Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (17 page)

A few days before the biggest wedding, or any other event Nome had ever seen, people were busy with the final touches.  Dorothy received an invitation, and returned to Nome.  Shortly after returning, she found herself amongst the others helping with hanging decorations in the church.  When the loquacious Leonard found out she was back, he began stalking her from a distance, staying in the shadows. 

Two nights before the wedding, Dorothy found herself walking alone from Bob’s
Fuel Tank Bar, back up to the hotel when she ran into Leonard.  “Hello Leonard,” she was trying to be nice, but the tone of her voice suggested fear.

“Dorothy
,” he said as he blocked her way with his body.

“It is good to see you, but I
need to get back to the hotel, people are waiting for me.”  She tried to step around him, but he moved to block her way again.

“Oh I have missed you, and now you are back.
”  His tone scared her and made her shake uncontrollably.  “I waited for you.  I knew you would come back to me.”

“
Leonard I’m here for Thad’s wedding, nothing more.  Now please let me go.”  She tried to push past him.

He let her pass
, but then in a quick fluid motion grabbed her around the neck with one arm and with the other, pushed a long knife up against her back.  “Try anything and I stick you like a pig.”  She started to cry.  “Oh don’t cry love, I’m going to take good care of you.”  He pulled her off the street into a back alley.  

Dorothy
knew that she was in trouble. She waited till he stopped walking.  He spun her around so they were face to face and with seemingly practiced skill he maneuvered the knife under her blouse.  She could feel the cold steel against her bare skin.  He slit her blouse from the hip to neck. It fell open to reveal her white bra.  He slid the knife under the bra and cut it off too.  “Oh how I have waited for this moment.”

Dorothy
didn’t care to be raped, nor did she want to have sex with him, but she was terrified of the knife, so she tried to think of him as just another john.  “Sweetie, if that is what you want you didn’t need the knife.”  She gently brushed the knife hand away and got close to him.  “I will give you what you want.”

S
omething in him snapped, “Don’t you dare try your whore tricks on me” he slapped her face.  She screamed and without thinking he punched her in the face.  The blow knocked her down.  He fell on top of her like a starving man over a roasted turkey.  He tore at the rest of her clothing, trying to expose her. 

Dorothy was not going down without a fight.  She screamed and scratched at his eyes, but she missed.  The blow landed on his check, her sharp nails digging into his
face, tearing it open.  Warm sticky blood flowed down his face.  Leonard did not seem to notice the blood because he had torn her underwear free.  He was trying to hold her down with one hand while his other was busy trying to undo his pants.

Her screams had not gone
unnoticed.  Elmore, the undertaker, was in his body preparation room and the door was open into the back alley.  The mortician was working late and had heard the noise.  He burst from his back door, still wearing his rubber apron, gloves and goggles.  In the dimly lit alley he was a horrific figure, spattered with splotches of dark liquid, “Hey you, what the Hell are you doing?”  He yelled. This spooked Leonard and in his panic, he tried to silence Dorothy by placing his hand over her mouth.

She bit his hand.  He screamed in pain and pulling his hand free
, he backhanded her across the face.  However, she did not stop screaming for help.  The undertaker was getting closer.  He stooped to pick up a metal bar as a weapon.  Leonard was in a full panic.  He was acting on impulse and had not thought this through. Now he did not know what to do.  He still had the knife in the hand that was trying to unbuckle his pants.  Dorothy could see that something had gotten his attention and she tried to wiggle free, but he was just too big and fat to get out from under him.

Then
it happened, as the mortician got closer, the more she struggled to free herself, the more the would-be rapist panicked.  The knife was in his hand, and before he knew what he was doing, he plunged it deep into her chest.  Hot blood sprayed over him.  He pulled the knife out, but she was still screaming.  “Shut up, shut up, shut the fuck up!” he repeated over and over, as the knife plunged in again and again.  Finally, she stopped making noise.

T
he undertaker was close enough to see what was going on, and when he saw the carnage his courage abandoned him, “Oh my God, what have you done?”  The metal bar fell from his hand and clinked onto the ground. 

