Mouledoux piloted his unmarked up the mountain under a cloud covered sky. But even in the almost pitch black, he could tell he was passing stately homes, most with locked gates in front of their driveways. One of the hazards of wealth, if you had it, others wanted it, so it had to be protected. That and a lot of rich people just plain didn’t like associating with the great unwashed.
He grabbed a glance at the dashboard clock. Thirty minutes to midnight. He’d made good time, despite the fact that he’d had to keep it under fifty during a lot of the drive through Northern California, because the road was warmer than the land it sliced through, so animals liked to rest on it. Twice he almost hit a deer. A coyote shot in front of him just outside Susanville and he’d missed it by inches, its eyes glowing with the reflection of his headlights. And he’d killed a couple rabbits. Bugs Bunny, it seems, wasn’t as adept at getting out of the way of a moving vehicle as were Bambi and Wile E.
As he passed a sign marking the altitude at six thousand feet, it started to snow. Early, he thought. Maybe it was a sign, but good or bad, he didn’t know. Soon enough he’d be in Mansfield Wayne’s lair and he’d find out if he’d made the right choice. He really only had two and he’d been grappling with the decision the whole trip from Oregon. Should he call it in, report Peeps, and come up to Wayne’s with the cavalry. Or should he come alone, play it by ear and maybe save his partner’s ass.
He hung a right at Radium Road, as per his instructions. There were no homes on this road, stately or otherwise. It seemed deserted, spooky, as it wound up the side of the mountain. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t below freezing, so the snow was melting as fast as it the road, but the landscape on both sides of it were getting a dusting. Tall pines lightly covered in snow reminded him of Christmas and he wondered if he’d blundered so badly coming up here that he’d be unemployed, or worse, incarcerated by the time the holidays arrived.
Maybe he should turn back. Maybe he’d made the wrong decision. The road curved around a bend and Mouledoux saw lights up ahead. Mansfield Wayne’s estate. He slowed, pulled over to the side of the road, killed his headlights. He’d made the wrong choice, he was sure of that now. He’d been stupid. Wayne had two kidnap victims up there, his partner was complicit in the crime and here he was, Mississippi Bob Mouledoux, joining the side of the bad guys.
Sure, he’d told himself, he wasn’t really, he was going in to try to rescue his partner from the dark side, but that would never fly with internal affairs, his chief or anybody else who might review this afterwards. Heck, he’d never believe it himself. The whole world would think he’d sold his badge for thirty pieces of silver, just as Peeps had done.
It was too late for Peeps, Mouledoux saw that now, but it wasn’t too late to save himself. His partner’s ship had sailed and was sinking fast and only an idiot would board it now.
He picked up the mic to call it in, but the radio was dead. No chatter, no static, nothing, just dead. How was that possible? He’d been listening to police chatter all the way from California.
He reached for his phone, touched the button to wake it from sleep, but it didn’t leave it’s slumber. He pushed it again, got no joy. He pushed the reset. Nothing. Like the radio, it was dead. That too made no sense, as he’d been using a car charger. The battery should have been full.
Nothing for it now, but to go back down the mountain till he could find a landline. That’d take about a half hour, maybe a bit longer in these conditions. Maybe he could stop at one of the homes that didn’t have a locked gate in front of its drive. Yeah, that made sense.
He was about to turn around when someone rapped on his window. Startled he went for his weapon when the passenger window exploded with the sound of gunfire, raining him with safety glass.
“ Don’t!” a man in black shouted as he poked a mean looking riot gun through the space where his window once was. “I blew your window out with my handgun. I just as easily could’ve used this and taken your head off.”
Mouledoux pulled his hand away from the shoulder holster.
“ Hands on the wheel!”
Mouledoux did as he was told.
“ Okay, mind and you live. Nod your head if you understand.”
Mouledoux nodded.
“ That’s good. With your left hand, open the door, keeping your right on the wheel.”
Mouledoux opened the door.
And two beefy hands grabbed him by the collar, jerked him out of the car. A giant of a man threw him onto the road, which wasn’t nearly as warm as he’d imagined it to be when he was avoiding all those animals. The giant pulled his hands behind his back and in a flash of a second he’d been handcuffed with cold metal cuffs, the old fashioned kind that unlocked with a key.
The other man was on him now, a knee in his back as he reached into Mouledoux’s jacket and pulled out his weapon, then he frisked him the way only a professional can. The man found and took his shield and creds.
“ He’s a police officer.” He got off Mouledoux’s back.
“ He the one Mr. Wayne is expecting?”
“ How about it mister, is Mr. Wayne expecting you?” the one who’d shot out his window said.
