The second man on the ground held onto Genesis II. He turned.
Johnny drove his fist into the man’s jaw. The man toppled backward against the truck. Johnny reached for Genesis II, but the third man in the truck pulled him up into the cabin and out of Johnny’s outstretched hands.
Bobby started toward the truck. Nadia grabbed his arm and stopped him. Shoved him to the ground and sent him rolling on the lawn.
Nakamura put his hands on the bed of the truck to lift himself up. Johnny did the same on the other side. Nakamura had his back to the man he’d hit. He didn’t see that the man was recovering and pulling something out from beneath his coat.
“Hiroshi, watch out!” Nadia said.
The man behind Nakamura pulled him to the ground and drove a knife through his throat. Blood spurted. The Russian pulled the knife out, twisted the doctor around, and plunged it into his heart. Nakamura slumped to the asphalt.
The third man stomped on Johnny’s hand to prevent him from vaulting into the truck. The killer pulled the knife out of Nakamura’s chest. Johnny must have sensed the danger. He dropped down to the ground and faced him.
Nadia ran down the stairs and ripped a boulder out of the stone wall. Sprinted toward the man with the knife. Johnny had removed his belt to defend himself. Nadia would sneak up behind the man with the knife and pummel him in the head—
Something caught her eye on the left in her peripheral vision.
A fourth man was sprinting around from the back of the house. Who was he? He must have been there all along, covering the back entrance. Knife in his right hand. Overhand grip.
Nadia threw the boulder at him. It bounced off his chest.
He closed in with shocking speed. Running was useless.
He would be upon her in seconds.
CHAPTER 18
Johnny gripped the ends of his belt in each hand. He made circles with his wrists, gathered the leather around them, and pulled the belt tight.
The man with the knife assumed a fighting stance. Legs bent, left foot in front of the right. He held the knife in his fist, blade down. He moved his hands in a circular motion, bobbed and weaved on the balls of his feet. His movements were precise. His eyes shone with intensity and confidence. He was trained. Experienced. Ex-military, Johnny thought.
Johnny had grown up a street fighter in Newark. A street fighter always had a chance. Especially when there were no guns involved. And if the Russians had guns he’d already be dead. But they weren’t on home turf. And they hadn’t been in town long enough to get them.
The man threw a left jab. Johnny deflected it with his left arm. The man circled and jabbed two more times. Johnny pushed his arm aside.
The man lunged with the knife.
Johnny stepped back. The knife came up short of his heart. A stab of fear energized his countermove. He brought the belt under the man’s wrist. Pulled up. The man resisted but Johnny gritted his teeth and pulled harder. He told himself he was stronger than the other guy. All those years in the gym. When the man groaned and stood his ground, Johnny commanded himself to insist he was stronger—
The man’s knife hand rose. Johnny kicked him in the balls.
The man groaned and doubled over. They’d both been holding their breath. Johnny gasped for air as he reared his foot back and aimed at the man’s head.
The man blocked the kick with his free arm. Exploded to his feet. Pulled his knife hand back and grabbed the belt with his free hand, both with the same motion. Thrust the blade toward Johnny’s chest.
Johnny shifted to the right and pulled back.
The blade came straight at him. And then stopped. The man had run out of reach. Johnny swung his left forearm and deflected the man’s knife hand away. He kicked with his left foot. Connected with the man’s stomach. The man recoiled but regained his footing immediately. The bastard simply would not go down. Johnny prepared to deflect another thrust of the knife—
The second man barreled into Johnny. Tackled him to the ground. Johnny crashed to the asphalt. The fall knocked the wind out of him. Pain shot through the back of his head. He tried to move but the man was too heavy. For the first time, a touch of panic gripped him. He immediately told himself to relax, and that mere thought freed his mind. Johnny wrapped the belt around the man’s neck and pulled as hard as he could. The man thrust his fingers toward Johnny’s eyes.
Johnny smashed his forehead into the man’s nose. Pulled the noose tight, wrapped his legs around the man’s ankles, and rolled hard to the left.
Johnny’s torso flipped to the top. They reversed positions. A surge of hope. He was on top. He had the advantage— The first man. Where was the first man?
A sense of dread seized him. He knew he was about to be killed even before he felt the weight of the first man on his back, the fist crashing down the back of his neck. The force of the blow left him barely conscious. It twisted his neck to the right, just enough for him to see the knife being raised above his head.
At the same time, his hands went slack. The second man, beneath him, coughed and spit in his face. Johnny felt his airways constrained. He realized the second man was now choking him from below.
A kaleidoscope of memories flashed through his mind. They ended with Nadia, laughing at something he’d said, eyes sparkling and lips open. God how he loved those eyes. She was speaking but he couldn’t hear any words, all he knew was that she was happy and carefree, the way he longed for her to be.
Except she wasn’t happy or carefree. She was about to be killed, too.
A burst of adrenaline awakened him. He tried to breathe but couldn’t. A knife was about to plunge into his back. Nadia was going to die, too.
A split second left.
Do something.
CHAPTER 19
Bobby watched the first man plunge the knife through Nakamura’s neck. He stuck it in one side, and a third of the blade came out the other. The killing mesmerized Bobby. It shouldn’t have. He’d killed two people himself, in self-defense, so he shouldn’t have been shocked. But he was. He’d never seen a knife thrust through a man’s throat. It was so grotesque he couldn’t stop thinking about it. His mind replayed the scene as the doctor’s body fell limp on the road—
Johnny was in trouble. He’d fought off his man but now the man with the knife was coming for him. And the man he’d fought off would soon recover. There would be two of them. Two on one.
Johnny had saved him from a life in prison.
Help him.
Bobby started toward the truck. Someone shoved him to the ground. He turned. It was Nadia. She picked up a boulder and raced to help Johnny—
A fourth man came flying from around the house. Clearly the athlete of the four. If you send a man to watch the back of the house, make sure he’s the one who can run, just in case he has to chase someone.
Bobby jumped to his feet. In the time it took him to rise, the fourth man blew past him. Nadia threw her boulder. It hit him in the chest and slowed him down but just for an instant. He raised his knife in the air.
Bobby raced toward her, knowing he was too late, fearing that he would only get himself killed, too, certain that he couldn’t live with himself unless he did everything possible to save her.
A whistling sound. Like a hockey puck flying past his left ear on open ice, only louder. A light gust of wind ruffled the hairs on the nape of his neck.
An object hit the fourth man in the neck. His head fell off his body. His legs collapsed beneath his headless torso. A black object fell to the ground beside the body. It looked like the wing from a toy airplane.