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Oh, I m devil s advocate, now? Sure, I ll play. Simon smiles. Of course, they re
not. Not from addicts, not from gangs financed by drugs, not from a government
that slices and dices the Constitution to fight a war it has no intention of winning,
not from police departments tempted by the lure of easy money from forfeitures.
That about cover it?
Night has heard enough. It s time to wind this up. You going to let me walk away
after telling me this?
Simon smiles, What have I told you? Nothing anybody couldn t find out at any
public library. I like you, Night. That s why you re alive now. Keep it to yourself and
you ll live to draw a pension. Any more questions, or can we go home now?
Night looks to the watchful hooded men about them and wonders if Simon will
be quite as fond of him after he s told him what he has to say. Just one. Night
swallows. The muscles in his throat function perfectly. His heart beats. He is alive.
He wants nothing so much as to stay that way. Will you please put your hands on
your head? You are under arrest.
Simon laughs, then his smile falls away. His look is at least as menacing as the
smg s aimed at Night s gut. Tell me you re not that stupid.
Have your men put their guns down.
Simon s hand slips into his overcoat pocket. You re bluffing.
Feeling suddenly naked before the pistol he knows is in Simon s hand, Night tries
another swallow and finds his throat too dry. I am a lot of things. I am naive enough
to believe in America. My partner tells me I am stubborn. I am a lousy father. And
right now I am scared. But there is one thing I am not, Simon, if that s even your
name, and that is bluffing.
[ 213 ]
D . W . S T . J O HN
Simon s manner changes. You know what this means. It means you re dead.
I may be. But if I am, so are you. Right now a .308 is trained on the dome of your
aristocratic forehead. Every word we have said is on digital audio tape. So let me tell
you the way it s going to be. You are going to jail.
Simon glares. What do you think you ll accomplish with this? We ll be out before
you ve finished the paperwork.
Night smiles. He had guessed that was coming. Sure you will, all but Rigo. He
stays. For him we ve got eyewitnesses every step of the way. He won t slip out twice.
We ll have your faces and your prints, and a DAT of our little chat.
Which in your dreams buys you what?
The knowledge that in future you and your ninjas will be playing somewhere
else. The moment anything happens to Derek, to me, to our families, or to anyone
else in this department, a packet with everything we have goes out to every wire
service, every net news service, every network, every cable news network in the con-
tinental U.S. And you start getting recognized on the street.
Simon looks from one end of the dark lot to the other, considers, smiles. Night
can see he s made up his mind. It s almost over. He can go home. Simon shifts his
weight and Night sees he has misinterpreted. Fear geysers up his spine. With it
comes compassion for the man that has twice spared his life. Don t. Don t do it.
Simon brings a pistol trailing a long suppressor out of his pocket and lets it hang
by his thigh.
Night s stomach flip-flops as if he s swallowed a live fish. We can all go down off
the butte together. Nobody has to die tonight.
You bet wrong, cowboy. Simon raises the pistol and Night sees the muzzle gape
before his face. The slug will enter at the bridge of his nose. It s a .45. He won t suffer.
The sonic crack of the .308 as it impacts Simon is as loud as a shotgun fired at
Night s ear. The force of the sound effects him as a physical impact. Bone sprays,
stinging his face, his ear. He drops to the pavement alongside Simon.
Simon s team sprints for the cars, firing as they go. From cover rifles crack, echo-
ing across downtown. Each time they speak one man falls. Four of Simon s team
make the first sedan and head for the road down. Night hugs asphalt as subsonic
switches the air overhead, chipping stone behind him. A ricochet swats him in the
back of the thigh and frantically, he feels to find no damage done.
Over the hissing of the carbines he hears bursts of 10mm smack the windows of
the fleeing car. Before it reaches the exit Night sees it isn t going to make it. Instead,
it veers right to pile into the cut in the hillside. From the back seat, two emerge,
empty hands reaching high. Night, mouth chalky, ears ringing, snatches up Simon s
pistol and, teeth rattling as if with chills, covers them as they wait to be cuffed.
At the top of his voice he orders them down and can barely hear himself. By now
cruisers block both roads, bars strobing, headlights illuminating the lot. As uniforms
come up, pistols drawn, Night tosses Simon s gun down on the lid of the trunk,
raises his ID.
Shielding his eyes, he checks on Simon. With a free hand he presses Simon s neck
and finds what he knew he would.
Feeling an odd itch at his ear he reaches up to feel something sticky and warm.
Holding his hand up to the light he sees it s blood. He makes the trunk of the
Continental and, bracing a hand on a tail fin, vomits.
[ 214 ]
S ee N ight R un
" " "
Outside a darkened bank, Derek whips his black and white close enough to Night s
to mingle dust on the side view mirrors.
Driver s side to driver s side, they cut their lights.
Quiet night.
Night nods. That s the way I like it. How you doing?
Like riding a bike, you never lose it. He points at Night s bandage. How s the
ear?
Better.
He raises two fingers. Simon had been just this much faster& .
Night reaches up to press the wound gingerly. Didn t even feel it.
Fear will do that. Derek offers Night a bag. Jelly, twist?
Julie know you re eating that stuff?
Brush my teeth before I go home.
Sneaky. Night takes a twist. What about those bars Julie sends to work with
you?
Derek shudders, rolls down the passenger window, tosses them out. Hate those
damned things.
I m telling.
You ain t telling nobody nothing or you can give me back my twist.
Night takes a bite. Hear anything about Rigo?
Name s Holman, Henry. Lost some small intestine. They tell me he ll make it.
DA has him under guard twenty-four/seven. He ll do time. I went to see Golden s
wife. I told her that.
Night comes up blank. Golden?
The uniform in the cruiser.
Night remembers. What about the others?
The three Hutto didn t reach out and touch bailed this morning. Derek shrugs.
I say let them go. Just kids doing what they were told. Had nothing on them
anyway.
The signal on the corner makes three cycles as they sit in the dark,
Then it s over.
That s up to them. I bought Julie a .38, took her to the range on Saturday. She s
not bad, either. How about you?
Night thinks about that. They want to find me they know where I am. I ex-
plained things to the ones we cut loose. Sent a copy of the tape with them.
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