“Okay,” he joked, barely containing the fear behind those same eyes. “But, seriously, I believed him, too.”
Misha became agitated. “You must get up. We have to cross tracks and go to her.”
“Aren’t you going to shoot us?” she snapped.
“Stand up. I show you what I will do.” He lurched forward, forcing her to rock back on her heels. It seemed like he meant business, so she got out of her crouch and stood up. Asher came up with her.
A second later, Misha stood up as well. To her relief, he was between her and Nerio. It would be sweet justice if she shot him first. Then they’d have a chance.
Misha waved her sideways, out from behind the switches. He yelled to Nerio at the same time. “I bring them to you. I cannot shoot them.”
The assassin sounded shocked. “Did you lose your mojo? You need me to hold your hand?” She yelled to her husband on the far side of the yard. “We will see if he brings them over. Shoot to kill if he tries anything.”
“I’m on it,” Alejandro said in a mechanical tone.
Misha shuffled around her and Asher, getting behind them. “Walk slowly. Do not try anything.”
A silent sob bubbled up from out of nowhere. She managed to quell it before it escaped her mouth, but Asher noticed it. He strengthened his grip on her hand, which made her even more emotional. If this was how they met their end, it wasn’t very noble. A dirty rail yard was one of the last places she ever imagined she’d visit, much less where she’d die. She gripped his hand in return.
Misha had no idea how scared she was. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“I hope she kills you, like they killed your family.”
Misha might have made a grunt in his throat, but he was a professional, too. He wasn’t going to rise to her clumsy prodding.
They walked over all the tracks and got to the chain-link fence at the edge of the yard. A small gate was set in the middle, about midway between the two shooters. However, Misha had walked them toward the left-hand side of the yard, close to the neighboring privacy fence. They were in clear view of Alejandro, but not Nerio. She remained hidden behind her tree, as if mistrusting the Russian.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nerio asked. “If I have to shoot them, I might accidentally shoot you, too. Perhaps you should put down your rifles, so we can talk?”
Misha laughed. “There must be trust. How about you put down gun? I back up. You kill my friends. I get out alive.”
“Mmm,” Nerio replied, as if licking her lips. “You know how to tempt a girl.” She added, “Alejandro, you got them?”
“Easy shot,” the man replied from across the yard.
Grace sensed Misha’s gun in her hair, behind her right ear. He was close.
“Listen, my friends. Make no reaction with face. You must run to big fence when I poke you in back, yes? I will hold them off. You run.”
She remained frozen for five seconds, processing the new data. “You’re letting us go?” she whispered.
“Da. This is Russian ruse. Works very well. Now you go.”
Asher spoke with incredulity. “Why didn’t you just say so at the beginning?”
He whispered. “You never understand. Easier this way.” Misha then spoke in a loud voice. “This is where we part ways, my stupid American friends.”
“Wait!” Grace blurted. She wasn’t ready to run, she wasn’t anxious to be shot from either direction, but most of all she wanted to thank the man for putting his life on the line for them.
She didn’t get her chance. Misha shoved her hard in the back. So much so it actually hurt, causing her to yelp in pain. She lurched forward out of reaction and Misha fired his gun at point-blank range, causing her to move even faster.
Asher kept hold of her hand, pulling her toward the privacy fence to the left.
Misha fired several times, but the rounds weren’t going into their backs. He aimed them somewhere else. While on the run, she didn’t concern herself about where.
The husband returned fire immediately.
Nerio also shot around her tree, but even out of her peripheral vision Grace was able to confirm the woman couldn’t get a bead on her and Asher. Misha had planned his last walk perfectly, putting himself at the edge of the woman’s vision, while also putting his body between them and the guy at the far side of the yard.
She stopped at the edge of the fence. Misha stood where he was, pumping rounds out of both rifles at the same time. He’d aim in one direction, then shoot a few rounds. He repeated the act with the second gun, shooting at the other target.
“Run!” she shouted to him, amazed he was still alive.
He half-turned, wearing a crazy smile, but didn’t come. Instead, he reoriented on his victims and poured fire onto them.
A white blur appeared on the street in front of the house. It shot past Nerio, went in front of the house itself, then reappeared on the far side. It zeroed in on Alejandro like a cruise missile.
“Oh shit,” she said dryly.
Kansas City, KS
“We crossed the state line.” Haley pointed to the big blue sign hanging above the side of the bridge. The “Kansas Welcomes You” greeting was paired with a sunflower. The three of them stopped at the waypoint, but not to look at the simple sign. They had to check out the wreckage of the city down in the water about ten feet below.
The object that caught his eye first was a partially submerged airplane about a quarter of a mile out in the water. As he searched, several others were wedged in various positions in the lake, as if an airport had been down there before the water swelled over it.
“This looks like Armageddon,” he said with quiet reverence.
Butch spoke next. “It’s no wonder those people were pissed. TKM put all those men and resources into their mining op, but I don’t see a single rescue vehicle anywhere else. This city was left to rot.”
