The pain in his shoulder was almost unbearable now. The Alpha man kept inching him closer to the rising and falling horse head. He was now no more than a foot away and he could feel the heat against him. He couldn’t keep Robertson from forcing him closer. Above him, the giant horse head bore down on them and then back up, the hydraulic cables looping lower, almost within his grasp. The churning, hissing noise sounded in his ears, the belching of the well pump almost reverberating through him.
“Here’s something you can take with you,” Robertson hissed at him. “I’m gonna make sure she’s dead. Tonight. How does that feel?” His eyes shone like fiery embers. He pinned Hauck’s hands onto Hauck’s chest and jerked him a few inches closer. From the corners of his eyes Hauck could see the pump tubing now only inches from his head, each earsplitting bellow from the well almost inside him now. It would only be seconds, and he would have Hauck up against the churning pump.
Hauck turned his face away.
He was almost directly underneath the enormous horse head now. Robertson raised up to put everything into one last thrust, and Hauck’s arms came free. With the pump shaft inches away, he waited until the horse head bore down, Robertson getting ready for one final push into its path, then spun the Alpha man with whatever he had left, grabbing on to the hydraulic cables that were barely a foot from his head.
“This is for Dani …” Hauck said, looking into Robertson’s eyes, and kneed him in the groin. The Alpha man raised up in pain. The pump lowered again and Hauck grabbed the cable and looped it around Robertson’s neck.
“And this is for Trey …”
In the nanosecond that the machine came to a stop, Robertson’s eyes bulged as he realized what would happen next and his hands pawed madly at the cables.
Hauck looped them one more time.
The pump reared back up, dragging Robertson upward with it. The hydraulic cables straightened as the giant horse head rose into the air, snapping Robertson’s neck with its force. It held him there, then three seconds later, drove downward again. Then back up, his body slack and immobile now, dangling tautly in a grim, deadly rhythm.
Up. And then back down.
Up and down.
Exhausted, Hauck lifted himself to his knees. He looked up at Robertson’s inert body being jerked around like some crash dummy. “So how does that feel, asshole?” he said.
He knew he didn’t have much time. McKay was still somewhere. He might well have even watched what had happened on the monitors inside. Hauck looked around on the ground, searching madly for the gun Robertson had kicked away. It had to be here somewhere … He was sure it—
Then he heard the sound of shoes crunching on gravel and a familiar click that was as emptying of all hope as it was unmistakable.
“Well done. I give you full credit, kicking his ass. And with one arm.”
Hauck looked up. McKay had his gun on him, nodding admiringly toward Robertson. “Looking for this?” He kicked Robertson’s gun about six feet away.
Hauck watched the gun skip out of his reach. All hope disappeared with it.
“It’s not going to work,” Hauck said, rolling back on his knees. “Too many people already know. Even if you kill me, it’ll just bring everything down. There isn’t going to be any merger.” He looked at McKay, the gun pointed at his chest. “There’s nothing left to protect.”
“You may be right.” McKay nodded with a resigned breath. “But you surely didn’t think I’m going to let you just walk out of here. Not now.” He came over and put his foot on Hauck’s shoulder and pushed him back to the ground. Hauck grimaced. He bent and put the gun against Hauck’s face, Hauck too exhausted now and with too much blood lost to even feel fear. Just that this was the end. He let his mind go. To Dani first—how he prayed she would somehow be safe after this, even though he was unable to save her now. And then to Jessie, who would never even know what happened to her father. How he died. He tried to summon the strength, but he couldn’t. He grabbed a fistful of dirt and just looked up at the wide moon, as good a sight as any to dream on.
He heard a voice. “Nothing personal, Mr. Hauck.”
He wanted to stab one more time at the gun, but there was nothing left, only the dirt slipping out of his fist.
Nothing.
Suddenly there was the sound of tires on gravel and a blinding cone of light swept over him and McKay.
It didn’t bring Hauck much elation. It was likely just the other Alpha operative coming back up from the gate. Which was what McKay must have assumed as he continued to press the muzzle of the gun against Hauck’s skull.
But this light was blue and red. And whirling. And it seemed there were several of them, bouncing off the trestles. Everywhere.
Hauck heard McKay mutter under his breath. “What the fuck is …”
Hauck squinted into the glare. Suddenly he heard shouts, car doors opening. More lights and vehicles coming up behind them. Into the area around the well, with the horse head with Robertson’s body attached continuing to drag him up and down.
For a moment Hauck thought it was likely just a dream, until the pressure against his skull suddenly lifted.
And then he heard someone shout, out of the glare of rotating lights. A voice that was familiar, but which he’d heard only once before, so it took him a second to be sure.
“I don’t think you want to go through with that, Mr. McKay. Enough’s enough now, don’t you think?”
Chief Riddick’s voice.
“What the hell are you doing here, Joe?” McKay barked back. It didn’t have the feel of a question, more of a command.
“Maybe something I should’ve done a while ago. Put the gun down now. No need to make it worse. It’s all over.”
More cars came up through the gate. Hauck rolled onto his side and squinted into the glare. McKay stood up, his fingers still flexed on the trigger. As many as twenty people were facing him. Three or four in uniform. Others, as Hauck narrowed his eyes in disbelief, he had seen earlier. Milt Yarrow. And Don Ellis. A lot of people pointing guns. Rifles and shotguns.
“You’re making the mistake of your life, Riddick,” McKay seethed in a voice like stone.
“Maybe. But in my view, I think it’s more like I’m finally undoing it,” the police chief replied. “You don’t want to test my resolve here, Mr. McKay.”