Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(75)

Bruno cleared his throat. “That’s nice.”

“You think?” Sean’s voice hardened. “He said you didn’t call.”

Bruno shrugged. “You know there’s no cell coverage here.”

“He was scared shitless for you.”

“What’s between me and Kev is private,” Bruno said.

Sean’s eyes flickered. “Whatever. But I think you should get that bug out of your ass before you start walking funny.”

Bruno stuck the gun inside his jacket. “Let’s get going.”

“Anytime, man,” McCloud murmured. “Anytime.”

Bruno walked to the edge of the ravine and raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes. He stared down at the mountainside. When he lowered the binoculars, his face had changed. “They’re coming.”

The dead-calm quality of his voice made Lily shiver.

McCloud looked startled. “Who’s coming?”

“You were followed,” Bruno stated. “They’ve got us. Pinned.”

“No way. That’s not possible. This car is clean. We talked about this business over encrypted phones. I went to insane lengths to make sure that nobody tagged Miles’ rig. Give me those things!” Sean snatched the binoculars away and peered down at the road. “I don’t see anything,” he complained. “Where?”

“Look where the creek curves at the level of that spur on the bluff over there,” Bruno directed. “Now follow it up to the second switchback from the bottom. No headlights. Look for movement. They just turned the hairpin. Heading back up in this direction. See it?”

Sean McCloud was silent for a moment as he searched, and then he sucked in air. “Son of a bitch. How the hell did they know—”

“Because they know everything,” Lily blurted, feeling sick.

There was a brief moment of blank dismay, and then Sean McCloud seemed to shake himself, as if throwing off a spell. “Come on, then.” He sounded so casual, it was almost bizarre. “Let’s get to it.”

“To what?” Lily demanded.

“Our plan. How long you figure it’ll take them to get up here?”

Bruno peered down, calculating. “At that speed, twenty-five minutes, maybe. I’ve got some pistols and ammo Aaro lent me. A Glock 19, a Beretta 92, an H&K USP. Got anything with youan>

“Hell, yeah,” McCloud said absently. He crossed his arms again, tapping his fingers. “Only one vehicle,” he murmured. “Arrogant sons of bitches. Who the f*ck do they think they’re dealing with?” He stared down the hill, eyes slitted. “You got that little bridge down there, at two hundred meters. That’s the best place to rig it. Got a chain?”

“Best place to rig what?” Lily demanded.

“The bomb,” McCloud said, as if it were obvious. “We could go with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. Diesel or kerosene. I’ve got some Tovex in the truck to boost it. Did Kev ever store any fertilizer up here?”

Bruno looked bemused. “Uh . . . uh . . .”

“Never mind, forget it. Flame fougasse, then.” McCloud pushed on. “We dig a hole on the road, hide a container of fuel wired to some explosives. Boom, problem solved. Until the next dickheads find you.”

“You can rig it that fast?” Bruno said.

“If you stop jerking off.”

“Wait!” Lily yelled as the men leaped into action. “One quick second. Please.”

The men lurched to a stop and spun, with identical what-thef*ck-is-your-problem-lady looks on their faces.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” McCloud said. “Make it fast.”

“What if the people in that vehicle are not our bad guys? What if they’re, you know, just innocent passersby?”

Bruno and Sean exchanged glances. “Lily,” Bruno said, as if speaking to a slow-witted child. “People do not innocently pass by this place at dawn with their headlights turned off. It’s the last property on the road. The road runs out into a deer track three hundred meters farther on. This is the furry, pimply ass-end of f*cking nowhere.”

She gestured at McCloud. “He said himself it would have been impossible for them to follow him! You can’t risk killing innocent people!”

“You want to go wait by the road?” Sean McCloud’s voice sounded only mildly curious. “Offer them coffee and Danish?”

She waved her hands. “I just don’t want people to die because they’re on the wrong road at the wrong time! That would suck!”

Sean shrugged. “OK. Plan B,” he said. “I dig in up the hill at a hundred meters with my M21, check them out with my scope. It’ll magnify the ambient light enough to see inside. If it’s Great-aunt Betty, we give her coffee and Danish. If they’re the bad guys, we f*ck them up, take one of them alive, and interrogate the living shit out of him.”

Bruno’s face cleared. “Sounds good.”

“Plus, we can deliver our survivors to the cops afterward,” Sean went on. “A blood gift to appease their wrath.”

“Even better,” Bruno said, with growing enthusiasm.

Sean McCloud gave her a hard look. “If there’s more than two, I’m capping them, straight off,” he said flatly. “This is too f*cking risky as it is. I don’t want to die today. I’ve got a kid.”