“ Why are we stopping here?”
“ There’s going to be a whole lot of shooting going on,” Lila said. “Manny’s house may be isolated, but it’s not that far away from the ritzy neighborhood we just drove through. Once the action starts, a whole lot of folks are going to be calling 911.”
“ Then the cops are going to be coming up the mountain, how will we get off?”
“ We won’t,” Lila said. “We’ll wait them out here.”
“ I don’t understand.”
“ It looks like there’s nothing here but a deserted dirt track and a whole lotta dark, but there’s an animal path just the other side of this clearing that winds around the mountain, then goes on up near to the backside of Manny’s estate. It’s steep going and we’ll have to crawl along the fence for a bit, being careful not to touch it. When we get to the cliff, we grab the fence on the cliff side of the last fence pole, swing around, being careful not to let go and fall to our deaths below, then we climb around the fence and voila, we’re in Manny’s backyard, easy peasy.”
“ And they won’t see us as we climb around that fence?” Izzy said, trying to picture it in her head.
“ They’ll be looking the other way.”
“ You think?”
“ Pretty much.” Then, “We walk from here.” Lila started to get out of the car.
“ Wait,” Izzy said. “Give me your knife.”
“ What for?”
“ Just give it to me for a second.”
“ Alright.” Lila had the scabbard over her left leg. Gun on the right, knife on the left. She was an Amazon warrior if ever there was one. Izzy was, too. Lila withdrew the knife, passed it to Izzy.
“ Just in case.” Izzy made a small cut on her right forearm. “Now you, give me your arm.”
“ You’re sure?” Lila said.
“ Yeah.”
“ Okay.” Lila held out her arm and Izzy made a cut. Then she rubbed her arm against Lila’s, cut to cut, mingling their blood.
“ Blood sisters now,” Izzy said.
“ For better or worse,” Lila said.
“ For better, we’re going to rescue the girls, like you said, and we’re going to be okay, too.”
“ Yeah, but what if I wake up tomorrow a seven foot tall black man?” She smiled and Izzy could swear she was lighting up the dark.
“ There is that possibility.” Izzy laughed.
“ I know a girl who used to be a man I could hook up with.” Lila was laughing now, but she cut it short, turned serious. “Now it’s time to kick some ass.” She reached into the back, got the grenade launcher, opened the door, got out of the car and slung the launcher onto her back.
“ How long did you say it’s been since you’ve been on this path?” Izzy said, out of the car now too and slipping her arm into the sling, sliding the riot gun around to her back, as Lila had done with the grenade launcher.
“ Seven years.”
“ Think it’s still there?”
“ I’m hoping,” Lila said.
“ Me too.”
“ Whoops, almost forgot the grenades.” Lila went back to the car, reached in, came out with her pouch, slung it over her shoulder along with the launcher. “Ready now.” She startred off. “Stay close, I don’t know how well your magic blood will work if you fall off the the mountain and go splat way down below.”
“ Don’t want to test that out,” Izzy said.
“ We’ve got about a twenty minute hike,” Lila said. “It’s not that far, but part of it’s slow going.”
It started snowing again, a light powder sticking to the ground, not melting, but cold as it was, Izzy didn’t feel it. She felt like her body was on fire, like there was some kind of internal furnace keeping her warm.
“ You cold?” Lila said.
“ No.”
“ Weird.”
“ Yeah,” Izzy said.
“ There it is.” Lila had found the path and now she was going off into the dark like a wraith in the night. And she was a wraith. They both were. Izzy could imagine them in their dusters, with their shoulder holstered guns and side arms, walking down a dusty western street a century and a half ago. John Wesley Hardin and Billy the Kid lookout.
She stayed close behind Lila now, feeling more like a soldier going into combat than an old west gunslinger because, like a soldier, she was carrying a lot of weight. In addition to the two Glocks, there was the vest and the extra clips in her pockets, not nearly as heavy as the weight a soldier carried, but it felt pretty heavy to Izzy right now. And then, of course, there was the riot gun she had slung over her shoulder.
Lila carried even more weight, as she had the Bowie knife strapped to her leg and along with the grenade launcher, she had the grenades.
At first, Izzy thought it was overkill, that they wouldn’t need all the weaponry, but Lila had insisted. Izzy had been worried about hitting the girls with all the bullets that were going to be flying, but Lila had still insisted, saying it was better to have too much firepower than not enough. Izzy had been worried all the weight would slow them down, but Lila had said that once the shooting started and the adrenaline started rushing, she wouldn’t notice the weight at all, besides, she was young and fit, not an old woman anymore, so what was she complaining about?
Mouledoux had a bad feeling, like he was about to have a root canal without any Novocain. Right about now he’d rather be just about anyplace else than this kitchen with Peeps. If Eisenhower or Booth didn’t kill him, which was a distinct possibility, there was a high probability the Waynes would have his lights punched after it was all over. He was toast. There was no good outcome for him here. Peeps was just another slice of bread in the toaster along with him. They were well and truly fucked.
“ I’m not liking this whole set up, partner,” he said.
“ Nothing to worry about, Manny’s got the whole thing covered, just like always.”
“ Like always?”
“ You’re in good with Manny now,” Peeps said. “You’ll see soon enough.”
“ Tell me now.”
“ You do for Manny and Manny does for you.” Peeps went to a kitchen cabinet, took out a bottle of Jack Daniels, sweetened his coffee. “I’m going to tell you a secret.” He smiled. “My wife’s parents left her dick.”
“ Really?”
“ Not a cent, in fact we got stuck with the funeral bills. If it wasn’t for Manny, I’d’ve gone belly up.”
“ You’ve been on the take all this time?”
“ That’s not a nice way of saying it,” Peeps said.
“ Is there a nice way?”
“ I like you, Bobby,” Peeps said. “We make a good team. You’re smart. You’d’ve figured out what was going on sooner, rather than later, so I had to get you on board. Manny was against it at first, said no way, said he’d checked you out, so he wanted me to take you out, like the others.”
And all of a sudden Mouledoux realized that maybe Peeps wasn’t in that toaster, after all. That it was his partner, not Mansfield’s private soldier types, who’d killed those two doctors and the hospital attorney who knew about Eisenhower. He’d come to save a partner who was beyond redemption.
“ I’ll take a little of that.” He held out his cup, studied his partner’s eyes as he poured the whiskey into his coffee and he saw only the affable, friendly guy that was Peeps Friday. How could anyone look so trusting, so honest and earnest and be what he was, do what he’d done?
All of a sudden the warmth inside of Izzy faded away and she felt cold to the bone as the path they were on narrowed and started upward. It was pitch black, then the path made a turn to the right and the city below lit up
