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The building shook, throwing hi both the nearby table and the si over us The pop and snarl of distant gunfire A strange, sweet sy out toward the exit O’Ryan shoved hi the wall, cupping his hands against it to try to see through it He knocked against the ain, heading into black The door in the corner, the one we’d coh, had no handle It could only be opened froainst a second wave of nausea

I want to live

I want to live

I have to live

"Ruby," I croaked out

O’Ryan turned slowly "What was that, three-two-eight-five? You ready to talk now?"

"My name," I said between clenched teeth, "is Ruby"

I overturned round, and an aftershock of pain lanced upI played the scene out in my mind, and heard the reality on a half-second delay The PSF in the corner of the roo O’Ryan on the first shot and shattering a section of the glass behind hi his ot one shot off, hitting the PSF’s throat before sluainst the wall beneath the one-

I must have passed out--for a few seconds, maybe minutes The Control Toas eerily silent, and the only sound I heard as I surfaced back to reality was my own heart’s slow, steady beat

Move, I ordered ress across the floor to O’Ryan’s body was slow and agonizing I needed the knife on his belt to cut the ties on h the puddle of congealing blood beneath hi my palms as I worked the knife blindly behind e, tented skin on ain that it was in pain I hopped and hobbled over to the door, but I’d been right--there was no handle, and the hinges were on the other side

I picked up O’Ryan’s pistol and positionedit as a brace for the gun’s recoil The reverberations raced up lass shards fell in waves I switched the safety back on and went to work knocking the re ed ht and tore at un flew out of lass around rip, just as the squeak of rubber against tile reachedtoward e of gunfire outside heateder curled around the trigger I was getting out of here--I was getting out--