Surviving the Dead (Book 7): The Killing Line (27 page)

“So we’ve established why you’re still alive,” I said. “The second way this plays out is I leave you all here, unarmed and incapacitated, go to the cops, and take my chances with Lopez. If any of you give me trouble on my way out, I kill you.”

“You gonna do that,” Ross said, “you do it already.”

“Yes. I would have. Which leads us to the third possibility.”

“The one where I kill yo’ cracker ass?” Ross said.

“No. The one where we sit down together and figure out how to take down Lopez
and
Major Santino.”

Ross was already standing still, but the stillness took on a depth and resonance that was nearly palpable.

“And how you gonna do that?”

“Lopez is up to you. You’re the local authority. As for Santino, leave that to me.”

Ross shook his head. “Ain’t buyin’ it, Ivy League. How you gonna bring down the major?”

“Ever heard of General Phillip Jacobs?”

A blink. Ross swallowed and looked down for just a moment. “Yeah. He the director of ASOC.”

“You’re familiar?”

“Used to run guns for the Alliance.”

“Found yourself on the receiving end?”

“More than once.”

“Jacobs is a friend of mine.”

Ross snorted. “Bullshit.”

“Thornberg was holding out on you, Ross. I’ve worked for Jacobs on several occasions. We’re on a first name basis. I put in a call, and there’ll be an investigation in less than a week. Jacobs will hang Santino by his balls when he finds out what’s going on around here. You know anybody other than Thornberg with access to the Archive?”

“’Course.”

“Have me checked out.”

“That take time. Don’t do us much good right now.”

“No, it doesn’t.” I nodded my head toward the far end of the room. “But I know something that does. Ladies?”

Elizabeth stepped out of the shadows on the side of the room closest to Ross. She was holding an M-4 and aiming it at Ross and his two goons. Sabrina crossed the room in a flash and had her karambit to Terrell’s throat before he had a chance to move.

“Drop the gun and kick it away,” she hissed. “Now.” She punctuated the sentence by shoving her Berretta into the small of his back. Terrell dropped the gun and kicked it toward me.

“Here’s how we’re going to do this,” I said. “Ross, you and Thing One and Thing Two are going to come around here and put your hands against the bar. Terrell, you do the same. Ladies, they make one wrong move, kill them.”

Ross and his men did not make a wrong move. Neither did Terrell. I made sure they had their weight back with their feet spread so they would not be able to lunge at me, had Sabrina and Liz cover them from both sides, and searched the men thoroughly. By the time I was finished there were eight guns and six knives in a pile at the end of the bar.

“Now,” I said, motioning to one of the larger tables. “Have a seat and we can talk like civilized people.”

Ross sat down first, followed by the rest of his crew.

“Anybody want a drink?” I asked.

“Cabinet under the bar,” Ross said. “It’s locked. Key the last one on the bottom right.”

I opened the cabinet and took out a bottle of Woodford Reserve. “This okay?”

Ross nodded. I poured five doubles and carried the glasses to the table. After distributing them, I sat down in a chair a few feet away. The last thing I wanted was for them to make a grab at me.

We all sipped our drinks and stared at each other. Which is to say, I stared at Ross and everyone at his table stared at me.

“It seems what we have here is a failure of trust,” I said. “Ross, you don’t trust me to keep my word. I told you I would help you with Lopez and I meant it. But that’s not good enough for you, is it?”

“Afraid not.”

“If I decided to walk out of here right now, who would you send after me?”

He did not hesitate. “Terrell.”

“Figured.”

I took another sip of the bourbon. The burn settled my nerves. I let it do its work for a moment and then stood up and walked to the bar. The knife I had taken from Terrell was a black tanto-style blade manufactured by Cold Steel. I picked it up, put my own weapons down except for the sap, walked back to where Terrell was sitting, and threw the blade at his feet. It flipped twice in the air and stuck into the floor next to his boot. I said a silent prayer of thanks; I would have looked like a fool if the knife had hit wrong and gone skittering across the floor.

“Pick it up.”

Terrell looked at me, then at Ross.

“Your women gonna interfere?” Ross said.

“No.”

Liz eyed me anxiously but remained silent. Sabrina’s expression was blank. Terrell pulled the knife out of the floor and stood up.

“Anytime you’re ready,” I said.

In the movies, when people fight each other, they square off, exchange some threatening banter, and then perform a choreographed sequence of flashy movements that would get them killed in a real fight. Terrell was under no such illusions about the true nature of combat. Neither was I.

