“Those windows are structural glass, Kren. It would take some extremely heavy equipment a long time to get through, and one of the neighbors would be sure to notice,” Bronki said. “You’ll understand all about it in a week or so, when you absorb your new Doctorate of Architecture.”
“Then let’s begin, shall we?”
Bronki said, “I’m ready,” and was about to start cutting, with Kodo still scowling and blinking at her furiously, when they heard a commotion on the stairway. “Now what could that possibly be?”
“That is a minor battle going on, with at least a dozen combatants,” Kren said.
“Oh, my. Well, we’d better arm ourselves, in case the guards can’t stop them,” Bronki said.
Bronki reached inside her cloak and drew out her pistol, and some spare clips of ammunition.
“Do you always carry that thing?” Kren asked.
“Generally.”
Kren picked up his spear, in addition to the sword, which he was already wearing. “Were you wearing it when I attacked you at your retreat?”
“Of course.”
“Then you could have easily killed me.”
“That was plan B, if you didn’t listen to reason. But it would have left me on the floor out of reach of my telephone and my computer. Come, there isn’t much time.”
He gave the spring spear to Dol, saying, “Just put this thing against someone’s body, and press this button.”
“And then, what do I do?” Dol asked.
“Then you run away.”
“Couldn’t I do that first?”
“Come on. That sounds like the door is breaking,” Kren said.
Bronki had positioned herself four yards in front of the door, standing behind a sturdy, waist-high chest. She had four clips of pistol ammunition neatly arranged on it.
Behind her, both of the party snacks were screaming mindlessly.
“That door won’t hold. They’re going to break through, so we might as well surprise them. Dol, stand over there, and then open the door very quickly when I tell you to. Kren, you take that side of the door, and do what you can about any of them who make it inside, but don’t either of you dare to get into my line of fire. Ready? Open it, Dol.”
The door quickly opened, leaving four startled Greenie fighters standing there with a battering ram in their hands, rather than their usual weapons.
Four shots rang out in quick succession, and all four of the Greenies holding the battering ram dropped with head wounds. Three more shots were fired into the crowd behind them, killing one and wounding two others.
Then a throwing star came flying out of the crowd, heading directly toward Bronki.
She fired her last bullet at it and was lucky enough to make a direct hit. It drove the poisoned throwing star back into the crowd, killing the surprised thrower, but it also shattered her bullet into a gross of slivers. Some of these small bits managed to hit Kren and Dol, wounding both of them slightly, and didn’t do a half dozen of the Greenies any good, either. The heat generated by the impact burned them, but it also vaporized any traces of the poison, and thus probably saved the lives of Kren and Dol.
“Ouch!” Dol cried.
While quickly reloading, Bronki said, “I don’t think that I could do that again if I practiced for a month!”
The rest of the Greenies charged the open doorway. Kren caught the first one in the neck, decapitating him. The second was killed by Dol, who was actually able to put her weapon against the Greenie’s side and push the trigger.
It worked, with the blade severing the fighter’s spine and coming out the other side.
Just penetrating the chest cavity would not have been debilitating, since the ribcage is rigid in the Mitchegai, and the volume in it contains little more than the esophagus, blood vessels, and four independent lungs.
The Mitchegai spinal column is centrally located, not at the back as in humans. This spinal column allows for more flexibility, more efficient use of musculature, and less massive vertebrae, but when severed, as in this case, it is just as disastrous as it would be with a human.
Kren gave Dol an assist by decapitating the crippled Greenie impaled on her spear.
“May I run away now?” Dol said.
Bronki put eight more carefully placed rounds into the Greenies, and then said while reloading, “I think that’s the lot of them, but why don’t you go out and make sure, Kren. I’ll back you up. Dol, you’d better phone the captain of the guard. Tell him what happened, and have him send over six ambulances for his men, plus we’ll be needing six more guards, if he has them.”
Kren went through the carnage, chopping the heads off all that seemed to need it except for the six guards. Judging from the wounds, the guards had been able to kill three of their opponents before they were overwhelmed.
“I make it twelve Greenies, six of our guards, and four students in Architectural uniforms,” he said. “The guards didn’t do too badly, considering the odds.”
“That’s probably all of them, then. Greenies usually work in groups of six or a dozen, and those four others are Kodo’s guards. I recognize them. Let’s make our guards as comfortable as possible, and then we’ll flush the brains of the rest of this trash down the toilet. This had to happen just when I’d given the servants the week off, so we’ll have to do all of the work ourselves. Oh, yes, and strip the academic garb off of those four. We wouldn’t want to embarrass the College of Architecture.”
Sorting through the carnage, Kren had a problem when he found two heads near one guard’s body, and he wasn’t sure which belonged to the guard and which belonged to a nearby Greenie body. Fortunately, the sergeant of the guard knew his own men well. Although he had been disemboweled and was in a great deal of pain, he was able to identify his own man.
“You did good,” Kren told the sergeant. “You’ll all be resurrected, I promise, and you’ll probably all get commendations.”
The sergeant grunted.
Kren put the guard’s head on its own body, and chopped out the Greenie’s brain.
The ambulances arrived, and took the guards off to the hospital. Kren figured that most, if not all, of them would need resurrection.
The captain of the guard phoned and said, “A new squad should be there in less than an hour, Bronki. How did my troops do?”
“They did you proud, Captain. They were terribly outnumbered, but they made a good showing for themselves, and they all died fighting.”
“Good. They all deserve resurrection, then?”
“Absolutely. You may bill me for it as our contract stipulates. You can list me as a reference, if you want to. I’ll even write you a testimonial letter.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. Please have the next bunch call me when they get there.”
Bronki next called the Sisters of Charity, telling them that there was a large supply of meat here waiting to be distributed to the poor, and could they possibly pick it up tonight? Also, Bronki needed a receipt, so she could deduct the donation off of her income taxes.
Her next call was to the building’s housekeeping department, telling them that she wanted the floors around the stairway on her level cleaned within two hours, and yes, she was well aware of the fact that it was Friday night.
There was a major pile of assorted weapons on the floor of Kren’s room, and four bloody architectural uniforms hanging in his closet. Kodo’s guards had also had their identifying shoulder brands cut off and flushed down the toilet.
Kren was stacking headless bodies out near the stairway, with a neat stack of brainless heads beside them.
Students and junior faculty members would occasionally scurry up and down the steps, pretending not to notice anything unusual.
The brander that they had tortured a few weeks before ran up the steps out of breath, came up to Kren, and said, “This is where Bronki lives, isn’t it?”
He recognized her, but felt that he did not need further problems tonight.
“We’re a little busy just now,” he said.
“But she’s got to help me! They’re after me! There’s no place else I can go, and she said she’d help me!”
“I believe that she was referring to academic help.”
“You don’t understand! There is a squad of KUL killers right behind me!”
“Would you please open your eyes and observe what I’m doing, lady? Do you see all of this fresh meat? This used to be a KUL hit squad. We have already killed them. You can go home now. You are safe.”
“This can’t be the same bunch! They’re behind me, I tell you!”
“Okay, come on. I’ll take you to Bronki. Maybe she can talk some sense in your head.”