The Shack: An Unstoppable Man

His face was flat and emotionless. He glanced over at me as I rolled to cover but decided I wasn't important. At least for now. He took a crouching step back, obviously calculating his chance at getting into the driver seat and taking off. But he'd have been headed into the lines of fire of both the sheriff and the deputy.

No good odds there, not with the two men already focused on him.

The fallen gunman looked up at him and reached weakly toward him. "Billy..."

Whatever else Marco was going to say, he never got the chance. Billy fired one shot into his head with cold precision, then sprinted through the maze of parked cars, headed for the highway. He ran like a damn gazelle, only slightly favoring his leg, jinking through the cars with startling ease.

The sheriff rushed forward, checking the dead gunman and moved after Billy while his deputy ran for his cruiser.

I stood up fully just in time to see a small SUV on the highway screech to a stop to avoid hitting Billy. The driver paid for his attempted kindness. Billy smashed the driver's window, reached through and yanked the door open, slamming the revolver into the driver's head before pulling him out and tearing down the road in the SUV.

"What the holy fuck?" I looked down at Delaney as she came up beside me. We watched the sheriff run back to his Tahoe and follow his deputy out in pursuit, sirens blasting.

We walked over to the dead gunman, just as Mooky caught up to us, staring down at the body open-mouthed. He blinked and gulped. "Dude. There's, like, a dead guy in my parking lot. Half his head is gone. And I'm the acting manager today."

"Traffic cones."

He looked at me. "What?"

"Put traffic cones around the body until the sheriff gets back."

"I don't have any..." He twitched. "Would the yellow 'wet floor' signs work?"

"Yeah, I think they'd work just fine." I pointed at the small crowd of people helping the carjack victim. "And call an ambulance for him."

Mooky rushed back inside, shaking his head and calling for his guys to round up the signs while he grabbed the phone.

"We staying here?" Delaney looked off into the distance, where the SUV and the sheriff had disappeared.

"We have a police band radio in the rollback. Sheriff might be able to use a rolling roadblock."

She frowned. "He won't want us anywhere near this."

I grinned. "He will. He's going to want to know just what the hell is going on. He'll want us close."

"We don't know anything."

"That's true...but he doesn't know that."

She bolted ahead of me to the rollback, swerving to snatch up the bag with our food. Despite everything, her priorities were still in order. At least for her.

Delaney waved gleefully at Mooky from the rollback as we rolled out, and he resignedly set his wet floor signs up around the body.

We drove in silence for a moment until we got a fix on the chase. The sheriff had called on every agency in the area. I could hear responses and coordination across several agencies, from state police to an odd pair of railroad patrol officers who'd somehow gotten involved.

I flicked the disco lights on as I called in on the net. "This is Dawes' Salvage. Seven tons of cold steel rollback. We can act as a blocker. Over."

He didn't even debate it. "Dawes' Salvage. Hang back at the Spring Road junction. I'll call you forward as I figure which way he moves. Hopefully, we can use you to choke off an escape route."

"On the way. Dawes' Salvage, Out." I pulled the new .45 out and checked it before wedging it down next to me.

Delaney watched me do it, then slouched. "We should have put in the hides."

"We will. I think this mess is out of our hands, though." I slowed to a stop alongside the junction. "Glad you remembered how to deal with a chokehold."

We'd spent some time going over stuff like that. Simple stuff that might be handy.

Delaney gave a twitch of a smile. "Yeah. Me too. Glad I remembered the Stun gun."

"That too."

She stared down the road. "What the hell is going on?"

"They catch Billy we can ask him. Maybe the overdoses."

"He killed his partner without even thinking about it. He just...bam." She shook her head and shivered.

"His partner knew too much about something."

She frowned. "Pretty fucking cold."

I nodded.

Delaney leaned back into her seat, staring through the windshield. "Fuck."

The radio snapped. "He's headed down Spring End. He's managed to get himself backed up against the river. Needles bring up the rollback. Deputy Roberts will show you where to block."

"Roger. This is Dawes, moving up. Out."

We rolled up until we saw the young deputy waving to us and gesturing us to block the bottleneck about 500 yards before the road widened out in front of a derelict house on the river's edge. I could just see the stolen SUV parked haphazardly in front of it. At least nine vehicles with law enforcement markings were tactically positioned to prevent escape.

