The Storm Giants (16 page)

Tobias
glared back at the family. “If he’s so bad, how come we let him live?”

Ch
apter 39: Best Friends Re-United

They drove to where Tobias had
dumped his Desert Eagle. While Everett waited in the truck, Tobias scurried into the alley and snaked his way onto the roof. When he came out tugging his coat down to hide his shoulder holster, there was a confident cock-of-the-walk strut to the little man that hadn’t been there in a while.

“Now I’m
whole again,” Tobias said with a comic simper.

Chapter 40
: On the Discovery Channel

“I’d like you to reconsider dealing
with Larry,” Tobias said. “This could be the biggest payday of your career.”

They were headed
south on 101 after transiting 299. The snack truck was a lumbering brute, not meant for driving agility in the first place. The gold weighed them down beyond spec loads, the vehicle had to be coaxed around the curves in the mountain road.

“So who i
s this widow y’all were talking about?” Tobias asked.

“She’s the one that has my people
in her sights,” Everett said as he negotiated another hairpin. “She can do them major damage. Wouldn’t have minded going with Larry at first. Nullifying the threat means dealing with her.”

“Well
, I can see this is a problem for you Everett. We’re still getting paid, right? That’s the bottom line for me. I’ve got to get my end.”

“You’ll be taken care of
,” Everett said.

He
pulled over at the turnout before Kerri’s house. He looked at the entrance to her access road.

Tobi
as’s eternal sneer evaporated. His face was blank as he rested his hand on his holstered piece. “Craptacular, Everett. You looking to make a move at this late date?”

“Don’t soil yourself
,” Everett said, making no move to get going.

Perhaps a minute went by with
Everett staring into space and Tobias growing increasingly antsy. Everett started the truck and took the road down to Kerri’s, the heavy laden truck immediately challenging on the grade.

“We have to make a detour here
,” Everett said. “Checking something out. Don’t freak less’n you see something drastic.”

Everett
hadn’t been able to call, not knowing if the Widow had the phone lines tapped. His gaze was glued to the house whenever it came into view on the switchbacks. No sign of damage to any of the property or buildings. That meant nothing. He knew just how it would look, how it would smell, if the house was a murder scene.

I
t had been the only real move he had; to walk away and leave them uncovered except for the brothers. Fox parents did when they were on the hunt, didn’t they? Mountain Lions? Leopards? He’d seen it on the Discovery Channel.

S
ometimes the other predators came around while the parent was away. A cartoon clip ran through his mental projector, of a hyena with the Widow’s head carrying Raymond away in her jaws.

Had the
brothers been up to it? Would the Widow have merely killed Kerri and Raymond? Would she have vented her spleen and made it last?

Would
Kerri and Raymond have died together? No. After the brothers fell Kerri would send Raymond away while she made her stand. The Widow’s people would catch his son from behind: running, frightened and far from his mother.

Why did he have to have this
tactical computer running in his head all the time? Everett screamed inside, his face not blank at all. Tobias ostentatiously let go of his pistol butt, deciding that now was not the time to be a distraction.

As they came off the access road onto the level
, Kerri stood in the house’s doorway with Rolly’s sawed off in her hands, Raymond next to her. A light shone behind them in Everett’s mind. A small sound leaked out of him that Tobias opted not to comment on.

When
Kerri and Raymond saw it was Everett driving, they ran to him as he parked. Norm sat on the porch, his shirtlessness exposing the bandages wrapped around his midsection. He clutched an Ingram MAC 10 in his hands, with a pile of extra magazines on the porch at his feet.

Everett
got out the truck and confronted Norm. “Where’s Rick?” he asked, not hiding his anger.

Norm looked past
Everett toward the distant ridge line where the Widow’s shooter died. Rick stood up amidst the shrubbery there, brandishing the DeLisle over his head with a teeth baring grin visible even from that far away.

“Good work
,” Everett said.

“
Gee daddy, did we do okay?” Norm asked.

Everett
looked at him, snorted, and then the two men were laughing together for the first time either could recall.

I
ntroductions were in order. “This is Tobias,” Everett said. “We need to feed him.”

Kerri
fished some home baked cookies out the fridge for this posturing little friend Everett had dragged home. It was amusing how hard Tobias worked at being scary. But he had flamethrower eyes, and Kerri found herself already thinking how she’d incorporate them in her next painting.

Raymond
grabbed Everett’s leg and pressed his cheek against his daddy’s thigh. Kerri embraced him as well. Tobias munched a cookie as he studied this family reunion with interest.

Everett
eyes were closed as he flashed back to the exact moment he left the Life.

Even aft
er Raymond was born, they stayed in Hayward and Everett kept working. He just made sure not to rub Kerri’s face in it as he waited for the ‘perfect’ time to retire.

Most of his
clients were easy to blow off. They could take a hint if it wasn’t too subtle. But Larry was another story. He presumed on their long association and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Time after time the phone would
ring. Kerri – with growing impatience – would give Everett ‘the look’ as she handed it over. Larry’s voice would spill from the phone describing another emergency that only Everett could fix.

