I looked out and saw the two of them enter the hospital. They hadn’t seen my Jeep. Once I was sure they were inside, we sprinted for the Jeep, and got out of there as fast as we could.
CHAPTER 22
We drove down to the busiest place we knew: Las Vegas Boulevard. From the freeway the casino lights glittered like gems in the darkness. Throbbing reds, soft yellows, deep blues and purples. It was like a rainbow that painted the night, more vividly than the stars painted the sky.
We began driving down the strip. The streets were packed and it was slow and gave me time to think.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry I got you involved in all this.”
She shook her head, staring blankly at the MGM. “Remy got me involved in this.”
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. Remy.
“Hang on,” I said, as I went over the median and flipped around to get back on the freeway.
We drove past Ty’s house. I went slowly and stared at all the cars parked on the side of the street. The party was still blaring music. Though it was late, it didn’t appear like anyone had left. I saw some SUVs parked up ahead but they weren’t what I was looking for. I was about to flip around when I saw a black Tahoe on the corner. I sped up and parked in front so that they couldn’t pull forward. I couldn’t see the outlines of the two figures I had seen before. I looked to Maria and said, “Sit in the driver seat and leave the car on. Anything happens to me you gun it and get outta here.”
“What’s going on?”
“Enemy of my enemy.” I looked to the car and then back at her. Her eyes were wide and beautiful and they made my heart flutter. I reached over and brought her head close to me and kissed her hard and for a long time. I got out of the car without looking at her reaction.
I walked to the front of the Jeep. I remembered that I had given my gun up to the paramedics at the precinct and they had given it to one of the uniforms. I held up my hands, palms up, to show them they were empty. Then I lifted my shirt, first in the front and then the back. I walked over to the driver side.
This was when it really hit me how much pain was radiating through my body. I was having trouble breathing because any deep breaths came with the associated pain of my ribs expanding and shooting a bolt of hot, searing agony through me. The pain was so acute it nearly made my knees buckle. Or it might’ve been the fear I was feeling in my gut.
I couldn’t see into the car at all. They might’ve had a rifle pointed at me right now, waiting for me to come up to the window.
I walked close and waited. The window began to slowly roll down and I held my breath.
Inside were two men. They were Hispanic and even in the relative dark I could see the black tattoos that ran up their necks and covered their arms and fingers. Hanging from the rearview mirror was a small, shrunken skull. It didn’t look plastic to me.
“I know who you are and what you want,” I said. “I know who you’re looking for.” I paused to see their reaction but there was none. “The man you want, wants me. If you want to find him, all you need is me.”
They glanced to each other. The driver looked back out to me, and nodded once.
CHAPTER 23
I stood at the center of Sunset Park near the tennis courts. They were normally lighted but the bulbs were dimming and hadn’t been replaced. I sat on a bench by myself and watched a few people shooting basketball across the way. I checked the time on my phone and then put it back in my pocket. I waited for what I thought was a long time but when I checked again only a few minutes had passed.
I leaned back and looked up to the sky. It was black as ink and you could only see a handful of stars. I had always wondered if other people on other planets were looking back at me when I did this and it had led me to want to go into physics after high school but the mathematics had been too much for me. Instead, I chose military history.
I heard footsteps. Ty Reeves walked over to me in a T-shirt and jeans. He didn’t get too close and stood maybe five feet away, glancing around.
“You really stupid enough to come here by yourself?” he said.
“Seems like it.”
He shook his head. “I really did have high hopes for you. You were a damn good cop.”
“Is that why you chose me? Because I was a good cop?”
“No. I chose you ‘cause I think I see a little of me in you. You still have idealism and I was hopin’ we could show you the world as it really was and that that would be the end of it. But it didn’t go away.”
I leaned forward. “Do you really think because you have a badge that the things you do are somehow better?”
“Damn right they’re better. We’re one of the chosen few, Baby Boy. One of the ones that keep this fucked up society functioning enough that people can actually hope for a day that they won’t be miserable. You know how rare that is in history?”
I was quiet a moment. “You’re going to go down for all this, Ty. You have to go down.”
“You saw what I can do. You can’t stop me.”
“There’s a 911 recording that says I can.”
“Momentary problem. Dax is headin’ down to dispatch to take care of that right now.” He glanced around again. “You really don’t have anyone else here, do you? No IAD detectives or FBI or anythin’, huh?”
“No, no law enforcement.”
He took a deep breath. “Well, make your move then.”
“It’s not my move to make.”
Our eyes were locked and he had a glimmer of confusion, and anger at the confusion. Then I saw his face as he slowly realized what was going on. His eyes began to widen and the anger spread from his eyes down his face.
“You fuckin’ little prick,” he said.
“They got two rifles on you right now. Anythin’ happens to me they’ll shoot you dead. I heard the cartels love to hire sharp-shooters.”
“You have any idea what you’ve done? They never woulda touched me. An American cop’s off limits. You gave ‘em permission.”
