“We mean no harm.” The Scale with the rifle lowered it a few inches. “We come with respect.”
Another spoke, “Kiko just wants to talk to the Dragon alone. That is it.”
One in the back nodded. “And she believes this DNA testing will cause the Dragon’s heirs harm.”
A Scale on the right placed his hand on his chest. “We did what we had to in order to serve and protect the Dragon’s heirs.”
I leaned my head to the side.
Hiro whispered, “I’ll get the hospital bed and turn it over to shield us.”
“I’ll cover you.”
We stepped forward and I raised my gun.
The first one raised his rifle and his hand shook. “She only wants to talk to you. No one should die.”
A few of the men behind him stirred.
“Go.” I shot him in the throat before the muzzle came level.
His body folded forward and his rifle hit the floor.
At high speed, Hiro dropped and slid along the tile like a man sliding into home during a World Series game.
“Hiro’s coming!” A Scale raised his gun and pointed at him.
I hurried forward, shot him in the forehead, and got the one next to him in the eye.
Hiro was already at the rolling bed. In the next second, he caught one of the legs.
The whole thing pivoted with him. The wheels jumped. The dead patient slid sideways across the mattress. His IV line tore free.
The man hit the floor.
Hiro flipped the bed onto its side toward the Scales. The metal frame slammed against the tile and the mattress folded against the rails and the whole thing became a wall of steel and foam between him and the corridor full of guns.
I was right behind him.
One of the Scales panicked. “What do we do? She said not to kill the Dragon!”
“But they’re going to kill us!”
Bullets started a half-second later.
They came in a wild scattered burst—not aimed kills, not even good cover fire. Warning rounds. Bullets meant to scare us. They ate the wall behind us. They sparked off the metal frame of the bed. They chipped tile in a long ragged line three feet over our heads.
When we got the bed a few feet closer to them, I rose up over the top of the bed and shot the closest one through his open mouth.
He had been yelling something. I never heard what. The round took the back of his skull out and he went down with the word still half-formed on his tongue.
A round took the top of my ear before I dropped back down.
Fuck!
A bright clean line of heat seared me. Then warmth ran down my jaw. I touched it with the back of my gun hand and my knuckles came away wet and red.
Hiro sneered at me. “Be fucking careful.”
