Ultimate Weapon (14 page)

“Listen good. Put the kid down real slow on the seat,” Thick Neck whispered. “Then stand up. Turn your back to me, and put both hands behind your back. Slow…slow. Barker, get over here with those cuffs. Wow, they didn’t tell me you were so hot. Look at those tits. We’re going to have to get to know each other, beautiful. Those tits are special.”

Tam put Rachel down on the seat, detaching tiny, clinging hands from her hair. “Listen, baby,” she whispered in Ukrainian. “These men are bad. Slide off the seat and onto the floor, and stay way down. Can you do that for Mamma?”

“Shut up, bitch. Speak English,” Thick Neck growled.

“Shut up, and speak English?” she murmured. “Neat trick.”

He scowled. “I said, shut
up
!”

Rachel stared up into Tam’s face, her dark eyes huge, and slid like a boneless little eel down into the dark well between the seats.
Brilliant, smart, good girl, yes, yes, yes
. Tam silently cheered. To hell with the stupid doctors who’d warned her that Rachel probably had brain damage. The kid was smart as a whip. She made Tam proud.

“What’s the kid doing?” Thick Neck whispered furiously. “I didn’t tell her to get on the ground! Get her back up onto the seat. Now. Hey!”

Patchouli Pothead exploded into movement with a shout. A silenced gun went off—
thhtp
. Tam took advantage of Thick Neck’s distraction, whipped her arm up under his gun hand, knocked it upward. She squirted the barrette straight into his face.

Thick Neck’s gun went off. The window next to them shattered. The shuttle veered on the road, bounced against the guardrails, scraping and fishtailing. “What the flying
fuck
?” The driver lurched to a shuddering, squealing stop. He turned, and gaped.

“Drive, you dumb fuck!” Polar Fleece guy snarled. “Move!”

Thhtp.
Another silenced gunshot. Thick Neck blinked stupidly, started to sag. One down, thank God.

“Get down!” Patchouli Pothead was shouting frantically, and she realized, startled, that he, too, had a gun. “
Mettiti giù, cazzo!
”

Holy shit, it was Janos. He squeezed off another shot, ducked as Sweat Shirt popped up and took a shot at him.
Crash, tinkle,
another window. She dove into the aisle.
Thhtp.
The driver looked surprised, put his hand up to the hole that appeared in his throat. Blood welled thickly through his fingers. He flopped forward at the waist and dangled like a doll over the gearshift.

Two more shots. What seemed like a panting eternity of silence followed them. She huddled, plastered to the plastic carpet runner.

“Get up, Steele. You have to drive.”

It was Janos’s faintly accented voice. Calm, cool, and even.

Profound relief rushed through her. She kicked herself for feeling it. That man was not her friend or her savior, no matter how things looked right now. On the contrary, he was probably the prime reason she was in this fix to begin with. And she might be obliged to kill him.

Like it would be so easy.

She let out a shuddering breath, peering into the darkness under the seat to seek out Rachel’s tiny hunched form in the dark. She reached out, groped until she snagged a handful of Rachel’s coat.

“Are they dead?” Tam asked Janos. The question sounded shaky, stupid and scared.

“I’ll make sure. You drive the bus.”

“You drive the fucking bus, Janos,” she snapped. “I’ve got Rachel to take care of.”

Janos snarled something in Roman dialect about the sexual depravity of her dead sainted ancestors. She ignored him, shimmying under the seat to drag Rachel out and up into her arms.

The sickening crack of a man’s neck being broken took her by surprise. Ouch.
Grow up, Tam
, she scolded herself. She’d gotten soft.

Janos leaned over, peering down through those goofy round glasses at Thick Neck, who was slumped sideways on the seat. “How long will the drug you sprayed on him last?” he asked.

“Not long,” she said. “Ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Small dose.”

Janos put his gun to the nape of the guy’s neck.

She jerked upright. “Don’t you dare!”

He gave her an incredulous look. “Excuse me?”

“You asshole!” she hissed. “Not in front of the child! Are you crazy?”

He rolled his eyes but let Thick Neck be and proceeded to the front of the van. He gently lifted the bloody, dripping head of the dangling driver and peered into his eyes. He reached for the man’s wrist, felt for a pulse. His eyes flicked to hers. He shook his head.

