Three Attacks

 (Back of the Hotel)

Janet Fades through the back of the hotel, with her 38 behind her back.

She’s in the kitchen, which is not empty. Two Negro cooks are laid out on the floor, dead. Their throats have been cut.

The kitchen door is partly open into the lobby. Janet sees the back of a seedy tramp’s coat. The tramp grunts with effort as he pulls a three-foot-long sword out of O.K. Hennesey’s back. Hennesey drops like a sack.

From her position, Janet also notices Nick Voinovich’s body sliding across the floor and through the front wall. She doesn’t see Kaze, but the angle’s wrong anyway.

The swordsman does not notice Voinovich. He does look up sharply, then swing his head toward the kitchen, apparently alerted by some subtle sound.

His almond eyes lock on Janet’s blurry gray shape.

(Front of the hotel)

Belle nods at Richter, lifting the revolver she drew from her tiny fur purse only a fraction of an inch in reply to his offer of another gun. She looks around alert, moving to glance some direction no one else is looking (checking for sudden appearances.)

When Richter and Belle are ready, Kaze leaves with them, having stabilized Voinovich as best she can.  She has several metallic objects in her hand and a scarf over the lower part of her face.

Kaze, Richter, and Belle approach the front door. Richter shoots his Tommy gun at the third floor, breaking a window, and shouts in a high-pitched yell, “Sky! There’s Shadow Guards in the place! Fades!”

Then he kicks in the door.

The swordsman, inside, is now between Janet and Richter. He blurs gray, using his Fade power, and bolts upstairs. Neither Janet nor Richter is quick enough to stop him from getting out of sight.

Kaze Fades through the wall of the staircase. She and the other Fade pass through each other. Both blink, but the swordsman keeps moving.

(Third Floor)

Sky Masterson continues to peer out the door. He replies to Christine. "Naw, no way anyone shadowed me here. I am too light on my feet."

Christine brightens; she believes him. Shara throws up the window sash; the night air is humid.

                                Four Oriental men in dark street clothing materialize about midway between the ceiling and floor, right in the middle of the room. They are holding hands in a circle. Three have the smoky gray translucency of Fades, while the fourth has the gray eyes of a Traveler.

                                All four have long knives in each hand. They let go of each other’s hands, drop to the uncarpeted floor, and ready their knives.

                                Everyone in the room, including the four Orientals, is equally surprised by where all the people and furniture are located. Sky, fortunately, was sufficiently concerned about Christine’s mood that he was glancing back at her face, away from the door, when the Orientals appeared. So he’s looking right at them. And the gun in his right hand is pointed pretty much exactly at one guy’s chest.

                                Shara ducks her head and sweeps her wings forward, right in the faces of two of the Fades. They were remaining Faded until they got the lay of the land, and therefore remain Faded while her wings are intersecting their bodies. And until they unFade, they can’t touch anyone.

                                The guy Sky is pointing at is the third Fade. He solidifies, acquiring color and opacity, and spots the only armed man in the room. Thing is, he’s got a knife, and Sky’s got a gun.

                                The fourth guy, the Traveler, happens to be closest to Christine. He swings his long knife (or short sword) at her, but it’s a wild, clumsy-looking swing, so that he’s going to hit her not with the blade, but the long, wooden handle.