Beyond Blue (33 page)

“Why the hell should I do any of that?” Jerome asked, rubbing the back of his head.

“Because, moron, you now know for sure that Dubois here will kill you the first chance he gets. And it will be easy to put all the others you've been working with on the same mission.”

“This is nonsense,” Jerome said, straightening his clothes and squaring his shoulders. “A big bluff to try to scare me. Well, I don't scare.”

“Yeah we just saw how courageous you are,” Steele said. He had shoved two pistols into his waistband and held the other two on Jerome's three thugs. “Okay, officer, maybe you just better take the consolation prize. We'll press charges on these three for assault and kidnapping, and shooting up my buddy's car.”

“Yeah, we'll leave the others to work out their differences together,” Stone said. He reached out to tousle
Jerome's hair, gave him a big grin, nodded to him and whispered, “Good luck, counselor.” Then he stood, nudging Dubois on his way to the door. Steele waved Doc, Frankie, and Psycho to the door. He tossed a gun to Stone, who shepherded them out into the hallway. On his way to the door, Steele then dropped one of the guns on Didi's chest, which startled him awake. As he kept walking he got to watch Jerome' face move from confidence to disbelief to questioning to calculating and finally to realization.

“Wait!” Jerome leaned forward on the desk with both hands, his eyes going from Didi to Dubois and finally to Alex Brooks. “Officer, much of what my two friends here said makes a certain amount of sense. I think we need to all go to the station to straighten this all out.”

“Do you have evidence of value in those investigations Mr. Steele and Mr. Mason referred to? Are you in a position to turn state's evidence?”

Didi sat up, still dazed. He looked around, spotted his boss on the floor, and then looked down at the gun in his lap. When he looked up he stared right at Jerome and seemed to remember why he was in that office.

“Yes!” Jerome shouted. “Yes, I am, and I will. Now disarm that maniac. He's already murdered one man and I can prove it.”

Steele stuck his head out the door and said, “Got to give it to you, buddy. It was a great plan.”

Ruby Sanchez could not imagine being less comfortable. She lay face down on a broad tree limb supported by her hands and feet, her elbows and knees pointed toward the ground. The thin dress she wore was no protection against rough oak bark as she lay there with her thighs and her boobs wrapped around the big branch. The bark was also slick with some sort of moss or something that smelled like mildewed clothes. Her hair was a mangled mop hanging around her face, dripping past her
eyes. A chill ran through her core, along with a biting hunger. She tried hard to ignore both. It was a situation she would have found funny if it was happening to someone else.

Traffic sounds didn't penetrate this deep into the park. All the soft breeze carried to her ears was the sound of water dripping on leaves. It was darker than the hour would suggest, making her feel very alone. She wondered if a team of police had already taken Rafe's house. She wondered how many terrorists were wandering the park looking for her. She wondered if a team of policemen was also abroad below, and mostly she hoped not. This was no kind of pursuit to try in the dark. She hoped they would just hold the perimeter to catch any terrorists who might wander out of the park, and come in after sunrise to look for her. She could hold out until then. It wouldn't be the longest she'd gone without eating or changing clothes.

While she waited for rescue or morning she heard a new rustling. At first she expected a squirrel to wander up to her face and demand his branch back. Soon she realized the sound was from below. It was a two-legged sound. Someone was moving about down there, and whoever it was knew how to keep the noise down. It had to be them.

When the man stepped into view Ruby was surprised. He wore the same gray sweat suit as the man she had to shoot. Didn't these clowns have rain gear? She wasn't sure if the lack of raincoats and slickers indicated a lack of planning or fanatical toughness. Either way, she was glad the bad guys were no more comfortable than she was out there in the rain.

The terrorist walked directly under her perch. Ruby could have dropped onto him, breaking his neck with her feet. She didn't because she feared it would give away her position. Besides, it had taken her precious time and cost her a fingernail to climb up there. She would stay until she absolutely had to come down.

Ruby eased her silenced pistol out of her waistband. Surely under these circumstances, even Gorman would approve the use of lethal force. She wrapped both hands around the Browning's grip and began to track the killer as he walked away. He held his gun close to his waist like a professional. His steps were wide and soft, barely disturbing the grass over which he moved. A stone killer, Ruby thought. It would be a public service to put him down.

