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Carl didn’t say a word, just gathered them up and herded them over to the arettes More cigarettes

Finally: "What happened, bwana?" asked Carl Joplin

Crow looked at him "Is the plastique ready?"

Carl frowned "That bad?"

"Carl, I’ to work"

"Oh Well, we may have a little" Carl stopped as the six policemen appeared

"Kirk," said one of them, "we need to talk"

Kirk looked wearily in their direction, then stood up and joined them They huddled up several steps away

"They don’t look happy," offered Cat

"I don’t blahed "Okay Let’s have it"

"The Mayor & Co are back and pissed"

"How pissed?"

"We’re trapped"

Father Adam leaned forward "Define ’trapped’"

"Boxed in Barricaded Six square blocks of don No in No out Just the team and those six cop buddies of the deputy’s And they’re about to leave"

"They are?"

"Got to The chief fired them by radio just about the time y’all went in the second tiged "They wouldn’t leave without Kirk"

Cat, re the deputy’s javelin-toss of the pike, said, "I don’t blame them"

They looked up as Kirk came back

"How does it look, deputy?" Crow asked hied looks before he spoke

"I think they’re going to try to arrest us in the next few roaned "Aw, shit!"

The deputy went on "They’ve got riot gear and tear gas and assault weapons and the rest of it They’re plenty serious"

Jack eyed hiside Kirk didn’t like the sound of this

"Mr Crow," said their spokesot the idea so to burn down the jail or so "That’s the plan"

The policeet away froet you busted or killed or - "

"I’ve seen a vaht"

Wyatt snorted again "Right to blow up the jail?"

"Rehta use an atomic bomb on the sonuvabitch"

And for a few ed another look with his fellow officers and spoke "Okay, Kirk This is your deal Do what you gotta do But they’re not, gonna let you take out the jail - and we ain’t gonna go along with you on the off chance that you’re right"

Jack Crow nodded "Understood, officer"

The cop glanced at Crow "Mighty nice But I was talking to the deputy" He turned back to Kirk "Kirk, you gotta get away frootta But get out

"No," said Jack but the cop ignored hiroup Come back tomorrow, or maybe - "

"No!" barked Crow and stood up "Look, officer, we can’t leave and come back later It’ll be dark soon They’ll be out then They’ll be free And these people here will be issuing warrants for our arrest

"They already have"

"And outside of this zoo those warrants are going to look real and we’ll go to jail and those beasts will find out where we’re being held and if that place is a tin box like you have here or the Dallas County fucking Jail, they’ll kick their way through the walls like you kick through a picket fence and they’ll carve their way through anybody who tries to stop them and they will kill us!"

Crow stopped abruptly and stared at the other man and breathed hard and mad and for just an instant Cat was afraid the punches would start

But they didn’t

Wyatt, the cop, just sighed and shook his head Then he waved to Kirk, said, "Good luck, buddy," and then he and the rest of theone

"Alone at last," offered Cat

"Not funny, Cherry," retorted Jack "You and Felix and the deputy get off your asses and go see about this barricade business See how tight the seal is Maybe we can figure a way of buying some time" He paused, looked at the sun low in the sky "What little there is of it"

"Don’t bother," replied Kirk "I know the eht" He eyed Crow defensively "This really is a fine local department here"

Crow returned the look "I believe you," he replied sincerely

"So," said Father Ada to start shooting peace officers," said the deputy

Felix and Crow traded a glance

"I don’t shoot people anyunman in a low, firm voice

"It wasn’t a serious statement," the deputy assured him quickly

"Good," said Felix

"Why," Kirk asked quickly, "don’t you just set off the charges now? Before they can stop you?"

Jack shook his head "It’s more than one boom, deputy We have to level the whole damn structure before they’ll be driven out We have to plant charges deep into the rubble usually, before they pop It takes a while"

Carl Joplin leaned forward "And how long you figure they’ll wait, lawman, after they hear that first detonation?"

Kirk frowned "They won’t"

Carl nodded "We got trouble"

"There must be some way to stop them," Adam insisted The priest scanned the others’ faces "What stops the police?"

"You et to in tiht about it Suddenly Cat laughed

"What is it?" growled Joplin

"The media," Cat piped

"Huh?"

"We’ll become terrorists!"

The scheme, hatched to complete detail in less than five minutes flat, was pure Cherry Cat ROTLA, the Republic of Texas Liberation Aret on the horn to the Dallas - Fort Worth "e crisis True, they had no hostages And the mayor and the chief knew better, but with helicopter Mini-caht hesitate a little, even after the first explosion, described to the media "as a symbolic act"

"We just tell ’em if they don’t , like the courthouse there Plus kill all the hostages"

"What demands?" Carl Joplin wanted to know

"A coram will be broadcast over the fascist police trenches at dawn tomorrow," replied Cat smoothly and he smiled

The Teaed a deep voice from over Cat’s shoulder

Theunder two hundred pounds and relaxed Totally and completely at ease, from the hands in his pants pockets to the half smile on his face to the ironic sparkle in his eyes Felix tried to recall the last time he had seen a man so utterly sure of himself, so completely in control of his world

And then he remembered - it was the last Texas sheriff he’d et in?"

"Coupla hours ago"

"Where have you been?"

"Been sniffing around"

"For what?"

The sheriff laughed and put a hand on his deputy’s shoulder

"To see which side of this mess is crazy"

Jack stepped forward "What’s the verdict, sheriff? Both?"

The sheriff laughed again "Pretty much" He stuck out his hand "How do you do, Mr Crow I’m Richard Hattoy"

The two shook hands

"Glad to have you," said Jack "You’re just in tirinned "They said you were a smartass"

"’They?’ Who?"

"Far as I can tell, everybody who’s everwith the last of the cowboys here Been promoted, decorated, and busted down more times than you’ve had safe sex And not just the ency, Treasury Crow, can’t you find anybody to put up with you?"

"Not so far," offered Cat

Hattoy eyed hiht, sheriff"

"You’re still following hirinned "Don’t let his rank fool you We all drew straws and he got Kimosabe"

"That make you Tonto?"

Cat shook his head "Court jester"

Hattoy looked hiive up a corporate law practice in Oklahoma City to paint spaceships?"

"It was Edmond, Oklahoma, and I was a science-fiction book-cover illustrator"

"Okay What’s the difference?"

Cat shrugged "A hobbit or two"

"Uh-huh," h set to it"

"What’s up?" asked Kirk nervously