I waited until I saw the little veins in the whites of his eyes begin to throb and burst and then I dropped him. He crumpled into the snow and just lay there, heaving in air. The rest of my men hung back near the mouth of the alley, making sure no one came in. I’d sent Max back to camp in a pickup on account of his leg, but the rest of us would walk the five miles. Better for fitness, better for discipline. No one was dumb enough to argue.
“We have to call it off,” croaked Seth. “The roads are blocked. How do we get out of town, afterwards?”
“The snow’s a blessing,” I told him. “No cops can get through. No one will even know what happened here for days, maybe weeks. I called Isaac, over in Denver. He’s going to fly us out in a chopper.”
“What about Max? He can’t run, with that leg. Can’t even walk. We’re a man down.”
“Isaac can use a gun. He can take Max’s place. But you gotta protect him, when it all goes down. He’s our only way out of here.”
“What about Harry? What if he wakes up and talks?”
“He won’t. He’s loyal.” I knew that was bullshit. Everybody talks, sooner or later. That’s why I hadn’t wanted to leave him in the hospital. But it had been smarter to leave, let that big Irish bastard and the red-headed bitch he was sweet on think they’d won. “Get back to camp,” I told Seth. “Make sure Reynolds has done his job, then wait for me. I got shit to take care of.”
I stalked back to the hospital. In a big city hospital, there would have been all sorts of security but a little place like this had one guard, tops, and he’d been sent home with all the other staff when the blizzard hit. I just strolled right in and headed straight for the back of the ER, where they were keeping all the critical cases. I spotted Harry straightaway. His head was all wrapped up in bandages, but he was breathing. I headed towards him, but hung back at the last minute. A few beds further down was a little blonde-haired kid and that red-haired surgeon, Beckett, was sitting on the edge of her bed. She’d recognize me if I got too close.
“I don’t get it,” said Beckett. “Show me again?”
They were playing some kids’ game where they touched their spread fingers together in sequence. “It’s the number of letters in the name of your favorite color, then the number of letters in the name of your favorite band, then the number of letters in the first name of your one true love,” said the kid authoritatively.
Beckett blushed. They started up the game again and, while they were distracted, I quickly walked over to Harry’s bed and pulled a curtain across to hide me. I shook him, but he didn’t stir.
Beckett’s voice from outside, “One, two, three, four, five.”
I found the switches for the monitors and flipped them off.
Outside, Beckett started to count to fourteen. I stood there staring at Harry. Dammit! He was a good soldier. A believer. But I couldn’t take the chance, not with fifty million on the table.
I pulled the pillow from under Harry’s head and pressed it over his face. He didn’t struggle.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,” said Beckett. “Pinky finger. What does that make me?”
“Strong of heart,” said the kid.
Harry’s chest stopped moving.
And I put the pillow back under his head and slipped quietly away.
23
Amy
AFTER THE SUDDEN RUSH of the double trauma, the ER went quiet as the grave. I couldn’t get used to the sudden swings: I’m used to having surgeries neatly scheduled all day. How does Corrigan do this?
I couldn’t sit idle so I did the lumbar puncture one of the critical patients had been waiting on. It took a few hours and the whole way through, Krista was looking at me across the table with a gleam in her eyes. I knew what she was dying to ask. When the operation was over, she told Lina and Adele that we’d clean up the OR and, before the door had even closed behind them, she pounced. “What happened in the locker room?”
I pulled my mask off. “It all just suddenly got... out of control. If you hadn’t come in... I think he was going to kiss me.”
“You think? I saw the way you were looking at each other. If I hadn’t come in, you would have been naked up against the lockers! But since then? Have you talked to him?”
I stripped off my gloves and threw them in the trash. I loved Krista but I didn’t want to get into this, especially now, at the end of a long day. I was worn out and I hadn’t eaten since that morning. “We talked. But it’s not going to happen.”