Tucker Wayne didn’t seem as happy to have Mouledoux on board as his father had been. In fact, Mouledoux got the distinct impression the man would rather he hadn’t shown up at all. But maybe he was wrong, perhaps Tucker talked down to everybody.
“ We’ll have our men stationed at the front,” Tucker said through a sneer that seemed a permanent part of his face. “Four will be out walking the perimeter at all times, two will be in concrete foxholes with automatic rifles.”
“ What foxholes?” Mouledoux squinted out into the dark. “I don’t see any foxholes.”
“ Exactly,” Tucker said. “Look, there and there,” he pointed, moving his finger back and fourth.
“ Where those bushes are on each side of the property?”
“ Yes. They aren’t real. They cover the foxholes, more like concrete bunkers, really. The men can stand in them and shoot from ground level. My idea, but Dad went for it in a heartbeat.” He was puffing up, proud of his idea, proud he’d pleased his father.
“ Impressive,” Mouledoux said.
“ There’s a tunnel underground from the bunkers to the guard’s quarters over there.” He pointed to single story house off to the left, inside the wired compound and Mouledoux mentally slapped himself, because he hadn’t noticed it when he’d come in. Of course, he’d been preoccupied.
“ That is impressive. Nobody’s getting past them, but four men walking the fence doesn’t seem like the best use of your resources.”
“ It’s not,” Tucker said. “Usually they have radios, so we only have one man out, but communications are out, so we need the men within shouting distance of each other. Besides, we have both shifts on duty, so it’s not like we’re short of talent.”
“ You have any idea why the radios are out?” Mouledoux said.
“ Not a clue.”
“ Could Booth or Eisenhower be responsible?”
“ Don’t see how,” Tucker said.
“ Odd though, the thing with the radios. Kind of an inconvenient coincidence.”
“ But that’s all it is.” Tucker sounded sure of himself, but Mouledoux wasn’t convinced. He didn’t like coincidences, especially the inconvenient kind.
“ I’d like to see the bunkers.”
“ That’s a good idea.” Tucker’s sneer turned almost to a smile, but not quite. “You should meet the men anyway.” Tucker took him around the estate and introduced him to the four other guards, who looked like capable men. However, Mouledoux thought that like Weed and Lugar, they all suffered from the disease of overconfidence.
He’d said as much to Tucker when they were back in the house.
“ Lila’s good,” Tucker said, “but she’s a shoot from the shadows kind of killer. These men have been to war, they know what killing’s really about. Lila shows up here and they’ll take her out, easier than swatting a bug with a rolled up newspaper.”
Mouledoux had wanted to tell him that Lila Booth wasn’t shooting from the shadows when she’d killed those feds back in Medford. She’d met them head on, standing erect as she’d shot them down. But instead he said, “You’ve got the front covered pretty much, but what about the back? You and your Dad gonna take care of that?”
“ No, we’re going to be in the guard house. It’s built like a brick shit house and has a view of the whole estate, from the front porch to the front gate. In the unlikely event anyone gets past the guards, we can mow them down.”
“ But not Isadora Eisenhower.”
“ Yeah, that goes without saying.” Then, “So what do you think of our setup?”
“ As I said, you got the front covered, but what about the back?”
“ Nobody’s getting in that way. Coming up the back of the mountain is a nonstarter. We’ve got razor wire and an electronic fence down below on an almost vertical section of cliff wall. It was a real bitch to build. As for coming around the side, well there’s the fence, twelve feet tall and full of enough juice to ruin your night, and there’s razor wire on top. And then there’s the dogs. The backyard is their territory. And if all that fails, there’s you and Peeps. You’ll be on station in the kitchen, with lights out inside and on outside, you’ll see anything that moves back there.”
“ It looks to me like you’ve got it covered, but they’re not going to come in shooting.” Mouledoux said. “You’ve got Eisenhower’s granddaughter, after all.”
“ Yes, there is that,” Tucker said as they entered the kitchen. “But better ready than sorry.”
“ So where are you holding the girls?” Mouledoux said as he took in the spacious kitchen with its wide window, overlooking the city lights far away and far below.
“ And why would you want to know that?” Tucker slanted his eyes, pinned Mouledoux with a stare.
“ So I don’t get anywhere near them, just in case this whole thing all goes south. I don’t want to wind up in court someday with them pointing their fingers at me.”
“ Not gonna happen,” Tucker said.
“ Covering your ass?” Mansfield said as he came into the kitchen.
“ Didn’t see you there,” Mouledoux said.
