Everything screamed. Her ribs, her face, her torn fingers, the cold-stiffened muscles in her legs. She got her knees under her, didn’t go for the gun.
She aimed for his legs.
Bodies fall when you take out their knees.
She hit him low and hard, wrapping her arms around his shins the way you’d tackle a tree trunk—graceless, total, every ounce of her weight driving forward into the backs of his legs.
Akilov staggered. His center pitched forward and his weapon arm swung wide as he fought for balance.
He yanked left—away from her right hand.
Away from the side he expected.
She wasn’t like everyone else. Her left hand shot up—clamped around the barrel. She forced it down with everything she had.
The gun went off. The blast was enormous, deafening, a concussive punch that hurt her teeth. A geyser of frozen earth and snow sprayed upward. The shot buried itself in the ground inches from her feet.
Akilov roared. He wrenched his gun free and grabbed her arm, twisting her sideways. For a fraction of a second there was only his face—the warped flesh, the gauze peeling away, the fury in his one good eye—and then his hand cracked across her face.
His backhand was vicious. Bony knuckles connected with her cheekbone, and her head whipped sideways, the world fracturing into bright, spinning fragments.
Jen hit the snow.
Sound came from somewhere far away. Everything whirled. She tasted coppery blood and smiled anyway.
Beneath the pain. Beneath the ringing and the cold.
Footsteps crunched in the snow. Fast. Closing.
The snow held her. The sky was wide and black and full of stars.
Gunshot split the dark.
45
Jen hitAkilov’s legs and the shot broke open.
Akilov staggered, his weapon swinging wide, and the window opened like a door kicked in.
Wyatt’s hand was already moving.
Magazine from his back pocket.
Empty dropped.
Fresh mag slammed home.
Rack.
Up.
His broken hand was just noise.
Wyatt exhaled. Fired.
The round punched through Akilov’s thigh, dropping his leg out from under him.
He hit the snow hard—but his hand stayed on the weapon.
