“Hello, Heinz!” Sami yelled.
Of course, it had to be Heinz. It had been that kind of “a errand.” I resisted the urge to peek out the window as I heard footsteps coming our way. I did sneak a glance to Nathan.
He shrugged.
“Sami,” Heinz said. “Where are-”
“In the shack,” Sami said.
Very good, Sami. So far, so good.
“Heinz, they’re in the shack and they have the gun!” Sami yelled.
Very bad, Sami. So far, so bad.
Sami having somewhat compromised the old element of surprise, I stood up and risked a peek out the window. Sami was bolting toward Heinz like a lost puppy toward his master. I could have indeed put one in his back except for three things: I’m a terrible shot with a pistol, I didn’t have it in me, and Heinz had a forearm around Karen’s throat and a gun to her head.
Talk about your element of surprise.
What the hell was she doing here? And what was Hope White doing in the passenger seat?
Using Karen as a shield, Heinz advanced toward the shack and yelled, “Put the gun down, Jew! Or I kill the girl!”
Did you ever wish you were Clint Eastwood? The issue of looks aside, did you ever wish you were Clint Eastwood so you could do the things he does in the movies?
See, Heinz was considerably taller than Karen so his whole big flat head was exposed. Clint Eastwood would have raised that old magnum and blown Heinz’s head clear off his shoulders.
But I didn’t feel that lucky. I really am a terrible shot and my hand was shaking anyway. I just didn’t feel up to making a snap shot just above the head of the woman I love, the potential mother of my child.
“Drop the gun!” Heinz yelled. “Come out with your hands up!”
No kidding, he really said that.
And no kidding, I really did it. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I tossed the pistol out the window then stepped into the doorway.
I looked at Karen. She looked scared, of course, but by no means terrified.
“Hi,” I said.
I don’t do quips well in the face of danger.
“Hi,” she answered. “How are you?”
“Oh, fine. How are you?”
“Ovulating.”
How can you not want to make a baby with a woman who says things like that?
“Is the old Jew in there?” Heinz asked.
“What old Jew?” I answered.
“Nazi bastard!”
“I guess he is,” I said.
“Then he’s next,” said Heinz. He smiled, raised the gun and pointed it right at my chest.
My heart stopped.
“Look out, sweetie!”
I hadn’t even seen Hope slide into the driver’s seat but now she was plowing straight toward Heinz’s back.
Karen slipped out from under his arm and dove to the side. I flung myself sideways as the gun went off.
Twice.
I can’t tell you what happened next. All I can tell you is that when the dust cleared-literally-the Land Rover was inside the shack, Karen was beating the crap out of Sami, and Heinz and I were on our hands and knees looking at each other.
And his gun was on the ground between us.
We went for each other instead of the gun. I was angry, and desperate to save Karen, whom I loved, and Nathan and Hope, whom I had come to like, and-to tell the truth-my own life. So I had a surge of adrenaline that I knew would carry me through. I knew I could take Heinz.
Because I had to.
He beat the hell out of me.
I almost went out when his first punch smashed into the side of my head. I punched back, though, and felt my fist smack into his jaw. I hit him three more times in the back of the neck before he lifted me over his shoulders and slammed me into the ground.
I thought my back was broken. I couldn’t breathe and felt like there was a knife stabbing into my lungs. My eyes watered and I could barely see Heinz standing above me, grinning.
He pressed his boot onto my throat, leaned down, and started to pick up the gun.
Karen lunged for it.
Heinz whirled around and kicked her in the stomach. She doubled up and dropped to her knees.
I dove for the back of his legs and tackled him. I climbed up his back, got a forearm around his thick neck and started to choke him. The big son of a bitch got up, grabbed the back of my shirt and threw me over his shoulder. He held on to my hand, though, and as I flew through the air he twisted my arm and jerked.
I guess I screamed when my shoulder popped out of its socket.
I guess it was me. It might have been Karen, it might have been Hope, it could even have been Sami.
As I tried to get up I saw Sami grab the gun and hold it on Karen. I tried to push up with my feet but the ground was rolling around and the air was pressing down on my shoulders. It didn’t help that I could see my shoulder muscle sitting like a lump in the vicinity of my elbow.
I aimed a punch at where I thought Heinz might be.
The next thing I saw was the flash of his boot in front of my face, and then the world went black.
Chapter 25
When I started to come to, heinz was carrying me on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Which aptly described me: I was lumpy, bumpy, beat, whipped, mashed, and about as useful in a fight.
So I was looking at the world upside-down and backward as we headed up the dirt road up and behind the opposite knoll.
I didn’t much care, though. I was sick, dizzy and hurting in body and soul. I was a miserable failure who couldn’t protect myself, the people I was supposed to look out for, or the person I loved more than anyone in the world.
Why Heinz hadn’t done me the favor of just shooting me back by the shack, I didn’t know.
I was going to find out, because a few minutes later he stopped and dropped me to the ground.
It took all of what little I had left to swallow the scream.
“Ja, this will do,” I heard Heinz say.
He grabbed me under the arms and picked me up like a rag doll.
He stuck his face into my mine and said casually, “Sorry to do this, but I have only so many bullets, ja? And you made me waste two, so…”
A revolver. Six bullets; two fired, leaving four. Nathan, Hope, Sami and Karen.
“What…”
“Mine shaft,” he said. “Boring hole. Fifty feet deep, perhaps. So you won’t suffer long. And soon you have the company of your friends, ja?”
And he dropped me.
I slid down some dirt and then felt myself in open air. I fell and fell and waited for the smack at the bottom that should end this.
I didn’t exactly smack.
I splashed.
I plunged feet-first underwater, didn’t hit bottom, then struggled with my one good arm to the surface.
A circle of light tantalized about thirty feet up. The hole was about ten feet in circumference and God only knows how many scant desert rains it had taken to leave this much water.
I tried to grab the side and my hand slipped. I tried again. Same thing. I couldn’t even feel my left hand, never mind raise it or grab anything. All I could do was tread water, and that just barely.
So there it is, I thought. There’s no way out, no way to help the others, and nothing to do but tread water with one arm until I wear out. Nathan and Hope were beyond help, Karen would die, and I was drowning in the middle of the desert.
A while later, when I heard the distant, hollow thump of the shots, I decided that drowning wasn’t so bad.
Chapter 26
My ribs hurt like hell and my heart ached worse. As I watched Heinz-57 carry Neal away I knew I was never going to see him again.
Neal, I mean.
And yes, I started to cry. This time my heart really was broken and I didn’t care that some little Arab midget was pointing a gun at me, and I didn’t even care if he pulled the trigger.