Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [110]
“Not a very big one.” Parker hesitated. “Do you know what this is about, Chief?”
“Do you?” Alex shot back at him.
“I think we should tell her the truth, Brad,” Ford said. “Hell, we’re all on the same side.”
Parker thought it over for a second and then nodded.
“We’re American intelligence agents,” Ford told Alex.
“Then this must have something to do with Casa del Diablo and that damn nerve gas they’re bringing out of there today.”
Ford and Parker both looked shocked. “How does a small-town police chief find out about something like that?”
“He told me,” Alex said as she waved a hand toward Garaldo. “What do you think they’re after?”
“Who in blazes are they, anyway?”
“Thugs who work for the drug cartel Rey del Sol.”
Garaldo snapped, “Visionaries who believe in the destiny of Mexico!”
“Don’t pay any attention to that line of bull—” Alex began as they darted across the mouth of an alley.
That was when somebody opened fire on them, steel-jacketed slugs whistling around their heads.
CHAPTER 44
In the high school library, Jack motioned quickly to Rowdy and Jimmy. “Get on either side of the doors,” he told them in a half-whisper. “We’ll jump whoever it is when they come in.” He waved a hand at Cochrum, the blond reporter, and the cameraman. “You three hide between the shelves.”
“The hell with that,” the cameraman said. His name was Bud, Jack recalled. “We’ll help you grab them.”
“We will?” Cochrum said.
“Yeah, the odds will be better that way. Wilma, you should hide, though.”
The blonde didn’t argue. She scurried off and crouched nervously between two sets of bookshelves.
Jack and Cochrum joined Jimmy to the right of the doors, while Bud partnered up with Rowdy on the other side. The voices and footsteps were louder now as people came down the hall toward the library.
Jack knew perfectly well that if the newcomers were some of the heavily-armed invaders, he and his companions would probably be dead in a few minutes. But if they could take the men by surprise and get their hands on some of those automatic weapons, there was a slender chance a couple of them might survive.
Anyway, the alternative was to surrender, and Jack was in no mood to do that. Those sons of bitches had taken over his town and killed innocent people. He wasn’t going to stand for that.
The library doors swung open and a man strode in. Jack launched himself in a diving tackle at his back.
Unfortunately, the man twisted around with great instincts and reflexes, grabbed Jack, and flipped him with a neat wrestling throw. Jack came crashing down on his back, and an instant later the man’s knee dug into his belly, pinning him down to the library floor.
“Jack!” the man exclaimed.
Gasping to reclaim the breath that had been knocked out of his lungs, Jack found himself looking up into the startled face of Officer J. P. Delgado, his friend and the man who had taught him to shoot.
Commotion and angry yells filled the library. Delgado jerked his head around and ordered, “Hold your fire! Take it easy, these are friends.”
Jack looked around, saw that Rowdy and Bud had tried to attack some of the people with Delgado, only to find themselves looking down the barrels of several rifles and shotguns.
A dozen men and women had crowded into the library with Delgado. Each of them was armed and wore a grim expression that said they were willing to fight to the death. Jack felt a wave of relief go through him as he recognized most of them.
“Don’t shoot, people, don’t shoot,” Cochrum said. “I think we’re all on the same side.”
“I don’t know about that,” Delgado said dryly. “You’re the lawyer who represented Navarre, aren’t you?”
Cochrum looked nervous. “That, uh, doesn’t have anything to do with our current situation.”
“The hell it doesn’t. If the town hadn’t been mostly disarmed, we could have put up a better fight when those cartel thugs came in and took over.” Delgado got to his feet and extended a hand to Jack, helping him up as well. “These people may be the only ones in town who were able to hide some