Leonard
stood up, drenched in blood.  He looked at the Mortician, his grip tightened around the knife in his hand, “I loved her, but the stupid bitch just couldn’t be quiet.”  Elmore turned and ran for the open street. Leonard took off after him. The knife plunged deep again into human flesh, as he knocked the poor man to the ground.  Elmore screamed in abject terror.  Several people heard the screams and were running to see what was happening. 

Leonard
pulled the knife from his victim’s back and was about to stab him again, when he realized that he was not alone.  The chase had ended in the open street witnessed by a group of about twenty or more. 

“Drop the knife son!” the voice was that of the
Sheriff, who was pushing his way through the crowd.  He had his gun drawn, “I don’t want to kill you son, but I will if I have to.”

Leonard
dropped the knife into the soft dirt of the street.  He put his head down and noticed the blood on his hands.  Three large men in the crowd jumped him and forced him to the ground.  Elmore was still alive, but losing blood fast.  Doc Burton pushed his way through the crowed, medical bag in hand.  He dropped down next to the wounded man and started to work on him.  Meanwhile a few of the crowd had ventured down the alley to find Dorothy’s body.

A
call was placed to inform Thad that one his guests had been murdered.  Not long after the call the dust cloud announcing Thad’s arrival stopped in front of the Sheriff’s office.  Before the dust had settled, Thad was off the bike and through the door.

“Where is he?
”  Thad asked coldly.

The
Sheriff looked at Thad.  He had seen that look before, “He’s in the back, come on.”

The
Sheriff led Thad back to the cell where they found Leonard sitting glassy-eyed, unmoving on the steel cot.  It was Thad who spoke first, “Get up and face me you coward!”  Leonard did not move.  Everything inside Thad wanted nothing more than to tear this man apart with his bare hands, but it was his promise to Doctor Hammer that kept him from smashing through the bars and killing the fat worm where he sat.  “Get up!”

Leonard
stirred, “Why?  So you can kill me too.  Like you did Red and his crew?”

Thad grabbed the bars, put his head
down, and took a deep breath, “As much as I would like too, I’m not going to kill you.”

This shocked
Leonard, “Why?”

Thad thought for a se
cond before answering, “Because…”  He paused to collect his thoughts, “I’m no longer that person.  I don’t kill anymore.”

C
onfused, Leonard’s simple mind didn’t get it, “I don’t understand.  Then why are you here if not to kill me?” 

Thad l
ooked up at him, “I don’t know.”

Feeling confident that he was not going to die
, Leonard stood up in front of Thad, “So much for the big bad hero!”  Thad remained quiet.  “Good, for a minute there I thought you were going to kill me over a whore.” 

Thad held his temper.  Leonard pressed his head on the bars
.  “Tell me hero, what was she to you? Did you do her?  What was it like?  She was so sweet, but the bitch wouldn’t be quiet, just a few more seconds and I would have...”

That was all he got to
say, Thad grabbed the rapist’s bloody collar.  He pushed him back and then pulled him forward, slamming his head off the bars.  His skull made a very satisfying clang.  Leonard went limp and fell backward landing on the floor out cold, but still alive. 

Thad closed the door to the cells behind him
.  The Sheriff was already at his desk, “Thad.”

One look at the
Sheriff and Thad knew what he was thinking, “He is still alive, but he will have one Hell of a headache when he wakes up.”

“A lot less than he deserves,
if you ask me,” said the Sheriff.

“So what are you going to do with him?”  Thad asked.

The Sheriff leaned back in his chair, “The Judge is on his way to get things rolling.  I guess Judge Parker will move fast.  You see Elmore, the man Leonard stabbed, was the Judge’s poker buddy, and Dorothy the poor girl, had been one of the Judge’s favorite girls when she was here.  It will be the rope for him I think.”

“By the way how is Mr.
Elmore?”  Thad asked.

