McCall was coming up with a plan to kill him, and Tanner would allow him the time to do so. No matter what McCall decided to do, it would have to involve sending men to kill him. Tanner had rigged motion detectors all around his position and back out along the private road that led in to the compound. If anyone drew near, he would be alerted.
The piece of ground Tanner was lying on was a depression that was over a foot deep. The space surrounding it acted as a natural barrier and blind. Tanner also covered the ground leading to the area with loose brush, which would make sound if walked on.
If someone happened to find a gap in the motion detector’s coverage and came up behind him, all they would likely see would be the tip of his nearly five-foot-long sniper rifle. They would have to crest the hill to get a clean shot at him.
Tanner had just finished eating when his phone rang. Daryl McCall wanted to talk.
Down the hill and inside the house, McCall heard Tanner answer the phone and say, “What is it, McCall?”
“Why do you want the girl?”
“That’s my business.”
“But you’re going to send her home to her father, right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, but here’s what I’m thinking. The cops have to release my brother soon or charge him with murder. Why not wait until they release Lionel and then take the girl back home? That way, we both win.”
“Send the girl out now, McCall. I didn’t come here to play games or make deals. I want that girl and I want her now.”
“Or what, Tanner? You’re going to march down here and take on twenty men?”
There was no response, but the line was still active. McCall heard some sort of metallic sound. That was followed by the ear-splitting crack of Tanner’s rifle being fired. A moment later, the picture window behind the curtains exploded and a man on McCall’s right went down. The slug from a .50 BMG cartridge ripped a hole through the man’s chest that was the size of a golf ball.
McCall looked beyond the fresh corpse and saw that the round had kept going and tore through the wall behind its victim.
As he lay flat on the floor, McCall spoke into the phone again. “Tanner?”
“That was a demonstration. I don’t need to come down there to kill you.”
“All right. I’ll send out the girl.”
“Do it now,” Tanner said, and ended the conversation.
McCall dropped the phone, then removed another one from his pocket. The signal was bad, so it took him three tries to contact his man Carlin.
“Are you almost there?”
“We’re getting close, but what was that shot? That was Tanner, wasn’t it?”
“The bastard shot out the big front window and killed Dre.”
“Dre is dead? That sonofabitch Tanner. I promise you, Mr. McCall, we’ll be bringing his body to you.”
“What about the girl, should I send her out now or wait?”
“Yeah, send her out now, she’ll help to distract Tanner.”
“Whatever else happens, Tanner can’t take the girl, Carlin. Shoot that little bitch in the leg if you need to, but don’t let her get away.”
“I hear you, and I have to stop talking. I don’t want Tanner to hear me, and voices travel out here.”
“Right, but call me once Tanner is dead.”
Tanner wasn’t surprised when he got alarms from motion detectors placed on both the left and the right of his position. McCall must have sent teams of men to circle around and come up behind him. It was a ploy Tanner had expected.
While checking his scope to see if any snipers were again trying to get closer for a shot, Tanner saw Megan Armstrong leave the house by the front door. She was holding a small flashlight, and was wearing what looked like a blue and white school uniform. The girl appeared to be frightened and relieved at the same time, then she shrieked and hugged herself. She had spotted Keith Brown’s body.
After running down the front steps, Megan stared upward, toward the hill where she was told Tanner would be waiting for her.
Tanner took his eye from the scope, then broke open a pair of chemical glow sticks, giving Megan a fluorescent green light she could use to guide her to his position.
With Megan headed toward him, Tanner prepared for the others who would soon be joining him. Joining him, and dying.
Carlin spoke to one of the men he was with, it was the man who was approaching Tanner’s position from the other side. In a whispered conversation over the phone, they coordinated their attack, while agreeing to take things slow and careful.
When Carlin had climbed higher up the hill, one of the four men with him pointed out the soft green light, which was being emitted by the glow sticks. Carlin nodded, then smiled. Tanner had just screwed up.
Carlin understood that Tanner was using the light to guide the girl to his position, but it could also be used by Carlin and the men with him to pinpoint Tanner’s location. Another quick whispered call to his counterpart on the other side of the hill confirmed that those five men were also aware of the glow.
After agreeing to attack Tanner at an exact time, Carlin put away his phone. Afterward, he informed his men to be ready to charge up the hill once they had moved in a little closer.
When they grew near to the green glow, Carlin put up his hand, then made a fist, signaling his men to come to a stop. Just ten yards ahead, past a stretch of ground covered in loose brush, Carlin could make out the heel of a stylish black boot.
His first thought was that it was a trap of some sort, however, that idea left his mind as he heard Tanner’s voice coming from the same area. The hit man sounded like he was talking on the phone to someone, possibly McCall.
Carlin silently thanked his boss for having the good sense to keep Tanner occupied as they moved in for the kill.
After checking his watch, Carlin counted the slow progress of the second hand as it neared the agreed upon time of attack. When that moment arrived, Carlin led his men forward in a headlong rush, as they dashed toward the sound of Tanner’s voice.
