Jaxson by Kris Keldaran Page B

later say amongst each other . That was the price of being in the business.
    Hollywood always made it look like the heroes would take the bad guys with their Kung fu - Matrix - ninja - martial arts skills and just handcuff them all . Maybe if the situation were better, they could've chanced it . But with so many hostages, the only option was to move as hard and fast as possible .
    The duo rendezvoused with the rest of the team one hallway over from the studio . Hand-signs flashed as the team rolled into a single file line moving down the hall on cat feet . Jax thought he could hear somebody yelling and ranting away . Xavier, their point man, dropped to a knee as he checked around the corner . Six fingers . A knife hand, followed by his hand held in an "O" shape and his fist opening and closing . Six targets with knives, no booby traps in sight .
    Jax was second in line and he felt an old feeling rise up inside of himself . A smile slipped into place . The cold, terrible one Gunny Adams called it, a wide, teeth bared snarling grin . Any time someone saw it, they knew something crazy was about to happen . And now that death's head rictus made itself known . He nodded his assent, tapped Xavier on the ass so he knew to move , then followed him . Time slowed as he charged around the corner, pistol up and firing.
    *****
    Kehau had gathered the students around her, doing her best to calm fears and wipe away tears . Sione stood in the center of the room, holding a gun in one hand and a tall bottle of vodka in the other . He would look around the room anxiously , then take a pull straight from the bottle, occasionally making jokes with his fellow hostage-takers .
    If he hasn't changed his routine, he's probably drinking on an empty stomach , Kehau realized . He’d definitely be feeling the effect of the alcohol soon.
    "We've got nothing to worry about , keikis , " she said soothingly .
    "But they have guns , Ms . Makoa!" a student protested .
    "Leilani, do you know what stops a bad man with a gun?"
    Leilani shook her head . "No."
    "A good man with a gun . And there's a whole bunch of police headed this way.”
    “Shut up!” o ne of the other masked men in the room barked at her.
    Unt il the day she died, Kehau would never forget what happened right then . The men standing in the hallway went down, blood, bone , and brains flying everywhere . There was no sound, aside from the strange popping noise made as their heads explod ed like gore-filled balloons . Instantly she threw herself in front of the students trying to push them all into the corner . “Turn around and close your eyes, keikis!” she screamed .
    The man standing nearest the door wheeled around and started to step through it . His Uzi wasn’t even fully up b efore he fell back into the room, a massive knife of some kind stuck in his neck. Blood splattered against the doorframe in thick red spurts. The ch ildren were crying , and Sione was panicking . He motioned for the other masked man to move toward the door . The man hesitated, shook his head . That was when a canister rolled into the studio . Smoke filled the air . Now she couldn’t see anything .
    From the direction of the door area where the other man had been standing, she heard a double thump. Sione stumbled to the window, coughing and hacking every step of the way . The window cracked open and the smoke started to drift outside.
    That was when five men appeared, wearing body armor and holding guns . They formed a semi-circle around Sione . One of the men was covered from head - to - toe in blood and ichor . She couldn’t make out his face for the grinning skull faced— mask . He looked like an avenging angel of death.
    That mask gives me nightmares . Don't want to see the man underneath at all . He probably wears it for good reason.
    Sione turned to see the men standing less than a dozen feet away.
    "Sione Akamaka, you are under arrest , " one of them announced .
    Sione looked at them, a wild crazed glance