Ruby waited until the man was almost lost in the darkness. She wanted him to fall as far away as possible. Anyone who found him would have to fan out from that spot three hundred and sixty degrees to look for her. She raised her weapon and forced herself to stop the low-level shiver her body was using to help fight the cold. Just before her target stepped out of her sight she clucked her tongue once.

The terrorist instantly dropped into a partial crouch and pushed his weapon forward in a two-handed grip. He was alert, she thought, even to such a slight sound. But he couldn't be sure it was a human sound. He spun slowly on the balls of his feet until he had turned halfway around. She had him, and he would never know.

Ruby placed the first nine-millimeter round at center mass. The following double-tap hit near his heart and ten o'clock on his forehead. Aside from his head snapping back, the man seemed unimpressed for a couple of seconds. Then he just seemed to lose interest. He dropped his gun, lowered his arms and slouched over to the side onto the wet grass.

“Two in the chest and one in the head,” Ruby said, “Just like they taught me in sniper school.”

Ruby only got two seconds to feel pleased with herself before she heard something thump into the trunk of her tree. She felt as much as heard the second impact. She hugged her limb tighter and listened for movement in the park. Instead, she heard a voice.

“Higher, I think.”

A bullet knocked a chunk out of the trunk directly behind her. Damn. It had been a setup. They had people watching each other, baiting her. When she took one out, the others were able to get a bead on her approximate position. Unfortunately, she did not have a lock on them. She couldn't even hear their silenced weapons firing.

“Shit!” A bullet smacked the limb Ruby was on less than two feet from her face. They were too close, and she had no intention of dying up in a tree. Ruby dropped from her position to land prone on the ground, looking in every direction possible trying to find the opposition.

“Over this way,” a male voice called in Spanish. That was enough for Ruby. She rose to her knees, turned toward the voice she had heard and fired another double-tap and rolled to her side. Her target said “Oh,” and two rounds hit the ground where she had been before she heard the man she had shot thump to the ground.

“Time to go,” she told herself, sprinting through the park again. She dodged trees and jumped ditches on a random path with the sound of bullets chasing her all the way. After a minute she heard men running behind her. Lord, they were gaining on her. It sounded like a half-dozen men running full out behind her. There was no fighting that kind of force.

Ruby ran until she found a trail worn into the forest floor. She followed it for a while at a full sprint. When she stopped to catch a breath, another bullet few past her and this time she heard the shot. They were close enough now for her to hear their guns, even with the silencers. This was doubly bad. Not only were they too close, but if she could hear their guns, they could hear hers.

She jogged to the side and slid down a short muddy bank into a drainage ditch. She started crawling down the ditch in the three inches of dank water, hoping her pursuers wound jump the ditch and continue. Instead she heard at least two pairs of feet splash into the ditch and come running toward her.

She turned and lay prone, laying down a blanket of fire. After four bullets she heard a man scream. He raised a bigger splash when he landed in the ditch. His partner returned fire but his aiming point was too high and for some reason he was still standing erect. Another fast double tap put him on his back as well. Then a shot from above dug into the ground inches from Ruby's head. She jumped to her feet and took off.

Ruby was panting now, running blind, her bare feet scratched and torn by the ground she was covering. The ditch was getting deeper and before long getting out of it would be a struggle. She would be a better target on the higher ground but she didn't want to be trapped. Keeping her gun at the ready, Ruby took a long hop to the ground beside the ditch. She stumbled a little, but would have continued running if not for the man standing directly in front of her.

“Time to stop,” de La Fuente said. He stood with his arms folded, wearing the same gray sweat suit that she thought his team had been issued. Ruby snapped her pistol up and took aim, fixing on a point between his eyes.

“Don't be silly,” de La Fuente said. “There are at least five guns on you. If you fire again, they will pick you apart like a broiled chicken. Besides, don't you want to try to talk your way out of this?”

“And just how would I do that?”

