7.       The Hit.

The street was almost empty when the four of them exited the club – Deirdre taking Akin’s hand, Allysa trying to stay close to them and away from Lucky, who was somewhat behind. The hot evening had already turned into an equally hot night. Rare pedestrians, two cars approaching... Suddenly things started happening very fast – screech of brakes, bursts of automatic fire, rain of bullets unmistakably directed at them… There were at least three assailants armed with Tommy guns in either car. Akin immediately threw Deirdre to the ground and rolled away from the cars. He looked up and down the street quickly to gather up what was happening, looking for Allysa, and then Lucky, and then finally at the assailants, cursing himself for having only a small knife, but getting it out in any case.

They ended up behind some garbage cans, except for Deirdre who was nowhere to be seen. Lucky was already unloading his semi-automatic in the direction of the cars. He appeared to be a good shot as one of the gangsters yelped and fell on the back seat. The others, however, took cover behind the cars, the Tommy guns spitting bursts of fire in their direction, bullets piercing the cans uncomfortably close. Allysa swore.  Guns! She hated guns! This was the most uncivilized way to fight. Her fingers brushed against the top card of her deck and she concentrated briefly to call her sword. An elegant long sword appeared in her hand after a few moments. “Here!” She flipped the blade to Akin, figuring he would enjoy swordplay much more. Akin clutched the sword, though it was not clear what good could come out of it, as the distance between his cover and the cars could not be passed in one leap. He aimed his knife that he was still holding in his non-sword hand at the closest thug who had unwisely leaned out a window to fire, and threw, hoping to disarm him, maybe drop his weapon, maybe with extreme luck… He grinned at the sight of the blade sinking into the throat of the goon, who fell back into the car dead, dropping his Tommy gun to clatter on the ground. From such a distance – Caine would have been proud.

He felt he needed something better than a sword for battles like this! He looked over quickly towards Lucky and yelled, “Cover me!” and then, as Lucky was emptying the magazine into the attackers, dashed out, ducking and weaving as he ran for the dropped weapon. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as bullets cracked around. He knew he was much faster than the gunmen, and dived for the gun, doing a duck and roll as he picked it up, ending up pressed up against the vehicle with the Tommy gun in one hand and the sword in the other. At least now he was closer, he thought to himself, and then wondered about the wisdom of that.

Now, with two dead, there was perhaps only one gangster hiding on the opposite side of the car, and three more behind another one… Or there had been just a second ago – a sound of the shattering club’s window mixed with a loud explosion. Akin was thrown back, a blast of hot air rushing in his face, as the second car disappeared in a whirlwind of fire. A figure in black stepped through the demolished window onto the sidewalk, smoke still coming out from a bazooka on Deirdre’s shoulder.

Akin rolled along the ground, and scrambled back to the first car. He swung the Tommy gun under it, toward the remaining gangster who was crouching down behind a fender on the opposite side, and sent a stream of hot lead into his feet and legs, making him scream in pain and fall over into the bullets as Akin continued to hammer away. He hardly had enough time to drop down and cover his head as another tremendous explosion ripped the second floor of a seemingly empty building across the street unleashing a rain of bricks. Apparently Deirdre had reloaded.

Lucky blinked at Alyssa in total bewilderment. “What did she do that for? We own that house…” The three of them helplessly watched Deirdre reloading the bazooka once again. She seemed to be on a demolition spree – a tall dark silhouette lit by the burning fires, alone in the middle of an empty street covered with debris and bodies. A disturbing thought struck Alyssa – Deirdre was a full sister to Eric and Corwin, and the only one of the family who had never taken an oath of loyalty to Random…

“Aunt Deirdre! Aunt Deirdre!! STOP!!!” Akin yelled towards his aunt, seeing that they were safe from the attackers, but not quite from her.

Deirdre hesitantly took the bazooka off her shoulder, though it still pointed at the rest of them while she slowly moved in their direction. “Traitorous murderer Brand was doubtless hiding in that house watching the work of his hired assassins,” she hissed.

Lucky sighed deeply and sadly. “Oh my, she was already well before you people appeared… and look what’s happened now… I’d better go in and call her shrink right away…”

Akin with a very confused look on his face, wandered over to where Alyssa was, and handed her the sword, which she with a bit of a thought sent ‘away’ while he returned to the car to rummage through the fallen attackers stuff, taking their weapons and wallets. “We’re going to need weapons and some money that we can spend here, don’t you think?” He tossed her a Tommy gun putting the rest into his backpack.

