Next second I heard a bellow like an enraged bull and the FBI guns fell silent. Chancing a bullet in the face, I leaned forward and saw Rink stalking among the men, yelling at them and generally threatening to tear their heads off if any of them had hurt me. He looked up and I waved. He nodded back at me, but then turned on the men, shouting again. HRT troopers are very tough guys, but Rink’s tougher. They acquiesced to his command, moving back to offer covering fire for me instead.

I’d been distracted for the last few seconds.

Those seconds had almost proven fatal, but the next few weren’t that much different.

As I turned I caught a blur of movement from above me.

Instinct caused me to dodge and to bring up my SIG in response.

I fired at the exact same moment that Rickard did. Déjà vu all over again.

This time there was no striking of my gun to put off my aim, my bullet hit Rickard in the chest and he slid back down beyond the peak of the roof. It was gratifying, but it didn’t stop Rickard’s bullet from striking me in my right thigh. My leg was knocked from under me and I crashed facefirst against the tiles, rebounded off and pitched backward.

Three floors up, it looked a long way to the ground.

It looked a whole lot further when spilling headfirst over a crumbling balustrade.

Chapter 46

46

Being shot in the chest was just the latest in a series of shocks to his system that Rickard had to contend with. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the worst.

Finding the corpse in lieu of his wife was the first. That had thrown him more than he liked to admit. It had made him realize how stupid he’d been. Walking directly into a trap that was simple to avoid had been an amateur’s mistake. It slowed him momentarily as he considered his next move. He’d been led to the chamber with the intention of blocking him in. Any minute the FBI would come boiling into the room and he didn’t expect to be taken alive. He decided that the hall was no way out, the room had no other exits, not even a window he could smash his way through, so that left him only one escape route. Decision made, he had no qualms about standing on the corpse while he dislodged a ceiling tile and swarmed up and onto a joist.