“Well first, you would surrender your weapon.” Ruby looked around. She and de La Fuente stood near the center of a small clearing. Five more Peruvians stepped out of the shadows. They ringed her, each with his gun arm outstretched toward her. Her breathing was deep and fast, as much from frustration as fatigue. For a moment, she thought she might try it. But no, with only two bullets left in the magazine she couldn't win, and it seemed unlikely that these fools would allow her to call time out so she could reload. As much as it galled her, she tossed her gun to the ground at de La Fuente's feet.

“That's better,” de La Fuente said. “Now, we don't really want to kill you.”

Bullshit
, Ruby thought.

“I know Rafael will be much more valuable to us if you are alive,” de La Fuente continued.

Yeah, if you haven't already murdered him
, Ruby thought.

“And you may not be a real threat to us,” de La Fuente went on. “Just tell me who you've spoken to since you left the house. Once we have that information we can perform some damage control, and you won't have to die.” de La Fuente offered a warm smile, his gold tooth glinting in the darkness.

He must really think I'm an idiot
, Ruby thought. However, his smile reminded her of one thing she wanted to be sure to do, even if she was to die in the park.

“Okay, I'll play,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “Fact is I didn't get a chance to call anybody. I got somebody to lend me their phone but before I could get my mom to answer her phone, one of your goons showed up. He killed the old man, by the way.”

“Yes, and you killed him,” de La Fuente said. “That will call for some punishment.”

“I thought you just said I could live,” Ruby said. While she talked she eased the stolen handcuffs out of her waistband and locked them closed.

“Well, yes, but each of my men felt a strong attachment to their friend back there. So, they will each have their way with you.”

Ruby slipped the fingers of her right hand through the circle of both handcuffs and clenched her fist. As she did so, she took a half step back, turning just enough to hide her right hand from de La Fuente.

“Have their way?” she asked. “You mean like rape?”

“Something like that,” de La Fuente said.

Ruby raised her left hand toward him, pointing as rain dripped from her finger. “I don't know what you been
smoking, ugly, but that ain't happening. I am cold, I'm tired, I'm hungry and I broke two nails out here. You do not want to fuck with me.”

de La Fuente threw back his head and laughed, and that was just about the end for Ruby. But just as she was about to make her move she saw an unexpected movement at the corner of her right eye. The biggest hand she had ever seen reached out of the darkness behind one of the gunmen. The hand covered most of the man's face as it yanked him back into the blackness.

She knew the others would turn to see what happened to their friend, so she took her shot. With a loud scream she dived forward toward de La Fuente. She put all her anger, all her frustration into one fierce punch. Her right fist, encircled by the handcuffs, crashed into de La Fuente's mouth with a sickening crunch. He hit the ground and so did Ruby, feeling for her dropped gun, but soon realizing it wasn't necessary. She saw Gunny pick up one of the terrorists and fling him into another. A guy dressed all in black stepped into the clearing, raised a pistol and shot one of the gunmen three times. The fifth terrorist shook with the impact of two shots from what sounded like a forty-five, fired by an unseen shooter.

As the sound of gunfire faded, Paul Gorman stepped out into the open. He was wearing a wool coat that must have weighed fifty pounds with the amount of water it must have absorbed in the rain. He reached down to offer Ruby a hand. She accepted his help in standing up.

“Doesn't anybody have sense enough to wear rain gear anymore?” Ruby asked.

“It's only water, Ms. Sanchez. And may I say that, all things considered, you look like shit. Is this the head rat?”

“Yeah, that's him,” Ruby said, watching de La Fuente slowly lurch to his knees. “Did you get the rest? They was multiplying like roaches there for a while.”

“Hang on a second,” Gorman said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He hit a speed dial button and stood silent
until there was an answer. When it connected he said, “Captain Warner? Was it what I told you? Yes. Terrorists of the Shining Path. Yes, that should be quite the collar for you and your team. What? Oh, okay, Vic it is. And I have your man Lucania here with me. Fine, fine. Oh, do you have the homeowner? Rafael Sandoval. Yes. Hale and hearty and eager to testify about these killers who took over his house. Glad to hear that. Okay, got to mop up here. We'll iron out the details tomorrow.”