James Axler – Stoneface

They stepped over the bodies of the slain and called to their friends. None of them bore injuries, beyond a few cuts and contusions, except for J.B., whose fedora sported a fresh bullet hole. He was angry about it, since he held one of the incompetent sec men responsible. Doc was suffering the worst from the effects of the gas, and Mildred tended to him as he gagged, wept and dry-heaved.

Ryan did an automatic body count. There were fourteen dead Sioux warriors sprawled on the ground, leaking fluids from a variety of wounds in a variety of places.

Out of the ten sec men he spotted only three were ambulatory, and one was cradling an obviously broken arm.

“Looks like we got big-time skunked,” Ryan said.

“If not for the six of us,” J.B. said, “this skirmish would’ve been a massacre.”

The door of the wag banged open and Hellstrom stepped out with a grand, long-legged flourish. He held a handkerchief over his nose and mouth. Fleur quickly approached him, saying, “We have six dead, four wounded. Zezo won’t last through the night, so he doesn’t count.”

“The opposition?” Hellstrom’s voice was muffled and nasal, as if he were holding his nose behind the handkerchief.

“Fourteen, but only nine are worth salvaging.”

“And the value of our people?”

Fleur made an exasperated gesture. “Four, if you include Zezo.”

“A baker’s dozen. Get to it. We’ll attend to our own back home.”

Fleur snapped her fingers toward the standing sec men, and they bent over and began arranging the bodies of the slain.

Hellstrom nodded in the direction of Ryan and his friends. “You and your group turned the tide, Cawdor. My thanks.”

The white-suited man eased himself down in his chair and fluttered the handkerchief before his face. “Whew! Pungent, isn’t it?”

Ryan strode over to him, put a boot against the support pedestal of the chair and shoved with all of his strength. The chair overturned, and Hellstrom was dumped unceremoniously to the ground, uttering a wordless cry of outrage and surprise.

The move had been performed on impulse, so Hellstrom had no opportunity to sense Ryan’s intentions. As he gathered a handful of white jacket and yanked the my man to his feet, Ryan heard the clickings of rounds jacking into cylinders and hammers thumbed back. His people were covering Fleur and the surviving sec men.

Holding Hellstrom almost clear of the ground, Ryan shook him savagely. He weighed no more than a suit of clothes. “You son of a bitch, you knew this would happen. You wanted it to happen!”

There was a shadow of fear darkening Hellstrom’s eyes, but there was also a monstrous anger. “You one-eyed prick, do you know how close to death you are?”

Snarling out a laugh, Ryan jammed the bore of the sound suppressor of the SIG-Sauer against Hellstrom’s underjaw and cruelly forced his head back. “Nowhere near as close as you, you scrawny bastard.”

He heard the snapping crack of Mildred’s ZKR and then a sec man yelping in pain. “Just pierced his ear for him,” Mildred called. “He makes another move, and I’ll pierce his testicles.”

Forcing a laugh, Hellstrom spread solicitous hands. “Okay, Cawdor. You’re annoyed. I don’t blame you. I understand it. But there was a reason.”

Ryan stared at the man for another handful of seconds, then released him. He stepped back, lowering the blaster but not leathering it. Hellstrom rearranged his clothing, uprighted his chair and sank into its seat.

To Fleur, he said, “Get on with it. We don’t have all night.”

“All right, Cawdor. I apologize.”

“It’ll take more than that, Lars.”

“And I’ll offer more than that. Normally you would be put to a slow death for laying hands on me, or at the very least, scourged until you were crippled. However, I must make allowances for this circumstance. Yes, I expected the attack, and to some extent I needed it.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons. Firstly I was curious to see how you people handled yourselves in a crisis. Very impressive, very professional. All of you kept your heads, which is more than I can say for my own people.”

“Is that why you waited so long to use the gas, because you were testing us?”