Dark Zone

91

The bullet caught the top of Karr’s shoulder and made him lose his grip. He tried to swing himself forward so that he would land on the man who had shot at him, but instead he bounced against the edge of the metal fence and rebounded to the left, tumbling over but somehow managing to fall into the V of two girders right next to the man with the gun.

Karr saw the weapon, a Beretta pistol; the next thing he knew he was falling against the man, struggling against the thick girder.

There were two other men nearby in a steel-piped cage, and there were wires around Karr’s hand. The men didn’t have the coveralls the others had had. Karr thought for a second that they were policemen, but then something cracked, loudly, and he felt pain in his skull.

Something hard smacked his head again. A boot — one of the men was kicking him.

I’m dead, Karr thought, but he fought on.

Karr rolled and then saw that he was against the stack of bomb material — six large pieces of molded plastic strapped together with wire against the metal girder. He started tearing at them, felt something stabbing at him — he twirled and slammed his arm, throwing his assailant off.

The man fell, shrieking as he bounced off the ironwork.

Karr saw the wire for the bombs wrapped around the post. He grabbed at the wire, pulling but unable to get it off.

“Off!” he yelled. “Off! Off! Off!”

“The packages have to go off together,” said Rockman in his ear. “Pull them apart.”

Yeah, no kidding.

The helicopter loomed above.

“Get the helicopter away!” Karr shouted as the air around him began to explode.