time to prove yet again to
the Great Satan America that we are not only willing to kill, we are willing to
die."
He'd barely begun to turn toward the bed when Cade let up on the camera's
trigger, again whacked the side of the camera, and said, "Hey, wait one. Damn.
Can we get another take on that last bit?"
Everybody was looking at him as if he was crazy, including Mandi. Cade
thumped the camera again and triggered it briefly, making the light flicker,
then thumped it again.
"Well, that's it," said Cade. "Did we get enough?"
Raising his pistol, Marjeel thundered, "Do you wish to die?!"
One of the guys by the bed -- the possible non-English speaker -- also aimed
his gun at Cade and the other guy's gun wavered from the woman who'd been his
target.
Holding the camera in both hands as if offering it to Marjeel, Cade said,
"Well, here, dude. You try to make it work."
When Marjeel grabbed for the camera's handle, Cade shoved the camera at
Marjeel's face like a basketball. Launching himself right behind the camera,
Cade drove Marjeel across the room and to the floor, his left hand locked on the
wrist of Marjeel's gun hand and his right grasping the front of the terrorist's
shirt.
They landed hard, both of Cade's knees tightly together in the center of
Marjeel's stomach as his back hit the floor. A loud, shouting groan escaped
Marjeel on impact and his body tried to curl up, but Cade was in the way.
When Marjeel wouldn't let go of the gun and tried to shove Cade off, Cade
rammed an elbow straight down into his throat, then forced Marjeel's gun arm
over the camera and leaned on it. There was a sickening snap of bone, Marjeel
shrieked, and Cade was at last able to pry the gun out of his fingers.
Marjeel tried a rather inept left-handed punch at Cade, so Cade swatted him
in the temple with the Beretta to calm him down. Raising his head, Cade looked
around.
Mandi was standing beside them. Both of the other gunmen were down and their
guns were in Mandi's hands. The two hostages were sitting up, barely beginning
to realize that their danger was over as what seemed like a dozen more people in
SWAT gear flooded the room.
Cade rolled off Marjeel and got to his feet, handing the gun to one of the
SWAT guys. Marjeel feebly tried to spit at Cade, but missed. He still seemed a
bit disoriented.
John walked up and extended a hand to Mandi, then to Cade, and said, "