The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [123]
"I'm a Marine. You know what that is?"
"Like a soldier?"
The boy was dying right in his arms, Brian realized. Please, God, not this one, not this little boy.
"No, we're a lot better than soldiers. A Marine's about the best thing a man can be. Maybe someday when you grow up, maybe you can be a Marine like me. What do you think?"
"Shoot bad guys?" David Prentiss asked.
"You bet, Dave," Brian assured him.
"Cool," David thought, and then his eyes closed.
"David? Stay with me, David. Come on, Dave, open those eyes back up. We need to talk some more." He gently set the body back on the counter and felt for a carotid pulse.
But there wasn't any.
"Oh, shit. Oh, shit, man," Brian whispered. With that, all the adrenaline evaporated from his bloodstream. His body became a vacuum, and his muscles slack.
The first firefighters raced in, wearing khaki turnout coats and carrying boxes of what had to be medical gear. One of them took command, directing his people into various directions. Two headed to where Brian was. The first of them took the body from his arms and looked at it briefly, then set it on the floor, and then he moved away without a word to anyone, leaving Brian standing there, with a dead child's blood on his shirt.
Enzo was nearby, just standing and looking, now that professionals-mainly volunteer firefighters, actually, but proficient for all that-were assuming control of the area. Together they walked out the nearest exit into the clear noontime air. The entire engagement had lasted less than ten minutes.
Just like real combat, Brian realized. A lifetime-no, many lifetimes had come to their premature ends in what was relatively a blink of time. His pistol was back in his fanny pack. The expended magazine was probably back in Sam Goody. What he'd just experienced was the nearest thing to being Dorothy, sucked into a Kansas tornado. But he hadn't emerged into the Land of Oz. It was still central Virginia, and a bunch of people were dead and wounded behind them.
"Who are you guys?" It was a police captain.
Dominic held up his FBI ID, and that was enough for the moment.
"What happened?"
"Looks like terrorists, four of them, came in and shot up the place. They're all dead. We got 'em, all four of them," Dominic told him.
"You hurt?" the captain asked Brian, gesturing to the blood on his shirt.
Aldo shook his head. "Not a scratch. Cap'n, you got a lot of hurt civilians in there."
"What were you guys doing here?" the captain asked next.
"Buying shoes," Brian answered, a bitter edge on his voice.
"No shit " the police captain observed, looking at the mall entrance, and standing still only because he was afraid of what he was going to see inside. "Any ideas?"
"Get your perimeter set up," Dominic said. "Check every license plate. Check the dead bad guys for ID. You know the drill, right? Who's the local SAC?"
"Just a Resident Agent here. Nearest real office is Richmond. Called there already. The SAC's a guy named Mills."
"Jimmy Mills? I know him. Well, the Bureau ought to send a lot of troops here. Your best move is to secure the crime scene and stand by, get the wounded people clear. It's a fucking mess in there, Cap'n."
"I believe it. Well, I'll be back."
Dominic waited for the police captain to walk inside, then he elbowed his brother and together they walked to his Mercedes. The police car at the parking lot entrance-two uniforms, one of which held a shotgun-saw the FBI ID and waved them past. Ten minutes later, they were back at the plantation house.
"What's going on?" Alexander asked in the kitchen. "The radio said-"
"Pete, you know about the second thoughts I've been having?" Brian asked.
"Yeah, but what-"
"You can forget about them, Pete. Forever and always," Brian announced.
CHAPTER 14-PARADISE
The news crews flocked to Charlottesville like vultures on a fallen carcass-or started to until things got more complex.
The next news flash came from a place called Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado,