Escape! by Ben Bova Read Free Book Online

Danny’s right ear. “You sound like a
church organ.”
    He pushed Danny away, but instead of hitting him,
just tapped his face with a light jab and danced off toward the
center of the ring. The crowd booed.
    “Finish him!”
    “Knock him out, Lacey!”
    The bell ended round two.
    Joe Tenny was at his corner when Danny sagged tiredly
on the stool.
    “You’d better take another pill,” he said.
    Shaking his head, Danny gasped out, “Naw... I’ll
be... okay.... Only one... more round.”
    Tenny started to say something, then thought better
of it. He went back down the stairs to his seat.
    “You got to get him this round!” Ralph hollered in
Danny’s ear, over the noise of the crowd. “It’s now or never! When
th’ bell rings, go out slow. He thinks he’s got you beat. Soon’s
he’s in reach, sock him with everything you’ve got!”
    Danny nodded.
    The bell rang. Danny pushed himself off the stool. He
went slowly out to the middle of the ring, his hands held low. The
referee was looking at him in a funny way. Lacey danced out, on his
toes, still full of bounce and smiling.
    Lacey got close enough and Danny fired his best
punch, an uppercutting right, a pistol shot from the hip, hard as
he could make it.
    It caught Lacey somewhere on the jaw. He went down on
the seat of his pants, looking very surprised.
    The crowd leaped to its feet, screaming and
cheering.
    The referee was bending over Lacey, counting. But he
got up quickly. His face looked grim, the smile was gone. The
referee took a good look into Lacey’s eyes, then turned toward
Danny and motioned for him to start fighting again.
    Danny managed to take two steps toward Lacey, and
then the hurricane hit him. Lacey swarmed all over him, anger and
pride mixed with his punches now. He wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t
worried about whether Danny might be sick or not. He attacked like
a horde of Vikings, battering Danny with a whirlwind of rights and
lefts.
    Danny felt himself smashed back into the ropes, his
legs melting away under him. He leaned against the ropes, let them
hold him up. He tried to keep his hands up, to ward off some of the
punches. But he couldn’t cover himself. Punches were landing like
hail in a thunderstorm.
    Through a haze of pain, Danny lunged at Lacey and
wrapped his arms around the black waist.
    He leaned his face against Lacey’s chest and hung on,
his legs feeling like rubber bands.
    The crowd was making so much noise he couldn’t tell
if Lacey was saying anything to him or not. He felt the referee
pull them apart, saw his worried face staring at him.
    Danny stepped past the referee and put up his gloved
hands to fight. They each weighed a couple of tons. Lacey looked
different now, not angry any longer. More like he was puzzled.
    They came together again, and again Danny was buried
under a rain of punches. Again he grabbed Lacey and held on.
    “Go down, dummy!” Lacey yelled into his ear. “What’s
holding you up?”
    Danny let go with his right arm and tried a few
feeble swings, but Lacey easily blocked them. He felt somebody
pulling them apart, stepping between them, pushing him away from
Lacey. Through blurred eyes, Danny saw the referee raising Lacey’s
arm in the victory signal.
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
    Somebody was helping him back to the stool in his
corner. The crowd was still yelling. Danny sat down, his chest raw
inside, his body filled with pain.
    “The winner, in one minute and nine seconds of the
third round... Lacey Arnold!”
    Joe Tenny was bending through the ropes, his face
close to Danny’s. “You okay?”
    Danny didn’t answer.
    Another man was beside Joe, frowning. Danny
remembered that he was one of the doctors from the hospital.
    “Get him back to the locker room,” the doctor said,
angry. “I’ll have to give him a shot.”
    “Can you stand up?” Ralph’s voice asked from
somewhere to Danny’s right. He realized then that he couldn’t see
out of his right eye. It was swollen