Power and Empire

The Glock was gone, hopelessly lost along with any semblance of surprise Clark had against the rest of the bad guys. He met Sasquatch head-on as the other man came running to investigate the shots from the .45. Clark gave him two more to investigate, these up close and from the hip. He reloaded a fresh magazine into the Wilson, tucking the used one into his back pocket in case he needed the remaining three later.

By now, Zambrano and Chen were both on their feet. Neither appeared to be armed, but Zambrano lunged toward a side table for something. Clark shot him twice center mass, causing both the girls to scream and cower by their deck chairs. Lily Chen shouted something at the nearest triad goon. A glass tabletop shattered behind Clark as Geezer began to empty a pistol in his direction from the direction of the cabana. Bullets snapped off the concrete, at least one twanging off the surface of the swimming pool to ricochet into the trees. Clark returned fire, causing Geezer to retreat behind the cabana. Rattail shot then, from the other direction, catching Clark in a crossfire. The first round went wide, but the second took Clark in the calf. It felt like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer, but he could still walk.

Clark sent another round toward Rattail to keep him honest, took a step, stumbled, and then regained his footing. He was in the open now. Geezer must have seen the wound and decided to press his attack, coming around the cabana, blazing away with his pistol. Clark shot him twice, in the shoulder and the neck, reloading a fresh mag as he spun immediately back to Rattail, hobble-walking toward the cover of a deck pillar as he kept the other man’s head down with spaced shots from the Wilson. He wanted Lily Chen, but Rattail put his body in front of hers, gallantly, and stupidly, absorbing two rounds from Clark’s .45. The man was tough and kept shooting long enough for Chen to shove Magdalena into the water — along with the metal deck chair that was chained to her ankle.

The child sank like a rock, dragged to the bottom by the heavy chair, obviously chosen for that purpose. Clark shot as he moved, emptying the .45 but hitting Chen at least once in the belly and knocking her to her knees as she attempted to drag the other girl into the water.

Clark dove headfirst, eyes fixed on the struggling girl at the bottom of the pool. The shot probably wouldn’t kill Chen — not quickly enough, anyway. She’d surely crawl to Rattail’s gun and shoot Clark while he swam down to Magdalena. But he didn’t care anymore. If he did nothing, the girl would die. If Lily Chen got a gun, the girl would die. This way, at least, she wouldn’t die alone.

Clark made it to the bottom of the pool with two powerful kicks. Magdalena Rojas reached for him, eyes wide, waving her arms, still struggling to pull the chair to the surface. Clark drew her close and gave her a quick rescue breath, suddenly finding his own limbs incredibly heavy. It was impossible to lift the deck chair, let alone swim to the surface with it. He considered dragging it up to the shallow end, but even that seemed a herculean task. Clark checked the leash connecting the chair to Magdalena, and found it to be a chain, not too big, but big enough he couldn’t break it by pulling. A small padlock held it in place. Hopeless…

There was a splash behind him and he turned to find a new face, a female face, surrounded with billowing red hair, swimming toward him. Then Caruso was there, too, and Clark thought he must be dead. But if that was true, then Caruso and the redheaded FBI agent were dead as well. Then he remembered the bullet wound in his calf.

Being dead hurt like hell.

• • •

Dominic Caruso dragged Clark to the shallow end of the pool. Callahan and Olson brought up the Hispanic girl and her deck chair while two other agents saw to a wounded Lily Chen, who now lay on the pool deck, screeching as though her guts were being torn out. One could dream, Caruso thought.

Callahan helped Olson push Magdalena up on the pool deck to Trooper Sergeant Bourke and then waded into the shallows to stand beside Caruso. Water pressed the silk blouse against her skin.

Clark coughed, blinking up at Caruso, then worked his jaw back and forth.

“Shit,” he said. “Guess I’m not dead.”

“Nope,” Caruso said.

“But you are under arrest,” Callahan said.

Caruso frowned. “Now, hang on. This was all in self-defense and you know it.”

“Self-defense my ass,” Callahan scoffed. She wiped the water off her face and sniffed, looking down at Clark. “I’m happy you saved these girls. Don’t get me wrong. But you can’t just go all John Wick and then expect to walk away.”

“Do what you have to do,” Clark said. “I don’t blame you.”