“You assholes in there, listen up. If this is a trick I’ll pistol whip one of you.”
Alejandro’s accented voice carried from inside the shed.
“It’s not a trick. My friend needs help!”
McKenna opened the door and held the gun out in front of him. It was a brilliant spring day, and it took a moment for McKenna’s eyes to adapt to the gloom of the shack.
The boys were sitting on the floor near the chubby redheaded kid, Charlie. Charlie was on his back, staring at the ceiling, and what looked like drool was dripping from a corner of his open mouth.
One of the boys spoke to McKenna loudly, gaining his attention and making him jerk his head to the left. He was one of the new ones, the dark-haired one with the eyes that looked right through you.
“We think something poisonous stung him, see that red blotch near his temple?”
“What blotch?” McKenna said.
As he took a step closer to get a better look at Charlie, McKenna became aware of three things at once.
Although he saw chains looped around the boys’ wrists and ankles, he could see no padlocks. There also appeared to be a boy missing, as only four of them surrounded the kid lying prone. But, the third and most important thing McKenna realized, was that something or someone was rushing at him from his right.
Romeo swung a loop of chain and smashed it against the side of McKenna’s head. The blow caused McKenna to stagger back out the door, while dropping the gun. Romeo followed him outside, and despite having to squint against the sudden brilliance of the daylight, Romeo connected solidly with the chain again. This time opening up a gash on McKenna’s chin.
Cody had grabbed up the gun, a revolver, and along with the other boys, he left the shed and watched the struggle taking place. McKenna had charged at Romeo, who skillfully sidestepped the tackle and tripped McKenna as he went past him.
Before McKenna could rise, Romeo was on him and wrapping the chain around his neck. McKenna, although no brute, was taller, and he outweighed Romeo by a good thirty pounds. The weight and height were no advantage.
Cody and Romeo had spent a large portion of the last several months learning a variety of hand-to-hand fighting techniques.
Romeo kept McKenna from rising, from twisting away, and continued to tighten the chain around the man’s neck.
As the other boys watched in horrified fascination, Cody looked over at the motel to see if Victor or Gina were drawing near. He saw nothing, and thought it likely they were out hunting down more victims. When he returned his gaze to the battle, the chain around McKenna’s throat had bitten deep, and blood seeped around its metal links.
When Romeo finally stood, McKenna was dead.
He joined Cody, who patted him on the shoulder, while the other boys stared at them in awe.
“Who are you two?” Pee-wee asked.
Cody pointed at the shed.
“We’re the ones who got you out of that sweat box, and now we’re going to give you back your cars. If you ever talk about any of this to the cops, leave us out of it.”
Alejandro unzipped his fly, walked over to McKenna’s body, and pissed on him. When he looked back over his shoulder, he spoke to Cody.
“Prison would be too good for these crazy bastards. If you need help killing them, I’m in.”
Cody nodded his thanks, then headed toward the motel.
12
Let The Girl Go
Tanner dialed the burner phone he’d left near the man he’d stabbed, then watched for a reaction through his rifle scope. When nothing happened, he looked at the screen of his own phone and saw that the call had failed to go through.
The cell towers that serviced the town visible in the distance barely extended their reach to McCall’s compound. After moving around a bit, Tanner managed to get a signal, then dialed the phone once more. The call went through, and Tanner returned to his firing position behind his sniper rifle, a McMillan TAC-50.
This time when he looked through the rifle optics, he saw that his call had the desired effect. Tanner had programmed the burner phone to ring loudly in a musical tone of blaring rock music. When the sound came from out in the desert, McCall’s guards had to think that someone was trying to sneak up on them.
Although too far away to hear their words, Tanner saw men shouting as they approached the area where the phone had lit up and sounded off. It had also drawn the attention of the perimeter guards, who trained their sniper rifles on the figure lying prone in the sand.
The sound of a fired rifle round echoed. It was followed by another, and then a third shot. Two of the perimeter guards had sent rounds into the punk Tanner had stabbed, and had put him out of his misery. The man had been shot in the back. The resulting effect from such rounds would be gaping exit wounds visible on his torso.
When he had stabbed the thug, Tanner had kept the knife wounds close together, in a cluster. His hope was that they would be seen as just one more exit wound caused by the rifles.
As the men on the ground closed in on the perceived intruder who’d been slain, Tanner used his scope to search for Daryl McCall, but didn’t see him.
The first of the men reached the body, and soon a conversation broke out among several of them. Through his scope, Tanner saw a man recover the burner phone, then pass it to another man. After more conversation, the man carrying the phone headed toward the front of the home, and was met there by Daryl McCall and Keith Brown.
McCall looked at the phone and spoke to the guy who had handed it to him.
“The man out behind the house was one of ours?”
“It was Tony Van Ness, Mr. McCall.”
“Tony? What the hell was he doing out in the desert, and why didn’t he answer when you guys called to him?”
The man shrugged, then pointed at the phone.
“Maybe he went out there to make a call he didn’t want us to know about.”
“Yeah,” Keith Brown said. “I bet Tony was working with the people who are trying to take over.”