“ Yeah.” Mouledoux figured the less he spoke to these men, the better off he’d be.
The giant pulled him to his feet.
“ Can’t be too careful,” the man who’d shot out his window said. “Weird shit’s been going on.”
“ Like what?” Mouledoux said. Then, “And can you take the cuffs off?”
“ Yeah sure. I’m Weed, they call me Weedy.” He unlocked the cuffs.
“ And him?” Mouledoux nodded to the giant, who stood seven feet, six if he stood an inch. He had lightning bolts tattooed on both sides of his neck, which set off his monster of a chin, but the massive square jaw and the tattoos were understatements, compared to the flattened nose that dominated the middle of the giant’s florid face. And, of course, he was hairless.
“ That’s Lugar.”
“ What do you feed him?”
“ Ha,” Lugar said, “good one.” Then, “Don’t let my looks fool you. I’m plenty smart. I’m also a mean son of a bitch and I don’t feel pain. Born that way. I can be your best friend or one motherfucking horrible nightmare. Better for you if we’re friends.”
“ Got it,” Mouledoux said. “Meanwhile, we’re standing out in the snow.”
“ Yeah,” Weedy said, “let’s get inside.”
“ You wanna give me back my piece?”
“ Not just yet,” Weedy said.
“ So, we’re not really pals yet, are we?” Mouledoux said.
“ Not yet.”
Mouledoux decided to end the conversation and walked with them, Weedy in front, Lugar behind, to the gated drive. The gate wasn’t like the decorative gates guarding the estates he’d seen as he was coming up the mountain. This one was made of sturdy chain link and had razor wire on the top of it, as did the twelve foot fence that surrounded the property. The place looked more like a prison.
“ Fence is electric.” Weedy pulled a remote from his coat pocket, pushed a button and the gate slid open. Mouledoux half expected a gatehouse and a guard but there were none. There were, however, cameras mounted on both sides of the gate.
“ Pretty thorough,” Mouledoux said.
“ But not tonight,” Weedy said. “Cameras are on the fritz. Phones, both landline and cellular, are out. Cable too, so no internet or TV. But what’s really weird is the radios don’t work, either.”
“ But you got electricity?”
“ Yeah,” Weedy said. “Lights, the fence, this, he held up the remote, they all work. But communications, video and audio, between us and the outside, are all out.”
“ That’s impossible,” Mouledoux said, remembering the radio in his car and his phone.
“ Yeah, impossible,” Lugar said.
“ You check the radios in your cars?”
“ All on the fritz,” Weedy said. “So, you can see why we’re just a little nervous about who comes calling tonight. Why we might want to shoot first and ask questions later.”
Mouledoux thought about telling them about his radio and phone, but didn’t. It was his job to ask questions and get information, not to give it.
“ Bobby!” Peeps shouted out from the front porch as they approached the house. Next to his partner were two men, Mansfield and Tucker Wayne. They looked every bit in the flesh liked they did live at 11:00 and in the Reno Gazette.
“ Mr. Mouledoux.” Mansfield Wayne stepped forward, hand outstretched. Mouledoux took it as Wayne said, “Come this way.” Mansfield led him along a covered porch that wrapped around his mansion to the back. “I like my privacy, Mr. Mouledoux, but I like to sit outside as well and I don’t like to look at that awful fence.” He sounded like he did on television, authoritative, in command, in control.
“ Wow!” Mouledoux said when he saw the view. The backyard was football field large and it bordered on a cliff. Off in the distance and far below he could see the lights of Reno. Rich people definitely lived better.
“ You should see it on a clear night,” Wayne said. “The lights below, dark here, more stars above than you can possibly imagine. It’s breathtaking. I thank God I’m alive to enjoy it.”
“ I can understand that,” Mouledoux said.
“ And we want to keep him alive,” Tucker Wayne said, “because he does so much good for his community and he’s got so much more to give. Can you understand that as well, Mr. Mouledoux?”
“ Sure.” Mouledoux couldn’t help but notice that Peeps, Weedy and Lugar hadn’t followed them to the back of the house, weren’t enjoying the view with the three of them. He was alone with the Waynes. He could take them, of that he was sure, but he wasn’t armed, so taking them down now would only get him killed, because he’d never get past Weedy and Lugar, not to mention Peeps and whoever else Wayne had guarding his little mountain fortress.
“ Peeps assures us you are onboard,” Tucker said. “Is that true?”
“ Depends.” Mouledoux hated that he had to play like he was on the take, but there was no other way now.
“ You will be paid handsomely, Mr. Mouledoux.” Tucker said,
“ Call me, Bobby,” Mouledoux said.
