Kane spread his arms wide, hands held at shoulder level. He approached the group slowly. “We accept your terms.”
An expression bordering on disappointment crossed the hybrid’s smooth, angular face. “A logical choice for an apeling.”
Kane stopped a few feet away. “What are your orders?”
The deferential note in his voice inspired the hybrid to take a step forward, an arrogant tilt to his head. “First you will disarm, and then disrobe. You will be”
Kane swung his left arm in a vicious sweep. His forearm took the hybrid across the throat with a crunching of bone and cartilage. He flailed backward, over the rail. In falling, he dropped the wand and clutched at one of his comrades, which cost the standing hybrid his balance. He stumbled and fell against those behind him.
The Sin Eater slid into Kane’s hand and he fired it into the group of hybrids. Behind him, he heard the snapping of Brigid’s Hamp;K and a drumming roar from Grant’s Copperhead.
The first trio of rounds from the Sin Eater reamed a path through the heart of the group at head level. Flame wreathed the stuttering muzzle of his blaster, and bodies reeled backward in a surge of exploding flesh and bones. Then a giant’s blow struck his right arm, and he heard the wrist bone break. He caught only a jagged afterimage of a vibrating silver wand before he went down on the catwalk. Agony lanced up his arm into his shoulder as he tried to maintain pressure on the trigger. His hand didn’t seem to be there anymore.
His ears filled with hideous mewling sounds, and delicately fingered hands clawed for him. Some of the fingers had sharp little nails that slashed bloody furrows in his face.
Grant shouted, “Kane!”
Kane drove his right leg forward, and his boot sole collapsed and broke a narrow face bobbing above him. Rather than try to unlimber his Copperhead from his belt, he reached down and withdrew his combat knife from its boot sheath. Gripping it in his left hand, he swung the blade down again and again at the bodies remaining before him.
He thrust upward as a hybrid tried to bring a wand to bear. The blade parried the humming rod, the knife vibrated violently, stung Kane’s fingers and flew from his hand, over the side. He drove his fist square between the big eyes and dropped him, senseless and bleeding on top of him. He reached for the wand, but a hybrid’s foot kicked it away. He heaved the doll-like body up, carrying it with him as he sprang to his feet. He flung the limp form into a pair of hybrids, bowling them off their feet.
With a cold fury, Kane struck blow after blow with his fist and feet, punching, kicking, stomping. Hybrids stampeded away from him, leaving the bodies of their brethren lying with ribs and limbs broken, scalps split open and leaking.
He fumbled with his Copperhead, bringing it to bear with his left hand. The burst he fired toward the retreating hybrids was poorly aimed, but the storm of slugs picked up several and hurled them forward, tumbling them limply head over heels.
“See?” he roared hoarsely. ” See ? You little parasites can die just as easily as us apelings!”
The sounds from the hybrids were chaotic, mingled cries of outrage, fury and terror. Kane turned to see Brigid and Grant, pale bodies and arms hauling at them from all sides. Grant was applying the butt of his Copperhead, trying to fend them off. Brigid’s blaster was out of ammo, and hands gripped her ankles. She bent to beat them off with the barrel of her Hamp;K, then other hands caught at her and brought her down. More of the hybrids pulled themselves up on the walkway and leaped upon her.
Brigid managed to break free, but a long hand clawed for her face. She sank her teeth into it, biting until she felt the delicate bones break. The hybrid snatched his hand away, shrieking. Kane moved over to her, clearing a path by kicking and stamping.
She managed to stagger erect, blood streaming from a dozen nail-inflicted scratches on her arms. More hybrids slithered up onto the catwalk. Here and there gleamed the wands.