"Only six shots and no reload that I've noticed. You want more than that against these goofballs. Unless you got a problem with killing."

"Hardly. All right, I'll use the Glock then."

Keyes snorted and gave it over along with three extra loaded ammo magazines. "I thought you'd take that one."

"You don't like them?"

"They're okay."

"Why have one, then?"

"For guests, of course. They like 'em, but the Glock's never felt right in my hand. The grip on my Walther is set at just the right angle for me."

"That's the new James Bond gun, isn't it?" Richard always enjoyed those movies.

"Right you are-but I had the idea first."

"You don't like James Bond?"

"Oh hell, I'm a big fan, I just found the gun first is all. Come on." He stuffed more mags in his jeans pockets, switched off the TV, and went up the ladder. He left the trapdoor open and shoved the suitcases farther out of the way.

"In case we have to beat a quick retreat here," he said, moving toward the living room. "We may not have to."

"Why is that?"

Richard peered out through the front blinds. The sun was still bright and would be for another two hours.

"They're probably covering the street exits from this area in case you should leave, but my guess is they won't actually come for you until well after dark. They're going to get bloody hot out there waiting."

"That just breaks my heart."

"Well, I'd rather not have them shooting up your neighborhood, either."

"Oh, yeah? You got another option?"

"As a matter of fact," said Richard, straightening, "I have a cunning plan..."

Chapter Fourteen

Crossbow prominently propped on his shoulder, Richard practically strutted across to his car. The sun was waning, but there was plenty of light. And heat. It prickled like fiery needles on the back of his neck. He could almost feel the blisters forming.

He endured it.

He took his time putting the crossbow into the back seat, apparently having a bit of trouble getting it through the door. Once done, he gave in to a luxuriant stretch, the mechanics of which allowed anyone watching to get a damn good look at him. He took his hat off and ran a hand through his brush of blond hair to clinch things.

Even if Alejandro's men were half asleep, they couldn't help but notice and identify him. Alejandro himself would be livid that his target had survived yet again.

Richard got in the rental, started it, and pulled out, heading for the near-direct exit to I-30. He'd put his windows down to keep the interior from heating up too much. They were still down as he drove sedately past a Cadillac parked close to the corner of a side street. He did not look over.

That was the hard part, the truly dangerous part. If they got impatient, or stupid, they could nail him here.

He held his breath, and he did not look.

Then he was past them. Safe for the moment. But would they take the bait?

When he turned onto the access road that led to the highway, he saw the brown Caddie distant in his rearview mirror.

He smiled and hit a newly programmed-in speed dial on his cell phone. "I got mine hooked," he said when Keyes answered. "What about you?"

"I'm still in the neighborhood, heading south. They're behind me, but not too close."

"Can you lose them?"

"In this area? No problemo." He rang off.

Richard's job was to buy Keyes time. Not a difficult thing at all when he reached the downtown overpass. Yet another traffic problem had turned the freeway into a single-lane parking lot. He didn't mind this delay, though; it served a good purpose. Besides, the sun was down.

Once through the one-lane road-rage test zone, he phoned Keyes again. "How's it going?"

"I lost them. Where are you?"

"Just passed an exit for a Beach Street. Does that make sense?" There were no beaches anywhere near this city so far as he knew.

"I'm a couple miles ahead of you coming up on the 820 intersection. I'm going to take that north. You stay on I-30 east until Loop 12; you're a tourist, they won't expect you to know the shortcuts. That'll buy me more than a half- hour extra in case of delays at my end."

"You sure your car will get you there in time?" He recalled that model of Escort as being underpowered and remarkably fraught with troubles.

"You know what that guy in Star Wars did to his space ship?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I had about the same thing done to this little crate. It's a lot better than it should be. I'll get there in time."

Richard took him at his word and thought it a pity that they didn't have some sort of laser-type blaster guns to use on this expedition. Ah, well, give the inventors time. The evolution of weaponry he'd witnessed over the centuries was quite extraordinary. Perhaps in five or ten years the actual technology would far surpass film imagination. Not available to him now, but how satisfying it would be to cut Alejandro in half the long way with a sword of white-hot burning light...

No. It wouldn't be all that satisfying.

That death was too bloody quick for him.

Richard made it easy on his shadow, holding to a steady speed, not passing anyone unless they were really slow.

The Cadillac's lights were consistently in his mirrors, not too far back, but neither too close. He was grateful for that. It meant they'd decided not to shoot the hell out of his car while on the road. A drive-by at these speeds would probably be effective, but he'd survived two hit attempts; they would want to make sure the third time was the charm.

This was the long way to north Dallas and thence to Addison, so he felt safe edging up to seventy when traffic permitted. Keyes would still have his time window, and Richard would not appear to be in the least aware of the tail.

While he couldn't assume the thugs to be stupid enough to utterly fall for the ruse, he only needed to keep them guessing about it.

He hoped the men also had cell phones-they probably did-allowing them contact with the second car. Ideally, they would link up at some point, their common goal being to turn Richard into tomorrow's headline.

Eventually he reached the point where the Loop intersected with LBJ and took the eastbound lane. They would know he was headed for New Karnak now. He had to slow once more along this corridor, but expected that, changing lanes a few times just to make the shadows work to keep up. He was positively grinning on his final exit. There were now two big Caddies trailing him.

