Easy Prey

gonna get him outa there?”
    The negotiator said, “Listen, he’s gonna set a deadline, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it. Killed the hostages. If he’s suicidal . . .”
    “I don’t think he’s suicidal,” Lucas said. “He’s just nuts. He tried to cover his tracks on a couple of these things. . . . I don’t think he wanted to be caught.”
    “Yeah, well, maybe. On the other hand, he may pop that woman,” the negotiator said.
    Rose Marie said, “What do we do?”
    “Figure out some way to start him toward the airport? Maybe snipe him?” Lucas suggested.
    She looked at Lester. “Where’s that Iowa kid?” The Iowa kid was the department sniper.
    “He’s on his way.”
    “So let’s set him up. If he gets a clear shot . . .” She looked at the negotiator. “We need some more time. Ask him how he wants to get to the airport, what will keep him safe.”
    “Aw, man,” Lucas said.
    “What?”
    “I don’t know. Look at this bullshit.” He waved at the TV trucks; there were eight or nine of them. Four helicopters orbited overhead.
    “Well, that’s what it is,” Rose Marie said. She looked at the negotiator. “Ask him how he wants to do it.”
    As the negotiator was talking, the mayor arrived. He looked at the gas station, then at Lucas. “How’re you gonna get him outa there?”
     
 
AN ARMORED CAR.
    “Aw, man,” Lucas said.
    “Will you shut up?” Rose Marie said.
    “Can I talk to that guy? For just a minute?”
    The negotiator looked at Lucas and said, “We have established an element of trust between us.”
    “Oh, bullshit, he sounds like he’s making the moves before we are,” Lucas said. “You trust him, he doesn’t trust you. Let me talk to him.”
    Rose Marie looked at the mayor, who shrugged. “I’m no expert,” he said.
    “Go ahead,” said Rose Marie.
    Lucas took the phone. “This is Lucas Davenport. I’m the guy who chased you with the Porsche, and I want you to know you messed up a perfectly good paint job.”
    “Tough shit. What do you want?”
    “I want to come up to the gas station door and talk to you, away from this crowd. You’re up there in a bulletproof booth, I can’t hurt you, you can’t hurt me, and you got the hostages. I just want to talk to you away from this crowd.”
    “About what?”
    “About TV.”
    “What?”
    “About all this TV. Give me two minutes. I won’t come inside, I’ll just stick my head in the door.”
    After a moment: “If this is a trick, I’ll kill this lady.”
    “This is no trick. I’m just tired of all the bullshit,” Lucas said.
     
 
HE WALKED UP to the station with his hands open, held at armpit level, stopped at the door, pushed it slowly open, then leaned inside.
    “How are ya?”
    “What, you’re doing a Henry Fonda impression?”
    “No. I just don’t want anybody to get killed. Especially me.”
    “What do you want?”
    “To work a couple of things out with you. First of all, you don’t want to go to Cuba. You know what they do to you in Cuba? They put you in prison. Forever. The last guy who hijacked a plane down there hasn’t been seen since 1972. They might be Commies, but they don’t like criminals. They’ll stick you into a wet drippy dungeon with a bunch of rats, and you’ll wind up looking like the Count of Monte Cristo. Stillwater prison is a goddamned garden spot next to anything you’ll get in Cuba.”
    “Maybe I’ll take that chance,” Scott said. Being the hard man, Lucas thought. Lucas could see him clearly through the glass: a thatch of straw-colored hair, a heavy, ruddy face, plastic-framed glasses, and the Coke coveralls.
    “Look, you see all those cameras out there? What if I walk one of those cameras up here and let you make a statement to the world about what you were doing for Alie’e. Then we cut out all this Cuba bullshit and killing innocent people in front of TV cameras so everybody’ll know you’re an asshole—and you just come in and tell us what happened to you. You’ll have lawyers and everything. You’ll be treated well.”
    “What channel?” Scott asked.
    Lucas thought, Gotcha, and said, “Any channel you want. I’d recommend Channel Twenty-nine, because they play right into Fox, which has the best news department, as I’m sure you know.”
    “No, no. None of that Fox bullshit. Channel Three: that’s CBS down here?” Scott asked.
    “Yup.”
    “Let’s talk to somebody from Channel Three, see what they say,” Scott said.
    Lucas