Chapter 10

Gaitha walked in front of lizard and behind the rat-man. She knew that she could jump sideways using the Sargorn's grip on her arm to support her and she could wrap her legs around the rat-man's neck and snap it. She knew her calve muscles, while slim, were very strong. She dropped the idea because then she would be at the mercy of this giant holding on to her arm. Any leverage she needed, she needed to take Greeghan out of the equation temporarily or permanently, and either way would buy her some time. She knew she could equalize the rat-man any day of the week but that was not what she had in mind for him. She was taken aback at how quickly and easily she planned to kill him. Then the memory of their voices talking about her death so casually turned her heart cold and her mind calculating. She knew she was running out of time. She was pretty sure that they were headed to the bridge where she would have to prove her life, literally.

She suddenly knew she needed to do something before they got out the atrium door. Greeghan was way too large to neutralize in close quarters and the atrium was one of the biggest rooms onboard. She could not afford the bridge to get smashed to pieces by the lizard. Walkways again were too narrow and afforded the Sargorn the advantage. Though she knew it would pose a bit of risk, as her advantage of more space would also be his, she knew she had to even the field, if only slightly. Gaitha knew he was too big to slip between the foliage from above and this lessened his advantage. His wings would only hinder him so he would more than likely come crashing down but it would give her more time to execute a plan, a plan that she didn't have at the moment but it didn't matter, it was now or get herself more easily killed in close quarters. She had to act quickly if she were going to kill one and at least neutralize the other.

The rat-man started to speak, all the while waving his hands in the air to accentuate his speech. It reminded Gaitha of some mincing mouse dressed in ruffles and waiving a handkerchief as they minced along. The kind of "dandy" that could be found in many an old Victorian era romance. She barely noticed his voice twittering away.

"When we ... destination your majesty I ... to show you to your father and ... will be over. Greeghan and I..." and he continued in that vein as Gaitha's knees buckled to the ground.

The rat-man automatically turned and reached down to help her up, which she felt sure he would do. His dress and manner suggested someone who prided themselves on being a gentleman. When his fingers touched her flesh, she gripped his arm hard and yanked him down with her for the space of the second it took her to have the cyanide capsule between her molars and bite down, exhaling the contents into the rat man's face, and the second it took her to both hold her breath and maneuver the second capsule into place, and more importantly a third second to bite down on the mini-air supply capsule and inhale it's content's into her lungs. Then the lizard jerked her upward to her feet and she used his sudden attention on the unmoving rat-man, who had collapsed to the ground, where Gaitha had released him.

She had also hoped the lizard would loosen his grip on her arm while trying to figure out what happened to the rat-man which he did on cue. Gaitha used that loosening of his grip to pull her arm free from him. She darted to his side, then in back of him, and then agilely climbed on top of him in the space of another three seconds. She shot the tranquilizer dart from the bracelet into the side of his neck, just below his jaw, and ejected the garrote from the wristwatch pulling it smoothly and quickly around Greeghan's neck as she did. Then she pulled it as tight as she could and held on, as the lizard tried everything in his considerable power to get at her or get her off. She was seated almost like a jockey, knees bent with her feet just on the edges of where his wings and his back. Her hands were tucked beneath her body; she used the tightened garrote for leverage, trying to continue tightening it. She had her nose tucked into the old, navy-colored leather jacket he wore that had a faint odor of reptile He fly to the top of the room and attempt to crush her but she knew he wouldn't. He could not use that particular maneuver without risking injury himself, especially by disabling his artificial wing, but he used his claws scraping on her upper arms and ankles as he tried to get purchase on one of them and pull her forward. She saw several cuts opening up on those limbs but could not feel them as concentrated as she was on saving her own life.

In the middle of a particularly violent move the lizard went limp and began falling to the ground. It happened so fast that Gaitha couldn't jump free from him quickly enough as he had been off of his feet when the tranquilizer hit. She was positioned sideways and they both slammed into the ground, the weight of the Sargorn on Gaitha's forearm and she both felt and heard it snap. She gave out a short scream of pain and landed with the Sargorn just missing her body but her injured forearm was under his. She knew she had to get to her feet quick. She didn't know how much time she had. She gave out another small scream when she pulled her arm from under the lizard's and then scrambled to her feet keeping her broken forearm close against her body as she did so..

All in all it was over almost before it had begun. At least it seemed that way to Gaitha as she stood for a second in the aftermath of her actions. The rat-man was dead on the floor in front of her and the lizard was unconscious behind her. She couldn't waste a second if she wanted to get into the panic room before Greeghan came to. She had no idea how long you could knock a lizard out if you first put him to sleep and then started choking him. He had trickles of blood oozing from where the wire had slid into an old scar around his neck. She now knew who had put that scar there and why. This was no ordinary lizard; however, he was the largest one she had ever seen in her life, second only to Dragar. She knew that her father had tried to kill him and even thought he had. Only because the rat-man came along to set him free was he now alive.

She choked back the tears that came from thinking of her father and Dragar. She knew her mother would be upset as well as her aunt. She didn't have the luxury of standing around and feeling sorry for herself. She wiped the tears away with her good arm and ran to the picnic bench, grabbing the right hind leg of the bench, feeling a slight rising of the frame that she tried pushed down on. Her instinct was right and she watched the whole inner square full of foliage rise up like an open elevator whose only function was to return down into the floor. She didn't wait for the platform rise all the way but stooped over and hopped on. She spun around and scanned the perimeter of the platform for the red button that would send her back down into lockdown mode. She would have total control over her own destiny at that point and was afraid of losing the hard fought advantage in the end-game.