Dragonfly by Jax Hill 

Pete said the Dunker just laughed.

“You may kill me, but the words I speak will not die! They will live in your heart and mind! They will trouble your nights and make all your days cold. Don’t let this fate catch you — turn from your evil ways, now! Destroy your weapons and work for peace!”

Pete and Bruiser stood in awe that no one had attacked them yet. These were arms dealers, tough guys, thugs. Many of them were Nikolai’s men. Some were individual contractors just trying to sell off guns they’d stolen or needed to make disappear. Most were individuals who were used to fighting and not used to fear. Pete said he looked up at Bruiser at one point, and Bruiser was grinning at the Dunker, as if, Pete said, Bruiser thought the gods protected crazy people, as the Amerindians used to believe.

“Andy, you should have seen it. These guys were really spooked just by the crazy sound of his voice, and that wild power that he walks in,” Pete told me.

Then the Dunker started following the departing buyers to the elevators, haranguing them:

“Don’t think that you’ve escaped the fate of these cursed ones!” he shouted at them. “Just because you don’t deal in weapons doesn’t make your use of weapons any less damnable! Your violent ways will lead you to a violent end! But it doesn’t have to be — you may depart from this wickedness and learn to do what’s right before God and man!”

Finally, the opposition turned up. Two huge gargoyles that Bruiser thought were on Nikolai’s payroll came out of the darkness and told the Dunker to get out. They had guns in their hands and did not look reticent about using them. Here’s what the more articulate of the two said:

“Look, jackass. I been on the phone with the boss and he’s damn tired of you. You and your faggy-ass followers are causing him lots of troubles he don’t need. So here’s the deal. Back off. Back way off, and don’t let us hear no more from you or from your crew-cut boy toys. You shut up and clear out, and we don’t kill you. You keep on bellowing, and the Hilton security guards be wiping your brains off this parking lot.”

Pete said the Dunker shouted back, right in their faces:

“You don’t have to die — you can still save yourselves. Throw down your weapons. Desert this boss who forces you to be criminals. Follow the light of truth and you may yet live!”

These two thugs, however, were immune to threats from an apparently unarmed man. They didn’t flinch, but they did draw down. At that point, Pete said, the Dunker lunged at them, grabbing the wrist of each gun-toting hand in one of his own and twisting them so hard, they both dropped their weapons!

“It was beautiful, Andy. I don’t know any other word for it. He was like freaking Super Man down there. They were tough boys, and they dropped to their knees. But they jumped right back up and came after him. The Dunker punched them both right in the nose, I swear to you, each with one hand, like he’s ambidextrous. They dropped, and he just turned his back on them like they weren’t there and pushed the button for the next elevator up.”

As he stood waiting for the elevator, he turned back to the thugs on the ground, and the rest of the arms dealers, and called out:

“Today salvation is coming! Your chance to be part of a new kingdom is here! Don’t waste these moments — don’t throw your lives away! Wickedness is bowing to righteousness. Evil is beginning to bow to good! Don’t be caught on the wrong side of that action!”

At that moment, the elevator arrived, the door opened, Duncan, Bruiser and Pete climbed aboard and punched the button for the ground floor.

“You should have come, Andy. It was amazing.”