Impulse by Dave Bara Read Free Book Online Page A

to gain leverage I put my left foot down on her right and pushed her to the mat. We landed with a thud and rolled. Again I was surprised by her strength and resiliency. After a few more moments of struggle I used my superior strength and size to roll her on her back, pin her arms under my knees, and then reached out to grab the nearest foil. It was hers. I drove it into the webbing of her tunic, right between her breasts. A killing stroke. The scoring bell sounded.
    I stayed on top of her, holding her down.
    â€œLet me up, goddamn you!” Then she cursed at me in German. I let her up, but only after gathering my own foil as well. When I stood the court erupted in cheers, whistles, and catcalls. It seemed that during our tête-à-tête we had drawn a bit of a crowd from among the other officers in the gym. There were now twenty or so ringing our court. I acknowledged the cheers from the crowd by bowing deeply from the waist and then holding up her foil as a prize.
    â€œGive me back my foil!” she demanded under the cover of the cheering.
    â€œAsk nicely,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. She tapped her foot angrily, hands on hips, her mask still drawn down.
    â€œWould you please return my foil, Commander,” she said in an even tone.
    â€œWhy certainly, Commander Kierkopf,” I said, making sure that everyone in the crowd, mostly Quantar officers, knew who I had just bested. I hesitated a second, then got a roundly evil idea. I took her foil and snapped it over my knee, then tossed the pieces over to her. The crowd roared in laughter and approval.
    Dobrina Kierkopf looked down at her broken foil, then kicked the pieces off the mat. She went to the wall and grabbed the first foil off the rack, whipping it around as she came.
    â€œGame time is over, Cochrane!” she said as she returned to the mat. This time she charged me without taking her mark. I scrambled to pick up my foil and scurry away from her, uncertain of my next strategy. One thing I couldn’t do was repeat my assault tactics from the last game. She ran at me in full rage, an all-out attack.
    â€œYeee-ah!” she screeched as our swords clashed, metal glinting off metal in a fury of motion, point and counterpoint. She kicked me hard in the side, just below the ribs. It knocked the wind out of me, and I grasped her sword hand at the wrist to keep her from taking advantage. She did the same to me but I kept my body clear of her so that she couldn’t repeat the kick. We danced around the mat in our struggle, arms locked and feet balancing us against each other. She dipped her right knee then and instantly I knew what she was up to. Faking her knee buckling to get me out of position; the tactics of mistake. With my body weight committed forward I had only one option, and that was to “agree” with her. I let my body fall toward her as she intended me to do, then instead of falling and allowing myself to be rolled over, I released her sword hand and grabbed her by the neck, placing my left knee under her thigh as support for her body. I rolled her over my knee as I swung her around, sending her flying forward with her back to me as I pivoted and brought my foil around in a flash, whipping across the webbing of her left buttocks as it flashed through the protective clothing. The bell sounded. Two-two.
    The crowd had erupted in my favor again, and the cheering was wild as Dobrina checked her pants. Despite the shielding from the protection field the fabric was torn out at her buttocks. She looked at it for only a second before returning to her mark. I knew that it would leave a sizable welt, I’d had that kind of injury before, but not in that precise location.
    Dobrina motioned me back to the marks, anxious to get on with the match.
    â€œVery clever, young man,” she said as we took our marks. “But now the match is on the line. No more games from me.”
    â€œNor from me,” I said,