Insurgents

24

The road where I had almost been killed by the Escalade led to a flat clearing that was brightly lit. There were four banks of lights, high up on poles like at a football field, and they illuminated a large patch of pavement and two long buildings. One of the buildings was open on one side, like a big garage door. It wasn't until I was almost to the top of the hill that I saw the small airplane with it's under compartment open, and it's stairs down. It was an airfield.

When we pulled up to the side of the building I saw a body face down in a pool of blood, still holding onto a handgun. The bike's wheels went through the blood and it seemed incredibly cold to me that he would drive through the man's blood. He could've easily avoided it.

"Who's that?" I asked when he had stopped the bike.

"His name wouldn't mean anything to you." Dennis said.

I got off the bike and looked at the man. "It's not Junior?"

"No, Junior's in the office." He said. "Come on." He opened the door to the side of the building and went in and I followed him. It was a small office with fake plants and a large framed photograph of a glacier on the wall. Junior Pierson sat behind a desk listening to someone speaking on the other end of the phone. His left arm was still in a sling. He didn't look surprised to see me.

"I gotta go." He told whoever it was. "No, tomorrow." He hung up the phone and looked at me. "Ben Perkins." He said. "Why am I looking at you right now? What possible reason could there be for your presence here right now?"

"He called the cops." Dennis said. "When he saw those bitches coming up here, he figured they were going to try to kill you so he called the cops."

"How long ago?" He asked me

"I don't know." I said. "Twenty minutes or so I guess."

"Oh, they should be here soon then." Junior said. "I guess we'd better call the Jesus Committee."

"Yeah and tell them to hurry." Dennis said. "We leave Ray where he's at?"

"Yeah, no time anyway, the JC will take care of it. I guess Ross'll get some more flight hours now."

"Hell of a way to get them." Dennis said. "What about our security guard here?"

"Former security guard." Junior said. "They recently terminated his employment."

"He was trying to help you." Dennis said.

"Is that true?" Junior asked me. "How did you know they'd come up here?"

"I figured whoever killed Freddie was going to try to kill you next so I waited down the road and kept an eye on your driveway. I was going to warn you."

"Yeah, nice work," Dennis was laughing, "usually you warn somebody about something before it happens."

"I got held up on the way." I said looking at Dennis.

"You really want your job back that much? You appoint yourself my personal bodyguard?"

"Look I don't care one way or another. I just don't want to see my friend go down for something some crazy bitch did."

That seemed to satisfy him. "I'll call the JC, you have a talk to our savior here." He said to Dennis.

"Come on." Dennis said. I followed him outside and we stood not far from the body of Ray. "Did you see those bitches drive by in my truck?" He asked.

"No." I said. "I had a sack over my head at the time."

"Oh yeah. And what are you going to tell the police?"

"Nothing." I said.

"That's right." He said. "You didn't see nothin' you don't know nothin'." He stretched his neck out by tilting his head side to side. "Look I have to admit, as much of a pain in the ass as you've been tonight, you've definitely got some balls. I know you're out of a job and you could probably use some extra money and maybe I could help. I could always use some extra manpower. Does that interest you at all?"

"Yeah." I said. "Fuck yeah."

"Just to be clear, it might be the kind of work where you'd have to bring along that Mak I sold you."

"I understand." I said. Red and blue lights were flashing on the tops of the trees and we both saw it at the same time.

"We'll see how you handleyourself with the cops and then go from there." He said. As the cop car droveonto the airfield Dennis pulled a leather case with a badge in it out of hiscoat pocket and held it up above his head. "Federal agent." He shouted.