Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run 7)

“Where the hell did they get all this firepower?” Nick shouted as he and Kelly ducked behind a large marble vault. Bullets thwapped into the ground around them, ricocheting off marble and stone. Nick’s face was bleeding and he could feel a shard of something stuck just below his eye. His sunglasses had probably saved his vision.

“Not cops!” Ty yelled through the static in Nick’s ear. He was breathing hard, probably running.

“Cartel hitters,” Zane hissed. “Howard said Gaudet called them in.”

“So wait, the cartel and the cops are working together?” Owen asked. “How’s that fair?”

“Does it matter?” Kelly shouted. “Sound the retreat, baby, let’s get our happy asses out of here!” He reached to Nick’s face and yanked the piece of shrapnel out. Nick cussed him up and down and held his hand to the wound.

Owen’s voice came through. “Six?”

Ty’s response was barely audible.

“Rabbit hole,” Kelly muttered at Nick’s side. He was reloading his gun, crouched as low as he could get. If Ty’d gone down the rabbit hole, there was no one to offer cover fire.

“Get the hell out of here,” Zane ordered. “Everybody out!”

“Should’ve put a guard on the roost,” Digger said. “Goddamn you Liam Bell!”

Nick couldn’t make out where any of the others were. They’d been outnumbered and overpowered, chased into the maze of tombs within the cemetery. It encompassed an entire block, filled with crumbling sidewalks, winding alleyways too small to fit a grown man through, and towering stonework that abruptly cut off pathways and created kill boxes with no escape. Without Ty in the sniper’s roost to cover them or give them enemy positions, they were in the dark.

“I’m almost at the front entrance,” Zane said on the ear bud. “Make your way here, I’ll cover you.”

Nick patted Kelly’s knee, pointing toward the direction of the main entrance. Kelly nodded and they both darted off down the closest lane.

Shots chased them.

“Free drinks! Fireworks!” Ty shouted at the top of his lungs. His signal was stronger, meaning he’d escaped the Basin Street building somehow. Nick snorted. Ty and the cockroaches. He could imagine him running into a crowd of Easter Sunday churchgoers, tourists, and parade marchers, trying to create a distraction and lure people out of harm’s way. “Free drinks inside!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Nick saw a man climb on top of a touring van parked on a side street. He crouched on the roof and tossed something into the cemetery. An earsplitting boom and a flash followed. As he and Kelly darted between tombs and dodged bullets and shrapnel, Nick got a closer look at the man. Liam Bell.

“Oh shit,” he hissed.

“Is he on our side?” Kelly called.

“I don’t care! Run!”

Smoke began to billow from the back of the cemetery. Liam tossed two more canisters, closer to their own position. Nick and Kelly skidded to a stop. Nick covered his ears and squeezed his eyes closed as the flashbangs went off.

They wasted precious seconds trying to shake off the concussive blast. Nick could hear screams of pain and anger. He peeked around the corner of the tomb that shielded them, only to come face-to-face with a man who was doing the same thing. Nick rolled away as the man brought his gun up and fired.

“Go!” he yelled, pushing at Kelly’s arm.

They sprinted down the lane, catching glimpses through the narrow alleys of two men racing down the opposite lane. When they reached a widened intersection, Nick raised his weapon, preparing to fire as their pursuers rounded the corner.

But Zane was there, flattened against the tomb wall, knives in his hands. When the two assassins reached the corner of the tomb, he stepped out and swept a hand across one man’s neck. Blood spurted as Zane turned gracefully and shoved a knife into the other man’s side. He jerked it up, under the body armor, under the ribs. He stepped back, covered in blood as both men fell to the ground, dead or dying.

Nick and Kelly gaped at him as he twirled both knives over his fingers and shoved them back into their sheaths.

“Nice,” Kelly grunted.

Zane shrugged and bent to gather the weapons off the dead bodies. He pointed toward the entrance, a mere ten yards away.

Nick and Kelly stayed low and close, watching each other’s backs as Zane brought up the rear, scurrying from tomb to tomb for cover. Owen and Digger appeared from the other side. The smoke bombs Liam had thrown seemed to have bought them enough time to clear the cemetery. Owen and Digger darted out, then took up posts behind the walls to cover their last few yards.

Nick was almost to the open gate when something thumped into him from behind. The report of the shot reached his ears a split-second later. He was thrown forward. More bullets hit the walls around him.

“He’s hit, he’s hit!” Owen cried, the voice coming both from nearby and inside Nick’s ear. “Doc!”

“Who’s hit?” Ty asked, voice suddenly panicked.

No one answered him.

Nick pushed at the ground, but the weight on top of him was too much. He turned his head. Kelly had fallen into him when the bullet hit. Owen fell to his knees beside Nick’s face. They lifted Kelly off him and Nick pushed up, scrabbling the rest of the way out of the cemetery.

They hit open ground and ran, rushing into traffic on Rampart Street. Nick and Zane fell back to cover them as Owen and Digger carried Kelly between them. They faltered in the large grassy median and took cover behind a horse and carriage that had been abandoned by its driver.

Crowds of people were running to and fro, panicked and confused.

“Who’s hit?” Ty demanded, his voice breaking.

“We’re in the median,” Zane said, breathless. “Kelly’s down.”

“Doc,” Digger said as he put a hand on Kelly’s face.

Kelly coughed and took in a loud, shivering breath. Owen knelt, cradling Kelly’s head. Nick fell to his knees beside him and began trying to find the wound through all the blood.

Zane remained standing, keeping guard and watching out of the corner of his eye.

Mere seconds passed before Ty joined them. He dove to the ground beside Kelly, jostling Nick as he tried to cut away the bloody clothing. “Where’s he hit?”

“I don’t know, I can’t find it,” Nick stuttered.

“Doc, stay with me now,” Digger pleaded. He patted Kelly’s cheek. Kelly’s eyes fluttered open. They all leaned over him. Digger sounded like a frightened child. “What do we do, Doc?”