Out of the Black - Lee Doty [74]
Dek waits a few more seconds, still staring into the back seat of Ivo's car, but no further attacks come. "Master eh?" Dek says finally, still not looking up. "What are you, a dog?"
With a fierce shout, the unseen torpedo attacks again and again, quicker than any human could have seen, but Dek parries every blow, though this time he had to turn half away from the car to do it.
When the attack, and the frustrated screaming after it stops, Dek again speaks slowly. "So, I killed your master, did I?" He finally releases his last look at Ivo, turning his head slowly to face his assailant, pausing briefly to assess him. To Dek, he looks like a B-movie martial artist- stylish, baggy clothes, hard face, trendily cut blonde hair that was highlighted at some upscale salon. His flashily-crafted sword is actually glowing with a cold blue fire... amateur. "Is that supposed to make us even?"
The Torpedo shifts his stance slightly, adjusts the position of his blade to look more aggressive, but he says nothing.
"Except it doesn't." Dek says, fury clipping the words. His face ticks and his body shakes with the inner pressure, but the only overt show Dek allows is the wicked smile crossing his face, "Sure, I killed your master, but you killed my Father- and there isn't enough blood in the world for a down payment on that."
Dek's sword rises between them, his intentions clear in his hard stare. "Well, you take what you can get, I guess."
The Torpedo understands at last what he should have been expecting since his ill-conceived attack began. He takes another step back, but it isn't far enough, not by an interstellar distance. Dek's blade tears through him four times before he pauses to destroy the Torpedo's blade with a massive blow. The sword Issak made for him so long ago cuts straight and true, severing the other man's blade at the base. Dek flicks his wrist and the backstroke removes the other man's head.
Not enough blood in the universe, Dek's hot, shivering mind compresses around the thought. His scream tears out into the night, again and again, until he has no more breath and is again empty. He stumbles backward until he is stopped by the overpass wall. He leans against it, then slides down until he is sitting with the wall at his back. His sword lies impotent on the ground at his side. He feels nothing; time passes. The world around him begins to flicker.
Strobes of blue and red shift the shadows on the ground around him. He has no idea how long he has been sittingthe police are here.
***
The confused child sits, suspended upside down, still strapped into his seat. His head hurts, but not as much as his broken leg. What did he do wrong? His eyes sting with sticky unfamiliar tears. The inside of the destroyed minivan is tinged red and blurry. His thick glasses are gone and his face is wet.
Below him, he sees one bent crutch lying on the roof. The roof is bent worse than the crutch. His parents are sleeping in the front, but though he screams, they don't wake. He hopes they aren't angry with him.
Clouds of dust and smoke blow through the air; wind makes a hollow monster sound as it blows through one broken window and out the other.
He doesn't have any more air for screaming, so he hangs alone in the dust with the wind monster all around him, gasping and fading.
What did he do wrong?
Between Rooms
At times like these, Issak Kaspari liked to picture himself as a mad scientist, surrounded by arcane machinery. He wished he could put the final twiddle on knobs, make sure that electricity arced appropriately between scenic anode and mysterious cathode- perhaps throw a large rusty switch or two.
It had always bothered him that from the outside it looked like he was having a particularly boring yoga session. Inside though, between his ears, or down