Justice (The Galilee Falls Trilogy)

by Jennifer Harlow

  There’s no way in hell they’ll let me get away that easily. With no way to lock the door, I race down the stairs, reach the landing, duck under the corner of the railing and taking aim back up at the door crouching low. The moment it opens again, I fire. The door shuts just as I hear Grace shriek, “Just leave her!” Guess she’s had enough.

  I wait a second. No storming down, just the faint sound of the whirly bird. Another second passes and I can breathe again. I can’t just stay here. No matter how much I want to, I can’t run away. He’ll keep coming after me until he has me. I’ll be looking over my shoulder, we all will, for the rest of our days. I have seven bullets left. He’ll get on that chopper over my dead body.

  I’m about to storm up the steps when I hear a noise below. Without thinking, I swing the gun toward it. The moment I do, there’s a flash of movement on the stairs below. Before I can register this, Justin appears in front of me, blood on his cheeks and shirt from the now healed bullet wounds. He throws his arms up. “Don’t shoot!”

  I lower the gun and throw myself down the two steps into his arms. “About time.”

  We squeeze each other tight, but only for a moment. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine. He’s out there.”

  “How many?”

  “Three at least.”

  “Bombs?”

  “A lie.”

  He nods. “Thought so.”

  “Plan?”

  “You cover me from the door.”

  “No way. We go out together.”

  “I work alone.”

  “Fight together, or die alone. I know which one I choose.”

  He hesitates for a split second, but knows me well enough for it to last only that split second. “Alkaline’s mine.”

  I nod in agreement. “Let’s go be heroes.”

  I start up the stairs with him one pace behind me. We stop at the door, listening. The sound of the helicopter is loud, which means it’s landed. I look into my best friend’s blue eyes and he into mine. We give each other a thrilling smile. “It’s an honor to fight by your side, Justice.”

  He grabs the back of my head, pulling me into a quick kiss. “The honor is mine, Detective.” The smile doesn’t leave either of our faces as he turns the handle.

  This is it. What we were put on this earth to do.

  And God do we love it.

  The door flies open, and he’s off. I take one step outside and begin shooting. Grace and the bomber have no idea where to look, the source of the gunfire or the superhero rushing up the ramp like a freight train. My shots hit the guard square in the head, exploding it just as Justice grabs Alkaline. He runs the villain through the open door of the helicopter and out the other side. The copter jolts as the door breaks off with a creek, the two men and the door all tumbling over the side of the platform out of sight.

  “James!” Grace shrieks.

  I take cover behind one of the air conditioning vents. I get her in my sights, firing once and missing her head, but hitting the helicopter. Realizing she’s a sitting duck she fires back, getting too close for comfort. I duck again, and the next time I peer out she’s leaping off the side of the ramp for protection. The helicopter pilot wises up, taking off. “No!” Grace shouts after it. She fires at me again. “Bitch!”

  I poke my head out and she fires, this time the spark of the bullet on metal striking close enough to feel. “Guess that trip into the sunset is cancelled, huh Grace?” I call out. “You know, if he really loved you, you two would be gone by now. How does it feel playing second fiddle to a superhero?”

  “Shut up!”

  I check around the corner again, and she fires. I can still see her, so I fire back. And that’s it. I’m out. Shit. “You know what I think,” I say after a chuckle, “and the GFPD, as well as our psychologist shares this theory. We’ve been laughing about it all the time. We think it’s not you he loves. We think when he’s on top of you, whispering promises of love, it’s really Justice he’s thinking of. How about it, Grace? In the heat of passion, has he ever called out, ‘Justice, oh Justice,’” I say in my best porn voice. “Huh? Has he?”

  “You fucking bitch!”

