"Oh, for God's sake!" said Hans.  "Akabane didn't say we'd have to capture a damned tribe!"  As Jin made a head-down rush with some wild idea of head-butting him in the stomach, Hans shoved their mother away hard, so she fell and skidded on the floor next to Mina, who scrambled to reach her.  The tall man grabbed for Jin instead, catching him by the hair and swinging him around.  Jin yelled, tears of pain starting in his eyes.  He heard a strange snick by his ear, and looked down cross-eyed to glimpse a steel blade at least fifteen centimeters long glint past his face and lodge below his upraised chin.

"Everybody, freeze!" bellowed Chief Hans.

Everybody did.  Hans added impatiently, "Not you, Oki!"

"Hans, no, he's just a kid!"

"After the day we've had, don't push me."

The belief and terror in Oki's face convinced the others that this was no bluff as nothing else could have, Jin thought.  He could feel the edge pressing into his skin, and strands of hair popping from his stretched scalp.

"All right," said Hans.  The big chest against which Jin was now pressed heaved for air, and maybe for balance.  Could the tall man actually be frightened, too?  That was a weird thought, and not reassuring.  "Behave, all of you, or I'll cut the damn kid's throat, got it?  You, quit wriggling!"  He shook Jin's head back and forth by the hair.

Jin's mother, still on the floor, glared up cold and furious, but said in a voice sharp with dread, "Jin, hold still!"

Jin could see Leiber-sensei swallow.  The limping sphinx had taken refuge in the shadows under a table, where she crouched and mumbled piteously, "Foes, foes, hurts, aowt, hum, hurts!"  That, and people breathing, were the only sounds in the windowless room.

Hans straightened.  "That's better.  Now, you, kid, stuff your hands in your pockets."  Jin, after a glance at his mother, complied.  "You, Sato, stand up.  You too, doctor, and put your hands on top your head.  Sato, take the mini-bitch by the hand with your right hand.  Now, you're all going to march out in file, and Oki with his stick will keep you all in line.  Set it on high, Oki!"

The broad man gulped, nodded, fiddled with the control in the base of the handle.

"Now, you all follow Oki out the door and turn right.  Sato first, Leiber next, then me."