seemed like forever but I knew the task force dispatcher was using other radio channels to find us some help and after a few seconds,
“Victor 12, DPS and SO units enroute will contact you this channel.”
I waited and after another few seconds...
“Tom 16, Victor 12, we’re on the way ETA 10 minutes.”
“That’s Clear Tom 16, ten minutes.”
There was nothing else to say. 10 minutes meant 10 minutes and nothing I could do would make them get here any quicker. So Judith and I just leaned against the car and watched the show. Sweat was running down my neck and there was no hint of a breeze.
As two armed guards made their way down the gangway from the ship, one pulling a two wheel dolly and the other carrying a shotgun and looking bored, the black van eased slowly toward them. When the two guards made it to the truck the back door opened and a third guard got out to help. It was then that the van sped up and screeched to a halt in front of the armored truck, blocking its escape. The driver of the black van stayed at the wheel and four men wearing simple gray coveralls filed out the side door. They each wore a blue backpack and each carried a UZI assault pistol. Moving with practiced speed, they were on top of the guards before any reaction was possible. All the guards wore holstered pistols but only one had a shotgun in hand. He never got a chance to use it. The leader of the van’s assault team hit him square across the forehead with a machine pistol and snatched the shotgun as he fell.
We were too far away to hear any voices but the two remaining guards raised their hands and after being relieved of their pistols, they lay down next to the injured man. One of the jumpsuits stood guard as another quickly handcuffed each of their hands behind their backs. The other two made several trips, moving canvas bags and aluminum cases from the dolly and the armored truck to the back of the van. The whole thing took maybe two minutes.
Judith was as frustrated as I was, “We just going to watch this Sarge?” She called me Sarge like she was pissed but I understood and replied calmly, “Well kid, we got maybe 60 rounds between us and they got machine guns with a hundred rounds apiece, so Yeah we’re just going to watch.”
It was a good plan, wait for the troops to get here and take ‘em on the only road off the piers. It was three miles long with no turnoffs, time was on our side. Then time switched sides on us. Instead of turning and going back the way it had come, the van drove right for us. We tried to look small behind my Ford. I had noticed the news crew when they arrived but didn’t think about them now.
It was then the cameraman’s bad luck came into play. The driver of the van pulled right past us like we didn’t exist. We were hidden behind that stack of barrels and I think they just didn’t notice us after realizing a camera had been trained on them during a robbery. They drove within sixty feet of my front bumper and for a minute, I thought we could stick to the plan. Watch them leave and follow while the troops came. Then instead of turning at the cement barricade toward Bayshore road, they stopped sixty feet short of the Cameraman who was still dutifully holding the large camcorder on his shoulder. The driver and the front passenger jumped out and walked briskly toward him. At about halfway they opened up with the Uzis.
An Uzi is an ugly little gun. Made to fire with one hand, it has a 60 round magazine that can be completely emptied in less than two seconds. Mass-produced for killing on a large scale at close quarters, it’s also a quantity over quality device. Not very accurate, the theory being that if you throw enough lead in a general direction you’re bound to hit something even if you’re not a good shot. I was watching the theory prove valid.
The pretty reporter who had been there a moment ago had the good sense to be gone now but that camera guy kept right on taping as 9-millimeter bullets tore him nearly in half. He jerked backward a step but left the Camera in mid-air to crash down on its side. I didn’t notice at the time, I was taking aim down the sight of my Beretta. I heard Judith open fire. She was standing behind me and to my left, firing her glock too quickly. Before the killers could figure out where the fire was coming from, I squeezed off two shots and the first shooter was missing the back of his head. His partner turned and crouched at the same time but I swung and fired three more shots at the same time he did. His shots stitched across the side of my Ford, one of mine hit him low in the throat. Two down. I had a new clip in my hand and went on a knee as I turned and saw three more of the jumpsuits pile out of the van each unloading those ugly little guns at us.
There was a lot of noise as my car took most of the damage but I noticed that Judith had stopped firing, “Good, I thought, keep your head down kid, let ‘em run.” But they didn’t run. I was on the ground now watching three sets of legs move my way, and then they split up. Two sets kept coming at me but the third went right to get Judith. I took aim again and took out the kneecap of the one closest to me. As he sprawled forward I put three more in his chest and he vomited blood and died. I half fell, half dove to my right, to get a shot at the second man. Bad idea. He was ready for me. Gun steady in two hands he fired at me while I was still in motion and my left leg turned into hamburger at the thigh and knee. I emptied my gun into his stomach and he looked puzzled and just sat down like he was deflating.
The world was hazy, swimming in and out. I was aware there was another bad guy going after Judith. But I wasn’t able to decide which way to turn. I could hear sirens from far away and only then did I notice there was no gunfire. I shook my head in hopes of clearing my vision but that just brought the pain to the surface. I pulled my last clip from the scabbard on my left hip and reloaded the Beretta by feel. I turned my head in time to see the last bad guy slowly follow his Uzi back around the front of my car. I was too far-gone to aim, so I just pulled the trigger and kept pulling. And then, I just lay my head down with nothing left. That’s when I saw Judith. Looking under the car she was on the other side face turned toward me with her chest torn open. The wound was still pumping blood out, but her eyes were already a blank stare. Unlike the dreams I would have, she didn’t speak. She didn’t blame me. I could feel myself fall for a long time and the sound of sirens became yelling and distant. Cussing, then more sirens and a helicopter then nothing.
Chapter 4
Katy:
We were in the air again, an hour from Houston. My thoughts jumped around like a badly edited film. I had known where he was the past year. I could have called him or gone to him anytime, except for…. except for what?
Well, there was the fact that I had left him for no good reason or that I had let those assholes use me to blackmail him or maybe it was the ache I still had whenever I thought of him lying there hurt. The mighty Richard Cain hurt? The very possibility was enough to make me shiver, but it had been more than his leg, more than nearly dying, the last time I saw him, and he looked defeated. It had never occurred to me that anything could do that. Injure him? Yes. Kill him? Maybe. But defeat him? Never. When we were married I had been afraid of a lot of things. The stories his friends would tell me about him. Working alone all the time and always winning, no matter what. There were also the whispered stories about the women who mooned over him before I came along and maybe some after I came along. Ed Forney told me once the gangsters referred to Richard as Batman because he always wore those hideous black suits and could sneak up on the worst street scum. I tried to get him to expand his wardrobe but he never would.
I thought about the baby and my eyes welled up. He had been in the hospital with a concussion when I told him. I don’t remember how it happened exactly; something about a pervert snatching kids and Richard had rammed him off the road to catch the guy. He had saved a seven-year-old boy that night and the department suspended him for ten days for improper use of force. Seems the pervert had suffered a broken shoulder some ten minutes after the wreck. The broken shoulder is rumored to have been how Richard found out where the boy was.
Thinking
