Wincing in pain from the hair pull, I swung the titan stick up and back, stabbing her in what I hoped was her ribs. “No!”
She grunted but didn’t let go. What was she wearing, a bullet proof vest? Zap proof?
Shit. Desperate now, I pulled the weapon forward and struck again, aiming higher.
“Ah!”
Fuck, yes. I got her in the face. I hoped I hit her eye, but I wasn’t sure where I’d managed to strike, only that she’d released her hold, and I could move.
I swung around, whipping the stick with me and brought it down across the side of her head. She screamed this time and stumbled, barely standing. Lifting my left foot, I kicked her ass down the ramp and hoped she fell off. I didn’t want to have to drag her from the ramp, so we could close it, and she definitely wasn’t coming with us.
A guy jumped over her rolling body like a hurdler and landed in a crouch in front of me. Jesus, how many of them were there? Panicked, I brought the titan stick up to strike my new enemy.
“Gara. It’s me.”
His voice penetrated, and I held still, regained control of myself, even as I watched Ulza roll and fall off the end of the platform.
“I got rid of your blue friend,” I told him, taking a deep breath.
Isaak had his hand up, toward me, apparently to ward off a stick attack, but he risked looking back over his shoulder. “Excellent.”
He stood and placed his palm on some kind of scanner. Immediately, the loading platform began to retract, the pieces sliding inside one another like an old-fashioned spyglass. The Cerberus bad guy who Isaak had been shooting at when I ran onto the ship appeared. Either Isaak was a horrible shot, or he had some kind of bulletproof vest like Ulza. Or whatever it was called in space. I had to give the guy points for perseverance, for he must have leaped to grab onto the edge, his fingers curled around the platform, hanging on like a monkey.
“Gara, can you take care of that? I need to start the engine.” Isaak dipped his chin in a pointed reference to my still crackling titan stick.
I glanced from the stick to the asshole trying to pull his elbows up onto the platform. “I can do that.”
Isaak took off down a small corridor at a dead run, putting his faith in me to take care of the pesky guy. I raised the titan stick, walked slowly toward the exposed hands grasping for purchase on the ever-shrinking ramp.
I swung once.
His hand disappeared.
Twice.
He lost his grip, but hand number one had returned.
“You asshole. I am not...”
Slam.
“Going...”
Slam.
“With you!”
The ship lurched beneath my feet as I slammed the stick down on the attacker’s hand for the last time. He fell with a bellow of rage, and I stood at the door, watching until it was completely sealed, making sure no more thugs needed a titan stick up their ass.
6
Zara
“Time to go!”
Isaak’s shout had me moving. I dropped the titan stick—no way was it fitting down the narrow corridor without accidentally electrocuting myself—and hustled in the direction of his voice.
I found the cockpit or whatever it was called in a spaceship. It was literally just like Star Wars with two seats and a shit-ton of buttons and dials and slider things. I settled into the empty seat beside him.