David Robbins - Seattle Run

“Wait!” Gar called out. “We must talk about this!”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Gar!” the burly man retorted. “We want his hide!”

“He should live!” Gar insisted. “He came here in peace!”

“Then he can leave here in pieces!” the burly Shark countered.

Blade glanced at the Sharks. Violence was on the verge of erupting and he was stranded on the end of the beam! He was about to try and drop between two of the spikes when tempers flared and bloodshed ensued.

Perched on the beam, he was compelled to witness everything from his vantage point.

The burly Shark and his companions suddenly roared and surged forward.

Gar blasted the burly Shark in the chest, the shotgun blowing the man’s torso apart.

Blade’s eyes narrowed. Rikki had told him a little about the twins, but nothing which would explain why they should side with him against their own kind.

Half a dozen Sharks closed on the twins and Rikki. One of them snapped off a shot from a revolver.

“Rikki!” Blade yelled in alarm, knowing his friend would be unable to fully use his martial arts skills because of the rope binding his wrists.

Or so Blade thought.

Rikki’s hands came up to his chest, the rope sliding to the floor, even as the woman, Fabiana, drew his katana.

Fab tossed the sword, hilt first.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi caught the katana with his right hand and spun, a black streak as he slashed into the charging Sharks, his sword a gleaming blur. Two men and a woman fell in the blink of an eye.

Fabiana opened up with her shotgun, her shot striking a Shark in the forehead and exploding his cranium in a spray of brains and crimson.

Gar moved to his sister’s side, his shotgun booming.

For a moment the outcome was in doubt. Many of the Sharks were frantically endeavoring to remove themselves from the line of fire. Others wavered, uncertain which side to take.

Rikki decapitated a skinny man wielding an axe.

Fabiana fired into the face of a woman with a revolver at point-blank range.

Gar took down two Sharks with a single shattering shot.

More Sharks, though, were joining the fray against the trio. Close to two dozen were pouring toward the center of the chamber.

Rikki, Fabiana, and Gar were on the verge of being overwhelmed.

Blade prepared to jump, to go to their assistance.

But aid came from another quarter.

A woman near the entrance abruptly screamed, an ear-piercing shriek of deafening intensity. Her screech carried over the general din and was punctuated by an explosion from the corridor outside the chamber, bringing all conflict to an unceremonious halt as all eyes focused on the entrance. The Sharks nearest the doorway scurried to put as much space as they could between themselves and the source of the explosion.

The double doors were wide open, and whitish-gray smoke swirled into the chamber.

A man materialized out of the smoke, standing in the entrance, a big man in a dark-blue uniform, a man with silver hair and a silver mustache and blazing blue eyes. His uniform was covered with soot and splotched with blood. For a moment he was framed in the doorway as the smoke billowed about him, rearing grand and terrible in the flickering light of flames in the hallway to his left.

Somewhere, another woman screamed.

He raked the chamber with his gaze and spied his companions.

A second detonation rocked the building as he stalked into the chamber.

Stupidly, four of the Sharks endeavored to stop him.

He shot them with his Wilkinson, with a speed and accuracy uncanny in its lethal efficiency.

The rest of the Sharks wanted nothing to do with this dispenser of death and destruction. They hugged the walls, afraid to intimidate the man with the silhouette of a skull on his broad back.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was wiping his katana clean on the shirt of a dead Shark when Yama reached him. Rikki looked up, grinning. “About time you got here. What have you been doing, goofing off again?”

“Sorry. I had a hard time getting directions to this place,” Yama quipped.

Rikki smiled and placed his right hand on Yama’s left shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Never been better,” Yama stated. He nodded his head toward Blade, who was still poised on top of the balance beam. “What’s he doing?”

Blade mustered a sheepish grin.

Rikki smiled. “Blade is teaching us a new fighting art.”

Yama appeared perplexed. “A new fighting art? Is it related to karate or kung fu or jujitsu?”

“No,” Rikki answered.

“What is this art called?” Yama asked.

Rikki’s eyes twinkled as he solemnly responded. “It’s called the how-to-survive-a-battle-while-standing-on-a-beam-with-a-stupid-expressi on-on-your-face art.”

“Ahh. I see.” Yama nodded. “I hope he’ll teach it to me someday.”

“You wanted to see me, Fish Breath?” Hickok asked.

Manta stared at the Warrior with obvious disdain. “Yes.” He looked at the overseer who had brought the human from the kelp factory. “That will be all. Return to your station.”

The mutant turned on his heels and walked off.

Hickok hooked his thumbs in his belt. “This is a surprise. I didn’t think I’d have the displeasure of seein’ your ugly puss twice in the same day.”

“We did not cover everything we should have discussed in our initial conversation,” Manta remarked.

Hickok chuckled. “I was wonderin’ when you’d realize the boo-boo you made.” He casually surveyed their immediate vicinity. They were standing in the Humarium near one of the large tanks. Inside were a dozen humans engaged in carpentry work. The bottom of the tank had been converted into a hardwood floor; the top was open to allow fresh air to circulate.

“Yes, I was remiss,” Manta admitted.

Hickok idly gazed to his right. The blamed hallway had to be around there somewhere! They were near the first tanks he’d seen when they’d arrived in the central section of the Humarium earlier. So the corridor had to be close at hand.

But where?

“What are you looking for?” Manta inquired.

Hickok faced the mutant. “Who? Me? I’m not lookin’ for anything.”

“You can’t fool me, human,” Manta said.

“I can’t?”

“No,” Manta declared. “I know you are looking for the female who arrived with you. She is not here.”

“Where is she?” Hickok inquired.

“I assigned her to the painting detail in the housing units,” Manta replied. “Don’t you remember? Humans have such pitiful intellects!”

“Oh. Now I remember,” Hickok said to promote the charade. Still, it was nice to know Hedy wouldn’t be in the Humarium or the kelp factory when the fighting began.

“I want to know all about you,” Manta said. “Where you are from. How many came here with you. Everything.”

Hickok pretended to yawn while swiveling in a half-circle.

Bingo!

There it was!

The corridor leading to the closet in which they’d been held.

“Did you hear me?” Manta stated harshly.

“I heard you.” Hickok gazed at the mutant, grinning.

“But give me one good reason why I should spill the beans to you?”

Mania’s lips curved back, revealing his pointed teeth. “If you don’t cooperate, I will send for the woman and feed her to the sharks. And I don’t mean those pathetic humans occupying eastern Seattle. I mean real, live sharks. I have conditioned several of them to stay near Pier 59 by feeding them regularly.”

“Pier 59?”

“The pier where this Humarium of mine is located,” Mama explained.

“You say you feed these real sharks regular-like?” Hickok inquired.

“Yes,” Manta affirmed.