On the final word Odal leaped at Hector, hit him with satisfying solidity, shoulder in mid-section, and they both went down.
A tangle of arms and legs, knees and elbows, gasps, two strong young bodies grappling. Somehow they rolled into one of the desk chairs, which toppled down on them. Odal felt Hector supping out of his grasp. As the Kerak major started to get back to his feet, the chair slid into him again and he slipped against it and hit the floor face first.
Swearing, he started to get up. But Hector was already on Us feet. And then the door swung open, stabbing light from the hallway into the room. A girl stood there, with a gun in her trembling hand.
“Hector! Here!” Ceri said, and she tossed the gun to the Watchman.
Hector grabbed it and pointed it at Odal. The Kerak major froze, on one knee, hands on the floor, head upturned, face a mask of rage turned to sudden fear. Hector stood equally immobile, arm outstretched with the gun aimed at Odal’s head.
“Kill him!” Geri whispered harshly. “Quickly, they’re coming!”
Hector let his arm relax. The gun dropped slightly away from Odal. “Get up,” he said. “And . don’t give me any excuses ‘for using this thing.”
Odal got slowly to his feet.
“Kill himi You promised!” Geri insisted, half in tears.
“I can’t … not like this….”
“You mean you won’t!”
Nodding without taking his eyes off Odal, Hector said, ‘That’s right, I won’t. Not even for you.”
Odai’s voice was like a knife. “You’d better kill me, Watchman, while you have the chance. I’ll spend the rest of my life hunting you.”