The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [169]
“No! Don’t!” Lisa screamed as her hands grabbed Claremont’s wrist. Her face and arms were covered in hundreds of tiny, bleeding cuts. “Please don’t drop me!”
Without the momentum to reach the pool, Lisa would fall directly onto the tiled atrium, where a crowd had already started to gather. “Drop her,” Rick said.
“What?” Claremont asked.
“Please don’t!” Lisa screamed. “Don’t drop me!”
“Drop her, and let’s get out of here,” Rick said. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense.”
Still, Claremont held on to Lisa’s handcuffs, his arm tensing from the weight.
“I said drop her,” Rick demanded. “What’s wrong with you? We were going to kill them anyway.”
With all his strength, Claremont held tight.
Rick pulled his gun from his waist and pointed it at Claremont’s head. “You’re not Richard Claremont. Who the hell are you?” Lifting his arm, Claremont started to pull Lisa to safety. Rick pulled back the hammer on his gun and pressed the gun against Claremont’s head. “You have three seconds to tell me who you are. At the end of three, you’re both going out this window. One…two…”
“Ben!” Lisa screamed. Rick spun around to a blast of white foam. As Rick rubbed his burning eyes, Ben ran into the corridor wielding a fire extinguisher. With his wrists still handcuffed, Ben swung the fire extinguisher like a baseball bat and slammed Rick in the side of the head. Rick stumbled backward and fell to the floor. He fired his gun, and a jagged pain ripped through Ben’s left shoulder. He’d been shot. Staggering forward, Ben swung the fire extinguisher again, this time knocking the gun out of Rick’s hands.
Ben struggled to swing the fire extinguisher one more time, but the pain in his shoulder was impossible to ignore. Seeing the blood that rushed down his arm, he felt faint and dropped the extinguisher.
“Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” Rick asked, stumbling to his feet. “The next one’s going in your head.”
Holding his shoulder, Ben looked down the hallway and saw Rick’s gun lying on the floor by the elevators. He looked back at Rick, who was almost standing.
“GET THE GUN!” Claremont screamed, pulling Lisa to safety.
Ignoring the gun, Ben raced toward Rick. Grasping his hands together, Ben swung wildly at Rick’s head. When his handcuffs struck Rick’s face, Rick staggered backward. As Ben moved in to hit him again, Rick slammed his fist into Ben’s gunshot wound. Ben screamed, clutching his shoulder. Rick looked down the hallway at the gun.
Fighting the urge to collapse, Ben saw Rick move toward the gun. Once again, he ran at Rick, plowing into him from behind and knocking him to the floor. Rick turned on his back and tried to fight his way free, but Ben stayed on top of him. Ben grabbed Rick by the throat and pinned him against the floor. “You greedy bastard!” Ben screamed as Rick thrashed wildly. “You killed Ober!”
“He killed himself,” Rick coughed.
“NO!” Ben screamed, banging Rick’s head against the floor. “YOU KILLED HIM!” Ben tightened his grip around Rick’s throat. “YOU WANT TO SEE HOW OBER FELT? YOU WANT TO FEEL HOW HE DIED?” Rick swung at Ben’s head, attempting to remove his attacker. Ben wouldn’t budge. Rick punched at Ben’s bloody shoulder. Ben didn’t move. The more Rick fought, the tighter Ben’s grip. Eventually, the coughing stopped and the struggling ceased—Rick was finally unconscious. But Ben didn’t let go of Rick’s throat. “You killed my friend!” Ben sobbed as rage slowly erupted into tears. “I’ll kill you for that!”
As tears rolled off Ben’s cheeks, Rick’s face turned beet red. Ben clenched even harder. With Rick’s life in his hands, Ben remembered his last conversation with him. “You want to see me break the rules?” Ben growled as blood continued to flush Rick’s face. “Here’s what I think of your damn rules.” Holding fast to Rick’s throat, Ben remembered Rick’s boasting. And Nathan’s beating. And Lisa’s bleeding. And Ober’s hanging.
Ben sobbed and, staring down at Rick’s swollen face, he let go: “Ober! I