The Six Messiahs - Mark Frost [190]
Presto reluctantly deferred. Doyle looked at his brother.
"Me, then," said Innes.
Doyle nodded. Innes edged to the side of the logs, looked left, and saw Jack's and Walks Alone's horses galloping toward him.
"Diversionary fire would be much appreciated," said Innes.
On Doyle's signal, the other three men rose up and emptied their guns toward the sniper. Innes dashed out from behind the guardhouse in front of the advancing horses. They reared as he approached; he grabbed one by the reins and used the horse as cover to take him to the nearest structure, a row of shanties north of the main street. By the time the sniper could spot him, the horse had run off again and Innes was in place; the shots cracked harmlessly through the wood over his head.
With the sniper firing at Innes, Doyle jumped out and grabbed the bridles of the horses, gathered them in, and tied them with the others behind the guardhouse. Presto spotted Edison's suitcase strapped to Jack's saddle and pulled it down.
Innes rushed silently through the back of die shanty, negotiating a series of empty buildings until he was directly behind the sniper's position. He picked up a rock, cocked his pistol, and closed in on the shack's rear door.
Through the glass, Doyle saw movement in the shack window and took off at a dead run toward the building.
Innes tossed the rock onto the roof of a lean-to on the right and kicked open the back door, ready to fire; the shack was empty. He heard a hammer cock to his left and dove to the ground; the first bullet cut through the meat of his upper left arm, the second kicked into the ground beside his head. His return shot went through the window wide, missing the sniper, a man in black outside the building. The sniper raised the rifle to finish him when three shots exploded in a burst and knocked the man out of sight.
Innes lay still, cocking the pistol, hands shaking violently. "Get him? Did you get him?"
Silence. Innes lowered the gun when Arthur appeared in the window, holding his smoking rifle.
"Got him," said Doyle, looking down at the man in black clothes.
"Is that the one?" asked Innes, feeling both faint and talkative. "Is that the one that got away? Out there, I mean. You know; the one they saw."
"He'll do for it. Not too bad, is it, old boy?"
"Not too bad," said Innes, gingerly touching his wounded arm. "Clean through, I think."
Doyle kicked down a wall of the shack to get to his brother and improvised a field wrap from a strip of his shirt to staunch the bleeding.
"Handy having a doctor along," said Innes, watching him work. "I should be good for an action medal now. Service ribbon, at the least."
"Victoria Cross, if I have anything to say about it. From the old girl herself."
"Younger brothers are good for something, after all," said Innes.
Doyle finished applying the bandage and patted him on the back, afraid that if he tried to speak he'd burst into tears. He helped Innes to his feet as the other two men ran up to join them; he noticed that Lionel carried the crate that contained the Book of Zohar.
"We must find Jack," said Doyle. "And then I think we'd better be getting you along to that church."
They returned to the horses and Doyle grabbed the medical kit from his saddlebag. Armed to the teeth, the four men I walked down the middle of Main Street. The buildings to their left had already collapsed as the heart of the fire laid waste to ' the southern half of town. Red cinder and ash drifted toward them. The wind was shifting to the north; Doyle estimated it wouldn't be long before the other side of town ignited and began to burn.
As they neared the largest building left standing on their right, a solid adobe hacienda, Jack called out and waved them into the shelter of an alley.
"Someone here to see you, Doyle," said Jack.
Eileen stepped out of the shadows.
"Hello, Arthur," she said.
Doyle stared at her, stunned to his core, a thousand fragmented memories rushing into his mind at the trigger of her voice, riding a dozen colliding powerful emotions.
"Hello," he said.
She looked sheepish,