Chapter 18

"OH ... MY ... GOD!!! I AM PREGNANT!" I'm sure that I could be heard clear to North Adams, I yelled the words so loud. The rest of our extended family erupted into cheers and applause. Such was the report from the home pregnancy kit. Of course, we wouldn't know for sure until I visited a doctor. It's amazing the number of people Martha knows and can call in favors from—she had me scheduled in for a complete examination at 2:00 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. I hope I can wait that long for the news without exploding, but it's going to be a tough 22 hours. No, make that 21 hours and 53 minutes!

That evening, it was hard to do, but I waited in the car with Martha while Phobos, Ajax and Nemesis went on patrol. I was in full uniform with my disguise over that, so I was plenty warm enough, though it was 35° F outside. Martha ran the engine periodically to warm us up, so that was not the uncomfortable part of the vigil. We had parked in a quiet parking nook and were just sitting there talking when there was a sudden crash of window glass on my side of the car!

Somebody had used a piece of pipe to smash in the window, and he was reaching for the button to unlock all of the doors. There was somebody else standing on the other side of the car next to Martha, just waiting for the door to be unlocked. I reacted so fast that I even surprised myself as I used my baton to smash the fingers of his left hand. There was the initial scream of pain from the smashed fingers, but that was nothing to the noise emitted when I poked the miscreant in the gut with the end of my baton.

Meanwhile, Martha had lowered her window, and had the other person covered with her Beretta. He froze, as any sensible person would do when faced by such a weapon at point blank range.

I slammed my door open hard enough to knock down the person on my side of the car and stepped out ready to do battle. "That's enough, Lady. Please? I surrender."

Well, I am not a sadist, so I did nothing else but nail his hands to his ankles and put nails into his elbows and knees. That would hold him until the cops and EMTs could arrive. Our other assailant was treated the same way, but I did not wake him up with smelling salts, so he got off lighter than most people who attacked me. However, we did have to do something about that missing window, so I used the first assailant's coat to block the hole. I called Phobos and reported our situation. I told him that we were going for the other car, so we would be out of service for a short time. Phobos acknowledged the call, and Martha hurried us home to change cars for the SUV.

The three on patrol were wandering through a highrise development trolling for trouble. Nemesis was dressed in her disguise as a woman, and Ajax was dressed as her boyfriend. They were walking as if they had just returned from a date. Phobos was providing backup.

They were almost to the main entrance when three men sauntered up to them, and one of the men pulled a gun. Phobos could see it well enough to identify it as a Glock, probably a 9mm, but the latter point was not certain, though also not that important right now.

The man with the gun said, "Hello, Cunt, this is your lucky day. You're gonna get fucked by three studs while your boyfriend watches, provided he behaves himself." He raised the gun with his finger on the trigger. Fortunately, his aim was not directly at either Ajax or Nemesis because he was trying to cover them both, and his inexperience was showing.

Phobos didn't wait around for further developments. He drew his PPK/S and fired as soon as he had a line on the gunman's hip. That was the target for the first shot, but the second shot would be for an attempted kill if the gunman was still holding his pistol.

The .32 caliber bullet struck the gunman in the hip and knocked him to the ground. His life was saved because the Glock went flying from his hand when he hit the ground. Unfortunately, as he fell, he fired, too, and his bullet struck Nemesis a glancing blow to her body armor. The bullet did not penetrate the armor, but the blow was enough to knock her down.

At this state of affairs, Ajax seemed to go wild. He attacked the other two men with the viciousness and ferocity of a fabled wounded tiger! Both men were nearly killed by the intensity of the attack, and the speed of Ajax was such that neither man had a chance to run. He smashed their jaws and faces with his baton and stabbed their knees with his toe spikes. Strangely, neither was unconscious, but both were writhing on the ground from the pain of their wounds.