“Doc says he will live,
but it will be a while before he is able to prepare bodies,” said the Sheriff.

Thad opened t
he door, “Good, glad to hear it. Oh and tell Elmore I will send Archie with some service bots to help with Dorothy.”

“Will do,” the
Sheriff said as he watched Thad close the door behind him.

The town held Dorothy’s funeral the next day.  It was a lovely service with most of the town in attendance
.  Thad and the twins wanted to put off the wedding, but Xandra would not hear of it saying that Dorothy would not want her death to interfere with their day of bliss.

On t
he morning of the wedding day Thad found himself lying on his back covered in mud with a pig as a pillow.  Archie stood over him and splashed him with a bucket of cold water, “excuse me Mr. Thaddeus Sir, but it is time to get up and get prepared for your wedding.”

Thad
sat up and held his head.  It felt as if it weighed a ton. He looked around to find he was not alone in the pigpen. Carl was snoring away next to him, cuddled up to a large sow. Thad held up his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, “Damn Archie, not so loud.”  Thad was hit with a second splash of cold water in the face.  “Damn it Archie, I’m awake already!”  Carl was jolted awake when the ice-cold water splashed off Thad and onto him. 

“
The second one was for the smell,” Archie said.  Thad caught a whiff of himself, and nodded in agreement.

Archie held out his hand and helped both men to their feet.  Thad turned to Carl
, still holding his head with one hand, “Carl, you can throw one Hell of a party, but I swear no more of that Eli stuff for me.” 

They had tried other alcohols
, but it was the Eli White Lightning that finally had a high enough alcohol content to outpace the Nano bots in his blood.  They expelled alcohol almost as fast as he could drink it.  The Eli White Lighting was able to allow Thad to get drunk alongside the other partiers, and by the looks of things he had done a damn good job of it. 

Carl threw his arm around Thad and his big beefy hand
patted him on the back, “Thad my lad, it’s not a good party unless you wake up in a pigpen. But I think your right about that Eli swill, it’s a bit like drinking kerosene.  My poor head feels like a Ralnai gourd, all swollen and ready to burst.”

Thad was going to say something
, but was interrupted by a third blast of cold water.  Both men said in unison, “Archie!”

Archie sat the bucket down and shrugged, “What?”

Two showers and a pound of soap later, Thad was finally in his changing room at the church.  Archie was helping him dress.  “You know Archie, I can kill a man without even a thought, but face two woman in church, in wedding dresses, and I’m all nerves and thumbs.  Damn it.  I can’t tie this stupid tie!”

A
rchie pushed his hands away, “Then it is a good thing that Miss Eve downloaded a gentlemen’s attendant program, which includes seven different ways to tie any type of neckwear.”

“Oh shut up and tie the tie
, damn it.”  Thad said.

“Shutting up
Sir!  Although I would point out it is impossible for me to shut up because I have no moving mandible.”

Thad groaned, “Of all the robots in
the universe I get the one that’s a smart ass.”  Archie’s mouth light lit up, but Thad stopped him, “Don’t say anything unless you want to spend the next hour trying to extract your head from the waste unit.”

In the
girl’s room, things were going much better, with Eve running the show and Rhonda helping.  It turned out to be a good thing they both had physical bodies.  They were able to put out every little fire that sprung up.  Jenna and Xandra were there as bride’s maids and it had been a very long time since either of them looked as good as they did today. 

Everything was perfect, the guests were all
there on time, and the food was ready. All the little problems had been handled by the dynamic duo, as Thad had taken to referring to Eve and Rhonda.  What could possibly go wrong?  

Because
almost everyone in town was at the wedding, no one noticed the sleek black ship landing at the spaceport.  Quietly, the mystery ship landed, the loading ramp dropped and a black armored van exited.  It drove straight to the Sheriff’s office.  The van door opened and a woman stepped out.  She looked like a Russian-Asian mix, with long black hair pulled back tightly into a bun.  She was dressed in the same style black body armor Thad had when he first came to Nome, form fitting, and over the top of the armor she wore a long black coat.  Strapped to her legs were laser pistols.

