Kendra dropped Curtis’ feet and walked back to the computer she had been sitting at. Mike saw the screens and realized what Kendra was doing.
“Wait a minute. Just what do you think you’re doing there?”
“Sitting back down in my seat, if you don’t mind,” Kendra said.
“What’s on those screens? You’re the one who’s been coordinating these attacks against my forces?”
“Your forces? What do you expect us to do? Sit still and let you just take over?”
“I was expecting you to see what you’re up against and make wiser decisions.”
“I was hoping you would do the same.”
“Are you delusional? I see what we’re up against, or what we were up against. Most of your fighters are gone, and if you had more, where would you find more pilots on short notice. They are no match for us, and your two heroes are currently incapacitated. You have lost. There is only one thing I must do to ensure our victory.”
“There is nothing you can do to guarantee your victory. You don’t honestly think we will give up that easily, do you?”
“Your world’s military forces are no match, and I know you won’t use nuclear weapons and destroy your own land. The only threat to us is in this room, and once I remove the leader, the rest will scatter.”
“The leader? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“I should have seen it sooner, and I should have seen sooner what must be done.”
He raised the pistol with one hand, pointed it straight at Kendra, and pulled the trigger.
Franklin was only a couple feet away and saw before Kendra did what was about to happen. Before he could even think about what he was doing, his body seemed to move of its own accord and he dove in front of her at the same instant the weapon went off.
Mike McCormick watched the elevator door open onto a short corridor. He stepped cautiously out of the elevator and could hear voices ahead, a man and a woman in what sounded like a heated argument. He walked that way, proceeding slowly to try to avoid making too much sound. To his own ears, the sound of the crutches on the floor seemed to be deafening, but it didn’t seem to draw attention from the room ahead. When he reached the room, he could see through a partially opened door what was going on. A young black woman and a middle aged white man were in some sort of heated discussion and the man was extending his hand and pointing a pistol at the woman.
He was unsure of what he could do, and while he was mulling over the options in his mind, the man fired the weapon. A young black man dove across at the same time, took the shot center mass, and fell to the floor. The young woman screamed and ran to his side, and the first man leveled the weapon again and aimed at her. Wishing he had a weapon of his own, Mike was hit with a sudden burst of inspiration. He reached down and carefully removed one of his prosthetic legs from below the knee, and then, balancing carefully on his other leg, removed the shoe from the leg he had just removed. What he was left with was in essence a twenty pound titanium club, which he held in one hand, while slowly hobbling into the room.
With the young woman sobbing and the others in the room talking all at once, nobody heard him coming, and when he was right behind the gun wielding man, he raised the prosthetic in both hands and brought it down with all his strength on the back of the gunman’s head. He was rewarded with a sickening crack and the man went limp and fell to the ground, just before he lost his balance and fell as well.
Morrison came over and inspected the fallen man, observed that he was out like a light but appeared to still be breathing, and turned around to face the door.
“Just who the blazes are you and where did you come from?” he asked.
“Give me a sec,” the man said, putting his prosthetic back on and retrieving the shoe before he stood and offered his hand, “Name’s Mike, and I came from outside. I was looking for Christy.”
“Your name’s Mike?” Fiona said, “Doesn’t that just beat all. You just knocked out Mike.”
Kendra got up and approached, sticking out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Kendra. Did you say you were looking for Christy?”
“Yeah, we hadn’t heard from her in a couple days, so I came out here to check on her. You care to tell me what’s going on?”
“You don’t know what’s going on? For starters, my friend’s been hit and I’m afraid he needs to get to a doctor now.”
“Good news is, he’s still alive, but I don’t know how bad the damage is,” Moses said, “There doesn’t appear to be a bullet.”
“There’s a hospital not far from here, but if you call 911, they’ll see all this when they come for him,” Mike said.
“Not if we take him upstairs to the main part of the house,” Moses said, “I’ll take care of that myself. It’s the least I can do. He saved my daughter’s life.”
Moses picked Franklin up and disappeared upstairs, dialing his cell phone as he went.
“Now, what exactly is going on?” Mike asked.
“You really don’t know?” Fiona said.
“Haven’t had the TV on all day, so we’re a little behind on the news.”
Kendra filled him in, starting with how Walter got his powers and ending with the forces that were in control of several cities worldwide. When she was done, Mike was at a loss for words.
“So, Christy was killed...on the moon?” he finally managed to ask.
“Yeah, and we had to leave her body, since they were shooting at us as well.”
“And you’re telling me she built this house, darn near 150 years ago?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s a lot to take in. We just thought