He grabbed the driver’s big, heavy body under the armpits and heaved him into the first passenger seat without apparent effort. The man’s legs draped obscenely across the aisle. Tam hugged Rachel’s face to her chest. Not that the kid was noticing anything. She was locked in her own inner world, and from the looks of her, it wasn’t a pretty one.

Janos slid into the driver’s seat and put the vehicle in gear. They peeled out onto the road, tires squealing, and picked up speed.

“Where are we going?”

“The lot where you parked,” he said.

“How do you know where I—”

“Later,” he cut her off brusquely. “I’m thinking.”

Oh, indeed. God forbid she should keep a man from actually doing that. She almost said it, but until she knew exactly what the fuck was going on, even she knew how to keep her big mouth shut.

On a temporary basis, anyway.

It scared her that Rachel wouldn’t speak or make eye contact. Nor was she clinging to Tam’s neck as she usually did when she was terrified. She was limp, clammy, and pale, which frightened Tam more than the bullets had. She preferred a screaming, writhing meltdown to this total withdrawal. Cold air blew in the bus’s shattered windows.

The van slowed, slewed into a sharp turn, and bumped over the barrier into the long-term lot where she’d left her car. The bar rose for the shuttle automatically. The guy in the window didn’t even look up from his magazine.

No one was waiting for a ride when Janos braked at the bus shelter. Unheard-of luck. She’d been bracing herself for a nasty public scene when the bus stopped, and she hadn’t been looking forward to it.

Janos looked over at her. “Get out,” he said. “I’ll deal with the last one when you and the child are clear of the bus.”

She slung the diaper bag and purse over her shoulder, pressed Rachel’s face to her chest, and clambered over the legs of the driver.

They climbed out of the death bus into the fresh morning air. Dawn wasn’t far off. She dragged in a breath.

Thud.
She felt the silenced gunshot vibrate in her gut as Janos’s bullet punched into Thick Neck’s nape and finished off the job.

Janos came out, jerking his chin for her to follow him.

She clutched Rachel more tightly to her chest. “I’m not going to let you take me to Georg Luksch,” she said, suddenly exhausted. “I would rather die.” It was a pointless declaration, but she made it on principle.

He stared at her, eyes narrowed. “I’m not taking you to Georg.”

She blinked at him, bewildered. Her eyes burned and stung in the breeze that kicked up. “Ah…no? Then what are you doing here?”

“I am helping you,” he said curtly. “Follow me. Quickly.”

After a second, Tam followed him, for lack of a better plan.

“Somebody’s going to get a nasty shock this morning when she tries to get the shuttle to her flight,” she said.

Janos walked quickly, not looking at her. “Not our problem.”

“It will be when they dust for prints, and investigate that goddamn passport,” Tam said sourly. “Just what I need. A murder rap, and I didn’t even have a gun. Like I don’t have enough problems.”

“Faster, please. Do you want to talk to the police about it now, while half the world is trying to kill you, or later?”

She speeded up to a shambling trot. Rachel wasn’t heavy at all, but those oft-repeated adrenaline zaps were taking their toll on Tam’s motor control. “Later is fine,” she said. “In the next lifetime, maybe.”

“We’re in agreement then.”

They hurried along. Tam panted, the muscles in her arms trembling with strain. Legs wobbling. She could not crash yet, goddamnit. “How did you know where I was?” she demanded.

He let out a sharp sigh and slanted her an irritated glance. “A radio frequency transmitter. In your jewelry case.”

She stopped in her tracks, mouth open. “How did you—”

“Later. Move.” He yanked her arm, getting her going again.

She noticed that they were passing the fogeymobile. “Stop,” she said.

“We’re not taking this car,” he said. “Hurry. We don’t have time for—”

“I have to get Rachel’s car seat,” she told him.

The blank disbelief on Janos’s face bugged the shit out of her.

“It’s the law,” she said more loudly. “Children have to be properly restrained. You can’t let them rattle around in a vehicle. It’s not safe.”

That you-have-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-lady expression pushed her raddled nerves right to the snapping point. “Look, asshole, I have left everything behind!” she said, her voice shrill. “My home, my stuff, my friends, my work, my stroller, Rachel’s Tylenol and diaper wipes and allergy medicines! I left our entire fucking identity behind, thanks to you! I am not leaving Rachel’s car seat, so get the fuck out of my way!”

