As he stood, shielding his eyes to make as certain as he could that no glass got into them, he tried to see where Billy Crane was and what he was doing now. He could hear the Seminole shouting at them. What the hell did he mean?
"Come out. Hurry," Crane was yelling. "You don't have much time."
Levin was still cowering on the floor, his arms covering his head, his hands and back coated in a glittering sheath of broken bits of safety glass. Kate was crouching just below the windowsill, where Crane could not see her. So far, only Ron had chanced a look outside. If Billy had seen him, he hadn't fired at the glimpse of head Riggs had offered.
"Where is he?" Kate whispered.
"He's about thirty, maybe forty feet straight out," Ron said. He pointed directly through the wall in front of them, against which they were both leaning, as if holding it up as a shield.
"What's he saying?" Kate asked. They could both tell that Billy's voice was fading slightly.
"Come out, you idiots," the Indian repeated. "Come out before they kill the lot of you."
"He's crazy," Levin muttered, head still down, still coated in broken crystal bits.
"No. I don't think he is," Ron told him. "I think he was giving us a way out of here." He braced to stand, but Kate's hand on his shoulder held him in place, her grip every bit as strong as his own.
"What are you talking about? He just shot at us."
"No. I think he was shooting out the window to give us an escape route. I believe he knows that's the only way we're getting out of here without having to face those guys who killed Kinji. There's probably more than two of them. We have to go. Now." Ron did stand, and had to exert some effort to break free of the hold Kate had on him.
"Don't do it," Kate said, her voice loud, forceful. "Think about it. It makes even more sense now than before. Mary and Billy are both Seminole. They're in this together." Ron heard Levin whimper as he stood and looked out to see what Crane was doing.
The Seminole was moving away, toward the corner of the building, where two of the compound's structures made a kind of open yard between them. Ron saw Crane glance back and motion for him to follow. "Hurry up, you damned fool," Billy yelled, his voice growing just a bit more faint.
Without thinking about it again, Ron knelt and grasped Levin behind the elbows and forced him to stand. Adam actually screamed, believing that he would soon be shot when his former companion caught sight of him through the shattered window. His eyes were wide and crazy as he looked up to see Crane retreating toward the forest. "What? What's he doing?" Levin asked.
"He wants us to follow him," Ron said. "He shot out the window so that we could get out of here without getting killed. Now, come on, dammit. Let's haul some ass before those other guys find us." He looked toward Kate who was just standing there, seemingly at odds with herself. "Make up your mind, Kate. I'm getting out of here now, while we can."
"You don't know," she stammered. She used the pistol to point toward the now all but invisible figure of Crane disappearing into the gloomy forest.
"We don't have time to debate this." He cast a glance toward the direction Billy had vanished. "We're getting out of here. Now," he said. He put his hands on the windowsill, not worrying about being cut, and he quickly vaulted over. On the other side, he was surprised to find that ground level was a full two feet lower than the floor had been, and he stumbled as he fell and went to the grassy earth. Grunting, he peered up and looked to see Levin following him, tentatively testing the sill.
"Come on, Adam. Get your butt in gear. Give him a hand," he suggested to Kate who he could see was still just standing there, watching them.
Levin jumped stiffly off the sill and made an even clumsier landing than Ron had. Riggs, afraid that his panic-stricken companion would twist an ankle and be unable to run, stepped forward to keep him from falling, which Adam would have done if not for Riggs' support. Still holding Levin up, Ron turned his eyes toward Kate who was at the window, leaning out, squinting at both of them.
"You coming, Kate?" Even as Ron asked it, he could see that she was bringing the.357 up, toward himself and Levin. But seeing her doing that, it did not occur to him that she could be aiming the weapon at them.
The shot broke the air into a billion bits of sound. Ron saw a puff of smoke appear around the big pistol, enveloping Kate's right hand. He saw the recoil from the weapon force her long arm up almost half a foot, her shoulder back an inch or so. Adam Levin's chest exploded, the exit wound a fist-sized crater that erupted in a shower of hot, crimson wet, spattering Ron's face with a horrid warmth.
