"Oh, Jesus." Galloway sprang far forward in his chair so quickly the casters sent it rolling from beneath him.
"What?"
The other agents, responding to their superior's apparent alarm, pushed the others aside and crowded around him. "This one." Galloway tapped the monitor screen.
"Take a good look and tell me if he looks familiar. Can you bring him in any closer?"
Using the technology available, the agent manning the controls isolated the Mexican man's face. He was able to enlarge the image, but doing so sacrificed quality and focus. The agents squinted at the grainy picture, then one of them snapped his head around and exclaimed, "Ah, shit!"
"What?" Dendy demanded.
Davison jumped in. "What's the matter?"
Galloway shoved them aside and began issuing orders to his subordinates. "Call the office. Get everyone mobilized.
Put out an APB-Montez, your men can help."
"Sure. But help what?" The sheriff raised his arms at his sides in a helpless shrug. "Yall have lost me."
"Round up all your deputies. Notify neighboring counties as well. Tell them to start looking for an abandoned truck. Railroad car. Moving van."
"Truck? Moving van? What the hell is going on?" Dendy had to shout to make himself heard above the confusion that Galloway's galvanizing orders had created in the cramped van. "What about my daughter?"
"Sabra, all of them, are in more danger than we thought."
&n
bsp; As though to underscore Galloway's distressing words, they heard the unmistakable crack of gunfire.
Donna's blood-curdling scream brought Tiel to her feet. "What now?"
Ronnie was brandishing his pistol and shouting, "Get back! Get back! I'll shoot you!"
Two, the taller of the Mexicans, had charged him. Ronnie had halted him at gunpoint. "Where's the other one?" he shouted frantically. "Where's your buddy?"
Sabra screamed. "No! No!"
Tiel whirled around in time to see Juan snatch Katherine from Sabra's arms. He clutched the newborn tightly- too tightly-against his chest. The infant began squalling, but Sabra was shrieking as only a mother whose child is in danger can shriek. She was struggling to stand, clawing at Juan's pants legs, as though to climb them.
"Sabra!" Ronnie cried. "What's wrong?"
"He has the baby! Give me my baby! Don't hurt her!"
Tiel lunged forward, but Juan thrust out his hand and the heel of it caught her in the sternum, forcing her back.
She cried out in pain and fear for the newborn.
Doc shouted a wordless protest, but Tiel reasoned that he was afraid to charge Juan because of what he might do to the infant in retaliation.
"Tell him to give her the baby!" Ronnie was clutching the pistol in both hands, aiming it directly at Two's chest and yelling at the top of his lungs, as though volume could conquer the language barrier. "Tell your friend to give her the baby, or I'll kill you!"
Perhaps to see just how earnest Ronnie's threat was, Juan made the mistake of glancing toward the front of the store where the two were facing off.
Doc used that split second to make a lunge for him.
But the Mexican reacted instantly. He executed a practiced uppercut that made a significant dent in Doc's belly.
Doc bent in half at the waist, then collapsed to the floor in front of the freezer.