One of the nutjobs leaped off a table toward Rob's back. Before I could yell a warning, Stinker was airborne. The rube screamed as she took him down by the throat. Rob put him out of his misery with a.45 slug.
I looked back at the Warden. “Good luck with that idea.”
Poddar struck a psycho with a hard shot to the chest and then kicked him back to his buddies. They decided to exercise the better part of valor and retreat, which suited me just fine.
Shooting bad guys is too much work.
"If all the cells opened, why didn't the Savant's?”
The Warden stood. "Ask him yourself. But if I were you, I'd find an exit while you can."
"Where are you going?"
"This is my compound. I’m putting all the animals back in their cages."
"Good luck.” I figured I'd probably trip over her spare parts on the way out.
"Let's move out!” She and her soldiers trotted in the direction of the fleeing psychos, creating skull music on any rube who had the misfortune of being in range.
Rob had the audacity to look regretful. "We're not gonna let the lady take on all these goons by herself, are we?"
"She’s not a lady, she’s a synoid, Cowboy. As in synthetic humanoid. They don’t feel pain, and they can’t really die. You got a death wish, by all means help yourself. It just so happens I can’t download my memory to a backup database.”
I fumbled to light a smoke. "Plus I got better things to do. Like tighten the screws on the Savant. He claimed this New Man character was coming to rub him out. Instead we get a recess for the goon squad. What’s that all about?"
Stinker’s hackles raised as she growled.
"I think your question has just been answered." Poddar picked up a pulse-baton from a fallen guard. It hummed from the electrical current with flick of the switch. He held his kukri in the other hand. I couldn't figure out if he had something against guns, or was just showing off.
Three figures glided our way down the opposite hall. The overhead lights fizzled out, keeping them cloaked in shadow as they approached. Pretty dramatic, but I pretended not to be impressed. Just from the silhouette I recognized the tallest one in the black hat and tattered flogger. Our friend from the West Docks.
The New Man.
The pair on either side of him were draped in cloaks darker then black. But unlike the rubes we fertilized the Docks with, these two wore gleaming silver masks. They weren't the average goons, either. Their movements were almost musical, like dancers with liquid bones. I did the only thing that felt natural.
I opened fire.
Rob joined the chorus with his twin Peacemakers. I kinda liked that. Him using single shot pistols, I mean. Most chumps nowadays go for automatics or bio-guns, but to me that’s just to compensate for cowardice and bad aim. I always said if I can’t get out of a jam in seven shots or less, I’m toast anyway.
Case in point.
Now I’ve seen bullet dodging at the picture show, but it’s another thing to see it in person. I didn’t even bother aiming at the New Man, since I’d seen him stop bullets in mid-air and all. But the slugs I fired at his two goons didn’t touch either one of them, either. They were fluid shadows, dark blurs that whirled like ballet dancers on boosters.
I wasn’t sure if they were fast enough to actually dodge the slugs, or if they dodged the anticipation of the shots. Either way, it was pretty damn annoying. The only bit of satisfaction was I wasn’t the only one with bad luck.
“Hey, what the holy hell?” Rob’s hammers clicked on empty after hitting nothing as well.
Then they were on us.
I was kicked in the chest so hard I must’ve slid about twenty feet until I hit the wall, which wasn’t good at all for my back. When I opened my eyes I saw the two ninja monks from hell fighting Poddar and Rob. The rubes had brought swords to a gunfight, but I guess their case was the exception. Bullet dodging does give you a certain advantage. Poddar was actually halfway decent with his kukri and baton, and Rob had Stinker to balance the odds out. I figured they might live for a few more minutes, so I looked around for the New Man.
I saw his shadow first, then realized he was his shadow. He drifted down the hall toward the bing ward. I got a clearer look then. Under his wide-brimmed hat he wore a pretty twisted kettle-black mask, shaped like a monstrous raven. I caught the glint of dark armor under his coat. Guess he had a few weaknesses after all.
He reached for something at his side as he turned my way. It was maybe the biggest pistol I’d seen. I was trying to figure out if it was bio or one of the new mech models when he interrupted my thoughts by firing it.
It was a mech model. I realized that as the wall behind me exploded. I was half buried by flaming pieces of rubble and pretty sure I was dead, besides. When I realized I wasn’t, I expected him to finish the job. I looked up.
He was gone.
I figured maybe he was just in a hurry to get to the Savant. In retrospect, I probably should have persuaded Hunter to come along, since he had made the New Man a little uneasy. Thing was, I didn’t exactly figure on running into escaped convicts, ninja assassins, or the New Man when I first came in.
I put the Mean Ol’ Broad away and pulled the Replacement Killer. I’d seen the guy dodge regular slugs. It was time to see if rockets would work better. I hoped so.
Because those rounds were expensive.
I heard the sounds of fighting still going on behind me, but I didn’t bother to look. I just picked myself up and ran after the New Man. I didn’t exactly have a plan or anything, but I'd been slapped around the entire night and had just reached my quota for getting beat down.
I’d just about rounded the corner when I heard the Savant scream.
“You must listen to me.” He didn’t sound near as resigned as he had earlier. In fact, he sounded downright panicky. "You don’t understand the magnitude of your actions. You are just an apprentice!”
“It is you who lacks understanding.” The New Man’s voice was sharp as razor blades. “You are not the only one with understanding of the mind. Your expertise is no longer required.”
I heard a sound like bacon frying, and stepped into a sight I’d see in my nightmares. The New Man was spattered in blood, the result of pulling the Savant physically through the bars. He held the Savant’s bug-eyed head in one hand. As I watched, it shriveled into a dry, blackened husk that crumpled to flickering ashes when it hit the floor.
“It is finished.” The New Man’s voice boomed. “All of your games have come to an end, and you are less than nothing.” Silver lightning flickered in his sockets behind the mask.
A gleaming wire retracted into his glove as he threw his arms skyward. It seemed he actually was using some sort of technology after all. Whatever it was, it flash fried Dr. Faraday’s head in a matter of seconds. The idea would’ve seemed more impressive if my life hadn’t been in immediate danger. If he could do that to the Savant, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t think twice on giving me the extra crispy treatment as well.
Good thing simmering in his own ebony pleasure seemed to distract him. I decided it was the perfect time to let the Replacement Killer give him a message from me in the form of a combustion-released, fuel-propelled mini-rocket. I aimed right for one of the eye sockets. I’m a good shot on a bad day, and it wasn’t a bad day.
Not yet.
Thunder clapped, and the New Man howled loud enough to rattle the concrete walls as the explosion snapped his head backward. The hornets attacked my brains again, and I fell back clutching my head.
Emerald light flashed from the gaping hole in his mask as he waved that massive pistol of his and fired. Heat and concrete washed over us. Before I could collect my thoughts from off the floor, he leaped out the ruined wall still howling like a werewolf in heat. The sound faded as he fell.