TEN: Lutefisk Attack!
"He belongs to you?" the woman reported. Her voice dripped with scorn, as if it were laughable that a man like Van would have anything to do with Wendy. She stood up and glared across the room at Wendy. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the gun pointed right at her.
"That's right," Wendy answered. "And before you ask, yes, I have used this gun before." She had even killed a man with it once. Under these circumstances, she didn't think she would mind at all if she had to do it again. She was not normally a violent person; far from it. But there were some things she just could not stand. "Now get away from my husband."
The woman obeyed, but she moved very slowly. That might have been caution on her part, but Wendy was skeptical. "You'd better not try anything."
"Wouldn't dream of it, darling," the woman said with mock sweetness.
"Empty your pockets," Wendy said. Then she had a better idea. "Take off your trench coat and put it on the table." The woman obeyed, still glaring at her. She wore a gray woolen dress underneath. If not for the trench coat, she would have looked like a businesswoman.
Now what? Wendy wondered. She desperately wanted to run to Van to see if he was still alive. She thought that she had seen his fingers twitch as she was talking to the woman, but she couldn't be certain until she checked. Even if he were alive, he might be injured, and who knew whether Dann's healing powers were working?
"Are you going to make me stand here all night?" the woman mocked.
"Maybe," Wendy said darkly. "Who are you, anyway?"
"None of your business." Wendy's finger tightened on the trigger, just a little.
"I'm Tia Montana," the woman said at last. Wendy studied her, frowning. She didn't look much like either Bunny or Tony Montana, and they were the only two members of the family Wendy had met.
"Any relation to Cesar?" she guessed.
"Sister," the woman admitted, then added: "Half-sister." Which meant that she must be Tony's sister too, not that that necessarily mattered. Cesar and his sister might have plotted this attempt to capture Van's armor without their older brother's help. Or perhaps Tia had come up with the plan on her own. "And I'm warning you, if you so much as harm a hair on my head, the whole Montana family is going to come after you."
"If you've killed my husband," Wendy said quietly, "then it won't matter what you do to me." She didn't even want to imagine living without him.
"Oh, very touching," the woman scoffed. Then her eyes strayed from Wendy to look at something beyond her. Wendy, who had not been paying any attention at all to the surroundings apart from this room, froze. There was someone standing in the doorway that led outside; she was certain of it. But she dared not turn and look. "Glad you made it," the woman said to the newcomer.
"What's going on here?" growled a deep voice. At that, Wendy glanced briefly over her shoulder. She just had time to see a tall man in a business suit. He was older than the woman by at least ten years or so, but there were only the faintest touches of gray in his dark hair. He was not openly carrying a gun, but Wendy wouldn't have been at all surprised if he had one concealed somewhere. He looked entirely too confident for the situation.
Wendy had only looked away from the woman for a few seconds, but that was too long. When she looked back the woman had drawn a knife—where had that come from?—and was kneeling next to Van, holding the knife to his throat.
"Now," she said, "I think it's your turn to put down your weapon."
Wendy blinked, having seen two things almost simultaneously. First, Joshua stood in the open doorway at the back of the room, his arms full of glass jars, and his face wearing a look of confusion. Second, she was absolutely certain that she had seen Van shift his neck slightly, moving it away from the knife blade. He was alive.
She wasn't sure that she was going to be alive much longer herself, though. The man in the business suit had come through the door, and the way he slipped his hand into his suit jacket suggested that he was about pull out a hidden gun.
"I said, put the gun down," Tia growled. Wendy hesitated for just a second, then obeyed: it was clear that her enemies had the upper hand for now. She sank very slowly to the floor so that she could put the gun down while still being within reach of it.
"Now step away from the gun," ordered the man in the business suit.
But before Wendy could obey, two things happened. First, Joshua started lobbing glass jars at the man in the business suit. The startled man raised both hands to block his face. In the process, he carelessly dropped the gun he had been hiding under his jacket. Tia was equally surprised by Joshua's attack. She whirled around, facing away from Van and towards Joshua. She also took the knife away from Van's throat, apparently having forgotten that she needed him as a hostage. Wendy used that opportunity to pick up her revolver again. Then she made a dive after the businessman's gun, too.
Meanwhile, Van made use of Tia's distraction to roll away from her. Wendy could only watch him from the corner of her eyes, but she thought that he was moving a little more slowly than usual. He might have been badly hurt after all. But by the time Tia looked back at him, he had gotten to his feet with the help of one of the wooden chairs that were scattered around the room.
Wendy stood up again, too, and pointed her revolver at Tia, while trying to keep an eye on the businessman. He had just realized that his gun was gone, and he did not look happy. He was also covered in some-foul smelling jelly-like substance. Maybe that was what he was unhappy about.
"What is that stuff?" Wendy asked Joshua.
"Lutefisk!" he chirped happily. "I don't know what it is, but it must be the mafia's secret weapon."
"I knew that stupid stuff was a waste of money," Tia grumbled. She looked back and forth between Wendy, Van, and Joshua. Wendy was the only one of the three who was armed (unless you counted Joshua's remaining jar of lutefisk), but Van looked the most imposing, despite the fact that he was still leaning on a chair for support.
"You'd better put your knife down," Wendy suggested to Tia.