“ Makes no never mind.” Mansfield had a cup in hand, filled it. “The girls are upstairs, in Lila’s old room. They’ve been drugged, so they’re sleeping like babies. They won’t be a problem. If it all does go south, as well it might, you’ll be in the clear, if you’re still alive.”
“ Yeah, if I’m still alive.”
“ Chances are very good you will be,” Mansfield said. “But it’s always best to prepare for the worst.” He winked, turned and left the room.
“ What did he mean by that?” Mouledoux said.
“ Who knows,” Tucker said. “He’s sharp as a tack, but he’s a weird old duck.”
“ Lila Booth used to live here?”
“ Yeah, she moved in right after I moved out. My dad took her in.”
“ So she knows the house.”
“ You’re worrying over nothing,” Tucker said.
“ Probably,” Mouledoux said, but he’d seen what Isadora Eisenhower was capable of and he’d seen Lila Booth in action. He’d made a bad mistake coming here.
“ Make no mistake about this,” Lila told Izzy as they made the turn onto Radium Road. “We’re going to get those girls out of there. They’re going to be okay. We’re going to be okay, too.”
“ How can you be so sure?”
“ You have to think positive.”
“ Alright,” Izzy said. “I’ll do my best.”
“ When I lived up there,” Lila said, “I used to like to date, but Manny didn’t like the kind of boys I went out with, thought they were wasting their youth. So I had to sneak out. He’s got his security guys and his electric fence, so he thought I was well contained. But I’m smart, pretty and even back then I knew how to get a man to do what I wanted, without pulling a gun on him.”
“ What do you mean?”
“ The house backs up on a cliff. It’s a sheer drop, four or five hundred feet. I’m not sure exactly, but enough to kill you if you fall. He’s got an electric fence and razor wire down below, just in case some intrepid rock climber decides to come up the back way. Then there’s the fence around the house, electrified naturally. And if that weren’t enough, there are the dogs.”
“ And his security people,” Izzy said.
“ Yeah, but they’ll be guarding the front. That’s where he thinks he’s most vulnerable and for the most part, he’s right.”
“ For the most part?”
“ Remember, I said I liked to date and that I knew how to get what I wanted?”
“ Yeah.”
“ One of the boys I dated worked for the contracter who installed the fence. It surrounds the house and when it gets to the cliff, it turns in toward it, but only for three feet at both sides, because Manny didn’t want to obstruct his view. There’s a post at each side, right at the cliff. The one on the left side of the house is insulated, so that last three feet of fence ain’t putting out any juice.”
“ Really?”
“ Well, it wasn’t when I moved out seven years ago.”
She made a left turn onto a dirt track that was lightly covered in snow. Izzy didn’t know how she could have seen it. She drove for about a hundred yards or so, found a small clearing with a couple spooky looking acacia trees at the end of it. Lila’s headlights lit up a picnic table.
“ What’s all this?” Izzy said.
“ I don’t know how the table got here,” Lila said, “but it’s been here ever since I can remember.” Lila circled the clearing, backed the car between the two trees. It wouldn’t be hidden during the day, but on this dark night, you’d have to be almost on top of it to see it. “Now you know why I like my cars black.” She shut off the engine.
“ Why are we stopping here?”
“ There’s going to be a whole lot of shooting going on,” Lila said. “Manny’s house may be isolated, but it’s not that far away from the ritzy neighborhood we just drove through. Once the action starts, a whole lot of folks are going to be calling 911.”
“ Then the cops are going to be coming up the mountain, how will we get off?”
“ We won’t,” Lila said. “We’ll wait them out here.”
“ I don’t understand.”
“ It looks like there’s nothing here but a deserted dirt track and a whole lotta dark, but there’s an animal path just the other side of this clearing that winds around the mountain, then goes on up near to the backside of Manny’s estate. It’s steep going and we’ll have to crawl along the fence for a bit, being careful not to touch it. When we get to the cliff, we grab the fence on the cliff side of the last fence pole, swing around, being careful not to let go and fall to our deaths below, then we climb around the fence and voila, we’re in Manny’s backyard, easy peasy.”
“ And they won’t see us as we climb around that fence?” Izzy said, trying to picture it in her head.
“ They’ll be looking the other way.”
“ You think?”
“ Pretty much.” Then, “We walk from here.” Lila started to get out of the car.
“ Wait,” Izzy said. “Give me your knife.”
“ What for?”
“ Just give it to me for a second.”
“ Alright.” Lila had the scabbard over her left leg. Gun on the right, knife on the left. She was an Amazon warrior if ever there was one. Izzy was, too. Lila withdrew the knife, passed it to Izzy.
