“I know what my velocity is.”
“I see that I am right,” the Chinaman smiled, and it reminded Billy of a coyote. “And since I now have the transmogrifier in my cargo hold, you will have to convince the British Government that you know more than you have already given up. In order to survive, that is. Oh, I do pity you.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that so much,” Billy said. A smile spread slowly across his face.
“And why is that?” the Chinaman asked.
“Because. You left somebody out of the equation.”
“And who would that be?”
Billy nodded toward the window behind the Mandarin.
“Guthrie.”
[ 46 ]
Guthrie computed how to use the navigation and weapons consoles of the Kraken seconds after disposing Grundy’s body in the vacuum of the ether.
He fired the attitude jets and the Kraken moved. He first headed away from the space station, then, a good distance out, swung around to take in the entire station as a whole. He computed the key areas to assault and rapidly laid out a strategic attack pattern.
The first target was the line of ships along the lowest tier of the station. Guthrie counted a hundred of them. He timed the range and the Kraken’s fire so that his first pass would not miss a single target.
Guthrie took the time to look up at the superstructure of the station and saw Billy and the remainder of the crew talking to someone. Dakota, however, was not among them. Guthrie made a computation and arrived at a certainty that Dakota was still aboard the Argent, likely in his hiding place. It was a game he had played with the boy. Dakota knew that Guthrie knew the hiding place, yet Guthrie had to pretend he didn’t know, all for the boy’s satisfaction in winning his game of Hide and Seek.
Humans were so awfully odd.
The Kraken swooped down upon the space station, its forward guns blazing.
[ 47 ]
The space station shuddered. Billy and Ekka knocked together the heads of the two morts holding them by shoving inward toward each other at the same time and the clones crumpled to the deck.
Fu Manchu’s hand went to the pistol beside him. As he swung it to bear upon the prisoners, Bixie Cottontree spat. Her aim was uncanny, taking the Mandarin in the left eye. The gun discharged and the mort holding Pat Garrett flew backwards.
Billy and Ekka charged the Chinaman, their hands still bound behind their backs, and swept him off of the dais.
Bixie Cottontree turned, free of her handcuffs somehow, and touched the mort beside her on the forehead. The fellow went to sleep on his feet and slunk slowly to the floor.
She moved to another, who raised his arms in protest, but she penetrated his defenses and he slept.
“What the blazes are you doing?” Carter asked her. “Get me out of these cuffs!”
“I be right dere, John Carter, but first I’m bringin’ a little help to Billy and Ekka.”
Carter pivoted and kicked a mort, who went sailing across the room.
Avi did not fare as well with his own mort, who was attempting to drag him from the room. Carter advanced on the mort, however, and delivered a swift standing side-kick that knocked the Jonathan Conklin lookalike back onto the express elevator.
Carter spun in time to see Bixie free Billy.
Fu Manchu, however, had rolled aside and quickly regained his feet. He scrambled for the revolver, but Ekka kicked it. The Chinaman pivoted to stomp her, but Billy caught his leg and threw him over backwards as Bixie moved to assist Ekka.
The morts in the room made for bad fighters, even with half of their enemy bound. The original Jonathan Conklin, however frightful he may have once been, had been a man of stealth and shadows, doing his nefarious work unseen by others. His copies, faced with an all-out assault, were utterly inept. Many of them ran from the room. One ran to the elevator door, back into the chamber again, then back toward the elevator. During the clone’s final trip, Pat Garrett brought up an elbow from behind his back and sent the clone sailing into a bulkhead.
Fu Manchu stood in the corner of the room. His former prisoners advanced toward him.
The space station shook hard.