Janos lifted both hands in the air, eyes wide behind the weird glasses. “
Calmati,
” he murmured. “Keep it down. And hurry, please.”

He looked incredibly different with that hair and bushy beard and that stupid-ass knit cap stretched over it. Tam stared at him for a second, shook her head, and stuck Rachel right into his arms. What else could she do? No way was the kid capable of standing on her feet.

She dug keys from her purse with stiff, shaking fingers, opened the door, and struggled with straps, clamps and tethers until she got the car seat out of her vehicle.

Then she wrenched open the trunk and grabbed the jewelry case too. What the hell. It didn’t look like she was going to be taking a plane trip anytime soon, and the way things were looking, some of this stuff might well come in handy. And she could always melt it down for gold and gems later on if she got desperate. Which was looking more and more likely, the way she was running through money.

She had to get her hands on a gun. Preferably more than one. The McCloud Crowd could help her, but she hated to involve them. They were so inquisitive, so damn protective. She didn’t want to put their families in danger. But she would, for Rachel. Oh, yes, she would.

She’d gotten out of the habit of packing heat, having a curious three-year-old crawling all over her, but what happened in that bus was a brutal reality check. She’d gotten sloppy. She gave herself a mental slap as she jogged alongside Janos, clutching the heavy seat.

Rachel was as slack as a doll. She looked so small, curled up against his huge chest. He stopped at a black van with tinted windows, and opened it without the benefit of a key. “Is this your car?” she asked.

He gave her a significant look. “No.”

She flung open the back door, and hoisted the car seat into place, again struggling with tethers, belts, and straps. “Stolen?”

Another
duh
glance from behind his shaggy fake locks. “Borrowed,” he said. “We will take it back now to the mall parking lot where I found it, and the owner will need only to fix the locks and the steering column. Perhaps I will even leave money for repairs.”

“How civil of you.” She grabbed Rachel from his arms. “Not often one meets a car thief and killer who’s such a good citizen.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “I do my best.”

“How did you get from the parking lot to the terminal?” she demanded. “You weren’t on my shuttle. You weren’t in the lot.”

“I had a motorcycle in the back of the van,” he said. “And that is the last question I am answering for now, so shut up. Try not to leave prints on the van, no? Things are complicated enough. Do not put the child in the seat yet. Stay down on the floor until we are on the road.”

That sounded wise, so she placed Rachel on the floor in front of the backseat and huddled beside her until she felt the van stop. The window hummed down, the exchange was made. The turn, a smooth acceleration, and they were off. She went limp with shivering relief.

“All clear,” he said.

Tam hoisted Rachel up into the car seat and strapped her in. She grabbed the clammy, chilly little hands and chafed them. It alarmed her, the way the child’s head lolled. Her heartbeat was frantic, like a little bird. It made her feel horribly helpless.

“Janos, do you have a plan?” she demanded. “And does it include telling me what the fuck just happened back there?”

“Yes and yes.” He was using that super-cool, even voice again. “We leave this van in the mall parking lot, retrieve my car, and go straight to a comfortable hotel where we can rest safely, and talk at great length about many things that will interest you. That is the plan.”

“Why don’t you tell me about the things that will interest me now, and then I decide if I’m interested in going to this hotel with you?”

“No,” he said. “I am driving now. Not talking.”

“What bullshit,” she said sharply. “You appear to be a very talented multitasker. And I am curious right now. Not later.”

“You will be just as curious later. How is the child?”

Hah. The master of diversion. She stroked Rachel’s clammy cheek. “Ice cold, racing heart, won’t talk to me, won’t make eye contact. Shocky. Why? Don’t try to tell me that you care.”

He caught her glance in the rearview mirror and gave her a reproving frown. “That is unjust.”

His aggrieved tone set her right off on a rampage. “Oh, is it? None of this crazy shit would have happened to her at all if you hadn’t fucked with our lives and put us on the run, you meathead moron.”

“It would have happened,” he said. “Be glad it happened here and not at your home, where I would not have been able to help.”

“I’m supposed to be grateful? Spare me. Rachel, baby, are you in there? Anybody home? Talk to Mamma. Come on.” She patted Rachel’s cheeks, gulping back tears. Now was not the time, damn it.