Chapter 8

There was a lock on a grate over the stairs from the roof, but our key also fit that. We removed the grate and left it to one side in case we had to make a hasty retreat up those steps. We could see that the door to level number 5 was still locked closed, so we carefully crossed to it following the directions we had been given by the curator of the building. The strength of this floor seemed fine to us, but we were not experts, so we did not argue. Dust on the floor showed no footprints, so we did not need to search this level.

Anslee unlocked the door leading down and we opened the door as silently as possible. We had oiled the hinges before hand just in case, and there was no squeaking as we opened the door. This door was also left open as we entered the stairs. This was actually a tight spiral staircase twisting around a narrow column on the left side of someone going down. This would make it very difficult for a right handed person to swing a sword if he were fighting his way up the staircase. On the other hand, a right handed person fighting down the staircase would have plenty of room to swing his sword. Fortunately, that was also true for a pistol held in the right hand.

I led the way, followed by Anslee and Sinola in that order. I made it all the way down the stairs to level number 4 before I saw anybody. There was a man standing a few feet away from me with his back toward me. It would be easy to shoot him, but he could be a valuable source of information. Unfortunately, a shot that only wounded him would allow him to shout a warning to the rest of the men in the building. Therefore, the only logical course of action was to shoot him fatally in such a way that he could not use his voice.

As far as I was concerned, that meant a head or spine shot. Under the circumstances, a head shot was preferable, so that was what I used. I did not see anyone else in the immediate vicinity, so I aimed for the man's head and fired. Except for a slight recoil action as the gun cycled, I would not have known that I had fired. However, the man's head exploded like a ripe watermelon, and there was no doubt that he was dead. He certainly did not have time to shout a warning to anyone else in the building.

He was the first man that I had killed with the new pistol, and I was almost stunned at how effective it was over that short range. If I continued to have that kind of luck, I had definitely found my weapon of choice. I wondered how well it would work with a folding stock so that I could also use it as a rifle. Oh, well, that would have to wait until another time.

I exited the stair to the floor of level #3. As I stepped down, I waved the women to join me. At that moment, a man's head appeared on the stairs. Someone was climbing to this level from below. I waved the women to the shadows and waited to see what would happen.

Uh-oh, he caught a glimpse of the women and knew something was wrong. Before any of us could act, he had ducked down out of sight and shouted a warning. Dammit, now we had to act quickly if we were to save the captive. I told Sinola to guard the stairs while Anslee and I cleared this level. Sinola nodded and switched her pistol to full automatic. That could work as well as a shotgun under the right circumstances.

Meanwhile, Anslee and I started down a hall that opened off this room. There was a series of doors on both side of the hall, and I suspected that these were bedrooms for officers. Anslee took the doors on the left and I took those on the right. We pushed the doors open and looked inside. My side had a desk and chair with papers on the desk, but no one in the room. Anslee had a completely empty room, so we moved on to the next pair of rooms. These were empty and so were the next two pairs. That was the end of the hall, so we returned to the room with the stairs.

Sinola reported that she had not had any action, but she could hear people stirring around downstairs. Where was everybody? They must be downstairs, but we could not take a chance on leaving anyone behind us, so we had to check the other two halls. Anslee and I made the search and found all of the rooms to be empty. Okay, now was the time to go down to the next level, #2.

There had to be people here because there was only one more level. Again, I led the way with my two wives right behind me. We took the cue from Sinola and switched to full automatic fire. It was a good thing I did, too. As I got about half way down the stairs, someone took a swing at my legs with a sword. Thank God that the staircase was built the way it was. The attacker's sword hit the wall just before it hit me and was deflected enough that it missed my shins. I could not see exactly where I was shooting, but I went to spraying the reachable section of the stairs with my bullets.

The people heard nothing identifiable, so they did not realize that I was shooting at them. As a result, I was able to hit four men before they jumped back out of the line of fire. Those four had all been hit in the gut, and they were dead or nearly so because of the hollow-point bullets. There were a few groans coming from below me, but no coherent shouts.

I bent over as far as I could and continued down the steps. I saw no one else before I could see the floor, so I figured that it was okay to hurry the rest of the way to level #2. I dragged the dead men out of the way, and I helped my wives to join me. We could not see anyone else beyond the four dead bodies at the foot of the stairs.

Sinola ran to cover the head of the last set of stairs while Anslee and I searched the rest of the floor. There were hallways and rooms on this floor just as on level #3. We went down one hallway without finding anybody, but we did see signs that the rooms were in use as bedrooms. The other hallways produced the same results. All we could do was to go down the stairs to level #1 and hope to find the captive still alive. I now thought that she must be because she was the only bargaining chip the kidnappers had left.

We went down the steps very carefully, again with me in the lead. Yeah, I couldn't help being the macho man by going first, but there was no way I was going to let one of my wives take a sword strike in my place. They might be injured, but it was not because I let them get ahead to protect me.

I had learned a lesson on the previous stairs and made a point to stand as far to the right as I could on each step. That meant that the enemy just had to reach that much farther to get to me with a sword. I was not worried about a knife at this point. This time, I did manage to get all the way to the bottom of the stairs without seeing an enemy. Where were they?

Ah, there they were. They were bunched around a person tied to the wall, spreadeagle and subject to any indignity any of the others cared to practice. One more step and I could see that the person was a woman and that she was still alive. She was naked, but that did not mean much considering how little the average Horurie citizen wore. Her spirit was still not broken for I heard one of the kidnappers say, "Spit on me one more time and I will cut off your nipple." I could not be sure just how much difference that made, but the woman did close her mouth.

I said, "We are representatives of the king. Turn the woman loose and we will let you escape. Anything else will result in your death."

"Ha! There are only three of you and 18 of us. What makes you think that you can kill us all?"

"Do not press you luck. I have a string of many kills and so do these two helpers. Cut the woman loose right now and move over to that far wall before I lose my temper."

"Charge him. There is no way that they can get all of you before you kill them." That seemed to be a compelling argument, and all of them ran toward me except for the one giving the orders.

I said, "Sinola, take out the loudmouth with a head shot. Anslee, help me take out the rest." We opened fire on full automatic and wiped out those men charging us. Meanwhile, Sinola took careful aim at the boss and split his head like a ripe watermelon. It only took a few seconds for us to wipe out the gang.