That was until they saw the lone armored truck cruising along Highway Six.
The idea of hitting an armored truck had come about over straight shots of Crown Royal and beer chasers. Flights of fantasy at first but then blossomed into a full-on planning. For the first time since they had returned to civilian life, they had found a ‘mission’.
That IED training would hopefully pay off today. Jack had wanted to use a .50 caliber rifle. The slug would blow a hole through the motor with ease and they could easily over-power the guards but Mitch was insistent on constructing an IED. He wanted no chance of the driver or messenger guard using any radios, guns or even the will to fight back. It took a couple of weeks to construct the device and hopefully the damned thing would work. The biggest fears would be if the thing would detonate at all or if it was too much explosion. This was their first time constructing one.
They had followed the armored truck on numerous occasions. Carefully noting the number of stops in the Los Lunas and Belen areas before it moved out onto Highway Six towards the main Interstate 40. The lone stretch of road was rarely used and traffic was sparse or non-existent. The messenger guard and driver were just the usual ‘Barney-Fife’ security types. They were careless and never were aware of being watched. They carried their .38 caliber pistols low, like modern-day gunslingers. Jack and Mitch agreed that the two idiots would never have lasted in Iraq.
Mitch dropped his binoculars and took hold of the nearby remote switch that would detonate the IED hidden on the road. The days to construct the devise would hopefully pay big. The device was stuffed into the carcass of a dog, a blue heeler from the looks of the remains and Jack had hated scraping up the remains off the frontage road in Albuquerque the day before. “We’re on.”
The sound of a vehicle coming down the road sliced through the air. It was distant at first but Jack could see the distant blur pass by a rocky out cropping. After several seconds, the sound of the lone diesel engine came to within ear shot.
Jack checked the M4 and quickly slid forward onto his haunches and squatted down. Instincts took over at this point. He could see the armored truck moving down the road toward them. The truck slicing through the air reminded him of an angry stink bug that had arched its ass when agitated.
When the truck had passed a certain point, Mitch thumbed the switch and ignited hell.
The explosion ripped through the air. Jack could see the armored truck burst. The walls buckled and pushed outwards, its back doors flew open and flames shot out. The diesel engine had quit running but continued to roll toward the curve in the road. The truck tipped up and over the edge and rolled down the side of the embankment trailing thick plumes of flames and smoke.
Jack and Mitch moved down the embankment and forward just like the old days in Iraq, with their rifle pointed out and held high. Jack noted the burning currency under his feet and floating through the air. When they had reached the armored truck, the scent of cooked meat and burning paper greeted them. The truck was engulfed in flames.
Jack lowered his M4 and cursed. There was not going to be a big payoff. “Too much ‘boom’ boss.” He lit a cigarette and looked around. “Maybe the Natives were right about this road.”
Mitch held up his AK-47 and watched the smoldering money floating down from a burning heaven. “Maybe we should’ve used the .50 cal.”
Biographies
PATRICIA ABBOTT is the author of the forthcoming novels CONCRETE ANGEL (June, 2015) and SHOT IN DETROIT (Polis Books). More than 135 of her stories have appeared in print, many of them with SHOTGUN HONEY. She also published two ebooks (MONKEY JUSTICE and HOME INVASION) through Snubnose Press. She lives in Detroit.
MICHAEL MCGLADE’s short stories have appeared in Spinetingler, The Big Click, Cracked Eye, and Plan B. He holds a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing from the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, Ireland. You can find out the latest news and views from him on McGladeWriting.com.
BRACKEN MACLEOD has worked as a martial arts teacher, a university philosophy instructor, for a children’s non-profit, and as a criminal and civil trial attorney. His short fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies including Shotgun Honey, Sex and Murder Magazine, LampLight, Every Day Fiction, Shroud Magazine, Reloaded: Both Barrels Vol. 2, Ominous Realities, The Big Adios, Widowmakers, Femme Fatale: Erotic Tales of Dangerous Women, Beat to a Pulp, Splatterpunk, and Shock Totem Magazine.
