Martell had crossed them, all right. I could get out of this and leave Martell to take his medicine. But they'd beat him to a pulp before he knew what was happening. He was a rat, I thought, and he deserved what he got, but the least I could do was give him a little head start. Then he could take it from there.
They came at me with blackjacks. Sally screamed. I brought up my forearm and one of the blackjacks blurred down toward it. My arm went numb. There was no pain. It just went suddenly dead.
The second blackjack numbed my other arm. They were very good at it, all right. They knew where to strike. I was a boxer without any arms to use....
A blackjack came down. I bobbed out of the way. The other guy was behind me, raising his own blackjack. The first one hit him accidentally, crushing his shoulder. He screamed. I butted my head at the guy in front of me. It took the wind out of him. As he slumped I leaned over him and brought up my knee and it made a loud clicking sound as it struck his jaw and drove his teeth together. He fell down and he lay there.
The second guy was better now. He came at me with the blackjack. I backed off toward the rubdown table. My arms were beginning to tingle. I thought I might be able to use them if I had to. I leaned back on the rubdown table getting set to meet the blow. He lunged at me and I brought up my foot, smashing it against his chest. He staggered back. Sally stood to one side, her face white, her hand at her throat.
I followed the guy with the blackjack. He swung at me. He looked scared now. I ducked inside the blow and brought up my tingling right fist in a short, chopping blow. It threw his head back. He turned with a little whimper and got the hell out of there. His friend was still unconscious.
"Well, Mrs. Xlptl," I said, "shall we go?"
"I—I guess so. You were so strong! Even stronger than the real Martell. You were wonderful, really you were." She was small but very pretty. She had a funny look in her eyes. "That's what I like about Earthmen," she said. "They're so strong. They're so virile...."
She took my hand. We concentrated on getting out of there.