Free The War With Earth by Dave Grossman, Leo Frankowski Page B

a bit as we walked back to the hotel. It had been a long day, and we were both tired, I suppose. We somehow managed to make a few wrong turns on the twisty streets of Nova Split, and ended up in a dark alley.
    I leaned against a wall, pulled out my communicator, pressed button number one, and said, "Not to worry, Quincy. Agnieshka will tell us the way home."
    I saw Quincy take a club in the gut a half second before a brick caught me on the side of the head.
    I felt myself going down, but Quincy and I had spent a lot of time in Dream World, learning hand-to-hand combat. Well, I did the learning and Quincy did most of the teaching.
    I don't know why, but the world got very quiet, somehow, and everything was moving slowly, almost as if we were at combat speed, in a tank. I had plenty of time to kick one of our assailants in the groin, to feel the flesh squash, and the tendons tear. At the same time I caught a second attacker on the knee cap with the edge of my other foot, and heard it pop, before I hit the ground.
    Someone tried to kick me in the face, but I swatted his foot aside and bounced up in time to get a hand around his trachea. I squeezed and yanked, while looking around for the next thug.
    There weren't any.
    Quincy was standing in the middle of a ring of at least six bodies, some of whom were twitching, but none very vigorously.
    "Not bad, youngster, but that last one was a bit of overkill, don't you think?"
    I realized that I was still holding the man in the air by his throat. Surprised, I let him go. He fell, convulsing, to the ground. "I guess I wasn't thinking at all. But now, well, now I think they all had it coming."
    "You are doubtless correct, my general, but at the moment perhaps a bit of tracheotomy is in order."
    I got the shakes about then, and leaned against a wall, watching Quincy. He opened a small pen knife, and without taking the time to sterilize anything, he punched a vertical cut in the man's throat, low, and just to the right of center. He twisted the blade sideways, and I could hear the air being sucked into my assailant's lungs. Then he got out a ball point pen, unscrewed it with one hand, dumped the workings out on the ground, and pushed the barrel of the pen into the hole while removing his knife.
    "Now, you hold this thing just so," he said to his patient. "If it comes out, you will suffocate, and you will die."
    I don't know if the guy spoke any Kashubian, but he nodded his head "Yes!"
    Quincy said to me, "There's no point in killing anyone now that it's over, and I, for one, would like to find out just what this was all about."
    About a dozen uniformed police arrived at that point, followed by two ambulances.
    "General Derdowski? We got a call from a woman named Agnieshka who said that you needed help, but I see that you have matters well in hand," a police lieutenant said in passable Kashubian.
    Quincy said, "Nonetheless, we thank you for coming so quickly. We'll see to it that your superiors hear of your prompt and professional behavior. But just now, I think that a few more ambulances might be in order."
    "They have been sent for. But I think that it would be wise if the two of you came along to the clinic, just to be on the safe side."
    "We will, soon. But that one and that one should be hospitalized immediately," Quincy said, pointing them out, and not referring at all to the guy who was breathing through a ball point pen.
    "Yes, sir," he said, waving the ambulance crews over to the two men indicated. "Would it be convenient if someone dropped by your hotel rooms tomorrow, to get your statements, and for you to prefer charges against these hooligans?"
    "That would be good," I said, thinking that a foreigner who beats up a bunch of locals usually doesn't get this sort of polite treatment from the police. Being a general and a famous war hero sure helps, sometimes.
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
Recruiting a New Army
    After a short visit to the emergency clinic, where Quincy again encouraged the