  I peek again and she fires twice. I step back, chuckling. “Hit a nerve, did I Grace?” She has one more bullet left now. She—

  A bleeding and battered Alkaline stumbles into view, the trench coat gone and his costume ripped. With a roar he runs back behind the helipad out of view. Judging from the state of him, I think we’re winning. “Just saw your boyfriend, Grace,” I shout, “and he is getting his ass kicked. What—”

  I spy around the corner, but this time I’m greeted by a gun right in my face. Training takes over. Using the barrel, I pull the gun toward me to break her finger while bending her wrist down with one fluid moment. It works. She screams in pain and I retrieve the gun. But I underestimate crazy strength. Before I can re-position the gun, she’s on me, knocking us both onto the concrete, hitting my still tender head. She bites my hand, and I drop her gun. As she reaches for it, I smack her in the nose with my forehead. We’re both stunned, but she more so. I grab her arms and roll her onto her back, retrieving the gun and pointing it right at her face. “Don’t move.”

  She just sniggers. “Ward trash.”

  With one good swipe of the gun to her head, she’s out. “And proud of it.”

  I tear a piece of fabric from my dress and knot her hands behind her back, and race off to help my friend. I run up the ramp to get a better view and grab the dead guard’s shotgun. Five shots left. It’ll have to do. At least I have the high ground. I dash over to the side of the heliport. It’s a mess down there. The roof is smoking and melting from where Alkaline’s shot. The twisted metal of the helicopter door lies in a heap directly below. About ten yards away, I see them. Justin rests against the rattling chain-link protector, unconscious. Alkaline looms over him, laughing manically as he punches Justin’s chest over and over again, blood blooming with each hit. The bones coming out of Alkaline’s wrists barely have time to drip blood before they’re plunged back into Justin’s chest. Justin doesn’t move, doesn’t even register the blows anymore. I think he’s dead.

  “Ryder!” I shout. The madman looks up, blood caking his face. “It’s over. Get off him or I’ll blow your brains out. Pretty sure you can’t regenerate a new head.” I cock the shotgun.

  “Do that and I’ll stop being nice. I’m right near his heart, Joanna. Shoot me and it gets a nice dose of acid. Think he can grow an entire heart? Because I don’t.”

  “You’re bluffing. You would have done it already if you hadn’t blown your wad.”

  “Think so?” With the bone not inside my friend, he shoots a small amount of liquid right by Justin’s head, disintegrating the chain-link behind. “Drop the gun, Detective, or be responsible for the death of the city’s champion.”

  I don’t know what to do. If I shoot him, he might obliterate Justin’s heart. I don’t, there’s a tiny chance he’ll let Justin go. Justin makes the choice for me. His eye opens, and a wave of relief washes over me. “Okay,” I say. “We go at the same time.” I start bending down as he begins pulling out the bone at the same pace.

  Justin comes alive. As Alkaline keeps his eyes on me, Justin grabs both his wrists. The bone in his chest breaks in half, acid spilling onto Justin, but Alkaline is howling in pain. I spring up again, firing into his back. His body jerks from the impact. He falls off Justin onto the chain-link, blood, the acid spewing from his wrist. Smiling, I expel the shell. “I think we win.”

  I run down the ramp, past the still unconscious Grace, and around the corner. Alkaline is whimpering and Justin is still leaning against the fence when I reach them. Both look like hell, but Justin’s face and chest are covered in blood, burns, and gaping holes. Even with regeneration I think he’s going to need a doctor. I lean beside him. “Are you okay?” He doesn’t register my presence. His eyes remain glued to the man beside him. I shake him. “Justin?”

  His face co
ntorts in bestial fury. He knocks me away onto my butt as he lunges at Alkaline. I barely see the blows, just the aftermath as Justin hits and hits, cracking his jaw, nose, teeth until he’s unrecognizable. Pulp. He’s going to kill him, no question. “Justin, stop!” He can’t hear me. I leap up and try to grab his arm, but he swats me away so hard I skid a few feet, the shotgun gliding away. I’m dazed again with the wind knocked out of me, and when I shake my head to recover Justin grabs Alkaline by the shirt, positioning him over the fence. The acid from Alkaline’s damaged wrist drips onto the metal. “No!” I shriek.

  Justin’s gaze whips toward me, madness and rage filling those blue eyes. “What?”

  “Justin, put him down.” I slowly find my feet. “Don’t do this.”