Allysa caught the gun and held awkwardly. “Does it mean we’re going to be staying here for a bit? Shouldn’t we call Random to let him know what’s happening?  This is all so ghoulish…”

“And what are we going to tell him? I’m all for giving him information, but until we know EXACTLY what is going on, and EXACTLY what went wrong with the trumping, do you really want to take the chance on trying it again? What if something else goes wrong?”

Lucky paid little attention to the exchange between Akin and Alyssa, being busy with trying to retrieve the bazooka from his wife. “This has nothing to do with your brother, honey. You said the same thing the last time, and it turned out those were Dutch Schultz’s boys. Remember? Bugsy – that’s who it’s now! I just wish you and your nephew left one alive, so I had the proof!”

“Bugsy my foot!” Deirdre jerked the bazooka away from Lucky raising it again, her fingers dancing on the trigger. She glared at Akin. “Haven’t you told me that you were after that horrible Elektra-creature? And who do you think sent it to here if not Brand, its father? Brand himself can’t be far behind! But I shall chase him and that monstrosity Elektra all the way back to Amber! And it’s not an axe I shall fight them with this time around! Be sure of that!”

Akin froze. “Um...yes, I did say that. However, I have NOT seen her here. We were sent, well, I was sent to keep an eye on Scarlett and Elektra. I don’t know anything of Brand.” He wondered if he should tell her again that their being here was an accident, a fluke of trumping. Or... was it an accident?

Allysa nodded readily from behind him. “Oh yes. Actually, I’m just sorta along for the ride.” She nudged Akin forward a bit. “He’s the one that’s doing the actual looking. But we got here by accident. We were supposed to go to Tatuine – a world I frequent to practice the force, don’t ask. It would take a bit of explaining…”

Akin was shivering as he stared into the barrel of a loaded launcher in the hands of a clearly mentally unstable woman who was getting more and more agitated by the moment. “Aunt Deirdre, we must leave.  I’m sure that Brand is getting away,” he said with a sudden insight. “And, I’m sure he’s thinking this is pretty funny that you’re threatening to blow us up and help him to escape.”

Lucky suddenly stepped forward and with unexpected force yanked the bazooka away from Deirdre. “Give it to me, ya wacko bitch, before I put ya back to the hospital where ya belong!”

Surprisingly Deirdre surrendered the weapon without a fight, apparently being preoccupied with what she had just heard from Akin and Allysa. “Tatuine world… An accident… So Jasra was telling the truth after all…”

They were not alone on the street any longer as several nasty looking men with drawn guns ran out of the club toward Lucky. “What happened here, Boss?”

Lucky frowned, tossing the bazooka to one of them. “Nothing I can’t handle. Go bring my car, boys, we’d better get outta here.”

He turned to Akin. “Damn Bugsy took all that money from Meyer and me, spent it on that slut of his, Virginia, instead of the casino and now’s looking how to whack us. But let me tell ya, pal, he’s as good as dead. As a matter of fact, we gonna pay him a visit right now…”

An odd smile crossed Akin’s face. He had no qualms with violence, and certainly no delusions about blood and death. His adrenaline was still pumping as he put a couple automatics taken from the dead goons into the waistband of his pants at the back, and grabbed up a spare drum of ammo for his Tommy gun. “When Bugsy attacked you and my aunt, he attacked me, Lucky. I take a very dim view of that. A time of reckoning is called for.”

Allysa gave them a look that spoke volumes. Her cozy out of the way room back at Castle Amber was looking to be a bit of heaven at the moment. An evening passing quietly in front of canvas being much preferred to trouncing about and waving guns at Shadow folk. “I’ll help as I can. Though I like not this rather violent preoccupation that we seem to be entering.” Emerald eyes flicked between Akin and Lucky with a slight hope of a less violent alternative.

A large Packard screeched to a halt in front of them, followed by two more filled with Lucky’s men, and not a second too late, it appeared, as the approaching sirens of the local constabulary were getting louder by the moment. Akin helped the women to get in, himself and Lucky clambering into the huge car behind them. He was getting more and more of the feeling that he was going to be here in Vegas for a while. And he was getting more and more angry about the whole situation – being lost, dirty, hungry, tired, shot at... It had felt good to take his aggression out earlier... and he had the need for more!

BACK               HOME               TABLE OF CONTENTS               NEXT