Krysty awoke, tugged from her dream. Straining her exceptional hearing, she caught the muffled roar of an explosion. And shouting. A lot of shouting.
'Lori,' she called. 'Wake up, Lori. They're here. Wake up!'
The jet of flame, dripping beads of golden fire all along its magical length, struck the center of the ruined swampwag, playing over it, instantly igniting the hundreds of gallons of napalm.
Finn jumped to one side, releasing the main control of the flamer, burying his face in his hands at the cataclysmic explosion. Jak Lauren and his group stopped in their tracks, shrinking back from the inferno that raged outside the motel. The sec guards were destroyed in the blink of an eye, converted from fighting men to dancing puppets, tugged by strings of fire. Their thin, helpless screams were drowned by the ferocious roar of the flames. The entire front of the building caught fire, and lakes of smoking crimson spread inside through shattered windows and doors. In less than one minute, the whole place was ablaze.
The men with Ryan and J.B. stood and gaped. Night became dazzling day. The shooting stopped for a few moments, replaced by the noise of the fire and the screeching of hundreds of wild birds, erupting from the trees all around. Ryan saw a great slim-necked white bird with an enormous wingspan flying majestically away over the burning motel.
'Now,' he said, breaking the others from their shocked contemplation. 'Come on. To the back.'
Baron Tourment had been sleeping, his arm resting across the hips of a slim Cajun girl. Her tanned body was covered with bites and scratches, and she had slithered into a merciful, drugged sleep.
Mephisto burst into the room, his clothes crumpled, a blaster in his hand.
'They're here! For fuck's sake, Baron, get up and fight, or run!'
'Who? The one-eyed man?'
'Don't know. Move this slut outta the way.' He pulled the girl to the floor; moaning, she resumed her slumber. 'Bombs. Fire-sprays. Blasters. It's a fucking war out there.'
Tourment reached for his braces and buckled them on while Mephisto outlined what had been happening.
'Whole place is burning. Must be twenty dead. Could be more. It's bad. Real bad, Baron.'
Tourment hitched on his belt, with the twin pistols in it. Stub-gripped Ruger GP-110s, a matched pair of silver-plated revolvers that had been taken from one of the gun stores in downtown Lafayette years back.
'How many out there?'
Mephisto shook his head. His own customized M-16, with its ornate cockerel's head, dangled from his right hand, almost as if he'd forgotten he was still holding it. 'Don't know. Plenty. Thought I saw the snow wolf.'
'And the man with one eye?'
'Who?'
Tourment reached for his trembling sec boss and grabbed him by the front of his jacket. 'You heard me, offal! Was there a man there with only one-eye? He's the one to be feared. I know it. I've seen it.'
'Didn't... didn't see him. Time's racing, Baron. The place is lost. Got to get out.'
'Side way, canoes,' said the giant black, striding to the door of his suite. 'Get the two women and bring 'em.'
'Too late for that,' said Mephisto, his voice rising until, it was almost a hysterical scream. 'Don't you... it's fucking over. We lost. One fucking bang and a damburst of fire, and we're done.'
Krysty lay still, resting, harvesting the layers of calmness. Knowing that if the motel was under attack by Ryan, then it would not be long before Baron Tourment, or one of his sec men, remembered them and came looking for them. That could be the moment when her special powers might be most needed. Lori, at her side, lay still, whistling to herself to keep her spirits up.
Half a dozen swampwags were already rolling around the back of the blazing building, with sec men still clambering into them, ready to run. Exchanging fire with Ryan's party, all of them fell dead, with only a single casualty in the attackers group.
'Blow the buggies?' asked one of Jak's men.
'No. You'll need 'em after this is done.'
'You figure we're winning?' asked another of them as they neared a large rear entrance.
'Yeah. Leah gave us better than we'd hoped for. When this is finished, you ought to build her a bitching great statue and bring your children to look at it every fucking anniversary.'
There was a foot of stagnant slimy green water at the bottom of the pool. It reflected the flames that were already beginning to break through the roof of the Best Western. One of the sec men came sprinting around the corner of the motel, heading toward them, clutching a suitcase. He saw them but didn't check his stride, figuring them for his own comrades.
'Mine,' said Ryan, putting a single round from the H&K through the man's neck. It kicked him back, his feet flying up in front of him as though a wire had been pulled around his neck.
'Rat abandoning the sinking ship,' commented Doc Tanner.
The door was unguarded and unbolted. To their left they heard shooting. Their nostrils filled with the acrid stink of poisonous smoke. The speed with which the fire spread was startling. Ryan realized that he hadn't really taken into account the way a dried-out hundred-year-old husk of a building would blaze. The plan had been even better than he could have dreamed. A single crushing blow.
'All we gotta do is find the girls and get clear,' he said. 'Whitey figured the basement. Best get to it 'fore we all go up.'
Out front, Jak Lauren had managed to stop crying. Seeing his father's hideously mutilated corpse dangling from the flagpole, like some obscene trophy of battle, had created an ocean of grief and anger within him. In his fourteen years, the boy had seen enough killing to last most people a full lifetime. But for his father to die now, with victory suddenly and magically within their grasp Ч that was bitter.
The tears lasted only a minute or two before his iron self-control returned and he led his people in a screaming charge. Taking the firefight into the burning building, they massacred anyone around. He used a .357 Magnum with a satin nickel finish, spare ammunition rattling in the pockets of his torn jacket. So far only a half dozen of his group had gone down, compared to more than two-thirds of the Baron's defending sec men.
One of the gaudy sluts came running toward the boy, her mouth open in a scream of horror and agony, burning napalm dappling her naked shoulders and back. Jak steadied his right wrist with his left hand and shot her carefully between the eyes.
He was greatly tempted to stop and lower his father's body from the pole. But that would take time and men, and both were vital to maintain the momentum of the attack. What had been his father was no longer around. It didn't seem to matter what happened to his dismembered corpse.
Krysty managed a smile as Ryan came kicking in through the cellar door, the G-12 raking the room, ready to butcher anyone there.
'Hi, lover,' she said.
'Hi. How's it gone?'
'Could have gone a whole lot worse ifТn you'd left it till tomorrow. That Tourment is one evil fucker. And his sec boss isn't any better.'
Doc had rushed straight to Lori, and laying down his sword stick, embraced her while she wept. J.B. pushed past him, the Tekna knife in his hand. The keen edge parted the cords that bound the girl to the table; he turned and released Krysty the same way.
Smoke was billowing in from the corridor, making them cough. Someone ran past outside, loudly yelling for help.
'We winning?' asked Krysty.
'Yeah,' replied the Armorer.
