“This,” Marty told him. “We change it to keep track. Easier than changing our stomachs.”
“There’s your roadblock,” Parker said. Far off to their left, at a higher elevation, the cluster of red-white-blue shimmering lights was like a jamboree for machinery.
Marty looked over there, then back at the road. “No sense going through that,” he said.
Parker said, “Won’t they see all the lights on this rig, over here, come over to see who we are?”
“Not if they’re looking for a runaway,” Marty said. “A runaway won’t be driving something like this.”
“All right.”
“They’re not evil geniuses, over there,” Marty said. “They’re just boys doing their ob. Go up on the highway, hassle anybody comes through. So that’s what they’re doing. Six o’clock, they’re told, go on back to the barracks, that’s what they’ll do. They aren’t hunters. They’re just boys doing a job.”
They went through an intersection marked by a yellow blinker, and Marty said, “Another fifteen, twenty miles, there’ll be an on-ramp. We’ll be fine from there.”
17
Claire rolled over when he walked into the room. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness^ but she didn’t say anything as she watched him move. Out of his pocket and onto the dresser went the three Patek watches that were the only result of the jewel job. He stripped and got into bed and then, folding into his arms, she said, “Gone a long time.”
“It felt like a long time.”
“I knew you’d be back,” she said.
“This time,” he said.
“Another splendid noir thriller.”—San Diego Union-Tribune
ONE WAY IN. NO WAY OUT.
Even master criminals make mistakes. Parker’s most recent sin has landed him in prison, where it’s only a matter of time before the law uncovers his real name—and the extent of his astounding criminal career. To escape, Parker must ignore one of his cardinal rules and take on the only partners he can find. Yet his fellow convicts demand a price: the moment they get free, they want Parker to help them break into a former armory now storing a mother lode of precious gems. For Parker, the plan includes too many people, too many complications, and too many weak links. But with a potential big payoff just ahead, Parker is willing to jump—out of the frying pan, into the fire, and onto a scheme that will soon pit every man against every other. Just the way Parker likes it…
BREAKOUT
“Suspenseful… snarling and tough…. As always, Stark/Westlake writes like the consummate pro he is.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Marvelous…. Nearly half a century into his writing career, Westlake remains superb.”
—Entertainment Weekly
Breakout Page 20