“ Just in case.” Izzy made a small cut on her right forearm. “Now you, give me your arm.”
“ You’re sure?” Lila said.
“ Yeah.”
“ Okay.” Lila held out her arm and Izzy made a cut. Then she rubbed her arm against Lila’s, cut to cut, mingling their blood.
“ Blood sisters now,” Izzy said.
“ For better or worse,” Lila said.
“ For better, we’re going to rescue the girls, like you said, and we’re going to be okay, too.”
“ Yeah, but what if I wake up tomorrow a seven foot tall black man?” She smiled and Izzy could swear she was lighting up the dark.
“ There is that possibility.” Izzy laughed.
“ I know a girl who used to be a man I could hook up with.” Lila was laughing now, but she cut it short, turned serious. “Now it’s time to kick some ass.” She reached into the back, got the grenade launcher, opened the door, got out of the car and slung the launcher onto her back.
“ How long did you say it’s been since you’ve been on this path?” Izzy said, out of the car now too and slipping her arm into the sling, sliding the riot gun around to her back, as Lila had done with the grenade launcher.
“ Seven years.”
“ Think it’s still there?”
“ I’m hoping,” Lila said.
“ Me too.”
“ Whoops, almost forgot the grenades.” Lila went back to the car, reached in, came out with her pouch, slung it over her shoulder along with the launcher. “Ready now.” She startred off. “Stay close, I don’t know how well your magic blood will work if you fall off the the mountain and go splat way down below.”
“ Don’t want to test that out,” Izzy said.
“ We’ve got about a twenty minute hike,” Lila said. “It’s not that far, but part of it’s slow going.”
It started snowing again, a light powder sticking to the ground, not melting, but cold as it was, Izzy didn’t feel it. She felt like her body was on fire, like there was some kind of internal furnace keeping her warm.
“ You cold?” Lila said.
“ No.”
“ Weird.”
“ Yeah,” Izzy said.
“ There it is.” Lila had found the path and now she was going off into the dark like a wraith in the night. And she was a wraith. They both were. Izzy could imagine them in their dusters, with their shoulder holstered guns and side arms, walking down a dusty western street a century and a half ago. John Wesley Hardin and Billy the Kid lookout.
She stayed close behind Lila now, feeling more like a soldier going into combat than an old west gunslinger because, like a soldier, she was carrying a lot of weight. In addition to the two Glocks, there was the vest and the extra clips in her pockets, not nearly as heavy as the weight a soldier carried, but it felt pretty heavy to Izzy right now. And then, of course, there was the riot gun she had slung over her shoulder.
Lila carried even more weight, as she had the Bowie knife strapped to her leg and along with the grenade launcher, she had the grenades.
At first, Izzy thought it was overkill, that they wouldn’t need all the weaponry, but Lila had insisted. Izzy had been worried about hitting the girls with all the bullets that were going to be flying, but Lila had still insisted, saying it was better to have too much firepower than not enough. Izzy had been worried all the weight would slow them down, but Lila had said that once the shooting started and the adrenaline started rushing, she wouldn’t notice the weight at all, besides, she was young and fit, not an old woman anymore, so what was she complaining about?
Mouledoux had a bad feeling, like he was about to have a root canal without any Novocain. Right about now he’d rather be just about anyplace else than this kitchen with Peeps. If Eisenhower or Booth didn’t kill him, which was a distinct possibility, there was a high probability the Waynes would have his lights punched after it was all over. He was toast. There was no good outcome for him here. Peeps was just another slice of bread in the toaster along with him. They were well and truly fucked.
“ I’m not liking this whole set up, partner,” he said.
“ Nothing to worry about, Manny’s got the whole thing covered, just like always.”
“ Like always?”
“ You’re in good with Manny now,” Peeps said. “You’ll see soon enough.”
“ Tell me now.”
“ You do for Manny and Manny does for you.” Peeps went to a kitchen cabinet, took out a bottle of Jack Daniels, sweetened his coffee. “I’m going to tell you a secret.” He smiled. “My wife’s parents left her dick.”
“ Really?”
“ Not a cent, in fact we got stuck with the funeral bills. If it wasn’t for Manny, I’d’ve gone belly up.”
“ You’ve been on the take all this time?”
“ That’s not a nice way of saying it,” Peeps said.
“ Is there a nice way?”
“ I like you, Bobby,” Peeps said. “We make a good team. You’re smart. You’d’ve figured out what was going on sooner, rather than later, so I had to get you on board. Manny was against it at first, said no way, said he’d checked you out, so he wanted me to take you out, like the others.”
