It was midmorning and the seven men and one woman were seated in a circle in the parking lot of the Wally Mart drinking coffee. Although some observers might have thought that it was a cowboy rendezvous, this was a war council.
Dan said, "I can tell you one thing, they aren't morning people."
"Why do you say that?" Hank asked. He took a long sip of his coffee.
Dan took a last drag off his cigarette and then flicked it away. He said, "The earliest one of them showed up was around two in the afternoon."
"I'd say you're right about them not being morning people," Hank said.
Joe looked over at Donny and said, "I figure if you and Rose get over there about noon you'll be able to settle in before anyone shows up. You'll probably be able to come back here about three in the morning."
"Me and Rose?" Donny asked.
"We'd hate to stand in the way of your courtship," Dan said with a grin. Everyone else in the circle laughed with the exception of Donny. "It will give you a chance to propose."
Hank clapped Donny on the back and said, "Welcome to the family, son."
Getting back to the serious business at hand, Dan said, "We found a way up one of the buildings there. I'll describe how you get there in a bit. Joe jimmied the door to the roof. You can go in and use the bathroom. That makes it a whole lot more comfortable, believe me."
"Good," Rose said.
She had been worried about that little detail. It was one thing to squat in the woods when men were nearby, but it was something else entirely to do it in the city.
"It's a nice spot that overlooks one of their hangouts. They got a strip joint where they tend to gather. There's a parking lot for the strip joint where a bunch of them stand watch. We watched about fifty of them come and go over the course of an evening," Dan said.
"You'll be far enough away that the two of you can talk quietly without anyone overhearing you. You will need to pay attention to what is going on though. They might look like they are doing nothing, but there is an organization at work," Joe said.
"What do you mean?" Hank asked.
Joe answered, "Take the parking lot where all of them gather. Some gang member comes along who wants to talk to one of the bosses. Now, he doesn't go into the strip joint right away unless he is important. Instead, he goes out to the parking lot and talks with other folks for a while. It looked to us like he would tell someone what he wanted and they would go in the strip joint to pass the message along. After a while, some guy would come out and then the person would be allowed into the club."
"That makes it easy to figure who is in charge there," Calvin said.
"It is even easier than that," Joe said.
After lighting up another cigarette, Dan said, "You can actually tell when one of the important guys is coming. That entire parking lot tenses up. We saw a car drive up to a side door of the strip joint. Two guys got out of the car and went directly in without stopping in the parking lot. Everyone in the parking lot moved behind cars and watched the street before they arrived. It was like they were setting up a standing watch. After the two important guys got in the club, people started milling around again."
"The weird thing is that we didn't see anyone announce that someone was coming," Joe said.
"Of course, we were too far away to hear what they were saying," Dan said.
Nodding his head in agreement with his brother, Joe said, "We noticed some other things. They've got a bunch of real young kids who frequently come and go from the parking lot. I guess they are messengers or something."
Calvin nodded his head and said, "They are probably running drugs."
"I'm not sure about that. We didn't see any of the gang members actually pass anything to the kids. I've got a feeling that these kids are getting job assignments, running errands, or passing messages. They're getting trained to be the next generation of gang members," Dan said.
Joe said, "There's probably a couple of houses around there somewhere that has the drugs. With another couple days of observation we'll be able to figure out who is who and where they go."
Dan said, "I want to get a picture of the big boss, but not from our hunting stand."
"Why not?" Calvin asked.
"Well, we're going to use the pictures to address a couple of envelopes to specific gang members. If we take it from our hunting stand then they'll know where we are," Dan said.
"How are you going to deliver that?" Hank asked.
"One of those little kids will deliver them for us. I figure five bucks and the envelopes are as good as in the hands of the ones we want to get them. We'll send one to the head of the gang and the two who shot Sonny," Joe said. "The letter inside the envelope will demand that the two guys that shot Sonny go to the police and confess."
Calvin said, "You know they won't give up."
"I don't expect them to give up. I don't even expect our message to stir things up a bit. They'll probably laugh it off," Dan said.
Sonny who was basically the catalyst for this whole thing had been feeling pretty useless. Thinking that he would contribute something, he said, "I can take care of getting you a picture."
"You aren't going anywhere," Dan said giving Sonny a sharp look. "You shouldn't even be out here."
Seeing how Sonny looked like he was about to argue, Joe said, "That's right. There are cops all over this city looking for you."
Giving up, Sonny said, "Well, I can tell you how to get a picture."
"That's better," Dan said.
"You'll need to go by my dorm room to pick up some equipment," Sonny said.
Joe looked over at Donny and said, "You can do that."
"Sure thing," Donny said thinking about the coeds on campus.
"I'll go with you," Rose said thinking about the coeds on campus. Her thoughts were remarkably similar to those of Donny, but her attitude towards them was vastly different.
Hank swirled the last of the coffee around in his cup and then flicked it off into the parking lot. He put his cup down and took out his pouch of chewing tobacco. He put a wad in his mouth and moved it around a bit until it was where he wanted it. He said, "When we first heard that two fellows had shot Sonny, we figured there was going to be a bit of mess. As result, we came with a bit more firepower than we figured that we would need.
