men manning the fifty-caliber on top of the building. My shot was the first of many as ten others down the line made short work of the poor wretches. Three seconds after I fired that first shot, the two men were lying slumped across the concrete benches they had dragged up for protection. We had finished our first volley.
As soon as the shooting started, Larry had scrambled madly for cover behind a picnic table lying on its side.
“Larry!” I shouted. “You’ve got fifty men around you!” Megan raised her eyebrows.
“How’s he going to know any different?” I whispered.
“And I’ve got your son!” he shouted back.
“Let him go, and you get to walk away. But if you hurt him the slightest bit, I’ll kill you so slowly, you’ll beg me to let you die.”
Larry was silent. It took me only a minute to realize that
“You hear that, Larry? Your ambush is finished. Your men are either dead or captured.”
“What makes you think it isn’t the other way around?”
“Think about it. We obviously knew they were there, or there never would have been a fight. And if we knew they were there, why would we split up our group unless we had the numbers to be sure of success? We sent eighty men against your little group,” I lied. “Do you really think your people had a chance?”
He laughed, and the timbre of his voice frightened me. He sounded as if he was completely desperate and trying to conceal it. I knew that now was when he’d be most dangerous.
“You don’t exactly give me much reason to keep the boy alive, Leeland.”
“How about a compromise?”
There was no response for a moment, and I peeked around the tree to see if he was still there. “Since we seem to be at an impasse,” he responded, “I’m curious as to what you have in mind.”
“I suggest we simplify things. Take out all the variables.”
He was silent again, probably trying to figure out where I was going with that. Suddenly, he laughed. “Leeland? Are you suggesting a shootout? I do believe the sun has baked what little gray matter you have left. Why in the world would I want to enter the dueling floor with you? What possible gain is there for me?”
“No shootout, Larry. No guns.” This was where it would get dicey. I had to appeal to his vanity enough to get him to overcome his caution. “You once told me that you were a pretty good martial artist. Let’s see how good. Just you and me. You win, and we let you go. No more pursuit, no more running battles.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think your people are going to simply pack up and go home if I kill you.”
“Think it through, Larry. We’re not talking about an after-school brawl, here. This is it. It ends here. The way I see it, there are a limited number of possible outcomes to this fight. I kill you, or you kill me. If I win, we take my son and leave. At that point, I don’t think you’ll have any further say in the matter.” Larry’s only acknowledgment was a grunt.
“On the other hand,” I continued, “if you win, you won’t have any further use for him. You turn him loose, and my people will let you go.”
“Why should I believe you? What makes you think that they’ll just stand aside and let me leave?”
“They will if you let my son go. He’s the whole reason we’re all here. You took him to get to me.”
“I didn’t take him at all. One of your own people brought him to me!”
“All right,” I conceded the point. “You kept him to get to me, though. And if you kill me, there won’t be any reason to keep him. Let him go, and my people will take him back to Rejas. It’ll be over.”
“It seems to me that either way this goes, you get what you wanted. Your boy goes home.”
“Yes, and either way, you get what you wanted. I won’t be chasing you anymore.”
Larry thought it through. Finally, he yelled back, “All right, Leeland. You have your duel.”
I exhaled my relief. Zach was going to get out of there. That much was certain. Now all I had to worry about was saving my own skin.
“But I stipulate one slight change.”
“I don’t trust your men to honor your agreement, so I’ll stay right where I am with your son. You will fight my champion instead.”
My mouth suddenly went dry, and I knew then that I had overlooked a flaw in my reasoning.
I was going to have to fight Han.
Chapter 22
Loing de sa terre Roy perdra la bataille,
Prompt eschappe poursuiuy suyuant prins,
Ignare prins soubs la doree maille.
Soubs faint habit amp; l’ennemy surprins.
Far from his land a King will lose the battle,
At once escaped pursued then captured,
Ignorant one taken under the golden mail.
Under false garb amp; the enemy surprised.
Han and I faced each other in the clearing between the tree line and Larry’s makeshift fortress. Larry’s people and mine surrounded the two of us in a loose ring, an uneasy truce holding everyone’s weapons at bay pending the outcome of our fight. To one side, Larry held Zachary, pistol resting lightly against his neck. Despite what I had said earlier, it really did remind me of an after-school brawl.
Megan stood beside me, and we watched as Han stepped forward into the makeshift ring.
“You sure you can take him?”
I looked at the behemoth standing across from me. “No.”
She nodded, taciturn and solemn for the moment. “Do you trust Larry to let Zachary go?”
I laughed. “I don’t trust Larry as far as I could throw him. But when we first ran across Larry’s ambush, back on D-day, he commented on Han’s strict code of honor. And we’ve seen how they’ve argued over the way they treat Zachary. So I’m pretty sure that if I lose, Han will insist that Larry stick to the terms of our agreement. And Han is the only thing holding Larry’s people together.”
Megan nodded. “So if Han wins and Larry tries to go against his word, Han will leave?”
I shrugged. “I’m betting he won’t continue to serve someone that dishonorable.”
She smiled grimly. “And if you kill Han, he’s still the only thing holding Larry’s group together.”
“Yeah. Either way, Larry’s army is finished.” I exhaled slowly, trying to release some of the tension in my shoulders. “You want to wish your old man good luck?”
Megan pursed her lips as if she were trying to figure out what to say. “You know, we’ve been standing here trying to be clinical about what happens if you kill Han, or what happens if Han kills you.” She shook her head. “And I’m trying my best to stay unemotional about it all because I know you don’t need any more pressure right now.”
She stopped as her voice cracked and knuckled away the single tear that fell down her cheek. Then she nodded at where Larry held Zachary. “But that prick over there is responsible in one way or another for killing three people I loved and dozens of my friends. Now we’re standing here talking about what happens if you die, too.” She shook her head again and patted her crossbow absentmindedly. “I’m willing to give your way a chance, but if that doesn’t work I want you to know something.”
