End Game (Will Robie #5)(119)

“Give me some of that duct tape, Robie,” she said.

He did so and watched as she used the tape to secure a shard of the plastic to the end of a rifle barrel from which she had broken off the wooden stock. She handed it to Robie.

“Best I can do right now. I hope to have more soon.”

He nodded, and he and Mateo headed off.

When they reached the second door into the space, Mateo said, “If we block off both doors, doesn’t that trap us in here?”

“It could. But until we can equal the playing field we have to secure our flanks first. I’m hoping we get the chance to attack these suckers, but we’re not there yet. So we make them come get us.”

Robie did another quick turkey peek out the door.

This time the result was totally different.

Robie’s hand moved faster than the eye could follow. It did so after years of training and fieldwork that demanded that he be able to do this or else die.

The shard of eyeglass lens cut right across the throat of the man who was standing on the right side of the door.

Blood spurted out from the man’s slashed throat. His hands went up to his neck and his rifle dropped to the floor. Before it could hit, Robie caught the rifle and with his other hand he grabbed the man’s collar and jerked him through the open doorway.

He kicked the door closed as bullets slammed into it.

Robie laid the man on the floor as he called out to Mateo to wedge the boards under the door and lock it.

Mateo rushed forward to do so.

Robie knelt next to the man, who was gurgling with blood in his throat. The man stared up at Robie, panic in his eyes, but also an emerging resignation.

Robie took the man’s sidearm and held it against his temple. But he didn’t pull the trigger. He didn’t have to. The man’s eyes became fixed and his mouth sagged as he finished bleeding out.

Robie looked back over his shoulder and saw Mateo frantically wedging the boards under the door and into the doorjamb.

Robie took the man’s night optics, rifle, and spare ammo. He also took a sheathed knife from the dead man’s belt.

“We’re starting to even the playing field,” said Robie.

“He’s . . . he’s dead?” asked Mateo, slowly straightening.

Robie headed off without answering. Mateo followed more slowly after giving a backward glance at the dead man.





CHAPTER





72


Reel and the others had been busy.

Blue Man had fashioned a makeshift knife using a piece of wood, duct tape, and a long sliver of jagged metal he had found in an old toolbox.

Reel had used a pair of rusty pliers and an old vise bolted to the top of a worktable to extract all the gunpowder from the blanks. She had placed half the powder into a canvas bag they had found under one of the beds. The other half she had put in an empty paint can. She then added to each some nails, screws, and other bits of jagged metal that they had found in some of the cabinets.

When she saw Robie with the weapons and the NV goggles, she said, “How’d you score that?”

“Just lucky timing. What do we got?” he said, looking at the paint can.

“I’m taking a page from our ‘friends’ in the Middle East and making a couple of IEDs.”

He checked on Malloy. Blue Man had dressed her wound as best he could.

“I can still fight,” she said. “I’m right-handed, so make sure I have something to fight with.”

Robie nodded and walked over to the table and picked up what had been the barrel of one of the rifles, which had also been removed from its stock. Duct-taped to the muzzle was a very sharp-edged piece of metal.

Reel called out, “So there are seven of them left?”

Robie nodded. “But don’t put it past them to add reinforcements. Remember that Dolph and Patti and some of their cronies might still be here.”

“Let’s focus on getting the seven first,” replied Reel. “Especially Randall.”

“They’re going to have both doors covered,” said Lamarre.

“Which means they had to split their force, three and four,” said Robie.

“But if we open one of those doors they’re going to open fire and we’re dead,” rejoined Lamarre.

“My, my what an optimist you are,” said Reel.

“So what are we going to do?” asked Mateo.

“We need to create a diversion,” answered Robie.

“With what?” snapped Lamarre. “Using one of us? Well, I’m not sacrificing myself.”

“Well, that’s a good thing, because we don’t need you to. We have someone else to play that role,” said Robie.

He walked out of the room and a minute later came back carrying the dead man over his shoulder.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Lamarre. “What happened to him?”

Robie set the body down. “I killed him before he killed me.” He examined Lamarre. “You’re about his height. Switch clothes and put his ball cap on.”

“What?”

“Take your clothes off and put his on.”

“But they’re covered in blood.”

Reel stepped forward after hefting the piece of glass attached to the metal gun barrel. “Either switch clothes or I gut you right here. And then you’ll be covered in blood. Yours.”