Page 134 of The 9th Man

He began crawling back toward the ladder.

“The wall’s half gone,” she yelled.

The .50-caliber rounds were now exploding against the upper catwalks. One of them gave way, crashing and bouncing off crossbeams before shattering on the rock floor. Their own catwalk tipped sideways, dropped, then steadied.

Luke kept going.

The ladder was ten feet away.

He glanced over his shoulder. The Sikorsky, sliding sideways, appeared in the obliterated wall. The .50-caliber went silent. The opposite cabin door slid open. That meant only one thing. Rockets. Which needed open rear space for the blowback.

He heard the whoosh as one left the tube.

He extended his arm, wrapped his fist around the ladder rung, then reached back for Jillian. “Grab my hand.”

The world exploded.

And he fell.

Slamming into the rock floor.

Hard.

White-hot pain rippled through his torso. Broken rib? Or ribs? Probably. Nothing new. Some of the walkway debris pinned him down. He worked through the pain and pushed himself to his knees, plowing through the debris.

“Jillian.”

“Here.”

From his left.

He turned that way and kept crawling until he saw her. Standing. Okay.

The Sikorsky backed away.

“Give it up,” Talley shouted.

Luke headed in the direction of the voice. The rifle was gone, and so was the Beretta. But he didn’t care. He’d had enough. To his right a figure rose from behind the debris. Talley. Twenty feet away. A rifle tucked into his shoulder aimed right at him.

“That’s far enough.”

Luke kept walking. “You and me, Jack. Time to settle this.”

Talley opened fire.

Bullets ricocheted off the rock floor.

He stopped ten feet away and stood his ground. “Call off your men. Stop it now. You and I can settle this between us.”

Talley just stared, saying nothing.

“This has to end, Jack. You can’t win. The Department of Justice is all over this now. They’re going to get Rowland, whether you kill us or not.”

Finally, Talley clicked his mic. “All Bravos, this is Bravo One. Stand down. I say again, stand down. Acknowledge.” A pause. “Evacuate in the helo. I’ll be following.”

They stared at each other.

He’d guessed right. Talley wanted privacy. Now he had to learn just exactly what this man was after.

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