The phone rang. McCall looked at the screen, then took the call.
“Who the hell is this?”
“I’m the guy who killed your two street dealers and your money man.”
“Beck is dead?”
“Yes.”
McCall asked a question that had been on his mind.
“That phony fire you set out at the factory, what was that about?”
“I was hoping to spook your buddy Brown there into leading me to you. It worked.”
McCall lowered the phone and gave Brown a look of disgust.
“What, D? Who is that?”
McCall ignored Brown and asked another question.
“You could have told the cops there was a meth lab in the factory, why didn’t you?”
“I don’t care about you or your business, McCall. What I want is Professor Armstrong’s daughter.”
“The girl? All this shit has been about the girl. Wait, who the fuck are you?”
“My name is Tanner.”
“Tanner? What’s your first name?”
“It’s just Tanner.”
“Tanner?” McCall said. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t recall in what context he’d heard it. However, the man who had handed the phone to McCall had an idea who he was talking to.
“Mr. McCall, that’s Tanner on the line? The hit man?”
“Ah,” McCall said. “Now I remember where I heard your name, Tanner, but why do you want the girl?”
“You don’t need to know that. But if you don’t send her out to me in one piece I’ll kill everyone down there.”
McCall laughed, then covered the phone with his hand as he whispered to his man.
“Tanner is up there in the hills somewhere. Tell the snipers to locate his ass and take him out.”
The man nodded and rushed off to deliver the order.
After laughing into the phone again, McCall spoke.
“If I give up the girl, her father will send m
y brother to prison for murder. That’s not going to happen, Tanner.”
“If you don’t give up the girl, I’ll kill you, and then I’ll kill your brother. It’s like I said, McCall, I don’t care about your business, but Professor Armstrong and his daughter are off-limits.”
“You really think you’re hot shit, don’t you?”
“The girl, McCall. Send her out or die. It’s that simple.”
The call ended, and McCall looked at the phone in disbelief.
“The balls on that muthafucka,” McCall said. He turned to speak to Keith Brown, but as he did so, a red mist bloomed before him. The mist was blood, Keith Brown’s blood, and McCall saw that most of his friend’s head was missing.
As the boom of the supersonic round reached McCall’s ears, he dived onto the floor of the porch and scrambled back into the house.
13
A Terrible Piece Of Luck
ARIZONA, MARCH 1998
Victor and Gina were nowhere to be found, nor was there any sight of the pickup truck. Cody assumed they were out on the road.
As Romeo and the others went to the back of the motel to get their cars, Cody and Pee-wee gathered up everyone’s belongings. As he was grabbing the gym bag he kept a change of clothes in, Pee-wee’s wallet fell open at Cody’s feet.
Cody looked down and read the name on the driver’s license.
“That’s some name,” Cody said.
“What? You thought my real name was Pee-wee?”
Cody laughed. He liked Pee-wee, and he’d been impressed when the small boy had stood up to Victor. After separating everyone’s things from the pile they’d been gathered in atop the bed, Cody and Pee-wee went outside to wait for the others to bring the cars around.
Pee-wee was carrying his gym bag along with Rueben’s rucksack, while Cody kept his hands free and held McKenna’s revolver loosely at his side.
When Cody spotted movement on his right, he turned his head to see Gina walking toward them with her hands held over her head, as if in surrender.
“Don’t shoot, Xavier. I don’t have a gun.”
“Where’s Victor?”
“He went off to get food,” Gina said.
“Where’s your gun?”
“I’m unarmed,” Gina said, and after smiling, she raised her blouse and revealed her bare breasts. “See, no gun, not even a bra.”
Cody heard Pee-wee whisper, “Wow,” as they stared at Gina’s ample bosom. Without taking his eyes off her breasts, Cody spoke to her again.
“Turn around, Gina. I want to see if you’re hiding a gun behind your back.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Now turn—”
Pee-wee shouted, “Look out!” As he did so, he shoved Cody back into the room with his shoulder, as two bullets shattered the window Cody had been standing in front of. The shots had been fired by Victor, who had been sneaking up on Cody’s left.
Pee-wee was following Cody back into the room when a strap on the rucksack caught on the head of a nail that was sticking out of the doorframe.
The sudden stop jerked Pee-wee around. Instead of diving into the room and out of the line of fire, Pee-wee found himself standing in the center of the threshold.
Victor fired twice more. Both rounds caught Pee-wee in the chest and blood splattered across the area.
As Cody dragged Pee-wee into the room and out of Victor’s sight, he heard Gina laugh.
“You got one of them, baby.”
When he reached the door and looked out, Cody saw Victor and Gina run into the office. Gina’s giddy laughter made Cody want to strangle her.
An instant later, Romeo and the other boys drove around from the rear of the motel. They had heard the shots, and wondered what was happening. Romeo had retrieved the weapons that he and Cody had hidden in their car. They were a pair of Colt M1911 pistols, far superior to the cheap .38 revolver they had taken off McKenna. Romeo left his car first and scanned for threats with his gun held up in both hands.
“Xavier?”
