"Smith, Anthony Neil - The Dealbreaker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Anthony Neil)

The Dealbreaker
by Anthony Neil Smith
Copyright й 2001



I brought a Т98 Nissan Pathfinder to Wal Mart for an oil change, just like I had said I would, and while I sat in the waiting area watching a fuzzy soap opera on a b&w TV, one of the mechanicsЧa tall white guy with loose curly hair, grease-dirty shirt with GEORGE on the tagЧstepped over to me with a clipboard and said, "Mr. Dreier, can I talk to you for a minute?"

I followed him into the bay where the Pathfinder IТd lifted only an hour before was parked, hood open. The drill noise, amplified by cinder block and slick stone floor, meant we had to lean close to keep it normal-talk volume. IТd planned for this place, but I hadnТt counted on the drill bothering me so much. This could have damaged my hearing. I covered the ear George wasnТt talking to.

"You bring it with you?" George said.

"Like IТd have it on me walking into Wal Mart? Or leave it in the car so you can get it without paying?"

We were talking about a gun.

I said, "Right now, you give me half. That buys you a place and time for tonight. Show up with the rest."

George nodded, like he was analyzing my method. Idiot.

I said, "Well?"

"How much?"

Deep sigh from me, then, "Give. IТll count. Nod means yes, shake means no."

A Buick drove into the next bay and nearly made me take a dump in my pants and take off at a dead run, but I caught the Wal Mart shirt on the driver. Kept the cool. The brakes squealed and I winced. Even worse on my ears.

George and I bent underneath the hood, endured hot oil odor, and George pulled a crumpled wad of cash from his shirt pocket. He took a hundred bill, two twenties and a ten, then tossed them on the brake fluid box.

I shook my head. Trying to stiff me twenty-five. He shrugged, reached into his pants pocket, found a twenty and five ones. What a joke. I picked up the bills, nodded and said, "You know the duck pond in front of the hospital, right? Be there tonight at eight. Go to the middle of the bridge. Stay there until I show up."

I turned and walked back into Wal Mart. I bought a Whitney CD for my girlfriend GloriaЧpop music wasn't my taste, but I never found hard bop CDs at Wal Mart. Twenty minutes later, they were done with the Nissan, so I drove it back to the parking lot I had taken it from, got in my own car and drove away. Guy canТt complain about a free oil change, can he?

*

I was watching the pond from an empty third floor hospital room that night from seven onward. This George showed up with five friends, all spreading out around the pond, and at the ends of the narrow footbridge that led from a strip of parking near the highway, spanned the pond, then met the steps to the hospital entrance. What a beautiful ambush.

George had come through an older source, one I had forgotten, really. The channel seemed secure, so I took the risk. But seeing this posse, I wondered if there had been a compromise in my system. I should have thought Abort! Abort! Danger, Will Robinson! But the adrenaline was going. I saw my reflection in the window: big "got a new toy" eyes, bald black head, Cheshire Cat teeth. Looked like it would be fun. Kamikaze? Death wish? Maybe, maybe not. Call it my own personal extreme sport.

I shadow jabbed at warm air and hopped in place. I was wired. I was ready. So I sneaked out of the room, passed open doors where TV noise blended with heart monitors, passed wheelchair patients and nurses in pink scrubs. Took the elevator down.

The gun I had brought for George just in case it was a real sale was a Sig Sauer 9mm, beautiful piece. Registered to some guyТs name from the Gulf Coast phone book, faked papers and all that. My personal piece was an S&W .40. In the elevator hurtling down (my back to the security camera), I made sure the .40 was ready with a bullet in the chamber. IТd need to pinpoint and squeeze off a whole magazine in flashbulb time, kill those guys quickly.

Out the front door, across the driveway to the stepsЧtook them in threesЧand George was surprised because itТs like magic I appeared, suddenly beside him leaning on the rail and nodding a WhatТs up. We had nice evening weather: spring breeze but mild, my skin all itchy with allergies.

His friends were staring from all points, like a homing beacon had kicked in.

"We going to do this?" George said.