The Trinity Game

drank some coffee. “Daniel had never killed anyone, so it was…it was an adjustment for him. But I tell you, he kept his shit together like a pro.”

D aniel woke with a start, a rough hand clasped over his mouth.
    “We gotta move, brother,” Pat whispered in his ear. “Visitors on the way.” Daniel sat up as Pat woke Tim Trinity. “You guys get dressed, meet me in the kitchen. Leave the lights off.” He disappeared into the darkened hallway.
    Daniel and Trinity scrambled into their clothes and made their way to the kitchen by the dim blue light of dawn filtering through the windows. Pat stood at the kitchen table, shoving items into a backpack. He wore a pistol on his belt, an assault rifle slung over one shoulder. Edgar stood at attention by his side.
    “I don’t hear anyone,” said Trinity.
    “Motion detector at the end of the road,” said Pat. “They’ll be here in a minute.” He zipped up the backpack, tossed it to Daniel, and led them to the back door. “Wait for me in the boat, I gotta set the system.” He left them there and headed for the front entrance hall.
    Trinity snapped his fingers. “Shit. Be right back.” He started back toward the bedrooms. “Gotta get my Bible.”
    “Leave it,” Daniel called after him, “I’ll buy you a new one.” Trinity didn’t stop, but he was back quickly, blue Bible in hand.
    They ran down to the dock and Trinity scrambled into the airboat. Daniel tossed him the backpack, then unwound the line fromthe cleat and held the boat in place. He could now hear a vehicle crunching along the gravel road on the other side of the house.
    Pat emerged from the house, Edgar at his side. He paused to lock the door, then jogged down to the boat, picking up a long aluminum pole beside the dock. “Hop in,” he said, and Edgar jumped into the boat, followed by Daniel and Pat.
    Pat used the long pole like a Venetian gondolier, pushing them silently through the water, down to the end of the spit and around, staying close to cypress trees with roots that rose from the water like skinny legs with bulbous arthritic knees. Spanish moss hung down from the branches just above their heads.
    “Eyes upward, Tim,” said Pat. “You’re on snake watch.”
    “Got it,” said Trinity.
    Daniel resisted the urge to look up as well. He shot a quick glance back from his position in the bow, just to satisfy himself that his uncle was scanning the branches, and then focused his attention forward.
    A car’s engine shut off and its doors went:
thunk…thunk-thunk, thunk.
At least four men. Gliding silently around the other side of the house, they could now see it. A shiny black Chevy Suburban, parked just past the fallen tree that blocked the driveway. A white man stood next to the driver’s door. Mid-forties, built like a light heavyweight, wearing black chinos and a short-sleeved Cuban shirt that didn’t do much to hide his gun.
    They crouched low as Pat moved the airboat forward slowly, careful to avoid bumping the aluminum hull against a tree. They were within earshot; such a mistake would be fatal.
    The man standing by the Suburban lit a cigarette.
    “He don’t look like a cop,” said Trinity in a stage whisper.
    “And those aren’t government plates,” said Daniel.
    From the stern, Pat said, “Can you see my front door?”
    “Just a little further,” said Daniel. “OK, stop.”
    Pat jammed the long pole deep in the muck, held the boat fast.
    There was a man crouched below Pat’s living room window, gun in hand. Two more men stood by the front door. The white guy holding a pistol, the black guy a tactical shotgun.
    The black guy was Samson Turner.
    “Shit,” Trinity whispered to Pat, “that’s the guy who tried to kill us. Let’s get the hell out of here!”
    Pat shook his head. His face was unnaturally calm. “They’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet.”
    Trinity’s eyes were wide with fear. He whispered, “No, no, we should just leave.”
    “And they’ll just come after you again,” said Pat. He handed the pole to Trinity. “Now shut up, take this, hold us in place.” Then he gestured to Daniel. “Switch with me.”
    As Daniel crept to the stern, Pat knelt in the bow and brought his assault rifle into position, clicked off the safety, and looked down the sight. He spoke under his breath, “Come on, look in the window, you know you want to…” The man crouching beneath the living room window started to raise his left arm. “That’s