The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Sixty Three

When her mother had cautiously turned right, Tila ran left.

This was no time for caution. They need to act. They needed to get out of this room, off this ship and away from this graveyard. They needed to find Ellie and Malachi and they needed to do it right now!

Don't go hard, go smart, Malachi had told her once. Well not today.

Today she was going hard.

At this end of the room about eight or nine pirates fought almost as many agents. Had they not been distracted with each other Tila knew she would never have had a hope against so many.

Unfortunately for them, they were all busy fighting for their lives.

The first man she took down was an agent. He had his back to her and had just thrown a pirate to the floor. He drew back one leg to kick his enemy. Tila thrust the staff between his knees and ran past, twisting his legs up and knocking him down. He lifted himself on one elbow, surprise on his face. Tila elbowed him in the surprise.

His pirate adversary was already on his feet when Tila stood up. He was unarmed. She wasn't. Tila speared him in the belly with the staff, kicked him in the face, punched him in the jaw, left him to sleep, and moved on.

She ran forward, stepping from floor to chair to table and leaping onto the back of an occupied pirate. She locked the staff under his chin, braced her knee into his back and with a yell, pulled has hard as she could.

He dropped his weapon. His fingers pulled back on the staff, but he didn't have Tila's leverage. The agent this pirate was fighting took the opportunity Tila had presented and hit the pirate in the face. Tila held on as he struggled to breathe and struggled to protect himself. He failed at both. He passed out and went from struggling enemy to dead weight. Breathing hard from her own exertion she let him fall at her feet.

The agent, slower on the uptake than some of the others, nodded his thanks.

Tila looked at him, puzzled, then realised he was an idiot. She did to him what she had, more than once, wanted to do to Jayce, and left him wheezing on the floor.

She looked up for the next fight, but it had already found her.

Two pirates rushed her bodily picking her up and slamming her on to a table on her back. Her head smashed into the metal surface, stabbing her skull with sharp pain. The body blow winded her. She twisted to one side, ready to roll off the table and come up fighting, but one of the men grabbed her arm and pulled her back. The other grabbed her staff by one end. She held on. The other pirate grabbed it by the other end. Tila pulled back but it was a useless gesture. Each of them alone was much stronger than her. She pulled and fought back anyway. Giving up was not something she was used to doing.

One wild kick landed a painful blow and the enraged pirate stopped pulling. He slapped his comrade on the shoulder and started to push. Together they easily forced the staff to Tila's neck, and pressed down with all their weight.

Tila shifted her grip. The staff contracted. The men fell down.

Tila rolled off the table and landed on one of them before he could recover. She smacked his head into the floor.

The other man was up and moving. She snapped open the staff and thrust it between his ankles. He tripped and landed on his knees. His ankles still tangled up.

Tila stood, took hold of the table edge with both hands and flipped it onto him. It knocked him off balance but he caught it and didn't fall. He lowered it slowly, revealing his face with a nasty grin.

Tila spun on her heel and kicked him in the teeth.