Strange Robby

by Selina Rosen

  Tommy nodded, not because he was sure he agreed, but because he knew there was no changing her mind, and no sense in trying.

  "OK, but I'm not playing anymore."

  Spider nodded back. "I wouldn't ask you to."

  For some reason her answer bothered him. He got the idea that what she was really saying was that this was out of his league.

  It had been a week since Robby had managed a good night's sleep. The scene in the crack house still haunted him, and the news and every paper was filled up with it. Everywhere you looked you saw something about it. Everywhere he went people were talking about it, and there were cops and G-men all over their part of town asking questions of every gang-banger they came across.

  Evan had never done his chores so quickly or completely. Never been so eager to please. Robby blamed himself for Evan's short trip into trouble. He should have been watching him closer; he shouldn't have dropped his guard even for a minute. You couldn't afford to do that with teen-aged kids. Worse than the guilt and the fear was the knowledge that his brother now listened to him, not out of any sense of love or loyalty, but out of fear. Because he knew now that Robby harbored some terrible power.

  Robby loaded the old air conditioner into the bed of his truck and collected his money from the man. The man smiled and thanked him, and Robby smiled back and thanked him for his business. He got in the truck and headed for his next pickup. Normally the pickup of an air-conditioner would have put him in a really good mood. Old conditioners could almost always be fixed and resold for good money. But today he couldn't stop thinking about how close he had brought the cops to his own door. He had let his anger get the best of him, but then what else could he have done? Written Evan off? Worse, let him bring that scum into his house to infect the other children? He had to stop it; he just wished he could have found another way. He frowned then. The evil never gave you any other way. They backed you into a corner where you could either kill them, or let them live to do what you knew they were going to do. Let them repeat the crimes of their past. And it seemed that lately there had been more of them than ever before.

  He was sure that some people might call what he had a gift, but it was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he had the power to make the world a better place. On the other hand, it meant he constantly had to make decisions he'd rather not make, and he lived in constant fear of being caught.

  His family relied on him. He had a responsibility to them, a duty to feed, clothe, house, and love them. He couldn't do that if he was in jail. Every time he killed someone he ran the risk of being caught.

  Mankind needed him. He had a responsibility to free them from fear, to protect them from the pestilence that would prey on them. To remove from their midst a danger only he could truly see.

  He didn't take either responsibility lightly.

  The Fry Guy hadn't killed anyone in three weeks, and things at work were getting more relaxed. Tommy and Spider were even able to work on some of their other cases.

  Tommy drove at break-neck speed through traffic, the light on top flashing, the siren whaling.

  Spider was eating a hamburger, not without some effort, and they were talking about the Fry Guy.

  "So, why did he stop?" Tommy asked.

  "He had to. He knew he'd pushed the envelope on that mass killing, and he knew it was time to back off. Maybe he made himself sick, or scared himself," Spider answered, breaking the rule about talking with your mouth full.

  "So will he kill again? Or have we seen the last of him?"

  "Oh, he will undoubtedly kill again," Spider said. "He won't be able to stop himself. Imagine that you had the ability to look at a man and know that he had killed and would kill again if given the chance. Could you let him walk away?"

  "I don't know," Tommy said truthfully. "I wouldn't want to, but I might to save my neck."

  "What if you realized that the person he might rape or kill was you or Laura?"

  "I'd have to kill him," Tommy said without hesitation.

  "Our killer sees every potential victim as if it were one of his loved ones. He feels responsible for everyone."

  "Or he's just someone who found a really cool weapon and knows that as long as he's butchering gang members and baby-rapers no one's going to really come after him . . . "

  "Except that the FBI is . . . "

  "Which may be exactly why he's backed off now," Tommy said. "In fact, it makes perfect sense. He realized they were getting too close, and he did the gang-bangers the way he did because he wanted to go out in style. For all we know he may have thrown his weapon into the bay and is half way across the country right now."

  "Hate to ruin your little theory, but we were nowhere near finding him, and neither were the Feds," Spider said.

  "He didn't know that. Maybe he was smart enough to get out before we got close."

  Spider shrugged, obviously bored with the conversation. She wadded up her hamburger wrapper and threw it into the bag her lunch had come in.

  "Carrie asked me to move in with her."

  "Are you going to?" Tommy asked.

  "Do you think I should?" Spider asked.

  Tommy stared at her for a minute. He hated this; she was asking his opinion on something that could change her whole life. What if he gave her the wrong answer? He could screw up her whole life! If he didn't answer then he was being a dick; it would seem like he didn't care. He stumbled in. "Ah . . . Do you love her?"

  Spider seemed as shocked as he was that he was answering her, even if it was with a question. "Yes, I do. Very much."

