Brewer sat on the edge of the desk next to Hightower and faced him. “Impressions?”
Hightower shrugged. “Boarding house rules.”
“Boarding house rules? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the shot sequence. Everybody gets a first helping before anybody gets seconds. It’s textbook. Only a topflight close-quarters guy can cycle his weapon around a room like that, hit three guys center mass, back-stopping each one, and then recycle and shoot them all again before they hit the ground.”
Brewer frowned. “One of the Townsend operators reported that Gentry stole his handgun at the McDonald’s.” She looked through some notes on the iPad in her hand. “A Smith and Wesson model M&P. It’s hard to tell the weapon the man is using in the video due to the poor quality of the recording, but I had the analysts here look at the gun and they say it can’t be the same gun, because the Smith and Wesson has an external safety lever on the side, and Gentry doesn’t seem to take time to disengage a safety before he fires. What do you think of this analysis?”
“Ma’am, I think that analysis blows.”
Brewer reacted with obvious surprise, and an analyst in earshot looked back over his shoulder at the big man, a scowl on his face.
Brewer asked, “And why is that?”
“Gentry wouldn’t need to fan the safety off, because it would already be off.”
“You’re sure?”
Hightower snorted. “External safeties are for chickenshits and losers. I know that. Gentry knows that.” He nodded his head towards the video. “Can we watch the video again?”
The recording played through a second time. Hightower viewed it with an unmistakable smile on his face.
“Enjoying yourself?” asked Brewer coolly.
“Professional respect. Gentry’s still got the touch. It’s obviously not the most impressive thing I’ve seen out of him, considering the low quality of the opposition. But he still possesses the speed and the marksmanship he did when he was in the Goon Squad.”
“Why didn’t he just leave the store when he had the chance?”
Hightower took a moment to select his words, so Brewer helped him out. “Let me guess. Because he thinks he’s a good guy?”
Hightower countered, “He is a good guy. We’re targeting him because of orders. We aren’t vanquishing evil or any bullshit like that.”
“But—”
“But nothing. You and me? We’re the assholes in the mix. If we left Gentry to his own devices he’d be fine, and the world would be better off.”
“I wouldn’t let Denny hear you talk like this if I were you.”
Zack shrugged. “I’m here to do a job. I don’t have to like the job and I don’t have to hate Court Gentry. I have my orders. I’ll keep the Agency safe from him, I’ll help you find him, and, if you let me, I’ll kill him for you.”
He gave Suzanne Brewer a little wink and a smile. “I don’t mind being the bad guy. It’s more fun.”
39
Soft noises of the street leaked into the basement room from the outside as the city woke and began going about its day, but Court Gentry lay still in his tiny closet spider hole. His open eyes flitted about the darkness and his hand rested on his Smith and Wesson pistol on the floor by his side.
There was no great mystery as to why Court could not fall asleep this morning. The pain on the right side of his midsection and the worry and frustration about his confrontation with Hanley and the implications of the in extremis gunfight at the Easy Market all beat down on his psyche like a timpani drum, and the analytical side of his brain couldn’t shut itself down before it evaluated and rehashed everything that had happened over and over till the point of utter confusion and mental overload.