The deputy backed us off, just out of line of fire from the house and gestured for me to maneuver the rollback into position to close the road off.

Once I had it in park, the deputy raced up and jumped up on the steps on my side. "The sheriff wants to know if you're strapped."

Delaney leaned forward and shot him a predatory grin. "He's old school. Ya gotta ask him if he's packin' heat."

He stared at her and yanked his radio mike up from his shoulder. "Sheriff, he has a kid with him. We need to get her out of here."

The radio snapped alive almost immediately. "Roberts, this is Hyatt on dispatch. That kid has been in more firefights than you have. Just let it be."

I pulled the .45 out and held it up, then put it on the dash.

Delaney looked back through the rear window and pursed her lips. "A car could squeeze between those trees. I'm gonna run the cable to that big oak back there and pull it tight, that way, he can't get a car through." She was already kicking out her door before I could respond.

The deputy stared after her as she unlocked the cable and raced for the giant tree. He looked at me. "Aren't you going to...do something?"

I watched her in my rearview mirror. She already had the cable looped and hooked. "Yeah." I reached into the Taco Grande bag. "I saw her step on the bag. I'm gonna see if I can get a burrito that didn't get completely smashed."

He leaned back, staring at me in horror. I could hear the cable whine as it pulled tight while I emptied a Napalm sauce into the burrito.

Delaney jumped back into her seat and glared at me. "Dammit. I knew I should have grabbed the bag."

"Hey, I left you an extra Napalm sauce."

She pulled the other burrito out, frowning. "This one's squashed."

"You stepped on it."

She wrinkled her nose. "Meh. It'll be fine." She stopped. "Shit. I dropped my soda when he grabbed me."

I reached back into the cooler on the floor behind her seat, pulled out two bottles of water, and handed her one. "I dropped mine too. Hey, you remember what I said about avoiding ambushes and traps?"

"Yeah. Didn't do so good this time, did I?"

"Neither of us did, but we did learn something."

"What?"

"Traps baited with tacos are dangerous."

She sneered and held her food up. "It's a burrito."

"Close enough."

The sheriff slipped up to the window. "Good call on the cable."

I pointed at Delaney. "Her idea."

He nodded to her. "Good plan."

She nodded, too busy stuffing her face to respond.

The sheriff looked at me. "Any idea why he tried to grab her? I saw it at the door; you two weren't expecting any trouble with him."

"I figured you'd want to know." I explained what we knew about Billy and told him what Billy had said. "That's about it."

"You don't know?"

I thought about it. "Like I said the other day, the only thing we've done lately is ask a few questions about the drug overdoses. And we stopped doing that after you told us to."

He shook his head. "This shit doesn't make sense. He could have just shot you."

"He wasn't carrying a gun at first. Still, none of this makes sense unless that drug ring is helluva a lot more serious than I thought."

He nodded. "We'll ask Billy when this is all over."

The deputy looked at him, then gestured at Delaney. "Shouldn't we get her out of here?"

"As long as she's with him, we know where she is. Trust me, that's important." The sheriff glanced at him. "You were on vacation when that mass overdose occurred, right?"

"Yeah, but I heard about..." his voice trailed off. "Oh. That was her?"

"Slipped into the station, broke into the medical locker, stole a vehicle..." The sheriff gave Delaney a look. She shrugged. "...and outran two deputies and three state troopers. And that is, by far, not even a particularly eventful day for her."

The deputy stared at her in disbelief. She ignored him and looked in the bag. "I don't like the new guy at Taco Grande. Mooky always slips me a couple extra tacos."

The sheriff shook his head. "We need to put a warning about her in the in-processing list for the new guys."

I wiped my hands on my napkin. "Do you think they'd believe it?"

"No, but at least they wouldn't be able to say they hadn't been warned." He sighed. "The State Police have taken over. They're going to try to make contact in a few minutes, see what kind of response they get. You still have boiler plate in the doors?"

"Yeah. We were planning to pull it out, but after that drive-by at the yard and the shit on the highway, we decided to wait."

"You have your medical kit?"

"I carry everything in the rollback. An M9 Assault Medical pack and a full-MOLLE Medical bag with all the bells and whistles."

"Stay put then; anything happens, try to stay out of it." He looked at the deputy. "Needles was a Special Forces medic, and he's a practicing physician's assistant. He works at the free clinic. We have paramedics on the way, but they may take a while."