“ That fast,” Tucker said, “you’re not going to ask how much?”
“ Bobby’s a smart man,” Mansfield said. “He knows we’re fair.”
“ So, why do you need me?” Mouledoux said.
“ Two reasons, Bobby,” Mansfield said. “One, outside of you, me, Peeps and Lila Booth, nobody else alive knows about Dr. Isadora Eisenhower. And two, Peeps says you’re awfully good with a gun and before this night is through, there’s a better than even chance we might need your services.”
“ It looks like you’ve got the bodyguard business pretty much squared away.”
“ Looks can be deceiving. I’ve got six men on duty, my whole staff, plus Peeps and now you. Plus, I’ve got Eisenhower’s granddaughter, which might work in our favor, but with all this, I’m not underestimating the opposition,”
And all of a sudden Mouledoux understood. With all his wealth, with his bodyguards, with his electric fence, with his fortress house, with all this, Mansfield Wayne was afraid.
“ That Lila Booth,” Mouledoux said, “she must really be something.”
“ Yes,” Mansfield said. “But Eisenhower has proved to be something too and with the fact that she apparently can’t die, that makes her very dangerous, very frightening.”
“ And now your communications are out.”
“ That’s disturbing too,” Mansfield said.
“ So what do you want me to do?”
“ Same as us. We wait.”
“ Dr. Eisenhower, wake up.”
“ I wasn’t asleep.” Izzy had been resting with her head back, watching a cloudless sky and shadowy pines flying by, as Lila steered them through the night, driving faster than Izzy had ever driven.
“ We’ll be in Susanville shortly, ten miles. I want to stop by your son’s and talk to your daughter-in-law for a few minutes.”
“ I’d rather not.”
“ We need to,” Lila said. “I’d like to know who took the girls.”
“ My son and I don’t talk.” The last thing Izzy wanted to do was to show up at Johnny’s in the middle of the night.
“ Why not?”
“ It’s complicated.” But was it really? Sure she and Roxanne didn’t get along. The woman hated her actually, but over the years Izzy could’ve worked it out. But she hadn’t. After she’d won Amy in the custody battle, she’d shut her son and his witch of a wife out of her life.
“ I’m sorry to hear that.” Lila turned to Izzy, flashed her a quick smile, then put her eyes back on the road. “Really, I’m sorry, Dr. Eisenhower, but I need to get some kind of idea what we’re up against. I need to know who took your granddaughter, because Manny has people he can call on, dangerous people. He’s done it already, sent some black op types after me in that helicopter. If Black wouldn’t have been there, I wouldn’t be here now.”
“ Damn.” Izzy felt cornered and she didn’t like it. “Why can’t you call me Izzy?” she snapped.
“ Testy.” Lila slowed as they approached Highway 44. She stopped, made the left, turning toward Susanville.
“ Well?”
“ I don’t know. I think it’s because I respect you.”
“ Really?” Izzy knew she shouldn’t have snapped at her. But just the thought of seeing Johnny and Roxanne made her feel ill.
“ Yeah,” Lila said, “and that makes you the first person I’ve ever respected.” She laughed. “But I’ll try, Dr. Eisenhower, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“ I don’t know what I’m going to say.”
“ You’re not going to say anything.”
“ What?”
“ You look like your granddaughter, remember? And she’s just been kidnapped from them. So you can’t go showing up out of nowhere looking like her, with those big brown eyes. You’re going to stay in the car, out of sight.”
“ What are you going to say to them?”
“ I’ll keep it simple. I’m a friend of Amy’s. I have a message for her from you. I’ll be in and out in nothing flat.”
Fifteen minutes later Izzy slouched in the passenger seat, while Lila talked to Johnny and Roxanne, who were lit up under a porch light. It was dark and cold, but they hadn’t invited her in.
Johnny had gained weight. So had Roxanne. Izzy smiled, despite the situation. Johnny had always had a thing for thin girls, had always told her he’d never wind up with an overweight, fatty, fatty two by four and that’s exactly what he’d wound up with. Maybe there is a god, after all.
Or maybe Johnny had changed. Maybe he wasn’t as shallow as she’d remembered. Maybe he’d learned there was more to people than what was on the outside.
On the porch, Roxanne was gesturing, talking with her hands as well as her mouth. Johnny was silent. That was typical. In every relationship he’d been in that Izzy could remember, he’d been sort of a whipping boy. Pussy whipped, that was the term. He lacked self-confidence. She didn’t know why, but it was true and it made her feel guilty, like she’d failed.
Izzy couldn’t take her eyes off him. He was her son and she’d failed him. How come she hadn’t realized that years ago? She wished she could get out of the car, talk to him, make it right.
