Chapter 3

There was chaos in the intersection as Jonas slowed. A police car was on its side and resting partially on top of a car in the McDonalds parking lot on the right side of the road. The SUV that Mary and Pam had been in was against the front of a dry cleaning business in a line of stores bordering the entrance to a huge parking lot. Several anchor stores bordered the other side of the lot that covered more than ten acres. Another car was pressed against the side of the SUV that Mary and Pam had been in and smoke was coming from under the hood. Two police cars were already on site. One was parked across the mini parking lot and sideways to the front of a coffee shop at the end of the strip mall. Another police car was at the end of the buildings in the strip mall and parked so they could see both the back and the front of the building. Clevis stuck one arm out the window so the police could see his badge while Jonas pulled up behind the police car in front of the coffee shop. Four police officers were behind the police car. Three were crouched and one was leaning against one of the tires. The officer with his arm in a sling had a tourniquet high on his arm and his sleeve was ripped away.

Everyone piled out of the SUV to crouch behind the police car and the SUV.

"Is he all right?" Clevis snapped at the grey haired patrolman sergeant as he carefully raised his head to look through the police cars window to see the front of the coffee shop.

"Got hit in the arm," the sergeant answered angrily. "I think he broke too it when he went down."

Clevis nodded at the status of the patrolman. "What can you tell me about the situation here?"

"Two men dead in the SUV," the sergeant said nodding toward were the SUV against the front of the dry cleaners. "We know there are some hostages but we don't know how many. We know there are more than two gunman but don't know how many." He looked at Jonas and Max and asked, "What are the civilians doing here? Cap'ns on his way and he'll blow a fuse if civilians are here."

Clevis nodded again at the sergeant's summary of the situation. He looked questioningly at Jonas because he wasn't sure how to answer the question about civilians present.

"That's Toni Rizzo's granddaughter and great granddaughter in there," Jonas said in a calm voice. "A Mexican drug cartel kidnapped them last week but they were saved before the cartel could fly them out. This is the second attempt to kidnap them. I think their plan is to get them someplace private, call Mr. Rizzo, and let him listen while they torture them."

The sergeant's face paled at Toni Rizzo's name. The police knew who ran the local mob even if they couldn't prove anything. He paled even more at the mention of the cartel and his breath caught. No police force wants a turf war between two crime organizations in their area. It was even worse when one of those organizations was a Mexican drug cartel. They had no respect for life, property, collateral damage, or publicity. Having one of the cartels in town made it nearly as safe for the police as going to bed with an angry rattle snake. His face grew grim when he listened to Jonas's description of their plans.

The sergeant got control of his breathing after a moment and even though he was still pale he levelly asked, "So, we have a better read on the situation but I still don't know why we have civilians here."

Jonas looked back at the old sergeant and calmly said, "We're Mr. Rizzo's security. We went another direction to draw them after us. They only sent two and I guess the rest went after Mrs. Connors. We can do something you and the city can't. The city can't offer a ransom. We can. As for the situation inside..."

"Joe, can you tell me anything?" Jonas asked silently.

"There are four gunmen and five hostages. Mary, Pam and a waitress named Wanda are innocents. Anna is a policewoman in uniform. She is currently unconscious but she should be okay other than some bruising. They hit her with a pistol. Her brother is with her. He was discharged from the Special Forces yesterday after his last tour in Afghanistan. He stopped here to see his sister before going home to Oklahoma."

Jonas sighed and sat on the ground with his back against the back tire of the police car. "It's never easy," he muttered as he looked across the parking lot at other stores. He had a glimmer of a plan that was really kind of crazy, but he couldn't think of anything else.

"What?" Clevis asked.

"There are four gunmen. They have Pam, Mary, a waitress named Wanda and two others. One of the others is a policewoman in uniform with a first name of Anna. She's unconscious. They knocked her out. Her brother's with her. He was discharged from the military yesterday. He's Special Forces so he could be some help but if he tries to be a hero he could also get all of them killed."

Clevis and Max nodded but the other policemen and the body guards Jonas didn't know stared so hard their eyes were bugging out.

"How do ... How could ... What do..." the sergeant sputtered.

"Believe it and don't waste time asking how," Clevis snapped. He looked back at Jonas and asked, "Do you have a plan?"

Jonas sighed again as he dropped his head back against the fender before nodding. "Do you think Dr. Corwin would rent me that hospital room by the month? It might be cheaper."

Clevis chuckled and said, "Just remember, you aren't immortal."

Max muttered, "Are you sure," and some of his goggled at him.

Jonas sighed again before rising to a crouch. "Clevis, I need your help for a minute over at that sporting goods store," he said nodding across the big parking lot.

Clevis looked at him like he was nuts. He followed his gaze to a small hunting and fishing store then back to Jonas. "What kind of help?" he asked.

"I need a couple of revolvers and some holsters. I need to show them something unexpected when I go in there," Jonas said with a grimace. Clevis started to say something but Jonas interrupted him by asking, "Do you trust me?"

Clevis looked him hard before his shoulders slumped and he nodded. "Let's go," he said with an air of resignation. He looked at the sergeant and said, "If they try to talk, tell them someone is on the way that can talk to them."

