Damnation Street

30.

Bishop moved. It took all the strength he had left. From the moment he'd fallen, he'd been marshaling the violence in him. Now he willed it to explode in this single motion.

As the specialist put the gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger, Bishop's left arm-the arm lying slack on his lap-drove up and forward. His forearm hit the killer's gun hand, knocking it aside. The gun went off. The report was deafening. The bullet whistled over Bishop's skull. It cut through the curtain behind him and shattered the window. Bishop's arm, meanwhile, kept driving forward. His hand, the fingers stiffened, jammed into the killer's eye.

It wasn't a good hit. Bishop didn't have a good hit left in him. But it nailed the eyeball straight on. The Shadowman cried out. Instinctively, he grabbed his eye with both hands, dropping the Saracen. The gun fell to the carpet with a dull thud.

But the killer recovered immediately. Holding his eye with his left hand, he groped for the fallen weapon with his right.

Bishop struggled to rise.

There wasn't much time. Another second, the Shadow-man would have the gun in his grasp. Bishop managed to get one foot flat on the floor. He managed to get one hand flat on the floor. He clutched at the cloth of the curtain with the other hand. He pushed himself up and pulled himself up. The cold, dull sensation of being shot was morphing quickly now into a pulsing, spreading red zone of pain. He couldn't be sure, but he had the sense that the scream he was hearing was coming from him. He struggled up an inch, another inch.

And the Shadowman grabbed the Saracen. Holding his hurt eye shut with his left hand, he focused the other eye on the gun. He fumbled with it for a moment. Then he had it, gripped it. He swung it toward Bishop.

Bishop screamed again. He propelled himself upward with his legs. He threw his upper body back against the curtains. He felt the curtains catch him and give way. He felt his guts become a single drilled nerve. He saw the killer bring the Saracen around. He saw the endlessly deep black bore of the gun. The curtain behind him gave way, gave way.

Then the Shadowman fired and Bishop fell.

He threw himself out the shattered window. He felt himself tumbling through the open air. He felt pain and heat and swirling confusion.

He caught a glimpse of the swimming pool beneath him. The glare of the sun on the surface flashed up at him. It obliterated everything. Somewhere women were screaming. Inside him the pain was screaming, one great red scream. But his eyes, his mind, were filled with that dazzling light coming up to meet him.

Then he hit the water and the light went out.