The Executioner
Page 5
pedestal. But she kept herselferect, bracing against the pedestal with her left hand. A red blotch wasspreading from her shoulder to her breast and down her side. There wasshock and pain in her eyes, but the half-smile was still on her lips.
"Une!" shouted the crowd, counting his first shot.
Jacques no longer needed a will of his own. The momentum of a thousanddeaths swept him along, overpowering everything else.
"Deux!" screamed the hundred thousand voices. "Deux! Deux!"
His second shot struck Ann well below the left shoulder, knocking heraway from the support of the pedestal, sprawling her in the dust. Yet soindomitable was her will that she brought her hands together and raisedherself to her knees. Her entire upper body was covered with dust andspreading fingers of crimson.
"Trois!" shrieked the maddened crowd. "Trois! Trois!"
Women tore away pieces of their clothing and waved them with savageabandon.
"Trois! Trois! Trois!"
The third shot could barely be heard. Ann was lifted from her knees andhurled backwards. She rolled over twice, then lay face downward, herfingers digging in the hard earth.
With his last shot, the fierceness drained out of Jacques. He blinkedlike a man awakening from a horrible dream. He stared at Ann'sshuddering body, not believing he could have done this. He cried out toher, and ran to her side with great, lunging steps. His body shook withdry sobs.
He turned her over tenderly, smoothed back the tangled hair from herforehead, tried to wipe some of the dirt and bubbles of red from herlips.
An FBIT man rushed toward them with a microphone. With one terriblelook, Jacques sent him scurrying back.
"Ann ... Ann ..." he cried. "What have I done?"
Her glazing, pain-filled eyes cleared for a moment, and drew him closer.In them, for all the pain, there was peace at last. No reproach, nodisappointment. Only peace. And he knew then, what he should always haveknown: That when a man lived as one with Death, he could not give lessto any person, nor expect more.
Ann's fingers crawled through the dust and touched the toe of his boot.Her quivering lips twisted in a final grimace of ecstacy. And out of thelonely void of the dying came the words he had always hoped to hear, andwould never hear again:
"Good night," she whispered. "You--were wonderful--my lover--myhusband."