They went in the house, Lila came back to the car.
“ Good news, I think,” Lila said as she was buckling up.
“ How so?”
“ There were four of them.” Lila started the car, backed out of the driveway, headed back the way they’d come toward the center of town and the road to Reno. “One of them flashed a badge. He was a Reno cop and from his description it could only have been Peeps Friday. He’s one of Manny’s cop friends. Actually, the man fawns over Manny and Manny likes fawners. The others were part Manny’s private security force, Gerald, his number one and Weedy and Lugar. Weedy’s a schemer. Lugar’s a giant. All three are dangerous men, who Manny hired away from Blackwater, one of those security firms the government uses in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“ You got them to tell you a lot,” Izzy said.
“ There’s more,” Lila said. “After they put the girls in their car, Weedy came back to the house, tied up your daughter-in-law and left that note for your son. You know the rest. But what’s interesting is that up until that point, they were acting like they were taking the girls in for questioning because they were looking for information about you. I guess they were acting that way because they wanted the girls to cooperate.”
“ And why is this good news?”
“ Because, and I’m guessing here, but I think I’m right, if Manny sent his own people here, that means he hasn’t called in any more of his black op friends. He’s figured out his mistake, has made some excuse to whoever he called up to send that helicopter after me and he’s called off the dogs.”
“ Why would he do that?”
“ Because, Izzy, see, I can call you that,” Lila made a left and was back on the highway, headed toward Reno, “because he doesn’t want anyone else to know about you. He wants to be young again and he’s figured out if your secret gets out, it might not happen because the government would take an active interest and once they got their hands on you, they’d be the ones eliminating anyone who knew what your blood can do, instead of Manny Wayne. Heck, he’d probably be the first person they eliminated.”
“ They’re never going to leave me alone, are they?”
“ No, Izzy, they’re not.” Lila stopped at the light by the McDonald’s on the east side of town. “Are you tired? Can you drive a bit?”
“ I’m wide awake. I don’t seem to get very tired, so yeah, I can drive.”
“ Good, because I’m bushed.” Lila turned into the Micky D’s parking lot and they traded places. Back on the road again, she said, “Wake me when we get to Reno.”
“ You can sleep?”
“ When you do what I do, you have to have a hunter’s nerves. You have to be able to grab sleep whenever you can. I’ve trained myself to be able to turn off in an instant and I’m doing that right now. See you in Reno.” She closed her eyes and true to her word, she’d turned off.
Izzy didn’t feel she could zip through the night at the breakneck speed Lila had been doing, because in her experience deer were often out on this road after dark, deer and the police. The stretch between Susanville and Reno was a favorite prowling ground for the California Highway Patrol and the last thing she needed was to be stopped and asked for her license, because she sure as heck looked nothing like the picture on it.
An hour and half later, where the two lane highway turned into four at Hallelujah Junction, just before the state line, Lila woke up.
“ How we doing?”
“ Fine. We’re low on gas. I thought I’d stop at Bordertown.”
“ Good. I’ll take over there.” And at the Bordertown casino, which bordered on the state line, they filled up at the casino’s pumps and Lila took the wheel.
“ You have a plan?” Izzy said, once they were back on the road.
“ Short of killing the dogs, killing Manny and Tucker, killing their bodyguards and killing anybody else who might be up there, besides your granddaughter and her friend, no.”
“ So you were serious?”
“ What, when I said we were going to have to kill them all? ’Fraid so.”
“ Can we do that? And even if we can, should we?”
“ Now’s not the time to ask those kind of questions.”
“ Then when is?”
“ I guess there isn’t a good time.” Lila sighed, as if she were bearing a heavy burden. “Look, Izzy, I know this isn’t easy for you. I don’t mean the getting young again business, that’s gotta be scary. I mean the killing business, especially since you’re a doctor. But these are bad men. Manny and Tucker are as evil as they come, I know and I know you know it, too. The bodyguards were all Blackwater killers. Wayne only hires the best, the most ruthless. Peeps Friday, well maybe you could shed a tear for him. He’s a greedy, weaselly kind of man who hasn’t a clue as to the Wayne’s real nature, but he’s sold his soul, so he has to be prepared to pay the price. Believe it or not, the hardest thing for me will be killing the dogs.”
Izzy smiled, despite the situation. Lila was more human than she cared to admit. She’d been a stone killer, had decided to quit, but was turning herself into a killer again because of the trouble Izzy was in. She was doing it for her. And despite it all, despite what she was going to do, she felt tenderness toward the dogs, mean Rottweilers that would probably tear a baby’s head off just for sport.
