Germ

"Gunman! In the car. I think he nicked me."

Neither man showed a trace of panic or fear, just determination and a healthy measure of ire.

Dang, they breed 'em tough up here, Julia thought. Crouching, she darted behind the cruiser.

The killer popped up from behind the dash, fired, and disappeared. She felt the slug zing past her head.

Both cops let loose with a volley of thunderous shots, evaporating huge chunks of metal and dash and seat upholstery.

Why is he staying in the car? she wondered. Something's wrong.

As if in answer, the assailant sprang up from behind the trunk, his laser-sighted weapon already leveled at them. Before they recognized his presence, he fired and vanished. The bullet shattered the window of the open driver's door and tore a hole in the chest of the orange-haired cop. He cried out and flew backward, knocking Julia to the ground and pinning her feet.

"Stinky! Stinky!" Officer Gilbert called. At least that's what she thought he said; it could have been "Stanky" or "Spanky." The officer's name patch was no help: the bullet had ripped right through it.

Gently, quickly, she pulled her legs out from under him. He gritted his teeth, grimaced, rolled his eyes toward her. He looked so young. She got her legs under her and crouched down, ready to leap, run, or roll. With one hand she applied pressure to the wound; the other gripped her pistol.

Gilbert was already screaming into a microphone, stretching its coiled cord out the door as far as possible.

"Officer down! I need backup! Now! Now! Now!" He gave the cross streets. A female voice squawked in reply.

He dropped the microphone, bobbed his head up and down, high enough to see the wrecked car through his own broken windshield. "How is he?" he asked, not turning to look.

"Alive. Looks bad."

Stinky was holding on to consciousness by a thread.

Gilbert jumped, seeing something. He rose, thrust his arms over the roof, and fired three rounds.

And waited.

Nothing.

Sirens swelled in the distance, approaching fast.

A flicker caught Julia's attention, and she looked down. A red spot of light hovered on Gilbert's ankle.

"Move!" she yelled and leaped toward him, too late.

His ankle exploded as if from an internal detonation. Before the next event happened, she knew it would. The cop yelled and fell to the street. A red spot appeared in the center of his forehead, seeming to have already been there, waiting for him. The back of his head ruptured with the assailant's exiting bullet. The killer had calculated that maneuver with obscene perfection.

"Noooooo!" Moving low, close to the rear tire, she hooked her gun under the car and rapid-fired along the ground in the general direction of the assailant.

On the opposite side of the cruiser, a police unit roared onto Brainerd from a side street and squealed to a stop, headlamps illuminating her Taurus. The assailant fired at it from behind the trunk.

Brainerd filled with a kaleidoscope of lights as a half dozen cruisers converged on the two wrecked cars, three from behind her car, bathing the assailant in white light. He spun on them, shooting huge holes into their windshields. Doors flew open, cops beat it for cover behind their cruisers.

The assailant bolted away from the car, running for an alley between the bookstore and Laundromat. As he did, he shot at Julia. The red point of his laser zigzagged around her as bullets plunked half-dollar-sized holes in the cruiser's sheet metal and shattered the asphalt in front of her. The tire behind her ruptured. Holding her ground, she fired back. As his foot touched the curb, one of her bullets struck his shoulder, spinning him around. He glared at her, his eyes wild.

She froze. Only a second . . . less. But in that time, he leveled his gun at her. She didn't see but felt the laser center on her forehead.

A thousand banshees screamed—it took her a moment to recognize the sound of many guns firing at once.

The assailant, still glaring at her, spasmed as round after round tore into his body. Blood and gore sprayed out behind him. Store windows erupted. White powder burst from brick facades, so fine and abundant the buildings appeared to be smoldering.

He would not fall. He jerked his head to look at the police, at the muzzle flashes and smoke that marked his demise. He swiveled his gun toward them and returned fire. He seemed to be absorbing the firepower and hurling it back.

Julia rolled behind the cruiser, trying to press her body into the street. From this prone position under the rear bumper, she took aim at the crazed assailant. She'd heard of doped-up druggies, so numbed to pain, so high on artificial stimulants that it took a virtual army to bring them down. But this was something . . . different.