Every time Larry
’s unending need tried to draw him back in, Everett would listen with one ear. With the other, he’d listened to hear if the storm giants had any comment. He knew eventually the storm giants would reach a consensus. The line would give ‘green light go’ for removing the last obstacle to keeping his promise.

On his last gig for Larry
, Everett caught a round in his shoulder. No big deal. Just a .25 short out of some girl’s purse gun, 50 grains at most. A ridiculously underpowered little round unless you got popped in the head or right in the heart. On other occasions, he’d seen .25s bounce off furniture next to him, even seen them stopped by heavy clothing.

Still, t
his little .25 had to come out to prevent lead poisoning. Rolly sat him down at the kitchen table, bleached and boiled up the field surgery kit they jointly owned, and commenced to digging, plucking and cutting on the wound.

They’d chatted and joshed as Rolly probed
to get at the tiny bullet. Everett looked over once to watch Rolly’s hemostat wiggle around hinge deep in the bullet hole, musing at the exposed meat exposed by the incision. Business as usual, something they’d done for each other often enough.

E
verett became aware that Raymond stood in the doorway in his pajamas, watching his daddy get cut on. Raymond had just started walking; he was still pretty tottery, but there he stood.

Their eyes
met. It gave Everett a pang that his little boy wasn’t upset about this scene at all. He was picking up on how relaxed Rolly and Everett were. Raymond was treating this whole thing as normal, just as the grown up men considered it.

Raymond would
turn out just like him, if he let him. If Everett stayed in the Life, his son would follow in his footsteps. Everett saw the line to it, clear as day.

Rol
ly fished out the.25 and sewed up the hole. Everett went to the Lost Boys’ Clubhouse next morning and told Larry he wasn’t doing any more jobs for him. Everett, Kerri and Raymond had been up in Mendocino the day after.

I
n the here and now, Everett let go and walked outside. Tobias followed, wiping his mouth with his fingers and flicking the cookie crumbs to the floor.

“Is it done?” Norm asked
.

“Almost
,” Everett said. “Need you two here for a little longer. Got most of what we need accomplished. Need to tie up a few more loose ends so I won’t be calling, for the same obvious reasons. Give it a day or two. If not back by then, take Kerri and Raymond to where you think safest. The thing you were talking about, regarding those strangers wandering the back roads? Keep doing it, don’t take any chances.”

“Candy
in the truck, daddy?” Raymond asked. “Give me a ride?”

“No ride
, son,” Everett said, reaching in the truck. “But here’s a candy bar.”

Everett
held Kerri one more time, fitting to her full length, tight and snug. He and Tobias hit the road again.

“So that’s what matters
to you, Everett?” Tobias asked. “A big risk showing me that.”

Of a sudden
, Tobias gasped. “Wait a second. You didn’t want to leave me alone with the gold and I wasn’t about to get out of the truck. You had to either bring me down here or break a sweat digging a hole.”

“Bingo
,” Everett said. “Maybe I’m rubbing off on you.”

“Fat chance of that
,” Tobias said. “Listen. I’m not what you’d call a team player. But we’re partners, right?”

“Right
,” Everett said.

Tobias pursed his lips.
“I’m with you to the end Everett, whatever the payday. I see what you have.”

“I get it
,” Tobias said.

Chapter 41
: High Noon with the Widow

When they hit
Santa Rosa, Everett called the Widow on the cell phone he’d confiscated from her girl. He rejected the Widow’s first proposal for a meet spot, wrangled with her like he cared where it went down, and then agreed as if giving in.

He made one more call after
, during which he allowed himself to pace up and down the sidewalk. He talked for several minutes and then hung up.

H
e got in the truck and turned to Tobias. “No matter what goes down, keep your Desert Eagle holstered. Don’t kill anyone unless I do.”

“You’ve played it well enough so far
Everett. What if your plan goes sour?” Tobias put on an innocent look, asked in a fake tremulous voice, “What if they take you out and I’m left alone like a babe in the woods?” His chin even quivered, he was a laugh riot he was.

“Then have as much fun as you
like, and it’s a one way split. Get rid of the evidence package if you’re the only one comes out of this. Won’t matter to me, but I’d prefer the Man not bother my people.”

The Widow had
picked an illegal squat of a warehouse in an industrial ghost town southeast of Oakland Civic Center. The abandoned light industrial area gave the Widow the privacy she craved. There were too many approaches for the Widow to interdict with a roadblock. It being out of business meant there wouldn’t be any cleaning ladies or rent-a-cops muddling up the tactical equation.

Ever
ett insisted the meet take place within half an hour of phone call’s end. Half an hour wasn’t enough time for the Widow to bring big guns to bear if she had any.

The weather was bad
, meaning good. Rain poured down in black poison sheets, always a gift to the attacker.

There was occasional thu
nder behind the torrents of precipitation. The storm giants lurked close by, enjoying his predicament and mumbling advice about the line.

