“Resistance is negatived. The blasters are set on level two. Scorch flesh only. If put up to twenty, instant death.” She smiled. “Ugly termination.”
It was a tense moment. Ryan was aware that every one of his six companions was razor-ready, needing only the flicker of a signal for him to attack, regardless of the opposition.
“I’ll go with ’em,” Jak said, quietly stepping forward. “No point in getting chilled now. Wait chance, eh?”
“Sure, kid,” Ryan said.
“Take care, Jak,” Lori said.
Finn gave him the thumbs-up signal, getting a nod from the young boy.
Ryan realized how young and slight Jak was, seeing him as he moved to stand next to one of the sec guards. In the coveralls and sneakers he seemed to be about ten years old. The jagged scar at the corner of the lad’s cheek tugged up the corner of his mouth, making it look as though he were giving them a wry grin. His white hair floated like a mist around the nape of his neck.
“Wise, decisionwise,” Dr. Tardy said. “Come, Dr. Avian.”
The other man hadn’t spoken, had merely observed what was happening. Once he lifted the false arm to scratch at the tip of his nose with a creaking finger. Now he reached out with it and tugged Jak by the sleeve.
The albino jerked away automatically, knocking into the nearest of the mutie guards. He retaliated by swinging his gun toward Jak and squeezing the flat black trigger. There was a brief burst of blue light, dazzling and intense. Jak yelped in pain, grabbing at the side of his ribs where a small strip of cloth was scorched and smoldering.
“Fucking bastard!” he shouted, pushing the crippled scientist away so that the man staggered and fell, bringing Dr. Tardy down on top of him. There was instant chaos in the living quarters.
A mutie sec man raked a line across the plastic floor in front of Ryan and the others, leaving a burned strip as a warning against interfering in the fight.
Helpless, they could do nothing but watch the fourteen-year-old take on the other three sec guards, without benefit of a weapon.
The blasters gave only the faintest hum and crackle when fired. From the floor, Dr. Tardy squeaked an order to the muties not to use their weapons. With so many people crowded together, she knew there was a good chance “innocents,” such as herself, might get injured.
“Minimum force! Subdue the stranger!”
But the stranger wasn’t about to let himself be subdued.
Over the years, Ryan Cawdor had seen men and women who had lethal skills in hand-to-hand fighting, but he’d never seen anyone quite as good as Jak Lauren.
The boy dropped to the floor, pushing out with his fingers, kicking at the knees of the nearest guard. There was the clear crack of bone snapping, and the mutie toppled sideways, landing with a crash on the plastic tiles. The guard’s helmet rolled off, revealing, for the first time, the face of one of the scientist’s sec men.
It was the face of a slobbering idiotrolling eyes behind the glittering visor, and a mouth that opened and closed like a landed fish. Only the faintest mewing sound could be heard.
The creature came up on one knee, hands snatching at the broken joint, spittle trailing across his chest. Jak glanced sideways, measured the distance and kicked once more, his foot striking the base of the mutie’s broad nose. Cartilage split and bone splintered. Jagged shards were driven deep into the front of what passed for brains in the sec man.
The guard flopped back, legs kicking and flailing, blood trickling from his open mouth where the rictus of dying agony had made him bite through his own blubbery tongue.
Jak wasn’t interested in the man behind him. He jabbed with a clenched fist at the solar plexus of the second sec guard, doubling him over like a fawning courtier. The breath whooshed from the mutie’s lungs, and he fell to his knees, gagging. A thread of yellow-green bile wormed from under the rim of his helmet. As he bent over, he exposed the nape of his neck for several seconds.