From his position on the ground forty feet back from the edge of the hill, Tanner laid beneath a thick pile of camouflaging brush. Tanner had watched the group of men to his left stare at the barrel of the sniper rifle, while to his right, Carlin’s group was looking at the boots he’d taken off the body of Beck, McCall’s dead accountant.
Both groups leapt to the assumption he’d hoped they would, that there was someone lying prone between the gun and the boots.
With the recording he’d made earlier droning away on the phone left beside the rifle, it was an alluring trap he’d laid. Taking the bait was only part of the plan, surprise was the key element, and it would see Tanner triumph despite the odds against him.
An instant after Carlin’s group charged the hill, the five men on the left did the same. As the two divisions of men picked up speed they fell into Tanner’s trap, literally. He had dug, then concealed, shallow trenches on both sides of his firing position. The charging men dropped into them with all but two exceptions.
The men who avoided the trenches were the slowest of each group. One had pulled up short, while the other had jumped over a man who had fallen. Tanner sprung up from his hiding place and shot both men. They were the first of many rounds he would deliver from the AR-15 he held.
Some of the men who’d fallen had dropped their weapons, while one man writhed in pain from a twisted ankle. The two things they all had in common was the panic they felt, and the growing certainty that they were about to die.
To Carlin, it felt like the ground had disappeared beneath his feet as he found himself falling forward. His first thought was that he’d had the bad luck to step in a hole, but soon realized that his men had also fallen. It was a trap. Tanner had dug a ditch and they had all stepped into it.
The blast of several gunshots was followed by the sight of one of his men tumbling to the ground beside him. The man was wounded. Carlin put his free hand out to push himself up and it sank up to
the wrist in soil that had been loosened, making him lose his balance again.
More gunshots, many more, and in rapid succession. The sound of the gunfire was accompanied by the screams and groans of men, including Carlin’s own cry of agony. He’d been struck in the back and the left leg. The back wound was a bad one. Carlin felt a numbness spread throughout his body, and found he could only move his head.
When the gunfire finally stopped, Carlin wondered if he was the only one still alive, but no, there were moans coming from somewhere, likely a survivor from the other group of men.
Then, Tanner appeared. Carlin had heard the stories about the man, the rumors, the growing myth, and he had expected someone exceptional. He was shocked to see that Tanner was just a normal looking man and not a muscled giant or a shadowy ninja type.
But then he saw the eyes, Tanner’s remarkable eyes. Carlin knew they’d be the last sight his own eyes ever beheld.
15
Hostage Crisis
ARIZONA, MARCH 1998
Cody and Romeo understood that the other boys might come across a cop, and that the police could show up at the motel at any moment. They didn’t care, at least, not enough to leave the scene before dealing with Victor.
Inside the motel’s office, Victor was also aware that time was running out. He tried to make a deal.
“I don’t know where you kids got those guns, but I got a gun too. We can stay here shooting it out, or we can haul ass before the damn cops show up. What will it be?”
Romeo answered Victor by shooting apart the lock on the office door.
Victor sent a round at the door, which he expected Romeo to try to open, but Romeo had moved over near the office window.
After waiting and listening for a sign of where in the room Victor might be standing, Romeo peeked through the window and saw that Victor and Gina were in the back office, and headed for the rear door.
Romeo rushed toward the back of the building where Cody Parker waited for Victor to show.
Cody watched as Victor and Gina came out the rear entrance. He was raising his gun to fire when Victor grabbed Gina by the hair and held her in front of him like a shield. That was followed by Victor placing his gun against the side of Gina’s head.
Romeo arrived. He skidded to a halt near Cody and took in the scene.
Victor shouted his next words with his finger firmly on the trigger of his weapon.
“Guns on the ground, assholes, or Gina grows a third eye.”
Gina struggled against Victor’s grip as she pleaded for the boys to help her.
“He’ll kill me if you don’t drop your guns.”
Romeo looked conflicted about what to do next. Cody wasn’t conflicted, not one damn bit.
His first shot gave Gina the third eye Victor had only threatened to give her, while his second shot tore through Victor’s neck. Cody fired several more times, but they were superfluous, as Gina was dead, and Victor was dying.
When it was done, the bodies lay together in a heap. Romeo walked over and kicked lightly at Gina’s hand, causing the silver object she clutched in death to slip from her grasp.
It was a gun no bigger than a toy, but from mere feet away, it would have delivered death the same as any gun. Gina had been palming the weapon, waiting for an opportunity. She had continued to play deadly games until the end.
Romeo gestured at the tiny pistol.
“How did you know Gina had the gun?”
“I didn’t,” Cody said.
Romeo grunted in surprise, before following Cody to their car, and away from the Desert View Motel.
16
Payback
Megan Armstrong crouched low as she heard the sound of gunfire and screams come from the hill she’d been walking towards. She had heard earlier gunshots and shouting, and hoped the police had come to rescue her and take her home to be with her father.