He crossed the distance quickly, but I was ready for him, hands empty, stance wide with my weight on my toes. Terrell feinted once with the knife and then lashed out with a kick aimed at my groin. I dodged the kick by turning sideways and slipped Terrell’s follow-up left. The force he put behind the punch left him momentarily open, and I nailed him on the chin with the hardest overhand right I could muster. The shock of the blow traveled down my arm and across my back all the way down to my kidneys. I am not an especially big man, but I know how to throw a punch. Terrell took a step back.

With my opponent temporarily stunned, I knew it was time to make my move. I stepped in front of him to present an open target and dropped my shoulder like I was going to throw a straight left. Terrell took the bait and slashed at me with the tanto. I let the blade pass in front of me, drew the sap from my pocket, and when Terrell followed up with a backward slash, I whacked him on the back of the hand as hard as I could. There was a sound like carrots snapping, and the knife clattered to the floor.

Terrell still had one good hand, and he was a tough bastard. He took a swing at me, but his technique was off. I let it glance off my shoulder, dropped my weight, and snapped a left cross into his groin. The big man grunted and countered with a push kick, but I was already out of the way. The kick threw him off balance. I grabbed one of his arms with my free hand and yanked him sideways, forcing him to his knees. Out of instinct he put both hands down to catch himself and cried out in pain as the broken bones in his right hand ground together.

Now I smelled blood in the water. The sap seemed to switch from my left hand to my right hand of its own volition. I brought it down hard on the back of Terrell’s head. He went wobbly, but was still trying to stand. So I hit him again. And again. And again. On the fifth blow, he rolled onto his side and stayed down, his breath coming in great snoring gasps. I stood up straight, tucked the sap back into my pocket, let out a deep breath, and turned to Ross.

“Who you got better than him?” I said.

“Just me,” Ross said.

“Want to try it?”

He shook his head slowly, the broken, shark-tooth grin reappearing. “Probably not.”

I sat down and picked up my drink. Sipped it. Looked at Ross. “Can we talk business now?”

He thrust his chin at the two thugs sitting with him. “Y’all take off. I send for you if I need you.”

The two men looked at me.

“Let ‘em go,” I said.

Liz covered them as they walked out the door and then barred it behind them. Sabrina kept her aim steadily on Ross.

“You can stand down now,” I said. Sabrina lowered her weapon and took a seat, but did not look away. Liz did the same.

“Lopez won’t come for you here,” Ross said. “You have to draw him out.”

“Got any ideas?”

“A few. How you gonna handle Santino?”

“Can you get me access to an encrypted satellite phone?”

“Government phone?”

“Yes.”

“Be expensive.”

“For you.”

Ross shook his head. “I ain’t paying for it.”

“You’re the one who wants Santino out of the picture. Personally, I don’t give a shit if he stays or goes. Your call.”

“Fine.”

I stood up and didn’t bother offering to shake hands. “We’re going back upstairs. I trust we won’t be disturbed any further?”

“I think we past that.”

“Good. See you tomorrow.”

Ross’ eyes tracked over to Terrell’s prone form. “Yeah. See you.”

Back in the room, I lay down on my bedroll and tried to ignore the pain in my right hand. The first two knuckles were already beginning to swell. The ache made me long for the days of ice machines. Liz and Sabrina sat down on their beds and watched the door nervously.

“You really think he’ll leave us alone?” Liz asked.

“Yes.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because he wants Lopez and Santino out of the way. That’s his top priority. He knows we can help make that happen, now. He’ll want to keep us alive for the time being.”

“Then why all the theatrics?” Sabrina said. “I mean, was all that shit really necessary?”

“No,” I said. “It wasn’t. But men like Ross live by their own rules. In Ross’ world, there’s only room for one top dog. Everybody else has to know their place.”

“So that’s what he tried to do tonight,” Liz said. “Put us in our place.”

“Yep.”

Sabrina smiled. She looked impish in the pale light filtering through the window. “Didn’t work out too well for him.”

“No, it didn’t.”

I took off my boots and laid my weapons on the ground beside my bedroll. The adrenalin from the fight had worn off and sleep was pulling at me hard. I climbed under the covers and felt myself beginning to drift.

“That man, Terrell,” Liz said. “You made beating him look easy.”

“Glad it looked that way.”

“You could have killed him.”

“Yes.”

“He didn’t even get in a punch. Never hurt you at all.”

“Nope.”

“If you’d had a knife…”

“It would have been a much shorter fight.”

Liz did not speak for a few seconds. I sat up so I could look at her.

“You okay?”

“Yes. I’ve just never seen anything like that before.”

“How does it make you feel?”

Her dark brown eyes were earnest when she looked at me. “It makes me glad you’re on our side. But…”

“But what?”

