Read Arisen, Book Nine - Cataclysm for Free Online Page B

was relying on others, particularly guys in other units – but he had to get this sorted.
    He was navigating from memory. As he paused at an intersection of companionways, he heard voices up ahead. Instantly, he knew there was something wrong about them. Menace. Fear. Something.
    Adjusting his footfalls so they were silent, he followed the sounds, edging up to the next intersection. Sticking half an eye around the corner, he could make out the scene, about twenty meters farther along.
    It was three sailors, enlisted guys, wearing not the Navy working uniform, but the blue coveralls of guys who really worked for a living. Shoving coal into the boiler down here or some such. But they weren’t alone. They were in a ring around someone else – someone much smaller.
    “Don’t be like that,” one of the sailors said – and Henno instantly didn’t like the tone of his voice. “We’re nice guys! Come on, give us a chance.”
    “Yeah. Show some hard-working American boys a little love.”
    As one of the sailors shifted, Henno could now make out the figure at their center. It was Emily, the eighteen-year-old civilian girl they had pulled out of that pirate ship full of bell-ends they’d had to slot back on Lake Michigan. He gathered she’d been fitting in well, babysitting Homer’s tots, and helping out the Marines. Good for her.
    But now Henno could see one of these sailors who surrounded her running his index finger across her midsection, which was covered only by a threadbare t-shirt. Another grabbed her by the arm, his grip not gentle. She was trying to pull away, but had nowhere to go.
    “Please,” Emily said. “I need to go. Just let me go.”
    And that was all Henno needed to hear.
    He stepped into the open and powered forward, his footfalls now pounding like armored cavalry. As he waded into the group, none of the three sailors had time to react. Henno grabbed the closest one by his head with both hands and threw him down the corridor. The man had little choice but to follow his head, and so he hurtled away then slid twenty feet along the deck.
    The second was trying to step back when Henno knuckle-punched him in the throat. He dropped to the deck, wheezing.
    The third finally tried to throw a punch. Henno caught it, broke his wrist, then dislocated his elbow, and then his shoulder. The other two got back up and tried to help their friend, which was their last big mistake.
    By the time Henno switched gears from avenging demon to succoring angel, and put his arm around Emily’s shoulders to walk her out of there, all three of the sailors were down on the deck – unconscious.
    As they walked off, Henno kept Emily from looking back, which might have been disturbing to her, and instead turned her chin up to look at him. His face a portrait of gentleness and protective concern, he asked:
    “Did they hurt you? Are you injured anywhere?”
    Emily shook her head – though Henno could already see red marks on her arms where she’d been grabbed and held.
    But she was afraid to answer yes – in case Henno went back.
    * * *
    He was taking her up one level and forward to the hospital, insisting that she get checked out despite her protestations that she was fine – just shaken – when they ran into Sarah Cameron, coming from Park’s lab.
    Seeing the look on the girl’s face, she instantly asked, “Okay. What the hell happened?”
    Emily shrugged, and Henno sighed and said, “She was attacked by three knob-heads down on 04 Deck.”
    “I wasn’t attacked,” she tried to protest. “Just slightly… molested.”
    “Got it,” Sarah said, instantly going into police mode. “Let’s all just take a walk back into the hospital so Doc Walker can look you over. Then, if you’re feeling up to it, we’ll sit down and you can tell me exactly what happened.”
    Sarah looked as if she wished she had her police notebook with her.
    But Emily couldn’t help but feel better. This was a lot of care and protection.
    * *