The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Sixty Two

The mess hall had descended into a wild brawl. At the realisation their blasters no longer worked the pirates and agents had rushed one another. The room was now a battlefield. Islands of war among a sea of tables.

Here, one pirate made wild swings with his knife as he fought one agent with his unpowered stunstick. There, two agents wrestled a length of pipe from a lone pirate in torn overalls and subdued him behind a table.

Everywhere the two sides fought. One side battled to escape. The other fought to execute their orders.

Through it all, Tila and her mother fought everyone.

Grace turned right. She wanted the agents. She was more familiar with their training, their tactics and weapons. They were trained fighters.

The pirates were brawlers, wild and unprofessional. Perfect for Tila.

Grace moved slowly. Let the others rush at each other. She knew speed was not always the best way to complete the task. Making sure it was complete was the priority. Speed could help or hinder. She kept her back to the wall as much as possible, only stepping away to circumvent a table, or condiment station, or upturned chair.

Move slow, be ready, choose the moment and commit.

The moment chose her.

The pair of agents who had relieved the pirate of his pipe stood up from behind the table. Fighting raged around them, but they saw one woman alone. They attacked.

One used his stunstick, the other ran at her with the pipe. It wasn't designed to be a weapon, but it was long and heavy. It would do the job.

Grace loosened her grip on the tonfa in her right hand. She swept it behind her, at table height, and turned. She flicked out her arm. The weapon spun in her grip, sweeping up the condiment bottles she had just passed and sending them into the faces of her attackers.

She didn't expect to hit them. That wasn't the point.

The agents ducked and dodged the red and yellow sauces as they flew past. Their attack hesitated.

That was the point.

Then Grace was between them. Both tonfa now locked in place along her forearms, protecting the ulna bone from elbow to wrist. The head of the weapon extended past her fist, adding range, concentrating striking power into one small and painful point.

Her left arm blocked an overhead swing from the pipe. Her right fist punched into the man's forearm, breaking his hold on the metal club. Grace swayed to her right, bringing the tonfa bodies together in the shape of a T. The vertical strike pinned the other agent's stunstick against his chest. The horizontal cracked his jaw.

She swayed left again to meet the first man, adjusting her feet, turning her hips. Now unarmed, he grabbed at her head with his left hand. Grace ducked under his swing. Her right tonfa came up behind his arm and against his humerus. She reversed the drip on her left tonfa and locked the handle into the crook of his elbow, and leaned.

He had no choice but to bend. It was that or a dislocated shoulder.

Her hips completed their turn. She shifted weight to her left foot, bringing everything into alignment.

He realised then, too late, that the real attack was only being prepared.

Grace locked her victim into position and with a shout, snapped out a kick. It shattered his nose, blinded him with sudden tears.

He forgot the pain in his shoulder.

She broke it anyway.

The other agent was still up, still a threat. Grace stepped backward, turned and swept his legs. She only caught one ankle with a solid strike. His foot slipped, he fell, but only as far as the nearest table. He caught himself, pushed away to regain his balance. Grace was already there. She dropped one tonfa to free her right hand. His own hands were still mid-push. Her knee rose to meet his face. Her hand gripped the back of his head and pulled his face to meet her knee. Grace felt the satisfying impact that told her there was one less threat in the room, and landed on the balls of her feet.

Both agents hit the floor at the same time.

Grace scooped up the tonfa, settled it back under her forearm, and looked for her next target.