  “Why? He killed them!” he roars, taking another step. “He killed them! He…burned her alive. He raped her!” He turns back to Alkaline, who hangs there like a rag doll with his eyes closed. “He ruined my life! He’s a monster!”

  “He is, he is,” I say desperately as I take another step. “He will pay for his crimes. He will. We’ll make sure of it.”

  “No,” Justin says, voice quaking. “He’ll just escape again. I know he will. I have to protect you. I have to protect everyone!” Alkaline’s now suspended only by Justin with nothing but the river thirty stories below. The fence barely supports them both, the metal bending and rippling with each movement.

  “This is not the way to do it,” I say with another step. “Justin, look at me. Look at me!” His tear filled eyes meet mine. “I know what he’s taken from you. I do. But if you do this, that is cold blooded murder. You will be a murderer, Justin. Everything you have worked for, everything you stand for will be meaningless. It is not up to you to be judge, jury, and executioner. Justice isn’t about people killing the dregs that need killing. That’s why we have a system. Our society is based on laws and due process. It takes time, it isn’t perfect, but it’s better than every individual meting out whatever justice he feels is right. If Justice, Champion of Galilee, succumbs to the base instinct of vengeance by killing Alkaline, it would do more than just kill him. It would kill the trust in the system you and I have worked so hard to uphold. This is bigger than your hatred. Do this and you will lose your soul. Then where will the citizens of Galilee be?”

  His arms quiver and he turns back to Alkaline’s lifeless, pathetic, broken body. He looks at him, emotions running the gamut from revulsion to hate and finally to shame. “Oh, God,” he says before tossing the body back on the roof. “Oh, God.”

  I run over to him as he steps off the fence, throwing my arms around him, his blood soaking me. “It’s okay,” I whisper as I stroke his bloody hair. “It’s okay. It’s over. It’s over.”

  I don’t know how long we stay locked in each other’s arms. He cups the back of my head, pulling me into him even closer and kissing the top of my head. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  “You’d do the same for me. I—” His body grows tense. I look up at him, fear gripping me when I see the look of shock on his face.

  It all happens so fast. I feel him spin me around just as the sound of the shotgun explodes through the air. Justin lurches as the pellets smash into him, and then him into me. Spots of blood bursts onto my face. We stumble back into the chain-link as another blast rocks us. Then another. We topple onto the metal, rolling. Justin releases me, and I only catch a glimpse of Alkaline holding the shotgun on us before I realize I’m right at the edge and can’t stop moving. I see the darkness below me and The Falls off in the distance before I roll once more onto nothing. I’m too shocked to scream.

  My body is weightless for a moment, but then something warm grabs my wrist to stop my descent. My arm almost comes out of its socket, but I swing to the side. I grab the metal bar at the top of the fence and the hand releases me. I turn and see Justin dangling a few feet away. My shoes slip off and like an idiot I look down. I can make out the lights on the outdoor patio thirty stories down and the river beside it. My arms begin shaking from terror and weakness. “Hold on!” Justin says beside me.

  The fence shakes and bends even further down. I barely hold on as we drop two feet, moving my hands to the rungs instead of the bar, curling my toes and fingers in them for dear life. I look up to my left. Alkaline smiles like a maniac above us, especially with his jaw out of whack. He cracks it back into place and walks closer, spilling his acid along the length of the fence where it meets the roof. It sizzles and twangs as it melts. “You know,” he says, sounding odd because of the injuries, “you used to be better at this, Justin. In the old days, you never would have let your guard down like that. Love and domesticity have made you complacent. I’m not having nearly as much fun as I thought I would.”

  One of the metal rods holding the fence splits and falls. As do we, I scream as we drop and swing at least four feet so we’re almost vertical. My arms and legs shake from fatigue. We’re too heavy. It’s going to keep breaking.

  “Stop it,” Justin shouts from above me. He tries to climb but Alkaline fires. Justin’s outstretched left hand disintegrates all over my face. He falls a foot, almost on top of me. We both cry out.

