Page 51 (1/2)

At the sah the roof, the sound of a machine pistol shattered the malaise of the street Bits of he net absorbed a dozen rounds The fishere so Juan didn’t have to worry about hiether they raced to their left to what looked like a busier street

When they broke out froround all around theunman was too hopped on adrenaline to tame the notoriously inaccurate weapon Juan and Sloane found temporary cover behind a ten-wheeled truck

“Are you okay?” he panted

“Yeah, just sorry for you that I’ve been eating like a pig since I arrived here”

Cabrillo chanced a peek around the back of the MANN truck One of the gun his way down the roof, covered by his co Luka’s apartmentThey spotted Juan and raked the truck with autofire He and Sloane raced toward the cab The tall cargo box hid the Juan to step fro hood and then onto the cab He had his pistol ready and took the shot before the gunmen upstairs could see hie was only twenty-five yards and Juan coht The bullet sla a chunk out of his right hand The Skorpion went flying as he lost his grip on both it and the corrugated sheeting He tuh for his breaking bones to be heard across the street

Juan ducked out of sight before the other assassins could pinpoint his location

“What now?” Sloane asked, wide-eyed

“One of them will stay in theto make sure we don’t make a break for it while the other takes the stairs down” Juan looked around

While this was never a busy part of town, the road was utterly deserted now and in a way looked like it hadn’t been occupied for years Trash fluttered in the gutters and he expected to see tu by at any second

He wrenched open the truck’s passenger door and saw the keys weren’t in the ignition Franklin Lincoln could hot-wire it in under a unot the diesel fired He took another quick look up at the apartment The assassin ell back from theframe but maintained an uninterrupted view of the truck

“Think, damn it, think”

The building next to therocery store but its ere shuttered with sheets of plywood Up the block was an open park with dirt rather than grass while behind thele-faht

He rapped a knuckle against the truck’s exposed fuel tank It rang hollow: almost, but not quite, empty He unscrewed the filler cap and saaves of diesel fumes rise in the hot air

There were a few things Juan carried with him at all tiht with a xenon bulb, and a Zippo lighter that would remain lit once the flint wheel was turned He used the knife to cut a strip from the bottom of his shirt and lit it with the Zippo He moved Sloane toward the front of the truck and dropped the burning rag into the tank

“Step onto the bumper but stay low and keep your ed her ears