Judgment at Alcatraz

three pulls of the trigger, and all the bullets struck home. Next, he nudged the lever to full. Still aiming at the same rock, he pulled back on the trigger and held it. A stream of bullets exited the muzzle, and in less than two seconds the magazine was empty.
Karl strode to Luther and handed over the carbine and the second full magazine. Then he took his position to the side and behind his team leader.
“I’m impressed,” Luther said, while Bic and Eddie watched the showmanship. “Looks like you’ve converted a civilian semiauto weapon to a select fire, full-auto M4A1 Carbine.”
“That’s right,” Bic said. “Just like spec ops use.”
Luther nodded. “Just like we agreed. And now I suppose you want the money?”
Bic looked at Eddie, then back to Luther.
“That was the agreement. Three hundred grand.”
“Yeah? Well, I’ve got a new offer. Sort of a take-it-or-leave-it offer.”
Luther’s lips curled up in a sinister grin.

Chapter 4
“What do you have in mind?” Bic said.
His brain was reeling, and he slid his hand to the grip on the rifle, still hanging from his shoulder.
“Hmm.” Luther sighed dramatically. “How about we take the weapons and keep the money.”
“That’s not the deal your boss and I struck.”
“That’s interesting. You see, the boss ain’t here. So looks like you’re dealing with me now.”
“No, I did my job. Eddie and me. We delivered everything we agreed to.”
Luther shrugged and wrinkled his brow.
“And as near as I can tell, you and…Eddie? Is that the kid’s name?”
Bic nodded. “He’s my nephew.”
“Your nephew? So you run a family business?”
“Yeah, I suppose so. Look, a deal’s a deal—”
“Until it ain’t.”
Bic slid the rifle from his shoulder and raised the weapon to his hip with surprising speed. The LAD team leader found himself looking into the business end of the gun barrel, from a close distance.
Karl had his rifle aimed at Bic, while Luther raised his hands, still holding the modified carbine in one hand.
“Everyone, just relax,” Luther said, in a calm tone.
“Where’s the money?” Bic said.
“Karl has it. All three hundred grand. Inside his pack.”
“All I want is the money. That’s what we agreed to. Tell Karl to put down his rifle and toss the pack over here.”
Luther seemed to contemplate the request for a moment.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Eddie?” Bic called, without taking his eyes off Luther and Karl. “You got your gun on these two?”
“Sure do. But you didn’t say anything about shootin’ no one.”
“I was gonna let you two walk on out of here. Don’t make me have to kill you.” Luther sounded more confident than a man looking into the bore of a rifle had any right to.
“The first bullet goes through you, Luther.” Bic tried to sound braver than he felt.
“Nah. You’ll both be dead, and will have never seen it coming.”
Bic looked from Luther to Karl, and back again.
“What are you talking about?”
“Did you forget already? Hey, Vic. Why don’t you step out of the willows and properly introduce yourself.”
The third LAD thug rose to his feet and emerged from the brush behind Eddie and Bic.
“Drop your guns, boys,” Vic said.
“I’d do what he says.” Luther smirked.
Slowly, Bic and Eddie lowered their weapons to the ground and raised their hands. Victor took one step forward, when his chest exploded in crimson mist. About a second later, the rifle report reverberated across the meadow. Luther and Karl spun in circles, trying to identify where the shooter was located, to no avail.
Blood and gore erupted from Karl’s belly and back. He cried in agony for several long moments, before falling silent.
Luther slammed home the magazine in the M4 Carbine, and began firing full-auto bursts at the hillside where Danya was set up. The bullets impacted widely across the rock and gravel many yards below her location. She aimed again and slowly squeezed the trigger, sending a .30 caliber bullet at almost three times the speed of sound. Luther was dead even before the sound of the gunshot reached his lifeless body.
Bic and Eddie still stood ramrod straight, with their hands clasped over their heads. Within seconds, the three LAD men had been wiped out, and it had not yet registered to the uncle and nephew duo.
From her position behind the granite ledge, Danya reloaded her sporting rifle, having just fired the entire three rounds the magazine held. She knew all three expanding hunting bullets had struck home, center mass, and would be lethal. So the targets surrounding Bic and Eddie were dead, or soon would be. Still, something didn’t seem right. Her senses were on high alert. Senses she’d learned to trust after years of field work in some of the most dangerous regions of the world.
Why would they only send three men?
She ran it over and over in her mind, and kept coming to the same answer.
They didn’t.
s
A rumbling boom reverberated from the far side of the hill, and Danya knew one of the wires had been tripped, detonating the explosive device.
Leaving her bolt-action sniper rifle in place, she unlimbered her M4 Carbine and dashed up the hill. Just before the crest, she dropped to a crouch, and then a crawl. Somewhere down the back side were one or more adversaries.
As she cleared the lip, and the broken deadfall came into view, she saw a prone man writhing in agony. He pressed his hands against a leg, no doubt shredded by the nail shrapnel.
She moved her gaze from side to side, searching for movement. Nothing.
Could he be alone? No. There’d be at least two attackers.
After spying a decent-sized tree thirty yards down slope, she sprung to her feet and dashed down the gravel-covered incline, sliding every time her foot planted in the soft soil. Her reckless maneuver was rewarded with several gunshots fired at her, but none connected.
Without yielding forward momentum, she slid to her butt and then rolled to a stop against the tree trunk as more bullets cratered in the ground beside her. The bullet strikes suggested the direction of the shooter. Ever so