That wasn’t entirely chivalry. Huber wasn’t worried about her brother, but the chance of somebody throwing a bottle at him from behind was another matter.
If I’d known there was going to be a brawl, I’d have asked for a table by the wall. He grinned at the thought; and that was probably the right thing to do, because Patroklos’ mouth—open for another bellow—closed abruptly.
The Slammers didn’t spend a lot of training time on unarmed combat: people didn’t hire the Regiment for special operations, they wanted an armored spearhead that could punch through any shield the other guy raised. Huber wasn’t sure that barehanded he could put this older, less fit man away since the fellow outweighed him by double, but he wasn’t going to try. Huber would use a chair with the four legs out like spearpoints and then finish the job with his boots….
“Fine, hide behind your murderer for now, you whore!” Patroklos said, but his voice wasn’t as forceful as before. He eased his body backward though as yet without shifting his feet. “You’ll have nowhere to hide when the citizens of our glorious state realize the madness into which you and our father have thrown them!”
Patroklos backed quickly, then jerked the door open and stomped out into the night. The last glance he threw over his shoulder seemed more speculative than angry or afraid.
“Ma’am!” Huber said, turning his head a few degrees to face the manager without ever letting his eyes leave the empty doorway. “Get our bill ready ASAP, will you?”
“Maria, put it on my account!” Hera said. She swept the room with her gaze. In the same clear, cold voice she went on, “I won’t bother apologizing for my brother, but I hope his display won’t encourage others into drunken boorishness!”
She’s noticed the temper of the onlookers too, Huber thought. Stepping quickly, he led the girl between tables Patroklos had emptied with his advance. They went out the front door.
The night air was warm and full of unfamiliar scents. A track of dust along the street and the howl of an aircar accelerating—though by now out of sight—indicated how and where Patroklos had departed. There were no pedestrians or other vehicles; the buildings across the street were offices over stores, closed and dark at this hour.
Huber sneezed. Hera whirled with a stark expression.
“Just dust,” he explained. He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. “Or maybe the tree pollen, that’s all. Nothing important.”
He felt like a puppeteer pulling the strings of a body that’d once been his but was now an empty shell. The thing that walked and talked like Arne Huber didn’t have a soul for the moment; that’d been burned out by the adrenaline flooding him in the restaurant a few moments ago. The emotionless intellect floating over Huber’s quivering body was bemused by the world it observed.
“I can’t explain my brother’s behavior!” Hera said. She walked with her head down, snarling the words to her feet. “He’s angry because father remarried—there’s no other reason for what he does!”
Huber didn’t speak. He didn’t care about the internal politics of the Graciano clan, and the girl was only vaguely aware of his presence anyway. She was working out her emotions while he dealt with his. They were different people, so their methods were different.
It hadn’t been a lucky night, but things could’ve been worse. Just as at Rhodesville …
They stepped around the corner of the building into the parking lot. Things got worse.
There were at least a dozen of them, maybe more, waiting among the cars. They started forward when Huber and the girl appeared. They had clubs; maybe some of them had guns besides. The light on the pole overhead concealed features instead of revealing them.
“Who are you?” Hera called in a voice of clear command. “Attendant! Where’s the lot attendant?”
“Get back into the restaurant,” Huber said. “Now!”
He grabbed the girl’s shoulder with his left hand and swung her behind him, a more brutal repetition of what he’d done with her earlier. Patroklos had been posturing in the restaurant. These thugs of his, though—this was meant for real.
Huber thumbed open his holster flap and drew his pistol. He held it muzzle-down by his thigh for the moment.
“He’s got a gun!” said one of the shadowy figures in a rising whisper. That was a good sign; it meant they hadn’t figured on their victim being armed.
“Shut up, Lefty!” another voice snarled.
The pistol had a ten-round magazine. Huber knew how to use the weapon, but if these guys were really serious he wouldn’t be able to put down more than two or three of them before it turned into work for clubs and knives….
Huber backed a step, hoping Hera had done as he ordered; hoping also that there wasn’t another gang of them waiting at the restaurant door to close the escape route. If Huber got around the corner again, he could either wait and shoot every face that appeared or he could run like Hell was on his heels. Running was
the better choice, but he didn’t think—
“Easy now,” said the second voice. “Now, all to—”
A big aircar—it might’ve been the one that ferried Huber from Base Alpha to Benjamin—came down the street in a scream of fans. It hit hard, lifting a doughnut of dust from the unpaved surface. That wasn’t a bad landing, it was a combat insertion where speed counted and grace just got you killed.
Half the score of men filling the back of the vehicle wore khaki uniforms; they unassed the bouncing aircar with the ease of training and experience. The civilians were clumsier, but they were only a step or two behind when the Slammers tore into the local thugs with pipes, wrenches, and lengths of reinforcing rod.
“Run for it!” shouted the voice that’d given the orders before. He was preaching to the converted; none of his gang had stayed around to argue with the rescue party. Huber stood where he was, now holding the pistol beside his ear.
“Arne!” Doll Basime called. “This way, fast!”
She stood in the vehicle’s open cab, her sub-machine gun ready but not pointed. Sergeant Tranter was at the rear of the aircar; he had a 2-cm shoulder weapon. Both wore their faceshields down, probably using light-enhanced viewing. If a thug had decided to turn it into a gunfight, he and his buddies were going to learn what a real gunfight was like.
Huber ran for the truck. He heard screams from the parking lot; thumps followed by crackling meant that some of the expensive aircars were going to have body damage from being used as trampolines by troops in combat boots.
That didn’t even begin to bother Huber. He remembered the eyes on him in the restaurant.
“Recall! Recall! Recall!” bellowed the loudspeaker built into Tranter’s commo helmet. The other troopers had helmet intercoms, but the civilians didn’t.
“How’d you get the word, Doll?” Huber said as he jumped into the back of the vehicle, just behind Basime. Another of the party had been driving; the cab would be crowded even with two.
Doll was too busy doing her job to answer him. Her throat worked as she snarled an order over the intercom, though with the faceshield down her helmet muted the words to a shadow.
Sirens sounded from several directions. They were coming closer.
The rescue party piled into the back of the truck. Two Slammers and a civilian remained in the parking lot, putting the boot in with methodical savagery. Their victim was out of sight behind the parked cars. One of the thugs must’ve tried to make a fight out of it—that, or he’d hit somebody while flailing about in panic.
“Move it, Bayes!” Tranter called.
Huber pointed his pistol skyward and fired. The thump! and blue flash both reflected from overhanging foliage. For a moment the bolt was as striking as the blast from a tank’s main gun. The three stragglers looked up in palpable shock, then ran to join their fellows.
Huber hung over the truck’s sidewall to make sure Hera was all right. She wasn’t in sight, so she’d probably gotten back into the restaurant. If she hadn’t, well, better the local cops look into it than that the cops spend their energy discussing matters with the rescue party. That was a situation that could go really wrong fast.