“But lots of people survived. We saw them back that way.” Haley pointed to the remains of the rocky island two miles down the widened river. It looked a lot like a volcano had ripped off most of the top and left only a rump. The empty barges had sunk at strange angles, as he’d seen many times on his river journey, giving an unnatural quality to the scenery.
“And lots of people died,” Ezra added sadly. “The city was hit hard when this came down. I don’t think anyone could have survived in the building where we were. They would have been shoved out with all the furniture and desks. Who knows what happened to all those people in their cars? We know for a fact they couldn’t drive away. TKM should have been in there helping the survivors, not picking at the carcass.”
Haley pulled a golf-ball-sized rock from her stretch pants. “People will do anything for this stuff.”
Ezra shook his head. “You had it all along?”
“No,” she said immediately. “I threw down all the big pieces. However, this is the first one I grabbed. I kept it hidden the whole time. Those guys couldn’t have seen it. I wanted you to have this. For your boat.” She offered it to him.
“No. I can’t.”
“No one saw me take it,” she insisted.
He held up his hands. “It isn’t that. I don’t mind you having it. I’m glad, actually. I want you to keep it.” Ezra chuckled. “I’ll probably get the insurance money on my boat. I’ll just have to explain how we got it all the way to Kansas City and then tell the tale of how it was driven into a fiery explosion by strangers. There are probably lots of small pieces on the bottom of the river I can use as evidence.”
“I think I’d take the gold,” Butch mused.
She spun on the big guy. “You want it? You can buy yourself a new hat.” His black Stetson had stayed on throughout the whole day, and even survived his swim in the water, but it was starting to look dirty and worn out.
He stood back. “Why would you give it to me?”
Ezra began walking. For the next several minutes he listened as the pair argued over who should keep the valuable rock. La
ter, they disagreed about how much it was worth. Lastly, they huddled around Ezra when he suggested they better cash it in before everyone else in Kansas City ran to the gold dealers with their new finds. Too much gold at one time was going to crater the value. They didn’t seem to believe him.
The bridge ended on the far side of the Kansas River, which ran into the lake portion of the Missouri River. After walking another mile or two, they appeared to be entering the residential area of the metropolis.
“Wait,” Butch signaled, stopping on the shoulder of the highway.
“What do you see?” Ezra asked.
Butch got them off to the side of the road before speaking. “You aren’t going to believe this. There’s a roadblock up ahead.”
Ezra sighed. “It’s TKM, isn’t it?”
Butch tapped his rifle stock. “This nightmare is never going to end. Are they everywhere?”
Haley pointed behind them. “They’ve probably kept the traffic from going back in there. Once we get past them, maybe we won’t see them anymore.”
“As long as those crowds don’t show up,” Ezra remarked.
Butch wiped sweat off his brow. “What’s the plan, E-Z? We going in swinging, or should we go around them this time?”
Ezra sat there thinking about it. They were almost to safety. However, after being tracked by TKM from St. Charles, then almost getting shot at their clandestine dig site, he was worried they still were high on the priority list for the powerful company. He’d witnessed an atrocity back in the city. Could he make someone pay for it?
Ezra rubbed his hands together. “I have an idea.”
Chapter 23
Rawlins, WY
The streak of white was Calvin’s beat-up old pickup truck. It cut through the fence on the far side of the yard, swerved toward Alejandro, and crashed into the tree, pinning the man in place. The airbag deployed, masking the driver.
Nerio fumed. “You bastards! How?” She stepped around the big tree trunk, spraying gunfire at Misha with her pistol. The Russian had been focused on the wreck, perhaps deciding if the stricken husband needed a few extra bullets in his head. When Nerio began her barrage, he was caught flat-footed for once.
He fired back, but fell to the ground, trying to avoid getting hit.
Unsure what to do, Grace bent over and scooped up a large rock. Without thinking, and with little aiming, she winged it at Nerio. Precision throwing wasn’t really in her wheelhouse, so it came as a shock when the rock whizzed near the woman’s head. However, instead of hitting her, it sailed through the side window of the small home.
“Great. After everything, I’ll be the one who hurts the kids.”
Nerio stopped firing and turned to face her. “You think you’re funny?”
“I do!” she bragged, falling back behind the fence. If she could distract the woman, Misha might have a chance of scooting over to her. Why he wasn’t already on his feet was a mystery.
“We’ll see.” Nerio pulled a small canister from her gear and tossed it toward Misha. The little can bounced through the fence and started spewing out white smoke.
She retreated behind her tree, tossing a second object after the first. The metal orb struck the rear fence too, then fell to the grass, perhaps ten feet from where Misha was on the ground. Unlike the other, it didn’t start smoking.
“It’s a grenade!” Asher exclaimed.
“Run, Misha! She threw a grenade!”
He didn’t get up, but he tumbled sideways in her direction. He made it into his second roll when the grenade exploded, sending up a fountain of grass and dirt and blowing the fence outward.
Misha yelled some Russian words she assumed weren’t very nice, but he continued toward her. By the time he was a few feet away, he was crawling on his hands and knees. Bloody splotches were all over his right side.
“You’re hit!” she bleated.
“I think I took grenade in teeth.” He smiled, revealing a small hole in his cheek. He spit on the rocks a second later.
