He timed the leap perfectly. Having no idea where he hid, both of the intruders were facing away from him when he lunged at them. He impacted one almost squarely in the middle of its back, sending it sprawling facedown onto the ground. Something skittered across the ground away from it.
A weapon?
He ignored it for now, knowing that it was both out of reach and the invader would be too disoriented to search for it.
He rolled smoothly along his shoulders blades and back onto his feet. The other intruder was more prepared, but its reactions were slowed by surprise and the swiftness of his attack. He disarmed the invader quickly, slamming a fist against its wrist. It grunted with pain and its weapons dropped to the ground. Almost without thinking about it, he kicked it away into the shadows.
The intruder’s hands come up in a defensive motion, but it was too late. He was already in under its guard. He delivered two shift blows: one to its lower abdomen, and one to its chest. It dropped it to its knees. A sharp, snapping kick to its head tumbled it backward, where it landed hard against the uneven ground. It did not move afterward.
Turning, he checked the condition of the first intruder. It stirred, trying to rise, but clearly still disoriented. It shook its head slowly, as if hoping that might aid to clear it. It did not see him come in for another strike, this one across the back of its legs. They collapsed beneath it and it fell, attempting to brace itself with its hands as it fell. It held its balance for only a moment before he delivered a savage kick to its forearm. The sharp snap of bone breaking echoed for an instant. The invader screamed in pain and then gurgled into silence as he drove his boot against its throat. It fell to the ground, writhing and choking.
Someone shouted from his right. He spun, already in an offensive position even before he heard the running footsteps against the uneven ground. The other three intruders approached. Two of them held weapons and he knew that he could not defeat them both before they used them. The one in front did not carry a weapon. That did not mean that she was unarmed, he knew. It was possible that, like himself, she did not require weapons in order to defeat an enemy.
He assessed the tactical situation in the space between heartbeats and made his decision. With a feline-like grace, he launched himself at the unarmed intruder.
She deflected it well, but did not manage to fully defend herself against his attack. She stumbled, but recovered quickly. He was on her almost at once. Unlike the previous invader to his cave, she evaded his attacks well. She suffered surface injuries, and would ache later, but he was not able to as easily defeat her as he had the previous two.
The two intruders who had come with her remained back, out of his reach, but with their weapons out. As he expected, they hesitated, unwilling to possibly injure their companion while attempting to capture him. He kept in motion, never giving them a clear opening for more than an instant. Meanwhile, she fought well. A few times she even managed to get him into a hold from which he was forced to escape.
She breathed hard now. The exertion wore at her now, slowing her reflexes by the smallest fraction. It was not yet enough, he knew, but it would be soon.
At the beginning, she had called out words. They felt familiar, they did not resolve into meaning in his mind.
A challenge? he had wondered. Or a prayer to one of her gods?
She still breathed those words now, changing their intonation.
Pleading with him? Seeking mercy?
He defended himself easily against her next two attacks.
She must know that she will be defeated.
He heard three more sets of footsteps approaching. It distracted him for only an instant, as it did not change the immediate tactical situation. They would also hesitate to fire until they could be certain of their target.
The sound distracted her for an instant longer. He got within her guard, driving his hand into her lower abdomen. She gasped and then staggered, attempting to remain standing. Her achievement lasted only for a moment and then she fell to her knees, her head bent down before him as if in supplication.
One of the new intruders shouted something: a single sound. Its meaning flashed into his understanding an instant too late. He turned, moving to evade their weapons, and then his limbs refused to obey him. They tingled as if he had passed through lightning. Despite his efforts, they convulsed limply. He fell to the ground, unable to direct his descent. His head struck the hard ground, making his teeth ache. The sensation faded quickly. Murky darkness fluttered at the edges of his vision. It closed in, leaving him with only the smallest tunnel of faint illumination. And then, that too was gone.
- 5 -
Devereux rose to her feet, gasping, still fighting to regain her breath against her paralyzed diaphragm.
“Captain?” Elizabeth asked with concerned alarm. “Are you all right?”
Devereux nodded several times, still unable to speak, and wished that she had not. Vertigo swam through her, but she managed to remain standing.
“Get Hope,” Devereux gasped, waving weakly toward where Bayer and Choy lay sprawled across the cargo bay deck.
She knelt, grateful for the excuse to do so, and felt for the pulse at Hawkes’ neck. It was there, strong and regular. His breathing appeared to be regular, if a little ragged. Devereux wondered how much of that was from the exertion of their fight versus being stunned from a less than a meter away by at least two weapons.
Looking up, she saw that the Security officers who had arrived with Elizabeth, Lenz and Darwood, still held their weapons ready as if they expected Hawkes to leap up and continue his assault on her. Devereux thought it unlikely, but could understand their caution, giving the situation.
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