Blast

“Here! This!”

“Ten?”

“Ammo too. Two boxes apiece, so twenty boxes.”

“We can do it today. You got the money?”

“Not on me, of course. I’ll bring it once I see the goods.”

“You can transfer the money using Ray Pay,” said the goon, giving Brown a piece of paper with numbers scribbled on it. “Here’s the number. When we see the money in the account, we’ll deliver the guns.”

“Yeah, right,” Brown exclaimed. “I wasn’t born yesterday, man. When I see the guns, I’ll give you the money.”

“We don’t do business face to face, get it?” the goon growled in annoyance. “Delivery only. You got a problem with that?”

“Take it easy, okay?” Brown’s mind was racing. “How about this? You show me the guns. If everything is in order, I’ll call my man, and he’ll deposit the money into your account.”

The goon glanced at the driver, who, seeing him in the rearview mirror, gave a barely perceptible nod. The goon relaxed. “Yeah, that should work. We’ll call you.”

The car pulled over to the curb. The goon gestured at the door, indicating that Brown should get out.

“When?”

“We’ll call you.”

Brown got out and the Toyota raced off. Behind it, driving at high speed, was a nondescript sedan; Brown caught a glimpse of a familiar detective behind the wheel. The man was speaking into the walkie-talkie: “They’ve split up; subject is heading north along Cross Road.”

Following a jeep there were a couple more cars, and in one of them, Brown saw another policeman in plain clothes. Then Chambers” car pulled up alongside Brown, and the passenger door opened. Sitting down beside him, Brown said, “It wasn’t Deuce. One of his people, but not him.”

As the car pulled off, Chambers handed Brown a thin folder that was lying on the dashboard.

“Is Deuce’s real name Matt Highley? We found his file, here it is.”

Now Brown was really puzzled: The goon’s driver was looking at him from the mug shot in the police file.

After that, everything went haywire.

The police kept following Deuce and the goon’s car, which seemed to be circling around aimlessly. The helicopter kept on coordinating the detectives, maintaining its distance and a good height, with a running narrative by walkie-talkie: “Subject is turning right on Heuman Street. 9—17, take a left. Over.”

The Toyota kept driving along. Deuce scowled into the rearview mirror. He felt something was up, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. His intuition had never deceived him, so Deuce had learned to trust it, always and everywhere – that’s why he was still in business, rather than rotting away in prison. One of the cars behind him aroused his suspicion. But, casting another glance in the mirror, Deuce saw it turn left.

“What’s wrong?” growled the goon, looking back.

“I don’t know yet. It doesn’t seem like we’ve got a tail, but… I don’t know,” Deuce replied sourly. “I think something’s wrong.”

Chambers and Brown listened carefully to the radio chatter.

“Why they are they running in circles? Chambers wondered nervously.

“They’re checking.”

“Everything go okay?”

“I did everything as we agreed. They didn’t have any reason to suspect anything,” Brown replied, trying to think whether he had slipped up somewhere. It didn’t seem so. Yes, he had been unyielding, but that was rule number one in undercover work. There is nothing more suspicious than a buyer who agrees to everything immediately just to make the deal happen.

Voices kept chirping out of the walkie-talkie: “They’re turning toward Kirby Street. Heading down toward Mason.”

“9—8, take them starting at Mason.”

“Rodger.”

“10—13, take a left.”

Brown quickly looked through Deuce’s file. “Two arrests and a year in prison for possession. No operational information about where he fits into the business. This guy is really good.”

“There’s a highway patrol car on Kinsey Street,” the radio croaked. “Tell them to leave the buggers alone.”

His eyes still on the rearview mirror, Deuce turned onto Kinsey. Just ahead, at the next intersection, was a police cruiser lying in ambush. Diddling his radar gun, perhaps, Deuce sneered under his breath. The second patrolman was walking around the car. They were still 100 yards away when the patrolman on the outside mumbled something into his walkie-talkie and hurried back into the car. But before that, he managed to cast a quick glance in the direction of Deuce’s Toyota.

Deuce caught his breath and squinted. There was something wrong, right now. And there was a way to check.

“The main thing now is not to lose my nerve,” he muttered, and stepped on the gas.

Accelerating quickly, the Toyota whizzed and roared past the patrol car. The policeman at the wheel was looking straight at it, and his radar was pointing that way too.

Crossing the intersection, Deuce looked carefully in the rearview mirror. If everything was normal, the patrol car would now turn on its flashers and go after them.

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