Page 197 of The Fourth Option
“He was wrong.”
“Funny how you are no longer interested in Snowball, cartels, and Big Pharma conspiracies. On your deathbed you want to know about an Afghan refugee.”
“Your cop cartel is finished. Stanton’s alive. All of you are going down.”
“You don’t quite have it all figured out.”
“I figured out enough.”
“You missed your calling, Walker. You should have been a cop. Well, your little girlfriend helped.”
“The law part trips me up.”
“She used you, Walker.”
“Who?”
“Leigh Ann Staub. When we killed Connor for getting too close, she called you to clean up her mess.”
I owed her husband.
“Think about it. You’re just a tool, Walker. First your country used you in two lost wars and then Leigh Ann Staub used you to kill off everyone responsible for her son’s death.”
Walker felt a sudden tightness in his chest, coupled with a pain that seemed to pulse in rhythm with his slowing heartbeats.
Rhythm.
Death.
His organs protested the agonizing onslaught of otherworldly searing torment. He struggled to breathe as a wave of dizziness sent him to his knees.
Bates went for his gun.
Don’t you die on your knees in this fucking mud!
What did Epicurus say about death?
“It is nothing to us.”
You will not die out of rhythm.
It is nothing to me.
With his AR barrel in the dirt, Walker shot his left hand out, catching the Glock palm up before Bates could get it online. His right hand grabbed Bates’s right wrist as he twisted the pistol away from the police officer’s body. He felt Bates’s trigger finger break and heard the big man grunt.
Only one of us walks away.
Walker shot to his feet, delivering a palm strike to the underside of Bates’s chin, following it with a left hook to the side of the larger man’s head with the hand that still held the Glock by its slide. He immediately dipped his hips and threw a right uppercut into the lieutenant’s midsection.
Walker felt a rib break as the lieutenant was driven back against the overturned vehicle. With the slung rifle caught between them, Walker’s right hand grabbed Bates by the back of the neck and pulled the taller man down as he propelled his body upward, smashing the top of his head into the officer’s already broken nose.
With Bates on the defensive, Walker reached for the Staccato in his waistband with his right hand. His draw was impeded by the AR, which allowed Bates to slam his left hand down, knocking the pistol to the ground.
Walker stepped to the inside, catching a glancing blow, but countered with a left elbow, which caught Bates in the jaw. The SEAL immediately shifted his hips to deliver another uppercut with his right, followed by two left hooks with the Glock and a devastating right cross. Walker focused his rage on the larger man before him, continuing his assault with elbows, knees, and fists.
You are running on reserves. Get on the gun before you die.
As Walker moved the Glock 22 into his right hand, Bates used his leg to propel himself off the overturned vehicle at his back, knocking the pistol into the mud.
