James Axler – Freedom Lost

The backup was a young punk that looked about twenty, but with a much larger frame than the leader’s, and that was saying something since Rollins wasn’t exactly tiny. His hair color was hidden under a riot helmet. His eyes were behind a pair of polarized sunglasses. Tough guy. Or a weak, uncertain guy playing at being tough, reveling in the inhuman guise of a walking insect.

“Evening, Cawdor,” Rollins said.

Ryan turned to fully face him, while trying to keep his associate framed in his peripheral vision. The younger of the two had apparently received some training, since he was using Ryan’s eye patch as a blind side.

“You’re up late tonight, Rollins.”

“A sec man never sleeps.”

“Who’s the kid? He hanging out with you for extra credit in sec school or what?”

“It’s a young man’s world, Cawdor.”

“Isn’t that the damn truth. Tell your lapdog no insult intended,” Ryan replied. “Well, unless you and your sidekick are here to apologize for those clowns who tried to jump me and my friends yesterday out on the road, I’m going to ask you to leave. You owe me a night’s peace for my generosity.”

“What generosity is that?” the younger man asked, speaking for the first time.

“It talks, too?” Ryan retorted.

“He hasn’t heard about Michaelson and Isaac.” Rollins said.

“You mean Mike and Ike. Yeah, I was going to chill them both with extreme prejudice, but since you came along and told me ridding the world of their sorry asses might be a problem since I was planning on coming here for a visit, I declined.”

“We’ve got your boy, Cawdor.” On those words, Ryan forgot the pretense of playing it cool. A hot flush of blood ran into his face and brain, feeding the impulse to kill Rollins right on the spot. Ryan was on his feet and over in the black man’s face in an instant, his panga drawn up and out of the oiled sheath. As Ryan moved, so did Doc, who spun with his swordstick and placed the shining blade right up against the crotch of the second mall security guard.

“No, son,” Doc said to the younger sec man, all pretense of snoozing off a drunk now lost to adrenaline and concern for Dean. “Keep your hands up toward heaven and your blood pressure down toward Hell and maybe, just perhaps, I won’t have to flick my wrist and turn you into a eunuch.”

“Aa what?” the hapless sec man replied.

“An unfortunate who has faced the blade and had his scrotum removed, complete with contents,” Doc said, twisting the swordstick ever so slightly and increasing the pressure. “Both contents.”

“Are you insane, Cawdor?” Rollins rasped, sweat popping out in tiny crystal beads on his forehead.

“When it comes to my boy, you’re damn right. I’m a fucking loon,” Ryan said. “Now, elaborate. What do you mean by ‘got’?”

“Exactly what I said. He’s in lockup, along with the albino. They’re printing and booking them both into the Wings even as we speak,” Rollins replied. “And I suggest you put the blade down before you cut yourself.”

“I’d be more worried about me cutting you a new asshole,” Ryan hissed. “What are you talking about ‘booking him in the Wings’?”

“Cop jargon. Means he’s being processed and arrested. For our files. We like tracking repeat offenders. Get into too much trouble and you’re no longer welcome in Freedom. He and his pasty white pal nearly blew the vid arcade apart in a knife fight that went bad. One customer is dead, another one wounded and the owner is furious.”

The one-eyed man reined himself in and took the knife away, stepping back and keeping his distance from Rollins. “Dean all right?”

The man stared back angrily at Ryan. “He’s a damn sight better than the boy he helped chill.”

Ryan poked a finger into Rollins’s broad chest. “Listen, my boy chills somebody, you can be damn sure they were asking for it, and asking for it on bended knee. He’s not a coldheart, and neither is Jak Lauren.”

The big sec man didn’t looked impressed. “Whatever. We don’t really give a shit about the stiff. He was one of the repeat offenders I was telling you about earlier. Problem child, but his father had the jack to keep buying his way back into Freedom. Now he can use it to bury the boy’s worthless ass. Way I look at it, your kid did us a service. One less scumbag cluttering up the mall.”