Page 102 of Fish in a Barrel
“Ellery, get off me!” Jackson begged, his voice strained.
Oh shit. “Your back?” Ellery asked solicitously, but he wasn’t moving.
“You! You are in the line of fire. Jesus, baby, get up and get to safety!”
“No,” Ellery said, eyes closed. “He was going to hit you just to get you out of the way. I could see the way the target moved. Couldn’t you see the target?”
Jackson’s little huff of breath told Ellery he hadn’t.
“Baby, we’ve got to get up so we can get to safety,” he rasped, as Goslar, who had been studying the destroyed LED panel, turned around and peered at the opposite end of the stadium.
“Is somebodyshootingat us?”
They both saw the red dot appear on his chest, and Ellery felt Jackson’s entire body labor for enough air to be heard.
“Adler!”he called. “Adler, don’t!”
The red dot stayed trained on Goslar’s chest, but Adler didn’t fire.
“Who the fuck is Adler?” Goslar asked, obviously not catching humilityora clue.
“A Marine sniper you pissed off,” Ellery hissed. “Now shut up and let him work!”
“Adler!” Jackson called again, and Ellery put some of his weight on his knees and elbows on the track so Jackson could breathe, but he didn’t roll off. No. He’d seen the tiny dot of the laser sight, and his heart had stopped. All those images of Jackson had whirled faster and faster to this point in time, in which Ellery absolutely would not sacrifice him under any circumstances. But Jackson still needed to work.
“C’mon, man!” Jackson continued, obviously aware of the absurdity of conducting negotiations from the flat of his back, but Ellery couldn’t help that. “Just don’t! No more shooting! No more death! We’ve got people on you now. You gave away your position. You can still make it out of here alive!”
“For what?” came the fractured voice, and Ellery turned his head along with Jackson, both of them searching the area round the announcer’s box where the first shot had obviously come from. “What do I have to live for?” Adler’s voice broke again. “He’s gone. He’s gone, and that’s just the way it is, man. But I can do this for him.”
“But this isn’t what he wants!” Jackson cried. “His mother needs you, Myron. She needs you alive. She needs you to keep Nathan alive for her. His father needs you to keepheralive. They love you, man. You’re their hope!”
There was a heavy silence, and Jackson looked up into Ellery’s face.
“Baby, get up,” he begged, all his air gone and his voice a bare whisper, and Ellery saw his eyes had grown red-rimmed. “I’m not sure if this is going to work. I need you to get to safety.”
“No,” Ellery returned. He bit his lip. “Just no. Not again. Just no.”
“You make it sound easy!” Adler cried.
“Does this look easy?” Jackson retorted, some of his frustration coming out in his voice. “Can youseethis? He won’t get up! He won’t go to safety! He doesn’t want me hurt anymore, and all I want is for him to be okay! Do you think I don’t know how you feel?” He labored for another breath, but Ellery wasn’t crushing him anymore. Ellery realized his stomach was clenched tight against his own sobs. “Do you think I don’t worry every day that this person who makes my life worth living won’t be taken away? His mother called me this morning. Hismother. And all she wanted was to make sure I was okay. And if anything”—his voice dropped for Ellery’s ears only—“oh God, baby, get up. I’m begging you”—-then rose again—“if anything happened to him, do you think I’d want to live?”
Adler’s voice drifted across the field to them, grief-stricken, dreamy. Only the damning red dot, unmovable on Goslar’s chest, gave any indication he was still ready to follow through.
“I don’t want to live.”
“You have to!” Jackson cried. “You have to! Because Nathan’s parents love you. And you’re all that’s left of their son. Don’t give up on them. Nathan’s dad was trying to protect you. Don’t repay him like this!”
“They were going to spread it in the papers,” Adler said, openly sobbing. “My beautiful, beautiful boy, and they were going to make him look like trash.They’retrash.They’rethe ones who should be treated like trash—”
“And we’re going to do that!” Jackson called. “Don’t you want to live to see it? Do you think this asshole is strong enough for prison? Don’t you want to hear how he breaks? Don’t you want to watch Cartman get everything taken away? You’ll have to do jail time, but you can do it with honor. Do you think these assholes have honor? Do you think they’ll have Nathan’s parents writing them? Keeping them human? Please, Myron. Please. I’m begging you. Put the gun down.” He cupped Ellery’s cheeks then, his palms sliding in Ellery’s tears. “Please, baby,” he whispered. “Please.”
There was a heartbeat of silence. Then another.
The telltale dot on Goslar’s chest disappeared.
Henry’s voice sailed across the stadium. “We’ve got him, Jackson. It’s all clear.”
Ellery collapsed against Jackson again, all the strength gone from his limbs, just as Goslar took off for the tunnel.
