At that moment, as the officer’s right arm was extended to the side.
Rikki knifed his right hand up and in. his fingers rigid as steel, into Thayer’s ribs. The Spartan gasped and tried to escape to the rear, but Rikki was on him with the speed of a swooping eagle. The Warrior’s right hand arced into Thayer’s cardiac notch, the area below the left breast, sinking in to the knuckles.
General Thayer grunted and stiffened. He tottered backwards, his features contorted in overwhelming torment. With an effort, he focused on the Warrior, and his look of anguish was replaced by shocked consternation. Shaking his head, his lips moving noiselessly, he sank to his knees.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi draped his arms at his sides and bowed. A frown curled his mouth as he straightened, and he inhaled deeply before speaking. “You were one of the best I’ve encountered.”
Thayer appeared to be on the verge of tears. He nodded once, then croaked four words. “Tell the Spartans I…”
Rikki saw the life flicker from the officers eyes, and he watched in silence as Thayer sank to the tile. For over a minute he stared at Thayer’s face, and his voice was uncharacteristically choked with emotion when he finally responded. “I will tell them,” he promised.
Footsteps sounded at the top of the stairs.
Rikki spun and retraced his steps to the cell. He leaned over and reclaimed his katana, then turned.
A sole Hound was descending the last few steps, his startled gaze on the general’s body. He was armed with a pistol in a flapped holster on his right hip, and he reached for the gun as he saw the small man in black rushing toward him.
“You killed them—” the Hound blurted out.
Rikki was on the man as the pistol was being leveled. His katana whipped in a glistening swing, the razor edge cleaving the Hound’s wrist before the trigger finger could tighten on the trigger. The private opened his mouth to scream, but the best he could do was gurgle as the katana slit his throat from ear to ear. Blood spurted everywhere. The Hound reeled toward the stairs, collapsing after two paces. Rikki walked past him, beginning to climb the steps. He looked back once at the Hound’s stupefied visage.
“Never belabor the obvious.”
Chapter Seventeen
Chastity lost her grip on Hickok’s hand and fell on her buttocks.
“Daddy!” she cried.
Nose Ring and his companions laughed as they brushed past the gunman, but they only took one step before his enraged voice stopped them in their tracks.
“That’s far enough!”
The hardcases turned slowly, confident in themselves, smirking. All four wore handguns. All four radiated a palpable air of menace.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Hickok demanded, his hands hovering next to his Pythons.
“What’s it to you?” Nose Ring replied contemptuously. He saw a woman with an automatic rifle come around and pick up the blonde girl.
Hickok glanced at Chastity and Bonnie, then, incredibly, hooked his thumbs in his gunbelt and grinned. “What a wit. You must be the brains in your family.”
Nose Ring bristled. “I wouldn’t push it, if I were you.”
“Thank the Spirit you’re not me,” Hickok mocked him. “I wouldn’t want to look that ugly and smell that bad if I could help it.”
“Do you know who you’re talking to?”
“Four medical marvels.”
“What?”
“Four livin’, breathin’ dead men.”
Nose Ring looked at the other hardcases. “We’re not dead yet.”
The nearest pedestrians were discreetly trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the altercation.
“You can count the minutes you have left on one hand,” Hickok declared.
Nose Ring scrutinized the guy in the buckskins, noting the pearl-handled revolvers and the M-16 over the guy’s left shoulder. He experienced a fleeting sensation of dread, but shook it off by thinking of all the saps he’d wasted in his travels. No one had ever beaten him, and no one ever would.
“We don’t want any trouble,” said someone to their rear.
The four hardcases looked behind them to find a giant in a black leather vest.
“You don’t want any trouble?” Nose Ring repeated.
“No,” the giant stated, looking at the guy in buckskins. “We don’t want to get in trouble with the Hounds, do we?”
“Did you see what these cow chips did?” Hickok demanded.
“I saw,” Blade said.
“Are you sayin’ I can’t teach them manners?”
“We don’t want to attract the Hounds,” Blade reiterated.
“Nobody treats Chastity that way,” Hickok remarked angrily.
“We don’t want trouble,” Blade said yet again.
“What’s the big deal?” Nose Ring interjected. “So what if the little cunt got knocked on her ass?”
Blade sighed and put his hands on his hips. “Did you eat radioactive waste when you were younger?”
“What kind of dumb-ass question is that?” Nose Ring rejoined.
“I just thought there might be a logical explanation for your suicide complex,” Blade said.
“Suicide?” Nose Ring snorted. “I don’t want to kill myself, you jerk.”
Blade walked to the left, out of the line of fire, and grinned. “You just did, you jerk.”
“I’ll make this fair,” Hickok declared. “You can go for your irons first.”
“Do you think you can take all four of us?” Nose Ring demanded.
“In my sleep.”
Nose Ring gazed at each of the other hardcases, then chuckled. “Let’s show this windbag.”
Pedestrians were now running in every direction.
“Whenever you coyotes get the notion,” Hickok said. “But I don’t have all day for you to get up the nerve.”
“Screw you!” Nose Ring snapped, and went for his gun, his companions doing likewise.
Hickok seemed to be frozen in place. He stayed immobile as their hands streaked to their handguns, and he was motionless as those handguns began to rise and clear leather. Not until Nose Ring was leveling a revolver did the gunfighter move, his draw a literal blur, both Colts blasting.
Nose Ring and the hardcase to his left were struck in the forehead, and both of them rocked on their heels and toppled over. The last two hardcases fared no better. They were struck down before they could bring their revolvers into play, one shot through the left eye, the other the right.
Hickok stared at the four corpses for a moment. “I wonder how they managed to put on their pants without help,” he quipped. Then he started reloading the spent rounds in his Colts.
Blade surveyed the sea of stunned expressions surrounding them. “The Hounds will investigate, won’t they?” he asked Bonnie.
“At the most, we have five minutes,” she replied.
“Let’s get out of here,” Blade said.
“Do you still want to lay low for an hour?” Bonnie queried.
“No,” Blade answered. “Laying low wouldn’t accomplish anything now.
Take us directly to the King’s estate.”
“About time,” Hickok interjected. “I’m tired of this pussy-footin’ around.”
Bonnie headed northward. “Stay close to me.” She smiled at Chastity.
“Are you okay?”
Snug in Bonnie’s arms, Chastity nodded. “My daddy taught them a lesson.”
“I’ve never seen anyone as fast as your daddy,” Bonnie commented.
Chastity beamed. “Yeah. Daddy is real good at shooting people. He shoots them all the time.”
“Remind me to never get your daddy mad at me,” Bonnie said.
“I wouldn’t let him shoot you,” Chastity declared. “I like you.”