The old sergeant could only nod dumbly as he watched the two men run to the side in a crouch.

"Catch up when you can," Jonas called back. He was clearly outdistancing Clevis and the parking lot was nearly a quarter mile wide.

Clevis was panting and holding his chest by the time he reached the sporting goods store. He leaned against the entry way and looked for Jonas. He finally saw him at the far side of the store at a counter. Jonas was holding a revolver and listening as he was spinning the cylinder. He staggered across the store until he reached Jonas.

"D, d, damn it Jonas. Are you going to tell me what you're planning?" Clevis panted.

Jonas looked at the detective then at the store clerk. "This one will work too but I need a couple of holsters. Think western fast draw type of holsters. Do you have anything like that?"

"Yes sir," the young clerk said enthusiastically. "It'al just take a minute ta getem sir," he assured Jonas before rushing off.

Jonas shook his head before turning back to Clevis. "I don't think I was ever that young. How about you Clevis? Were you ever that young?"

"Don't change the subject," Clevis growled. "I'm the one that has to explain myself to the Captain. What are you doing?"

"Okay, but you aren't going to like it. I learned a lot of things last night," Jonas said after looking at Clevis for a moment.

"How the hell could you learn anything last night?" Clevis asked angrily. "You were in a hospital bed all night."

"Yeah, well, about that." Jonas said slowly. "When I'm asleep, sometime, ah, Joe lets me visit with Sheila and Liz. Last night, after they left, I was talking to Joe about what I would be going up against the next time."

Clevis's eyes bugged out. "You were talking to, JOE, last night?" Clevis asked in a whisper loud enough to be heard in St Louis.

"There's no time there," Jonas said continuing his explanation and ignoring Clevis's incredulity. "Like I told you before, he thinks I'll be facing an experienced Red Agent when I go against Carlos Cruz. Joe thought my chance of surviving was between slim and none because I only have a couple of weeks experience as a Protector. He, ah, let me live the life of another Protector to build up some experience."

Clevis could only stare at Jonas for a moment before gently saying, "Jonas, are you sure it wasn't just a dream."

Jonas shook his head and said, "It was pretty explicit Clevis. There were a lot of details."

"Like what?" Clevis asked as he tried to keep in disbelief under control.

Jonas hesitated a moment before saying, "My name was Ben Lewis. I was in the Civil War but I didn't become a protector until after the war. I became a Protector when I tried to stop my squad from raping a couple of women. One of them survived. I called her Han. I couldn't really understand her words because the leader of the squad had cut out her tongue. She became one of my protectors. I would not have survived the five years that I did without her. About five years after I became a Protector I was riding to face a Red Agent. We met some Cheyenne Indians and they were sent to help me. One of the Indians, a brave named Walking Elk, became another one of my protectors to help me succeed. Anyway, we killed the Red Agent but I was killed too. One of the things I learned in the five years was to draw very fast and shoot very accurately."

Clevis was silent for a moment before asking, "So, what do you plan on doing?"

Jonas took a deep breath and let it out before saying, "I'm going to walk in under the pretense of trying to ransom Mrs. Connors and Pam. I will distract them and kill them. Your Captain won't let me just walk in there so I need to convince him that Mr. Rizzo is offering a reward for the safe return which the city can't. The city has a firm policy against ransom."

Clevis started to say something. The look on his face indicated that it was not complementary to Jonas's mental capacity. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Clevis was interrupted by the sales clerk running up with a selection of western style holsters.

"Go get your manager," Jonas ordered the clerk.

"D, did I do something wrong sir?" the boy asked.

"No, but he'll need to approve something in a moment and it will save us time if he's here," Jonas replied. Jonas hesitated a moment and said, "Wait a moment." He pulled out his billfold to extract an American Express card. He handed it to the clerk and ordered, "Run this while you're at it." He pointed at the two pistols. "Include those and the most expensive two of the holsters. If you can have the manager here and the sale paperwork completed in ten minutes then you can add a 20% tip to the total."

"B, but the paperwork, ah, the waiting period, we have to run the background checks, we..." the clerk sputtered.

"Don't worry about that. Let your manager worry about it. That's why I need him here. Nine minutes and 50 seconds," Jonas snapped.

The boy grabbed the documentation for the pistols and ran through a door marked employees only.

There was silence at the counter while Jonas went back to sorting the holsters to find the two that would work best for a fast draw. Clevis broke the silence when he quietly asked, "Do you know what you're doing?"

Jonas snorted. "Do you always know what you're doing when you run into an impossible situation?" He looked sideways at the old detective as he buckled on one of the holsters. "Clevis, I have to go in there to try to save them. I have to do it and it doesn't matter if I go in with a knife, a gun, or a willow switch. I still have to go in. Don't you understand? I'm already damned. If I don't save them and I die without trying, it's death for eternity. If I don't save them and I die then, well, maybe it will be enough. If I do save them and die then maybe I'll have a better chance of it being enough. Don't you see? It doesn't matter if I get shot and killed. All that matters is that I save those innocents and that's not just Mary and Pam now either. It's also a waitress named Wanda and a police woman named Anna and a soldier that has already had his time in the war. I don't have a choice about going in there. My only choice is trying to figure out a way to succeed in saving all of them and surviving."