Black Wolf

“Wait!” yelled Nuri. “Wait!”

The policeman looked at him. Not understanding, he continued to run.

“Wait, wait!” shouted Nuri, closing the distance between them. He grabbed at the policeman’s arm. “Set up here—set up to get the driver.”

The sniper stopped.

“Get the driver first,” said Nuri, pointing.

The sniper dropped to one knee. Below on the road, the Russian was arguing with the policeman. The car started to back up.

“Now!” yelled Nuri. “Get him, get him, get him!”

They heard the shot in the distance, then another.

“What are you doing, American!” yelled one of the Wolves.

Before Da

“We have someone stopped at the roadblock,” he said. “We had to fire warning shots to get them to stop.”

“You will let the car proceed, American,” said the Wolf.

Boston looked at Da

“OK,” said Da

Nuri pulled the passenger out himself. Blood was everywhere. He dragged the body to the side, then pulled off his jacket. He was wearing a watch cap, but it was too sodden with blood to put on.

“Give me your pistol,” he told one of the policemen.

Reluctantly, the man handed it over. Nuri rolled down the window, closed the door, then went to the driver’s side. The body of the driver had been taken out, but the seat was covered with blood. Nuri had no choice but to sit in it.

“I go,” said the sniper as Nuri rolled down the window.

“You have to be prepared to die,” said Nuri.

“I go,” insisted the sniper.

“Pistol only,” said Nuri, pointing to his. “They didn’t have rifles. You understand what I’m saying?”

“Understand. Yes.”

“Take off your shirt,” said Nuri. “You can’t look like a policeman.”

While he did, Nuri thought of one last thing. He leaned out the window.

“Give me a grenade,” he told the policemen. “One of the grenades you showed me at the church. Quick!”

They came back with several. Nuri took just one, then asked for a medical kit. He removed the pin, holding the handle with a pair of bandages. Then he put the grenade down between his legs.

The sniper glanced nervously at him.

“Yeah, I go first if this doesn’t work,” said Nuri. “I can think of a couple of jokes, but they probably don’t translate very well.”

Boston guessed what Nuri was up to as the car approached the driveway.

“They may know who’s been sent to pick them up,” warned Boston. “They’ll see them.”

Da

“You sure that won’t piss them off?”

“Let them get pissed off. They won’t do anything if they think they’re going to get away.”

The helo dropped quickly, its light flaring. The car came up the driveway slowly.

“Why does that helicopter have lights on, American!”

“I want to see what the hell is going on,” said Da

“Turn lights off!”

“No,” said Da

The Wolf raised his gun and fired at the light. The searchlight went dark—just as the car pulled next to the house.

“Now what?” said Da

“Stefan and Androv come out of Building A,” the Wolf said.

“OK.”

“Tell them.”

“How?”

“Loudspeaker.”

“I don’t have a loudspeaker.”

“Then go to the door and tell them.”

“They’ll kill whoever goes to the door.”

The Wolf laughed. “That is your problem, American.”

Nuri glanced at the grenade between his legs. Sweat poured down his palms as he moved it to the edge of the seat against the console. He loosened the bandage so that only the weight of his leg kept the trigger from popping.

“When we get out, the grenade will load itself,” he told the sniper. “We have like four seconds. Four seconds. Then the car blows up. You understand?”

“Yes.”

“The car blows up. They’ll be ru

“Yes.”

They were so close to the house that he couldn’t see the roof. This was good—it meant that the Werewolves on top couldn’t see him either. But it was nerve-wracking and dangerous as well—he couldn’t see where they were or what was going on.

“Da

“It came up the driveway,” answered Da

“Is that a good idea? You’re going to let them escape in the car?”

“I have no choice,” said Da

“What? You’re letting him get down?”

“He’s going down the south side,” said Da

Da

“Where are our men?” demanded the Wolf with the rifle.

“We’re working on it,” said Da

The man holding Tiny slid to the southern end of the roof. He had Tiny’s head pressed close to his, using it as a shield. It would be difficult to take him without hitting Tiny; a bullet from the other side would probably go through his skull and kill the hostage as well.

We knew these guys were good, Da

“American!”

“Your men in the building aren’t answering,” said Da

The two men on the roof began talking to each other. The one holding Tiny was inclined to leave their friends—after all, they had left them.

“Get down,” ordered the man with the rifle. “American, back! If you do anything, your friend will be killed.”

Da

Tiny felt his legs dangling over the edge of the building.

Enough of this bullshit, he thought. If I have to die, at least let me do something. Anything.

With a scream, he began to kick and flail his elbows wildly, aiming for his captor’s groin. Whether he hit it or not, the next second he felt himself falling from the roof.

Nuri heard the scream and jerked out of the car, pushing the door closed with his leg, gun raised. The Wolf who’d been holding Tiny let go as he jumped. They were close together, incredibly close—the Wolf was to the right…

Nuri fired as the man fell, and kept firing, moving to his left to get away from the car, shooting wildly. The sniper did the same in the opposite direction.

None of their bullets struck the Wolf’s head, and he rolled to the ground and got to his feet. He put his hand on the car, steadying himself as he took aim at Nuri.

Then the grenade exploded.

“Whiplash! Whiplash! Take them! Take them!” screamed Da

One of the snipers drilled the Wolf on the roof. The man fell backward, sliding head first off the house. In the next moment the grenade exploded in the car. Da

Da

Is it Stoner?

By the time the question occurred to him, Da

He stopped, caught his breath as he saw the man’s lifeless face.

It wasn’t Stoner.

Nuri found himself on the ground. He was thirty feet from the car. He couldn’t recall how he’d gotten there—he’d run, but had he flown, too, when the grenade exploded?