“I saw a side of you tonight I didn’t know was there. All this time we’ve known each other, I had no idea what you were capable of. When Terrell picked up that knife, I was afraid. I thought he was going to kill you. But then…I’ve never seen anyone move that fast. I feel like I’m looking at someone I don’t know.”

“Liz, I’m the same person I’ve always been. What I can do with a blade or a gun or my fists doesn’t change who I am. I’m your friend. And I plan to stay that way.”

“Of course.”

“You should get some sleep. Both of you. Be a long day tomorrow.”

“Sure.”

I lay down and closed my eyes and thought of Allison. She had never seen me fight before, and if the fates were kind, she never would. The last thing I wanted, ever, was for her to look at me the way Liz had looked at me tonight.

It was the last thought I had before I fell asleep.

One of Ross’ couriers showed up the next afternoon with a satellite phone.

“You got ten minutes,” Ross said. “This thing ain’t cheap.”

I gave him my best glare. “Seeing as you’re the one responsible for my current situation, I think I’ll take as long as I need.”

“I told you, I didn’t sell you out to Lopez. That was Thornberg.”

“You going to punish him for it?”

Ross stood still behind the bar in the mostly empty lobby. He did not reply.

“You benefitting from it?”

More silence.

“That’s what I thought. Mind if I use your office?”

“Go ahead.”

I followed the hallway back, shut the door behind me, and dialed Jacob’s number. After giving my identification code and navigating through a swarm of lackeys intent on not letting me waste the general’s precious time, Jacobs finally came on the line.

“Riordan, thank God,” Jacobs said. “Glad to hear you’re still alive. Have you heard from Gabriel?”

I felt a heaviness in my stomach. I had done a good job over the last week of not thinking too much about my old friend. But hearing Jacobs say his name reignited the slumbering anxieties.

“No,” I said. “You?”

“Anything I tell you is classified. Not to be repeated to anyone. Clear?”

“Clear.”

“He and Hicks were successful. They rescued the hostages and our people did a number on the raiders that took them.”

“You wipe ‘em out?”

“No. About a hundred or so survived, but we’re tracking their movements. They’re headed for the Arkansas border as we speak.”

“Marauder settlement, you think?”

“It’s a distinct possibility.”

“Gabe recover his trade?”

“No. In fact, he didn’t even mention it until the mission was over.”

“Sounds about right. Where is he now?”

A sigh. “I wish I knew. I offered him air transport to Colorado Springs, but he refused. Said he didn’t want to leave his horse behind.”

“Figures.”

“Last I heard, he was dropped off near where the attack occurred. Haviland, I believe it was.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Two days.”

“Is Hicks with him?”

“No. He’s on his way to Colorado Springs.”

“Any special reason?”

“Need to know, Mr. Riordan.”

I took a deep breath and let that one go. Doing the occasional job for General Jacobs did not entitle me to infinite operational intel. And besides, I could always ask Hicks later.

“So Gabe picked up our trail in Haviland,” I said. “And is probably on his way here right now.”

“How would he know to come to Dodge City?”

“I left markers for him as a precaution. He’ll know what they mean and follow them here.”

“Smart thinking.”

“Thanks. Listen, General. I have a problem I need help with.”

I explained to him my difficulties with the local organized crime leaders and Major Santino’s involvement. Jacobs listened quietly. When I finished, it was a long few seconds before he spoke.

“Can you prove Santino is on the take?” Jacobs asked. He sounded tired.

“I already bribed him for passage to Colorado Springs in a couple of weeks. And I imagine Ross would be willing to testify, although I’m not sure how much good a racketeer’s testimony will do. But I think others will come forward if they sense Santino is on the way out.”

“In that case, I’ll talk to CID and ask them to send an investigator.”

“Think they’ll do it?”

“If I ask them to. I’m not without influence around here.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of the rest from my end.”

“You have a plan?”

I told him. He laughed and said, “Bold. Stupid, but bold. Think the other two will go along?”

“Yes.”

“Be careful, Riordan.”

“I always am. Thanks for the help, General.”

“Call me Phil. And you’re welcome.”

I hung up, walked back into the bar, and gave the satellite phone back to Ross.

“So what’s the deal?” he asked.

“Jacobs is going to talk to someone at CID, have them send an investigator. Probably be a week or two before they get here.”

“CID federal?”

“Yeah. They handle criminal investigations for the Army and Department of Defense. Local cops give them any trouble, they’ll call in the FBI.”

Ross accepted the news calmly. “And in the meantime?”

I told him how I planned to deal with Lopez and what I needed from him. He smirked and said, “I can swing that.”

“Good. Have your men ready to go in an hour.”

“Sure.”

I felt Ross’ eyes on my back as I walked upstairs to talk to Elizabeth and Sabrina.