When the going gets tough

"He's not here, that's all you need to know, Narheda," Hikarete responded coolly.
"No, I think need I know a bit more," the historian shot back, quickly gathering her wits. "It's rather important that I get to see Traven and exchange a few words with him."
"Then let's make a li'l trade," Hikarete suggested as her eyes danced over the faces of Luwan and Mitikas before dismissing them as being of less importance. Removing her feet from the desk surface she slammed them to the floor and stood. "Give me this so called Elven proof, and you'll get Traven back." She held out her right hand, fluttering impatiently with her long fingers.

Now it dawned upon Narheda that they had been set up. This was a trap, their opponents had lured out all the people from this office complex so they could safely trick in her and the men here and have them all in a neat little box. That was why the place had been so strangely empty. And Hikarete was involved in this. Hikarete, whom Narheda had thought a colleague and a friend. Well, Narheda was not going to make it easy for them!

"My my my," she shook her head while boring her eyes into Hikarete. "The girl has joined the bad guys. Thinking that makes her cool enough to goof off in a colleague's office space, ruining his desk with her dirty boots."
"What makes you think that you are the good guys?" Hikarete shot back.
"We don't blast other people's laboratories, killing them in the process. Or trying to kill others in the traffic, ripping a poor taxi driver prematurely from the world. I believe these things make quite the difference between good and bad."
"And I should do that, you mean?"
"You or your collaborators. Who else could it be?"

"Why do you people want the Elven documents?" Luwan cut in. "Why do you want to put a lid on the fact that the Elves have once existed? Is it the orc problem? Or is there something else? Worth murdering for?"
"Young man," Hikarete interrupted. "You're not exactly in a position to cross-examine me or anyone else for that matter. Now, give me the Elven documents and I'll let you have Traven in return. I can guarantee that he's well, however a bit – shall I say – damped for the time being."

"Hikarete, please see reason!" Narheda tried. "You're not the one to hang with arsonists, murderers and kidnappers. You're far too smart for that. Besides, we might have one copy of the Elven documents, but there are several more scattered around Sarmaltar by now, some of them being mailed to the major newspapers and broadcasters as we speak."

The last thing was a lie, and Narheda was not exactly good at lying. However she hoped she could fool Hikarete. After all, mailing the documents would be a plausible thing to do, and they would have done it, had they only felt they had enough time. But the enemies had been breathing down their necks all the time, and now it appeared as if she and the men had run a full circle and the one they were running from had turned around and met them face to face instead.

Narheda had barely finished her thoughts when they heard a door crash open on the other side of the empty office landscape followed by the tinkling sound of glass shattering. Probably that was the broken window going for real. These noises were followed by hasting footsteps coming towards them and before any of the others had the time to react, Mitikas was spinning around facing the door.

The next moment four people busted in through the door, led by a small, intense woman with a mane of blue hair. Then followed a short standoff.
"Sarigiana!" Mitikas exhaled.
"So we meet again, old mage," the blue-haired woman returned, her shrill voice scornful, making it obvious she and Mitikas had a shared history of some kind. "Never thought I'd be so lucky when I accepted this seemingly boring mission."

"I made myself a promise to kill you," Mitikas went on, his deep tenor oddly held together.
"Please, feel free to try," Sarigiana bowed but her flint-gray eyes never left Mitikas' and Narheda shivered as she got the feeling that many who'd opposed this woman had found themselves at the mercy of that look. Still Narheda almost groined at the theatrics. They all had to be out of here like yesterday, that much was obvious.

But instead of attacking her, Mitikas turned slightly away from Sarigiana and launched a vicious kick which hit one of the three men behind her. The blow took the huge, orc-like man completely by surprise; he bounced off the wall and dropped to the floor, groaning. Mitikas was on him in a flash, giving him two pouches in the face, before he reached inside of his dark-brown leather cloak and eased out a pistol from a holster under his arm. At the same time, the two other thugs were attacking Luwan and Narheda. Quickly, Mitikas transferred the pistol into his shooting hand and took aim with the intent of incapacitating at least one of the other grunts, only to find that his new found weapon was unloaded.

