice move.
You almost had me.”
“It would have sufficed for most.”
“I told you I was trained by the best. Spartans are bred for combat.”
“So are Warriors.”
General Thayer cocked his head and studied his adversary. “You say that word as if it’s a title of some kind.”
“It is.”
The Spartan’s eyes widened. “The Warriors! Of course!”
“You’ve heard of us?” Rikki asked.
“Yes,” Thayer said. “But I never made the connection until right now.
Four or five years ago everyone was talking about the defeat of the Civilized Zone at the hands of a small band of fighters called Warriors.
You’re one of them?”
“I am.”
“I should have realized the Warriors were involved in the Leather Knight incident. It explains a lot.”
“You’ve heard of us,” Rikki observed. “Why is it that we’ve never heard of the Spartans?”
“They like to keep to themselves. Sparta was built shortly after the war in an isolated valley by a survivalist with a penchant for Spartan history.”
“Where is the valley located?”
“There you go again,” General Thayer muttered. “Enough talk. Warrior.
Let’s finish this.”
“Must we?”
“Yes,” Thayer hissed, and lunged, swinging the katana at the Warrior’s head.
Rikki backpedaled, then sidestepped as the Spartan tried to impale his stomach. He delivered a palm-heel thrust to the Spartan’s body above the spleen.
Thayer grunted and retreated several steps, keeping his back to the opposite wall.
Still seeking room to maneuver, Rikki ran down the corridor toward the cell at the end, the same cell he’d vacated a short while ago. He saw the open cell door and the two bodies on the floor, and he also saw a pistol strapped around one of the prone pair.
General Thayer was pounding in pursuit.
Rikki poured on the speed, and when he arrived at the cell he had a five yard lead. In a flash he was at the Hound’s side, drawing the pistol from the holster and whirling.
Thayer halted in the doorway, both hands on the katana, both eyes on the pistol.
“Don’t even think it,” Rikki said.
The Spartan hesitated.
“Place my katana at your feet,” Rikki directed.
General Thayer frowned as he lowered the sword to the floor.
“Step back,” Rikki instructed, wagging the pistol. “Away from the katana.”
Thayer reluctantly complied, taking four giant strides, his arms in the air.
Rikki walked to the katana and looked down at his cherished blade.
“Finish me!” General Thayer snapped.
“Are you in a hurry to die?” Rikki inquired, looking up.
“I have failed Aloysius, just as I failed my king in Sparta,” Thayer said.
“My disgrace has been doubly compounded. Finish me and end my misery.”
“I will not shoot you in cold blood.”
“And I will not allow you to pass me alive,” Thayer declared.
Rikki peered at the Spartan for several seconds, gazed at his katana, then glanced at the pistol in his right hand. He deposited the pistol alongside the katana.
Thayer’s mouth slackened. “What—?”
Straightening, Rikki adopted the cat stance.
Profound amazement rippled across the Spartan’s visage. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Whenever you are ready,” Rikki said.
The general’s brow knit in confusion. “Why?” he asked plaintively.
Rikki’s belated response was laconic, yet eloquently precise. “Because we are who we are.”
Thayer nodded slowly, then dropped into the horse stance. “I should warn you. Spartans are taught martial combat before they are weaned.”
“Really?” Rikki responded with a grin. “Warriors are instructed in the martial arts in the womb. We save time that way.”
A hearty laugh burst from the Spartan’s lips. He raised his hands and slid forward. “I shall regret slaying you, and I’ve never regretted killing anyone before.”
“Now who is putting the cart before the horse?”
Thayer closed cautiously, and when he was within a yard of the Warrior he unleashed a flurry of hand and foot strikes, any one of which would have incapacitated an ordinary adversary.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was not ordinary. He blocked and adroitly countered every blow, holding his ground, his stoic expression inscrutable, displaying his supreme mastery of diverse forms and styles. Karate. Kung Fu. Aikido. Judo. Jujitsu. He never gave an inch, withstanding the Spartan’s onslaught as immovably as a firmly rooted tree would resist a raging storm.
Sweat was beading Thayer’s brow when he unexpectedly stepped back and smiled. “This won’t be as easy as I thought.”
Rikki slid forward in a low stance, his hands and arms resembling cranes poised to smite a fish.
General Thayer inched to the rear, maintaining a defensive posture, his eyes narrowing.
To disconcert his opponent, Rikki shifted from the crane to the tiger form, from the tiger to the dragon, and from the dragon to the snake, each movement fluid and balletic. He was two feet from his taller foe, waiting for an opening to present itself. As he glided his right foot closer to the Spartan, Thayer committed a blunder.
The general attempted to snap-kick the Warrior’s right knee.
Rikki easily moved his right leg to the left, and as Thayer’s boot cleaved the air, he struck, aiming a leopard-paw blow at the officer’s midsection.
Thayer deflected Rikki’s arm with an outside circling block, then drove his right fist at the Warrior’s solar plexus. Rikki’s right arm flashed in a cutting forearm block, his feet shifting to the right as he performed a horizontal elbow strike to Thayer’s chest.
Staggered by the jarring pain, Thayer inadvertently stumbled backwards, then recovered promptly.
Rikki came again.
Thayer, resolved to stand firm, met the Warrior head-on.
Minutes elapsed.
The corridor was filled with the muted smacks, cuffs, and thumps of their rain of blows. Their shadows seemed to be entwined in a macabre dance on the walls. Hands and feet clashed, countered, and clashed again.
The progress of their combat drew them farther and farther from the cell, until they were within three yards of the stairs once more.
Rikki sustained two agonizing hits, one to the left side of his neck, the other to his right leg below the knee.
Hoping to put an end to the conflict, and annoyed at himself for not killing the Warrior sooner, Thayer became less careful as he pressed the Warrior. He glowered as he fought, his ferocity mounting.
Rikki counterstruck every blow, operating on sheer instinct, his arms and legs functioning in an automatic, conditioned reflex, the result of years spent honing his skills in practice and in battle. During the course of their savage exchange, he landed four blows to the Spartan’s nerve centers and vital points, yet Thayer managed to shrug off every one and continue fighting. They appeared to be evenly matched, and the outcome was in definite doubt. Rikki slowed slightly, hoping to convey the misimpression he was tiring.
Thayer took the bait. Sensing victory, he slashed his right hand at the Warrior’s neck, but had to settle for a glancing blow off Rikki’s collarbone as the wiry martial artist leaned back.