CHAPTER NINE
Lezura and Joey were walking back when some of the people who had their backs turned to them rushed up to them with knives and clubs. They were eight of them; two yautgans, two geckoids and four largaphs.
Lezura and Joey went back to back, studying the movements of each man as they surrounded them.
“We do not want any trouble,” said Lezura with one hand in her back on her sack of nerve-numb dust. “We have little to give, so let us just be on our way.”
One of the geckoids cackled, dressed in a red sweater with a sleeveless orange jacket and brown trousers; all dirty. “Look here, pretty miss,” he said, “nycarmans always have money. Don’t try to screw with us. You probably thought it would be nice to come visit this city as if it’s a tourist spot. You and you’re pint sized man there!”
Joey felt a nerve in his head snap, but he held his cool until Lezura gave the order.
The geckoid, who Lezura confirmed as the boss, gestured to a yautgan four times his size and said, “Get them.”
As the yautgan approached with his knife ready to deliver the blow Lezura said, “Now!”
Joey ducked and rolled, his shoulder hadn’t fully healed from the gunshot wound and it burnt like a wasp sting. Lezura leaped out of the way of the knife, yanked her hand out of her back and spread the dust in an arc in the air.
It struck the yautgan in the face. It reached one of the largaphs. Both men wobbled on their knees, but the yautgan staggered around like a drunk. Lezura realized the chemicals were slow to reach his brain because of his huge mass, so she charged with a kick into his groin and watch him double over with a comical twisting face.
“Get them!” the boss said.
“Run Joey?” Lezura said.
Joey fired a Blueburst into the yautgan in front of him and darted off with the others chasing him. The yautgan stumbled under the attack, but quickly shrugged it off, turned and followed the boss and a largaph.
Lezura was occupied with the other three thugs. The geckoid nearly sliced her throat in a quick movement, and another quick swipe almost cost Lezura a finger. The swift little geckoid was a hassle enough, but the other two largaphs joined the fight.
Lezura pushed a largaph back with a Blueburst, simultaneously reaching for her spear from her bag. The largaph ducked into the blast and used the spikes on his jaw to maw Lezura. She bit down on her scream, spun and clapped the largaph in the back of the neck with her spear. He fell forward like a confident swimmer entering a pool—only it was the pavement.
As she extended the spear the other largaph kicked, she nimbly blocked the foot aimed at her head. The largaph repeated it with each foot, finally tricking Lezura with a feint, crouched and swept her feet off the ground.
Lezura landed on her back just to see the geckoid pounce on top of her. She moved her head out of the knife that hit the ground. She grabbed the geckoid by the shirt and gave him a loud, cracking head-butt that changed his color to a shocking yellow. He fell aside with rolling eyes.
Lezura fired a Blueburst at the largaph coming for her, right in the chest. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but he stayed down.
Lezura sprung to her feet. She kicked the little geckoid in the ribs to make sure he knew who was boss as she took up her bag and went after Joey.
Joey didn’t care where he went so long as he went there fast. He swung his bat to get the crowd moving out of his way. A few officers on foot patrol noticed Joey causing hysteria. They shouted after Joey and the men chasing him.
“Screw you guys!” Joey said as his weaved his way through two yautgans. The gang boss leaped his way onto and over any obstacle in his way. Unlike the larger dracoids, the geckoids was fast and nimble, with thick thigh muscles that enabled them to leap great distances. He easily cleared over the head of a yautgan and over a passing police car.
Joey nearly knocked over a lazhinian woman and her trolley of goods. He bumped into a dracoid woman and was subsequently hit down.
“Watch it!” she said.
“Your ass is too big!” Joey said, springing to his feet and heading for a staircase.
As the yautgan and largaph thug went after him up the stairs, the geckoid boss leaped onto the surface of the wall on all fours, sticking to it he started to scurry up the surface much like gecko.
The staircase was a light green color with grass and flowers rupturing out of the rocky surface. It spiraled up the side between two buildings, where there were intervals of small corridors behind gates leading into the apartment complex.
