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"My boys already searched that place," Sullivan infornored him, too, for a closer study of the trapdoor It was heavy, but not unexpectedly so, and a few inches thick I ranfor soave it a push and it swiveled, revealing a cavity Angling the door just right, I could see down inside, glier books

"Bingo," I said by way of announceet a look

After the first wave of satisfaction passed, Sullivan seeain, my influence on him wasn&039;t so firmly fixed that he couldn&039;t overcoh

"Get the in, but ela, or even Opal "Have to fish the unless one of your boys is on the dainty side"

"Don&039;t be smart"

"Then have so this stuff"

He sent one of the goons away and we stood around with our hands in our pockets and not saying anything There was quite a chilly draft co from thatIt made the exit door at the bottoainst its latch I checked down there, but it was eo?" asked Gordy

"Coet away froain once the books were out, just vanish and pop down the rabbit hole with the Sullivan with one hell of a h for Gordy, but he could take care of himself, probably pretend to be as astonished as the others If it seemed necessary, I could always dump the books someplace safe, like the roof, then hurry back to help hirab Sullivan for a little private talk Then Maxouldn&039;t be the only guy telling his life story to Merrill Adkins Noouldn&039;t that be sweet?

The goon was taking his tio find out what the holdup was Another fewcolder

"They&039;re not gonna find anything," he finally concluded "Here-" He pulled a claw haave it to Gordy "I&039;ll watch hied, but the rooive hi away on the to pry them apart Iton beloas barely aware of it, all istered with ht have been a freak echo of Gordy&039;s ha up the narrow stairs

Then Gordy paused and we all heard it, muffled by the un stuttering

It went on for only a second or two and stopped and was answered by some scattered individual shots from semi-autos

"What the hell ?" Sullivan must not have spent any time in the streets and didn&039;t know the universal rule about always running ahenever you hear gunfire, preferably in the opposite direction from its source He hauled out a shiny new 45 and rushed off toward the ruckus

"What is it?" I asked Gordy "So of yours?"

He shook his head "Damned if I know, kid" He left off with the haun clear I followed Sullivan&039;s path, with Gordy behindJeez, how they were yelling The ot-no, there were at least two of theht of the main stairs while I pressed forward Sullivan crouched at the corner, peering down, not

"What is it?" I called

He jumped and turned like I&039;d hit him with a live wire His face was sheet white and his hands shook He was better for giving orders to send histhe work hi &039;eot up next to him and peeked around the corner

Couldn&039;t see a lot, part of the stairs, a man&039;s very still body on it He&039;d fallen forward trying to run up; big bloody holes marred the back of his pale tan coat Saw another body farther down, also notThe rest of what lay beloas blocked off by architecture and smoke Cordite stink filled the air; that and the bloodsrabbed Gordy&039;s arh first and retreated just as fast when I spotted afor so theand fired off a couple rounds to cheat us of escape Didn&039;t recognize him beyond the fact he was a threat

"In here," I said But Gordy ay ahead of ht fit," he commented as he eased into the stairwell

"The door at the bottoht be watched Stay in there until you hear frootta see what the hell&039;s going on"

"The books-"

"Screw the books, get &039;em later"

As soon as his head was below floor level, I lowered the trapdoor on hie fro over it, then pulled a rolling bucket andIt would survive an initial look-see

I went back to the fire-escape , this ti only as much eye past the sill as was necessary The man was still down there Apparently all he had to do wasinvisible, I did exactly that, feeling round I didn&039;t go solid again until I ell behind hih so I could see

All alert, he was engrossed with looking up the stairs, gun out and ready to shoot

Not one of Gordy&039;s ela&039;s crowd, but he seeerous, so I went completely solid and popped hi the fast footsteps He dropped and I grabbed at the gun to keep it fro A no-nonsense Thompson fitted out with a fifty-round druh on the fire stairs out of the way

Gunfire Echoes cracked off the buildings A few spatters of it, then silence

Down the alley, turn two corners, and I was out front The bullet-pocked Packard was slewed across the path of the other cars, and had company with a year-old Ford, which similarly blocked the Caddie

I saw movement at the front entry of the studio, a couple ofthe street up and down for trouble One of theave the area one last look then went into the building, leaving his friend on watch I ducked back to where I&039;d co solid once inside

Listened Nothat would last I worked slowly toward the front stairs Sullivan was gone,in one of the rooms, or he&039;d slipped out the escape while I&039;d been away

Couple more steps and look around the last corner Dead un in hand-loo him

"Adkins?"

