The shapeshifters began to shrink, shedding their animal forms and reverting to their natural giant forms—Tezcahtlip covered in his thick, protective red hair, Ketzkahtel in thick black hair.
The giants began to walk toward Kenslir.
Jimmy took a step forward, ready to fight as well.
“No!” Kenslir said holding up his hand.
The shapeshifters turned and stared at Jimmy.
“Lego,” Kenslir said loudly.
Jimmy considered the Colonel briefly, then glanced over to the edge of the roof where Victor had gone over the edge. Almost invisible, its gray stone matching the gray concrete of the roof, was a hand. Victor’s hand. The other stone soldier was hanging on to the edge of the roof.
Jimmy held up his hands and backed away from the giants, circling to his right.
“Let’s grind this one’s bones,” Tezcahtlip said to his brother.
Ketzkahtel nodded and the two giants moved toward Kenslir, stepping apart and maneuvering so they ended up on opposite sides of the Colonel—Tezcahtlip to the north, between Kenslir and the elevators and Ketzkahtel to the south, between Kenslir and his friends.
Kenslir held his hands up, like a boxer, watching first one, then the other giant.
“I’m going to beat both of you to death,” the he said. “Then I’m going to rip out your hearts and burn them.”
Despite the beating he had already taken from Kenslir, from having his lungs ripped out, and his head cut off, Tezcahtlip felt emboldened with his brother present. In the distant past he had fallen to his giant cousins because he had been alone. But now he had his brother again. The two of them together were unstoppable.
Movement on the edge of the roof caught Tezcahtlip’s eye. He glanced over and saw PJ, crawling along the western edge. The giant’s eyes flashed yellow and PJ froze in place, turning to stone.
Then Kenslir’s fist slammed into Tezcahtlip’s jaw.
The Colonel had lunged forward, impossibly fast while the giant was distracted. He struck with his left fist, smashing into the giant’s chin and shattering his jaw. Kenslir immediately followed up with a right hook. Not high, to the giant’s chest or head, but low, to his right knee. The limb bent backwards as the massive kneecap exploded from the blow.
Ketzkahtel rushed to his brother’s aid. Kenslir was faster, pivoting around and snapping out his left leg in a side kick that caught Ketzkahtel square in the groin.
The giant’s vision swirled from the intense pain as his genitals were crushed and his hips fractured. He pitched forward, falling face down.
Kenslir pressed his attack. He smashed down with his left fist, right into the back of the giant’s head. Bone shattered and was driven into the giant’s brains.
Tezcahtlip had meanwhile recovered. He leapt in and grabbed Kenslir from the behind, looping his arms around the Colonel’s in a bear-like hug. He squeezed with all his might.
Kenslir shifted his hips and struck back with his right elbow, again striking below the belt. Tezcahtlip grimaced in pain as his groin was also pulverized.
Kenslir was about to break free of the giant’s hairy grip when he glanced over at the edge of the rooftop. Jimmy was just now pulling Victor up. But, he needed more time.
Tezcahtlip also saw the two women and the other stone man at the edge of the wet roof. “Brother! The stone men!”
Ketzkahtel had just gotten to his feet, his injuries regenerated. He glanced over and saw Jimmy bending over, pulling Victor up by one hand.
The giant’s head shrank, forming into Echo’s. He reached out with his telepathic powers.
Agent Keegan convulsed where she stood behind Jimmy and Josie. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she stepped forward, pushing against Jimmy’s back. Off balance, the stone teen was caught off guard and stumbled forward, tripping, and going over the edge.
Ketzkahtel smiled and turned back toward the pinned Kenslir.
Kenslir shrugged off Tezcahtlip’s grip. In their natural form, without the benefit of stolen lifeforces, the giants were weaker than him. He had the advantage. Kenslir leapt forward and jabbed with his right index and middle finger extended.
Ketzkahtel, his body giant-sized, his head that of Echo the telepath’s, had just turned back to Kenslir. He was still telepathically connected to Keegan. Kenslir’s fingertips punched through skin and bone, into the telepath’s head and frontal lobes.