  "She's at your apartment all the time. She never gets a chance to relax; that's got to be a pain." He was proud of himself; this was easier than he thought.

  "Yeah, it is that. Seems like I never get anything done, and I'm sure it's the same for Carrie. And with both of our schedules . . . I don't see her nearly as much as I would like to."

  "Do you want to move in with her?" Tommy asked.

  "Yes, I do," she said after a moment's thought.

  "Then why the fuck did you ask me?" Tommy asked with a laugh.

  "I guess I wanted to hear you say that I wasn't crazy. I mean, I've only known this woman a little more than a month."

  "What's the worst that will happen? You'll have to look for a new apartment if it doesn't work out," Tommy said. He was good at this. In fact he was enjoying giving sagely advice.

  "You're exactly right," Spider said. She slid across the seat and into him as they braked to a stop. They jumped out, slapped on the comlink intercepts, and drew their weapons. Five other cars were already on the scene. The captain was there, and so was the riot truck.

  Five perps had held up the bank. Some fucking militia group—which meant they had kevlar and AK-47's. An idiot security guard had tried to stop them. Now he was dead, the robbers had nothing to lose, and fourteen hostages to use for shields.

  "Fucking black and whites," Spider cursed as she crouched behind her open door.

  Tommy knew why. Just once he wished the black and whites wouldn't rush in so quick. Let the bastards get into their cars and drive away. Chances were you'd catch them. Even if you didn't, it was just fucking money, not lives. The last thing you wanted to do was give the perps nowhere to run when they had a bank full of people.

  More police cars roared in, followed by the DA's car. Spider saw DA Richards get out of the car, and Carrie got out right behind him. Spider's stomach churned, and her heart was in her throat. She'd never thought about this, and she didn't like it.

  By the time Tommy saw the gunman in the bank move, Spider was already around her door and over the hood. Tommy opened fire on the gunman, and so did everyone else.

  Spider ran across the hoods of the other cars as the bullets sprayed. Then she jumped. One arm hit the DA, the other caught Carrie, and she dragged them both to the ground with her.

  "Stay the fuck down!" she ordered.

  She jumped back up behind the door.

  "Spider! No!" Carrie screamed.<
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  Spider aimed and fired. The gunman went down with a hole through his forehead. As the captain screamed for a cease-fire, Spider dropped behind the door. It was deathly quiet. No one was firing now.

  Spider looked at Carrie. She looked OK.

  "Do you have to be here?" Spider asked.

  Carrie nodded and moved to hide behind the door with Spider, as did DA Richards. He looked peaked and was breathing heavily. Spider noticed then that they were both wearing flak jackets; her heroics had probably been unnecessary. Still, better safe than sorry.

  "Thanks," Richards said.

  Spider just nodded.

  "Tommy, you OK?" Spider asked over her comlink.

  "Yeah, you?" Tommy came back.

  Spider checked herself. Her leg was bleeding, but it wasn't broken. It wasn't bad. "I'm fine."

  Carrie noticed the blood and temporarily lost it. "My God! You've been hit! You're bleeding! You're going to die!"

  Spider laughed and shook her head. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Honey."

  The Captain was talking to the perps over his loud speaker, but Spider was a little too concerned with her own drama to worry about what he was saying. The ambulance was there, and she was aware that they were taking a couple of the uniformed cops away. She reached out suddenly, took hold of Carrie's chin and turned her to face her. She had a scratch on her forehead, but other than that she seemed all right. Spider kissed her gently on the lips.

  "I've got to go. Please keep your lovely ass down."

  "Spider, you're hurt . . . "

  "Not bad. Bye!" She kissed her again, released her and ran behind the cars in the direction of the captain.

  Richards loosened his tie; his color didn't look good.

  "You OK, Sir?" Carrie asked.

  Richards nodded. "A little shaken, that's all." He smiled at Carrie. "So, was that the little woman?"

  Carrie nodded with a smile. "That's the problem with avoiding the dinner party thing. Everyone winds up meeting your lover under the worst possible circumstances."

  They had reached a very guarded truce. Richards was good at negotiating, but these guys weren't really into negotiating, so the best he could do was keep them talking.

  The ringleader was screaming now, "We got one of yours, and you got one of ours. That makes us even!"

  "Sorry, it just doesn't work that way, Peterson," Richards screamed back. "Why don't you just walk out of there? Give yourselves up, and no one else gets hurt."

  "Because he's a fucking lunatic," Spider mumbled shaking her head. She was in the back of the riot truck, being fitted into a titanium kevlar jump suit—as was Tommy. Her leg had been field dressed. Spider put on her helmet to block out the sound of Carrie's protests.

