Capital Run

by David Robbins

  Rikki squatted, his eyes on the alley mouth.

  The Leather Knights reached the alley, and for a moment they hesitated, their assault halted by a momentary confusion. Blinded by the dense smoke issuing from the cart, their confusion was confounded by all of them endeavoring to enter the alley at once. Unable to see their foes, they balked, and in so doing gave Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the advantage he needed.

  Rikki plunged into their midst, holding his breath to minimize the effects of the odoriferous smoke. Wherever he saw a shape or shadow in the smoke, he struck. His katana cleaved to the left and the right, hacking limbs and tearing torsos.

  Those Leather Knights at the forefront of the charge bore the brunt of the carnage. Prevented from firing by the density of their mad rush, they tried to retreat but were blocked by those behind them. The Knights in the rear, unaware of the clash because they couldn’t see through the smoke, shoved those in front. Those in the lead, hearing the screams and shrieks of the wounded and dying and glimpsing a swirling figure in black, pushed against those in back.

  Chaos reigned.

  A lone stud with a Winchester appeared in the smoke, and Rikki slashed him across the neck.

  The stud toppled backward from view.

  Rikki saw a sister near the wooden cart, silhouetted by the red and orange flames, and he impaled her on the point of his sword. She gasped and grabbed the blade with her left hand, losing her fingers in the bargain.

  “Damn you!” she defiantly cried as she expired.

  Rikki crouched, his katana at the ready. Surely this was enough? Blade should have reached the wall by now! He picked his way over the bodies and through the smoke until he was in the alley. Gray tendrils drifted above the garbage and trash, obscuring the far wall. He hastened after Blade and Lex.

  “Hold it, sucker!”

  Rikki twirled, the katana extended.

  It was the one called Erika, her portly features smeared with dirt, her leather garments begrimed a shade of brown. She held a shotgun in her hands, aimed at the man in black. Her eyes betrayed a maniacal quality, evidence of a personality on the brink of insanity. “You ain’t going nowhere!” she barked.

  Rikki stared at her fingers, waiting for the telltale flexing indicating she was going to pull the trigger.

  “You thought you had me!” Erika cackled. “You and that big son of a bitch! Threw me into the pit! But I was too smart for the both of you!

  Grotto went after Terza, and I ducked into the hole connecting the pit to the sewers. I saw what it did to Terza!” Erika shuddered. “I stayed hid until after you left. Then some of the Knights showed up, and they tossed a rope to me.” She laughed. “It was my idea to wait for you out here. I knew it’d take you a while to make it out.” She tittered. “Pretty sharp, aren’t I, lover boy?”

  Rikki calculated five feet separated him from the crazed woman.

  Erika raised the shotgun. “I’m going to enjoy this!” she declared, gloating, relishing her impending triumph. “Almost as much as I’ll enjoy being the new leader of the Leather Knights!”

  The street beyond the alley was quiet; the Knights apparently had retreated, abandoning their cart. Smoke continued to float into the alley.

  “Any last words?” Erika baited Rikki.

  A cloud of smoke drifted over Erika, enshrouding her head and shoulders in a mantle of gray. She coughed, recovered, and squeezed the trigger.

  And missed.

  Rikki threw his lean body to the left as the shotgun discharged. Her shot blew apart a pile of trash to the rear of where he had been standing just a moment earlier. Before she could fire again, his right arm swept back, then forward, holding the hilt of the katana, hurling the sword like he would a spear.

  Erika, immersed in the suffocating smoke, experienced a burning sensation in her chest and glanced down. She released the shotgun and doubled over as the first waves of pain struck. “No!” she wailed. “No! No! No!” She dropped to the ground, her hands on the hilt, scowling in excruciating agony. A black foot appeared in her line of vision and she looked up, squinting.

  The man in black was in a peculiar stance, his right hand rigid, the fingers firm and compact. “Yes,” he said, and the right hand chopped downward.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “I don’t believe it!” Blade exclaimed.

  “I believe it,” Rikki stated, grinning.

  “I don’t get it,” Lex chimed in, gingerly adjusting the makeshift bandage on her left shoulder.

