The Contingency Plan

Chapter 11

Revelations

Lightning flashed, and for a split second, the whole world was revealed in a harsh contrast of black and white. In that surreal photographic negative, a pistol rose, and the cold eye of pale Moonshine peered over iron sights.

Thunder masked the shot that ripped a fist sized hole through Camel's chest. Momentum carried both he and Shiho forward, but the result was inescapable. Despite half a second to brace for the fall, biting pain seized every nerve in their bodies as they crashed onto the wet pavement.

Not pausing to think, Shiho grunted and heaved with all she had on the wounded man's jacket, wrenching him back to the shelter of a sunken stairwell  by the building.

Ran skidded to a stop and pivoted towards the commotion some three meters back. Seeing a small portion of the concrete wall turned to dust, she realized what was happening and rolled to the safety of the lighthouse tower.

"Just stay there!" Shiho shouted. Her words were cut off by another fusilade, forcing her to cover Camel's body with her own. A moment's reprieve gave her the chance to rip open his jacket and apply pressure to the gore.

His revolver was there in its leather shoulder holster. Quickly, she unsnapped the button and brought it to bear. But she couldn't find him. Those shots could have come from anywhere. Agonizing seconds passed by as she tried to find a target.

Fleeting glances out of the corner of her eye showed Camel's mouth jolting up and down mechanically as blood oozed through his teeth. He would die right then and there unless she stopped to help.

Cursing, she abandoned the defense and went to give what first aid she could to the man.

Moonshine finished reloading his pistol and racked the slide. With the gorilla in a suit drowning in his own fluids and Shiho sporting a broken leg, he knew it was safe to ignore them for later. There was only one threat left.

The girl had pulled some impressive moves in the pursuit of Faulkner and didn't flinch when confronted by his knife. But she was still young and innocent. Subterfuge ought to be enough.

"Is that you, Mouri?" He yelled over the thumping night. "It's me, Lt Greirson! Come on out!"

Ran tried to control her panting breath. Shinichi and Jodie sensei were supposed to have arrested him. Why was he here? What had happened?

In some distant and dark recess of her mind, the answer to this strange discrepancy crept like a hungry wolf stalking its prey; just out of sight. It was still too far away, too vaguely formed to grasp her fully, but she felt suddenly cold by the looming specter. She let her eyes close and, with a deep breath, abandoned all.
                               ***
Uprange, her executioner was taken aback as she walked slowly into his sights. Head down, and with the resigned despair of one with nothing left to lose, there was a haunting, almost wraithlike quality to the girl standing limp in the rain. This wasn't the poor naive thing, eager to please he'd expected. This was something out of a horror film.

"Where's Shinichi?"

Moonshine answered by aiming his artillery. This one would be a mercy killing. The best love stories were always young and tragic, after all. She could join him in eternity.

He went to pull the trigger and end things once and for all, but his service weapon was, in an instant, no longer there. It took half a second for his senses to gain enough traction to confirm he held only thin air and pain. Angrily, he zeroed in first at his shattered sidearm dismantled on the ground, then to its cause.

High above, the sleek profile of a UH-60E Black Hawk helicopter hurdled towards the island. Out one side of the FBI clad doors, Akai Shuuichi grinned in satisfaction over his sniper rifle. Leaning out the other was Kudo Shinichi, back from the dead.