Levin was dead in an instant, and the silly look on his face seemed almost a kind of reflection of the complete, numbing shock that was burning through Riggs. He had been supporting Levin, his hands on the man's torso, almost beneath the armpits. Later, but not right then, he would wonder how the bullet had missed him, had gone completely through his former captor and had ricocheted off some bone, sparing him a similar fate. Adam Levin first stiffened, for a mere split second, and then slumped to the ground like an enormous but leaking water balloon, almost taking Riggs with him.
Letting the dead man fall, Ron looked up at Kate. The barrel of the.357 was coming down from the recoil, and she was bringing it to bear on him. "What," he started to say, just forming the word with his lips but unable to make any air come up from his throat.
"I can't let any of you get out of here," she said. "It's time for you to go." Once more the pistol roared in her fist and Ron squinted, trying to prepare for the impact, for death.
The blow did not come. She had missed. He dove to the ground, rolling to his left and toward the building, trying to put the wall between himself and her aim. It would save him for a second, maybe, but then all she would have to do was lean out and take aim again. He was looking for something to pick up and throw at her. He chanced a quick look her way.
And he saw why she had missed him.
Mary Niccols had hit her from behind. And now she was punching her again, Mary's fist meeting solidly with Kate's skull. The impact of the punch forced Kate into the window and partially out of it.
"Mary," Ron screamed. He ran forward, looked to see where the pistol was, but Kate no longer held it in her now open hands. Even through his fear, he was enraged and reached up, grasping Kwitney by the roots of her hair, dragging her through the shattered window. She fell at his feet and he delivered a kick to her rib cage. "Damn you." She grunted as he kicked her.
Before he could kick her again, Mary scrambled through the window. "Let's get out of here," she said. "There's at least three armed men behind me somewhere. I got past them by hiding up behind the ceiling tiles. But they're going to be on us any second," Niccols said, her voice a very harsh whisper.
Ron put his fingers in Kate's hair and jerked her to her feet. "All right," he said. "But what do we do with this one? Is she coming with us, you think?"
Mary's work-hardened hand also grabbed a handful of Kate's long brown hair and pulled her back as Ron started off. "Bad idea. They might not be so quick to shoot at us with one of their own along, but she's a deceitful bitch. No telling what she might do out there. More trouble than she's worth, right?"
"Right. Just leave her here," he said, turning. "This way," Ron grunted, heading out where he had seen Billy Crane running before the woods had swallowed him. Behind, Mary was still standing with Kate, and Ron now saw where the pistol had gone. He watched Mary raise the weapon.
"Don't do it," he said.
Niccols brought her muscular right arm up and suddenly sent it down. The butt of the pistol met the back of Kate's skull. Kwitney went to the grass, her lanky frame lying still there in the fading light. Ron, his knees buckling, reached out to support himself against a pin oak sapling. A moment later, Mary reached him.
"Let's get going. Now."
Riggs followed, feeling the underbrush slapping against his legs, keeping his eyes front and looking for some sign of Billy Crane. He hoped the other man was not too far ahead. They would probably need the protection of his shotgun. Although he was running as fast as he could to keep up with Mary, Ron spoke between breaths, feeling relatively fresh despite the stress.
"I thought you were going to kill her. I wasn't sure."
For a moment Mary didn't answer. There was only the slap of grasses and tough shrubs against their pant legs, their boots thumping against the earth as they raced away from the Eyesore. But after a few seconds, she did answer.
"I almost did, Ron. I almost blew her brains out. She was going to kill you just like she killed that poor jerk, Levin."
I know, Ron wanted to say. He kept it to himself and would not have voiced it even if the sound of gunfire had not suddenly erupted behind them.
Just as the forest offered them some cover, they heard the first shot come, listened to it whizzing in the underbrush as it sped through the vegetation.
"Keep going," Ron said between gasps. "Billy Crane came this way. I think he knows where he's going, and he's armed a lot better than we are."
"Sounds like a plan," Mary said, the two of them now side by side. They let the forest take them in.