New Karnak was very much in sight, its glass walls shimmering with reflections of the full moon. He sailed right past the great pyramid, heading north, wishing he could hear the commentary this was doubtless causing behind him.

Was he aware of the tail, or just looking for dinner on restaurant row?

But he passed that area too, speeding up as traffic suddenly eased. The first Caddie allowed him to lengthen his lead.

Good, they'd figured it out.

The traffic and street lights thinned then stopped; he was now in the undeveloped areas, the memory of his initial trip here coming sharply back to him, along with myriad regrets. He should have done a better job of hiding them. He should have told Stephanie to leave the moment her emergency e-mail had come through. He should have cut all contact with her, leaving no trace for Alejandro to pick up.

He should have killed the bastard to start with.

Richard had considered it, but it would have stirred things up too much back then. He'd not been prominent at all during the legal wranglings, but he had been present. If Alejandro had suddenly died, his underlings would have known where to place the blame and create murderous complications for all. At the time it seemed simpler to just hurry Stephanie and the family out of the line of fire. That had worked. For a while.

He hoped that the missing Luis had phoned Bourland by now and gotten some good news for a change. I should call him as well. But not just yet.

He sailed by the spot where he'd encountered the delicious Officer Henebry, and marveled that he'd driven so far in such a benumbed state. His dreams had been wretchedly vivid; it was amazing that he and Michael had made it home in one piece.

Phone. He answered.

"I found the place," said Keyes. "If I got the directions right."

"You took the fourth turn after the stop sign?"

"Yeah, and this road looks like Verdun on a bad morning-oh, there... okay. Yeah, I'm at the right place; the cops strung some crime scene tape right across the drive. It's not visible from the main road."

"Just as well, keeps the curious from looking in."

"You just better damn-well hope the Federales didn't leave a watchdog hanging around."

"Not likely, but if so, I'll deal with it."

"I'm pulling off now to hide the car. How far out are you?" "About ten minutes."

"Cutting it fine, but I'll manage."

"I appreciate this, Mr. Keyes."

"Hey, I'm in this for my own self-preservation."

Rather too enthusiastically, Richard thought, disconnecting. For a man who never dirtied his own backyard, he showed remarkably little demur against going on a deadly snipe hunt for Alejandro.

Keyes had the equipment for it. As they waited for the sun to set, he'd pulled an amazing collection of combat gear from his hall closet. He had camo fatigues in green, gray, and solid black, boots, matte black body armor, hand-to-hand weapons... Richard hadn't seen such stuff since he'd taken a tour of an SAS training facility.

"If you're worried about the DEA, why do you have all this?" he'd asked.

Keyes smirked as he shook out the black fatigues and started changing. "All of it is completely legal. I got it from military surplus stores and catalogues."

"But why have it if you don't operate in the States?"

"To keep in practice. This is my paintball gear."

"Paintball?" Richard noticed that the green camos, though clean, had the remains of pink paint stains here and there.

"Yeah, great game. I always win."

No doubt.

Richard counted off the turnings, taking the fourth. He knew the area, but was starting to nerve up and wanted no mistakes at this point. He put his high beams on, less for his benefit than for Keyes and the ones following.

There were signs of traffic activity left along the drive. Tree branches had broken off where tall trucks had bulled through. Pale dust thrown up by dozens of official vehicles now coated the foliage and dead grass. He came up on the police line ribbon. It was snapped, the two ends lying listless over the baked ground where Keyes had earlier passed.

Richard's car would get the blame for that.

He hoped.

His departure from the tract house, closely followed by Keyes... they would wonder. They would wonder if some devil's deal had been struck between two men who should have been dead. They would wonder where Keyes had gotten himself to, and now they might consider the possibility of a trap.

For Richard to come out here at such an hour would strike Alejandro as odd, but he'd also see it as an opportunity.

Richard's hope was that Alejandro would weigh the odds of facing at most two isolated men armed with only handguns, against ten. If Keyes was right about the MP-5s, Alejandro might feel very confident indeed, even if one of his foes was known to be an expert assassin.

But would he risk going in himself?

Phone again. "Yes?"

"I saw you go by, but they're hanging back," said Keyes, who was now on watch at the entry road.

"How far?"

"They're stalled at the turnoff. Corporate meeting. Looks like the memo is under discussion. I can't see past the window glare or I could try popping Trujillo. I don't know which car he's in. Damn, if I just had a launcher and two grenades I could take them all out."

"Give them a minute. Don't let them spot you."

"Huh. Fat chance of that. Damn city boys don't have a clue." His confidence was reassuring.

Richard kept on, topping the slight rise, dipping down again, the horrific wreckage now in view, stark in the moonlight. Absurdly, it looked smaller than he remembered. When he'd been struggling in the midst of the disaster, it had loomed impossibly large to him. Where had the horses gotten to? Probably rounded up and taken away by some livestock control service. He'd have to check on that. He couldn't allow Stephanie's beloved animals to be sold off or destroyed. "Mission control, I think we have a go," Keyes announced, suddenly cheerful.