Go back and get them? If they do that, they won't be in position until quarter past twelve, maybe even later. And the vests would almost certainly turn out to be a needless precaution, anyway. Its eleven against two, and the two are probably stoned out of their gourds. Really, it should be a tit.
8
Andy Sanders was stationed behind the same oak he'd used for cover the first time the bitter men came. Although he hadn't taken any grenades, he had six ammo clips stuck in the front of his belt, plus four more poking into the small of his back. There were another two dozen in the wooden crate at his feet. Enough to hold off an army... although he supposed if Big Jim actually sent an army, they'd take him out in short order. After all, he was just a pill-roller.
One part of him couldn't believe he was doing this, but another part - an aspect of his character he might never have suspected without the meth - was grimly delighted. Outraged, too. The Big Jims of the world didn't get to have everything, nor did they get to take everything away. There would be no negotiation this time, no politics, no backing down. He would stand with his friend. His soul-mate. Andy understood that his state of mind was nihilistic, but that was all right. He had spent his life counting the cost, and stoned don't-give-a-shit-itis was a delirious change for the better.
He heard trucks approaching and checked his watch. It had stopped. He looked up at the sky, and judged by the position of the yellow-white blear that used to be the sun that it must be close to noon.
He listened to the swelling sound of diesel engines, and when the sound diverged, Andy knew his compadre had smelled out the play - smelled it out as surely as any wise old defensive lineman on a Sunday afternoon. Some of them were swinging around toward the back of the station to the access road there.
Andy took one more deep drag of his current fry-daddy, held his breath as long as he could, then huffed it out. Regretfully, he dropped the roach and stepped on it. He didn't want any smoke (no matter how deliriously clarifying) to give away his position.
I love you, Chef, Andy Sanders thought, and pushed off the safety of his Kalashnikov.
9
There was a light chain across the rutted access road. Freddy, behind the wheel of the lead truck, did not hesitate, simply hit it and snapped it with the grille. The lead truck and the one behind it (piloted by Mel Searles) headed into the woods.
Stewart Bowie was behind the wheel of the third truck. He stopped in the middle of Little Bitch Road, pointed at the WCIK radio tower, then looked at Randolph, who was jammed against the door |with his HK semiauto between his knees.
'Go another half a mile,' Randolph instructed,'then pull up and kill the engine.' It was just eleven thirty-five. Excellent. Plenty of time.
'What's the plan?' Fern asked.
'The plan is we wait until noon. When we hear shooting, we roll at once, and take them from behind.'
'These trucks is pretty noisy,' Roger Killian said. 'What if those guys hear em comin? We'll lose that whatdoyoucallic, elephant of surprise.'
'They won't hear us,' Randolph said. 'They'll be sitting in the station, watching television in air-conditioned comfort. They're not going to know what hit them.'
'Shouldn't we have gotten some bulletproof vests or something?' Stewart asked.
'Why carry all that weight on such a hot day? Stop worrying. Ole Cheech and Chong there are going to be in hell before they even know they're dead.'
10
Shortly before twelve o'clock, Julia looked around and saw that Barbae was gone. When she walked back to the farmhouse, he was loading canned goods into the rear of the Sweetbriar Rose van. He'd put several bags in the stolen phone company van as well.
'What are you doing? We just unloaded those last night.'
Barbie turned a strained, unsmiling face toward her. 'I know, and I think we were wrong to do it. I don't know if it's being close to the box or not, but all at once I seem to feel that magnifying glass Rusty talked about right over my head, and pretty soon the sun's going to come out and start shining through it. I hope I'm wrong.'
She studied him. 'Is there more stuff? I'll help you if there is. We can always put it back later."
'Yes,' Barbie said, and gave her a strained grin. 'We can always put it back later.'
11
At the end of the access road there was a small clearing with a long-abandoned house in it. Here the two orange trucks pulled up, and the raiding party disembarked. Teams of two swung down long, heavy duffle bags that had been stenciled with the words HOMELAND SECURITY. On one of the bags some wit had added REMEMBER THE ALAMO in Magic Marker. Inside were more HK semiautos, two Mossberg pump shotguns with eight-round capacity, and ammo, ammo, ammo.
'Uh, Fred?' It was Stubby Norman. 'Shouldn't we have vests, or somethin?'
'We're hitting them from behind, Stubby. Don't worry about it.' Freddy hoped he sounded better than he felt. He had a gutful of butterflies.
'Do we give em a chance to surrender?' Mel asked. 'I mean, Mr Sanders being a selectman and all?'
Freddy had thought about this. He'd also thought about the Honor Wall, where photographs of the three Chester's Mill cops who had died in the line of duty since World War II were hung. He had no urge to have his own photo on that wall, and since Chief Randolph hadn't given him specific orders on this subject, he felt free to issue his own.
'If their hands are up, they live,' he said. 'If they're unarmed, they live. Anything else, they f**king die. Anyone got a problem with that?'
No one did. It was eleven fifty-six. Almost showtime.
He surveyed his men (plus Lauren Conree, so hard-faced and small-busted she almost could have passed for one), pulled in a deep breath, and said: 'Follow me. Single-file. We'll stop at the edge of the woods and scope things out.'
Randolph's concerns about poison ivy and poison oak proved groundless, and the trees were spaced widely enough to make the going quite easy, even loaded down with ordnance. Freddy thought his little force moved through the clumps of juniper they couldn't avoid with admirable stealth and silence. He was starting to feel that this was going to be all right. In fact, he was almost looking forward to it. Now that they were actually on the move, the butterflies in his stomach had flown away.