“ And why is this good news?”
“ Because, and I’m guessing here, but I think I’m right, if Manny sent his own people here, that means he hasn’t called in any more of his black op friends. He’s figured out his mistake, has made some excuse to whoever he called up to send that helicopter after me and he’s called off the dogs.”
“ Why would he do that?”
“ Because, Izzy, see, I can call you that,” Lila made a left and was back on the highway, headed toward Reno, “because he doesn’t want anyone else to know about you. He wants to be young again and he’s figured out if your secret gets out, it might not happen because the government would take an active interest and once they got their hands on you, they’d be the ones eliminating anyone who knew what your blood can do, instead of Manny Wayne. Heck, he’d probably be the first person they eliminated.”
“ They’re never going to leave me alone, are they?”
“ No, Izzy, they’re not.” Lila stopped at the light by the McDonald’s on the east side of town. “Are you tired? Can you drive a bit?”
“ I’m wide awake. I don’t seem to get very tired, so yeah, I can drive.”
“ Good, because I’m bushed.” Lila turned into the Micky D’s parking lot and they traded places. Back on the road again, she said, “Wake me when we get to Reno.”
“ You can sleep?”
“ When you do what I do, you have to have a hunter’s nerves. You have to be able to grab sleep whenever you can. I’ve trained myself to be able to turn off in an instant and I’m doing that right now. See you in Reno.” She closed her eyes and true to her word, she’d turned off.
Izzy didn’t feel she could zip through the night at the breakneck speed Lila had been doing, because in her experience deer were often out on this road after dark, deer and the police. The stretch between Susanville and Reno was a favorite prowling ground for the California Highway Patrol and the last thing she needed was to be stopped and asked for her license, because she sure as heck looked nothing like the picture on it.
An hour and half later, where the two lane highway turned into four at Hallelujah Junction, just before the state line, Lila woke up.
“ How we doing?”
“ Fine. We’re low on gas. I thought I’d stop at Bordertown.”
“ Good. I’ll take over there.” And at the Bordertown casino, which bordered on the state line, they filled up at the casino’s pumps and Lila took the wheel.
“ You have a plan?” Izzy said, once they were back on the road.
“ Short of killing the dogs, killing Manny and Tucker, killing their bodyguards and killing anybody else who might be up there, besides your granddaughter and her friend, no.”
“ So you were serious?”
“ What, when I said we were going to have to kill them all? ’Fraid so.”
“ Can we do that? And even if we can, should we?”
“ Now’s not the time to ask those kind of questions.”
“ Then when is?”
“ I guess there isn’t a good time.” Lila sighed, as if she were bearing a heavy burden. “Look, Izzy, I know this isn’t easy for you. I don’t mean the getting young again business, that’s gotta be scary. I mean the killing business, especially since you’re a doctor. But these are bad men. Manny and Tucker are as evil as they come, I know and I know you know it, too. The bodyguards were all Blackwater killers. Wayne only hires the best, the most ruthless. Peeps Friday, well maybe you could shed a tear for him. He’s a greedy, weaselly kind of man who hasn’t a clue as to the Wayne’s real nature, but he’s sold his soul, so he has to be prepared to pay the price. Believe it or not, the hardest thing for me will be killing the dogs.”
Izzy smiled, despite the situation. Lila was more human than she cared to admit. She’d been a stone killer, had decided to quit, but was turning herself into a killer again because of the trouble Izzy was in. She was doing it for her. And despite it all, despite what she was going to do, she felt tenderness toward the dogs, mean Rottweilers that would probably tear a baby’s head off just for sport.
In the city, Lila drove to an average looking house in a neighborhood not too far from where Izzy lived. She pulled into the drive, parked.
“ Come on, we’ve got to get some things.” Lila opened her door, paused, “And bring your stuff.”
Izzy grabbed her bag from the back, got out of the car, followed Lila into the house, up a staircase and into a bedroom that had been converted into a home office. Lila slid open the closet door, revealing a large safe. She opened it and Izzy gasped.
“ Yeah, a lotta guns.” She turned toward Izzy, “Give me that cannon.”
Izzy opened her bag, took out the forty-five. Handed it to Lila.
“ You have extra ammo?”
“ Yeah.”
“ I’ll be needing that, too,” Lila said. “I’ve only got three Glocks, you’ll be using two, I’ll use the third and your ancient forty-five. That way all your ammo will work in both your guns and you won’t screw up, trying to shove a clip in the wrong gun.”
“ You, of course, would never make that kind of mistake.”
“ No, I never would, but don’t take offense, this is my business, it’s all new to you.”
“ None taken.”
“ Here.” She handed Izzy a Glock. “Can you shoot one of these?”
“ Yeah.”
“ Take it.” She handed over the Glock. “I have something else for you.” She reached back into the safe, pulled out a shoulder holster. “I designed it myself. It’s for a lefty. It straps on with Velcro. You can pull it off in an instant. Handy if you want to lose your weapon and holster in a hurry.”
“ Makes me feel kind of dark,” Izzy said as she was putting on the holster, “evil like, sinister.” She forced a half smile as she holstered the Glock, “Pair of lefties, us.”
“ Word sinister comes from the Latin, means left handed.” Lila pulled a couple more Glocks from the safe.
“ I knew that.”
“ Really?”
“ Latin in college,” Izzy said. She’d never thought of left handed people as being sinister or evil, never thought of herself that way either, but if it wasn’t evil they were about tonight, it was pretty darned close. No matter how Lila tried to sugarcoat it by saying how evil the men were they were going to kill, it was evil they were about. Because murder was evil, pure and simple. But was it murder if you were going to rescue someone you loved? Weren’t you supposed to protect them? Still, that’s what the police were for. But they couldn’t call the police, Lila had made that clear. So what else could they do? They had no choice.
“ You look like you’re having doubts.”
“ What do you mean?” Izzy said.
“ Just what I said. You’re frowning, like you don’t approve.”
“ I don’t think I approve and I do have doubts. I’ve lived my whole life healing people and in the last few days I’ve turned into a killer. True, I had no choice, because it was self defense, me or them. But this, we’re planning murder and though I know there is no other way, it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“ So, you’re good with this, you’re not going to wimp out once we get started?”
“ They have Amy,” Izzy said. “I’m not going to wimp out.”
“ Alright.” Lila handed Izzy a second Glock. “Can you shoot with your right hand?”
“ Sure, I’m primarily a lefty, but in college I was a switch hitter on the girl’s softball team. Except for writing, I’m pretty much ambidextrous.”
“ Good.” She said, handing Izzy another holster. “I designed this one as well. You wear it around your waist. The second Glock sits over your right leg, like a cowboy’s gun.”
“ Velcro too.” Izzy said. “In case you want to lose it in a hurry.”