Near Miss

Chapter 71

With no time to hide anywhere else, Stone grabbed Carly by the arm and pulled her to the doorway the man who’d been carrying him had disappeared through.

“Stay low,” he said and pushed the door open.

He expected to find a corridor or another ballroom on the other side, instead they rushed onto an outdoor deck that served as a restaurant dining area. Though it, too, was affected by the blackout, there was enough residual city light for Stone to make out the darkened forms of tables and chairs and a bar. There were also people, too; at least two dozen. Some had phone flashlights on, and all were murmuring excitedly about the loss of power.

“Who’s there?” a voice called from several feet away. Stone instantly recognized it as that of the man who’d been carrying him.

Stone took Carly’s hand and quietly led her away from the door, in the opposite direction from where the voice had come. They found a row of wide urns filled with plants and slipped behind them.

“Adams, is that you?” the man called.

“I’m sorry,” one of the nearby diners said. “Are you talking to me?”

Ignoring him, Sarge’s man said, “Whoever you are, I know you’re here.”

“Hey, this blackout is scary enough without you talking like that,” the diner said.

“Shut up or I’ll show you how scary I can be.”

The diner shot up out of his chair, and he and his companion moved farther into the dining area.

A flashlight flicked on in approximately the same place the mercenary’s voice was coming from. The beam swung to the door then across the floor toward the urns, tracking the path Stone and Carly had taken.

Stone stuck his gun between two urns, aimed at the light, and pulled his trigger.

Two things happened simultaneously. The flashlight beam twisted wildly, before whipping around and pointing back Stone and Carly’s way. And though Stone’s gun had a silencer, the sound of the shot was still loud enough to cause several people in the restaurant to scream. This, in turn, motivated the rest of the diners and the staff to rush toward the main exit, knocking over tables and chairs as they went.

“Nice try, asshole,” the mercenary said over the cacophony, clearly uninjured.

His gun fired, and an urn just to Stone and Carly’s left exploded into a million pieces.

As Stone raised his pistol to try again, Carly whispered, “You’re a terrible shot. Let me.”

Before he could reply, she fired, her unsilenced weapon booming across the deck.

The man grunted, and the flashlight beam arced upward and then went out as both it and the man crashed to the ground.

“Not bad,” Stone said.

“It’s really not that hard.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Stone had expected to hear more screaming, but it appeared everyone had made their escape. Which was exactly what he and Carly needed to do.

“Come on,” Stone said.

He grabbed Carly’s hand again, and they moved into the dining area, weaving through the tables toward the exit.

A moment after the ballroom door was pulled open, Sarge and his men heard another door across the room open and close, and after that silence.

“Team three!” Sarge called into the room.

Nothing.

He tapped the shoulder of the man nearest the door. “Check.”

The man dropped to a crouch and peeked through the doorway. “Oh, shit,” he said.

“What?” Sarge whispered.

“All I see are bodies.”

“Everyone in,” Sarge ordered.

The first two entered, their guns raised. The next two followed, doing the same, and then the Sarge and the Corporal went in.

“What the hell?” someone said.

There were several bodies on the floor, all within a few feet of each other.

“Go,” Sarge said.

The men moved cautiously toward the bodies, sweeping the area with the barrels of their guns. When they reached them, they checked each for a pulse. All were dead.

That was bad, but more troubling to the Sarge was that none of them were Barrington.

“What happened?” the Corporal said.

Through gritted teeth, the Sarge said, “A clusterfu—”

A gunshot drowned him out.

Everyone ducked and looked around.

“Where did that come from?” someone asked.

The shot had been loud, so it had to have been close, and it wouldn’t have been caused by one of his men. They were all carrying silenced weapons. But there was no sign of a shooter.

A second shot rang out.

“There,” the Corporal said, pointing at a doorway near where Sarge and the others were.

Everyone ran toward it.

Stone and Carly were just over halfway across the deck when the ballroom door flew open, and several silhouettes rushed out and took cover. Stone motioned to the bar as it was the closest place to hide.

As they crept behind it, they heard one of the new arrivals say, “There’s another body. It’s Craddock. He’s dead.”

“See,” Carly whispered to Stone. “Not hard.”

“Can we discuss your marksmanship later?”

They peeked around the edge of the bar at the new arrivals.

“I count five,” Carly whispered into Stone’s ear.

Stone was about to agree when two more silhouettes exited the ballroom.

“I mean seven,” she said.

“Barrington!” an angry voice yelled. “I know you’re here. Come out. You’re only prolonging the inevitable!”

“He sounds upset,” Carly said.

“I’m not feeling particularly happy at the moment myself,” Stone said.

“Do you think that’s the Sarge?”

Across the room, someone said, “Sarge, I found something.”

“What is it?” the angry voice said.

“Yeah, I think it’s the Sarge,” Stone whispered to Carly.

“It’s a woman’s shoe,” the guy who’d found something said. “A nice one.”

“Sorry,” Carly said. “I took them off when I first stopped to shoot, then dropped them when we came out here.”

