siren drowned out all sounds-except for the gunshots. Falcon was shooting at the cops as he crawled out of the car through the shattered rear window. Jack wasn’t sure if it was a different gun or the same one that Theo had tried to wrest away from him. The officers scrambled for cover and returned the fire. Jack ducked down in the front seat and told Theo to do the same.
There was another exchange of gunfire, and the nine-millimeter slugs fired by the police made a popping sound as they hit the interior walls of the demolished hotel room. The wrecked automobile was suddenly bathed in white light. The police had switched on the spotlight that was fastened to the squad car. Another shot rang out, and the light was history. Falcon had nailed it with one shot from a distance of at least a hundred feet. The police returned fire.
Theo quickly glanced at Jack, making just enough eye contact to convey the understandable fears of a man who had spent four years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. They were sitting ducks in the car, and Theo’s expression said it all: No way was he going to hang around and hope that a pair of white cops would peg the big black guy for an innocent victim. Before Jack could even try to stop him, Theo was sliding through the shattered windshield, determined to find a better hiding spot while the spotlight was dead.
Another crack of gunshot drew Jack’s attention back to the parking lot. He saw an officer fall to the pavement. The other went to his aid. Another shot echoed from somewhere within the mountain of debris, and the second cop went down equally hard. Jack couldn’t see Falcon, but wherever he was-whoever he was-he was one crackerjack marksman.
The downed officers didn’t flinch, didn’t make a sound. Sirens blared in the distance, signaling that law- enforcement backup was on the way. Jack spotted a fast-moving shadow on the wall, on the opposite side of his car. It was Falcon. He was trying to escape, but he was on the wrong side of the car. There was too much clutter to get out that way, no way to reach the parking lot, unless he climbed over to the driver’s side.
“Run for it!” shouted Theo.
Jack sprang from his hiding spot behind the front seat and moved quickly over the mound of clutter. On the other side of the car was Falcon, but he had no apparent interest in Jack. His focus was on the only way out-a side door that, presumably, led to an adjoining room. With a single shot, he destroyed the lock. Jack heard him force the door open, and a woman screamed. Someone was in the adjacent room-the one Falcon had just entered.
“Theo!” Jack shouted, but he was too late.
Theo had heard it, too, and he was already up and over the car, chasing after Falcon, answering the woman’s scream.
Before tearing after him, Jack spotted a weapon on the ground, beside one of the fallen officers. He went for it.
“Freeze!” the other officer shouted. His left shoulder and neck were covered with blood. He was wobbling, unable to stand but trying to stay centered with his weight on one knee.
“I need your help,” said Jack. “My friend is-”
“I said freeze!”
“But listen to me, please.”
“Facedown, on the ground, now!”
The gun was aimed straight at Jack’s heart, giving him no choice but to comply. As he did, another scream emerged from somewhere behind the closed door of the motel room. A single gunshot followed-then silence. Jack lowered his forehead to the pavement and closed his eyes. The shattered searchlight and two wounded cops quickly flashed in his mind. Falcon had yet to miss a target all night.
And Theo Knight was one big target.
chapter 17
T hings were moving way too fast for Jack to be scared. He was still facedown in the parking lot behind the squad car. The driver-side door was open. The wounded officer was down on one knee, struggling to reach for the radio control and at the same time keep his gun trained on Jack. Jack’s ears were still ringing from the discharge of Falcon’s pistol inside a closed vehicle, but he thought he could hear voices from somewhere across the parking lot. The sound of a car crashing into a building was nothing short of the blast of a bazooka, and it had sent neighbors scurrying out of their apartments and into the street like a swift kick to an anthill.
“You people get back inside!” the cop shouted, but his voice was weak. He tried to stand but couldn’t. He propped himself up, elbow on the running board, groaning in pain as he managed to key the public address system on his vehicle. “Everyone, back inside your homes. You are in extreme danger!”
He dropped the microphone and grasped the radio control. Jack could hear sirens approaching from the north and south-or was it that damn ringing in his ears? No, it was definitely sirens. They were getting louder, closer, with each passing moment.
“Six-one, this is McKenzie,” the officer said into his microphone. Who’s out there?”
“Fernandez,” the reply came back. “Where are you?”
“Biscayne Motor Lodge,” the cop said, his voice fading. “Officer down. I’m hit, too.”
“Hang on, buddy. I’m one minute away.”
“It’s bad. Real bad. Lopez took one in the head. Send a full-crisis team. Got a possible hostage situation.”
“Roger.”
Jack was under orders not to speak, but his silence was helping no one. “Tell him that it’s Pablo Garcia, aka Falcon. The homeless guy who was stalking the mayor’s daughter.”
McKenzie’s breathing grew heavier, as if he were summoning the strength to tell Jack to stay quiet. Or perhaps he was just processing the information. Finally, he keyed his microphone and said, “Tell the chief to send Vince Paulo.”
THE BULLET HAD flown right past Theo’s left ear.
“On the floor!” Falcon shouted. He was holding a young woman as a human shield, her eyes wide with fright. The gun was jammed against her right temple.
It wasn’t the first time Theo had been locked in a stare-down with a gunman, but calculating his next move against a deranged man with an innocent hostage was unlike anything he’d ever faced.
“Down on your belly, now!”
Theo’s mind was awhirl. The guy had a gun. It was obviously loaded. He’d hit two cops already. The chances that he’d miss Theo a second time seemed pretty slim.
Falcon jabbed his finger into the girl’s eye, and she screamed again.
“Okay, okay!” Theo said as he went down on the floor.
Falcon pushed the girl onto the bed, grabbed a ropelike sash from the draperies, and tied her hands behind her back. His movements were quick and efficient, as if he’d done this before. With the gun aimed at Theo’s head, he patted him down for weapons. Theo had none.
“Get up!” said Falcon as he grabbed the girl and pulled her up from the bed. Again, she was his shield. “Everything goes up against the wall,” he told Theo. “The mattresses, the dressers-everything. Right now!”
Theo climbed to his feet and started moving furniture.
“Faster!”
Theo was practically throwing things into place, creating a mountain of debris behind the wall, window, and door that separated them from the police in the parking lot. There wasn’t enough to cover the entire window, and some light from the parking lot seeped into the room through the top of the draperies. When the task was finished, Falcon said, “On your belly!”
This time, Theo didn’t wait for him to savage the girl’s eye. He went down quickly. Falcon came to him and pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of his skull. Theo could smell gunpowder from the previous rounds. He wondered if this was the end, if Falcon was of the mind that two hostages were more than he could handle.
“Let the girl go,” said Theo. “You don’t need her.”
“Don’t tell me what I need.”
