Guns of Mars 59
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 17.1
“Before I put a bullet in your brain,” the lead man said, pistol extended. “Exactly what brand of man are you?”
He drew back the hammer on his revolver and pressed the barrel to the hooded man’s forehead. His victim stood, hands held out to his sides, palms open and fingers splayed.
Two explosions, one following quickly on the other, threw the lead man backwards.
Blossoms of blood appeared on his chest as his feet left the ground.
He hit the sand, dead, at the hooded man’s feet.
The smoke from the twin discharges was borne away on a desert wind to reveal that the hooded man had drawn one of his pistols. The still-smoking gun was gripped in a child-size fist at the end of a pale arm that had emerged from within the hooded man’s robes.
The other two pirates barely had time to register shock at the sight before their intended victim jerked a second gun with one of his stronger hands. Whirling as he fanned the hammer, he brought the two men down with a bullet each to their skulls.
Kal Keddaq was already in motion with the first gun shot. He hurtled full out for the thoat and the rifle slung from its saddle. He was aware as he ran of the gunner in the airship’s mid section who was now angling his cannon down to exact revenge.
The first round from the swivel missed the hooded man to strike the thoat in its neck. The animal, now virtually headless, sagged to the sand just as Kal reached its side. The thark yanked the rifle from the scabbard and continued his momentum to slide over the back off the collapsing beast, rifle in hands.
He dropped behind the dead thoat and into a crouch. A second round from the gun exploded in the animal’s midsection spraying Kal with steaming guts and splinters of bone.
The hooded man was moving low even as his third kill was folding to the ground. He sprinted toward the stern of the skiff causing the cannon to turn away from the exploded carcass of the thoat in order to train on him.
Both of his pistols were in his good hands and blazing away back at the airship’s bow. His angle was all wrong. Bullets struck the hull in a deadly tattoo but failed to hit the gunner. He was thrown bodily to the sand by the force of a blast striking close behind him. He was pelted with sand and shell and rolled to shelter under the raised stern.
Kal took this opportunity to rise and train the rifle on the gunner. Slippery with gore, he steadied himself against the body of the thoat and squeezed the trigger. The fat round took the gunner in the torso and plucked him away from his post in an instant. The impact tossed the man clean off the deck. The thark gave a satisfied grunt as he saw the man’s limp form crash to the ground on the far side of the ship.
He moved away from what was left of the dead thoat to sit down in the sand. Kal was scrubbing the offal and blood off his legs and arms with handfuls of sand when the long shadow of the hooded man crossed him.
“Do you know how to fly one of these?” he asked without turning.
“Do you intend to keep that rifle?” the hooded man said behind him.
Kal could read the man’s shadow cast stark black against shimmering white before him. There were two pistols trained at his back.
“I do,” Kal said, scraping a bit of greasy tissue from between the fingers of one hand.
“I can fly this craft.” The arms of the shadow lowered to its sides.
The thark stood, dusty white with the residue of his hasty bath. He turned to the hooded man who had now holstered his weapons.
“You’re going to have to tell me how you did that back there.”
Kal jerked his head toward the bodies of the hooded man’s victims. They were already shimmering black, covered by beetles that had bored up out of the sand at the first scent of blood.
“I only tell you what I know,” the hooded man said.
“Help me scavenge their goods and you can tell me your tale as we fly east.”
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
