every bit of mechanism of the high-tech, polymer-composite Steyr AUG A-3 rifle in his possession. When the Southern Phoenix Force pro was concentrating on his weapons maintenance, there were few things that could distract the young man from his task.
Gary Manning turned off his cell phone and removed the wireless headset from his ear. “The Security Directorate isn’t aware of any outside investigation occuring within Paris at this moment. We’re pretty much in the clear.”
“Wouldn’t asking about their awareness put them on alert?” Hawkins asked as he reassembled his rifle.
“There is that worry, but don’t forget, not every organization is Stony Man,” Manning returned. “By the time they send through memos and requests for recognition, it will have been two or three days before we encounter any official interference.”
“That’s from the authorities themselves,” McCarter mused. “The DoE is the same kind of bloated, fragmented beauracracy as the new French internal security agency, but our opponents discovered the agent looking into their backtrail fast enough to send a killer robot snake after her.”
Manning nodded. “Which is why I routed the phone call through my cabin outside of Toronto. Whoever the opposition is, they might be genuinely misdirected for a few hours.”
McCarter watched the mechanical precision with which Hawkins worked on the AUG A-3 carbine. “I wouldn’t underestimate them. If Stony Man could catch a whiff of their interest in Europe’s nuclear reactor programs, then there’s a strong possibility that we’re going to have some drama on our end here.”
“So why are you looking at Hawkins’s rifle like it were some long-lost lover?” Manning asked.
“’Cause I cleaned it so well that it shines like a diamond,” Hawkins answered.
“No. I’m worried that according to Rafe and Cal, a 5.56 mm doesn’t have enough immediate punch to slow down one of those robots. The round’s fine for antipersonnel use at close range, but we’re dealing with small, tough-skinned mechanisms which contain redundant systems,” McCarter corrected.
Manning nodded. “Which is why you’re not the only one here who has friends in France with access to powerful guns.”
McCarter raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking of?”
“We want a big, metal-crunching punch, so I arranged for a friend of mine to drop off something,” Manning said.
There was a knock at the back door and McCarter glanced toward it. Manning rose and went to answer. Over the big Canadian’s shoulder, the Briton could see a pretty woman with long, sable dark hair and glimmering blue eyes hand him a rectangular, gift-wrapped box.
Manning greeted her in French, and McCarter could hear enough to know that the brawny Canadian was telling her sweet nothings. Whatever compliments that Manning had for the woman could hardly be classified as lies, judging from the brief glimpses he caught of her. Manning gave the woman a kiss on her cheek, and closed the door.
“How do I arrange a delivery like that?” Hawkins asked.
“You know a beautiful, intelligent woman? Shame that you can’t find those with your looks and manners,” Manning responded.
“Southern charm mean anything to y’all?” Hawkins asked.
“You’ve never shown it,” Manning said with a wink.
McCarter grinned at the jab as Hawkins waved off the Canadian’s verbal barb. “We going to give the robots flowers and hope they contract hay fever?”
Manning sighed. “You know, that’s a good idea. Too bad my plan was more pedestrian.”
He opened the box and McCarter looked at the pistol-grip, folding-stock pump shotgun within and nodded. The Briton picked up a box of ammunition that was sitting next to the weapon in the gift-wrapped container. “Twelve-gauge slugs. Innocuous for deer hunting, but it’s also strong enough to smash what passes for engines in European automobiles.”
“Or smashing the self-destruct charge out of a killer snake robot,” Hawkins noted.
“Really?” Manning asked. “I never would have thought of that.”
Hawkins rolled his eyes. “Did you ever do this to James when he was still the youngest member of the team?”
“No. But then, Cal’s laid-back, experienced and worldly,” McCarter replied.
“Plus, we’re jealous of Gadgets and Pol and all the piss they take out of Carl,” Manning added.
“That, too,” McCarter agreed. “Can’t let the Yanks have all the fun.”
Hawkins rolled his eyes and went back to fieldstripping his SIG. “Pistol-grip pump?”
“With a Knoxx Comp-stock and a folding shoulder stock,” Manning said. “It can be fired like a handgun if need be. Lyons thinks the world of his Remington with the Comp.”
“Lyons also has been known to break coconuts in two with his bare hands,” Hawkins grumbled.
“Can’t everyone?” Manning asked.
“I forgot. You’ve got more muscles than Paul Bunyan. You just dress to hide ’em,” Hawkins said.
“All right. Enough chin wag.” McCarter cut his friends off. “We’ve got leads to run down and people to beat up.”
C ARL L YONS LET THE BEAST out, and right now the rage he felt against the conspiracy that murdered a fellow investigator came down in concentrated agony on the shoulder and elbow of Darius Morrison. The chicken-wing armlock applied to him bent the two joints at angles they could barely support, tendons stretched to the snapping point.
“I know you have something to say to me, Darius,” Lyons growled, his gas mask distorting his voice to make it even more animalistic. “The only question is whether you’ll ever be able to use your arm again after your rotator cuff is permanently torn.”
“You didn’t even ask a question!” Morrison howled in pain. Tears and mucus ran from his eyes and nose as capsaicin burned the tender tissues of his face. He coughed and sputtered, suffering from the effects of riot control gas and feeling the ache from where a neoprene baton had battered several ribs.
Lyons looked toward Schwarz and Blancanales, also disguised and concealed behind their own gas masks protecting them from the remaining wisps of burning chemical smoke. “I didn’t ask him anything?”
“Nope,” Schwarz answered.
“Well, you did say hit the floor when we poured tear gas, flash-bangs and riot batons into this bunch,” Blancanales pointed out. “But you haven’t asked a question since you crippled Mickey Giardelli.”
“Giardelli?” Morrison asked. “But he has an army—”
“Had an army,” Lyons snarled, the gas mask turning the response into a gutteral reply from a ferocious beast. “They’re being hosed off the concrete, along with Giardelli’s arms and legs. Pol, you have the rubber tubing?”
Blancanales
