Page 32 (1/2)

At theonly his bloodstained pants, but Laura knew there would not be tiet him into the jacket, Doctor I’ll take the rest and dress hih to protect hi the unconsciousposition on the examination table, the doctor said, "He shouldn’t beto pull the wounded h the sleeve of the waro to the waiting room at the front of the house It’s dark in there Don’t turn on the lights Go to the s and give the street a good looking over, and for God’s sake don’t let yourself be seen"

"You think they’re here?" the boy asked fearfully "If not now, they will be soon," she said, working her guardian’s left ar about?" Brenkshaw asked, as Chris dashed into the adjoining office and on into the dark waiting rooet hiether, they lifted the wounded man off the exa strap around his waist

As Laura was gathering up the other clothes and the two quart-sized jars of drugs,it all together in the shirt, Chris raced back fro up outside, it must be theht of ’e to do?"

"Daet to the Jeep now And we can’t go out the side door because they ht see us from the front" Brenkshaw headed toward his office "I’ll call the police-" "No!" She put the bundle of clothes and drugs on the wheelchair between her guardian’s legs, put her purse there, too, and snatched up the Uzi and 38 Chief’s Special "There’s no time, damn you They’ll be in here in a couple of et the wheelchair out the back, down the rear porch steps"

Apparently her terror was at last conveyed to the physician, for he did not hesitate or continue to work at cross purposes to her He grabbed the chair and wheeled it swiftly through a door that connected the examination roo the gloomy corridor, then across a kitchen lit only by the illuital clocks on the oven and microwave oven The chair thumped over the sill between the kitchen and the back porch, badly jarring the woundedthe Uzi over her shoulder and ja the revolver into her waistband, Laura hurried around Brenkshaw to the bottom of the porch steps She took hold of the wheelchair fro hilanced at the areaway between the house and garage, half expecting to see an arh there already, and she whispered to Brenkshaw, "You’ll have to go with us They’ll kill you if you stay here, I’ument but followed Chris, as the boy led the way down the walk that struck across the rear lawn to the gate in the redwood fence at the back of the long property Having unslung the Uzi from her shoulder, Laura came last, ready to turn and open fire if she heard a noise froate, it opened in front of hih froht around them except for his moon-pale face and white hands, every bit as surprised by the the street beside the house and into the alley to cover the place fro darkly, was a sub it up-Laura could not blow hi her son down as well-but Chris reacted as Henry Takaha hiht arrasp-it hit the laith a thuain at his adversary’s crotch, and with a grunt of pain, the atepost

By then Laura had stepped around the wheelchair and interposed herself between Chris and the killer She reversed the Uzi, raised it overhead, and brought the stock of it down on the assassin’s skull, struck hiht, and he dropped to the laay fro had a chance to cry out

Events werefast now, too fast, they were on a downhill ride, and already Chris was going through the gate, so Laura followed, and they surprised a second man in black, eyes like holes in his white face, a vaure, but this one was beyond the reach of a karate kick, so she had to open fire before he could use his oeapon She shot over Chris’s head, a tightly placed burst that pounded into the assassin’s chest, throat, and neck, virtually decapitating him as it catapulted him backward onto the alley paveate behind the the wheelchair into the alley, and Laura felt bad about having gotten hi back now The back street was narrow, flanked by the fenced yards of houses on both sides, with a few garages and clusters of garbage cans behind each property, poorly revealed by the la streets at each end of the block, with no lights of its own

To Brenkshaw, Laura said, "Wheel hiate that’s open and get hio with them"

"What about you?"

"I’ll follow you in a second"

"Mom-"

"Go, Chris!" she said, for the physician had already rolled the wheelchair fifty feet, angling across the alleyway

As the boy reluctantly followed the doctor, Laura returned to the open redwood gate at the rear of Brenkshaw’s property She was just in tiures scuttle out of the areaway between the house and garage, thirty yards from her, barely visible, noticeable only because they weretoward the porch and the other toward the lawn because they didn’t yet know exactly where the trouble here the gunfire had coate, onto the walk, and opened up on the the back of the house with bullets Though she was not on top of her targets, she was in range-ninety feet was not far-and they dove for cover She could not tell if she hit theazine of four hundred rounds expended in short bursts, the Uzi could empty quickly; and noas the only autoate and ran after Brenkshaw and Chris

They were just going through a wrought-iron gate at the back of a property on the other side of the alley, two doors down When she got there and stepped into the yard, she found that old eugenias were planted along the iron fence to the left and right of the gate; they had grown into a dense hedge, so no one would spot her easily froate itself

The physician had pushed the wheelchair all the way to the back of the house It was Tudor, not Victorian like Brenkshaw’s, but also built at least forty or fifty years ago The doctor was starting around the side of the place, into the driveway, heading toward the next hborhood She was sure that faces were pressed to s, including those where lights had not appeared, but she didn’t think anyone would see ht up with Brenkshaw and Chris at the front of the house and halted therown shrubbery "Doc, I’d like you to wait here with your patient," she whispered

He was shaking, and she hoped to God he didn’t have a heart attack, but he was still game "I’ll be here"

She took Chris out to the next street, where at least a score of cars were parked at the near and far curbs along that block In the rain of bluish light from the streetlamps, the boy looked bad but not as awful as she had feared, not as frightened as the physician; he was growing accusto car doors You take this side, I’ll take the far side If the door is open, check the ignition, under the driver’s seat, and behind the sun visor for keys"

"Gotcha"

Having once done research for a book in which a character had been a car thief, she had learned ae one out of seventeen drivers left his keys in his car overnight She hoped the figure ht be even more in their favor in a place like San Bernardino; after all, in New York and Chicago and LA and other big cities, nobody but e to work out to one in seventeen, there had to beother Americans

She attempted to keep an eye on Chris as she tried the doors of the cars along the far side of the street, but she soon lost track at hiht vehicles, four were unlocked, but no fans were in any of them

In the distance rose the wail of sirens

That would probably drive off thealong the alleyway behind Brenkshaw’s house, ain