  “Don’t tell me what to do, Justin.” Alkaline bends down, swinging the shotgun over his shoulder. “See, that’s why I had to knock you down a peg. There’s nothing I hate more than the high and mighty. You’re not perfect. You’re not God. You don’t get to decide other people’s fates. You’re just a man, capable of both good and evil. Just showed you that, didn’t I? You like scales. It’s all about balance, right? Now, I’ll admit mine is definitely tipped in the favor of evil.”

  I hear more sizzling as he dissolves the fence directly above us. The first of it snaps, then another bit. I can’t move, I’m so terrified. “The thing I learned early on, though,” he continues as if he’s at the pulpit, “is that it really doesn’t matter,” he says with a chuckle. “Here you are! You saved countless lives, and what do you have to show for it? Your good deeds caused the death of all of those you hold dear. That’s what I’m trying to teach you, Justin! There is no justice in the world!” Another two melt. “You can save a hundred thousand people, and it wouldn’t matter a bit. There is no point to your self-sacrifice. People will always be selfish. People will always kill each other over money, or drugs, or just for the sheer fun of it. Your life and everything you stand for is meaningless. You’re obsolete. Ineffectual.” He sprinkles more acid. “Redundant. The bad will always outweigh the good. You really can’t save anyone. This is not a world for heroes.”

  Then we hear and see it, a helicopter gliding in behind Alkaline. He turns to view it. GFPD is embossed on it. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. It circles toward us. “Police! Put your hands up!” The spotlight shines on him, and he smiles as he raises his arms. Inside there are four men with assault rifles pointed at him. The chopper moves toward the helipad.

  Alkaline gazes down at us, triumph still on his face. “Too late.”

  He’s right. Two more links rip and a third pops a second later. Only four left. We drop another few inches. It can’t hold us anymore. I look up at Justin, and he down at me, and I know it. My best friend smiles down at me with such love it’s as brilliant as the sunrise.

  And my stomach free falls. “You’re wrong, Ryder. So wrong,” Justin says calmly.

  “Justin…” I say through the panic.

  “I love you.”

  He lets go.

  Both Alkaline and I shout, “No!” as he plummets down and down and down for what feels like an eternity, thirty stories into the black river. I can’t even see or hear the splash.

  He’s gone. He’s gone.

  I hang here, unable to even blink. Anguish like nothing I have ever felt envelops me. The world disappears. There is nothing. I gaze at my quivering fingers. It’d be so easy. Just open them and plunge. The ultimate freedom. I’m tired. So tired. Just open. Open! They won’t. If I do this, Alkaline wins. The ultimate selfish act. It’d all be for nothing. He�
�d win. No.

  My gaze whips up to his stunned and angry one. For the thirty seconds it takes for the helicopter to land and SWAT to run up to Alkaline, we don’t break the silent battle. Not even when I climb up or they push him to the ground and handcuff him. We are the only two people in the world. Never breaking eye contact, Alkaline is yanked up, a small smile on his face.

  “What he did doesn’t prove a thing,” he says with a smug smile before they begin leading him away. He knows what’s in store for him. Three meals a day. Fan mail. More time to plot his escape. We’re both aware of it. Not fair.

  “Wait!”

  With one fluid moment I pick up the shotgun at my feet and point it at him. The sound of my cocking it makes him and Alvarez, the SWAT officer, turn. I briefly glance at Alvarez, something in my eyes making him relax. He knows me. Brothers in blue always. He’ll cover for me, no question. He even steps away when I gesture for him to. Ryder’s smile falters, but doesn’t disappear.

  My best friend just died before my eyes because of him.

  He’s terrorized the city for years.

  Killed dozens.

  Tortured.

  Maimed.

  Destroyed my life.

  It’s not fair.

  My finger puts pressure on the trigger as Alkaline watches, captivated yet horrified. A slight twitch of the finger and it’s all over. Something visceral inside me longs to see his head explode right here, right now. It’s feel so fucking sweet. He deserves to die, and I have every reason to kill him. He knows it.

  “But this does.” I lower the barrel and toss the gun to Alvarez. Both men are shocked, Alkaline’s smile turning into a scowl. “The good guys win, even when they lose.”