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Chapter 30
My combat training takes over.
Stay calm. Hold steady. Think smart.
I will my heart not to pound, my instincts not to overcome my sense.
Anton looks like he went ten rounds with a grizzly bear, his skin broken and bruised. He must be running on adrenaline. Still, all he has to do is pull the trigger. If I know him, he won’t until he’s had his say. He wants to see me suffer. He wants me to acknowledge his triumph. It’s his biggest weakness. But he’s capable of learning too — he may not make the same mistake again.
Somehow he killed one of our guards and took the man’s gear, from his gun to his combat armor. How did he escape though? Someone must have come for him after I left, someone who didn’t follow protocol, fucked up and let Anton loose. And I guess there’s really only one person who it would have been.
“Hardt came for some payback?” I ask.
Anton nods.
“How’d you kill the guard?”
“Paulina’s knife,” he replies, his face not too wrecked to offer a cruel smile.
Fucking shit! What was Jamison thinking?
Probably that Colette mattered more to him than anything else in his life — more than his empire and his legacy. I should have seen this coming. The fucking fool probably died knowing he failed to avenge Colette, and that it was his fault. His last thoughts should have been of Colette’s warm embrace, her heart beating with his back on the beach. Instead, he died alone. Did Jamison spend his final moments worrying that now Anton would kill me too, making his failure complete?
Either my training’s tamping down my rage or I’m just a bastard, because I can’t help thinking that Jamison brought this on himself. He couldn’t perceive the threat Anton presented. Not then, not now — and it could cost Kate and I our lives. I shouldn’t forget that Jamison helped me escape the Enclave in my most desperate moment, but somehow I can’t find much sympathy for him — not with Anton’s rifle pointed at me.
“Have a seat,” Anton says. “Let’s talk.”
If he was smart, if he had learned his lesson, he would shoot us now. But he has the gun, and if I know him, he feels in control. It’ll be his last mistake.
I sit, saying, “You’re not getting off this island alive if you hurt us. But if you put the gun down, you might spend the rest of your life in jail instead.”
“Bullshit,” Anton spits.
I glance at Kate; she’s gone pale, her body trembling. She doesn’t know Anton’s signed his death warrant. For now, it’s better that way.
“No, it’s true,” she says. “It was my idea. I convinced him that you should face trial, that the world should have justice — not only the two of us.”
“Oh, I heard you,” Anton says. “But it depended on Hardt’s testimony, and he won’t be able to do that now.”
“We’ll find another way,” I say. “As much as I’d love to watch you suffer, Kate’s correct. We’re not going to stoop to the same level as the Masters.”
Anton laughs.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe this: with or without that gun, I can kill you. You won’t even make it out of this room.”
I should kill him now; if he points the gun at Kate, I will.
“I know I won’t,” he says. “But neither will you.”
“Let Kate leave. This is between us.”
“No,” he chuckles, a raspy grunting noise. “I want you to watch her die. That’s what was supposed to happen, before you ran away. Plus, she betrayed me. If she wanted to live, she should have told me you were the one behind Anarchy, Inc. I would have spared her.”
“I’d rather be dead,” Kate snaps.
The rifle shakes in Anton’s grip. He doesn’t have much strength, after the punishment he’s taken. He won’t be able to hold it up for long. But if he shoots first…
