The man was still smiling. He knew that as long as Zoë was lying on the floor, her body yanking itself about as it was, he had the upper hand. He knew that, even with the smell of gun oil from Mal’s pistol in his nostrils, he was safe. Mal knew it, too, and it made him even angrier that he couldn’t make this mei ta ma de hun dan die a slow and painful death. Mal also knew that each second that ticked away took a little more of Zoë’s life with it. He uncocked his gun.
-- From the Inside: 2 by Landry