“Bullshit. They wouldn’t have come up here just to stare at you.”
“That’s what they do. They woulda felt things out, seen if I was a big shot or not. Guess what they’re goin’ to do now because of your stupid ass? After they turn my head into a canoe, it’s bye bye, Baby Boy. You think they’re really gonna let a witness survive? “Last month forty bodies were dumped on the border to El Paso, mostly women and children. Randomly picked just because they know that random violence is more intimidating. You really think the people that can do that can’t shoot the fucker they made a deal with?”
I began to glance around. A familiar tingling filled my stomach and limbs. The pain in my ribs was more pronounced and I felt weak.
“There’s one way we’re gonna get outta this alive,” Ty said. “Stand up, slowly, and pull out your firearm.”
“I don’t have it.”
He grunted like an animal and then glanced sideways at some trees. “Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m gonna pull my weapon out. When I do, you tackle me. When we hit the ground we’re gonna roll into those bushes and the trees. You got me?”
I paused.
“The devil you know, Tommy,” he said. I nodded.
In a smooth motion he pulled out his weapon and I rushed him. I ducked under the firearm and tackled him at the waist. I heard something that sounded like a bee zipping past me and knew they were taking shots.
We began to roll. The bushes weren’t more than ten feet away and we got there quickly. I heard another zip and the patch of grass in front of me exploded. Ty was already in the bushes and I got to my knees and crawled as fast as I could as another shot rang out. I got to the bushes and jumped in.
There was no one in the clearing and I stood up and ran into the trees. I kept running, glancing around for Ty, when I felt an impact against my face like a baseball bat. It knocked me off my feet and I hit the ground so hard it knocked the breath out of me.
Ty stood over me, his weapon pointed at my head.
“This is my city,” he said. “You just live in it.”
“Now!” I screamed.
The bullets whizzed down from the trees above us. The first one hit Ty through the arm, knocking his hand away from me as his firearm fell to the ground. Another round went through his chest and his leg and his crotch and his thigh. He looked up just as the final round went through his eye and spattered his brains over the ground.
I watched as he fell and lay still. I wanted to go over and shake him, make sure someone like him could really die, but I didn’t. I sat there quietly, looking up at the trees.
The two men climbed down. They dismantled their rifles and threw the pieces around. They looked to each other as they took off the latex gloves and shoved them in their pockets. They stared at me a few moments. A sharp pain was emitting from my ribs and I knew that I had made the injury worse. My hand was up and pressing against them.
They looked to each other again, and walked away without saying anything. Ty had been wrong. But I had a feeling I was lucky to be alive.
CHAPTER 24
I spoke with the doctor for about ten minutes before a nurse brought in my discharge papers. I wasn’t wearing a shirt and after I had signed them and she left, I looked at the scars on my side and back: small circles speckled over me as if raindrops had penetrated my skin.
I got on some pajama pants and a UNLV T-shirt that the hospital had donated to me. My gun had been taken but IAD had left my badge. I stared at it on the small table by my bed. It gleamed in the sunlight and I picked it up and held it in my hand. I held it as I lifted myself up and the orderly came in with a wheelchair.
“I can walk,” I said.
“Sorry, hospital policy.”
I let them wheel me out. I had been here three days and was going stir-crazy. I got reports from buddies in the precinct and that kept me occupied. Dax had been arrested at dispatch, attempting to steal official logs. An anonymous tipster had called in the night he was there and IAD had sent two detectives.
But the reports only did so much. I still hated the smell of a hospital. Antiseptic and bleached sheets.
We got to the automatic doors and they slid open, revealing the parking lot. I realized I hadn’t called a cab when I saw my Jeep parked just off to the side. Maria smiled at me from the driver’s seat.
I stood up, and walked to her.
BY VICTOR METHOS
Jon Stanton Thrillers
The White Angel Murder
Walk in Darkness
Sin City Homicide
Arsonist
Thrillers
Plague (A Medical Thriller)
Murder Corporation (A Crime Thriller)
Creature-Feature Novels
The Extinct
Savage: A Novel of Madness
Sea Creature
Science Fiction
Clone Hunter
Star Dreamer: The Early Science Fiction of Victor Methos
Humor
Earl Lindquist: Accountant and Zombie Killer
Philosophical Fiction
Existentialism and Death on a Paris Afternoon
To contact the author, learn about his latest adventures, get tips on starting your own adventures, or learn about upcoming releases, please visit the author’s blog at http://methosreview.blogspot.com/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor Methos is the bestselling author of THE WHITE ANGEL MURDER and THE EXTINCT. His work has been featured in science fiction and fantasy magazines, literary journals, and poetry anthologies across the United States and the United Kingdom. He is a former prosecutor specializing in the prosecution of violent crime and is currently a criminal defense attorney in the United States. He can be reached through his blog at www.methosreview.blogspot.com
Murder Corporation Page 11