The veteran spymaster sprang off the sofa like a spring compressed to its limit and suddenly released.
His right hand flashed behind his waist and drew his gun so fast it was almost impossible to follow. In half a second, he drew, chambered a round, and pulled the trigger, the three motions flowing together like a single bolt of lightning.
American Iaido!
He aimed at Yongye's feet... Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
At the same instant, Melinda darted out from beside Nick Fury, even faster than he was. She clenched her right hand into a fist, its knuckles hardened by years of punishing training, and drove a viciously precise punch straight at Yongye's temple.
Yongye remained seated on the sofa.
But the moment Nick Fury drew his gun, Yongye raised his right hand. Silver-gray Nanoparticles surged from his sleeve like living things, rapidly gathering and spreading in midair to form a shield as thin as a cicada's wing in front of the muzzle.
The bullets struck the nanoshield with sharp metallic cracks. Each slug left a shallow dent before a ripple of self-repairing Nanoparticles swallowed it. The flattened bullets dropped onto the sofa cushion, bounced twice, and rolled to the floor.
Melinda's punch slammed squarely into the side of the nanoshield, right against the edge Yongye had deliberately angled toward her.
Her fist met the Nanoparticles with a muffled thud, accompanied by the faint crunch of compressed bone.
Melinda's face contorted. Agony shot from her knuckles up her forearm like an electric current.
She grunted and instinctively pulled back half a step. Her knuckles were already red and swollen, with a faint purplish bruise where the Nanoparticles' recoil had struck them.
Her mouth twisted before she forced it shut again. Only a strained breath escaped through her teeth as she shook