"You'll have to.  My hands are full," snapped his companion.  Leiber-sensei tried to resist by going limp, and almost succeeded in slithering out of his captor's grip, but Oki jerked him upright once more, freed the hand with the baton, and slapped it with a loud electric pop against Leiber-sensei's thigh.  Leiber-sensei yelled really loud.  With a surprised gasp, Oki flinched and almost let him go, as the electric jolt evidently traveled through his victim's body and bit his gripping hand.  But he renewed his clutch before the shuddering scientist could escape it.

Hans strode toward the booth and hit the lock control; the door slid back, and air puffed out.

"No!" said Jin, panicking so much that his vision blurred.  "She's not supposed to come out yet!  She'll get sick!"

"She's going to be a lot sicker when Akabane get done with her," Hans snarled.  He lunged for their mother, who hopped up and across the bed, and almost made it around the end to the door and freedom before he lunged again, caught her by the arm, and swung her against the glass wall with a sickening thud.  He manhandled her out of the booth, stumbling, her long hair tumbling down all over.

"No, you can't have my mommy!" screamed Mina.  "We just got her back!"  She grabbed the folding chair, flopped it shut, and swung it as hard as she could.  She might have been trying to hit the security chief in the stomach, but Mina was pretty short, and her aim was rather blind, as she whirled around.  Instead, the chair legs took him square in the crotch—but not quite hard enough.

He bent over, saying really horrible words, but didn't let go of their mother's arm.  With his other fist, he backhanded Mina, who fell on her butt, crying.  Their mother tried to kick him, more accurately than Mina had, but she was barefooted and frighteningly breathless.  "How dare . . . you touch . . . my children, you . . . horrible murderer!"

Remembering the blood running down Vorlynkin's face, Jin dodged around the table where Nefertiti stood stiff-legged, wings flapping, fur on end in a dark ridge running down her back, tail lashing, and shrieking incoherently.  He grabbed her up and flung her at Oki, who was closest.  The wide man yelled, waving his snapping and popping stick but only connecting with wing feathers, which scorched with a dreadful stink.  Nefertiti leaped off him, shredding his jacket but only getting in one shallow bleeding scratch on his thick neck.  Leiber-sensei broke from his grip, though.  The scientist lurched and limped, dodging out of the way of the swinging baton.