Fuck it. I pulled the trigger. I took a deep breath and wiped away the blood that had splattered onto my face when he took the round. I tried to regain some form of composure. Stop, just take that couple of seconds take another deep breath, and try to work out what the fuck to do next.
The shots would have been heard and reported. At least, I had to plan as if they were. I could still hear Kelly screaming in the distance somewhere.
First priority was the equipment. I pushed myself up off McGear's chest and staggered back into the small office. I ripped the cable and electric cord from the PC, took the sniffer software out of the floppy drive, and put it in my top pocket. I packed everything in the bag and returned to the large office.
I went over to McGear. He looked like Kelly when she was sleeping, except this starfish had a face like a pizza and a large exit wound in the back of his head oozing gray stuff onto the plush carpet.
I picked up the bag, slung it over my left shoulder, and moved into the corridor to pick up my pistol. I had to find Kelly. Easy I just had to follow the screams.
She was fighting with the fire-escape door, the back other coat splattered with blood. She was right up against the door trying to manipulate the handle, but she was in such a state that her fingers couldn't do it. She was jumping from foot to foot, screaming and beating her fists against the door in frustration and fright. I came up behind her, got hold other arm, and shook her.
'Stop it! Stop it!'
It wasn't the right thing to do. She was hysterical.
I looked into her eyes under the tears and said, 'Look, people are trying to kill you. Do you understand that? Do you want to die?'
She tried to shake me off. I put my hand over her mouth and listened to her blocked-up nose fighting for oxygen. I got her face right up against mine.
'These people are trying to kill you. Stop crying, do you understand me? Stop crying.'
She went quiet and limp and I let go of her.
'Give me your hand, Kelly.'
It was like holding lettuce. I said, 'Be quiet and just listen to me. You've got to listen to me, OK?' I was looking at her eyes and nodding away.
She just stared through me, tears still running down her cheeks, but she was trying to hold them back.
I pushed the fire-exit bar and cold, damp air hit my face. I couldn't see anything because my night vision was fucked. I dragged Kelly by the hand, and the clunks of our footsteps echoed down the metal stairs. I didn't give a fuck about the noise; we'd made enough already.
Running toward the fence, I slipped in the mud. Seeing me fall, Kelly let out a cry and burst into tears again. I shook her and told her to shut up.
As we got to the fence I could already hear sirens on the highway. I had to assume they were coming for us. After a moment I could hear more noise coming from the parking lot area.
'Wait here!'
I climbed up the chain-link fence with the equipment, dropped it over the other side, and jumped. They were getting closer, but I couldn't see them yet. Kelly was looking at me from the other side of the fence, bobbing up and down, hands on the wire.
'Nick--Nick... Don't leave me here.'
I didn't even look where I was digging. My eyes were fixed on the gap between the two buildings. Coming from my right to left, flashing blue lights on the highway lit up the sky.
Kelly's whimpers turned to sobs.
I said, 'We'll be all right, we'll be all right. Just stay where you are. Look at me! Look at me!' I got eye-to- eye.
'Stay where you are!'
The lights and noise were now on Ball Street. I got hold of my documents and put them in my pocket.
All the vehicles had stopped, their sirens dying. The blue lights were still flashing, reflecting on Kelly's face, wet with tears.
I looked at her through the fence and whispered, 'Kelly!
Kelly!'
She was in a daze of fear.
'Kelly, follow me now. Do you understand? Come on!'
I started moving along the fence. She was whining and wanting her mommy. She sounded more and more desperate.
As her feet slapped the ground it made her pleas sound like somebody talking in a helicopter. I said, 'You've got to keep up, Kelly, you've got to keep up. Come on!'
I was moving fast. She slipped and fell into the mud. I wasn't there to pick her up this time. She lay there sobbing.
'I
want to go home, I want to go home so bad. Please take me home.'
By now there were three police cars on the scene. We weren't even two hundred yards away yet. Very soon they would use their searchlights and spot us.
'Get up, Kelly, get up!'
The target now seemed surrounded by a haze of blue and red lights. Flashlights were already jerking in the darkness at the rear.
We carried on until we got level with the alley. The sound of sirens again filled the night.
I climbed over the fence, the bag nearly landing on top of Kelly as I let it fall. I grabbed her right hand with my left and started toward the alley.
I needed to find a car that was parked in the shadows and old enough to have no alarms.
We emerged from the alley and turned left, following a line of parked cars. I found an early nineties Chevy. I put the bag down and ordered Kelly, 'Sit by this.'
I opened the bag and got out the picks. Minutes later I was in. I wired up the ignition and the engine fired. The digital clock said 3:33.
I let the engine run and put the windshield wipers and heater on full blast to clear the morning dew. I got hold of Kelly and the bag and threw them both in the back.
'Lie down, Kelly, go to sleep.' No argument from her on the lying down. She might have trouble sleeping, though. Perhaps for the rest of her life.
I drove to the road and turned left, nice and slow. After just a quarter of a mile I spotted flashing lights coming toward me. I got my pistol out and put it under my right thigh. If these boys stopped me, I'd have to take them on. There was no way I was going to let the fuckers take us.
I shouted back at Kelly, 'Stay down, do not get up, do you understand?'
There was no reply.
'Kelly?'
I got a weak 'Yes.'
If I had to kill these policemen, it would be unfortunate, but when all was said and done this was the sort of thing they got paid for. I made my plan. If they stopped me, I'd wait until one or both came within range. The pistol was where my hand would naturally go, and I'd draw down on them.
The flashing blue and red came closer. I just drove on toward them. My mind-set was that I was a shift worker, on my way to earn my living. Now their lights were making me screw up my eyes so I could see beyond.
I wasn't worried. I felt very calm. Just wait and see. They sped past at more than sixty.
I looked in the rearview mirror. They hit the brakes; now I was sweating. I watched and made distance at the same time.
The brake lights went off. Either they'd just been slowing down or they'd changed their minds.
I needed to dump this car before first light, which was probably the earliest the owner would discover it missing. I also had to get both Kelly and me a change of clothes, and we had to get into another hotel.
Kelly started yelling, 'I want to go home! I want to go home! I want my ' 'Kelly, we are going home! But not yet!' I had to shout to cut in.
