Page 114 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

The third gunman, the one in the clearing alongside the gorge, cursed furiously. Outraged, he turned his attention to the big man still heading down into the gorge from the other side, possibly trying to intercept the drone before it crashed.

The two dead gunmen must have been working with this third gunman.

Why did they want Stuart dead?

The third gunman peered into the gorge until he located the big man. He aimed and fired. Twice.

What a fool. Not even Reacher could kill with a handgun from that distance and trajectory. And Reacher had won medals against the best shots in the world.

He’d never hit the guy from that angle. Unless he got incredibly lucky.

Kim called out. “Police! Hold your fire!”

The gunman turned toward her and fired off a shot in her direction. But the bullet went wide. Too wide to take the shooter seriously.

Kim called out again. He ignored her and shot again.

This time, she fired back.

Kim’s bullet caught him in the belly.

The force of her shot was enough to knock him off stride.

Amid the brushy undergrowth, he was closer to the edge than he’d realized.

He lost his footing and struggled to stay upright.

Kim ran forward to help, but he was too far away.

He glanced over his shoulder as he ran.

His arms flailed like a windmill as he swayed and tried to avoid falling.

A moment later, he lost the battle.

He went over the edge of the gorge, one long, earsplitting scream pierced the air on his way down.

The screaming stopped long before he hit the bottom.

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Chapter 44

Saturday, June 4

Devil’s Punchbowl, Ontario, CA

Kim ran toward the edge of the gorge and looked down. She didn’t suffer from vertigo. But the steepness and depth of the gorge made her woozy.

The big man running down the other side had made it all the way to the bottom. He was running south along the creek bed, still chasing the erratic drone as it dipped and soared and dipped again.

She cocked her head to watch as he moved farther away along the creek bed. The wind current seemed to hold the drone just out of his reach. He seemed determined to catch the drone at his first available opportunity.

Kim tried to put the pieces of this bizarre puzzle together. Who were the three gunmen? Why were they trying to kill Liam Stuart? What was really going on here?

She shook her head. None of it made sense to her yet. Too many missing pieces.

The third gunman’s body lay crumpled at the base of the gorge near where he’d fallen, face up. Kim used the zoom feature on her phone’s camera to take a few snaps of the man’s mangled body.

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