And all of a sudden Mouledoux realized that maybe Peeps wasn’t in that toaster, after all. That it was his partner, not Mansfield’s private soldier types, who’d killed those two doctors and the hospital attorney who knew about Eisenhower. He’d come to save a partner who was beyond redemption.
“ I’ll take a little of that.” He held out his cup, studied his partner’s eyes as he poured the whiskey into his coffee and he saw only the affable, friendly guy that was Peeps Friday. How could anyone look so trusting, so honest and earnest and be what he was, do what he’d done?
All of a sudden the warmth inside of Izzy faded away and she felt cold to the bone as the path they were on narrowed and started upward. It was pitch black, then the path made a turn to the right and the city below lit up the night and even without the stars, she could see for what seemed like forever, but her line of sight was all downward and the path now seemed to end at a sheer drop on the left and sheer climb on the right. Did Lila think they could climb that? Izzy didn’t see how.
Lila stopped, turned back to face her.
“ What do you think of the view?” she said.
“ Stunning,” Izzy said. “Absolutely beautiful.”
“ The next part is straight out of an Indiana Jones movie,” Lila said, “and I haven’t done it in a very long time, so it might be more dangerous than I remember.” She took Izzy’s hand, gave it a squeeze. “Are you still up for this?”
“ Yeah, all the way.”
“ Then look there.” Lila pointed toward the wall that went straight up, moved her arm to the left and Izzy saw it.
“ You’re kidding?”
“ It gets wider,” Lila said. “Right there the ledge is only a foot, maybe a bit more. Animals do it, I’ve done it. It’s pretty scary, but doable.”
“ How far?”
“ Not far till the ledge widens,” Lila said. “Maybe fifty sixty feet, then it’s pretty easy going for a hundred yards or so, then it narrows a bit as it goes up to the top, by the southeastern side of Manny’s property. When we get there, we crawl about five or six yards to the fence, crawl along it till we get to the cliff, without touching the fence, that’s important.”
“ I remember,” Izzy said.
“ Then we see how it goes.”
“ Easy peasy, like you said.”
“ Easy peasy,” Lila said. “They say you’re not supposed to look down, but I find it’s better if you do, if you watch where you’re putting your feet, because a misstep would be a bad thing.”
“ Yeah,” Izzy said. “So let’s do it.”
“ One more thing, we can’t use our hands, nothing to hold on to.”
“ I got that.”
“ Luck.” Lila stepped out on the ledge, back to the mountain.
“ Luck to you, too.” Izzy followed and right away regretted the riot gun slung on her back, because she wanted to get as close to the cliff face as possible. But she was afraid to push herself too hard against it, afraid the gun would snag on a rock or shrub or who knew what. She was also afraid if she pushed too hard into the cliff she’d lose her footing, slip and fall. And she was afraid to look down, afraid to move.
“ Come on, Izzy, you can do this.”
“ I can’t.”
“ Yes you can,” Lila said. “It’s not far.”
“ It’s too far.”
“ No it’s not. Just slide your right foot a few inches to the right, follow with your left.”
“ Can’t.” Izzy really thought she had conquered her fear of heights, but it was clear now that she hadn’t. She was terrified, wanted to be anywhere else but here. She could very well die tonight, be blown all to hell by Manny Wayne’s private army and that she could face, but this, this had her paralyzed.
She had to go back.
“ There has to be another way.” She was about to slide her foot to the left, to give it up when she felt Lila take her hand.
“ Close your eyes and trust me.” Lila gave a gentle tug to the right and against what every fiber in her body was telling her, she did as Lila said, she closed her eyes and held onto her hand, not wanting to squeeze too tightly, but she couldn’t help herself.
The first side step required a tremendous leap of faith. She saw herself falling off the mountain, plunging like granite, too terrified to scream as the ground came rushing up to meet her, but she’d made the leap, moved her feet and to her surprise the next step was every bit as hard for her as was the first.
“ I don’t think I can,” she said, then she felt something wet on her face and she opened her eyes. “Oh my God, it’s snowing.”
“ Izzy, you’re panicking.” Lila squeezed her hand. “You’ve come through so much, now’s not the time for this.”
“ I know. I just need a second.”
“ Think about something else.”
“ We’re out on a ledge in the middle of the night and it’s snowing. How can I think of anything else?”
“ Try.”
“ I can’t.”
“ Listen to me, Izzy, I’ve done this dozens of times. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not the hardest either. It’s not impossible.”