She had no idea where she was or why she had been kidnapped, and had spent the last two days either blindfolded or talking to men wearing ski masks.
Without warning, she’d been yanked out of the room she’d been locked in, handed a flashlight, and told to go outside and walk toward the hill in the distance. When she’d seen the dead body lying on the porch, she knew that whatever was going on, it had nothing to do with the police.
Megan straightened up again after realizing it had been some time since she’d heard a shot fired. When she looked to where the green glow was, she saw that it was fainter then it had been. That was also where all the shooting had occurred.
The man who’d sent her outside said that someone was waiting in the hills who would take her home, and so Megan headed toward the green light. But no way was she going to where she’d heard the shots and the screams come from, and returning to the house was out of the question.
There were other lights, the lights of the town that was miles away across the desert. Megan began walking that way. She was scared out of her mind, but determined to reach a place of safety.
“Hello, Megan.”
Megan screamed and dropped her flashlight, which caused the light to flicker, then go out. She looked about for the man who’d spoken. When Megan saw him, he was just a shadow among the darkness. As her eyes adjusted, she saw that he was wearing something over one eye that was held in place with a headband. He was also carrying the longest gun she’d ever seen.
“Who are you?”
“I’m a friend and I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”
“Really?”
“Yes, now take my hand. I’ll lead you back to the road so we can drive out of here.”
Megan made no move to take his hand. When she looked down to locate her flashlight, she realized she couldn’t make out any details. The ground was a pit of darkness. Looking back up at the man with the rifle, she saw that he had withdrawn the offer of his hand.
“All that shooting, was that you?”
“Most of it.”
“And the screaming?”
“Those were the men who kidnapped you.”
Megan turned, located the lights of the house and pointed toward it.
“There are more men back there. What if they come after us?”
“If they do, I’ll make sure they stop.”
“Oh,” Megan said, as she gazed at the gun once more.
“I need you to trust me. Will you do that?”
Megan stared at the man before her, then nodded. When he held out his hand again, she took it.
“Thank you for helping me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“How can you see where you’re walking without a flashlight?”
“It’s the eyepiece I’m wearing. It has night-vision capability.”
“What’s your name?”
“I actually have a few of them. I’ll give you the one I want you to know,” Tanner said, and he gave her a name, along with a message.
Megan was dropped off in front of a police station by Tanner. Within minutes, Detective Garibaldi was contacted, and Megan was soon reunited with her father, Professor Armstrong.
With his daughter safely returned to him, Armstrong gave a statement to Garibaldi about what he’d witnessed in the parking garage. Lionel McCall was arrested on murder charges and would be denied bail after being deemed a flight risk.
After hearing the details of her kidnapping and rescue, the police rushed out to Daryl McCall’s desert compound. McCall and a bodyguard had gotten away and made it to the nearby town on an ATV. It was the only vehicle left running after Tanner’s assault.
They were confronted by the local law who had just received an All-Points-Bulletin on McCall. Not being a fool, McCall raised his hands in surrender as two officers confronted him with their weapons drawn.
Unfortunately for Daryl McCall, his bodyguard was a fool, as well as a two-time loser, who was looking at a life sentence if he took a third fall.
The thug managed to fire off one shot. He had pulled the trigger in a reflex action after being hi
t in the chest by the police. The bullet missed the officers, but caught McCall in the neck. McCall bled to death while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.
When they finally returned back home after dealing with the police. Megan told her father that she had a message for him from the man who’d saved her.
“He said to let you know that he was repaying you for the time you saved his life.”
“The time I saved his life?”
“Yeah, but Daddy, he said to tell you something else. He said, ‘Tell Pee Wee we’re even now.’ Daddy, why does he call you Pee Wee?”
ARIZONA, MARCH 1998
Cody had finished filling up the gas tank on the sports car, while Romeo ran across the road to grab sandwiches at a coffee shop.
When Romeo returned, he had a broad smile on his face. Along with a bag of food, he was carrying a newspaper. He spread it out on the hood of the car, turned a few pages, and pointed at an article he wanted Cody to read.
GANG MET A VIOLENT END AFTER MEMBERS QUARRELED OVER GIRL
The police say that a gang of “Road Pirates” were luring teen boys to a defunct motel in order to steal their vehicles and other valuables. It ended in tragedy for the group when two of their members became involved with a female member of the gang. The love triangle ended when an unknown member killed the other three. One of their victims, eighteen-year-old Whittier Washington Branson Armstrong was seriously wounded during the gang’s shootout. Fortunately, the college freshman is expected to make a full recovery.
Cody wore a grin as he finished the article.
“Pee-wee will be all right.”
“Yeah,” Romeo said. “And you can stop blaming yourself for him getting hurt. Victor shot him, not you, Cody.”
Young Guns Box Set - Books 1-4: A Tanner Series (Young Gun Box Sets) Page 6