The giant convulsed and staggered backwards as Kenslir withdrew his fingers. The giant dropped to his knees, a stunned look on his face. Simultaneously, Keegan collapsed to the wet rooftop unconscious.
“That’ll be enough of that,” Kenslir said. Then he was knocked down from behind.
Tezcahtlip had clasped both hands together and struck as hard as he could at the base of Kenslir’s neck. The blow shattered vertebrae and shoulder blades, and drove the Colonel to his knees.
Tezcahtlip pressed his attack. He punched Kenslir in the ribs, knocking him flat. Then he began to stomp him repeatedly, each fall of the massive, six-toed foot cracking more bones.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Jimmy tumbled forward, suddenly terrified. He knew what would happen if he fell off the roof. He’d been forced to watch as the telepathic shapeshifter made him and Victor throw Atlas over. It was a fall the stone soldiers could not survive.
Jimmy’s fall abruptly stopped, and he felt himself swinging. Victor still had a hold of his wrist.
The postcog swung Jimmy around, toward the edge of the roof beside him. Victor was again clinging to the edge of the roof with one hand.
Jimmy grabbed at the edge with one hand. But his grip was too hard. The concrete crumbled and he started to fall. He lost his grip on Victor’s free hand.
“Jimmy!” Josie screamed from above. She was leaning over the edge, reaching for him.
Jimmy grabbed at Victor’s legs as he fell. Somehow, he managed to snag a baggy cargo pocket. The material immediately ripped, but it was enough to swing Jimmy back toward Victor. He looped his arms around the postcog’s waist and caught himself.
Victor grabbed at the edge of the rooftop with his other hand. He could feel the concrete just about to break under his grip.
Josie dropped to her knees and tried pulling on Victor’s arms. He was too heavy and wet from the sprinkler mist. By himself, he weighed over three hundred pounds in his stone body. With Jimmy clinging to his waist there was no way she could pull him up, even if she could get a grip.
Josie turned to Keegan. She was sprawled on the rooftop, on her side, unconscious. Josie grabbed her and shook the blonde. “Pam! Pam!”
Keegan was out cold. Josie looked over at the Colonel. He was being beaten by the giants.
Tezcahtlip had picked the Colonel up and was holding Kenslir in a full-nelson-like hold, his arms looped under the Colonel’s, then up over his shoulders and clasped behind Kenslir’s neck. Ketzkahtel, the dragon shapeshifter, now a black-haired giant, was punching and kicking the Colonel. Repeatedly.
Even at this distance, Josie could see the damage taking its toll. The Colonel was bleeding from all over his face and chest. His skin was gray and bleeding, his healing powers unable to keep up with all the injuries despite the fountain-like spray of water from all the roof sprinklers.
Josie looked back to the stone men clinging to the edge of the roof.
Jimmy suddenly slipped a few inches, then stopped with a jarring halt. Victor almost lost his grip.
“Jimmy!” Josie yelled.
Jimmy knew he was losing his grip. He could hear stitches popping in the fatigue pants Victor was wearing. Even if he could reach the ledge of the roof, he doubted he could hold it without crumbling the concrete. Worse, with their combined weight pulling them down, Victor was having a hard time holding on.
Soon, they would both fall.
Jimmy looked up at Josie and felt great sadness. “I’m sorry,” he said. Then he let go.
“No!” Josie screamed. She almost fell off the roof herself as she lunged fo
rward. Jimmy was plummeting downward.
It seemed like he was falling in slow motion. It took him almost eight agonizingly long seconds to hit the pavement below. Josie closed her eyes at the last second so she wouldn’t see him shatter.
Josie kept her eyes closed for several more seconds. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Then she realized that she could hear something. The sound of the Colonel still being beaten. Great meaty blows from the giants, crushing the Colonel’s face and torso.
Josie stood up and turned around, glaring at the giants as they held and beat the Colonel.
Kenslir’s face was a bloody pulp now, almost unrecognizable. He should be dead, but he still strained against the giant holding him. His pulped face and chest, now a gray color, were covered in blood
“Leave him alone!” Josie screamed.
Ketzkahtel stopped punching the Colonel and glanced over his shoulder.
