Clayton waited. Then he waited some more. It had seemed like five minutes since he mentioned Gerrard’s name. There had been no response. He had one clip left, and he had no idea how many of them he was facing. He glanced at Darlene. She was breathing easier now that the gunfire had stopped. The silence continued to give no clues as to his next move.
***
Julio Perez looked out the window of his office. There were still no police cars pulling in. Old man B’s barbs were continuing to grate on him. Julio reached for the phone. Old man B pointed and smiled. “Hah! Some railroad trespasser isn’t worth the time of the cops. You might as well let me go.”
“Listen, you’ve been nothing but an uncooperative pain since I found you by the fence. By the way, you’re paying for that.”
“Paying for that? Huh.” Old man B uncrossed his arms, then recrossed them. “That rip in the chain link has been there since the mid 1960s. Fat chance I’m paying for something your company should have fixed decades ago.”
“We did fix it. I fixed it last month.”
“The hell? It was in the same place I remembered.”
“It’s a popular place to cut the chain link to get into the rail yard.” Julio began walking in a circle around the room. “So, if you didn’t cut the chain link fence, maybe the people you helped did.”
“Those clowns. Huh. No way. They were too wet behind the ears to figure that part out.”
“So you helped more than one person?”
“Uh…um…so what if I did?”
“Well, we’d need to know what to charge you with.”
“Typical railroad bull. All talk and no action. Even the Sioux Falls Police are…hey, what are you doing?” Old man B was being lifted up by the right arm by Julio.
“Well, I’m going to take you in personally. If they won’t come to me, I’ll go to them. I’ve got another bull who can keep an eye on the place.”
***
It was a sunny day. The birds were especially loud. Will was just two weeks away from finishing his training. His job with the Sioux Falls Police Department was a sure thing. He was visiting his mother and father in Brookings when the black car pulled up. The man wore all black, and had little to say, other than that Will’s only brother had died the previous week. He couldn’t tell them why, how, or even exactly when. They didn’t even release his body to the family. They had a private ceremony for an empty grave, and an empty citation from the President and head of the C.I.A. Will thought about how his parents were never the same, and how he swore he’d never help the C.I.A. with anything if he could help it. He could feel the anger again building inside. It was as if someone had ripped a six year old band-aid off his soul tonight. He wanted to drive back to the station and find that Garrett person and…
SKREEEEEEEE
BEEEEEEEEEP
