'Does he run slaves to the West Indies too?'
Millard shook his head and snorted in contempt. 'Not that I've ever heard. He may be a murdering, cold- blooded bastard, but he's too good to get his hands dirty with something like slave-running.'
That just about wrapped it up, thought Longarm. Royale's activities and the involvement of the Voodoo Queen had been mere distractions in this case, despite the dangers they had represented. Almost from the moment of his arrival in New Orleans, he had been right in amongst the very men he was after. Clement's part in the smuggling scheme, and in Douglas Ramsey's murder, had been unexpected, but Jasper Millard was indeed a villain, just as Longarm had suspected from the beginning.
Clement drew a small pistol from his pocket. 'Now, Marshal Long,' he said, 'I believe you have an appointment with some scaly friends of ours.'
Annie pushed herself in front of Longarm. 'No!' she cried out. 'You can't do this, Paul.' Her tone softened. 'If... if I ever meant anything to you, I'm asking you to spare us-'
Clement leveled and cocked his weapon. Beside him, Millard also drew a gun, and the other four men raised theirs. 'Oh, you meant something to me, all right,' he said to Annie, 'but not nearly as much as the money does. And I'll simply shoot you too unless you get out of the way.'
Longarm saw that he was going to have to shove Annie aside, out of the line of fire, and then come up off the floor in a desperate lunge at Clement and Millard. He'd be shot full of holes before he got halfway there, he knew, but at least making such a play might save Annie's life.
Though what sort of life it would be, condemned to slavery, was another matter entirely.
Longarm's muscles were tensed and he was ready to move, but he didn't have to.
Because behind Clement and Millard, the huge wooden double doors that led into the warehouse suddenly blew up with no warning.
CHAPTER 15
The explosion shattered the doors, sending a hail of flame, noise, and splinters into the warehouse. Clement and Millard were thrown forward as if a giant hand had slapped them on the back. Their gunmen were staggered too. A couple of them cried out as large splinters of wood from the doors sliced their hands and faces.
Longarm grabbed Annie and threw both of them flat on the floor, shielding her with his body. The force of the explosion and the debris that it flung out passed over them, leaving them unharmed. Longarm barked, 'Stay down!' in Annie's ear, then levered himself up off the planks of the floor. He put all the momentum of his movements behind the punch he threw at Paul Clement.
His fist smashed into Clement's jaw so hard that Longarm felt a satisfying shiver all the way up his arm to the elbow. Clement's head slewed around and his knees came unhinged. Longarm made a grab for the pistol as Clement fell, but it slipped out of Clement's hand and bounced away across the floor. Longarm saw Millard's mouth working and read the bald man's lips. Kill them! Kill them! But he heard only muffled sounds because he was half- deafened by the explosion. He realized that Annie might not have heard his order to stay down, and when he turned his head to check on her safety, something crashed into him. As he fell, the hands of the man who had just tackled him closed around his throat, cutting off his air.
That sensation brought back memories of almost being killed by the first so-called zombie who had come after him, Luther's brother, whom Longarm had been forced to kill. This man was no zombie, just a hired ruffian, and Longarm was able to loosen his grip by bringing a knee up into his groin. He felt that, all right. Longarm brought his cupped hands up and slapped them over the man's ears. He howled in pain and let go, and Longarm was able to heave him off to the side.
Longarm rolled over and came up on hands and knees, and as he did so, he saw a wagon burst out of the smoke hanging in the opening that had been blown in the wall. The horses pulling it were wild-eyed from the smoke and the noise of the blast. Or maybe they were just Hell-horses, Longarm thought crazily, because the men who clambered down from the wagon sure enough looked like denizens of Hades.
They were huge, and Longarm had to ask himself if their eyes were actually glowing or if it was just a trick of the light. Their slow, awkward movements were familiar to Longarm, as was the way they jerked but did not fall from the bullets fired by the gunmen. Clearly, the explosion and this attack were presents from the Voodoo Queen.
Longarm could wonder how Marie Laveau had known of the danger he and Annie were in later, after things had settled down. For the moment, he was still concerned with keeping the two of them alive, and the best way to do that was to remove the threat of Clement and Millard.
From the corner of his eye, Longarm saw one of the men from the wagon grab hold of a gunman. The hired killer shrieked and emptied his pistol into the man's chest, but the effect of the shots was too late to save him. The death blow was already falling. The man's balled fist came hammering down on the gunman's head, crushing his skull like an eggshell. Longarm's hearing was starting to come back, and he could have sworn that he heard the crunch of bone. Slowly, both men toppled over, dead before they hit the floor.
Longarm scooped up the pistol Clement had dropped and swung around toward Millard. A desperate look was on Millard's face as he shouted, 'Scott! Willie!' at the two remaining henchmen who were still on their feet. Scott and Willie had problems of their own, however, and couldn't come to his help. Both of them were trying to avoid the lunges of the zombies who were after them.
Millard grimaced and pegged a shot toward Longarm. The bullet whipped past Longarm's head as he returned fire. Millard was already darting aside, and Longarm's shot missed. Millard threw himself toward the piles of crates, intending to use them for cover. Longarm ran after him.
Millard knew the layout of the warehouse a lot better than he did, Longarm realized. Once Millard got in that maze of stacked-up boxes, he would be as difficult to track down as a rat in a hole. Longarm snapped another shot at him, then grated a curse as he saw the slug kick up splinters from the crate behind which Millard had just disappeared.
'Custis!' Annie cried out behind him.
He jerked around to see that she was on her feet, pointing toward the other side of the warehouse. One of the gunmen was dangling limply by the neck from the hands of one of the Voodoo Queen's men, but the other one was still struggling with his almost inhuman opponent as flames danced around their feet. Longarm saw the shattered chimney of a lantern shining in pieces on the floor near them, and knew that in their struggle they must have jostled it off the crate on which it had been sitting. The kerosene that had spilled when the lantern broke had ignited furiously, and now the flames were spreading rapidly across the floor to more of the crates.
