Final justice - W.E.B. Griffin [172]
"Interesting," Matt said.
"And I was right about where he was going," Richards said. "Building 202. I got down on the ground when I saw him coming, and I saw him pull a mask--a black ski mask-- over his head. Did I say he was wearing black coveralls?"
"No, sir. You did not. What about the mask?"
"You've seen them. One of our guys--I mean one of the Delta Force guys, not the guys in Jabberwocky--came up with the idea of using them--all they are is regular ski masks, except black, and without all that cutesy-poo reindeer stuff you see on some ski masks--for their psychological effect when you're hitting an objective. They scare hell out of people. They think they're being attacked by Darth Vader."
"I understand," Matt said.
"So, the first thing I thought was that I didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that somebody running around dressed up like that wasn't selling Bibles door-to-door. And what I should do was shove my .45 up his left nostril. But you always think twice, or should, and I did. Then I thought maybe this was just some clown trying to scare his wife or girlfriend or, for that matter, boyfriend--you'd be surprised at the weirdos that collect in those condominiums. The things we've seen in Jabberwocky . . ."
"Disgusting," Bev Richards chimed in. "Absolutely disgusting! "
"Anyway, so I decided I better be sure this guy wasn't some kind of pervert--or if he was a pervert, he was playing with his own squeeze--before I did anything. So I kept him under surveillance. Then he goes to the kitchen window of 202B-- there's two apartments to a floor in the condo buildings, four apartments to each one: 202B is the ground floor one to the left, if you're facing it from the front--and whips out this knife. Sword is more like it, it looks like something the bad guys carry in a Stan Colt movie, a great big sonofabitch--"
"Watch your mouth, Colonel!" Bev Richards said.
"This gentleman then begins to attempt to pry the kitchen window open with this knife, the blade of which I would estimate to be at least fourteen inches in length, as much as four inches in breadth at the widest point, and highly polished, perhaps even chromium plated," the colonel said, paused, and inquired, "Better?"
"Much better," Bev said.
"In other words, Sergeant, a great big sonofabitch," the colonel went on, visibly pleased with himself.
"You saw him, Colonel," Olivia asked, "attempt to pry open the window? You're sure that's what he was doing?"
"Well, he could have been attacking a column of ants with that sword, but it looked to me like what he was doing with it was trying to pry the window open."
"Yes, sir. Thank you."
"Well, I got out the ol' cellular, alerted the team, told them what was going down, and to block the exits. Unless you want to swim, there's only two ways out of there. Then I got up, put a round in the chamber, turned the flashlight on him, and said, 'Excuse me, sir. May I ask what you're doing?' "
"Those were your exact words?" Matt asked.
"Those were my exact words," Colonel Richards said.
"And then what happened?"
"For a moment, I thought he was going to attack me with the sword, and I hoped he wouldn't, because I never was any good at taking sharp objects away from people, and I didn't want to have to put him down with the .45 because that would really have opened a large can of worms, and then he just turned and ran off."
"Still wearing the mask?" Matt asked.
"I dunno. I suppose so. Anyway, I called 'Halt, or I'll fire' and let off a couple of rounds in the general direction of the moon, thinking that might scare him into stopping. It didn't. So I called the team and told them to block the exits, and to be careful because this guy had a knife. Then I called the cops. Then I started for my car. I saw headlights go on, and heard an engine start and tires squealing. So I got in my car. When I got to the Highway 98 exit, I saw that he'd run into