The Night Crew

'I need the job,' the kid said tentatively.

'Smear a little blood and stand up. what's your name?'

The kid was no dummy: He'd been born in front of a TV set. He wiped blood up his cheek and said, 'Charles McKinley. How do I look?' His cheek looked like a raw sirloin.

'Great. That's McKinley, M-c-K-i-n-l-e-y, Charles, regular spelling.'

'Yeah.' He touched his face again: the blood was brilliant red.

'What's your job up there, Charles?' A

'That's really great,' she said. 'Now what.'

The pig screamed, and A

The woman who'd been holding it had carried it toward Jason's camera, where Jason was interviewing the Rat. As it screamed, the animal kicked free, and ran.

The Rat stooped and tried to scoop it up, like a bouncing football; but the pig went through, smacked into his ankle, and the Rat fell squarely on his butt: 'Shit,' he shouted. 'Get the pig.'

Jason was still on him, lights in his face: He rolled and the pig, now panicked, ran behind the woman who'd originally held him, did another quick turn, and as the Rat tried to get to his feet, ran squarely into the Rat's chest, knocking him flat on his butt again.

Jason stayed with it as the Rat scrambled to his feet.

A

Creek lit up and the kid told his story, breaking into tears again as he got caught up with it.

A

'There are some guysthey just didn't make it tonight,' Rat said. He started to say more, when A

She unclipped it and stepped away, glanced at Creek, who was still with the kid. 'Yeah.'

Louis, calling from the truck seventy-five feet away, excited: 'Jesus, A

'Where?' A basic rule: everything happened at once. A

'I don't know, somewhere on Wilshire, close, I think. I'm getting the address up.'

'Get it now,' A

'I'm getting it.'

'How're we doing on the cops here?'

'You got a couplethree minutes, I just heard the call.'

'Get the address, Louis.'

'I'm hurrying.'

A

And to the kid, 'Cops'll be here to help, minute or two.'

Louis came back on the phone: 'Jesus, A

A

'Hey, what, what?' Jason kept shooting.

'Close down! Get in the truck. Now.'

Creek's light went down and he was moving, no questions, but the Rat shouted at her, 'Wait a minute, wait, what're. Hey, A

A

Creek yelled at her: 'What?'

'We got a jumper,' she shouted back. 'Let's go, Jason.'

They ran toward the truck: Louis had climbed into the driver's seat and was backing off the sidewalk.

As A

Creek: 'I know the place: Jesus, it's two minutes from here.'

'Gotta hustle,' A

Creek spun the truck in a U-turn, paused at Le Conte long enough to make sure he wouldn't hit anything, then swept through.

'Louis, whatever happens with the jumper, this animal thing is an A-tape,' A

Jason said, 'That pig really pissed off the Rat; I think it's heading for a barbeque.'

'I got a great shot of this little mouse, Louis, really cute,' Creek shouted over his shoulder.

'Shut up, shut up,' Louis said to them all. He had an earphone clamped over one ear. Then, 'The guy's still out there. On a ledge. There's hotel people talking to him. He's from a party, high-school kids.'

Creek had the gas pedal on the floor and they just caught the light at Wilshire. As they swept through the intersection, A

'I'm ready,' Jason said.

'Creek?'

Creek nodded. Creek was always ready.

'Louis, talk to me,' A

Louis' eyes were closed, and he was leaning away from them, listening hard. 'There're cars on the way, we got maybe a minute by ourselves. Maybe two minutes.'

A

'They were drifting down south after that chase,' Louis said. 'They're way the hell down by Huntington Beach. They're out of it.'

A

'You got it, sugarbun,' Jason said.

Creek showed his teeth: 'Sugarbun?'

Jason gri

'Yeah?' Creek glanced at A

'Me'n A

'Shamrock,' A

He pointed, and A

She turned away from his straining face, and looked where he was looking. Five stories, A

They were doing seventy-five, the wheels screaming, right up to the hotel, then Creek hammered the brake and cut sideways and they went over the curb again and Jason spilled out, ru

The man on the ledge had his back to a sheet of plate glass, his arms spread. The ledge, A

'Guys, I'm go

Hotels didn't want to know about media. As far as hotels were concerned, no media was good media. A