Desperately, he threw his right hand up. He stopped falling. It was a human arm, pulling him up from the hole, pulling him up into the cold, open air.
“Okay, everybody, get into your warm clothes. We’re going outside,” Steve Mills announced.
The three women looked at him as if he were crazy.
“What for?” Shelly asked.
“The surprise!” he said. “It’s an outdoor surprise!”
Only my husband, thought Peggy, would plan an outdoor surprise in the middle of winter in the middle of the night. “Now?” she asked.
Steve looked at his watch. “You have fifteen minutes,” he said.
“Do you have this confused with New Year’s Eve?” she asked. Her watch said it was a quarter to twelve.
Karen finished her brandy and got up. It had been a wonderful evening, and a midnight surprise would be just the thing to top it off. She took Shelly by the hand. “Come on, kid! Let’s see what your old man has up his sleeve.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Karen pulled Shelly up and they went off to get their coats.
Ed waited until the truck’s taillights disappeared into the snow and then pushed himself up. “Are you okay?” he asked Graham.
“You think they have any booze at this house?”
Ed hefted Graham up a little higher and looked around. The wind had stopped blowing, the snow was falling straight down now, and he still couldn’t see a damn thing.
“Which way is north?” he asked.
“On a map it’s usually up,” Graham answered.
“Which way is up?”
“You sound like Neal.”
Ed turned left and staggered on.
Neal and Cal stood facing each other on the small table of rock.
“I couldn’t just let you fall, Neal buddy,” Cal said. “We’ve had this date for a long time.”
Cal pulled his knife and held it out in front of him.
“I just want the boy,” Neal answered. He shifted his weight to his back foot and let his shoe dig into the crusty snow.
“That’s the problem. I would just shoot you, but the bullet might go right through you and hit the Son of God there. Besides, I want the pleasure of gutting you, Neal buddy.”
“It’s over, Cal. Get away while you have the chance.”
“Oh, I’ll get away, Neal buddy. And it ain’t over. It ain’t over until we win.”
“You’ve lost! Don’t you understand that?”
There’s no time for this, Neal thought. He kept his eyes on Cal’s face but used his peripheral vision to see the twelve-foot drop off to his left. Then it was a steep slope down into the draw where Jory had left the horse.
Cal inched forward. “You’ll never beat us,” he said. “You’re weak. That’s why you’ve let the niggers run wild in the cities and the Jews take over the government. They know you’re weak. That’s why we’ll win. It’s like tonight, Neal, you just can’t pull the trigger.”
Neal’s left arm slowly moved upward and outward, hand open in the knife position. Obliquely Tame Tiger. Three years of practice on his Chinese knoll and he had never really mastered it.
It’s time I did, he thought.
He slowly raised his right leg and pivoted on his left foot. He spun just as Cal sprang forward, giving him only the boy as a target. Cal pulled up for a split second.
Neal finished a complete revolution and shifted his weight forward as he brought his right foot down, his left hand raised in front of his face, his right hand open behind his head.
He struck like a viper, putting all of the momentum from the spin, all of his weight, and all of his concentration into his right hand as its edge smashed into Cal’s neck.
The blow snapped Cal’s head to the left and took him off his feet just enough to slip on the snow. He kept his balance for half a second and then slipped off the rock.
“Okay, Cody, hold on,” Neal said. He sat down, looked for the flattest spot, and jumped for it. He landed hard but kept his feet, and then skidded, fell, and slid down the slope. He grabbed cedars on the way down to keep his balance and finally landed in the draw. A couple of minutes of scrambling got him to where Midnight was haltered. He untied the reins and the horse started to rear and buck. Cody started to scream again as Neal managed to get a foot in the spinning stirrup and haul himself into the saddle. Midnight reared on his hind legs and Neal almost pitched off backward, but his right foot caught the stirrup and he dug his knees into the horse’s flank.
“Go, you son of a bitch!” Neal yelled. He turned the horse’s head and spurred him down the draw. Right toward the edge of the cliff.
Hansen was carrying Jory’s body and working his way down the diagonal shelf of rock when he heard the hooves coming. He turned to his right and saw a black horse coming straight at him out of the darkness.
“Stop, you son of a bitch!” Neal yelled. He pulled up on the reins and the horse reared again, kicking out his front hooves and slashing them at the man who blocked his path. Neal and Hansen exchanged startled looks, then Neal flipped over the reins and started the horse down the slick rock ramp toward the canyon.
Craig raised his rifle and sighted it on Neal’s back.
Hansen screamed, “Don’t shoot! He has the boy!”
Craig lowered his rifle. Hansen set Jory’s body down in the draw. Then the three men raced down the rock shelf for their horses.
Bill McCurdy heard the yelling. He grabbed his rifle from the back of his horse and positioned himself at the bottom of the shelf.
Neal knew they were going to die. Midnight was galloping full stride down the narrow shelf of rock. The only reason he didn’t slip and plunge off the side was that his hooves never seemed to touch the slick ground. Neal leaned low over the horse’s neck. He gripped the reins in one hand and the saddle horn in the other. Behind him, Cody McCall was screaming. With laughter.
Then Neal saw a human form rise up just below them and raise his rifle.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” Billy yelled.
“I can’t stop, you asshole!” Neal yelled back.
Billy took aim.
Midnight saw Billy, turned, and without breaking stride, jumped off the cliff.
They seemed to be in the air for the longest damn time as Neal plunged forward with the horse. His nose was even with Midnight’s shoulder and he felt as if he were looking straight down at the ground. Cody’s weight was about to somersault him over the horse’s neck.
They landed with a heavy thud that knocked Neal back in the saddle. Cody giggled with delight as the horse slowed to a canter and headed down the canyon.
Neal heard the sound of hoofbeats coming after him. He kicked Midnight back into a gallop.
Karen laughed as Steve made a big show of lining them up in the yard.
“Okay,” he yelled. “Ready?”
“Ready!” they all yelled back.
“Are you really ready?”
“Yes!”
Steve paused dramatically, then said, “Close your eyes!”
Karen groaned in rhythm with her two friends. She was having a great time. She closed her eyes, stuck her tongue out, and felt the snowflakes melt.
“I’m going to start the countdown!” Steve yelled.
They all groaned again.
Ed had to rest but knew he couldn’t. Graham was unconscious, maybe in shock. Any delay might kill him. But where the hell were they? Had they passed by the house and not known it? Were they headed in the wrong direction? Walking in circles?
His legs felt like concrete pillars and his arms felt like wood, if wood could ache the way his arms did. His feet were freezing and he was starting to worry about frostbite now.
Where in hell were they?