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MIMS AND ALLRED SCATTERED with the rest of them when the rocket blew past. Since they were closest to the second master bedroom, they headed toward that room. When they heard a ruckus coming from the garage area, they cautiously made their way back toward the laundry area. As they neared the kitchen, they overheard Joe and that nerdy chemist guy talking about other formulas. Mims and Allred exchanged looks of astonishment and elbowed each other in the ribs several times before they backtracked into the bedroom. Unlike Rucker and Ridgeway, Mims and Allred had known each for years and on occasion had worked jobs together. They both were known as stone-cold killers. They had similar resumes that very few other mercenaries could claim and were highly admired in the business. In addition to weapons and explosive experience, Mims and Allred had spent ten years each as middle schoolteachers in a neighborhood where even specialized security agents such as Joe would feel uncomfortable. In addition to the ten years of middle-school teaching, Mims had also driven a school bus as a substitute driver for three of those years. He was a legend at that school, and more than capable of handling any type of mercenary type work. After ten years in that environment, both Mims and Allred had lost their souls as well as their moral code and had decided that the real money lay in the private sector, specifically individual contracts.
Now back in the bedroom, they look at each other and grinned.
“A better formula? What if they do have one? We can write our own checks with that,” Mims said and rubbed his hands together like a mad scientist. Mims had been a science teacher at the middle school, and still had that scholarly air about him. He was a lean, wiry, 45-year old whose short, thinning hair had turned prematurely gray shortly after being hired as a middle school teacher years ago.
Allred had been an algebra teacher but looked more like your stereotypical movie assassin. He had cold dark eyes and long black hair he wore in a ponytail. His face was all angles: sharp cheekbones and a square jaw. His thin lips always seemed to be sneering. He and Tranwrach were similarly built, but, where Tranwrach was ungainly and clumsy, Allred was lithe and athletic.
Allred looked sideways at Mims and said casually, “Two checks are better than six, wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, of course, splitting this gold mine two ways would be better than splitting it between that crazy bitch and those other three. Ohh, I see what you mean. Yes.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“Why would I have a problem with it? We came to do a wet job anyway. What difference does it make if our side has some casualties along the way?”
“Good, just making sure we are on the same page.”
“What are you thinking? Shall we smoke them as they come out?”
“It’s like you read my mind. First I’ll create a diversion, and then you get them while they are distracted.”
They cautiously crept out of the bedroom and down the hallway. Joe and the nerdy chemist were gone. They got into position. Mims had aimed his weapon at the door to the laundry room. Allred pointed his Steyr TMP machine at the east end of the house when he saw something beautiful poking out at him from the kitchen rubble. “Hello, beautiful. Fuck it, I might as well go big in the diversion department.” Allred raised an M203 grenade launcher he had just pulled out from under the rubble. He checked it for damage, aimed it toward the east side of the house, and nodded at Mims. Mims saw what Allred had found, and with a giant grin on his face, pointed his Mac 10 sub-machine gun toward the entrance to the laundry room.
Allred was just about to fire when he saw something move out of the corner of his eyes to the right of him. He turned slightly and screamed, “Oh, my God, what the fuck, what the fuck? What in the hell is that?” He whirled toward the monstrosity and fired the grenade launcher at the beast. The grenade appeared to go right through the horror and struck the ceiling above the laundry door. Mims saw the creature as well and sprayed and prayed with his Mac 10 putting lead into the beast as well as...oops, Allred, who in blind panic had run straight into Mim’s line of fire. Allred went down, as the ceiling just above the door of the laundry room collapsed along with the walls on either side sealing the entrance shut.
“The thing, oh my God, the thing is still there without a scratch on it. I’ve only pissed it off!” Mims heard gunfire coming from the area of the laundry room and was not sure if the shooting was coming from the beast or the people inside the laundry room. His mind shut down momentarily, and his body turned into full flight mode. He spun around, fell to the ground, and scurried doglike for a few feet toward the gaping hole in the kitchen wall. He scrambled over the rubble and finally regained his feet outside on the patio. He was still is in full flight mode while his brain decided it did not want to process what it saw and failed to suggest, Why not head back to the SUVs or at least use that golf cart on the patio you just sprinted past. Mims, operating on pure adrenaline, just continued running through the desert at top speed.
Shortly before the ceiling next to the laundry room collapsed, Suzanne decided to do some weeding out of personnel as well. She paced in the confined space of the laundry room. “Hey, Ridgeway, what happened to those other two hired guns? Where did they go?”
“I haven’t seen them since that rocket nearly took my fucking head off.”
Suzanne stopped pacing and looked hard at Ridgeway. “Well, they aren’t your best friends or family or anything, are they? Right now if they are still around, they are about as valuable as the two morons in the pit. You get my drift?”
“Loud and clear, ma’am. Loud and clear.” With that statement, Ridgeway put a fresh clip into his .45 and nodded to Rucker. Rucker paused and waited for his brain to comprehend what was loud and clear to Ridgeway. He saw that it involved his .45. He thought some more and then remembered Crazy Bitch had mentioned hired guns. Oh, Mims and Allred, right, kill them, got it.
Rucker and Ridgeway made it all of two steps toward the door. When Rucker put hand to doorknob all hell broke loose. Screams could be heard from outside the door, followed by an explosion. Rucker leapt backward, drawing his weapon, and aimed it at the door. Ridgeway who was standing behind Rucker, jumped back onto the washing machine and pointed his gun over Rucker’s shoulder. They both heard the sound of an automatic weapon being fired just outside the door. Rucker and Ridgeway simultaneously opened fire, with, Rucker hitting the floor and yelling at Ridgeway to watch where the hell he was shooting. During the chaos, Cathy nudged Humberto, who was crouched in the far corner of the laundry room, and pulled him into the garage.