She entered the
Sheriff’s office to find a deputy sitting at the desk, his feet up, reading a copy of Law Enforcement for Dummies.  “Excuse me?”

He
didn’t bother to look over the book, “Yeah, what do you want?”

The woman who looked like she had escaped from a dominatrix convention
kicked his feet from the desk.  He was so startled he fell over backward. Before he hit the ground, she grabbed him by the neck. Still holding his neck she pulled him in close, “I’m looking for this man, Leonard Jensen.” She held up a small disk that emitted a 3-D hologram of his face.  “Would you happen to know where I can find him?”  She said in a very teasing tone.

The de
puty was powerless, “Ah, yeah I do,” he crocked.

“Good boy
. Now I really need to find this man, so if you know where he is please be a dear and tell me,” she said.

“
You’re in luck Miss.  I have him here in the back, in the cells.  If you let me go I will let you into the cell block,” he said pointing to his key card on the desk.

“Thank you, you have been most kind
.  I think I will let myself in.”  She pulled him in so close he could feel her breath on his lips.  “A good boy should be rewarded,” she pressed her lips to his and kissed him ever so lightly.

She released her grip and left the deputy
to flop onto the floor.  He was turning blue and his eyes were clouding over.  Picking up the keycard, she turned to the dying man and said, “Thank you so much. Oh, and don’t worry the paralytic in my lipstick should kill you in two minutes or so.”

She smiled at her
work and slid the card through the reader.  The door clicked, and then swung open.  She walked down the line of cells to find an ugly, fat man sitting on a cot covered in dried blood.

Leonard
looked up at the mystery woman standing in front of his cell, “Who are you?” he asked.

She came close to the bars, “I’m looking for this man,” she
held the disk again and projected a 3-D hologram of Marcus, the man Thad had once been.

“I know him, so what?  Why should I help you?
”  He asked.

“
It looks like you are in a whole lot of trouble.  I can help you get out of here and off this world if you help me,” she said.

“Okay if you can get me away from here,” he stood up, gripping the bars.

“I can and I will, if your information is good.”

“Well he doesn’t look like that anymore
.  He had some surgery to fix up his broken face,” he said.

She changed the hologram face to the one that had been used for the ID for Thad, “Is this him?”

“Yeah, that is him. Calls himself Thaddeus, but everyone around here just calls him Thad,” Leonard said.

“
Great, where can I find this Thad?”  She folded the holo projector and made it disappear in the dark folds of her coat.

“I suppose you can find him at the Nymphia.  It’s his wedding day and he should be at the re
ception by now I would think.”  A dribble of spittle ran from the corner of his mouth.  

She gave him a quizzical look, “The Nymphia?”

“The hotel. The only hotel on this rock, the one he got me fired from,” he said.  She had what she needed.  She turned to leave when he called after her, “Wait!  What about me?  When do I get out of here?”

She stopped
then turned around.  She walked back to his cell slowly, “When I have confirmed your information.”  He jumped up and grabbed the bars in anticipation. Curiosity got the better of her, “By the way what are you in here for anyway?” 

Leonard
didn’t miss a beat, “I killed a stupid whore.”

Sasha
had one pet peeve and it was with men who liked to hurt women.  When Leonard opened his mouth, he sealed his fate.  She stood in front of him, slipped one hand through the bars, and grabbed the back of his head.  She pulled him against the bars while her other hand slipped up to his throat.  “Like to hurt women do you?  How do you like this?”  There was a soft clicking sound and a long needle-like blade slipped out of its hiding place in her wrist and pushed through Leonard’s throat and up into his brain.  He made a gurgling sound as blood rushed from his nose and mouth.  The blade withdrew back into its hiding place.  She let go and he fell backward.

“
I’m sure you got a cleaner death than that poor girl did.” She wheeled around and stormed out of the building while Leonard lay on the floor of his cell bleeding out. 

Back in the
van, the driver smiled at her, “Get the target’s location?”