The smoke wafted all over the yard, making it impossible to see Nerio’s position or what had become of her husband. However, the shrill scream of a woman came from the far side of the house, followed by a few gunshots.
“What happened?” Misha asked, sitting against the privacy fence, exhausted.
“Someone crashed into that man. They drove right into him.”
“Your friends?” the Russian asked.
She knew the truck, and assumed it was Calvin inside, but she wasn’t ready to say for certain. How would he have found them? The Crow tribe members were supposed to be well ahead of the train. Misha had wanted it that way, he said, so they could deal with Nerio his way.
Misha gave up his guns to her and Asher. She wrapped his bloody arm as best she could, tearing part of Misha’s shirt into a dozen bandages. While Asher watched the smoke clear and stayed alert for more tossed grenades, she wiped blood from the right side of Misha’s injured neck and torso. She judged the man was suffering from shock. He sat next to the fence with a blank stare.
Tires screeched, signaling a vehicle leaving.
Misha snapped awake. “That’s Nerio. She’s abandoning her position.” He struggled to stand, then made his way to the broken fence.
“Are you sure?” she asked, not willing to expose herself to possible gunshots.
“Trust me,” he said, limping across the back yard, heading for the crash scene.
She and Asher followed, noticing the group of kids still inside the house. They were getting the show of their lives, for sure. She waved to them, which elicited immediate and excited replies.
“Are you cops?” one of them asked through the window she’d broken out with her rock toss.
“No. We’re park rangers.”
“Wow!” a few of them replied.
The smallest girl, perhaps six or seven, came right up to the windowsill. “I want to be a park ranger when I grow up. You’re awesome!”
An older redheaded girl added, “I want to be the lady with the black outfit and pretty red hair. She was cool!”
Grace didn’t want to explain the difference in motives to the children. All they knew was that guns were employed by both sides. Who was in the right wasn’t their concern. However, she didn’t want them to see the injured man on the other side of the yard, so she stopped. “Are your parents home?”
The kids shook their heads no.
“Can any of you call 9-1-1? We need an ambulance.” She was thinking of Misha, but Alejandro would also need help, as would the driver of the truck, more likely than not.
The kids retreated deeper into the house, laughing and yelling excitedly at the game they were playing with Grace.
She walked the rest of the way to the tree. Alejandro was in worse shape than she could have imagined. The front of the truck had caught him square against the side of the tree. Everything below his belt was smashed.
“She took your stupid boy. I don’t think she’s going to be too kind to him,” the injured Hispanic man spoke in accented English.
“Boy? Who are you talking about?” After she’d said it, she knew. It was Calvin’s truck, but the older man probably wasn’t the one behind the wheel.
Alejandro had no more to add. He passed out after laughing at her obvious disappointment.
“Logan,” she said with dismay.
Kansas City, KS
Ezra walked alone down the last few hundred yards of the highway before the roadblock. There were three of the TKM-blue SUVs parked end to end, blocking all three lanes of the highway heading into the city. He had to cross from the outbound lanes over to the side with the barricade. When the men noticed him, he raised his hands as high as possible, but didn’t stop walking.
“I’m unarmed!” he shouted.
“Where are you going?” a man asked from behind his truck.
“Denver,” he lied. It wasn’t his destination, but it was somewhere the men would recognize as being behind them, assuming they knew some ba
sic geography. Given his low expectations of the type of people hired by TKM, he figured he ought to add some details. “It’s eight hundred miles in that direction.”
“How did you get through the city?” the leader asked.
Ezra scanned the roadblock to see how many men were there. He figured at least three, if each of them drove their own vehicle, though there could be a lot more if each SUV had been filled to capacity. If that was the case, his walk might have been for nothing.
“If you mean how I got past the giant explosion set off by TKM, then the answer is easy. I was one of the lucky ones who survived.”
He was about twenty yards from the trucks. Close enough to see the young guard holding a small carbine rifle on the hood of his ride. A second man appeared behind the truck on the left. Were there only two?
The man craned his neck, as if looking beyond him. “Not sure what you’re talking about. We’re here to keep people out of the city. It’s for your own protection.”
“So you’re letting me come out?”
The man shook his head. “I don’t have orders for what happens when someone comes the other way. You’re literally the first one I’ve seen today.”
He shrugged. “Surely I can’t be the first one. What about your friends? What’s the protocol for when an inconvenient person comes out of the no-no zone?” His intention was to engage the other men at the roadblock, and he wasn’t disappointed. Man number three came out from the truck on the right.
“We’ve had a few over the past week. None of them looked like you, however. They was wrecked. Beat up. Injured. You look like you’ve been up to no good in there. Mind if we check you for contraband? Weapons?”
It’s what he’d been expecting. “Be my guest. I do need to be very clear, however. I’m not a threat. I have no weapons. Please don’t shoot me.” It was for his own safety. He expected them to be trigger happy and anxious to outdo each other on the Rambo scale. Unlike the men who’d shot up his boat, the guys at the roadblock were probably aching to get into a fight.
That was a pro-tip given to him by Butch.
Impact Series Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 98
