Lady Death, Brian Drake [howl and other poems .TXT] 📗

could do was shoot fast and end the threat.

The driver remained behind the wheel, and he and Raven locked eyes. Dark hair, glasses, leather coat. The boss. Raven lifted the Glock and fired twice. The phuts from the suppressor made little noise over the commotion. One of the gunmen fell against the car and slid down, leaving a smear of red on the passenger side.

The second gunner, lifting a submachine gun, leaned into a firing position. Raven rolled right as the burst chewed into the concrete and ricocheted with a sharp whine. Raven fired again. The gunner’s head snapped back. As he shifted to the driver, the man with the glasses put the car in reverse and backed away with a screech of rubber.

Raven fired again and again, tracing a line of shots across the windshield. The driver executed a screeching bootlegger turn and powered across the lot.

Tanya emerged from the bushes, dress and hair a mess, her mouth open in shock. She still clutched her purse.

He ran to her, grabbed her arm, and pulled hard. “Where’s your car?”

She ditched her heels and took the lead, running hard across the blacktop, Raven staying back to cover her. No other threats showed themselves, but the man with the glasses hadn’t departed either. He saw the car moving among the lot. A shark on the hunt.

Raven and Tanya dodged between vehicles, stopped at a silver Nissan. She popped the locks with a remote and dropped behind the wheel. As the lead killer powered his car down the aisle toward them, Raven ran around the back of the Nissan. He fired two more shots. The driver stuck a pistol out the window and returned fire, Raven staying low as the unaimed shots flew wide. He pulled the trigger again as the car passed, firing fast to try and hit the driver. No dice. The Glock’s slide locked back over the empty magazines. Raven tossed the gun and ran to the passenger side.

Tanya peeled out of the parking space and took off in the opposite direction of the killer’s car.

The tires screeched as the Nissan hit the street, Tanya making a sharp right turn into traffic. She sped through a changing light, crossing the intersection. Shifting lanes, she made the next left. The turn threw Raven against the door. He buckled his seat belt.

“Know them?”

“Not the shooters,” she said. “The driver is Sila Kaymak. Turkish. Top killer.”

“He missed tonight.”

“He’ll be back.”

“Do you have a gun?”

“Little Beretta in my purse.”

Raven grabbed the purse from the center console and flicked it open. He laughed. She’d given him an apt description. The “little Beretta” was a .25-caliber 950 BS. Hardly useful in the kind of fight they faced. It was a hideout gun. A last resort.

He closed the purse and put it back on the console.

“Straight to the embassy?” she said.

“Yes.”

“Tell me where to go.”

“Let’s make sure we’ve lost our killer first.” Raven told her to make the next right.

He pushed the seat back for more legroom. The Nissan was too cramped for his height.

“How do you get around if you don’t have a car?” she said.

“Stockholm has an amazing public transportation system.”

She laughed. “You’d rather pay bus fare than road tolls? What’s the difference?”

“The truth is,” he said, “I’m home so little having a car doesn’t make sense. It would sit parked most of the time and probably not start when I returned.”

“I see. You want something to complain about.”

“You mean about the tolls?”

“Yes.”

“I’m an American abroad,” Raven said. “Americans complain about free meals.”

“Germans do too.”

“Human nature, I guess.”

Raven shifted in the seat. Tanya performed counter-surveillance maneuvers like a pro. She made several turns, Raven checking their backside for the Mercedes. Convinced they were clear, he told her how to get to the embassy.

She stopped for a red light. “It’s not a good life, is it?”

He turned to her. The glow of the stop light tinted her face red.

“What isn’t?”

“What we do.”

“There’s a big difference between what you and I do, Miss Jafari.”

“We both fight for a cause.”

“Right. You kill people for not following your religion and I try and stop you.”

“No! We’re defending our religion and our land from people like you who want to take it!”

Raven laughed. But it wasn’t the time to point out she hadn’t been born in the land she zealously defended. “Nobody wants your land, Tanya. Nobody cares about your religion, either. We want you to stop strapping bombs to your back and walking into airports.”

“And you bomb us to stop us. You invade our land and kill our children.”

“Tell me another way. Seriously, I’m open to suggestions. Talking sure as hell hasn’t helped.”

“My point is we’ve both dedicated ourselves to righting injustice.”

“You expect me to buy what you’re selling? Because I’m not. We didn’t start the fight, Tanya.”

“My question, if you can stop arguing with me for a moment, is what has the fighting taken from us?”

“That’s your question after your epiphany, Tanya?”

“Why are you attacking me? I’m trying to come clean with you, so you understand—”

“My fight hasn’t taken anything from me, Miss Jafari.” If you only knew... “Sounds like you’re talking about yourself.”

“Maybe I am. It’s why I’m here.”

A moment of silence passed between them. Tanya stayed focused on driving.

“How long were you in the Middle East?” Raven said.

“Five years.”

“Not very long.”

“The first year and a half was training,” she said. The light changed and she drove forward. “They broke us down and built us up again. We needed to get the poison of the West out of our systems.”

“I understand the process.”

“I’ve only been a field soldier for two years.”

“They sent you out on a mission, you killed somebody, and decided the romance was gone?”

Her jaw tightened. Her slender fingers gripped the wheel hard. He didn’t feel bad needling her. He was testing her reactions. If she were lying, she’d crack. If she wasn’t, she’d reaffirm her resolve with increased vigor. And vitriol because he had to be making her mad.

“Why don’t you believe