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“Look,” said Gutsy, “the choices may be bad, but as Mr. Ford said, we don’t really have any other ones to make. We die or we try.”
Urrea nodded approval. “I’m glad you didn’t say ‘die or die trying.’?”
“I don’t intend to die,” said Gutsy. “The situation’s hopeless, but I’m not.”
Everyone nodded this time.
“And,” she said, “I think I even have a plan.”
PART FOURTEEN
RIO GRANDE
UNITED STATES–MEXICAN BORDER
TWO DAYS EARLIER . . .
LOST ROADS
Be sure you put your feet
in the right place, then stand firm.
—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
70
IT WAS A CREATURE OUT of nightmare.
Huge, immensely powerful, totally unnatural, infinitely deadly.
And dead.
It let out a roar that shattered the world around Benny. It was impossibly loud, and he screamed in pain at the assault on his ears. The gorilla pounded the dirt with two huge fists in a challenge that shook the ground. Its face was covered with long slashes and there were black holes on its chest. Bullet holes that hadn’t found the right target. The ape’s mouth and hands were smeared with blood, but Benny didn’t think it was the monster who bled. It had just come from a fight, or a kill.
That thought darted through his head in a microsecond, because everything was in furious motion. The gorilla flung himself at Benny.
Benny backpedaled and swung his sword, but fear robbed him of precision and balance. The tip of the sword drew a line across the creature’s chest but did not bite deep enough to do any real harm; and Benny’s left heel caught on a tree root. Suddenly he was falling, and in a surreal moment of clarity he saw the ape go hurtling over him. The ground punched Benny in the back and the shock twitched his hand open. The katana went flying.
He fought to turn, to get back to his knees, but his body was spasming, his lungs trying to draw breath.
The ape struck Morgie and bore him to the ground, teeth darting forward for a deadly bite; but Lilah thrust her spear into the creature’s side at the same instant Riot fired a ball bearing from her slingshot. Both weapons struck home; neither stopped the enormous beast. The ape had to be four hundred pounds, and most of that weight was in its massive arms and shoulders. Morgie screamed in pain and tried to fight, but he was helpless.
The ape howled again and then an arrow struck its head.
And bounced off the dense skull.
Even so, the gorilla wheeled around and ran at the archer. Chong scrambled to fit another arrow onto the string. There was no time at all, and he shrieked and flung himself out of the way, holding the arrow but losing the bow. The ape landed hard, rolled, and came right up again, lunging now for the nearest victim: Nix.
She had not drawn her ancient Japanese sword, Dojigiri, but instead stood in a wide-legged stance with her automatic pistol held in a two-handed shooter’s grip. The ape howled.
She fired.
Once, twice. Again. All in the time it took Benny to close his hand around his fallen sword.
The first bullet struck the ape in the cheekbone. The second hit it in the center of its upper lip. The third punched a small black hole in the steep shelf of brow above its nose. The loads in the bullets she and Lilah used were not heavy, not intended for maximum stopping power. They were lighter loads that would prevent the bullet from exiting the skull. Any skull. Instead the round would be trapped inside the frame of the skull and bounce around until all the force was expended. The effect was to plow holes haphazardly through the soft, vulnerable brain.
Joe Ledger had taught them that. He said it was a trick used by assassins. Low caliber, maximum internal damage.