The deputy stared at me, trying to make sense of everything while the sheriff called into the State Police coordinator to explain that he had the road blocked and emergency medical support on hand.

He dropped back to the ground and looked up. "I..."

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a series of shots. From the direction and distance, they were clearly being fired from the house.

"Goddammit..." The sheriff looked sharply back in the direction of the shots.

The deputy crouched, wide-eyed.

I listened to a few more shots. "Those aren't pointed in our direction."

I glanced over at Delaney, who hadn't so much as bothered to look around. She nodded. "The sound isn't sharp enough. It's a much sharper sound if you're in a 60-degree arc off the muzzle."

Several more shots sounded, much sharper. Delaney slouched way down into her seat while leaning it as far back as it would go. "Like that."

I followed her example while the sheriff and his deputy took cover behind the rollback.

Other shots began responding, definitely not in our direction.

I turned up the police radio to listen in to coordinating tactical chatter. "Doesn't sound like the State Police are in much of a talking mood anymore."

"Sounds like a couple of their cars just got shot up." Delaney stared at the ceiling, staying flattened in her seat.

I listened to the radio traffic. No injuries, but whoever was coordinating for the State Police sounded decidedly pissed off.

The sheriff had his people switch off to another band and began directing them to support, but only engage if they had a clear target.

A crescendo of shots built for a moment. There was a brilliant flash through the trees, and I tried to turn to warn Delaney, but the "thump" of the explosion rolled over us before I could even twist toward her.

She didn't need the warning anyway. She'd dropped down into a ball on the floorboard as soon as she'd seen the flash.

We spent the next several seconds keeping our heads down and listening to debris rattle off the rollback.

As soon as it stopped, I grabbed the .45 and shoved it into my belt. Delaney pushed the medical assault pack into my hands and began dragging the larger MOLLE pack out.

I nearly stepped on the sheriff as he rolled out from under the rollback. He was already calling for status reports from his men.

Delaney came around the front of the rollback, heaving the MOLLE pack up on to her back. She dropped to one knee by the front bumper, waiting and watching the rising smoke and flicker of flames through the trees.

The deputy watched her, puzzled by her sudden stop.

I looked at him. "First rule of combat medicine. Make sure you aren't the next casualty. If you get taken out, you can't help anyone."

"I wasn't really under the impression you two were big on rules."

Delaney looked up at him with a half scowl. "We're not stupid. I like the rules that keep my butt in one piece."

The sheriff looked up. "Sounds like three slightly injured. Not much left of the house. They're sweeping the area now."

As soon as they sounded the "All Clear", we moved up.

The crumpled remains of the house were burning; the whole front of the house had been blown off, and the rest had collapsed. Various law enforcement agents moved carefully around the burning wreckage, probing cautiously.

"That rotten egg smell. We'll see what the Chief's guy says, but I think they probably managed to trigger a meth lab explosion."

"Meth labs and gunfire aren't the best combination." I checked, nobody seemed to actually be down, so I called back at Delaney. "Drop the pack..." I glanced over at the sheriff. "If the sheriff will send the deputy with you, you can get the rollback out of the way for EMS and Fire."

He nodded. "Roberts, watch her back."

By the time I finished flushing out one eye and checking another officer for concussion, Delaney was back, with the deputy trailing behind.

One state trooper walked up, cradling his right forearm. "Probably need to have you take a look at this."

"Shielding your face from flying debris?"

He winced as I checked it over. "Yeah. Stupid, I know."

"Stupid would have been letting whatever hit your arm hit you in the face."

Delaney wrinkled her nose. "He isn't pretty enough for it to make a difference."

He glanced at her, oddly more curious than confused.

I finished checking it. "Possible fracture, right ulna. You need to get in and get an X-ray." I held my hand out to Delaney. "I need a forearm splint."

She handed me one she'd already pulled out of the pack. "Eighteen-inch Flexi Splint." She held up another package. "Wrap."

The state trooper eyed Delaney. "I'm supposed to hold you two for Special Agent Stratton. He sent word down practically as soon as the word went up that this was all about someone grabbing 'Miss Delaney Dawes.' He seemed a little less than pleased."

"Did he tell you to arrest us?" I finished wrapping the arm and looked at it critically.

"No, not in so many words."

"Maybe he can call our secretary and set up a meeting."

He looked us over. "You have a secretary?"