The Widow
had outside security standing in the wet next to the freight entrance door. Her gun punk was dressed in the kind of moldy rags a bum would favor, however the disguise ring true. The guy’s face was clean, and he wearing expensive tactical boots. The homeless around here only surfaced at during the day, free meal time: the local kids made occasional sport of dousing bums in gasoline and torching them.

The pseudo
tramp rapped on the rolling door as Everett idled the truck toward him. At either end of the alley, the Widow’s hunting pair of Beamers pulled up to block the entrances, trapping the snack truck like a fly in a pitcher plant. What, she couldn’t even spring for a third vehicle?

As the rolling door shrieked
and rattled its way upwards, Tobias looked like a kid entering a candy store. The Widow waited dead ahead in the middle of the warehouse. Next to her stood the driver girl from the piney woods.

A
red dot of light splashed across Everett’s face as he drove the truck inside. To his left, behind the laser’s dazzle, a figure with a rifle inside a windowed office space. The shooter’s upper body was framed by the square opening a glass pane once filled. As Everett squinted against the light spatter, the sniper’s aim dropped to his throat.

Everett
blinked the spots away and looked around to see if the guy had any crossfire backup. This was the only sniper exposing himself. The Widow did seem threadbare in her assets.

The blocking cars and a
sniper in place – basic, so textbook and predictable. The Widow had something unorthodox up her sleeve, or was so comfortable with her perceived advantage she didn’t feel the need for creative effort.

The laser dot held steady as
Everett exited the van. Then it moved to pin Tobias as he got out the shotgun seat. Tobias giggled as he looked at the red love letter dot over his heart. He waggled his fingers in the laser’s beam like he was playing with the light show at a rave.

I
rked by Tobias’s disdain, the red dot shifted to Everett. The beam commenced a metronome pattern of bouncing back and forth between them. The sniper didn’t want either of them to feel left out.

The
warehouse’s interior was a typical industrial loft, the ceiling two stories above with a cement floor filling almost the entire interior. A semi-enclosed office space by the entrance. The building was one big killing arena.

In the far
corner was a hole in the ceiling where part of the roof had collapsed. Rain poured in the hole and puddled on the floor, making an eerie waterfall noise.

The brick walls in that corner
were blackened from smoke, with charred heaps of animal bones marinating in the rain puddles. A big Satan head and pentagram were spray painted on the bricks. The devilish graffiti was obscured by soot from previous burnt offerings, rippling as though alive beneath the water sheeting down it.

U
sed condoms and broken liquor bottles were scattered about. The place stank: rotten food, stale alcohol, long term low levels of personal hygiene. Mostly, that ‘sticky floor in the porn palace’ stench that dominates any public fuck den that doesn’t have good ventilation.

“I wil
l assume you have the gold,” the Widow said. “I have the million dollars, in small bills as specified.” She hefted the briefcase; it appeared satisfactorily heavy.

She said,
“However, as for the DNA samples? The terms of our arrangement have changed; they are elsewhere, safe. This was never merely about the gold, nor about removing Phil. I needed to see if your reputation for getting the job done was truly warranted.”

She leane
d forward. “You have proved yourself to be as good as I was told you were. I need you to realize what a team we will make in service to the white race.

“
I can forgive you your woman and son if you work for me, though I would prefer you father more blue eyed children. I can share you, I am not jealous. Your family’s lives in exchange for your satisfactory employment – and your being near me when I desire you. I will pay you well. You will have the adventure you crave.

“
Doctor Dauffenbach was your spiritual father. He made you who and what you are today. He liked you, you know. He spoke of you more than once before the Jews persecuted him. You weren’t like the others. They were weak and held no attraction for me.

“Can you really say you are happy in this approximation of life you have now?
Can a man such as you thrive in such inactivity? You are rusting with your so called family. You will fade away if you do not take my offer. What do you say, my Everett?”

S
he spoke of fading away as if it would be a bad thing. Still her recruiting pitch had an enthralling seductiveness, like Phil’s offer and Larry’s nonstop pouting.

I
n the distance, the storm giants laughed in glee. Everett technically had three job offers on the table. He could inflict himself on the world again if he pretended that others making the decisions absolved him.

Kerri
and Raymond appeared in his mind and he turned his back on the Life one more time. The Widow saw his rejection, her china doll face hardened further as her mouth opened to bark a command. Time slowed to a crawl, her lips spreading as if there were hours left before she ordered their deaths.

The cell phone in
Everett’s pocket chirped twice. The Widow’s mouth shut.

Everett
took a step to the side, putting space between himself and Tobias. The laser sight was on him alone.

“Stand
next to your friend, immediately,” the Widow said.

Everett
slid his hand into his pocket. The driver girl dropped to one knee and aimed her Beretta at his head. The sniper’s laser dazzled the corner of Everett’s vision as it aimed in on his head as well.

Everett
beamed his raptor grin at them, letting it flow for their inspection.

“Hocus pocus and
abracadabra,” he said, his eyes lightning bright.

He
hit the speed dial button.