Acts of Nature - By Jonathon King Page 0,77
and gain control of that gun. It only happens in the movies that way. In real life I would have to wait for a mistake, a surprise that might come from an outside source, a prayer answered from someplace else.
Long ago I had dribbled the last of the canned peach juice into Sherry’s mouth and with the back of my hand felt the heat coming off her forehead and neck. I conceded that my ability to gauge might be diminished, but I convinced myself that the fever had gone down with the liquids and the food. She had opened her eyes several times, though it was hard to read how reactive they were in the dim light of the Coleman lantern.
I was also trying to gauge what time it was, waiting for the sunrise. With the knife strapped to my calf I’d got more than I could have hoped for. I could cut the bindings on my ankles quickly enough. Then I’d hold the blade with my insteps and slice through the tape on my wrists with a single stroke. Then it would be hand-to-hand combat against three—at least two of them armed and who knows what the other kid brought back with him from the airboat. I’d spent most of the silent night flexing my fingers, keeping up the blood flow and working the scenes in my head, how I would move, the advantage of my height and length, the possibilities of when, but not where. I couldn’t wait any longer. I’d have to take my chances here, in this small room where their movement would be confined. I’d need the shotgun first. It was a vicious thing at close range, but in this tight space the shot pattern wouldn’t have time to spread out. Whatever it hit would be a shredded mess. The exact timing, though, was impossible to plan. I’d need to wait for sunrise because even if we were lucky, even if I neutralized all three, there was no way I could find the airboat in the dark. That was my reasoning, but I was still asking myself why they had waited this long. They could have blown a hole in a window of the other room with mat shotgun alone and men torn their way through me internal skin. Even if Buck had convinced himself that the room was filled with narcotics, wouldn’t he have taken a chance of unloading it at night with flashlights rather than wait until morning when they’d be operating in the open? Maybe they’d grown cocky, working out here where they knew the territory, where they knew the water routes and the range of boats and sounds of intruders. Maybe they thought they were invincible.
My own head work was draining my energy. It had to be close to sunup. I closed my eyes and might have even dozed off because when I woke, all my planning of the night before went down the tubes. Circumstances out of my control forced my hand, and like every good special op gone funky, you sometimes do best by saying “fuck it” and adapting on me fly.
From the reaction, all of us heard me sound of the chopper blades at the same time.
My eyes snapped open; my fingers, numb from the loss of blood and movement, had that tingling sensation in them that makes you want to yelp, then they almost involuntarily went down to my pant leg where the knife was hidden.
Across the room the kid, Marcus, stood up with the shotgun, the wooden legs of the chair scraping across the plank floor. When I focused, Buck had changed positions from when I last checked him. He had been sleeping, stretched out next to the lamp, but was now sitting with his back against the wall, eyes fixed on the light. Wayne just rolled over on one elbow and said: “Huh?”
“It’s a helicopter,” Buck said. His voice not anxious or even surprised. “Small one by the sound.”
Marcus moved toward the door and his buddy quickly got to one knee and, uneasily, still unsteady from sleep, followed him. I was thinking, “Now! While they’re distracted,” but when I glanced back to Buck he was pointing the .45 directly at me.
“That’s all right, officer,” he said. “Don’t bother getting up; we’ll check it out.”
The boys stopped at the door, Marcus now with his hand on the knob.
“Cops, you think?” he said back at Buck, who was now on his feet. He did not have to