My agony gave him the second he needed to recover. Snarling, he lunged at me, trying to wrap his hands around my throat. They closed instead on my shoulder as I ducked away—but then I was pinned up against the side of the APC, with nowhere to go in that narrow space. Grinning in victory, the elf squeezed, and I yelped in pain as what proved to be superhumanly powerful, cybernetic hands pinched with agonizing force against the nerves in my shoulder, instantly numbing my arm. Flashes of white light danced in front of my open eyes as I saw him reach with one hand for the pistol that was holstered at his waist. . .