24

Clandestine Shootout

Dr. Weiss rushed to Captain Beck, carefully helping the man to the ground. “Where’d he get you? Are you all right?”

“Right shoulder, and it hurts like a mother—”

Agent Harris started jogging through the crowd to catch up to her German quarry, then found three of the men in bowler hats blocking her way with grins and fists. “Really?” she told them. “Only three of you?”

Agent Hessman, meanwhile, gave chase to the Japanese man who’d made the shot, while bystanders puzzled at the strangely muffled gunshot, then gasped as the pair of men ran through their ranks. The Japanese team member seemed to be trying to get around the crowd, with furtive glances in the direction of the dignitaries assembling at the top steps of city hall. That’s when Agent Hessman realized the gunman hadn’t been aiming for Robert. He pushed past a couple trying to get a good view of the dignitaries. It was Tojo; Robert must have been in the way!

Professor Stein dashed over to the fallen captain whom Dr. Weiss was tending to.

“He’s got a bullet in the shoulder,” Dr. Weiss reported.

“That’ll have to come out,” Claire said. “Do you need a knife?”

“What?” the doctor gasped. “But I’m not a—”

“She’s right,” Captain Beck gasped. “You’ll have to play field medic. There’s a pocketknife in my upper vest pocket. Ben, if the Germans are after the congressman‍—‍”

“On it.”

While Dr. Weiss worked hesitantly on the removal of the bullet, a nearby shocked spectator offered his clean handkerchief.

Meanwhile, Professor Stein charged through the crowd in the general direction of the city hall steps. As yet another car pulled up, the throng of curious bystanders grew as people realized that something important was about to happen. “I’ve got to get to Congressman Lodge. If they kill him‍—‍”

A sudden punch to the face cut off the rest of his words, and he fell back into Claire. It was one of the men in bowler hats. Claire caught Ben as he fell back and glared angrily at their assailant.

“Ben, are you all right?”

Ben stepped a foot back to steady himself, worked his jaw with a hand, then replied, “I’m not exactly built for fistfights, but everything seems to be in place.”

The assailant took a step forward, Claire pushing in front of the professor to face the other man with a determined glare.

“Don’t worry, missy,” the man said, grinning. “I never hit a lady. Your boyfriend, though, is quite another story. Now get out of the way.”

He placed a hand to her shoulder to move her out of the way and was rewarded with a boot striking hard into his left shin. The man dropped with a scream of pain.

“A pity I don’t have the same restriction on hitting a man,” she stated. Her next kick landed in his face and sent him sprawling on his back.

“Claire,” the professor gasped as he stepped up beside her, “how did you‍—‍”

“Just save the congressman, and leave the details of how my father really wanted a boy for later.”

He replied with a quick nod, then broke into a run, out into a clearing in the crowd, and straight for the steps as the last of the line of cars was pulling away.

“Congressman Lodge,” he shouted, “duck!”

Another disruption was occurring not too far across the square, one that had the crowd parting and trying to get out of the way.

“It’s a mad negress,” someone shouted. “Straight from the jungle, from the way she fights!”

“Someone call the police!”

“It’s terrible!”

Two of the three already lay at her feet, and the third was greeted by Agent Harris’s wide-brimmed, floppy hat pulled suddenly down over his head, a knee ramming its way hard between his legs. “Something to tell your children about, if you can still have any,” she remarked. “You got beat up by a black woman.”

Her opponents mobilized, she spent a moment quickly surveying the situation. Pockets of people were starting to depart as they realized something was amiss, and the police and plainclothesmen were scurrying around as well. Agent Hessman had a clear line on the Japanese man he was chasing and saw the latter raising his gun once again. But he was not, from the looks of it, aiming for the American team’s leader.

“Tojo!” Agent Harris realized. “Great, between that and who the Germans might be going after, this place is about to be a shooting gallery.”

Agent Hessman tried a flying tackle for his quarry just as the other was pulling off his shot. The shot went wild, hitting instead the edge of one of the stone pillars to the side of the main steps. That got everyone’s attention, especially the ones in charge of guarding the milling dignitaries.

Claire had watched Professor Stein run off for the front steps, shouting as he went, and for a moment looked after him, biting her lip. After a cough, she chanced to glance upon another man moving quickly through the crowd on an intercept course for the professor. She recognized this man as being one of the Germans that Sue had pointed out earlier. “That guy must have thirty pounds on Ben. He’ll never know what hit him. Ben!” She burst into a run, shoving people out of the way, not caring how offended their dignities might be. Ben was oblivious as he burst through a line of policemen, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Congressman!”

The German pulled out a small gun, aiming it not at Professor Stein but at one of the men at the top of the steps. That’s when the shot rang out that glanced off the pillar, but Claire heard another sharp noise that sounded like the nearly silent gunshots she had heard back at Steeplechase Park. A second shot was accompanied by the German dropping to the ground with a large hole in the back of his head.

Elsewhere in the crowd, Agent Harris snapped her head around, searching the crowd for the shooter. She had heard the double shot and now saw the German drop just as Professor Stein burst into the open before the steps. “Now where did that shot come from?”

The crowds were screaming and running; policemen tried to restore some order, while the plainclothesmen formed a line with their bodies ringing the base of the steps and the top landing where the dignitaries were assembled. While someone was ushering the dignitaries inside to safety, several of the local police converged on the one obvious target charging threateningly for the group at the top.

Three policemen tackled Professor Stein, one giving him a hard rap with his baton on the back of his leg. Claire gasped as she saw him drop. “Ben!” She ran up to the edge of the police line only to be pushed politely back.

Professor Stein struggled, screaming, “No, you don’t understand. I’m here to warn the congressman. Someone’s out to get him.”

Agent Hessman was struggling with his Japanese opponent when he saw the professor get tackled. “Now what part of clandestine does no one understand?” he muttered.

One more muffled cry was lost to the events, but that came from Captain Beck as Dr. Weiss finally cut the bullet out of his shoulder.