Birds of Prey - Crouch Blake - Страница 26

“Come in, lock the door behind you.”

Luther

They all crowded inside, Luther feeling a sense of camaraderie he hadn’t experienced since losing Orson. Much as he was a loner, it was good to occasionally be among those with similar values.

“So, what’s the plan?” Charles said. “Luther, buddy, you got that metal leech thing with you?”

Luther was staring at a target silhouette behind the counter, studying the various points on the arms and legs. “I have a better idea,” he said. Then he explained it to the group.

Javier cut Porter’s zip-ties as the shop owner cried around his ball gag.

“Hollow points for everyone,” Luther ordered.

Everyone began to shout out the ammo they wanted, making Porter fetch the boxes.

Forty-five ACP rounds for Jav’s new Glock and Luther’s Springfield XD Tactical.

Nine-millimeters for Mr. K’s Beretta Px4 Storm.

Three-fifty-sevens for Charles’s Coonan Cadet.

“I object to this,” Mr. K said.

Luther scowled. “What’s the problem?”

“The problem is, we take semi-jacket hollow points into that range and start firing, Porter’s going to be dead in about two minutes.”

“We can put him in a vest,” Charles said. “I bet this douche has some Kevlar lying around.”

“Even so, and even with what you suggest, it’ll be too easy for him to bleed out, getting shot with these calibers, these rounds.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Javier asked.

Mr. K turned to Porter. “I assume you stock .22 pistols?”

Porter whimpered, but managed a nod.

“What models?”

The shop owner shook his head, his shoulders sagging.

“What. Models.”

He raised his hand, meekly pointed to the display case.

“The Mark III?”

A nod.

“Get five Rugers and put them on the counter along with three boxes of 20 grain LRs.”

Porter obeyed.

“Plinker rounds, K?” Javier asked, eyeing the boxes. “That shit barely tears through a soda can.”

Mr. K nodded. “Exactly. It’ll wound, but not kill.”

“That doesn’t sound as fun,” Charles said.

“You’ll get to shoot him many more times,” Mr. K said, “and he won’t die.”

Alex broke open one of the cartridge boxes, spilling rounds onto the glass counter. She worked the slide on a Ruger and manually inserted one, aiming it at Charles.

“You want to see how much it hurts?” she asked.

Everyone but Porter and Charles laughed. Charles slapped the gun away, scowling, then picked up a .22 and began to load a clip. Everyone else followed suit.

“Five points for legs and arms, ten points for feet and hands,” Luther said. “Hit the torso, lose twenty. Hit the head, lose fifty.”

“What are the stakes?” Javier asked.

Mr. K shook his head.

“What, K? I know that look.”

“Well,” Mr. K said. “You did sort of crash my party, so I have a proposition for the game.”

“We’re listening,” Alex said.

“I like Luther’s scoring system. I would propose that the losers pay off Mr. Porter’s marker to Dovolanni. It’s fourteen thousand, three hundred. Plus my fee of two thousand.”

“Holy shit,” Charles said. “I can’t swing that much.”

“Don’t worry, bro.” Alex popped in a clip and jacked a round into the chamber. “I got this.”

Javier smiled. “So, you’re a good shot, pretty lady?”

Alex winked. Then she quickly aimed at the analog wall clock across the room, firing four shots in rapid succession.

Everyone looked. She’d shot out the numbers 3, 6, 9, and 12.

Javier whistled. “I think my manhood just became aroused.”

“I’m in,” Charles said.

“I can’t shoot like that,” said Luther, “but I’m game.”

“And that makes cinco,” said Javier. “What’s the winner get?”

Mr. K smiled. “To finish off Mr. Porter, of course.”

Luther knew his chances at winning were slim to none, but he didn’t care. This night was shaping up to be the most fun he’d had in years.

Javier

The firing range was divided into seven stations, but the contestants all gathered at lane 4, the one in the middle.

The shooting area extended back fifty yards.

Reinforced baffles had been situated along the roof and walls for noise mitigation, and in the quiet prelude to the shooting, Jav could hear the hum of the ventilation system.

“Can we take the ball-gag out?” Luther asked, motioning to Porter who was huddled against the wall in a puddle of fear and whimpering. “I want to hear him scream.”

“Me, too,” Alex said.

Mr. K knelt down in front of Porter. “Before I take this off, I want to warn you,” he said. “We’re done with the pleading and the begging and the crying. Do you understand?”

A defeated nod.

“Stand up.”

Porter struggled onto his feet.

“Now walk with me.”

Javier watched Mr. K and Porter duck under the table at lane four and walk downrange. He followed, as did the others, and it took them a minute and a half to reach the sloped concrete berm at the end of the range.

“Ground rules,” Luther said. “You start against that far wall. When you hear the air horn, you have to make it to that end, and back. If you can do that, we won’t kill you.”

“Hey!” Charles said. “We didn’t discuss that part!”

“We have to give him a reason to live,” Luther answered, “Of else he’ll just curl up in a ball and die. I’ve seen it before. It’s no fun.”

“You…you’ll really let…let m-m-m-me live?” Porter stammered.

“You make it there and back, brother, you live.”

“Will you pay my marker, too?”

Mr. K slapped him upside the head. “Don’t get greedy, Mr. Porter.”

Alex

The killers lined up in the middle five lanes, Alex in six, Charles in five, Mr. K in four, Luther in three, and Javier in two. This would be their firing order as well. The men had graciously allowed her to go first, since she was the only woman present.

Dumb asses. Alex knew she could shoot the pants off of any man.

Alex removed the clip and racked the slide a few times to check the action. Then she popped the clip back in, jacked a round, and sighted up the man who stood quivering downrange.

She was so turned on right now.

Since Javier was shooting last, he had the air horn at his station.

“Everyone ready?” Javier shouted, his voice echoing downrange.

“Ready!” Alex shouted.

“Ready!” Charles shouted.

“Ready!”

“Ready!”

Javier said, “Mr. Porter! You warmed-up, loosened-up, and ready to run for your life?”

Porter yelled back, “Please! You don’t have to do this!”

Alex glanced around the dividing wall between hers and Charles’s lanes, saw Javier holding up the air horn canister.

“Mr. Porter, on your mark!”

Alex raised her Ruger.

“Get set!”

Drew a bead on Porter.

“Run, motherfucker!”

The moment the air horn sounded, Alex shot Porter square in his left foot.

Jack

As expected, Clay bought Jack Daniels shots as the first round. Such was the curse of my name.

We were in the hotel bar, which was so packed that we had to fight for room to stand, and sitting wasn’t even close to being an option. I had to wait ten minutes to order a second round, Goose Island beer, and then asked the bartender if there was a liquor store nearby.

“West, half a mile up the street,” he said.

When I shared the information with the boys, they agreed that making a booze run was preferable to drinking elbow-to-elbow with five hundred people in a bar designed to hold half that. We took our bottles outside with us because, hey, Clay and I were cops, and after some vigorous discussion on which direction west was, began to head up the street.

As we passed the range, I head a faint pop-pop-pop, like distant firecrackers.

“Gunshots?” Tequila asked, looking at me.

“Sounds like a small caliber,” Clay said. “Muffled, too.”

I glanced at Porter’s Guns and Ammo. “Could they still be open?”