If You’re Going to Lie

IF YOU’RE GOING TO LIE

5:53 P.M.

Parker’s not the only one with a lighter. Blazers also has one.

“I’m going to create a distraction,” Heels whispers. “And when I do, you guys go into different stores. In the back, pile up paper bags, boxes, receipt paper—anything that will burn—and light it on fire. One of the two on this side of the gate will have to come check it out. And then the rest of us will attack him. Throw things at him, jump him, get his gun.”

“But what about the other two guys?” Dreads asks. “They’re out of our reach, but they can still shoot us. What are we supposed to do about them?”

Heels’s expression doesn’t change, but in her voice Parker hears a shrug. “Once we get one of the guns on this side of the gate, I don’t think that’s going to matter.”

*   *   *

At the security gate, Ron is saying, “Have you told K-Kilo about how we can’t find November?”

“Not yet,” Wolf says. “He knows we were looking for him.”

“He won’t like that,” Ron says.

Parker figures Kilo must be their off-site leader.

Wolf throws his shoulders back. “Let me remind you that Kilo put me in charge of this operation.” He turns his attention to the Muslim girl. “You. Where were you hiding?”

She presses her lips together and doesn’t answer.

*   *   *

Businessman’s whisper is dismissive. “Do you even know how to shoot an assault rifle?”

“Actually, I do,” Heels says matter-of-factly. “Anybody else?”

After a pause, Dreads says, “I shot one once at a range,” and Velcro says, “I was in the army for thirty years.”

“Then the three of us will rush him. We’ll wait until he’s inside the store, so the rest can’t see what’s happening.”

*   *   *

Ron says, “Haven’t you seen her before? Amina works at Culpeppers.”

“Is that where your little friends are?” Wolf asks.

There’s a beat before she answers. “No. We were hiding someplace else. In a different store.”

Wolf’s laugh is more like a grunt. “If you’re going to lie, you need to do a better job than that.”

*   *   *

Stanford whispers, “My sister’s one of the people up against the doors. If the killers start shooting, they’ll be the first to die. They’ll be sitting ducks.”

“Not if we yell at them to start and keep moving,” Heels says. “It’s harder to hit a moving target. And the smoke should make it even harder. Yelling’s good anyway. We want as much noise and confusion as possible.”

Parker remembers something he saw on the news some months ago. “Last summer the news said if you found a baby locked in a hot car, you could break the glass if you hit the bottom corner with something hard and narrow, like a screwdriver.”