S/he was jerked from the ground.
“You bitch! If they didn’t insist on getting you alive I’d snap your neck.”
John wrinkled their nose and dropped the empty Berretta. “You need to work on your manners and on your breath. Have you been eating horse shit or what?”
The guards eyes flared and his fingers tightened around John’s throat.
John made a spear of their right hand and jabbed it into the man’s abdomen.
The man’s Kevlar vest blocked the thrust.
The man’s grip tightened and John could see little glimmers of stars.
“Not again asshole,” s/he said.
Locking the thumb knuckles of their right hand, John jabbed it into the man’s left eye with all their strength.
It ruptured, spraying John with fluid.
The man screamed and staggered back, clutching at his destroyed eye.
John kicked him in the right knee. With a loud crunch, the kneecap shattered and the man fell to the earth screaming even louder.
Something moved in the corner of John’s vision and they ducked as a gleaming blade sliced through the air above them.
John scampered back a couple of feet to give them time to respond to the new threat.
It was Holdren.
He held his slender knife in his right hand and smiled.
“Well, well. The little bitch has grown teeth. Well, we’ll see how you like the treatment I gave your boyfriend. I can’t wait to see the two of you strapped down, facing each other for the rest of your lives and never able to touch, to walk, to move.”
As he spoke, Holdren moved closer. John backed slowly trying to reach a spot where s/he wouldn’t have to worry about tripping over a body.
“You think you’re such a man. You were great against me when I was already crippled. Let’s see how you do against me now,” John said.
Holdren’s face wrinkled in confusion, but he lunged forward.
John sidestepped and sliced downward, opening a deep gash in the man’s wrist.
“Damn you, bitch!”
“Watch your mouth, asshole. You should have let her go. She didn’t want this trouble, this killing. Me, I’m going to enjoy carving you up for what you did to me and to her.”
Holdren yanked a handkerchief from his back pocket and wrapped it around his wrist while maintaining distance from John’s advance.
“You’ve gone crazy, woman. What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’ve been called a lot on things, but a woman is something new. What’s the matter Holdren? Didn’t you know the translators would let us merge?”
“Merge? What are you gibbering about, Maxwell?”
Holdren lunged again. John blocked the thrust with their knife and as they parted, s/he snapped a backhanded slash at Holdren’s eyes.
It almost missed.
The back edge of the Ashley cut a gash just above Holdren’s eyebrows. Bone shone in the gash until the welling blood darkened the wound.
Holdren screamed, more in anger than in pain.
“The name is Blalock. John Blalock. And I’ve come back to kill you Holdren.”
“That’s not possible. You’re not even dead. How could you come back?”
Holdren wiped at the blood flowing into eyes with the back of his sleeve.
“Never under estimate a desperate woman, Holdren. She killed me while you were still gloating over your victory. Now it’s my turn to gloat.”
“No, it’s not possible. You’re crazy.”
Half blind from the torrent of blood filling his eyes, Holdren launched himself at them.
John stepped easily out of the way and then backhanded the Ashley into Holdren’s back, exactly between the sixth and seventh vertebra.
Holdren was limp even before he hit the ground.
Breathing heavily, John knelt and wiped the blood from the knife with the cuff of Holdren’s pants.
The bright red and white lights of an approaching ambulance were flashing eerily through the snow. It was almost there.
John gazed around and found no immediate threats. The wounded guards were more concerned about their own fate than that of Caitlin’s.
“I think you can handle it from here,” he said as he relinquished control.
Caitlin flexed her blood soaked arms and stared about her as she consciously took control of her body. “You are amazing, John. What now?”
“You could probably use a couple of weapons.” He indicated which would be the best ones. “And the bags I brought. There are a few items in there that you might still find useful.”
“We, we might find useful.”
“I stand corrected. Now let’s get moving before someone else shows up. I’ve had enough killing.”
“Me too.”
She gathered the weapons John wanted and slung one of his bags over each of her shoulders. As she turned, she saw movement in the snow. Caitlin lowered the sights on the Uzi to cover Romax.
The man sat up, gazed past the barrel, and into her eyes. Then he turned his head and slowly surveyed the scene. “Holdren?”
“Dead or dying. Paralyzed definitely,” Caitlin answered.
“Death was probably more than the bastard deserved. Go on, I won’t try to stop you.”
“But will you try to find us again?”
“Us?” he asked, but then he shook his head. “No, not me. Someone else maybe, but not me. I’ve lost my taste for working with men like Holdren.”
“I understand.” Caitlin stopped next to John’s body; she gazed down at his calm face, finally peaceful in death.
“It seems wrong to leave your body here for them.”
“It’s just a body now, Caitlin. It’s not something I can ever go back to. Dust to dust.”
“Ashes to ashes. Yeah.”
She bent down and closed his eyes. Her fingers stroked his still warm cheek before she stood.
Anger welled in her. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair.
Lights flashing, the ambulance pulled to a stop next to the water tower where the massive column of water was down to a slow flow.
Her teeth grated together as she brought up one of the
