“Caitlin, help me up. If you’re going to go after him, you’ll need me on my feet.”
“John, you can’t walk on that leg.”
“No, but I can at least take his aim off of you for a second. Now help me up.”
She stood and pulled on his arm.
John thought the pain was going to kill him.
It took all of their combined strength to get him onto his good leg.
As John rose, he drew the Ashley Hunter from its boot scabbard.
They coordinated their movements with Caitlin going left as John went right. Holdren’s gun wavered. He aimed at Caitlin’s leg, but then recognized the real danger and turned in time to block John’s thrust.
Unable to put weight on his left leg, John clutched at Holdren’s arm, both to prevent him from firing and to keep himself upright. They struggled, John slipping about on one leg, Holdren having to support part of John’s weight and still keep the long blade away from his rib cage.
“I’ll get his gun,” Caitlin transmitted.
“No, get another one. If you try for his it might discharge.”
John should have been able to crush Holdren. The other man was more of an assassin than a real fighter, but John was weak, so weak. It was all he could do to keep the man’s gun pointed away from him. He couldn’t hold him for long. If Caitlin didn’t get a weapon soon, he would die.
“I have one,” Caitlin transmitted. “Just another second and I’ll shoot the bastard.”
“Don’t take too long. This dance is tiring me out.”
There was a gunshot.
Holdren didn’t flinch.
“Drop the weapon if you please, Ms. Maxwell.”
It was Romax. Holdren had delayed them long enough for the pursuing guards to catch up.
“John?” Caitlin transmitted.
“They still don’t want to shoot you. Leave me. Run for the arroyo.”
“No!”
“Do it, damn it!”
John put everything he had left into a twisting motion that broke Holdren’s grasp on his knife hand. He slashed upwards. Holdren stepped toward him rather than away and the thrust sliced a gash along the man’s ribs.
He danced back out of John’s reach, cursing. “So, you want to play with knives, eh Marine? Well, let’s see how well you dance.”
Caitlin raised her weapon to shoot, but Romax reached her before she could fire. The automatic discharged into the sky as he forced her back.
Holdren holstered his handgun and a second later, a Bali Song, butterfly knife, flipped open in his right hand.
“Christ, Holdren, let it go. We have them.”
“Shut up, Romax. This man tried to carve up my liver. No one lives to brag about that with me.”
John hopped back a couple of feet to get the little pump house at his back. “Come ahead, Holdren. What’s the matter? Do you have to shoot me again to feel man enough to dance?”
“I’ll show you a man,” Holdren said moving unhurriedly after John.
“They say the Roman priests foretold the future by examining the entrails of sheep. You look like a sheep to me Holdren. Tell me, were you raised on a farm?” John taunted.
“What are you doing?” Caitlin transmitted. “Drop the knife John, Romax won’t let him kill an unarmed man.”
“You really think so, Caitlin? Somehow, I doubt it. I’m sorry I screwed this up for you. Don’t let them get to you. Eventually they’ll free you.”
John took a second to transmit everything he’d set up with the Gunny. “Gunny Zim is already spreading the blueprints. By the time, they’re dispersed to the four winds there will be no reason for them to hold you. Keep your wits about you and hold on. Zim will get you free. Just don’t let the bastards break you.”
“No, John. Please, drop the knife. Please.”
“Sorry, Caitlin. I can’t do that.”
As Holdren neared John, Caitlin turned to Romax. “Please, you can’t let him do this. It’s murder.”
Romax shook his head. “I don’t have any control over him, Ms. Maxwell.”
Holdren moved in.
John parried his initial thrust and slashed back, trying to sever the tendons along the back of Holdren’s hand. He missed and his movement caused him to teeter. John stretched a hand toward the building to steady himself as Holdren moved in again.
This time he moved toward John’s weak side.
John turned to meet the attack, but knew he’d never make it in time. In a second, Holdren was inside his guard and then behind him. His left arm tightened against John’s throat, pulling him back.
John felt a shocking impact between his shoulder blades. Raw pain burned anew in his chest. His legs numbed and the strength left his arms. The knife fell from his fingers.
Holdren drew his knife from John’s back and loosened his grip.
Unable to hold himself, John dropped to his knees, tottered a moment, then collapsed face down in the snow as Caitlin’s scream shattered his mind.
“John!”
Romax released her and she ran to John’s side.
As she made contact, John saw himself lying face down in the snow. Blood seeped from a wound just to one side of his spine. As he breathed, he saw bubbles form around the wound. It was odd that his wounds no longer bothered him. He could barely feel the gunshot to either his leg or abdomen. Amazing.
Caitlin rolled him over and cradled his head in her lap. He looked up into her eyes at the same time he stared down into his own.
“God, dear God. Don’t die, John.”
He coughed and tasted blood on his lips.
She was sobbing. John felt like crying himself.
Over the sound of Caitlin’s sobs, he could hear Holdren talking to Romax.
“Call for an ambulance. We still want him alive,” Holdren said.
A flash of insight
