The Iron Man [Serial]

The Alpha

I had never in person seen the Gendarmerie use their police tape, though I had seen still photos and illustrations of the tactic. The sturdy woven ribbon was glue-sized, black on one side and white on the reverse. As the officers moved in, I felt a length of tape across the back of my thighs. Another length prevented me from moving forward.

I could yet move my arms and turn. As I turned about, Murphy had his Scipio along his right forearm in the Hauteorian manner and attempted to cut through the nearest tape, but the officers around him released slack on the tape to prevent it being cut. Some spun looped ends. One of these fell over Sugar's raised hands. Other officers swung lengths of tape overhead or underfoot, setting further traps.

A gendarme near me tossed his spool to a partner, and I saw how this now completed a loop about my chest. I thought to get the shears from my sewing kit, surely the paired blades could cut the police tape. The pair of gendarmes spooled tape, and my arms were pulled against my sides. The lengths of tape which had been along my legs now threatened to trip my feet.  I dropped my kit and the metal box fell upon the length of black and white tape.

I saw a narrow possibility for escape and dropped my weight to sit upon the metal box. I could feel the ribbon about my arms tightening, pulling me bodily from the box.

"Yes. Fight!"

At the edge of my vision, Honey danced, seeming to use the officers' own tactics against them. Her slender figure wove between lengths of tape. She held one length taught, twirling her wrist to take up slack as fast as the gendarme unspooled its other end.

I looked at the tape around me. The twisting white and black coloring made individual strands difficult to trace.

A thud sounded behind me and tension on one length holding me was released so suddenly that I fell in the opposite direction and onto my knees. I caught a glimpse of Sugar; she pulled her bound hands one way and then the other in resistance to the gendarme who had tethered her. The tape about her wrists broke and I saw the metal-spiked bracelets which had been concealed beneath her boyish cuffs.

There was a cry behind me and I could only hope Honey was still free as I began to slide in the dirt.

"Feet!" Honey called, now directly behind me.

I raised my hands as far as I could and leaned my weight backward at the same time. I was able to get my feet under me. There was one officer of the Fashion Police trying to reel me in, and several others surrounding Murphy and Sugar, as if in a grand game of Cat's Cradle.

Honey came from my right side, and twisted beneath the tape held between the gendarme and I. She drew with her another end of the tape holding me and pressed this into my hand. "Forward," she said.

I moved closer to the officer, which created enough slack for Honey to press the ribbon to the ground with her oxford. I wrestled with the tape and twisted to locate my kit with the shears. The metal box was on the ground still, and beyond a gendarme with an arrow in her chest, and near her another inured officer. 

I was taken by a horror that this attack had happened to my benefit and without my knowledge. I understood in retrospect that the sounds of thuds and cries had registered without my comprehending their meaning.

The last piece of ribbon holding me went slack, and I fell toward my sewing kit. I heard a commanding voice, "Get him out of here," without recognizing it.

Honey was again at my side. She put her hands on me to lift me to my feet, even as I reached to collect my fallen belongings. "We need to run," she said.

"Murphy!" I said, turning to look for him. I found instead the profile of the crossbowman garbed in collar-to-knee oxblood leather styled rather like motoring or equestrian attire. He did not have to tell  he was a kapareghora.

A whistle sounded again.

"Please, Mr. Dangerous," Honey pleaded. I felt her tug on the garment bag, but I released it rather than move. I could see Murphy and Sugar were still fighting the Fashion Police, and further in the distance Gendarmerie strongcars were approaching. 

The archer took hold my left wrist. I tried to twist from his grasp, but his strong fingers held me fast. I lifted my head to see his hazel eyes close and glaring at me. "Iron man, if you wish any of us to live, you will run now. No questions!"

He pulled and I ran. Honey was just ahead and to my right, hugging the garment bag to her chest as she also ran. The masts and  stacks of the ships on the river were close. Behind us came whistles and shouts. 

"Don't stop!" the archer commanded, "Run and jump from the wall."

I ran. My thoughts were with those left behind. I faintly understood that we could not be help to them if were were also captured.

Honey reached the retaining wall of the wharf first. She kicked off the edge of the wall and leapt out into the air. I was a moment from the wall!

Only as I jumped that I was able to see the skiff beneath us. I fell out of the air, my left arm freed, and might have overshot the skiff if not pulled to safety by Honey and a young lady in near-eastern garb.

"Devons-nous attendre, Alpha?" Another young woman called from afar, in French, asking if we should wait. I saw then the goggled brunette peering out from what seemed a row of sunken chimney stacks.

Alpha answered, "Set course for beta site."