In the city, Lila drove to an average looking house in a neighborhood not too far from where Izzy lived. She pulled into the drive, parked.
“ Come on, we’ve got to get some things.” Lila opened her door, paused, “And bring your stuff.”
Izzy grabbed her bag from the back, got out of the car, followed Lila into the house, up a staircase and into a bedroom that had been converted into a home office. Lila slid open the closet door, revealing a large safe. She opened it and Izzy gasped.
“ Yeah, a lotta guns.” She turned toward Izzy, “Give me that cannon.”
Izzy opened her bag, took out the forty-five. Handed it to Lila.
“ You have extra ammo?”
“ Yeah.”
“ I’ll be needing that, too,” Lila said. “I’ve only got three Glocks, you’ll be using two, I’ll use the third and your ancient forty-five. That way all your ammo will work in both your guns and you won’t screw up, trying to shove a clip in the wrong gun.”
“ You, of course, would never make that kind of mistake.”
“ No, I never would, but don’t take offense, this is my business, it’s all new to you.”
“ None taken.”
“ Here.” She handed Izzy a Glock. “Can you shoot one of these?”
“ Yeah.”
“ Take it.” She handed over the Glock. “I have something else for you.” She reached back into the safe, pulled out a shoulder holster. “I designed it myself. It’s for a lefty. It straps on with Velcro. You can pull it off in an instant. Handy if you want to lose your weapon and holster in a hurry.”
“ Makes me feel kind of dark,” Izzy said as she was putting on the holster, “evil like, sinister.” She forced a half smile as she holstered the Glock, “Pair of lefties, us.”
“ Word sinister comes from the Latin, means left handed.” Lila pulled a couple more Glocks from the safe.
“ I knew that.”
“ Really?”
“ Latin in college,” Izzy said. She’d never thought of left handed people as being sinister or evil, never thought of herself that way either, but if it wasn’t evil they were about tonight, it was pretty darned close. No matter how Lila tried to sugarcoat it by saying how evil the men were they were going to kill, it was evil they were about. Because murder was evil, pure and simple. But was it murder if you were going to rescue someone you loved? Weren’t you supposed to protect them? Still, that’s what the police were for. But they couldn’t call the police, Lila had made that clear. So what else could they do? They had no choice.
“ You look like you’re having doubts.”
“ What do you mean?” Izzy said.
“ Just what I said. You’re frowning, like you don’t approve.”
“ I don’t think I approve and I do have doubts. I’ve lived my whole life healing people and in the last few days I’ve turned into a killer. True, I had no choice, because it was self defense, me or them. But this, we’re planning murder and though I know there is no other way, it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“ So, you’re good with this, you’re not going to wimp out once we get started?”
“ They have Amy,” Izzy said. “I’m not going to wimp out.”
“ Alright.” Lila handed Izzy a second Glock. “Can you shoot with your right hand?”
“ Sure, I’m primarily a lefty, but in college I was a switch hitter on the girl’s softball team. Except for writing, I’m pretty much ambidextrous.”
“ Good.” She said, handing Izzy another holster. “I designed this one as well. You wear it around your waist. The second Glock sits over your right leg, like a cowboy’s gun.”
“ Velcro too.” Izzy said. “In case you want to lose it in a hurry.”
“ You’re catching on.”
“ So now I know why you wear the long coat.”
“ I have one of those for you as well.”
“ You think I need it.”
“ The coat not only hides your weapons. It’ll hide your vest as well. They’re professionals, if they get a chance, they’ll be going for body shots, so it’s best they don’t know you’re wearing one.”
“ You have vests?”
“ Got a riot gun and a grenade launcher, too.” Lila held up what looked like a high tech sawed off shotgun to Izzy. “This is an M79, single shot, break-action grenade launcher. It’s loud and deadly. I’ve never used it before, so I’m kind of looking forward to it.” She smiled. “Sadly, I’ve only got two grenades, so we’ll just have to make the best of them.”
“ You’re a bundle of surprises,” Izzy said.
“ That’s not all.” She turned back to the safe, took out a large knife in its scabbard. She withdrew the knife. “Sharp,” she said, “I used to shave my legs with it.”
“ A Bowie knife. Think you’ll need it?”
“ I’ve never needed it yet, but I like to be prepared.”
“ Looks like you have enough stuff here to start a small war.”
“ I don’t know about that, but I’ve certainly got enough to get your girls back.”
“ You think we’ll come out of this okay? The girls, too?”
“ There’s not a doubt in my mind. Maybe we started out as Thelma and Louise, but we’re not them anymore. They were victims who wound up dead at the end of that movie. We’re not gonna wind up dead.”