A raizean was coming through a gate with his little girl. Joey turned sideways and squeezed between the two of them. Startled, the man quickly grabbed his daughter and head back inside just as the two thugs blazed pass them.
The staircase led onto the top of the buildings, were there were some green, featherless birds with tiny yellow spots and large blue eyes on top of their heads. Upon seeing Joey the yewins took off in a chaotic flutter and chirps with white membranous wings.
Joey swatted some of them out of his way with the bat and made it across the dirty craggy roof. He saw a pipeline running across to another building and went for it, but the gang boss leaped his way.
“Hand over the goods, nycar—”
The gang boss stopped midway when he saw that the alien’s perspiration had washed off some of the paint on his face onto his shirt, revealing a paler, pinky-cream colored skin. Joey swung the bat into the geckoid but he ducked beneath it. The boss drew his knife and attacked. Joey blocked the knife with his bat and ran.
The geckoid whipped out his pink tongue that was well over twice the length of his body, wrapped it around Joey’s foot and tripped him. Joey broke his fall with his arm, rolled over and shot Bluebursts at his attackers. The thugs took cover behind a nearby room leading down into the building and behind the water tank. A hole cracked in the tank and water poured out like an open artery.
Joey ran across the pipeline leading from the tank off the roof. With a quick glance down Joey saw that he was at least twelve stories up. And right there vertigo gripped him.
“Don’t look down! Don’t look down! Don’t look down!” Joey said to himself.
The thugs were already closing in on Joey with the geckoid in lead. He was well in their sights up until he just up and fell out of view.
That was because Joey didn’t see that the pipe had a slope, and Joey slipped into a slide.
He screamed and steered himself from on his back, trying not to go off course and fall to his death. He saw the flat of the pipe’s straight direction coming up ahead and prepared himself. He stuck his foot out, and as he hit the flat he went into a mad run.
The other thugs did the same, coming up right on his tail.
Joey ran into a dark, desolate building. The only light in the place was from the entrance of the pipe, and inside he saw hundreds of misshapen shadows; old furniture and electronic equipment. He bumped his foot into an old screen, tripped and landed in a heap of dust. He groaned, getting up and limped around for the sight of an exit.
He forced his eyes search the dusty, musty smelling gloom for a door. He found it. When he reached there he found that it had a rusted lock on it. As he was about to blast it open he felt the stagnant sting of fatigue, and the thugs pounced on him.
The yautgan gripped him with one hand on his shoulder and threw him back in the direction of the others. Joey landed on something blunt that sent a jolt of pain in his back. It stunned him long enough for the largaph and the geckoid to start kicking him into submission. He felt a foot kick the bat clean out of his hand. He fired a blast, felt a throb in his head, and heard the horrid cry of the geckoid.
The geckoid fell back with his shoulder torn up. He kicked and screamed on the floor. “Kill that son-of-a-bitch! Kill him!”
Joey punched the largaph, and he punched him back. The yautgan came and held down Joey’s arms while the largaph took off his bag and searched inside.
“Lemme go you dicks!” Joey said. “Put down my bag! Drop it you assholes!”
The largaph found only a painting and a mesh-cage of gassappers. He dropped the bag, turned to Joey and searched him.
“Hey! hey! Don’t get too touchy!” Joey said, trying to kick the yautgan in the head from an awkward angle.
He couldn’t die here. Too much had happened in the last days for him to just get wasted by a bunch of crooks worse than him.
He felt the largaph’s hands around his neck, and Joey felt fear fissure through his body. The largaph pulled the compass from around Joey’s neck, held it up for the others to see.
Shit! Joey thought. “Give that back you bastard! That’s mine—get your friggin’ hands off it!”
Joey managed to free one hand and punch the yautgan. The angered man punched Joey in the face, hard. Joey blacked out for a couple of seconds, then awoke to see the geckoid boss standing over him with the largaph, clutching the arm of his bloody shoulder and staring at the compass.
“This looks like it will do nicely,” said largaph, grinning.
“What the hell is it?” the yautgan said, now pinning Joey’s hands under his knees.