He is the author of the novel, MOUNTAIN HOME, and a novella titled WHITE KNIGHT. His next novel, STRANDED, is coming soon from Macmillan Entertainment and TOR publishing.
TRAVIS RICHARDSON has been nominated for Anthony and Macavity awards. His novella LOST IN CLOVER was listed in Spinetingler Magazine’s Best Crime Fiction of 2012. He has published stories in several publications including Thuglit, Shotgun Honey and All Due Respect. He edits the Sisters-In-Crime Los Angeles newsletter Ransom Notes, reviews Anton Chekhov short stories at www.chekhovshorts.com and sometimes shoots a short movie. His latest novella, KEEPING THE RECORD, concerns a disgraced baseball player who will do anything to keep his tainted home run record.
www.tsrichardson.com
MARIE S. CROSSWELL is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. Her short crime fiction has previously appeared in Thuglit, Plots with Guns, Flash Fiction Offensive, Beat to a Pulp, Betty Fedora, and Dark Corners. Her long short story “Dreamland” is available on Amazon.
She lives in Phoenix and digs black cats.
FRANK BYRNS lives and writes in Maryland, halfway between the nation’s capital and the nation’s heroin capital. His crime fiction has appeared or will soon appear in such markets as Shotgun Honey, All Due Respect, Out of the Gutter, Powder Burn Flash, and Plan B Magazine. Visit him online at www.frankbyrns.com.
KEITH RAWSON is the author of over 200 short stories, essays, interviews, and articles. He is a regular contributor to LitReactor, The LA Review of Books, and Spinetingler magazine. He lives in southern Arizona with his wife and daughter.
Liverpool lass TESS MARKOVESKY is now settled in the far north of England where she roams the fells with a brolly, dreaming up new stories and startling the occasional sheep.
Tess writes a distinctive brand of British comédie noir and her short stories have darkened the pages of various anthologies and magazines, including Shotgun Honey, Pulp Metal Magazine, Out of the Gutter Online, Betty Fedora, ‘Exiles: An Outsider Anthology’ (Blackwitch Press), ‘Drag Noir’ (Fox Spirit), and ‘Rogue’ (Near to the Knuckle).
You can follow her ramblings (both literary and literal) at her blog: http://tessmakovesky.wordpress.com.
Katanie Duarte is a native of Los Angeles, California. By day, she’s a stay at home mom, suffocating in suburbia. By night she’s a blood spilling, knife-wielding writing machine. Her short stories have appeared in Paranormal Horror-An Anthology, Paranormal Horror Anthology Two: An Anthology and Liquid Imagination.
Although he is the author of several books, including the private eye novel ALL WHITE GIRLS, two-time Derringer Award-winning writer MICHAEL BRACKEN is better known as the author of more than 1,100 short stories. His crime fiction has appeared in Crime Square, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Espionage Magazine, 50 Shades of Grey Fedora, Flesh & Blood: Guilty as Sin, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 4, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and in many other anthologies and periodicals. He lives and writes in Texas. Learn more at www.CrimeFictionWriter.com and CrimeFictionWriter.blogspot.com.
JEDIDIAH AYRES is the author of PECKERWOOD, FIERCE BITCHES and a collection of short stories. He is the editor of the anthologies NOIR AT THE BAR volumes I & II and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
TIMOTHY FRIEND is a writer and independent filmmaker whose fiction has been published in Crossed-Genres, Thuglit, and Needle: A Magazine of Noir. His western novella THE GUNMEN will be release from One Eye Press. He is the writer and director of the feature film, BONNIE AND CLYDE vs. DRACULA, distributed by Indican Pictur
es. He holds an MFA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. For more information, visit http://www.timothyfriend.net
KENT GOWRAN lives and works in Chicago. His stories have appeared in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Plots With Guns, Beat To A Pulp, and other wild venues. In 2011, he created the flash fiction webzine Shotgun Honey. Stories and other jive can be found at kentgowran.blogspot.com.