It was her. Josie Winters. The girl that had helped this near-dead Antaean kill him in Arizona.
Ketzkahtel turned away from Colonel Kenslir, who hung limply now in Tezcahtlip’s grip.
“What are you doing, brother?” Tezcahtlip demanded.
“I am going to eat her bones,” Ketzkahtel growled. He began walking toward Josie, slowly, his fists balled tightly, his teeth gritted together in anger.
“No! Ketzkahtel! We must finish this one first!” Tezcahtlip pleaded.
Ketzkahtel ignored his brother and continued toward the black haired girl. She just stood there glaring at him.
Ketzkahtel took another step, then noticed something. His breath. He could see it.
That was odd, he thought to himself. He was less than a thousand miles from his now-submerged kingdom. At this latitude, the air was warm. There should be no way for him to see his breath.
Ketzkahtel took another step. When his foot set down, it made a crunching sound.
The giant looked down. All over the rooftop around him, the water from the fountain-like extinguishers had turned to ice. And his foot was covered in white—frost.
The giant looked at his hands. They and his arms were covered in frost as well, matted into his thick fur. The frost was thickening as more water fell on him and quickly turned to ice.
The giant tried to lift his foot. His left leg was stiff, frozen. His feet, sheathed in ice a half inch thick now, was fused to the roof.
The giant looked up at Josie. The girl was trembling as she glared at him. Blood began to trickle out of her nostrils.
The cold was unbearable now. Ketzkahtel’s entire body felt numb even through his thick black fur. He tried to shape shift into his dragon form, but his tissues were slow, unresponsive. His vision began to fade. His eyeballs were freezing.
Still being held up by Tezcahtlip, Kenslir opened one eye, peeking out at the back of the freezing Ketzkahtel. The Colonel’s injuries were almost completely healed now. The blood on his face and chest had soaked back into his skin, which had turned back to flesh. And he was tired of pretending. He shrugged free of Tezcahtlip’s grip with ease, startling the red-haired giant.
Kenslir spun around in place and punched the giant in the stomach. Punched so hard that his fist punctured the giant’s flesh and Kenslir’s arm plunged in to the elbow. He thrust his hand deeper into the surprised giant’s body, ripping through organs until he felt the spine.
Kenslir grabbed the spine and jerked backwards. When he pulled his arm out, he was holding a splintered vertebrae.
Tezcahtlip fell to the roof, holding his breath, and unable to see for a moment. It was the worst pain he’d felt yet. The human had reached inside him and actually pulled out part of his spinal cord.
Kenslir dropped the bloody vertebrae and bits of nerves then sprinted towards Ketzkahtel. He leapt into the air and smashed into the frozen giant’s back in a flying side kick.
Ketzkahtel exploded in a shower of ice, broken in half at the waist.
Josie dodged to her left as the giant’s frozen upper torso bounced and skidded and tumbled across the wet, sliding along before disappearing over the southern edge of the roof.
Kenslir turned and rushed to the east edge of the roof. He reached down and grabbed Victor’s wrist and lifted him effortlessly to the roof. The postcog’s wrist had turned to flesh again where Kenslir gripped it, but quickly repetrified when Kenslir released his grip.
“See to the girl,” Kenslir said. Then he turned and sprinted back north, toward the elevators and Tezcahtlip, who was still laying on the roof, trying to get up.
The giant knew he was beaten. But he would not allow himself to be killed. He used the sum of what little remained of his stolen lifeforce reserves, healing his spine and again transforming into the sabertooth. Then he leapt to his right, bounding toward the west edge of the rooftop. Leaping over the petrified PJ, he flung himself over the edge.
Kenslir ran to the edge and looked over. The shapeshifter was in free fall, legs splayed like a house cat falling from a tree. Eight seconds later, he smashed into the ground.
The shapeshifter lay there for a few seconds, then shrank back to his hairy giant form. He rolled onto his feet and began running, south. He limped as he ran—his powers were exhausted.
Kenslir ran along the edge of the building, watching. Josie and Victor came up beside him, trying to keep pace.
The giant finally made it around the corner to the south side of the building. He dropped to all fours and began rummaging around the pieces of frozen flesh that had been his brother.
