Black Friday by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone [Johnstone, William W.; Johnstone, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The big guy—Tobey, Calvin recalled—had told him to gather people in the sporting goods store, arm them with the guns and ammunition that were there, and organize a defense.

That was all well and good, in fact it was a great idea, but Tobey had entrusted the task to a kid less than a year out of high school, a rent-a-cop who wasn’t carrying a gun himself and didn’t exactly command a lot of respect.

Calvin wished he’d been able to find Dave Dixon. He had a feeling the older guard would have known what to do.

But he hadn’t found Dixon, still had no idea what had happened to him, and now it was up to him to try to forestall this catastrophe in the making, Calvin thought as he hurried around the store. He wasn’t sure what to do first . . .

Any plans he might have started making evaporated abruptly as he found himself face to face with a black-bearded man holding an ugly, boxy pistol with a stubby barrel. The long magazine extending down from the gun’s grip told Calvin it had plenty of firepower.

“Go into hall!” the man screamed at him. “Everybody go into hall! Now!”

Eyes bulging in surprise and fear, Calvin backpedaled. He held his hands up in front of him, palms out. The gunman stalked after him and swung the gun from side to side to gather up more of the people who’d either been in the store when the trouble started or retreated there hoping it would be safer.

Clearly, the terrorists had made sure that it wouldn’t be safe here or anywhere else in the mall.

Calvin was certain now that the men behind all the bloody chaos were Islamic terrorists. He didn’t like the idea of racial profiling, but really, what else could you think when there were a bunch of swarthy, bearded guys waving guns around and screaming orders in foreign accents?

Calvin supposed he was lucky this man hadn’t shot him on sight, since he was dressed in a guard’s uniform. Maybe the terrorist had seen that he wasn’t armed, not even with a Taser or a baton.

Partway across the store, another man with a gun herded shoppers toward the mall proper. Calvin glanced out there, saw people cowering on the floor and knew that they were being threatened, too.

That was what these guys intended for the people in the store. Herd them out like sheep, force them to lie down with the other prisoners, and then wait . . . for what?

Nothing good, Calvin knew. When an attack went on as long as this one already had, it usually turned into a hostage situation. The terrorists hadn’t been content just to smuggle bombs into the mall and set them off. That would have been bad enough.

The fact that they were taking prisoners told Calvin they wanted to make some sort of statement by doing so. They knew they would be getting a ton of media attention very shortly.

He and all the other people being rounded up were pawns in a game, Calvin thought.

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