One of the Wicked: A Mick Callahan Novel (31 page)

"Mick?"

I looked up to see Darlene in the doorway. She had a bead on Clyde. Mary Kate was at the fountain, throwing cold water on her face.

"Hey," she said, "you about wrapped up in there?"

It was over. I walked back to the cell phone and just then someone burst into the lobby shouting. Darlene said something about being on the job. A cop drew down on me, and I finally made out the words.

"Freeze, motherfucker! Police!"

"Easy." I raised my arms. "I'm not armed. The main guy you want is over there on the carpet."

"Stand where you are or we will shoot you down."

Salt-and-pepper cops, one black and one white. They were the small-town variety; young and scared, therefore doubly dangerous. I kept my hands up and waited. I checked on the whereabouts of my cell phone. It was still a few yards away but that was close enough. I could see Mary Kate in the doorway, standing with Darlene. They waved. A second pair of cops had disarmed the two women and cuffed Clyde. There was no sign of Cowboy, and that bothered me.

"Careful," I called. "There's another one."

"Shut up and stand still." The black cop reached Little Nicky and bent over. He jumped back. "Christ, that's Big Paul's number-two guy."

"Damn."

"Oh, man."

"Okay. What the fuck should we do now?"

The white cop thought furiously. He called to the two in the lobby. "Rick, Eddie, listen up. Take the cuffs off that dude and get out of here."

"Say what?" A young cop with glasses stood in the doorway.

"Just do it."

"Okay, okay, but then what about the women?"

"Not your problem."

"Guys," I said, "don't do this."

The white cop jogged to my gun and the cell, thought the phone was off and left it on the carpet. He kept me covered and brought the 9mm back. Checked to see if there were any rounds left, tossed the gun to the black cop. "Give that to Nicky. We're going to retreat four miles and come back fresh, after they've worked things out. Believe me you don't want any part of this shit."

Nicky was on his feet, but bent over slightly. Blood was dripping from his shattered nose. He fixed me with a predator's glare and picked up the gun. I knew I was a dead man. Nicky raised the weapon. The black cop caught his arm. "No offense, but wait until we're out of here, okay? We're doing you a solid, so give us some slack."

"For God's sake," Darlene shouted, "you're cops. You can't just turn us over to these people and leave!"

Nicky nodded to the local lawmen, forced a smile. "Go. We'll make this worth your while."

The cops covered me as they backed out the door. Nicky smiled through flattened lips. Clyde had Darlene and Mary Kate covered again.
Oh, man
. We were seriously screwed. To top matters off, the cops made it out of the casino even faster than they had arrived. No time to think.

"Nice trick," Nicky said. He stumbled toward me, the gun centered on my chest. "Your cell phone, I assume?"

I didn't answer. "I don't suppose you'd want to put that gun down and settle this like men."

Nicky sneered. "That is a tempting thought, my friend, but I am more interested in winning than playing fair. Prepare. I am going to kill your woman and your sister in front of you, one at a time, and then shoot you in the head."

I heard a BANG from the lobby. Nicky and I turned at the same time. Clyde was sliding down the doorjamb with part of his face missing. Darlene was scrambling for his gun. Mary Kate was screaming. I ducked again and took off. Nicky knew he was low on ammunition. He followed me, but was reluctant to waste fire and end up having to get physical with me again.

A man's voice, unfamiliar: "Back up, back the fuck up."

What the hell is this, an Elk's Club convention?
I came to the end of the row. Cowboy was not where I'd left him. There was a trail of blood smeared across the carpet. It led into some potted plants near the doorway. I risked a look over the top of the desk. Mary Kate's ex-boyfriend, Ed Talbot, stood four feet from the doorway. He was amped up, waving a .357 around like a kid in a rap video. Talbot had shot Clyde and was now ordering Darlene to stay back. I looked back over my shoulder. Nicky would be on me in no time. If I ran for cover, I'd be on top of Cowboy. If I stayed here, Nicky would blow me away. If I stood up, Talbot might do it for him.

"I'm coming out."

I got up slowly, arms high. Talbot spun around and for a second I thought I was toast. He was definitely on crystal meth, pasty faced, twitching and jerking and grinning like a sagging Halloween pumpkin. "We want the money and the dope, man. The money and the dope, okay? Just give us the money and the dope and we're square."

