Good-by, Sue-Ann, O'Leary said silently, without meaning to say anything of the kind; and even then he wondered why he was saying it.
O'Leary heard a gun explode beside his head.
Amazing, he thought, I'm breathing again! The choking hands were gone from his throat.
It took him a moment to realize that it was Sauer who had taken the bullet, not him. Sauer who now lay dead, not O'Leary. But he realized it when he rolled over, and looked up, and saw the girl with the gun still in her hand, staring at him and weeping.
He sat up. The two guards still able to walk were backing Sue-Ann Bradley up. The governor was looking proud as an eagle, pleased as a mother hen.
The Greensleeves was back in the hands of law and order.
The medic came toward O'Leary, hands folded. "My son," he said, "if your throat needs—"
O'Leary interrupted him. "I don't need a thing, Doc! I've got everything I want right now."
VIII