Cryptozoica Read Online Free PDF Page B

a disturbance?”
    Mouzi didn’t answer. With a weary sigh of exasperation, Kavanaugh pushed himself away from the bar. “We don’t deny anything. Dai Chinnah was the cause of the disturbance.”
    Quickly, Ruipender drew his pistol but he didn’t aim it at anyone in particular. “You will come with us to the ship.”
    Kavanaugh walked toward Azahan, seeming to ignore the gun in Ruipender’s hand. “There’s no need for that. We can give you a report right now. We have witnesses.”
    Then he lashed out with his right hand, his fingers closing around the gun in Ruipender’s fist. He squeezed, grinding the smaller man’s delicate metacarpals into the unyielding steel frame of the pistol. Instinctively, Ruipender tried to jerk away but Kavanaugh turned with him, locking the man’s right wrist under his arm and heaving up on it with all of his upper body strength. The pain was so overwhelming, Ruipender couldn’t even scream.
    As the pistol dropped from his nerve-numbed fingers, Kavanaugh maintained pressure on the captured arm. He forced the man down to the floor.
    At the same time, Crowe came up off the bar stool. He hurled his half-full Guinness bottle in an overhand arc toward Azahan, the heavy base striking the man directly in the throat, a quarter of an inch to the left of his larynx. The bottle didn’t break, but Azahan reeled away, clutching at his neck. He clawed for his pistol.
    It had barely cleared the holster when Cranio used his wet mop like a bludgeon, slapping the water-soaked strands across Azahan’s face to send him staggering into Crowe’s arms. He easily wrested the gun out of the smaller man’s grip and swept his legs out from under him with a swift kick.
    He sat down hard on the barroom floor.
    Lips writhing over his teeth, Ruipender fumbled to draw a knife from his pocket with his left hand. Kavanaugh drove his foot into his diaphragm and the man’s features squeezed together like an accordion. His legs drew up in the fetal position.
    Releasing the man's arm, Kavanaugh removed the folded butterfly knife from Ruipender’s pocket and tossed it to Mouzi. “Add this one to your collection.”
    Wisely, Mouzi had kept her own blades in their scabbards during the brief struggle. Kavanaugh briefly inspected the Guardian .32 ACP automatics and snorted.  They were ridiculous little things with ivory grips and two inch barrels. He figured the only reason Azahan and Ruipender carried them was because slingshots hadn’t been available in the ship’s armory.
    Cranio lumbered over to the pair of men and hauled them to their feet by the collars of their shirts, twisting the fabric so it constricted their throats like choke leashes. Azahan uttered gagging sounds, but he appeared to be in less pain than the whimpering Ruipender, so Kavanaugh addressed him.
    “Tell Captain Hellstrom that Dai Chinnah was here but we don’t know where he is now. He roughed up Sanu and was asked to leave. You might want to check the canal. He could have had an accident. Little Tamtung is as dangerous a place as Big Tamtung, you know.”
    “Yeah,” Crowe said. “Good thing we’re here to walk you back to your boat, isn’t it?”
    Cranio marched the two men to the door and shoved them out on the veranda. He refrained from delivering departing kicks to their rear ends. Kavanaugh, Crowe and Mouzi walked out with them.
    The sun had fallen completely beneath the horizon, giving the ocean a coppery sheen. Although purple bougainvillea and pink hibiscus flowers turned the road into a surreal kaleidoscope of color, no amount of perfumed flora could disguise the fact that Little Tamtung was scarcely more than a frontier outpost. The houses were all prefabricated structures set upon stilts, rising up out the kunai grass. Painted on the window of a Chinese trade store they passed was the notice: American Cash Only, No Cheques, No Plastic.
    Kavanaugh, Crowe and Mouzi walked behind the EAC officers until they reached the quayside.