No one has ever bought HECTOR ACOSTA a drink. He’s pretty upset over that, but makes do by funneling his bitterness into his writing. He’s had stories published in the last two volumes of Shotgun Honey, Weird Noir, and Thuglit. He can be found on twitter @hexican.
NIGEL BIRD hails from Scotland. His work includes the collection DIRTY OLD TOWN, the novellas SMOKE and MR. SUIT and, most recently, the novel SOUTHSIDERS (published by Blasted Heath). He also has a couple of half-baked crime buns in the oven.
ANGEL LUIS COLÓN’s fiction has appeared in multiple online and print journals like Shotgun Honey, The Flash Fiction Offensive, Revolt Daily, and Thuglit. His story, ‘Separation Anxiety’, appearing in All Due Respect earned him a 2015 Derringer Award nomination for best Long Story. When not working on his own projects, he’s busy reviewing mystery/suspense for My Bookish Ways and helping out as an editor at Shotgun Honey. His debut novella, THE FURY OF BLACK JAGUAR is due out this summer from One Eye Press.
OWEN LAUKKANEN has fished commercially on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed “Stevens and Windermere” series of FBI thrillers, and, as Owen Matthews, one obnoxious young adult novel. Laukkanen lives in Vancouver, Canada, with his girlfriend and their rescue pit bull, Lucy.
ALAN ORLOFF’s debut mystery, DIAMONDS FOR THE DEAD, was an Agatha Award finalist for Best First Novel. He’s also written two books in the Last Laff mystery series, KILLER ROUTINE and DEADLY CAMPAIGN (from Midnight Ink). Writing as his darker half Zak Allen, he’s published THE TASTE, FIRST TIME KILLER, and RIDE-ALONG. His latest suspense novel, RUNNING FROM THE PAST (Kindle Press), was a Kindle Scout “winner.” Alan lives in Northern Virginia and teaches workshops at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. For more info, visit: www.alanorloff.com
CHRIS RHATIGAN is the co-publisher of All Due Respect Books. His short story collection, WAKE UP, TIME TO DIE, was released last year by BEAT to a PULP.
BILL BABER has had over two dozen crime stories published and his work has recently appeared in Rogue from Near to the Knuckle and Hardboiled Crime Scene from Dead Guns Press. His 2014 short story “Sleepwalk” was nominated for a Derringer Prize. He has also had a number of poems published online and in the occasional literary journal. A book of his poetry, WHERE THE WIND COMES TO PLAY was published by Berberis Press in 2011. He lives in Tucson with his wife and a spoiled dog and his been known to cross the border for a cold beer. He is working on his first novel.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, TONY CONAWAY has cowritten non-fiction books for McGraw-Hill, Macmillan and Prentice Hall. His fiction has been published in four anthologies and numerous publications, including Blue Lake Review, Danse Macabre, qarrtsiluni, the Rind Literary Magazine and Typehouse Literary Magazine.
He has also written and sold jokes to The Tonight Show. Sadly, David Letterman never returned his calls.
NICK KOLAKOWSKI is a writer and editor living in New York City. His work has appeared in Shotgun Honey, McSweeney’s, Playboy, The North American Review, The Evergreen Review, Carrier Pigeon, and The Washington Post. Someday he’ll learn to shoot well enough to take down the drone that keeps buzzing over his house.
SHANE SIMMONS is best known for his graphic novels, THE LONG AND UNLEARNED LIFE OF ROLAND GETHERS and its sequel, THE FAILED PROMISE OF BRADLEY GETHERS, which have been published in multiple countries in multiple languages to great acclaim and few dollars. To pay the bills, he writes for television, mostly animation. When he’s not scripting innocuous cartoons for children, he spends his time writing grim comedy, violent crime and troubling horror stories to relax and unwind. He lives in Montreal with his wife and too many cats.
