Crusade (Eden Book 2) (40 page)

“
Miller’s Crossing
,” Lauren said before Eva told Mickey to shut up.

“Move.”

Eva prodded him forward. This time he kept his footing. He climbed through the piles of snow, unable to use his hands, which were cold and taped in front of his body. His boots had come untied and the laces dragged through the snow. As they walked, he spotted birds in some of the trees.

“Keep walking.”

Mickey was terrified.
Miller’s Crossing
. He’d seen the movie, god knew how many times. Written by the Coen brothers, directed by Joel. There were three scenes in that movie set out in the woods. In the first Gabriel Byrne walked John Turturro out into the trees on an autumn day, then made him stop. Turturro’s character, Bernie, turned and faced Byrne’s Tommy Reagan. He fell on his knees.

Look in your heart, Tommy. I’m praying to you. I can’t die. I can’t die Tommy!

Slowly, he bent one leg and knelt, then followed suit with the other. He bent over crying. His tears were cold on his face. They dripped to the snow and dirt.

Before he’d followed Bernie into the woods, Tommy had received some advice from Al Mancini’s vicious—if short—hit man, Tik-Tak.
You gotta remember to put one in his brain
, Tik-Tak had counseled.
Your first shot puts him down, then you put one in his brain. Then he’s dead. Then we go home
.

“You helped that baby killer escape. That’s what you did. And you should have escaped when you had the chance, stupid motherfucker.”

“No, I.” Weeping as he was, he couldn’t continue.

Caw caw.

The second scene in the woods brought Tommy’s turn to be taken for a walk. Tik-Tak was there, his breath a plume in the autumn day. His sidekick, the much larger thug Frankie, sang in Italian, his voice echoing through the trees. The ferocious Eddie the Dane was with them. Tommy had known he was going to die. He had looked up at the trees and the sky. Then he had leaned against a tree and vomited, fell on his knees. The Dane had taken the hat from Tommy’s head and tossed it aside…

Eva leaned over his shoulder and spoke to him.

“I’m going to kill you here,
now
. You should thank me. You ever see what happens to people with the plague? Your fingers, toes and
dick
will fall off. You selfish bastard, did you think you’d keep it secret?”

“Then I’m heading back out here. I’m going to find that pregnant bitch and that baby killer, and that goddamn doctor too. It won’t be as pretty for them as it will be for you.”

Her voice receded. On some level Mickey knew she was stepping back from him, raising the M4/M26, aiming it at his back.

Caw caw.

The third and final scene in the woods occurred at the end of the film, when Gabriel Byrne meets his one-time friend and boss, the Irish gangster, Leo, at a graveside. Leo and Tommy had had a falling out, but Leo was looking to make things good by inviting his former confidant back into the fold.
Good bye, Leo
, Gabriel Byrne tells him. As Albert Finney’s Leo walks off down the road in the woods, Byrne’s Tommy leans against a tree and adjusts his hat.

He raised himself up on his knees, straightening out his back, puffing out his chest. He lifted his head and looked towards the horizon, towards the day.

The submachine gun ripped. The birds in the trees took flight, squawking.

She closed the front door to the dorm behind her. Standing in the common room, she was aware of something in the darkened building aside from herself and Mickey in his bedroom. A presence.

She left the light off and dug her pistol out of its holster. She flicked the safety off and waited, her broken arm pressed tight to her in its cast.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark she discerned a much larger, darker mass among the shadows in the area of the couch.

“Gwen.”

“Bear.” She sighed. Relieved, she lowered the pistol. She didn’t bother to turn on the light. There was a chair near the door and she sat down in it.

“Where are Julie and Buddy and Mickey?”

“Oh God.”

She told him about Sonny’s daughter going missing. About Sonny heading first to the medical center, finding a dead guard, then finding Buddy and all his stuff gone. She told him of Sonny coming to the dorm and waking Mickey and herself, of the scene in the commons, of Julie shooting Sonny and absconding with Buddy, the doctor and Mickey in tow.

When he asked her how they escaped Clavius City, she told him about Panas being stationed on watch that night—how he let them walk out. She told him how Mickey had stayed behind to try and straighten things out with everyone in Clavius, to try and help to find Sonny’s daughter, and how Singh had accompanied Julie and Buddy to care for them. She told Bear the direction they were headed and where they might be found.

She didn’t tell him why she had stayed behind; how the thought of leaving had never crossed her mind; how she had no intention of leaving this place.

“Where’s Mickey now?”

“What do you mean? He isn’t in his room?”

He didn’t answer. He must have stood and turned, because she saw the shadows shift, and heard the floor creak under his feet as he walked towards the back of the dorm.

“Bear.” He did not respond but she knew he had stopped. She wanted to ask him why he was back—why he was back so soon—why he was alone. Instead she said, “Take care of yourself.”

She sat there after he left, thinking and listening. After awhile she holstered the gun and turned the light on in the common room. She checked Mickey’s room. Bear was right. He wasn’t there. She turned on all the lights in the dorm and thought about going and getting Steve.

Eva was bent over Mickey, whispering in his ear.

Caw caw
.

Lauren considered the MP-40 in her hands. Mickey had his back to her.

“And I’m going to find that pregnant bitch and that baby killer,” Lauren heard every word Eva said, “and that goddamn doctor too. It won’t be as pretty for them as it will be for you.”

She stepped away from the man on his knees and raised her M4/M26, aiming it at his back, ready to blast him from behind.

Caw caw.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrppppppppppppppp

A stream of lead stitched Eva from crotch to clavicle, knocking her off her feet. Her assault rifle landed a yard away from her body.

Mickey stood and turned. Eva lay there, one leg bent under her, the blood from the ragged holes in her draining into the snow and the earth underneath.

“Lauren, oh Jesus.”

“God, you’re a dumb fuck,” Lauren said. “I tried to give you a fucking hint.”

Miller’s Crossing
. Each time he’d gone out in the woods, Tommy Reagan had walked away.

Eva convulsed and blood welled up out of her mouth and nose. Her eyes glazed over and she lay there with a blank stare, seeing nothing.

They drove in silence for several minutes. Mickey watched the scenery pass—trees and the road, the sky lightening as dawn arrived. He thought of Julie in the woods somewhere with Buddy, of Bear atop an armored personnel carrier heading down into the city, of Fred Turner, Larry Chen, Keara and Phil back in Eden, of Gwen asleep in their dorm inside Clavius City, of Eva dead in the snow, crumpled and bloody.

She leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. He kissed her back, hard. When they pulled away, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.