“I’m going to kill you,” Poseidon grated.
“Wrong. That’s my line,” Ryan replied.
“I have the weapon.”
“Sure, a bucket of slop like you always has to have a blaster to back himself up. Or a sec man,” Ryan retorted. “Have you ever put yourself on the line, Admiral?”
“In my youth, always.”
“Then face me now, man to man, like the so-called leader you claim to be,” Ryan taunted. This was a calculated gamble. He didn’t feel up to unscrewing the lid off a predark jar of peanut butter, but at least if Poseidon didn’t chill him with the blaster, he still had a fighting chance. Maneuverability was one advantage the one-eyed man had over his larger opponent.
And unlike Poseidon, Ryan still had a life to go back to, a life to fight for.
Poseidon slid the ammo clip from the Glock and tossed blaster and bullets away.
They stood, facing each other, neither ready to make the first move.
Poseidon spoke first. “Our angle of descent keeps getting worse, Cawdor.”
“I noticed.”
“You’ve ruined everything.”
“No, Admiral, this was your deal,” Ryan retorted. “I don’t go looking for confrontations, but if you get in my face, I bite right back at you.”
“I know. That’s what makes you a worthy adversary, Cawdor. Do you know how boring my life had become until you came along? In less than a day, you’ve made me feel alive again. Reinvigorated. I could have done without you wrecking my ship, though.”
“I didn’t have to. The reactor went without me ever touching it,” Ryan shouted. “And I’m not here to be your fucking motivation, you pumped-up stupe bastard! I don’t want to stand here in a debate! We’re running out of time.”
“Time? Don’t speak to me of time, mister. I can deal with time. Aboard American subs, you adhere to a true Greenwich mean time. No matter what the hour is up there—” Poseidon gestured with a thumb at the hull overhead “—down here, we’re on my time.”
The Raleigh lurched, and a muffled explosion could be heard from behind the bulkhead as the entire inner hull vibrated.
Poseidon didn’t hesitate. Like a maddened bull, the large man charged up the slightly inclined metal floor directly for Ryan, the slick steel grates underfoot shrieking in protest from every pounding step of his well-polished black shoes. Ryan braced himself, but still wasn’t able to keep his footing when Poseidon bowled into his upper body with a single hardened shoulder.
The Admiral wasn’t fat. What hit Ryan was solid muscle and bone, sending him skittering backward down the cramped access hall and into the steel of a bulkhead. He felt his upper left rib cage compress under the assault, and it became hard to breathe.
He threw a left and caught Poseidon in the jaw, but the blow didn’t even seem to register. As the bearded face loomed before his own, Ryan head-butted his foe, breaking Poseidon’s nose. Blood ran from the Admiral’s nostrils and into his mustache and beard, but he still didn’t stop as he wrapped his hands around his adversary’s throat.
“I’ll see you drown with me, Cawdor,” Poseidon grated as he squeezed Ryan’s neck even harder.
Ryan kept silent as he tried to ignore the black spots beginning to dot his vision, and instead made himself focus on the array of deep purple veins standing out across his foe’s forehead. Poseidon seemed to have an obsession with the neck. That was how he’d killed Shauna, and now the submarine’s master wanted to do the same to him.
“High blood pressure’ll kill you, Admiral,” Ryan gasped, pushing the heel of his hand under and against Poseidon’s bearded chin.
“Killing you will be all the exercise I need for a long, long time,” his opponent said, ignoring Ryan’s relentless pressure on his chin.
Ryan abandoned the chin and shoved both hands upward, inserting his thumbs into Poseidon’s eye sockets and locking them down with all his strength. The effort paid off as the man fell back with a roar, grabbing at both of Ryan’s wrists and succeeding in seizing only one. The one-eyed warrior had no choice but to follow Poseidon’s lead as the Admiral pulled him back and over.