The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [131]
Daniel saw what was happening in horror and unlike Sarit he had at least some idea of the reason.
But could Gabrielle be that mad? That far gone?
The question was answered as Sarit staggered to her feet and tried to run towards the gun. Gabrielle got up and jumped on Sarit again, this time sending the pair of them tumbling into the water where Gabrielle’s advantage in size was compounded by her strength built up through competitive swimming.
Less than a second later, Gabrielle’s powerful arms forced Sarit into a kneeling position and began thrusting her face under the water, choking the life out of her.
Daniel was about to intervene, but then he saw something that filled him with terror.
Less than fifty yards away, Goliath had rallied his strength and was now limping slowly forward once again towards the water’s edge a few yards away. In a matter of seconds, he would be in a position to drop the shroud into the water and it would be the end of the State of Israel and its people: Jews and Arabs.
Daniel knew that the danger to Israel outweighed the danger to Sarit and he did the only thing he could do. He sprinted towards Goliath.
The giant turned round just in time to see Daniel closing the last few yards and although he could have thrown the shroud in the water quite easily, a sense of anger and pride prompted him to turn to Daniel instead to fight him.
Daniel threw himself on to Goliath and tried to wrestle him to the ground, but even though Goliath was wounded, he was still too strong. The giant tried to get him in one of his infamous headlocks but the one thing Daniel had going for him was that he had the inside position. This made it harder for Goliath to work his set piece.
More importantly, Daniel noticed that Goliath had dropped the shroud.
Realizing that his own life too was less important than that of a nation, he put his foot on the shroud and with a scraping motion kicked it backwards so that it was behind both of them.
Sarit’s lungs were filling up with water and she could feel her consciousness slipping away. Her head was thrashing this way and that as she struggled to come to the surface. Somehow she managed to force her head above water long enough to take a breath, but first she had to expel the water from her lungs. She coughed and choked and sputtered, spurting out some of the water, but not all of it.
And as she drew in her breath, the strong hands and arms of Gabrielle forced her under the water yet again. This time, she managed to hold her breath and not take in any more water. But she didn’t know how long she could hold out. She had been well aware, throughout this assignment, that Goliath was a dangerous adversary. But now as she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, she remembered that Gabrielle was a former competitive swimmer.
Think, Sarit, think!
Sarit was half a head shorter and not nearly as strong. But she was trained. Suddenly, all her training came back to her. Instead of her futile, feeble efforts to pull Gabrielle’s hands away, she realized she needed to do an inside sweep. The problem was that she was practically kneeling and couldn’t get the leverage.
Nevertheless, she clenched her fists, inserted her arms inside Gabrielle’s grip and swept upward and outward with an almighty thrust. Despite the power of the move, it failed to break Gabrielle’s grip, accomplishing at most a slight loosening of the assailant’s fingers. But that was enough. It made Sarit realize that she had a second line of attack.
Lightning fast, she delivered a vicious punch between Gabrielle’s legs. A cry of pain went up from the Austrian woman and at the same time her grip slackened. That was all the opportunity Sarit needed. In a split second, she grabbed Gabrielle’s hair and pulled her head forward and downward. At the same time, forcing herself against the pressure of Gabrielle’s mighty hands, she managed to lift her own head to deliver a vicious head butt, breaking the blonde’s nose.