Firebreak

Parker said, 'Arthur, get their guns. Stay out of the line of fire.'

Arthur, understanding he didn't have the luxury of time to be shocked right now, gave a spastic nod and said, 'Right. Will do.' His voice trembled, but he moved.

Parker shut the door with his shoulder and leaned against it, the body held against his chest, the .32 showing around the dead man's side. He watched Meany, knowing the other guy wouldn't move without instructions, and Meany watched him, with growing anger, his face reddening. He didn't react when Arthur patted him down, removing a pistol from beneath the well-tailored jacket, but kept staring at Parker.

Parker said, 'Put the guns on the desk.'

Arthur did, one pistol from each of them, and then Parker let the body fall, stepping away from it, saying, 'Meany, put your hands on your head.'

'Or what?' Meany's voice was strangled, his throat choked with rage.

'Or I gut-shoot you,' Parker said, 'and you live long enough to answer questions.' He aimed the .32 just below Meany's belt buckle.

'You come in here,' Meany said, furious about it, but putting his hands up, lacing his fingers atop his head, 'you pull this against three of us, in the middle of our operation! How are you gonna get out of here?'

'That isn't your problem,' Parker told him. 'How you get out of here, that's your problem.' Turning to the other one, he said, 'Face down on the floor, over there, away from that chair. Clasp your hands at the back of your neck. Spread your feet apart. Farther.' When the guy had obeyed orders, Parker said, 'Arthur, use one of those guns. Just hold it on that guy down there. Don't shoot him unless he moves.'

Arthur tried to pick up the gun as though it were something he did all the time. He moved Meany's telephone so he could rest his hand on it, pistol pointing at the man on the floor.

Parker said to Meany, 'Brock and Rosenstein had a private grudge against me. You people dealt yourself in.'

'You killed a valuable asset of ours,' Meany said.

Parker nodded. He said, 'How many assets you want to lose before you start to mind your own business?'

Meany couldn't believe it. 'You're threatening us?'

'I'm nothing to do with you,' Parker told him, 'unless you push yourself into my face. Then I come here, and you start to lose assets.'

Meany shook his head. 'How long before you run out your string?'

'You think I'm here out of luck?' Parker stepped over to the man on the floor, went on one knee beside him, said, 'Move your hands under your chin.'

The guy did so, and Parker laid the tip of the barrel against the side of his neck toward the rear, gun parallel to the floor. Meany watched him, blinking, not knowing what was supposed to happen now.

Parker looked up at him, the gun held steady. He said, 'You got a good health plan, here at Cosmopolitan?'

'What?' Meany was too bewildered now to remember to be outraged.

Parker said, 'If I shoot this guy across the back of the neck here, just here, it doesn't kill him. All it does is break his spinal cord, leave him paralyzed the rest of his life. You people gonna support him, another forty, fifty years, in that wheelchair?'

'Jesus Christ,' Meany said. The man on the floor was trembling, body rattling against the wood.

Parker stood. 'But why do it to him? He's just a soldier. I do it to you, that means you're alive, you can tell

your pals at Cosmopolitan how I can be rough on assets. Face down on the floor.' 'You can't—Jesus—' 'Down. Or do I put out your knee first?' Meany stared over at Arthur, as though for help, then squinted again at Parker. 'Let's talk,' he said.

9

Parker said, 'There's no promise you can make me, nothing you can say. Cosmopolitan decided to come after me, Cosmopolitan has to decide to go away, so Cosmopolitan has to start hurting. On the floor.'

'They can back off right now,' Meany insisted. He was trying to hold his dignity together, to be urgent without showing panic. 'We don't have to do anything else about you at all.'

'Once I leave here,' Parker told him, 'if you're still an asset, you're gonna decide your pride is hurt, you'll want—'

'Not me, pal,' Meany said. 'You come in here like this, you shoot George in the head just, what? Just attract attention? I'm not gonna pick any fights with you, wonder when you're gonna find out where I live. Cosmopolitan is out of this, as of now.'

Parker looked over at Arthur. 'Can he make an offer like that?'

'I don't think so,' Arthur said. 'He's just a guy works here, like I used to.'

'I'll carry the message,' Meany said.

'Yes, you will,' Parker agreed. 'On the floor.'

'I'll carry it now! I'll make a phone call!'

'Who to?'