SETH LYNCH is the author of SALAZAR, a P.I. novel set in 30’s Paris. His next novel is due out in Feb 2016 and features Chief Inspector Belmont of the Paris Police. He currently live in Wiltshire, England with his family where he’s pretty much outnumbered 3 to 1. Find him on Twitter @SethALynch or on FB https://www.facebook.com/sethlynchauthor
JOHN L. THOMPSON currently lives in New Mexico with his wife of twenty-three years. When he is not working the daily grind or hiking the vast terrains looking for remnants of the old west, he can found writing short stories and novel scripts.
MEET THE EDITORS
JEN CONLEY’S stories have appeared in Thuglit, Needle, Beat to a Pulp, Out of the Gutter, Grand Central Noir, Literary Orphans, Crime Factory, Trouble in the Heartland and others. She’s been nominated for a Spinetingler Award and shortlisted for Best American Mystery Stories. She lives in New Jersey.
CHRISTOPHER IRVIN has traded all hope of a good night’s sleep for the chance to spend his mornings writing dark and noir fiction. He is the author of FEDERALES and BURN CARDS, as well as short stories featured in several publications, including Thuglit, Beat to a Pulp, Needle, and Shotgun Honey. He lives with his wife and son in Boston, Massachusetts.
ERIK ARNESON’s fiction has appeared in Needle, Thuglit, Otto Penzler’s Kwik Krimes, Out of the Gutter Online, Beat to a Pulp, Shotgun Honey, and more. He hosts the Title 18: Word Crimes podcast, which features stories by the likes of Merry Jones, Jon McGoran, and Duane Swierczynski. Erik’s comic book FORTUNE is available as a free download via www.ErikArneson.com.
RON EARL PHILLIPS resides in the foothills of West Virginia with his wife, daughter and one too many cats. He spends his days writing code for a newspaper media company, his nights writing and editing fiction, and his weekends avoiding a never ending honey-do list. His work has appeared in anthologies such as OFF THE RECORD, LOST CHILDREN, BEAT TO A PULP: HARDBOILED, and FEEDING KATE. Visit www.RonEarlPhillips.com.
Read More From
One Eye Press
SINGLES
Federales by Christopher Irvin
White Knight by Bracken MacLeod
Gospel of the Bullet by Chris Leek
Knuckleball by Tom Pitts
FUTURE SINGLES
The Gunmen by Timothy Friend
The Fury of Blacky Jaguar by Angel Luis Colón
Hurt Hawks by Mike Miner
Goldfinches by Ryan Sayles
Texas, Hold Your Queens by Marie S. Crosswell
MAGAZINES
The Big Adios Western Digest (Fall 2014)
Blight Digest (Fall 2014)
Blight Digest (Winter 2014)
ANTHOLOGIES
Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels
Shotgun Honey Presents: Reloaded
Shotgun Honey Presents: Locked and Loaded
Visit us today at OneEyePress.com
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword by Ron Earl Phillips
A Kid Like by Billy Patricia Abbott
Border Crossing by Michael McGlade
Looking For the Death Trick by Bracken MacLeod
Maybelle’s Last Stand by Travis Richardson
Predators by Marie S. Crosswell
Twenty to Life by Frank Byrns
So Much Love by Keith Rawson
Running Late by Tess Makovesky
Last Supper by Katanie Duarte
Danny by Michael Bracken
The Plot by Jedidiah Ayres
What Alva Wants by Timothy Friend
Time Enough To Kill by Kent Gowran
Copas by Hector Acosta
Yellow Car Punch by Nigel Bird
Love at First Fight by Angel Luis Colón
Traps by Owen Laukkanen
Down the Rickety Stairs by Alan Orloff
Blackmailer’s Pep Talk by Chris Rhatigan
With a Little Bit of Luck by Bill Baber
Cute as a Speckled
Pup Under a Red Wagon by Tony Conaway
Chipping off the Old Block by Nick Kolakowski
Young Turks and Old Wives by Shane Simmons
The Hangover Cure by Seth Lynch
Highway Six by John L. Thompson
Biographies
Shotgun Honey Presents: Locked and Loaded (Both Barrels Book 3) Page 23