Delaney shook her head with a half shrug. "No, but that makes it more of a challenge for Benjy."

He choked a laugh "Benjy? Jesus."

"So, are you arresting us?"

"I have to go to the hospital to get an X-ray, right? Whether you wait for...Benjy is up to you." He walked off, shaking his head.

I walked over to the sheriff, Delaney trailing behind. "Was he in there?"

"Hell, I saw him go in. They're certain nobody got out. No way out this way, and they didn't see him go in the river. We're just looking for the body."

"Any chance we can meet State Police Special Agent Stratton in your office? He wants an explanation."

"It doesn't sound like you have one."

"Nothing I haven't told you. But I'd rather tell him that on friendly terrain than have him chasing around after us." We watched an ambulance pull in, the fire chief's truck coming in behind it.

"With fire and every law enforcement officer we can round up, this is going to take..." He frowned and looked at the smoke rising from the still flickering fires. "Anywhere from six to twenty hours to get done."

I nodded. "I'll take your word for that."

"Given your habit of attracting mayhem, why don't you guys call Sheree and have her meet you at the station with a pizza. Maybe hang out until we find his body. Just to be sure."

Delaney narrowed her eyes. "Is this that 'unofficial protective custody' thing again?"

He snorted. "Sure. Let's go with that. Don't get your hopes up. I'm giving Hyatt orders not to play poker with you this time."

*****

Girl Scouts and Mercenaries

*****

More than a few hours later, I was pretty sure Special Agent Stratton didn't believe us, but we still had half a large pizza, a second order of cheese-covered breadsticks, and Sheree was watching with unconcealed amusement from the couch of the Deputies' lounge. I was willing to play along for a while, at least until we ran out of pizza.

Besides, watching Delaney try to bait him into a game of five-card was worth the price of admission all by itself.

When Delaney shuffled the deck smoothly, he eyed her suspiciously.

"That's the sound of someone about to pay out on a lot of chocolate bars." Deputy Hyatt stood in the doorway, cane in hand.

He looked up at her. "What?"

"It's a trap. I think she did an internship at Caesar's Palace or the Bellagio or something." She was obviously getting ready to go off shift, pulling her purse out of her locker.

"Deputy Hyatt!" Delaney scowled. "You're not supposed to warn the patsy."

Stratton gave Delaney a wry look. "Did you forget? I've already met you. I was assuming this was a setup."

Delaney curled her lip and went back to shuffling.

"How's the leg?" I sat up so I could see Hyatt a bit better.

"Not bad, I'm healing ahead of schedule, according to the physical therapist. Another six months on desk duty, though." She grimaced.

We talked about her injuries for a few minutes until she headed out.

Stratton's phone buzzed, and he looked at it. "They found him. Or at least most of him. Gunfire and meth labs really don't go together well."

Delaney sighed and stared at the tabletop. "Dammit. He can't answer questions now, can he?"

Stratton studied her for a moment. "We're looking into his background; that may clear things up, and they're going to be combing through the site for the next couple days. We've also got pretty good video from the restaurant."

Sheree tilted her head. "You see anything on that?"

"Nothing that conflicts with what they told me or what the sheriff saw." He paused and looked at me. "Although someone may have glossed over some details a bit. I don't think the phrase 'got free' quite covers it. We could use it as a training clip on how to break a chokehold."

"We may have gone over it once or twice after the trouble with Stein."

He shot a look at Delaney. "Once or twice? That was calculated, precise, vicious and executed perfectly."

"You must be talking about Delaney." Tara walked into the room. "What did they do this time?"

The agent leaned back and held his hands up defensively. "They're not suspects; they're..." He paused. "I don't think 'victims' really fits."

"Witnesses?" Tara gave a slight smile and an arched eyebrow.

He gestured helplessly. "Sure, we'll use that."

Tara turned to me. "Any problems?"

"Nope. We're being completely honest."

Delaney stood up rigidly and held her hand up. "Scout's honor."

"You've never been a Girl Scout." Tara gave a slightly melancholy smile. "And that's not the salute; it's three fingers, not one. Definitely not that one."

Shrugging, Delaney sat back down.

Stratton eyed Tara for a moment. "So, were you a Girl Scout?"

"All the way to Gold Award."

"I was an Eagle Scout."

Delaney made a sound like a cat throwing up. "God. I'm so gonna hurl."