She nodded back and gripped the nail file in her pocket while he drew his arm back.
“With your shield or on it, cow,” he said, and tossed it over the shelves.
The string unwound itself before the cow cleared the top, and it mooed, “Eat chicken” as a fusillade rang out. Nolan shoved her toward the door, and she ran for it, hitting Reese, who was running around the end of the shelves, his eyes still red and streaming from the Mace as he raised his gun. He grabbed for her, and she stabbed him in the gun arm, dropping her Twinkletoes bag but still clutching the Mac as he screamed, and then she kicked him in the knee and ran like hell for the door, wrenching it open as Reese fired, hearing the bullet ping on the metal as she dove for the darkness.
*
Trudy ran for the edge of the parking lot, clutching the Mac, adrenaline pumping, not stopping when she heard, “Hold it!”
Somebody grabbed Trudy’s arm and swung her around and she saw it was the cabdriver. “Give me that doll,” he said.
“No.” She smacked him with the bag and as he raised one hand to protect his head, she saw the gun in the shoulder holster under his leather jacket.
“Damn it,” she said, and swung her elbow sharply into his solar plexus, stamped down on his instep, punched him in the nose, and then tried to kick him in the groin and missed and got his thigh instead, collapsing him onto the pavement.
Good enough, she thought, and took off for the street, only to have somebody else grab her arm just as she reached the chain-link fence.
“No,” she said, and tried to turn, but whoever it was wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her back against him.
“Stop it!” Nolan said. “It’s me. Give me the Mac.”
“No,” Trudy said, furious, and smacked her head back into his nose. She heard him swear and knew she’d gotten him, but he didn’t let go, so she tried for his instep, but he jerked her off her feet.
“Trudy, stop it.”
She swung her elbow back again and missed, and he kicked her feet out from under her and dumped her onto the grimy, wet pavement, yanking her arms behind her.
“You couldn’t make this easy, could you?” he said as her cheek scraped on the ground. “You had to be a hard-ass.”
“You bastard, you promised me I’d keep the doll,” she said, and then she felt him yank her wrists together as he slapped handcuffs on her and took the Mac away from her.
“Trudy Maxwell. You’ve been taken into custody for criminal obstinacy.”
“Fuck you,” Trudy said into the pavement. “And you have to be an actual cop to take me into custody, which you are not, so don’t think I’m not going to sue your ass for kidnapping.”
He put his arm under her and lifted her gently back onto her feet. “I’m not kidnapping you.”
“Yeah?” Her hair fell in her eyes and she couldn’t brush it out, which made her madder. “You and Reese, this was all a setup. He didn’t even shoot at you back there, he shot at me. You were working together.”
Nolan swung her around and gave her a gentle push back toward the warehouse. There were more cars there now and a van, and while she watched, somebody shoved Reese into the back of one of the cars. He was handcuffed.
“Not working with Reese,” Nolan said.
“I don’t see any police department insignia on these cars,” Trudy said, shrugging off his hand as he prodded her forward. “In fact, I don’t see any insignia at all.”
Nolan stopped her in the pool of light from one of the warehouse lamps and showed her his ID.
“‘NSA,’” Trudy read. “Very cute. Got one for the CIA and the FBI, too? How about FEMA, I hear they’re really tough. Not as tough as double agents for the Chinese, of course. How dumb do you think I am?”
“Trudy, I am NSA, Reese was a double agent for the Chinese, and I really did try to help you.”
“Yeah,” Trudy said bitterly. “That’s why I’m in handcuffs now.”
“You’re in handcuffs because you’re resisting,” Nolan said. “I’m trying to get a promotion here, and you’re beating me up. It makes me look bad.”
“Great. That’s what this is about, some damn promotion? Knock a helpless woman to the ground and steal her little nephew’s Christmas present?”
“The ‘helpless’ is debatable,” Nolan said as they went past the cabbie, who was dabbing at his bleeding nose and glaring at her. “You owe Alex an apology.”
“He attacked me.”
“He was trying to get you into the cab so he could get you away from here,” Nolan said. “He’s one of ours.”
“He was trying to take the doll, so he’s not one of mine,” Trudy said, and then she saw the woman they were moving toward. She was wearing a red and green bobble hat, but she didn’t look like a Christmas shopper anymore. “Who the hell is she?”
“My boss,” Nolan said.
Trudy waited until they were in front of the woman, and then she said, “Is this guy really an NSA agent?”
“Yes.” The woman spoke without any expression whatsoever, which only made Trudy madder.