“Barrington,” the Sarge yelled, “I know you’re not alone. I tell you what. You give yourself up, and I’ll let your companion go unharmed.”

Stone peeked around the bar hoping to make out at least a shadowy shape, but the others were now hidden from view.

“I hear your mind turning,” Carly said.

“I’ll try to think quieter,” Stone said.

“If you’re considering taking him up on his offer—”

“I’m not. He’s bluffing.”

“You took the words out of my mouth.”

“That’s a first.”

The Sarge said, “Everyone, spread out.”

“Oh, good,” Stone said under his breath. “For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble.”

“I think we are in trouble,” Carly whispered.

“I was quoting Butch Cassidy. It’s what he says to Sundance at the end of the movie.”

“What movie?”

“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

“That’s a movie?”

“It is, and a great one. Did I just find a hole in the mental database?”

“I think so,” Carly said, annoyed.

“Barrington, I’ll give you to the count of three,” Sarge yelled.

“You can worry about it later,” Stone whispered to Carly. “For now, just shoot at anything that moves.”

“One,” the Sarge bellowed. “Two.”

Teddy Fay was halfway across the body-strewn ballroom when he heard the Sarge yell, “Barrington, I’ll give you to the count of three.”

Teddy reached the door as the Sarge yelled, “One,” and pushed it open as Sarge yelled, “Two!”

There were five of the Sarge’s men spread out in front of him, heading into a deserted restaurant. Closer, to Teddy’s left, was the Corporal, and ten feet beyond him, the Sarge.

The Corporal had twisted around as the door opened, and had started to raise his gun, but lowered it when he realized it was someone he knew.

“Dial, what the hell are you doing here?” he asked.

Teddy answered by putting a bullet through the man’s forehead. He sent another shot toward the Sarge, but the Sarge had excellent reflexes and dove for cover the second Teddy had raised his weapon.

The other men, whose backs had been to him, were not quite as quick. Teddy fired five more shots. Three of the men went down, two of them permanently, while a fourth staggered out of sight, his left shoulder useless. The fifth was the only one other than the Sarge to get away cleanly.

Teddy slid behind a drink station just as the Sarge opened fire on him. The bullets dinged off an expresso machine and ripped through the cabinet sending shards of wood and plastic raining down on Teddy’s back.

As he scooted to the far end and peered around, he put a fresh magazine into his gun. He could see the man with the shoulder wound crouched behind a table that had been tipped on its side. The man was sweeping his gun back and forth, but he’d lost his goggles, so his vision was limited.

Teddy pulled his trigger, ending the man’s misery.

Stone and Carly ducked down as the gunfight broke out at the other end of the deck.

When Stone realized no bullets were flying their way, he whispered, “Let’s get out of here.”

With Carly on his heels, he edged out from behind the bar in a crouch, intending to head straight to the exit. But he’d taken only one step in that direction when the lights flickered back on.

Stone squinted from the sudden brightness. At the same time, he heard a grunt coming from just to his right, and the clatter of something hard hitting the ground.

Stone had just enough time to realize it was a man dressed in all black before Carly shoved him onto his hands and knees. Above him, her gun roared.

The man in black spun against a table, then fell to the deck, next to the set of goggles he’d thrown off when the lights came on.

Stone looked at Carly, who was crouched over him, her gun still pointing at the now dead man.

“Thanks,” he said.

“You’re welcome.”

Heavy footsteps approached from somewhere behind them. Stone looked past Carly just in time to see a large man sprint out from behind a table. From the angry snarl on his face, Stone had no doubt of the man’s identity.

As the Sarge brought up his weapon, Stone shoved Carly out of the way and twisted his pistol around. With no time to aim, he pulled the trigger the moment he thought the barrel was pointed in the right direction.

The Sarge’s snarl slipped, and his brow knit in confusion. A moment later, blood began flowing out of a wound on the side of his neck, while at the same time, a bloom of red appeared on his shirt in the center of his chest.

He dropped to his knees and tried to speak, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was more blood. He then fell onto the floor.

Stone was about to push to his feet when another person appeared near the Sarge. He was dressed in the same black outfit the Sarge was wearing, but his gun was pointed not at Stone and Carly but at the dead man.

He kicked the body, and when it didn’t move, he looked at Stone. “Are you guys all right?” the man who didn’t look like Teddy Fay asked in Teddy Fay’s voice.

“I am,” Stone said. “Carly?”

“Me, too,” she said.

“Is there anyone else we have to worry about?” Stone asked.

Teddy nodded his chin at the Sarge. “He was the last.”

“Is he dead?”

“Dead as they get.”

Stone and Carly rose to their feet and joined Teddy.

“He’s got two bullet wounds,” Carly said, surprised.

“Very observant,” Teddy said. “Stone, I think you hit him a second before I did. Excellent shooting, by the way. Center mass. That’s what you’d call a bull’s-eye.”

“I didn’t even aim,” Stone said.

“Maybe you should try not aiming every time,” Carly said.

“At least it wasn’t a miss.”

“Not even a near one,” Teddy said. “Time for me to leave. This place is going to get very crowded, very fast.”

He hurried away without another word.