Mary Kate was pacing around, hugging herself, exhausted and also clearly embarrassed. I could read her body language from half a room away. "Ed, not these two. They're our friends. Just look out for the big guy."

Talbot blinked wildly. The gun swung to and fro. "Big guy?"

Oh, shit, he didn't even notice Nicky
. It finally registered that MK must have said something to Talbot. I'd been double-crossed by my own sister. They'd made plans along the way, intending to score both the money and the drugs. Mary Kate would have rationalized it, justified things in her mind. After all, Mick only wants that disc. Why not call Ed and grab a hundred and fifty grand in cash and some premium dope to unload? Leave town and get a new start somewhere?

"Ed," my sister said urgently. "Give my brother the gun. Hand it to Mick. Trust me on this."

I shook my head sadly. "MK?"

She looked away. "I'm sorry, Hero. Guess I'm just a fuckup."

By now I could feel Nicky behind me. He was low on ammo, but this new guy was armed and just as capable of killing us, thus temporarily posing a bigger threat. I started to bring my hands down and move closer. Ed Talbot whirled and aimed at me. The floor seemed to drop away. A .357 has a damned big barrel when you're looking right down it.

"Ed," I said as calmly as possible, "you'd best let me walk over there."

Mary Kate stopped pacing. Her eyes narrowed. Something came over her. She charged Ed from behind, ignored the gun and attacked, kicking and screaming. Ed, enraged, fired once into the floor by accident. The noise seemed to startle him sober. He caught himself and brought the gun up. My sister froze and fell backwards onto the floor. Ed snarled, aimed. He was clearly going to shoot MK first, then me. . . .

Nicky arrived, and reacted without thinking. He fired. The shot took Ed in the throat. Talbot dropped like a stone, grunting and wheezing. Blood went up and to the side in a fountain and the now slippery .357 skidded right towards me. I scrambled for the gun, ignoring the gore and the man now dying maybe five feet away. Meanwhile, Darlene was making a move for Clyde's weapon. Nicky fired again, just missing her, and she skidded away on her butt. MK went flat and covered her ears. She couldn't stop staring at what was left of Ed Talbot. She began to scream. Darlene rolled behind the fish pond for cover. Meanwhile, the pool of blood on the floor steadily widened.

I got the .357, rolled onto my back, and shot twice at where I expected Nicky to be. My ears rang. I blinked. Nobody was there. My hands were shaking. How many bullets had been fired from this gun, three? That left three in the chamber. No sign of Nicky. I swallowed and edged backwards through the muck, trying to get closer to Darlene and Mary Kate. The room felt like a combat zone. The air stank of gore and cordite. I made it to the doorway. Clyde's gun was in the middle of the lobby, several yards from Darlene.

"Get the gun," I called. "I'll cover you."

"Naw, I wouldn't move if I were you, lady," Cowboy said. His voice sounded hoarse. He shifted position so I could spot him. He was on his feet, in the potted plants, and now had an angle on Darlene. "Hey, Callahan, why don't you put that gun down so we can all have us a little talk?"

Little Nicky came out of the row of cubicles. "Yes, put it down now, Mr. Callahan, or Eric will shoot your woman. Come on, you're a proven survivor, why not buy some time?"

"No, Mick," Darlene said. "Don't give up your weapon."

I froze. My head pivoted back and forth between Cowboy, MK, Darlene, and finally, Nicky. With luck, Jerry was still listening. He had control of the computers that ran the entire complex. Jerry would be the U.S. Calvary, come to the rescue. He'd think of something. I dropped the weapon and stepped toward Cowboy. Nicky was a lot more pissed off at me than Eric. Or so I hoped.

Nicky smiled, held up my cell phone. He'd crushed and shattered it. There would be no calvary. "Now we finish it, Callahan. Yes?"

"Yes," Cowboy said, "now we finish it. It's your turn to disarm, Mr. Argetoianu. Just set it down on the carpet, if you please."

Nicky said, "What?"

Cowboy took aim at his head. Stunned, Nicky did as he was told.