He reacted instantly, bringing the gun around fast enough to give anyone else a heart attack I conquered h to put my hands up and told him to hold off a second

"It&039;shere?"

He waited and twostrange and bulky about their clothing until I realized they were all wearing bulletproof vests

"What is this? Some kind of raid?"

"Some kind," Adkins snapped "Take hiuys, remember?"

"Sure, that&039;s why you&039;re so cozy with your friend Gordy"

One of thebelow and couldn&039;t talk anymore

Cordite and bloodsmell Lots of both

Couldn&039;t move, could only stare It was too much to take in

Blood flooded the floor Bodies everywhere, all with that peculiar stillness of death hovering over thee room Dead

Except for the War, I hadn&039;t seen anything ree that made the headlines on St Valentine&039;s Day

Had to shutnausea Gulped it down until I was dizzy, then looked again The sight hadn&039;t gotten any better Noticed one standout froht I knew

Walked over on wooden legs, knelt, and turned him over

It was Maxwell Had been Maxwell

I looked up at the faces of the other men, of Adkins and the tith him They stared back, their eyes full of darkness, the souls that should have been there long gone

"What have you done?" I whispered

"Just made the world a little cleaner," Adkins answered

"You ht"

"And hiun?"

"He will before we&039;re done here" He gave an order to the others and they split off to run upstairs

I focused hard on Adkins, rage welling fast Tried to damp it "Stop them You hear me? Call them back!"

He squinted a little like I&039;d blown smoke in his eyes, then shook his head

"Stop them!"

Too late I heard Sullivan&039;s distant panicked shout before un clatter abruptly shut hiun was square on et past his darkness, put on all the pressure I had I let the rage loose, felt it leaping forward "You call to theet them down here You listen to er, the same kind that had shattered Frank Paco&039;s one for my influence to touch hiarette

I staggered back as if he&039;d been the one trying to do the hypnosis Fought the sickness again; this time it was more emotional than physical I&039;d heard about such monsters, had done news stories on them, had even met a few, but not like this, not in the middle of their handihile the blood was still fresh

"You did the hotel hit, didn&039;t you?"

Adkins shrugged, puffing

"You nearly killed an innocent girl"

"She works for scum, that irl, not rorong I heard about her, about her not being right in the head, so it wouldn&039;t have been any big deal There&039;s tooat a scab, knowing it would bleed "And the other two cops, the fire"

"We had our eye on that bunch for a long tiet some dirt on Sullivan from them"

"Then shoot them in the back"

"They were crooked Crooked cops are cancers, when you find them, you cut them out"

"And what are you? Your world ood or bad with nothing in between, is that how it is for you?"

"We do e have to do"

"You didn&039;t have to do any of this! That&039;s why I gave you Maxwell He could have helped you put the"

Shook his head "I know better Months of courts and fancy talk with fancy lawyers, and even if soo to jail it&039;s nearly always a fluke I&039;d rather haveto pay for new roads than buy rooed Maxith his foot

"The others that Charles and I turned over to you-they dead, too?"

"What do you think?"

Then I couldn&039;t look at hiht kill them all I held it in so hard it hurt

One of them shouted that they couldn&039;t find Gordy "Must have used the fire escape Conrad&039;s out cold in the alley"

"Then we&039;ll catch hianized first"

Only now did they co

"Won&039;t it look funnyhim?" one of them asked

"We&039;re the ones who&039;ll write the report No one&039;s going to question anything"

"They never have yet," the other man assured his friend They let Sullivan&039;s body drop The second man pressed the plated 45 into Sullivan&039;s relaxed hand I noticed the safety was still on, not that it would matter much

Adkins kept watch on me while they went outside to retrieve Conrad and the other y and uninformative about his attacker and very annoyed that he couldn&039;t find his Thompson

"Gordy probably took it," Adkins concluded "We&039;ll get it back, don&039;t worry"

Noas tiarette and make sure their stories otten a tip about afrom Maxwell and ca started, begun by Sullivan and his men and finished by Adkins

"Does Charles knohat you do?" In any other place or time I would have the answer, but here and now

"Not yet Maybe sometime later when he&039;s ready to step up fro and do some real work Then he&039;ll be ready"

"What about your bosses?"