The next instance he felt rather than saw Sarigiana attacking him. He expected the blow to come, but when it hit he was shocked by the sheer force of it. Nevertheless Mitikas moved rapidly like a flowing stream, shaking the stars from his vision. He felt confident he could take his foe on, but the blue haired lady delivered another powerful blow to his chest and he fell to the floor. She moved in quickly and stamped down on his ribs, but he was rolling as the blow hit, attempting to put himself between her and the rest of their opponents. In the corner of his eyes, he saw that Hikarete had drawn a gun and was aiming it at him.

"He's mine, Hikarete!" Sarigiana shouted, her voice high and reedy. A four inch dart thudded into the carpet next to Mitikas' tight and he realized that he had grossly underestimated his old enemy. She seemed to have learned a few things since their last encounter. This was one woman who could give him an honest fight and he reckoned that any lengthier battle between them could end in death – and he honestly wasn't sure which of them it would be.

Thus he knew he had to take her out quickly. Jumping back on his feet, Mitikas lashed out at Hikarete and caught her with the second attempt, hitting her in the temple with the gun, watching the woman stumbling and falling back, incapacitated for a short while. Then he attacked Sarigiana again, but she caught his arm and flung him across the room, and he caught the desk, watching it almost tip and utensils falling all over. Meanwhile, the orc-like grunt had recovered fast and was now closing in by Sarigiana's side.

Luwan faced a stout, pale-skinned man with cropped blond hair whose high kick caught the former in the ribs as he fired out his hands to lock them around Luwan's throat. The grip was viselike and Harnendorite felt powerless against it. But the man lost focus as that woman Sarigiana called out next to him and with one almighty push Luwan twisted and threw his opponent hard against the wall. Luwan dropped his weight and brought his feet up, so he flipped the pale foe over, silently thanking his uncle Versent, who had taught him one or two things about fighting.

The blond man struggled to get up, the blood from his shattered nose spraying into his eyes, his face turning into a mask of blood. In an instant he charged again and dived at Luwan, who deftly sidestepped the pale man's lunge and placed a knee in his chin, more a lucky strike than anything else, but the man was down for ten.

Mitikas hardly grunted at the impact with the desk, but launched himself into the next attack, this time flooring the orc-like with a quick roundhouse. This left Sarigiana, who was now stepping in front of him and lashing out in three quick blows. However Mitikas was weaving with the blows, he fired back with a jab which impacted with Sarigiana's cheek. With an outcry of pain, she staggered back, her hands involuntarily flew to the blood which began dripping into her mouth.

Meanwhile the third man attacked Narheda, but she ducked and his hand impacted with the wall instead. Then she stepped to the side and moved in behind Traven's desk, pulling his office chair in the way of her opponent. The next moment she saw something flashing in the pale sunlight seeping in through the blinds and she noted that he was armed with a curved dagger. But he never got the chance to use it, as he launched himself upon Narheda, Luwan suddenly rose behind him, plucking a bronze paper weight from the desk, smashing him hard in the head with it.

The man with the knife staggered, but didn't fall. Instead he turned around, but this time it became Narheda's turn. She armed herself with a huge tome from Traven's desk and with all her might she slammed it in the head of the man with the knife. And a second blow to the head in so many seconds downed even him, he fell across the office chair, tipping it over himself in the fall. Narheda turned the volume over, it held the clunky but oddly fitting title 'Brain damages caused by physical impact'.

"This way!" Luwan was breathing in her ear, opening up a second door to the office. Narheda had seen that door earlier, and always assumed it lead to a closet of some kind. It didn't, it was an opening to a short hallway which lead into a shaft with back stairs.

Seeing two of their adversaries, the most important, getting away, Sarigiana frantically turned to Hikarete and the remaining thugs.
"Take them!" she shouted and they drew their weapons, but Mitikas had already pulled one of his own guns, he aimed and shot the orc-like foe in his leg while Hikarete and the albino man charged after the two scholars.

