Page 98 of Ground Truth

He ignored the headache, dizziness, nausea, and blinding sunlight.

He gathered the few tools at hand to prepare his defense.

Rage. Momentum. Gravity. Timing.

All four were working against Brand and he didn’t seem to notice.

Brand’s overwhelming desire was to kill Flint and do it now. That desire drove him to make foolish mistakes.

Flint forced himself to wait for his chance.

He was in that place where things move fast but his mind seemed slow. There was a name for that state of consciousness, but he couldn’t remember it at the moment. He experienced the action like watching an old film, one frame at a time.

Brand was ten feet above Flint now, coming down fast, screaming all the way.

Each footfall landed on the cliffside and held for half a moment before Brand was forced to keep going, like fast pedaling a racing bicycle downhill to avoid taking a serious ass-over-head tumble.

Rage pushed Brand while momentum and gravity pulled him down too fast to manage.

Flint squeezed his eyes closed against the falling debris and the brilliant sunshine splitting his head like a swift cleaver.

Timing.

If Flint could throw him off stride, momentum and gravity would do the rest.

With luck.

Brand was coming down more swiftly than a rushing waterfall.

Only five feet above Flint’s head now.

Four.

Three.

Two.

Flint reached out and lunged at Brand’s right ankle.

Momentum pitched him forward.

His arms flailed as he tried to regain his balance while his feet scrambled on the slippery slope.

Gravity pulled Brand downward ever faster.

On the way past, he bent his right knee and kicked toward Flint’s head.

Brand was heavy and moving too fast.

Weight and velocity forced Flint to release his grip on Brand’s ankle. He let go.

But he’d held on long enough.

Brand’s gait was broken, and he was floundering.

He couldn’t get his legs under control.

Brand fell forward, hitting the gravel cliffside with his face. Skin scraped off from his chin to his forehead. He howled with pain.

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