"We get results, they never "

They looked at led to find words tos, and theseso human "It&039;s not just to clean up the world, Adkins You want the headlines thatbefore Repeal The next one will be a real doozy: &039;G-men Nail Hoods in Fiery Shoot-Out,&039; or do you prefer &039;G-roup of outstanding law officers"

"So what if I aood work We all have It deserves recognition"

"You justAll scuiven the chance"

"Not this way"

"Of course, this way You just don&039;t get it, but then you&039;re one of &039;eh "Reht, hi you to come help him out"

"The wire on his phone"

"Easy as follow the leader"

"But you can&039;t kill"Wait and see"

"Escott will know better He won&039;t believe any lie you feed hi with the ic accident You got curious, wanted to tag along with us, and got caught in the cross fire when all hell broke loose, very sad"

"He won&039;t believe that either"

"If he doesn&039;t, then accidents can happen to private agents the same as anyone else"

I bowed e his one

With those words he&039;d made the decision forinto their darkness I would have to kill, after all Turn executioner Watch my own soul slide away forever

Hesitated Wanted to hang on to who I was for just ato happen They&039;d have to finish up fast here before anyone else came

"Stand him over there by the stairs," said Adkins "We&039;ll say he started going up and that&039;s when they got him, that&039;s what started it all"

"Don&039;t think it&039;ll work," one of them commented "Why should they all coet all dra started and ran out in front"

"Okay Get one of their guns and do it"

The un from someone&039;s hand Checked the clip for ammo Raised it up He hardly needed to aim at this distance

I was set to vanish, to startitself into my memory I&039;d carry this and what I was about to do with me for the rest of my life

Burst of fire above and behind s sliced

Before the others could react, another burst rattled the roo Could have been only a few seconds&039; worth Felt like eternity Instinct s hammered overhead and cut down Adkins, cut down all of them

The last man toppled

Silence

I couldn&039;t believe the silence Shut ainst it for a moment

Didn&039;t want to see, but looked anyway

All dead

Head shots All head shots To get past the vests

Looked up the stairs

Angela Paco stood on the top landing, that silly hat still precariously clinging to her hair, her face new-penny bright She had Conrad&039;s hed down at the slaughterhouse, then whipped away

Bloods I stumbled up the stairs to escape it

Past the office, down the hall to the closet She was there, pushing back the bucket and h so she could slip her hand inside and pull out the first of the books

She saw rinned "You kno to throw a hell of a party, don&039;t you?"

"You caainst you, but I got to thinking I really should have the I won&039;t need Opal, though, so you play Salvation Ar?"

"She&039;s fine How long were you listening?"

"Long enough to know you were in over your head"

She was right about that in more than the obvious sense

Before she could continue, Gordy surged up fro flat on her butt

For a second no one

" &039;Lo, kid"

"I don&039;t want any trouble" Her hand was on thearound in the confined space Besides, Gordy already had his gun on her

"Neither do I How&039;s your oldbetter"

"That&039;s good"

"I caet it"

She cautiously reached forward and drew the books out one by one until five were stacked in her ar now," she announced

We un behind, and started walking

"Where you going?" I asked

She paused Turned enough to sht maybe Switzerland"

Gordy nodded at the books "Think you&039;ll need those there?"

"Probably not, but you never know"

"Maybe you&039;d like to cut a deal for them"

"Maybe"

"Call me at the club before you leave, we&039;ll talk about it"

"Okay"

She continued toward the fire-escapeI follohile Gordy struggled out of the stairwell

She stopped at theto look back Big smile for me She was a killer like the ones below, but unlike the that life

She came back, snaked an arht on my lips "You owe h the , her heels clattering on the iddy, floated up to coldly tickle my ear like the wind

Gordy had a look at as downstairs and came back Even he was shaken and suddenly in a hurry He wiped the un down and left it in the closet, then we followed Angela&039;s route down the fire stairs, got in his Cadillac, and drove away, simple as that The buht

He wanted to knohat had happened I told him

"Will there be reprisals fro silence

"Not over this"

"I ela for Sullivan&039;s death"

"Not after I give &039;e into it

Neither are you So long as I&039;s, you and your buddy are strictly hands off frouy in this town That&039;s a pro"

"Uh-uh, we both owe Angela"

"They couldn&039;t have killed you"

"But I would have had to kill them"

"You ain&039;t cut out for that kind of work"

"I know And I&039;d have had to do it Then she stepped in She can handle it a lot easier than I I feel it, she doesn&039;t"

He shrugged "Yeah, she takes after her old man and then some"

I rubbed the spot on hMy heart didn&039;t beat anymore, but it was still there instead of a scraped-out empty space The darkness hadn&039;t taken it away just yet

Angela had sparedtime

I wondered if she&039;d ever try to collect