"Now this here's a scene you just don't see every day," he drawled.

The jolt of adrenaline dispelled Gabe's fogginess like sunlight.

"That knife in your thigh hurt?" he asked.

"Not nearly as much as you're going to."

"Such a wit."

From time to time, Gabe wondered what his patients might have been feeling at the moment of their death. Now he acknowledged that it really wasn't all that bad. Carl whatever his last name was, was going to pull the trigger and Gabe Singleton wasn't going to exist anymore. It was as simple as that.

"Stand up!"

I'm not going to make it easy, Carl, Gabe was thinking. I promise you I'm not.

"Do I look like I can stand up?" he said.

"Stand up or I swear I'll shoot through every joint in your body starting from the toes up."

Gabe had heard enough.

Let it end here, he was thinking. Let it end here for both of us.

Without hesitation, he planted the right toe of his boot and drove his head with all his remaining strength into the man's groin. Carl went over the edge of the pool backward, with Gabe clinging to him like a chimpanzee to its mother. Somewhere during the fall there might have been a gunshot. Gabe felt another tearing pain—this one through his shoulder. Then there was a fearsome impact, with air exploding from his lungs.

Then there was nothing.

CHAPTER 63

Stilettoes of bright light penetrated Gabe's lids and pierced his eyes. He felt himself coming to like a patient in the recovery room following major surgery, only without any analgesia. Bit by bit, he was able to catalogue the pain. His right hip was throbbing, but no less than his left shoulder. The top of his head and space behind his eyes were like cardiac monitors, recording every heartbeat with a totally unpleasant pulsation. Bile and acid grated across the back of his throat.

He opened his eyes a slit, squinting at the glare, and was surprised to see the chandeliers and tattered pennants of the great room. Bit by bit, visions of his struggles with the two killers came into focus. He forced his eyes to open wider.

"Quite a mess you made in there, Doc. You should have seen ol' Carl's brains splattered all over the bottom of that pool."

Gabe stiffened but made no attempt to turn toward the voice. There was no need.

"Do you think you'll be in line for another performance citation for this, Griswold?" Gabe asked.

"We each gotta do what we each gotta do."

"And you just gotta destroy the life of the man you've sworn to protect."