Page 56 of Mountain Trial

This seemed one of those cases where the world really would have been better if Bull had stayed in that chair.

“I’ll tell you,” the man went on. “I learned how important shoulders are. They are the wheelchair propellers, man. What would you do without them?”

The ball of fear inside his belly grew. It was as if Bull had managed to tap directly into one of his greatest fears. Luc needed his shoulders for everything in his day-to-day life.

“If you don’t tell me whose gun that is, I’m going to break your shoulders,” Bull whispered to him.

“Fuck you, asshole. The gun is mine,” Luc repeated.

Bull nodded and walked behind him, grabbing Luc’s right forearm with both wrists and placing it at his back. The hold was tight but not painful in and of itself, until the man jerked upwards.

“You have about ten seconds to tell me the truth,” Bull said, breathing heavily into his ear, “before your shoulder joint pops out. Then I’ll go for the other one.”

Luc gritted his teeth to stop himself from screaming at the sudden agony.

“No! Don’t hurt him!” Kat screamed, crawling to them. “Please. Please leave him alone.”

Bull stopped exerting upwards pressure, but kept his hold tight. Luc concentrated on breathing through his nose in an attempt to manage the pain.

“Do you know anything?” Bull said to Kat, without releasing Luc. Luc couldn’t see his face but his voice sounded interested.

“She can’t tell you anything different because it’s my fucking gun, asshole,” Luc said.

“A man who sticks to his word. I can respect that,” Bull said. Luc felt him tighten his hold on his wrists and knew he was getting ready to break the joint.

A shout sounded from the other side of the room. It was the mercenary manning the back door.

“Bull! Come take a look at this!”

Bull cursed but released Luc’s wrist. “Wait for me. Don’t go anywhere,” he hissed, then laughed at his own joke. “Keep an eye on him,” he told Mako, who grunted in assent and kept patrolling.

Luc rotated the shoulder gently. There was pain, but the agony from seconds earlier was slowly fading.

It’s not broken.

It’s not broken.

“Are you okay?” Kat whispered. She was on her knees besides his wheelchair, staring up at him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“I’m okay. You don’t have to be sorry,” he whispered back.

“Something’s happening,” she said. Luc followed her eyes to the back door, where four of the mercenaries now congregated, looking at a small tablet in Bull’s hand.

Kat

I wish I could read lips.

“Your colleagues are outside, right?” Luc whispered.

Kat nodded. She took in a deep breath, then exhaled softly. It seemed to have absolutely no effect on her panic. She was a Search & Rescue pilot. This situation was far out of her area of expertise.

Her eyes met Damien’s from across the room. He was sitting down, like all the other hostages, but his large body was taut with tension.

He looked pointedly at each door, then above them at the large cast iron roof windows.

That’s how they’ll get in.

They’ve planted devices on both doors, but not on the roof.