Blocking Sarigiana's punch with his other arm Mitikas aimed a kick to her midriff and the blue-haired woman fell to the floor but she swiftly rolled to the side and Mitikas remembered how really skilled she was at these foreign ways of fighting with just the bare hands and feet. He was uncertain if he could win this now, but he could at least try to do his best and attempt to buy the scientists some time.

Before he got the chance to use his gun again, Sarigiana stepped in and hit Mitikas hard on the side of his head. Mitikas slid down the wall, dropping his gun. As she reached for her enemy, the smirk returned to the blue haired woman's face. Mitikas opened his eyes, noting that their faces were just inches apart, and then that Sarigiana was raising her other hand, this time with a dagger. Mitikas flicked out his arm and caught Sarigiana square on the nose, she howled in pain and grabbed his collar. They fell across the floor and rolled over.

Mitikas ended the move on his back, hearing how Sarigiana growled and screamed like an animal, but he had got his hands against her and began forcing her head back. She rolled and used the moment to gain momentum. Getting to his knees he hit her with an uppercut, then he was on his feet, his head clearing fast, and he turned towards the door where Narheda and Luwan had run out.

However, Sarigiana attacked again, she got a good hold and was forcing Mitikas' head against the wall but he managed to get his fingers into her throat and squeezed and forced her back across the floor. Now he felt that he had the advantage at last, but Sarigiana was blocking the exit, still wielding that dagger. Lashing out, she forced Mitikas back toward the far corner, and he made a face when feeling the rough wall rubbing against his back.
"What's wrong, old chap?" the woman scorned. "You don't like a moving target?"

Mitikas scrabbled for purchase against the rough surface, then he hit Sarigiana in the armpit. She winced and he seized the opportunity. He turned her around and threw her against the wall, smashing her into a framed photography and when she bounced off, he caught her with his forearm. As she struggled for balance he shoved her once more against the wall and she dropped her knife. Mitikas was not late with kicking that one away while he felt inside his pocket for his second pistol. But as he brought it out, she smashed it from his grip, the weapon flew across the room and hit the other wall with a mute thud. As if that wasn't enough, he saw that the orc-like man was crawling slowly in that direction, reaching for it.

Mitikas cursed and with his attention divided Sarigiana had got her hard little fingers into his neck and was cutting off his blood supply. Only seconds remained before he would have to yield, his arm began to drop and he could feel the strength seeping.

*o*o*o*o*o*

While Narheda and Luwan dashed down the corridor they heard guns fire, the bullets sliced through the corridor, just inches from Narheda's head before they embedded themselves in the corridor wall, sending mortar and dust in all directions just when she and the young Harnendorite rounded the corner. A few more gun shots followed, and Luwan dived forward, grabbing his own gun. Spinning around, he fired at the corner forcing back the albino thug who had just peered around.

At the same time Narheda pulled up a glass door and they arrived out in a hall with a spiraling emergency staircase. Not hesitating a second, they started down the steps, two at a time.
"What if there are more bad guys down there?" Luwan asked, his breath on top of the lungs.
"We don't know that," Narheda answered. "What we do know is that we're running from those behind us."
"Mitikas?"
"Somehow I think he'll manage," she said as more bullets started echoing through the shaft. But the spiraling iron stairs provided them with some security; the bullets pinged off the railings and ricocheted away in harmless directions, one hitting glass somewhere with a crash.

As they reached the landing below, Narheda made a fast decision and pulled a door open, dragging Luwan inside of it with her and then she pushed it close – in the very last moment. She took two more unsteady steps into the dark, dust smelling room and then collapsed against the wall, feeling as if her heart was going to explode in the chest. This was so totally insane, she could hardly believe it was happening!

Outside they heard Hikarete and her albino wet worker continue their race down the stairs. She and Luwan had made it for now, by the skin of their teeth!
"Suckers!" she whispered with a grin.
"Now what?" Luwan asked.
"We'll find another way out. One hopefully not infested with badasses."