Orchid Blues (Holly Barker 2)

Ham turned and looked at him. He was standing as far away as he could get, sweating as if air conditioning had never been invented, and he was holding a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in his hand, pointed at Ham.

"You think you need a gun to get me to do this?" Ham asked.

He turned back to the window, grabbed the Barrett's rifle, smacked a clip home and sighted through the scope, his finger resting lightly on the trigger. This was going to make a mess; he hoped no innocent bystanders would get hurt, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it.

Holly abandoned the taxi under the portico of the Savoy, and, with Daisy running by her side, sprinted through the lobby, ignoring the elevator and racing up the stairs, two at a time, her weapon in her hand.

"Halt, police!" A man screamed at her from somewhere behind. She ignored him and turned a corner. At the top of the stairs she began running, checking room numbers. She was at two-fifty when the cop yelled at her again.

"I'm on the job!" she shouted over her shoulder. "I'm a cop! Follow me!"

Ham drew a fine bead on his target. It was a perfect setup: no wind, clear air, prominent target. Steady as a rock, he took a deep breath, let out half of it and squeezed off the round. A second later, the sound of an explosion could be heard.

"Did you score?" John yelled, keeping his back hard against the wall.

Ham smiled and stepped back. "See for yourself," he said. "Don't worry, nobody's going to shoot back at us."

John reached the window, and his eyes grew large.

Across the street, a couple of hundred yards away, dead level with Ham's window, smoke and flame poured out of another hotel room, where the other Barrett's rifle had been set up. In the street, the motorcade, instead of stopping, had picked up speed and was tearing up the boulevard at a great rate of knots.

Then their attention turned to the door of the room, from which a loud noise had just erupted. John seemed frozen in place. Ham reached over and plucked the pistol from his hand, and at that moment, Holly and a uniformed Miami police officer both exploded into the room, yelling, "Freeze!"

John threw his hands into the air, and Ham turned and smiled at Holly. Then the police officer shot Ham in the chest.

61

Holly swung her pistol hard into the cop's face, before he could fire again. He fell to the floor, clutching his nose and yelling. Daisy was at his throat.

"Daisy, release!" She grabbed the cop's pistol from his hand and threw it across the room. "That man is with me!" she screamed at him, then she ran to Ham's aid.

John sprinted past her and was out the door. Daisy was still straddling the cop, baring her teeth.

Holly let him go and bent over Ham. "I'm so sorry," she said. "Can you talk?"

Ham nodded. "See if it went through," he gasped.

Holly rolled him on his side. There was an exit wound high on his right shoulder. "Yes," she said.

"Is there a lot of blood?"

"A fair amount."

"Then you go get John. He's on the way to Opa-Locka. He flies a Malibu, tail number one, two, three, tango foxtrot. If he gets to that airplane, he's gone. He could make Mexico."

"I'm going to stay with you," she said.

"Do what I tell you, girl. I'm going to be fine, trust me. It's not the first time I've been shot."

"All right, then." She kissed him on the forehead, then ran to where the cop sat on the floor, blood streaming from his nose. She snatched the radio microphone from where it was clipped to his shirt and pressed the button. "Officer needs assistance at the Savoy Hotel, room two-ten. Second man down with a gunshot wound to the chest, needs an ambulance, alert the nearest trauma center. Got that?"

"Got it," the operator replied. "Who are you?"

Holly handed the stunned cop the microphone and patted his pockets until she found his car keys, then retrieved them. "You explain it to your dispatcher," she said. "And you take care of that man over there. He's an FBI agent, and they'll be here soon." The cop nodded, and Holly ran.

"Let's go, Daisy!"

She got the police car started. "How do I get to Opa-Locka airport?" she yelled at the doorman. He gave her directions. She switched on all the car's lights and sirens and floored it.