  Carrie addressed the captain. "She's wounded; she should be going to a hospital, not into that building."

  "I'm sorry, Sir. But Detective Webb volunteered for this assignment, and she is part of our SWAT team. Her wounds have been adequately dressed, and it has been determined that the damage is minimal. She and detective Chan are the only members of my team who have ever done anything like this before. These guys have promised to start killing people in an hour, and since they've got nothing to lose, I can't imagine that they won't keep that promise. Unless, of course, we give them everything they're asking for, and I just don't see Richards doing that any time soon, do you?"

  Carrie nodded, then turned her attention back to Spider.

  Spider addressed the worry on Carrie's face with the biggest smile she could muster. "It'll be all right," Spider assured her.

  Tommy looked on in disbelief as Carrie's expression changed from one of fear and anger to relief and acceptance. Tommy tested his direct comlink to Spider by saying, "Someday you've got to show me how you do that."

  Spider smiled at him and shrugged.

  "Are you up for this? Because if you're not, a lot of people could get killed," the captain warned.

  They both nodded.

  "All right. Everyone else is in position. The food should arrive any minute. They'll send one of their men out into the street to pick it up. That should cause a little chaos, and give you a window of opportunity. We'll try to keep you posted on where they are."

  "Let's rock and roll," Tommy said. He was wired; this was why he had joined the force. Today he'd make a difference or die trying.

  They started out of the truck.

  "Spider, I swear to God . . . " Carrie started.

  Spider turned, looked at her and smiled. "Yes, I'll move in with you."

  They dropped them on the rooftop by copter. Not too conspicuous considering that there had been news and police copters flying around the scene for the last hour. After that, it was simply a matter of getting down the building without alerting the perps to their presence. Which also wasn't too hard, since they had a recent diagram of the building and all the keys. It was a credit to the people concerned, and the police department as well, that they had been able to empty the building so quickly and so nearly completely.

  Using the elevator was out of the question, so they took the staircase.

  They walked carefully down the hall towards the bank's back door that the diagram showed opened into a small storage room. From there it was a short trip down a short hall to the bank itself.

  Spider focused all her attention on the space behind the door—not an easy thing to do with the captain barking the locations of the terrorists in her ear. There was someone on the other side of the door. Someone scared, wired, and crazy. She pulled Tommy back down the hall again.

  "There is one just on the other side of the door. The bank has been taken off system, so the only real problem with the door is getting it open. But with the guy on the other side . . . "

  "I didn't hear that," Tommy said.

  "They can't see through walls. He's there, Tommy, take my word for it. If we start fiddling with the lock on the door, he's going to know we're here."

  Tommy walked quietly forward and took a closer look at the lock and the door. Then he walked back to Spider.

  "I can kick the door . . . "

  "Are you sure? Because . . . "

  "I'm sure," Tommy promised.

  In their ears the captain said. "Don't take any chances, goddamn it!"

  "I can do it," Tommy promised Spider.

  She nodded and they moved back up to the door.

  Again Spider focused all her attention on the air behind the door, but the captain was screaming. "Goddamn it, Webb . . . Chan, no fucking cowboy shit! We're talking civilian lives." When they didn't respond, he continued, "All units at ready! All units at ready! Get ready to move in on my word."

  Spider reached up under her helmet and tapped the earpiece implanted just beneath her skin, turning it off. Without the captain screaming in her ear she could focus.

  Tommy didn't question her. He'd been here with her too many times to do that. He didn't know how, but she would pull this off without the earpiece or apparent knowledge of the location of the terrorists.

  "Can you take out the guy on the other side of the door?" Spider asked him.

  Tommy nodded.

  Tommy watched Spider for several breathless moments.

  "Now!" she whispered.

  Tommy kicked the door at the lock. It opened swiftly as Spider's body hurled into it. She kept running as Tommy landed a swift killing blow to the startled man's head. Tommy headed down the hall the way Spider had gone, his rifle at the ready.

  Spider was in the room before the terrorists really had time to respond to all the noise. The leader was standing there, still holding a Burger King bag. She shot him first, one neat little hole right in the middle of his forehead. As fast as she could squeeze off four rounds, the other four terrorists fell—all killed with the same precision. One of them had a chance to pull his trigger, but the hail of bullets landed harmlessly in the wall and ceiling.

  Tommy strode up beside her as the SWAT team rushed in and pulled up short, realizing that there was not
hing for them to do.

  The hostages who had been lying face down on the floor were all screaming, sure that they were about to be killed.

  As Spider breathed in the moment, Tommy told them, "It's all clear; you're safe now. Please get up and leave the building in an orderly manner."

  The comlink had already told everyone outside the building that the mission was successful.

  Spider looked at him then and frowned. "Tommy?"