Persuader

urgent.
    I crawled back ten more feet and then stood up and walked quietly back to join him at the door.
    "They're out of it," I whispered. "Drunk or stoned. We get a good jump, we'll be home and dry."
    "Weapons?"
    "Plenty, but nothing within reach." I pointed at the porch. "Looks like there's going to be a short hallway on the other side. Outer door, inner door, then the hallway. You take left, I'll take right. We'll wait there in the hallway. Take them down when they come out of the room to see what the noise is all about."
    "You giving the orders now?"
    "I did the recon."
    "Just don't screw up, asshole."
    "You either."
    "I never do," he said.
    "OK," I said.
    "I mean it," he said. "You get in my way, I'll be more than happy to put you down with the rest of them, no hesitation."
    "We're on the same side here."
    "Are we?" he said. "I think we're about to find out."
    "Relax," I said.
    He paused. Tensed. Nodded in the dark. "I'll hit the outer door, you hit the inner. Like leapfrog."
    "OK," I said again. I turned away and smiled. Just like a veteran cop. If I hit the inner door, he would leapfrog through it first and I would go second, and the second guy is the guy who usually gets shot, given normal reaction times from the enemy.
    "Safeties off," I whispered.
    I clicked the H&K to single-round fire and he clicked the catch on his Steyr to the right. I nodded and he nodded and kicked in the outer door. I was right there on his shoulder and slid past him and kicked in the inner door without breaking stride. He slid past me and jumped left and I followed him and went right. He was good enough. We made a pretty good team. We were crouched in perfect position even before the shattered doors had stopped swinging on their hinges. He was staring ahead at the entry to the room in front of us. He had the Steyr in a fixed two-handed grip, arms straight out, eyes wide open. He was breathing hard. Almost panting. Getting himself through a long moment of danger, the best way he could. I pulled Angel Doll's PSM out of my pocket. Held it left-handed and snicked the safety off and scrambled across the floor and jammed it in his ear.
    "Keep very quiet," I said to him. "And make a choice. I'm going to ask you one question.
    Just one. If you lie, or if you refuse to answer, I'm going to shoot you in the head. You understand?" He held perfectly still, five seconds, six, eight, ten. Stared desperately at the door in front of him.
    "Don't worry, asshole, " I said. "There's nobody here. They were all arrested last week.
    By the government." He was motionless.
    "You understand what I said before? About the question?" He nodded, hesitantly, awkwardly, with the gun still jammed hard in his ear.
    "You answer it, or I shoot you in the head. Got it?" He nodded again.
    "OK, here it comes," I said. "You ready?" He nodded, just once.
    "Where is Teresa Daniel?" I asked.
    There was a long pause. He turned half toward me. I tracked my hand around to keep the PSM's muzzle in place. Realization dawned slowly in his eyes.
    "In your dreams," he said.
    I shot him in the head. Just jerked the muzzle out of his ear and fired once left-handed into his right temple. The sound was shattering in the dark. Blood and brain and bone chips hit the far wall. The muzzle flash burned his hair. Then I fired a double-tap from the H&K right-handed into the ceiling and fired another from the PSM left-handed into the floor. Switched the H&K to automatic fire and stood up and emptied it point-blank into his body. Picked up his Steyr from where it had fallen and blasted the ceiling with it, again and again, fifteen fast shots, bam bam bam bam, half the magazine. The hallway was instantly full of bitter smoke and chips of wood and plaster were flying everywhere. I switched magazines on the H&K and sprayed the walls, all around. The noise was deafening. Spent shell cases were spitting out and bouncing around and raining down everywhere. The H&K clicked empty and I fired the rest of the PSM's ammo into the hallway wall and kicked open the door to the lighted room and blew up the table lamp with the Steyr. I found a side table and tossed it through the window and used up the second spare magazine for the H&K by spraying the trees in the distance while I fired the Steyr left-handed into the floor until it clicked empty. Then I piled the Steyr and the H&K and the PSM together in my arms and ran for it with my head ringing like a bell. I had fired a hundred and twenty-eight rounds in