The Retaliators by Donald Hamilton

Author:Donald Hamilton [Hamilton, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780449135679
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1976-06-12T05:00:00+00:00

fifteen

Ramón said, "It is not necessary to kill everyone, Señor Helm. We are tolerant; we do not require total annihilation. It is permitted to leave alive a small fraction of the population of Baja California.... You say there is another dead body inland? I presume you shot him in cold blood like this one. Just like target practice from the top of this little hill, very safe!"

He wasn't very happy with me, maybe because, instead of scrambling down to him, I'd made him climb up the sandy ridge to me. I'd had my morning exercise; it was time he got his.

"Safe," I said. "Sure. But not as safe as you, amigo, carefully waiting a couple of miles away for the shooting to stop. You were supposed to be covering me, remember?"

I wasn't very happy with him, either. Down below us, his driver was investigating the capsized Bronco and the dead man draped over the side of it. Nearby stood the staff car in which they'd just arrived, a big, boxy, four-wheel-drive station wagon of Japanese manufacture: Toyota's answer to the larger Land Rover. It had a whip antenna indicating two-way radio communications.

I said, "Two men with choppers, and me with a couple of little one-hand guns, and you're complaining because I made sure of the bastards? What the hell do you think this is, anyway, some kind of a sporting event? They did their best to kill me. They had their chance. Just because they muffed it, was I supposed to turn them loose to try again? That guy inland, for instance—he totally ruined a perfectly good shirt he thought was me, and he may actually have got Mrs. O'Hearn, I didn't have time to check. Just how much does a guy have to do to earn a quick, rough departure around here, anyway?"

Ramón didn't reply directly. "That is another thing," he said. "The magnificent Señora O'Hearn. Why did you bring her? It was not in the instructions—"

"You didn't say not to, and she wanted to come. I have a hunch she changed her mind a little while ago, but that's her problem, not yours." I drew a long breath. "Tell your boy to stop right there, Ramón."

"What?"

"Your driver. He's coming this way. I don't want him any closer."

"But I do not understand—"

I said harshly, "You understand all right. Why are you so concerned about two dead killers? I've seen you act pretty cold-blooded about a number of stiffs in the past; why do these upset you so? Could it be that these well-armed gents waiting for me here were good friends of yours.... I mean it! One step more and the crap hits the propeller! Stop him now!"

Ramón looked at me hard. Then he made a small gesture with his hand. The man who'd started climbing towards us stopped moving. Then we stood there for a while. A small breeze had come up. Off to the right, the wide expanse of Laguna de la Muerte was visible at last, beyond a few more dunes and a wide, flat, grayish beach that looked to be more mud than sand.

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