visible from this angle.
As the light for crosstown traffic turned yellow, Jack jumped the green, darting around the Lincoln and beating it onto the cross street. The Town Car honked its annoyance. Jack took his time along the block, slowing enough to make sure he was first at the stop line when the next light turned red.
He put it in park and pulled on a pair of driving gloves. He unlatched the driver door, then lay back on the front seat bench, drew up his knees, and poised the soles of his boots toward the door, ready to kick.
Things were about to get ugly.
11
Fournier muttered something that sounded like a curse and leaned on the horn. Eddie shifted his gaze from people watching on the sidewalk to straight ahead.
'What's wrong?'
'That damn van won't move!' He hit the horn again. 'Is he asleep?'
True enough-the traffic light had turned green and the truck wasn't budging.
'Maybe he stalled.'
'No,' Valez said, speaking for the first time since Eddie had entered the car. 'His tailpipe is smoking.'
Fournier grabbed his cell phone and speed dialed someone. 'I don't know what's wrong with him. Do you want me to go see?' He listened, then nodded and said, 'Very well.'
'Who was that?' Eddie said.
'No one.'
Eddie was about to call him on that when he saw someone in a black leather biker jacket hurry past on his left and approach the van.
'Now we will see,' Fournier said.
'Hey, that looks like Szeto,' Valez said.
Eddie glanced over and saw a concerned, almost frightened look on his face.
'Who's that?'
'One of the Order's enforcers.'
He said it like everyone knew.
'We have enforcers?'
Eddie watched as Szeto reached the van's door. Suddenly it exploded open, its edge catching him in the face and throwing him back against a parked car. Eddie jumped and leaned forward.
What the hell?
He got his first look at Szeto's face and realized he'd seen it before. But where?
He winced as the door caught Szeto twice more, slamming him against the parked car again and again. And each time Eddie saw booted feet kicking it open.
Then a man in a sweatshirt, baseball cap, and sunglasses jumped out and grabbed Szeto by the back of his head and slammed his face against the side of the truck, and once more on the roof of the parked car. He released Szeto and let him crumple to the pavement.
The bloodied face was barely recognizable now, but memory of it before all the damage sparked recognition.
Eddie cried, 'He was in the hospital!' just as Valez said, 'I know that guy!'
'Who?' Fournier shouted, reaching inside his coat.
The man from the van bent and pulled something from inside Szeto's jacket, then sprinted their way. Eddie noticed he now carried a pistol in his gloved hand, then looked at his face and recognized him.
'Jack!'
What was he doing-?
'Who?' Fournier repeated.
Valez said, 'Him!'
Eddie saw Fournier raise his right hand clutching something dark and oblong.
A gun! What? Why? To shoot Jack?
Eddie grabbed for it. He got a two-handed grip on the barrel and tried to yank it free. Flame erupted from its muzzle with a deafening blast. Valez's head exploded in a spray of red as the window behind him shattered.
Eddie recoiled in shock and revulsion and lost his grip on the pistol. As it swung toward him he grabbed Fournier's wrist but that only slowed the angling of the muzzle toward his face. The pistol went off again and Eddie felt what seemed like a blast of compressed air against his right cheek as a bullet whizzed past.
And then the driver's window exploded inward as two shots sounded from outside the car. Fournier's left eye erupted in a gush of red and he released the pistol as his face slammed against the top of the front seat, then slid from view. Eddie dropped the pistol and fought back a surge of vomit.
'You all right?' Jack shouted through the shattered window as he tried to open Eddie's door. His voice seemed far away, distorted by a high-pitched whine.
'It's locked,' Eddie managed. His own voice echoed in his head. 'I can't open it.'
Jack opened the driver's door and hit a button. The lock popped up. He threw the pistol onto the front seat, then opened Eddie's door, grabbed his upper arm, and yanked him out.
'Into the van! Move!'
Jack shoved him away from the car and retrieved Fournier's gun from the backseat, then raced ahead of him back to the van. Szeto was stirring, raising himself off the pavement onto his elbows. Jack jumped on his back and used him as a step into the van.
Eddie found his way to the passenger door and hauled himself inside. Jack was already in the driver's seat. He threw the van into gear and gunned it into motion. Eddie hadn't closed his door yet. He leaned out and lost lunch in one hot, acidic gush.
'Jack!' he gasped as he pulled the door shut and wiped his mouth. 'What the-?'
'You do know you were on a one-way trip, don't you?'
Eddie hadn't realized it then, but no argument now. Clear as day. Two men killed, right before his eyes, their heads blown open just inches away. He couldn't stop shaking.
'Why me? What did I do?'
'You screwed up. You got in over your head. You played boy detective and got caught.'
Boy detective… he used to make fun of Jack with that when they were kids.
'But how… how did you wind up here?'
'Long story. Can't talk now. Gotta get this crate off the road. Strap in and hang on.'
As Eddie complied and Jack started driving like a maniac, he spotted Fournier's gun on the seat between them.
'What are you going to do with that?'
'Wipe it down and get rid of it. It's lousy with your prints.'
Was it? Yes, he guessed it was. How had Jack even thought of that? His mind must click through details like He hung on as the truck made a wild swerve around a slowing car. This wasn't the Jack he'd known as a kid. This was someone else. Weezy had mentioned this side of him but Eddie hadn't understood. He did now.
After he'd put a few blocks between themselves and the shooting, Jack said, 'Did you recognize the guy who got a faceful of door as the guy who called himself Garvey in Weezy's room at the hospital?'
'Yes. The other passenger-'
'Valez?'
'Yes.' Was there anything Jack didn't know about this? 'He said his name is Szeto. He's some kind of 'enforcer' for the Order.'
'I believe it. He was carrying a Tokarev'-he pointed to the pistol between them-'just like this one.'
'What's-?'
'A nine-millimeter pistol. Same kind carried by the guys who were gunning for Weezy last year. Now they're gunning for you.'
