Have Gun, Will Travel (The Bare Bones MC #5)(54)

Wolf thumbed his smartphone to find the green grass. “Got it.”

“Out,” said Tobiah.

“Double time,” Sax told Wolf.

Wolf had to run with his semiautomatic rifle banging across his back, holding the smartphone, every canister and implement known to man crashing around his hips. He must’ve been wearing an extra eighty, a hundred pounds of garbage. Better him than me.

The men jogged uphill, having to break away from the fire trail to make a beeline for the green grass. Sax didn’t figure anyone was concerned with curb appeal. That wasn’t why their grass was green. More than likely people emptying out dishpans of water.

The initial phase of the op was extremely simple. The hatch was easy to open, and each man threw one can of smoke down the ladder into the pit. Then they closed the hatch and ran back to a good vantage point about fifty yards away from which to pick off the idiots who came pouring out.

At first, it was like they were taking turns. Sax picked off one goon first. The guy was wearing a bulletproof vest, so Sax just easily got him in the head with his Glock. Wolf did the honors with the next one, nabbing him in the throat with an operatic spray of crimson against the early morning periwinkle sky.

Sax blew away the third one who was actually still in his bathrobe. Men were piling up so quickly around the hatch he hoped newly emerging ones wouldn’t stumble over them. We should give them more time to run, spread them out more thinly. He pressed his radio button. “Tobiah. Have you noticed any other door where men are emerging? I’m thinking there might be a back door.”

Tobiah had circled around by the water tank and started his engine again. Now that their cover was blown, there was no point in him continuing to glide. “Let me head back your way. Haven’t seen any yet, but that would be a smart thing to do. Having only one exit can be mighty—who the f*ck is that?”

Sax has to rise to a standing position from where he’d been using a fallen pine as a breastwork. Some half-wit was out there waving his arms around even though he held an iron.

“That’s not one of Tormenta’s men,” Sax surmised.

Tobiah said, “No. He looks sort of too…too groomed to be one of the guys hiding in the bunker. Let me zoom in for a closer look.”

“Watch out!” yelled Wolf from his breastwork about forty yards to Sax’s left. No one else was coming out of the bunker, so they’d probably have to go in. Wolf raised his binoculars to his eyes.

“I’m careful.” Tobiah’s voice crackled as he made a steep turn around the arm-waving guy.

Wolf shrieked, “It’s Santiago Slayer!” just as someone positioned closer to the water tank took a shot at Tobiah’s flying machine. The round hit the rudder and the gyro seemed to shudder in its trajectory. Whoever was shooting from the tank, they had not exited through the hatch. Santiago Slayer was warning them about this other entrance, more than likely. Wolf screamed, “Tobiah! Make your move! White Queen to H5! White Queen to H5!”

There was no point in maintaining cover now, and Sax had to find out where this new shooter was. The guy had already squeezed off three more rounds at the gyro, and Tobiah was doing his best to get back downhill using Wolf’s chess moves. But just as Sax stood to clamber over the fallen tree, the unmistakable click of a pistol’s hammer sounded behind him. What. The. Fuck. How had someone snuck up on him like that?

“Drop your weapon,” the guy said cornily in a strong Mexican accent. Sax was relieved that Tobiah made it back down the hill out of range of the shooter, though he was trailing smoke. There wasn’t much room down there for a crash landing, but the ultralight hopefully wouldn’t need much room if the controls still worked.

Sax did so, turning with raised hands. The guy stood almost as a silhouette on a boulder, making him seem more imposing than he probably was. From this angle, both his teeth and the chains around his neck glinted. His pants sagged so low he would definitely trip if anyone chased him, and his Nike Jordans were unlaced. Surely Sax could get the drop on this guy.

The sagger sneered at him, holding his piece sideways in the useless gangsta style. “We wanna know how you found us. This place is unfindable.”

The baby gangsta twitched when Sax just put his hands on his hips. “You want to know how?”

“Yes. We want to know how.”

“I’ll tell you how. When you guys looked up the serial number on our drone plane, you also bought something else.”

The baby gangster’s face turned to stone, letting Sax know he’d hit on the right facts. “What? Who was stupid enough to buy something when hacking someone else’s account?”

“Well, apparently someone was stupid enough to buy some SizErect.” BG’s face was blank. Sax filled in for him. “Penis vitamins.” No response. “Erection enhancement pills.”

“Oh!” The BG nearly lost his composure when he realized what Sax referred to. He flung his weapon arm in the air, all set for a giant belly laugh, but he quickly remembered himself, and leveled it at Sax while he laughed. “Oh! That’s too f*cking much! You’ve got to be kidding me. Wait until I tell Mr. Tormenta! Manuel is going to be so gone. Hijo de puta! What a giant screw-up!”

The guy practically wheezed with merriment while Sax gauged the situation. Maybe if I can tell another joke…

“Tonto del culo! Are you f*cking shitting me? Hoo-ee! Wait until I tell—”