He didn't see me come at him. I hit him from behind at full speed, knocking him face-first into the gravel. He didn't make a sound as he scraped across the stones, but I hit him once behind the ear just to be certain. I heard the chunk of a car door closing. Well-Spoken Woman charged out from behind a parked X6 and ran down the street in her expensive shoes. The gunman's pistol had landed a few feet from me. I snatched it up. The slide was back; it was empty. I tossed it away and took out Ursula's gun, then I ran after Well-Spoken. It felt good to run. I liked stretching my legs, and she was not fast at all. However, she was carrying a shotgun. I held Ursula's gun ready and stepped as quietly as I could. When I was just five paces behind her, I slipped on a patch of black ice and fell hard on my hip. My whole body jolted under the impact and my gun fired, the round skipping off the asphalt into the air. It took Well-Spoken seven or eight stutter steps to stop her run, turn, and point the shotgun at me.
