CHAPTER 13
Stone raced up the stairs to the fourth floor. When he reached it he slowed down and started watching. The people he was after had seen him back at the bank. He had not seen them. Well, actually he now knew he had seen one of them.
The bank manager had not been in the bank when the other hostages had been led out. That meant he had gone up the shaft with the other three gunmen, leaving the last man on the team down below.
That meant the bank manager was in on it, of course.
That’s why he had been taken out of the room. Not as a hostage, but as part of the assassination attempt.
Stone dropped back a bit when he saw Robie emerge from down one hallway. Robie looked quickly around, seemed to spot something, and darted off to the right.
Stone kept his gaze moving until it settled on some people nearing an exit door. The two men were dressed in suits. One was slightly larger than the other. They passed a woman pushing a stroller, startling her a bit in their haste.
Stone headed in that direction. His hand was on the butt of the pistol in his pocket. The two men were past the woman and nearly at the exit door. Stone picked up his speed.
The men were through the door.
Stone raced up behind the woman and said, “Please keep your hands in view. If you don’t I will shoot you.”
He pushed the muzzle of the gun into her back. “Do you understand?”
She nodded.
He stepped forward and looked down into the stroller. He drew the blanket back. Revealed inside it were climbing equipment, the clothes she had been wearing, and a machine pistol. The collapsible stroller must have been in the laundry cart they had pushed into the bank, along with the rest of their equipment.
Stone looked up at her and then glanced at her neck. “In your line of work, it’s not advisable to have such a distinctive tattoo. It sort of gives you away.”
*
Robie had come out on the fourth floor through a hole cut into a storage closet.
Despite what he had said to Stone earlier, Robie was very familiar with the mall. He had been reconnoitering the location for nearly a week. He couldn’t be sure his target wasn’t lying at the bottom of the shaft back at the bank. But now he had to make sure.
He slowed when he finally spotted the man hurrying down one of the mall walkways, no doubt seeking the nearest exit. He reached for the gun in his pocket.
Suddenly, the man looked back and saw Robie.
And then he started to run.
It was the bank manager.
The man raced down the stairs and into the underground parking garage.
Robie followed.
The men worked their way into the bowels of the place, which was perfectly fine with Robie. He had no need for witnesses.
They ended up in the equipment area on the very lowest level, well away from any cars and cameras.
From behind a support column the man yelled, “Who are you?”
Robie said nothing. He moved a bit closer, angling his approach to give him a sight line on the man.
The man fired a wild shot that clanged off an overhead pipe and embedded itself in the concrete wall.
“I have money. I can give you money,” the man called out.
Robie kept moving forward. He didn’t waste time or concentration on responding. He was in full predator mode.
“I have powerful friends,” cried the man. “They will kill you if you harm me.”
Robie moved to his left and then took a few paces forward. The man was doing him a favor by talking. It was allowing Robie to zero in on his position. The man was also not moving. Staying still in a situation like this pretty much ensured one’s death.
The man fired another shot. And then another. They both were wild and they both ended up stuck in concrete.
Robie kept moving forward and to the right. He had his position locked down now. It was just a matter of getting there.
“I will kill you!” screamed the man. “You are just a customer of the bank. I will kill you. Leave now and you will survive. This is your last warning. I am not to be intimidated.”
As he said this last part he looked up and saw Robie’s muzzle pointed at his head.
His eyes widened and a scream started up his throat.
It would never finish the journey.
One tap to the head, one to the heart.
The man fell forward onto the concrete, dead before he ever got there.
Robie straightened from his shooting stance, turned, and left.
Mission accomplished.