Izzy heard the words, but she was frozen in place. She’d conquered her fear of heights, but here it was, back with a vengeance and that made no sense, because she knew there was a better than even chance that she would wind up riddled with bullet holes once she reached the top and they began their assault, if she didn’t get electrocuted before that, so she shouldn’t be afraid of a little thing like falling off a mountain. Her fear was completely irrational, but it was there and it was locking her up.
“ So what do you think caused this thing that happened to you?” Lila said.
“ What?”
“ You know, what do you think brought you back from the dead? And you were dead, I know, I shot you and I don’t miss.” She squeezed Izzy’s hand again. “Then there’s that waking up young again business.” Another squeeze. “What do you think caused it?”
“ Now? You’re asking me now?” Izzy clenched her teeth against the cold. She was starting to go numb.
“ Just making conversation, till you overcome your fear,” Lila said. Still another squeeze. Her hand in Lila’s was warm. It was as if a heat was radiating from Lila, the warmth moving up Izzy’s arm, killing the cold. “So what was it? Surely you have some kind of idea.”
“ Aliens, I think.” There it was, hanging out there with the snow in the cold, dark air. She’d said what had been hanging around in the back of her mind. “I think it was aliens.” She said it again. Then she told Lila about Kissan and Marlan and their strange accents and how she’d delivered their baby, how she’d skinned her hand and about the blood to blood transfer and, as she’d been doing the telling, she’d felt her fear fading away and by the time she’d finished, it was gone.
“ I thought it had to be something like that. That there was a bigger picture.”
“ You can let go of my hand,” Izzy said. “I’m okay now.” Lila’s heat, wherever it had come from, had warmed and calmed her.
“ I think I’ll hold on for a bit, at least till we get off the ledge.” Lila started moving to the right and Izzy went along with her, eyes open, taking in the city lights below, winking now through the snow.
Then the fog started to roll in.
“ Crap,” Lila said, but she kept moving.
“ It’s a sign,” Izzy said.
“ Of what?”
“ I don’t know, but I think it’s a good thing.”
“ It’ll give us cover when we get there, but it’s a little inconvenient right now.”
“ No wind and it’s not cold anymore,” Izzy said.
“ So where’s the fog coming from?” Lila stopped. “Aliens?”
“ You think?” Izzy said.
“ Couldn’t be. That’s crazy talk.”
“ You’re the one doing the talking.” It was quiet, save for their voices, there were no sounds out there on the ledge. No wind, not a hint of a breeze. No night sounds. It was as if they were in a vacuum.
“ We should hurry this up,” Lila said.
“ Yeah.”
Lila started moving faster, pulling Izzy along with her as the fog started closing in, blacking out the city lights below.
“ Would you look at that?” Mouledoux stared out into the fog, which was rolling in thick and fast.
“ I better get Manny.” Peeps left the room.
He didn’t know how, but all of a sudden Mouledoux knew Isadora Eisenhower and Lila Booth were coming in through the back. Manny Wayne had said it was impossible, but somehow they were going to do it. Cliff, dogs, electric fence, him and Peeps at the window, it made no never mind. That’s the way they were coming and somehow the fog was aiding them.
Keeping his eyes glued on the back, Mouledoux saw the fog stop just short of the house and he couldn’t shake the thought that it was alive. There was something going on here bigger than Isadora Eisenhower and the Fountain of Youth she’d apparently discovered or stumbled upon, whichever, it made no difference, because her rebirth as a young woman was only a part of a bigger picture that he didn’t want any part of, especially now that he’d learned it was Peeps who’d taken out the lawyer Drake and doctors Jordan and Romero and not Eisenhower. True, she’d obviously done those hospital security guys at her home, but looking at it now he saw that it was probably self defense and Shaffer had had a heart attack, Eisenhower wasn’t responsible for that.
She wasn’t a killer, not if you didn’t count defending your life and Mouledoux didn’t. That being the case, he didn’t have a dog in this fight and that was good, because this was a fight the Waynes, with their Blackwater thugs, concrete foxholes, dogs and firepower were going to lose, because those women had something on their side that Mississippi Bob Mouledoux was afraid of.
What it was, he didn’t have a clue, God, ghosts, extra-terrestrials, some kind of voodoo or mother nature herself, Mouledoux didn’t know, but it was mighty powerful, whatever it was, and though he didn’t believe in any of that stuff, his mama hadn’t raised a dumb boy. He’d been confronted with some pretty compelling evidence that one of the former had a hand in this, or something equally as powerful.
Those women were going to be here any minute and they were going to get those girls upstairs and take them out of here and anybody who tried to stop them was going to get dead and Mississippi Bob Mouledoux didn’t want any part of it.