you, but if you knew geology, you’d know a six-acre pool is like, unheard of. It’s not like some fucking little pocket well with fucking anticlines an’ shit. It’s a full, shale-roofed stratigraphic trap or some damn thing. That’s where the big oil finds always are. And these two geeks worked for FCP&G and they proved the field with this well… called a delineation well and …”
“You bought the company?” Joe interrupted. “Is that your story? But the money was still in your car. You think I’m stupid?”
“I don’t know how that happened, they musta—”
“What were you doing hanging out with Victoria Hart?” Joe interrupted again. “She tried to put me in jail for attempted murder. We had to kill three people to shake her off. Now she’s in your hotel room calling you ‘honey’ and ‘darling.’ You make me want to vomit.”
“She was in makeup, Joe. I didn’t recognize her. She was pretending to be Laura Luna, the company’s Financial Officer. See Chip Lacy, he’s the President of the company, but he had a heart attack and…” Tommy stopped because Joe rubbed his forehead in disgust. “Listen, this whole thing sounds stupid, I know … but if you’ll fucking listen, Joe, just listen to me, I’m sure you’re gonna—”
“You know why I quit clipping guys and started letting you do it?” Joe interrupted for the third time.
“Look, Joe, this whole fucking thing … I can explain it.”
“Reason I quit was I couldn’t stand listening to dead men whine. You used to be a man; don’t go out whining. Not that I care about memories anymore… but why don’t you help me here and stop it? You’re nothing but a walking piece of yesterday. A disappointing part of my personal history.”
“Joe, how can you say that?”
“Only reason I don’t put you down right now,” Joe continued, “is this suit is raw silk, and at this range, I’m gonna get pieces a’you all over me from the back spray.”
Tommy looked into Joe’s eyes and saw such cold clarity that he knew his brother wasn’t kidding.
“Joe, please listen … just let me …”
But Joe thumbed back the hammer and fired a shot. The driver of the van jumped and almost ran off the road. The bullet tore through Tommy’s chest, puncturing his lung. He jackknifed forward from recoil and landed on Joe’s lap, pouring blood all over the black, raw silk suit.
“Nuts,” Joe said softly, then pushed his stunned and bleeding brother back into a sitting position. “Now shut up, will ya? I don’t wanna hear any more.”
They arrived at the Presidio entrance on Lombard. Reo pulled the Lincoln around in front of the van, got out, and, using a padlock key he had in his pocket, opened the gate of the old, abandoned military base. It sat on fourteen hundred acres of prime waterfront land and used to be the military command center for the eight Western states until it was closed because of budget cuts. The site was magnificent, with its wood-frame, turn-of-the-century architecture. The clapboard structures were built in the 1870’s, with large bay windows that looked out on the Golden Gate Bridge. Reo stood aside as the Lincoln, driven by Doughboy and containing Reefer, Beano, and Victoria, pulled through the gate, followed by the sharpshooters in the white van with Joe and Tommy. Once they were through, Reo locked the gate. Then he got in the Lincoln and they pulled up Presidio Boulevard, past the deserted Letterman U.S. Army Health Clinic with its low eaves and slanting roof. They passed the old wood-frame Army Headquarters, which was closed up and abandoned. They turned left on Arguello Boulevard and headed up into the hills, leaving the base and the road lights behind. They drove south on the old rutted road, climbing toward the wooded hillside where Reo and his squad had done their LURRP training years before.
“They’re in the Presidio,” Grady said into the mike as he hunched over his GPS unit in the back of the van. He had a slight tinge of annoyance in his voice. “They could get lost up there. Let’s move in. I’m gonna take the Lombard gate, you guys go in on Presidio Boulevard. Don’t fuck with the lock, break it off if you have to.”
Denniston was already out of the van and had taken the tire iron and busted the lock on the Lombard gate. He got back in the van, and they drove up into the Presidio. … Following the GPS,