I heard fresh movement in the lobby. A row of military types entered the building, true boots on the ground; brisk, efficient men issuing orders in low tones. Darlene sat up grinning. She flashed me an okay sign. Mary Kate had stopped screaming and was now crying instead. She stayed flat on the floor. I smiled at Eric, shook my head.

"Yeah, I kind of wondered about you from the start, Cowboy."

"He shot Ed," MK sobbed, "poor Ed." After a moment, "Are you okay, Mick?"

Several of the men in SWAT-style black entered the computer room, but now I could see that their uniforms had been stripped of all insignia. These guys were Black Ops for sure. Two of them flanked Nicky. They kept him covered, stood casually, as if awaiting orders.

Cowboy sighed. He lowered his weapon, slid down the wall. "Will somebody get me a fucking medic?" The crowd of men parted and their leader stepped into view. He was smiling.

"Hey, Bone." I sat down on the floor, too. Bud was amused that I wasn't surprised to see him alive.

"How goes it, Mick?"

Darlene looked puzzled. Mary Kate pulled herself together. Bud Stone, also in Ops black, knelt next to me. He dropped a big paw on my shoulder. "You done good, Callahan."

"I don't know whether to hug you or beat the shit out of you," I said. "Tell you one thing, you have a ton of explaining to do."

"Don't I know it," Bone said. "Look, we were trying to get here sooner, but the local cops were flat bought and paid for. They blocked the road and wouldn't move. We didn't want to start a firefight, and they wouldn't budge. Finally, my boss got some big, swinging dick in Washington to order them out of the way."

The medics appeared. They began to attend to MK, Darlene, Cowboy, and even Nicky. As for me, I waved them off. After all, most of the blood on my clothes had come from other people.

Mary Kate quieted down, stared at me, tears running down her face. "I'm so sorry, Hero. I'm so sorry."

I looked away.
We are what we are
. All the while, some guys in white canvas and plastic masks moved things around, cleaned up gore, and generally messed with the crime scene. Someone had given them specific instructions and they were out to make this look the way the brass wanted it to look. The covert soldiers were rushing everywhere; a few guys in street clothes, too, but they were all military nonetheless. It takes one to know one.

I wanted some answers. "You never left Special Ops, did you, Bone?"

A bad Pacino. "Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in."

"Does the wife know?"

"Wendy? Oh, hell, no. I think she suspects, but they won't let me fess up all the way. And believe me, that part of it really sucks."

"Okay, I figure the information on this damned disc was too hot for regular channels. If it fell into the hands of the real cops or the FBI or the press, all hell would break loose."

Bud Stone nodded. "You got that right. By the way, you don't look too shocked. How long have you known?"

"I finally got ahead of the curve this morning, when Mandel said you were trying to sneak back in to replace the disc with a phony. That tipped me off. Well, and the size of the explosions at the ranch. Sounded like professional grade. I didn't want to say too much to the others, in case one of them got captured and interrogated. Need to know, and all that."

"You always were a smart one."

"I told Darlene some of it, and had Jerry install a double worm on the most sensitive material. In case you're wondering, we're not putting anything right again until every single wrinkle that affects us has been straightened out. Screw us over, you've got nothing."

"I hear you," Bud said. "We'll take care of it all; the mob, the law, everything. You know, Callahan, you're still pretty damned good." He placed a hand on his heart. "Sincere offer. My boss says you can come and work for us any time you want."

"You can tell your boss to fuck off."

"Tell her yourself," Bone said. He smiled brightly. "She's mean as a fucking snake and flat scares the crap out of me. Anyway, you want something cold to drink? Let's get you patched up."

I tugged his sleeve. "Sit your ass down for a second and explain. So, you needed a beard, somebody who could do some of the legwork, somebody the bad guys would know didn't work for the DEA or CIA or whatever acronym currently covers what you do. Maybe everybody wanted into this for their own reasons, but me, I wouldn't care. I'd just want to help out a friend."

"Right you are."

"You told your boss about me. That I owed you big-time."

"Yeah, but not anymore, bro. We're even." Bone fixed me with a sincere look. "I never meant for you to get in this deep, Mick. I swear. It all just kind of got out of control."

I looked back toward the lobby. A young woman now sat with Mary Kate, consoling her. She wore a uniform, had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked kind of familiar. Then I remembered her face. It was Brandi DeLillo.