“Yes he is at the
hotel,” she said.

The diver started the van
and headed down the street, “All we need is DNA conformation, and then we take him.”

She smiled, “Leave that to me.
”  She pulled off a thin plastic barrier on her lips and tossed it in a small metal bin.  There was small flash of light from the bin followed by a wisp of smoke.  She lifted the lid on a black and silver case next to her and took out a fresh barrier.  She gently applied it to her lips.  Next, she chose a different color lipstick from the wide array of colors in the case.  She put the new color on her lips ever so carefully so as not to damage the barrier.

The wedding
went as planned.  Everything came together in a grand harmony of color, music, and atmosphere.  If every detail was an instrument in an orchestra then Eve was most definitely the conductor.  The ceremony was great and dinner went off without a hitch.  It wasn’t until the reception got under way that things took a turn for the worse.  Held in the Grand Ballroom of the newly renovated Nymphia, the reception rivaled anything found on the inner planets.

Thad was on the dance floor dancing with Fiona.  Freya had gone to the rest room, and Eve was dancing with
Carl, while Rhonda had started hanging on one of the young and handsome Sheriff’s deputies.  As she passed Thad, she whispered to him, “I’m just a sucker for a man in uniform.”  On the next pass she said, “If it’s okay with you, I think I’m going to have to test the full functionality of this unit.”  She said it more as a statement than a question.  Thad could only wonder if that poor boy knew he had bitten off more than he could chew! However, he was happy she had finally turned her attentions elsewhere.

Archie was working at the coat check
. He had become interested in the new female service bot that Xandra had recently acquired.  She was checking in and out coats while Archie was trying to impress her with tales of his advanced operating system.  Sasha approached them, “Excuse me, but can you tell me where I might find Mr. Hammer?”

Archie pointed to the ballroom, “he is on the dance floor at the moment Miss.”

“Thank you,” she said.  She started to walk off, but then she stopped and addressed Archie, “You know your head kind of reminds me of…”

Before she could finish her statement, Archie made a screaming sound.  He reached up and pulled his head off, “That’s it!”  The service bot and
Sasha were stunned at his response.  “If anyone should need me I will be in the basement with a hammer beating my head into a shape that doesn’t look like a female’s best friend.”  He stormed off leaving them to only guess at what made the robot go crazy. 

Sasha
shrugged her shoulders, “What was that all about?”

The service bot
mimicked her movement, “I lack the programing to understand.”

Sasha
laughed, “Me too honey, me too.”

Sasha
slipped into the ballroom.  She walked around the edges of the room looking for her target.  She spotted him in the middle of the floor dancing with his new wife.  Sasha pointed to the DJ and made the sign to cut the music.

As soon as the music cut off
, she stepped on to the dance floor, “Marcus where are you, where is my Marcus?”  She spoke with a slight Russian accent.  The heels of her shoes clicked metallically on the polished wood dance floor. She had traded in her black body armor for a sleek black dress.  It was backless and low cut.  A long slit up both sides made it easy for her to walk.  She moved with the grace and skill of a predator, stalking its prey.
 

One older man made th
e mistake of trying to hit on her.  The poor fool ended up on the floor with a very sore set of testes for his trouble.  The people on the dance floor parted until there was a clear line, straight to Thad and Fiona.  She was drop dead gorgeous, built like a supermodel, but dressed like death, all in black.

Sasha
strode up to the happy couple, pushed Fiona aside as if she was nothing.  She slapped him across the face.  Thad was stunned, not from the blow, but because he had no idea who this woman was.  He was about to say something when she grabbed him by the head and kissed him deeply. 

Fiona was pissed, standing
with her hands on her hips. She started to tap her foot and grunted hard.  The woman backed off the kiss, “Oh Marcus how could you, and how could you leave me and run away to marry this tramp.”  She turned away from him and kept her back to Fiona whose face was as red as her hair.  Unobserved, the mystery woman pulled a thin film from her lips and slid it into a scanner device hidden in her handbag.