“You going to take it?”
They really don’t know, Landers thought. Who we are. While Strange came on, he studied them. The old chief in white on his left was still seated. The younger chief was on his right, standing. Landers was between them. Beyond the younger chief was the new man, his hand still on the stolen chair. The others were all seated.
Behind him Landers heard Strange say softly, “Go ahead. Bust him.”
He swung with his right hand first at the old chief. It went in accurately alongside the nose just under the right eye, cutting deep. Without bothering to look at the effect, he swung with his left at the chief in blues, rolling his body, like a whip, a punch that was half hook, half uppercut. It caught the young chief two inches back from the point of his chin. Landers heard his teeth clap together. He went down.
Landers swung his body to take care of the third man coming in, but Strange had already accounted for him. Swinging his good, left hand in a hook to the belly that swung the moving man back toward himself, Strange clapped him alongside the head and jaw with the plaster plate bound to the open palm of his right hand. The third man went down.
Meanwhile, Landers’ second chief was coming back up, valiantly but slowly. Landers hit him with both hands, hook and short rights, in the belly and in the face. One, two; one, two; one two three four. Faster than the eye could count. And as he landed each punch Landers shouted insanely.
“Pay!” he yelled. “Pay! Pay, goddam you! Pay, pay, pay!”
The chief in blues sagged down.
Beyond him Strange grabbed a water pitcher by its handle from a table, ready to crack it in half on a table edge and turn it into a weapon. His right hand was held ready to slap again. “Just come on,” he warned in a hiss, as insanely. “Just come on.”
The four seated Navy men looked up at the two insane men, astonishment spread over their faces. None was inclined to get up, and wisely they sat still. It had happened with murderous speed and a blinding violence.
Behind Landers a tall, kindly-looking soldier got awkwardly to his feet, and put one arm half around Landers. Landers spun, ready to hit again.
“No, no. Don’t swing. Don’t swing,” the kindly-looking soldier said. He looked worried. “Don’t swing. You guys better get out of here. Right now. The MPs will be here in seconds. I’ve seen them.”
Landers swung back to the table. He had one satisfying look at the old chief sprawled against the wall, his chair overturned, bright blood red from below his eye down over the dress whites. “Pay!” he screamed at all of them. “Pay, you cocksuckers! Goddam you, pay!”
Strange had heard the kindly-looking soldier, too, and carefully put his uncracked water pitcher back on its table. He started backing toward the door, his good hand gripping Landers’ arm and pulling him.
“You girls go on, you leave,” he called to the table. “Meet us upstairs.”
Landers followed him. “Don’t forget my cane,” he called, “don’t forget my cane.”
At the door a huge MP already blocked the way, his hand on his black holster, and stopped them. He looked in at the now-quiet bar, inspecting the carnage, then looked at the two of them.
“God damn,” he said wearily. “You guys. All right, go on. Git. Out that way.” He pointed on down the corridor, away from the lobby. “It goes to the street. Move it, damn it.”
“We got a room in the hotel,” Strange said breathlessly. “A suite, we got.”
“Then go around the block, and come back the other way,” the MP said. “My partner’ll be here in a minute, damn it. He aint as sympathetic.”
Strange was already moving, pulling along with his good hand Landers who was limping without his cane, Strange breathlessly already beginning to laugh. Landers was not laughing.
“Appreciate it,” Strange called.
“Go fuck,” the MP called back, and stepped inside.
“Those dirty fuckers,” Landers was muttering, “those dirty fuckers.”
“Come on,” Strange said, laughing. “We got to move it.”
“Let them see something,” Landers muttered. “Let them see something.”
It was difficult, going clear around the block with Landers limping so badly. He had pulled or turned something in his ankle, and the pain was bothering him. So Strange led them through an alley beyond the hotel, which went around it and came back out on Union.
Thus as they slipped in through the revolving door