The boss snatched the compass greedily from the largaph and brought it close to his big eyes.
“Give…that…back…” Joey said, but the punch from the yautgan had made him dizzy. He couldn’t find the focus to get his muscles to move how he wanted.
After a moment the geckoid said, “You know boys, I think this is—”
The ceiling overhead exploded into rubble. Something rocketed from the dust down like someone pushing behind a grey sheet, and landed a foot in the boss’ head, smashing it into the floor.
“Shit!” said the largaph, hurriedly back-pedaling. He wasn’t fast enough.A huge, grey-blue hand shot out from the dusty clouded silhouette of a large person and grabbed his throat. The largaph gargled and hawked as he was hoisted off the floor.
The yautgan leaped off Joey’s hand, drew his knife and went after the figure. When smoke cleared the true form was revealed; a yautgan woman, wearing a silky pink-white night gown that was strangely beautiful on her lean, healthy frame in the circumstance.
She spotted the thug just as he sprang up and shot her foot into his face. Joey heard the splintering of bone as the yautgan flew back into a table and shattered it.
The woman tightened her grip on the largaph’s neck, squeezing harder until he stopped clawing at her arm and his eyes rolled over in his head. The woman hoisted him up like a serve ball, and sent him flying out back through the entrance over the pipeline with a palm in his gut.
Holy crap! Joey thought. He kept as still as possible so he wouldn’t end up like the guy who got turned into a baseball.
The woman stepped over Joey, making him see things that made him blush, and went over to the Yautgan kneeling on the ground. He was snarling like a tormented beast. He looked up at the woman; her round face with a narrow chin, soft brown eyes and wide, light blue lips.
He tightened his grip on his knife and lunged, roaring. The woman swatted down his hand, swung her arm like a pendulum and hooked it into his, lifted it and snapped the arm down over her shoulder like a stick. Joey heard the man’s horrifying scream, and felt two drops of urine escape his body.
With a smile to the corner of her lips the woman threw her head into the man’s bloody nose, shot her elbow up into the man’s chin, whirled around and grabbed his head and bashed it into the wall behind him repeatedly. She let him go, turning away as the man fell with a loud groan.
Through the hole in the ceiling men fell into the room, looking around at the scene with a casual demeanor like tourists who were impressed with the sites. They spread out through the room looking at the bodies with grins and nods. Oikumies had already flown inside and perched on the corpses.
“Nice work, boss,” said a largaph in a white merino and jeans, showing off his well-muscled torso.
“Just save the praises and get the bodies outta here,” said the woman with a calm quality in her voice as she knelt over Joey.
“Sure thing, boss,” the largaph said. He turned to the other men and snapped his fingers. “Hey,” he gestured to the bodies as the Oikumies left them, “cleans this crap up.”
Looking at her face Joey saw that apart from a scar going down her chin she was stunningly beautiful, and when she smiled it was amplified even more. Her head feathers were white, thin, long and in a wild fashion mush as how he liked to have his hair at times.
Then the thought came back to Joey. The compass!
Joey spotted it near the crushed remains of the geckoid. With all of his strength focused on the one task, Joey whirled and twisted onto his hands and knees and pounced after the compass. The woman was quicker than him, even though being nearly three times his size. She grabbed the compass just an inch from Joey’s reach.
“Give it back you bitch!” Joey said.
He attempted to take it from the woman’s hand. She held it above her head. Joey felt like he was looking at the top of Mount Everest.
“Okay, that’s just rubbing it in,” he said.
The woman knocked out Joey with a chopping blow to his neck. She caught his body before it fell and heft him over her shoulder like a towel.
“Who’s that, boss?” said the largaph.
“That’s what I’m going to find out, Tomz,” she said. She stopped and gestured to something. “Hand me that silver bat…and that bag.”
Tomz found the items and gave them to the woman. She watched to make sure the men carried out the bodies back through the pipeline. They would be taken to the scrapyard were the local scavengers would dispose of them.
She turned to the locked door, and with one kicked flew it open, shattering the lock to splinters. She went into the light with her new captive.