Collateral Damage (Stone Barrington 25)

Junior Detective Sean Leary turned back into the block, a sandwich on the seat beside him, and saw twin flashes emanating from between the black CIA SUV and a white car pulled up close to it, but heard nothing. “Gunshots fired,” he said aloud to himself. “Silencer.” He accelerated and rammed the white car from behind, shoving it down the street. He saw its brake lights come on, and a woman was suddenly running toward him, a gun in her hand. He was digging at his waist for his own weapon as she reached his car, holding out the silenced pistol.

Then, as she fired, his own car was rammed from behind, shoving him forward into the Toyota for a second time. Leary opened his door and rolled into the street, in a prone firing position. He felt something strike him hard in the back, and he put his head down and began firing wildly in her general direction.

—

“Well, Dino?” Stone asked.

Dino’s mouth was working, but nothing was coming out.

Then they heard an unmistakable sound: a gunshot, followed by five more.

“Thirty-eight,” Viv said.

One second after the final gunshot, Stone’s security system went off, and loudly.

“They’re shooting at the house,” Stone said as they all scrambled out of the banquette.

Stone ran through the lower level of the house from the kitchen, through his exercise room to his office, then down the hall toward the front door. He ducked into Joan’s office and retrieved her .45 from her desk drawer, and as he did, Dino blew past him in the hallway, weapon in hand, and out the office door into the street. Stone followed on his heels, just ahead of Viv and Holly, who were also armed.

—

Habib grabbed Jasmine’s arm. “We’ve got to go!” he yelled. He half dragged her to the car and shoved her into the passenger side, then ran around the car. As he opened the driver’s door he saw people spilling out of the house behind him, and they were armed. The engine was still running, and he floored the car. He was just feeling lucky that it was still running when he had to slam on brakes to stop from running into a truck stopped in front of him. He leaned on the horn.

“White car, down the block!” Holly yelled, then ran in that direction, followed closely by Viv.

But Dino wasn’t looking at the car, he was looking through a window of the van with the damaged front end, stopped in the middle of the street. He tried to open both doors: locked. He banged on the glass with the butt of his pistol, to no avail. He looked to his left and saw Leary, lying on his belly, with blood on his back, then he turned toward Stone, who was standing beside him. “Get something to break this glass!” he yelled.

“Who do you think is in there?” Stone yelled back.

“Nobody. It’s gotta be a bomb!”

Stone turned and ran up the front steps and into the house.

Dino went to Leary. “Kid, talk to me!”

“I’m okay, I think,” Leary said, struggling to a knee.

“Stay right there!” Dino jumped through the open car door, one knee on the driver’s seat, and reached across to open the glove compartment. He began grabbing stuff and throwing it onto the floor, until he found what he was looking for.

—

Habib gave up blowing the horn, stepped out of the car with one foot and aimed his gun at the truck driver, who was coming toward him. “Get that truck out of here, or I’ll kill you,” Habib yelled, firing a shot into a nearby car for emphasis. The man ran for his truck, and it began to roll toward Second Avenue.

Holly ran toward the white car and waved for Viv to take the passenger side, but when they were nearly there, the car shot forward, mounted the curb and began bulldozing its way toward Second Avenue.

Dino got back to the van just after Stone broke the rear window with a golf club. “Get outta the way!” he yelled at Stone, then he reached inside for the door lock. The seats had been removed from the rear of the van, and there was a large object on the floor, hidden by a raincoat thrown over it. He snatched away the coat and found a neat cube of gray bricks with a cell phone taped to the stack. “Oh, shit,” he said. “Get back!”

Stone looked inside and reached for the cell phone, but Dino shoved him out of the way and onto his ass in the street. “It’s gonna be booby-trapped!” he yelled. He held up the black object in his hand and pressed a button. A green light came on, and Dino set it on top of the pile of explosives. “Stay away from it!” he yelled at Stone, who was getting to his feet.

Dino ran back to Leary and dug the handheld radio out of the man’s inside coat pocket. “Just relax, Leary,” he said. “Help is on the way.” Dino took a deep breath and hoped for the best. He pressed the button on the side of the radio and said, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Lieutenant Dino Bacchetti, code red, code red!” He gave the address. “I’ve got a very large bomb in a van and an officer down. I need ambulances and the bomb squad. Code red

on Second Avenue in the Forties!”

Stone ran up to him. “We’ve got to get out of here, Dino!” he said.

“It’s too late to run,” Dino replied.

—