"What is all this?" asked the man in the business suit. His blustering was much less threatening now that he was covered in lutefisk.
"That's what we'd like to ask you," Wendy replied.
"Yeah, you've got a lot to answer for," Van growled. It was the first time he had spoken. "What kind of bastard leaves a baby in a crate all day?"
"Baby?" the man repeated, sounding honestly puzzled. "I thought this was all about an armor deal. What is this, Tia?"
"Things got a little complicated, Cesar," she said shortly. "But we do have Pretty Boy Van's armor." Wendy frowned, realizing that Tia had not put down her knife. But she didn't get a chance to point this out.
"Not for long, you don't," Van muttered. No one paid much attention to him.
"I think your explanations should be saved for the police!" Joshua declared. He actually sounded threatening, too, despite being armed with only a jar of lutefisk. Wendy was just a tiny bit impressed. Yukiko had once claimed that Joshua could be surprisingly badass in a pinch, but Wendy had never really seen it for herself until now.
"There's no need to drag the police into this," Cesar Montana (assuming that's who he was) said. "I'm sure we can settle this amicably."
"Like Hell we will," Tia muttered. And she lunged across the room at Wendy. Wendy had been focusing most of her attention on Joshua and Cesar, and she wasn't expecting an open attack, especially not from someone armed only with a small knife. She whipped her head around just in time to see Van pick up the chair next to him and bring it smashing down on Tia's head before she could reach Wendy.
"What an unseemly mess," complained Cesar. "My sister ought to know better." Wendy ignored him completely.
"Are you alright?" she asked Van. She thought he was still moving a bit stiffly.
"Huh? I'm fine. It just takes awhile for Dann to heal major wounds. Hey, we should get some of these."
"Some of what?" Wendy was starting to feel a little confused.
"These." He put the chair down and patted it to indicate what he was talking about.
"Chairs?" Wendy now felt more than a little confused. She already owned a set of kitchen chairs.
"Yeah. They're pretty handy. That makes two or three people I knocked out with them today."
"Look," interrupted Cesar, "I don't know what my sister was doing, but I'm only here to buy armor."
"Dann isn't for sale." Van spoke in a voice which left little room for argument. "And you couldn't use him even if he were. He only works for a rider who's been linked to him."
"I see. Then I suggest that we all just walk away and put this behind us. Agreed?"
"No." Surprisingly, that response came from Yukiko. She stood in the doorway, just behind Joshua, holding Ray in her arms. "That woman kidnapped my son. We aren't letting her get away with that."
"That's right," Joshua agreed. "We're going to take this to the police." And they did.
Naturally, the Harbor Parade police were at a complete loss as to how to deal with the situation. Van yelled at them, Joshua offered complicated explanations, Cesar Montana tried to bribe them, and Wendy just buried her head in her hands and tried to ignore the pandemonium. All she wanted to do was go home and fuss over Van.
In the end, Yukiko was the one primarily responsible for explaining the story in a way that the rather slow-thinking desk sergeant could understand. Once everything had been sorted out, the police took Tia Montana and her goons into custody. Cesar Montana had very effectively claimed ignorance of the entire scheme, so he was allowed to leave. Wendy, at least, suspected that some of his innocence might be an act, but what could they do? To his credit, he did seem to be genuinely shocked by the kidnapping; he also rather helpfully returned Van's sword. It had been in his keeping, because Tia had given to him as proof that she had Dann in her possession. She had, according Cesar, lied about how she got the armor in the first place.
By the time the police let Van, Wendy and the Lundgrens go, it was nearly morning. By common agreement, they all went back to the cabin Van and Wendy had been camping in. It made rather cramped quarters for so many people, and there was very little privacy, but since the Lundgrens had already stored their luggage there, it made sense to return. Besides, by that time, none of them felt all that fond of Harbor Parade.
Joshua and Yukiko were disgusted enough by the visit that they decided to hop on a bus as soon as the police told them that they could leave town. This took a couple of days, but finally the police gave them the green flag to go. Most likely, they would be called on to testify at the trial, but for now, they could go home and recover.
Wendy and Van followed them to the bus station, despite Van's grumbling about the long walk. He had completely recovered from his gunshot wound, so Wendy ignored his complaints. "I'm so sorry about all of this," Wendy said, giving Yukiko a good-bye hug. "When we invited you to our wedding, we had no idea . . ."
"Of course you didn't know any of this would happen," Yukiko said, hugging her back. "And we're all fine now, aren't we? All's well that ends well."
"We ought to get together again sometime . . . somewhere safer," Joshua suggested. He and Van shook hands rather awkwardly.
"You know," Van said, unexpectedly, "you ought to get that kid some voice lessons."
"Huh?" Joshua gaped. Yukiko frowned and raised her eyebrows, looking at Wendy for clarification. Wendy just shrugged. She had no idea what Van was talking about, either.
"He's got a powerful set of lungs," Van explained. "You should let him put them to good use."
"Ba!" Ray shrieked. It sounded like he agreed.
Sorry about the delay on this chapter, folks. The next update should come soon. Alas, it will be the last update: as you can probably tell, the story's winding down. The last chapter will be an epilogue which wraps up some remaining Wendy-and-Van issues.