this mess sorted out.
“On the ground,” Ansel shouted. “On the ground now!”
McGarvey watched the big man charging across the driveway, his pistol coming up.
“On the ground,” the federal marshal shouted again.
Mellinger had drawn his pistol, but he looked a little shaky.
At the last moment, McGarvey stepped aside out of the line of fire, kicked the side of Ansel’s left knee, which caused the man to stumble, and twisted the Glock 22 out of his grip.
Ansel reached out and tried to break his fall, but McGarvey shoved him aside with his knee, and turned to face Mellinger, pointing the pistol at the federal marshal’s face.
Mellinger pulled up short eight or ten feet away, almost losing his balance. He was still shaky and he knew it.
“Throw your gun away and get on the ground.”
“I can’t do that, Mr. Director.”
“I don’t want to shoot you, but I will,” McGarvey said, conscious that he was running out of time here. He could definitely hear sirens in the distance now, and there was no way he was going to give himself up.
“You’re under arrest for . . .”
“You saw what just happened here, goddamnit!”
“Mr. Director, you are my prisoner,” Mellinger said doggedly. “And I am taking you in.” He started to raise his pistol.
“I’m sorry,” McGarvey said, and he shot the man once in the left thigh, knocking him to the pavement, and before the federal marshal could react McGarvey was on him kicking his pistol away.
“You son of a bitch,” Mellinger shouted.
“I didn’t kill you or your partner, remember that,” McGarvey told the federal marshal.
He backed away and looked again at the remains of the Company limo, a black rage threatening to consume him. All he could think about was getting away from here. The sirens were getting much closer now.
He turned as a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV pulled up, and raising his pistol he hurried across to the driver’s side.
The window powered down, and Otto was there, dressed in a black suit, the tie correctly knotted, his long normally out of control hair neatly brushed. He was gripping the wheel with both hands, tears streaming down his cheeks, and he was trying to talk, but couldn’t.
His wife, Louise, leaned over from the passenger side. “Get in the car, Kirk,” she shouted.
He hesitated for just a second, not sure how he could go on. But then he knew how he was going to do it, and he knew why, and he yanked open the rear door and jumped in.
TWENTY-SEVEN
On Jessup Drive, above the South Gate, Kangas had seen everything, pulling up just after the explosion. He hoped to see McGarvey’s car destroyed, but instead the limo bearing the man’s wife and daughter had gone up in a flash, with no possibility that anyone inside could have survived.
McGarvey had jumped out of the Escalade and had taken down two men, both of them armed, and had even shot one of them in the leg, before he’d commandeered the Toyota SUV.
“Maryland plates,” he shouted, as the Toyota sped away as if the driver had been there just to pick up McGarvey and get him away. But that made no sense.
“Did you get a number?” Mustapha asked.
The few other cars that had been coming down either Clayton, Jessup, or Patton drives had all made hasty U-turns moments after the explosion and were speeding away. No one wanted to be in the middle of what obviously was some sort of terrorist attack.
“Niner-two-peter, two-romeo-peter.”
“Get us the hell out of here,” Mustapha said, writing the number on a scrap of paper.
Kangas headed up Jessup, which would take him to the cemetery’s main exit on Memorial Drive and then across the river back into the city in the opposite direction that the authorities would be coming. But he figured it would be only a matter of a few minutes before somebody wised up and stationed squad cars at all the gates.
“Son of a bitch, that was close,” Mustapha said.
Kangas glanced at him. “You missed.”
“I didn’t have a clear line of sight.”
“Well we’re in some deep shit now. And we’re going to have to clean the mess ourselves before it gets totally out of hand.”
Mustapha was silent for a moment but then he shook his head as if he’d come to some decision. “Either that or we bug out and take our chances somewhere else.”
“We’re going to finish this, Ronni.”
“Did you see that bastard take those two guys down? It was a walk in the park for him.”
“They weren’t expecting him to