  Directly ahead, parked in the center of the highway, upright, intact, was the SEAL. About 20 yards past the SEAL, also parked in the middle of the road, was an enormous Red helicopter. To the right of the SEAL, at the side of the highway, were two men in uniform, seated, propped against one another back-to-back, their wrists and ankles securely bound with rope.

  “Is that your friend?” Lex asked Rikki.

  “That’s our friend,” Rikki answered.

  He was grinning from ear to ear, leaning on the SEAL’S grill, his Colt Pythons tucked under his belt, his Henry cradled loosely in his buckskins clad arms. “Howdy!” Hickok greeted them as they approached.

  Blade, stupefied, pointed at the pair in uniform and the helicopter.

  “Who? How? Where?”

  Hickok winked at Rikki, then turned a somber expression to Blade.

  “You always did have a way with words, pard.”

  Blade found his voice. “How in the world did you manage this?”

  “It was a piece of cake,” Hickok replied.

  Blade stared at the helicopter. “Where did that come from?”

  “Washington,” Hickok modestly responded. “Washington? Washington, D.C.?” Blade and Rikki exchanged astonished glances.

  “Yep.”

  “I want a full report,” Blade told the gunman.

  Hickok yawned and shrugged. “I figured we’d need some help gettin’ our buggy on its tires again, so I moseyed to Washington and asked the Reds if they would lend us a hand. Well, sure enough, they obliged. And here I am. The SEAL checks out okay. We can leave whenever you’re ready, pard, unless you reckon you’d rather fly to our Home in the copter.”

  Blade shook his head in bewilderment. “Knowing you, there has to be more to it than that. I want a detailed report on our trip back.”

  “You’ll get it,” Hickok promised. He gazed at Rikki. “Is the lady with you?”

  “This is Lex,” Rikki introduced her.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you the past two days,” Lex said.

  Hickok stepped up to her and offered his right hand. “Any friend of Rikki’s is a pard of mine. Pleased to meet you.”

  Lex shook. “Likewise. I can’t wait to meet your wife. Rikki told me you’re married to a lovely woman.”

  “I think so,” Hickok said. “She has the looks and I’ve got the brains.

  We’re quite a combo.”

  “You have the brains?” Rikki repeated skeptically.

  Hickok ignored the barb. He looked at Blade. “So where the blazes have you been?”

  “We ran into a spot of trouble,” Blade replied.

  “Spent the last two days sneaking out of St. Louis.” He paused, suddenly feeling extremely fatigued. “I’ll fill you in on the way to the Home.”

  “We have a heap to talk about,” Hickok admitted.

  “I’m ready to leave now,” Lex stated eagerly.

  “What about them?” Rikki inquired, indicating the two prisoners and the helicopter.

  “I have an idea,” Hickok mentioned. “We could use our rocket launcher on the helicopter,” he suggested, “and those two vermin can fend for themselves. They can’t tell us much I don’t already know.”

  Blade reflected for a minute. “We don’t want to leave the helicopter in enemy hands, so destroying it is our only option. As for the two soldiers,” he said, then paused, studying them. “We don’t have time to interrogate them here. The Leather Knights could show up in force at any moment.

  And
I can’t see lugging them back to the Home in the SEAL. It’s too far, and we’d be too crowded. Hickok’s right. We’ll do as he suggests.”

  “Hickok is right?” Rikki asked in mock amazement. “Remind me to tell Geronimo about this when we reach the Home. He’ll never believe you said that.”

  The gunman pretended to glare at the martial artist. “What did you do? Pick up a sense of humor in St. Louis?”

  Lex took Rikki’s right hand in hers. “He picked up more than a sense of humor,” she said proudly.

  “Oh, no.” Hickok looked at Rikki. “Does this mean we’re gonna have another wedding soon?”

  Rikki shrugged. “If the Spirit so guides us.”

  Hickok frowned and shook his head.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Blade asked. “What’s wrong with Rikki getting married? You and I are married, you know.”

  “It’s just a mite sad to see another good man bite the dust,” Hickok quipped. “Another Warrior who’ll come down with a bad case of dishpan hands.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Blade declared, “before the Leather Knights catch up with us.”

  “You three look tuckered out,” Hickok said. “I’ll drive.”

  Blade sighed. “Just when I thought I was safe…”