“What’s he doing?” Josie asked.
“Looking for a heart,” Kenslir said.
The shapeshifter finally found it. He held the frozen shard of heart to his mouth and chewed on it with his double row of teeth.
Victor started toward the edge, as if he was going to jump.
“You can’t make that,” Kenslir said, stopping the stone man.
“What about you?” Victor asked.
“It’d take me too long to regenerate,” Kenslir said.
Tezcahtlip was now swelling and convulsing, and turning a shiny, metallic red. Great wings unfolded from his back and his neck and tail lengthened. He had turned into the red dragon.
Tezcahtlip looked up at the roof of the building, so far away. He opened his mouth and roared. Then he spread his wings and leapt into the air, flying quickly east, away from Argon Tower, toward Biscayne Bay.
“What’d I miss?” Pam Keegan said, rubbing her head as she walked up behind Kenslir, Victor and Josie as the dragon flew away.
Colonel Kenslir turned around and looked the dripping wet Keegan up and down. She was scratched and cut in various places, blood and water running down her body from the constant mist of the extinguishers. Her hair was matted down on one side and her makeup was streaked down her face. Despite her microkini, she looked awful.
“We need to have a talk about your wardrobe choices.”
EPILOGUE
Colonel Kenslir was alone in the Fountain Chamber. Just him and a dozen petrified bodies, each lashed to a handtruck.
The Colonel turned to the table on his left and unzipped the body bag laying there. Inside was the corpse of Dr. Kristina Parker, transferred from the local county morgue. Kenslir carefully lifted the body out of the bag, then carried it to the edge of the Fountain. Shifting his grip, he lowered the body into the still water, setting her on a ledge submerged a foot below the surface.
The water bubbled and swirled then Dr. Parker suddenly sat up. The gaping hole in her chest was gone. She looked around the chamber, disoriented, and not sure where she was at first. Then looked down at her exposed body and turned red. She covered herself with her arms.
“Here,” Kenslir said, taking a cotton t-shirt from the table on his right and pitching it to the doctor.
Dr. Parker hastily slipped the t-shirt on. It was very large and covered her like a nightgown. Then she pulled the toe tag off her foot and stood up. Kenslir offered her a hand and helped her out of the water..
“I’m dead, aren’
t I?” Parker asked. She was still holding the toe tag in one hand.
“I’m sorry,” Kenslir said. “We lost a lot of people.” He pointed to the dozen petrified bodies on handtrucks.
Parker recognized them all—even her boss, Dr. Crone, was there.
“But I don’t want to be petrified!” Parker said. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She knew full well petrification was, for now, a one way ticket. For over forty years they’d been trying to figure out how to reverse it. Without any success.
“It’s only temporary,” Kenslir said. “But until then, the Pentagon was very clear. You’re too valuable to the project. We had to reanimate you.”
Kenslir turned to a small box on the table next to him. It was the size of a brick, made of aluminum and coated with a thin sheen of frost. He picked the box up, and opened the end.
Dr. Parker wiped her eyes. She had no choice now. If she didn’t choose petrification she’d turn to dust at midnight. At least turned to stone, she might one day live again.
She straightened her hair, smoothed her oversized t-shirt, and stood up straight. She took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
Kenslir aimed the box at her and pressed a small button on the top. An electrical current was routed through the box, directly into a lizard eye, frozen, suspended in a glass tube. The eye glowed yellow.
Dr. Parker froze in place. Her skin and hair rapidly turned gray. Her t-shirt also petrified as her flesh solidified and she quickly turned to stone.
Kenslir put the basilisk eye back down on the table. He slipped on heavy leather gloves, thick and padded, and carried Dr. Parker to an empty hand truck. There he strapped her down to the truck, making her ready for transport.
***
There was plenty of light in the room, which was good. They needed it.
Josie and Victor were hard at work, using large tubes of adhesive to glue together fragments of stone.
The door to the room opened and Pam Keegan entered. She was in an Army sweatsuit again, with bright white sneakers. “Sorry, I’m late.”
Brothers in Stone (Stone Soldiers #2) Page 18
