Jon grabbed the barker by the feet, dragged him to the pool, and pushed him in. The other one managed to wedge himself against the bar by the time Jon caught him. Jon dragged him back to the pool, and tossed him in, too. They were splashing around like a couple of beached fish, and breathing about as well.

Grebner managed to gain his feet again, and ran to the front door, but lost a lot of time fumbling with the lock. Jon had locked it when he entered. Jon caught him at the door, dropped him to the ground again, then dragged him back to the living room. Dude slid easily across the terrazzo.

Jon said, “This is a lovely home, by the way. Wonderful view. Nice clean design. I have an interest in residential architecture.”

Jon bellied him out, then lifted his head by the hair so he could see the splashing.

“See that? They’re drowning. If those boys had the proper training, if they were true elite killers, they’d know what to do. That boy who was just in here? Sunglasses? He’d know what to do. Me, you could drop me in there like that, wouldn’t be a problem.”

Jon watched the splashing for a moment, and decided there wasn’t as much now as a few moments ago.

“Only you couldn’t drop me.”

Grebner said, “I told the other one everything I know.”

“I know. I just didn’t want him to have all the fun. You wanna go for a swim?”

“No!”

Jon smiled. Jon wasn’t going to throw him in.

But then Jon stopped smiling.

“You got a message to deliver. I just wanted to make sure you’ll deliver it in a timely fashion. You’ll do that, won’t you?”

“Yes!”

“I thought you might. Now let me ask you a question—does Jakovich have a buyer?”

“I don’t know. Michael say no, but I don’t know.”

“How about Michael? Why’s he hot for so much heavy metal?”

Grebner glanced away, which meant he was thinking. Thinking was bad. Stone snapped a hard right fist into his nose. He punched him again, then a third time.

Grebner snorted out streamers of blood, now spitting the words.

“He has a deal with the Armenians. Way over market price. He can make much. Way over much.”

“How much over much?”

“Three million dollars. He think maybe more.”

Stone dropped Grebner’s head. He admired the distant view for a moment, and thought, briefly, that he should probably drag those two assholes out of the pool, but then decided against it. He patted Grebner’s head.

“You boys truly fucked up this time.”

Jon left the lovely house, broke down and stored his weapon, then resumed his position at the end of the street.

He took out his cell phone, and called a friend of his who often dealt in illegal arms.