In heartbeats the main street cutting through Hazard was a bloodbath in the making.
Ryan swiveled his attention back toward the ville’s perimeter. Dust trails from traveling wags flared up again as they roared into the streets like great mechanical cats. They were small passenger wags, two of them pickups that rode on high suspension like the circus wag. But these were painted camo military colors and stripped down to necessary armor to lighten the weight.
The small wags flared out at once, letting Ryan know they were following preplanned routes. The highway jackers had a sizable amount of firepower, and evidently the ammo to spare to properly show it off.
Bullets popped paint from the circus wag, but didn’t look to be penetrating either the metal or the windshield. Kirkland’s sec forces gave ground before the predators.
“Kirkland’s targeted us,” Mildred said, pointing to a team of sec men charging the hotel.
“We knew it wouldn’t go easy,” Ryan said. He studied the circus wag as it moved toward the line of men Kirkland had posted in the street. The wag carrying Kirkland’s armaglass cage backed away in front of the circus wag. Bullets struck the cage repeatedly, smashing dozens of fractures across the clear walls. It was a miracle the glass held, but it did.
Kirkland’s wag pulled into an alley, and the man stepped out, yelling orders to his sec men.
Ryan drew a bead on the doctor, intending to shut him down once and for all. Then he heard J.B. yell, “Incoming!” and automatically went to ground.
An explosive round smashed into the corner of the hotel roof, debris raining over the friends. The tar-and-rock surface of the roof cut into Ryan’s cheek and chin. He coughed as his lungs rebelled against the dust he was sucking in, and his eye teared up in an effort to clear his vision. He maintained his grip on the Steyr. “What the hell was that?”
“Rocket launcher,” the Armorer said. “One of the small wags was packing one. Looked like an RPG-7.”
“Reloads?” Jak asked, brushing splinters from his snow white hair.
“Yeah, they can be reloaded,” Ryan growled, “if they got them.” He crawled back to the edge of the roof after making sure all of the companions were moving around. Down in the street, the circus wag was plowing through the barricade that had been erected in front of the hotel.
Handsome Wyatt hung on to the outside of the circus wag. Ryan recognized the man even with the white greasepaint staining the other man’s face.
And Handsome Wyatt recognized him right back.
“Cawdor!” The name ripped like an oath from Wyatt’s throat.
Ryan brought up the Steyr and leveled it. Before he could get the man in the open sights, the M-60 gunner opened up, unleashing pure, hot lead hell on the rooftop. The one-eyed man went to ground.
The bullets chopped into the roofline and sprayed wood fragments into the air. Before they stopped, another rocket-launched round slammed into the hotel. The building shivered like a palsied dog during a cold bath.
“They come,” Jak said. “More sec men, more clowns in building.”
Ryan avoided the front of the building, which was still taking a barrage of fire. He peered into the alley, spotting one of the pickups pulling to a stop to disgorge more of the jackers. They blew the door below with plas ex and forced their way inside. The rooftop was fast becoming a no-man’s-land that was going to be filled with chilling.
“Cawdor!” Wyatt screamed from below. “Why don’t you come out and play, you one-eyed bastard!”
The big circus wag ground gears out in the street, bullets pinging from its metallic skin.
Ryan looked at Jak. “Get that rope ready. We’re going to need it.”
The albino nodded, then strapped his gear around him. He coiled the end of the hundred-foot rope they’d scavenged from the hotel’s stockrooms around his waist, then took a running start at the side of the building.
Blessed with uncanny acrobatic skills and a sense of balance, the albino sailed across the intervening gap to the next building nearly twenty feet away. With the hotel being the tallest structure in Hazard, the building next to it was only two stories tall.