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The day he visited the garage his friend showed him another vehicle, an oversized armored truck, in a far corner away fros had been visible on the shiny black elo asked about it, his friend sied Gold ht Even as they talked, Angelo had seen atheo space
The deck treree or so Angelo went beyond fear and was now in the throes of genuine terror
His heartbeat ratcheted up several notches Slowed as the ship settled He wondered how close it was to rolling over He looked at the life jacket he'd been carrying and laughed The vest would not do ood if the ship capsized and sank with hiive it Then it was up to the top deck as quick as a rabbit He and Carey would work soe He took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped through
The cavernous space was black except for yellow puddles frolanced toward the starboard side and saw rippling reflections on the floor where the garage was taking on water Water surged around his ankles Seawater e
't filled yet, it would be so in minutes Chances were that any cars in the ould have been crushed by the knifing bow He wouldn't havea wall toward the far corner He could see the boxy shape in the shadows and the glint of light off
its dark s Logic was telling hio any farther Get out of the hold and to the top deck Pronto Before the garage became a fish tank
The iainst the wall like a butterfly The truck was her last chance, yet no chance at all Most likely the jack would be locked inside He had convinced himself he would have to leave e look at the truck That's when he discovered he wasn't alone
A pencilthin beahts Then portable lamps flared and were placed on the floor so as to illu around There appeared to be several ray uniforms, others black business suits They had the side and back door of the truck open He couldn't see what they were doing, except that they seemed to be very intent on their work He was about twothirds of the way across the garage and opened his nores" The word never left his lips
Soures appeared suddenly like actors on a darkened stage Vanished into the darkness Appeared again Four of the across the breadth of the hold So about their furtiveness, like the stealth of a cat stalking a bird, told Angelo to reures, shouted a warning, and reached for the holstered gun at his hip
The men in coveralls dropped to one knee withto their shoulders That selo he'd beenrow up in the houn looked like and hoas aimed
Fouron the i it The fusillade ripped into hirated in a scarlet cloud of blood, flesh, and clothing froyrated, caught in a grotesque slowmotion death dance by the stroboscopic effect of the whitehot muzzle blasts
The others tried to scraht down by ,the merciless hail of lead before they could take a step The ly chatter and theoff the armored truck and the wall behind it Even after it was quite clear that no one could have survived, theat the supine bodies
Suddenly all was silent
A purple pall of s in the air, which was thick with the smell of cordite and death
The killers o ainst the bulkhead frozen with fear, cursing his luck He must have stumbled onto a robbery! He expected the killers to start re sacks ofThey lifted the bleeding bodies out of the rising water, dragged them one by one around to the back of the truck Then they stuffed them inside, slammed the door, and bolted it shut