'They ain't dead,' said Johnny. 'That I guarantee you. No, they're in there like rats in a trap, snarling and trying to figure how to flee.'
Owney checked his watch.
'You said a minute. You gave 'em two.'
'I did,' said Owney. 'But I want 'em out. I want 'em found outside, not inside.'
Once again he rose and yelled.
'I'm telling you for the last time. Come out and surrender or get shot to pieces in that shed.'
The gunfire had provoked the dogs all through the Negro district and their barking filled the air. But no sirens screamed and it seemed as if the universe had stalled out, turned to stone. It seemed darker too, as if the townspeople, hearing the firing, had done the wise thing, turned out their lights, and gone into cellars. No yard bulls or brakemen showed; they too conceded the yard to the shooters, and presumably had fallen back on the control tower or the roundhouse for shelter from the bullets.
'I'm going to give the order to fire,' Owney screamed.
'We're coming out!' came a voice.
'Now there's a helpful fella,' said Johnny.
He bent into the scope and saw two men emerge, one supporting the other, their hands up. Then a third. The third would be the dangerous one. He put the scope on him, and his finger went against the trigger and?
Exploding green stars!
Brightness, intense and burning!
The hugeness of fire!
He blinked as the scope seemed to blossom in green, green everywhere, destroying his vision, and he looked up from it blinking, to see nothing but bright balls popping in his eyes as his optic nerves fired off, and heard the sound of gunfire.
'He's got night vision, see?' Earl said.
'Earl, ain't nobody got night vision,' said D. A. 'Talk some sense.'
'No, he's got a thing called infrared. Some new government thing. They used it on Okinawa. I heard all about it. You can see in the dark. That's how he makes them good shots. That's how come he head-shoots Slim from a hundred yards in pitch dark. He can see us.'
'Shit,' said Carlo.
'Now, way that stuff works, it sees heat. Your heat. It shines a light that only he can see. A heat light. But it sees all heat, or all light.'
'Yeah?'
'So here's the deal. I give the signal, I'm going to light this batch of flares. In his scope, it's all going to white. He ain't going to see nothing for a few seconds. Then I'm going to lean around the back and keep that BAR boy down with a gun in each hand, fast as I can shoot.'
'Earl?'
'You shut up and listen. You take the old man and you run to the sound of the water. You hear that water?'
Yes: the faint tinkle of water, not too far off.
'That water. That's where Hot Springs Creek goes underground. It runs the whole length of Central Avenue underground, about two miles' worth. You and the old man, you get in there and you keep going till you find a door. It's the secret get-out for a lot of places, and the bathhouses drain into it too. You get in there, you get in public and you get the hell out of here.'
'What about you, Earl?'
'Don't you no nevermind about me. You do what I say. Here, I want you to take this crowbar too.'
He held up a crowbar he'd scrounged.
'There'll be a boy out there, waiting for you. You should see him, his eyes should be blinded by the flares. You have about a second, you throw this bar and you smash him down, then you run on by to the culvert and you are out of here.'
'Earl, how do you know about that culvert?'
'Goddammit! You don't worry about that, you do what I say.'
Owney cried again.
'I'm telling you for the last time. Come out and surrender or get shot to pieces in that shed.'
The two of them got the old man to his feet, keeping well away from the window. They came to lodge against the doorway, just a second from spilling out.
'Now are you ready? You ready, old man? I'm going to light these flares and ?'
'I'm going to give the order to fire,' Owney said.
'We're coming out!' screamed Carlo.
'Good,' said Earl. 'Look away, don't look into the flares. I'm going to light these things, then you hand me the guns and?'
'He hands the guns to me, Earl,' said D. A. 'I can't rim nowhere. I got nowhere to rim. Give me them pistols, boy.'
'No!' said Earl.
'I'm ordering you, Henderson. Earl, light them damn things. Son, give me the pistols 'afore I pass out. You go, goddamn you, and don't you look back.'
Carlo didn't think twice. He handed the two pistols to D. A., who lunged a little away from him and halfway out the door and seemed to find his feet, however wobbly.
'You old bastard,' said Earl. 'You go down and we'll be back for you.'
'You do it, goddammit!' said the old man.
'Shit,' said Earl, and yanked five pieces of tape in rapid succession, which lit the flares. He felt them hiss and burn and their explosive heat. But his eyes were closed, he didn't look into them, he edged to the door and then dumped them on the ground.
'Run!' he commanded, but Carlo was already gone. He followed, and he had a sensation of the old man spinning in the other direction, and he heard the.45s blazing, one in each hand, fastfastfastfast, the old man fired and as Earl ran he saw in the glow a man rising with a tommy gun but slowly, as if blinded himself and Carlo threw the crowbar from ten feet with surprising grace and accuracy and the heavy thing hit the gunman in the chest and hurt him badly so that he stepped back and fell.
The boy ran on and Earl ran too, out of the glow, and they heard the heavy blast of the BAR and answering shots from D. A.'s.45s.
Suddenly it was a dirt blizzard. Around them erupted fragments, dust and debris as the carbine gunner got onto them, and the boy stumbled but Earl was by him, had him, and pulled him down into the stream.
They heard the BAR. They heard the.45s. They heard the BAR. They heard no more.45s.
'Come on,' said Earl. 'Come on, Bobby Lee. You got to go now! It don't matter that it hurts, you got to go now, with me.'
And Earl had the boy and was pulling him along, in the dark, through the low tunnel.
'Did you get them?' asked Owney.
'I think two got down in some kind of ditch. The one out back, Herman finished him.'
'Shit,' said Owney. 'They'd better not get away. Goddammit, they better not get away. If one got away, you know which one it was.'
Johnny yelled. 'Herman, lad, circle around and see where them boys gone. You other fellas, you converge on the shed. We're coming ourselves.'
Getting the cumbersome apparatus off the flatcar was not an easy thing but with Jack Ding-Dong doing the labor, they managed. Then Jack carried the heavy battery unit, and Johnny walked ahead with the rifle, scanning through the scope. Owney was just behind.
'On the right,' said Johnny, and Owney looked and saw a Jayhawker, just a young kid, lying spread out on the ground, his dark suit sodden with blood.
'They're all over the goddamned place. We done a good night's work, we did,' said Johnny.
'Over here,' yelled Herman.
They walked on, past poor Vince the Hat de Palmo, who was conscious again, in the ministrations of Red