“I’m good, Romeo, but Victor shot Pee-wee… and it’s bad.”
Gary rushed into the room and dropped by his injured friend, as tears formed in his eyes. Charlie entered the room next. After looking down at Pee-wee’s wounds, Charlie shouted at Cody to hand him the small suitcase he’d been traveling with. Charlie opened his case and removed a first-aid kit. Once he had it open, he went to work on Pee-wee.
“Are you pre-med or something?” Gary asked.
Charlie shook his head.
“My dad is an ER doctor. He’s taught me and my sister some basics about trauma care, in case we ever needed it. I know enough to see that Pee-wee has what they call a sucking chest wound. If we don’t treat it, his lungs might collapse. Help me turn him gently, to check for exit wounds.”
There was only one exit wound, and it had broken Pee-wee’s collarbone as it traveled out his back. Where the other slug wound up and what damage it had done was anyone’s guess.
Charlie covered Pee-wee’s wound with sterile gauze and taped it in place on three sides, leaving one side open to allow air to escape the wound.
As Charlie gave aid to Pee-wee, Cody explained to the others what had happened. When he was done, he shook his head at Romeo, then spoke so that only he could hear.
“Keep your head on a swivel. Spenser must have said that to us a hundred times, and if not for Pee-wee, I might be dead.”
Romeo patted him on the arm in sympathy.
“We’re not perfect, Cody. We’re gonna make mistakes.”
Cody shook his head again.
“A Tanner can’t make mistakes.”
As Cody and Romeo stood guard, the other boys carried Pee-wee out to Alejandro’s BMW and laid him sideways on the rear seat. Charlie would ride in the back with Pee-wee, while Gary led the way to a hospital he said was twenty minutes away.
Cody and Romeo, with their weapons at the ready, would keep an eye on the office, so that Victor and Gina wouldn’t take potshots at the others as they left.
“Remember,” Romeo said. “Xavier and I were never here.”
Gary wiped tears away and looked up at them from where he sat behind the wheel.
“We’ll make up a story to tell the police, but you kill that bastard Victor for what he did to Pee-wee, or I’ll come back here and do it for you.”
“You won’t need to come back,” Cody said.
As the cars drove past the office, they saw Victor in the window, but as they raised their weapons to fire, Victor moved out of sight.
“You think Pee-wee will make it?” Cody asked.
Romeo let loose a sad sigh, then pointed toward the office.
“I’ll take the front and you take the back.”
Cody nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, herd them my way. Victor is mine.”
The two assassins in training moved toward the office, and in for the kill.
14
Superior Firepower
From a distance of nearly a mile away, Tanner sent round after round of incendiary ammo into the vehicles that were parked inside the compound of Daryl McCall.
Tanner was lying prone atop a hill overlooking the site, and shooting with impunity. McCall’s men had their own long-range rifles, but nothing like the superb weapon Tanner possessed.
McCall’s men found that their weapons were simply inadequate to the task, as Tanner was beyond their reach. When one of the shooters realized he was out of range, he sprinted closer to the hill and raised his weapon.
That same man died a moment later, as Tanner made an example of him. After that, McCall’s men ceased their useless firing and moved inside the house for cover.
McCall was crouched down behind a white leather sofa. From where he was, he could see what little remained of Keith Brown’s face. The sight made him want to scream out in rage.
One of McCall’s best street soldiers, a man named Carlin, moved up beside him. Carlin was one of the men who had a sniper rifle, whic
h he wore slung across his broad back. He was a tall black man with large expressive eyes. Carlin had joined his first gang before he learned to ride a bicycle.
“Mr. McCall, it looks like all the vehicles have been disabled, and one of the jeeps is on fire.”
“Why the hell aren’t you shooting back at him?”
“He’s out of range. When Travis tried to get closer, whoever is out there blew his brains out.”
“Tanner, that hit man, that’s who’s out there. He says he wants Professor Armstrong’s daughter.”
“And if you send her out to him, what then?”
“What then? Then my damn brother goes down hard and does life in prison. Tanner is not getting that girl.”
There was a loud bang from outside. Afterward, there came the distinct crackling sound of electricity.
“What the hell was that noise?” McCall asked.
Carlin went to a side window and looked out. The utility shed was damaged and its door blackened by an electrical surge. When he returned to McCall’s side, he gave him the bad news.
“I think Tanner just destroyed the solar inverters.”
“Shit! Are the lights about to go out?”
“No, the storage batteries should keep us going for a while, but they won’t last very long.”
McCall looked around and saw that his remaining men were all in the large living room, and they looked worried.
“Carlin, I don’t pay you and these other muthafuckas to run and hide. Do something!”
There was a pause as Carlin lowered his head to think. When he looked up, he was smiling.
“I know how we can kill Tanner, but I’ll need the girl as bait.”
McCall squinted at him. “What’s your plan?”
Tanner, while taking periodic looks through his rifle scope, calmly ate an apple. He was certain he knew what was transpiring below in the house.
Young Guns Box Set - Books 1-4: A Tanner Series (Young Gun Box Sets) Page 5