"Then on our way here we learned that three more of them tried to kill him in the hospital. I don't know about you, but I would say that you're justified in going after all of them. I sure would if this had happened to either of my sons."
"What are you saying?" Dan asked knowing pretty well what Hank meant. He was trying to keep from just declaring outright war on the gang.
"I'm saying that after they fail to turn themselves in, we go after them hard," Hank said. He spit into his cup. "We let them know that we mean business. In the country, that means none of them survive."
"We are pretty outnumbered. How do you suggest we do that?" Dan asked.
Hank stood up and said, "Come look at what I got in the back of the trailer."
Calvin grinned and said, "You're going to love this."
Everyone followed Hank to the trailer. After Hank opened up the storage compartment in the rear side, Dan asked, "What have you got there?"
Hank pulled out a box and opened it. He said, "I've got a couple dozen sticks of TNT with radio controlled detonators."
"That's good," Dan said.
"I've got something even better than that," Hank said.
"Did you raid an armory or something?" Dan asked not trusting Hank's grin. He looked a little too self-satisfied.
Hank looked serious for a second and then said, "That's not a bad idea."
"Don't," Dan said. "All we need are the Feds after us too."
"As soon as one of those sticks of TNT goes boom, you know the Feds are going to get called in," Hank said.
"Let's wait on that," Dan said.
"Listen to this. I've got Ball jars, roofing nails, and M-1000 firecrackers. Not the shitty ones, but the good M-1000s that are the equivalent of a quarter stick of dynamite," Hank said. Pointing to a box of Ball jars, he said, "You fill a jar with roofing nails and a firecracker and then screw the lid on with a hole for the fuse. When that firecracker goes off, you've got glass and nails flying in every direction. I tried it out in the back forty and you wouldn't believe what it did."
Calvin said, "We were lucky we were standing far enough way to avoid getting hurt."
"Lucky?" Donny asked looking over at the younger man. "I would say that you were stupid if you didn't plan on standing far enough away."
Shrugging his shoulders, Calvin said, "We had to light the fuse."
Vince added, "And then we had to run like hell."
Laughing, Hank said, "You can only throw them if you wrap them in duct tape, but that tends to do weird and unpredictable things to the explosion."
"We could roll them under a car to where the gang members are hiding," Dan said with a grin.
"That's what I was thinking when you started talking about how they parked their cars," Hank said. He spit tobacco juice onto the parking lot and said, "Those boys won't know what hit them."
Joe asked, "How are you fixed for ammunition?"
Hank said, "We bought out the Sportsman Emporium. Freddy didn't have a round of ammunition by the time we were done."
Calvin said, "We got everything he had in .45 cal, .30-06, and .30-30, as well as 00 buckshot in 12 and 20 gauge."
Vincent said, "We bought ten Remington 1100 shotguns; four 20 gauge and six 12 gauge. That's all he had. We pulled the magazine plug on all of them. They'll hold eight rounds each in the magazine."
"Nice," Dan said. He looked at Joe and said, "Leave it to Hank to get good weapons. I always wanted one of those gas-operated semi-automatic shotguns."
Hank gave a mock bow and then said, "I figured you guys didn't come down here loaded for a war so I got 5 Mossberg .30-06 and 5 Marlin .30-30 rifles. They might have fully automatics in 9mm, but you stand off a hundred yards and they aren't hitting you. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel."
Wanting to let his contribution be known, Vincent said, "We spent all day putting Bushnell 6-24x40 scopes on them and getting them sighted in for 100 hundred yards."
Joe asked, "What about pistols?"
Hank said, "I got five Smith and Wesson Model 625s. You know I prefer revolvers ever since that semi-automatic jammed on me when I was up in the tree with that bobcat. As far as I'm concerned, simpler is better."
Looking over at his father and knowing the look he would get back, Calvin said, "I got a Ruger."
"We each have a Simmerling LM4 and a Ruger," Joe said.
"What in the hell are you doing with a Simmerling LM4? Even I can't get one of those," Hank said. They were a difficult gun to purchase.
"Swung by the place where they make them when I was on the rodeo circuit last summer," Donny said with a grin. "I took one look at them and knew I had to have one."
Dan patted his boot and said, "It fits just perfect in my boot."
Calvin said, "I've got a M360 Revolver that fires a .457. I carry it in my boot."
Donny said, "I had a Smith & Wesson 342, it was a nice little .38 caliber. I still like the Simmerling LM4 better. It fits well in my hand and makes a loud boom."
Rose said, "I brought my old Winchester .30-30 Model 94. I know it isn't a semi-automatic, but it is a damned good shooting rifle."
Hank patted her on the shoulder and said, "We all know you love that gun of yours."
Knowing that he'd get kicked out of school if it was ever discovered that he had firearms in his dorm room, Sonny said, "All I've got is a Marlin .30-30 and a Ruger back at the dorm with two boxes of ammo each."
Dan lit up a cigarette while thinking about how they would have to do things.
He said, "The problem is going to be using these things. In this damned city, you can't get more than ten feet away from another person. We're going to have witnesses galore."
"Yeah. You pull a rifle out of the trunk of a car and some guy will run down the street shouting gun. It seems to me that the folks out here think everyone with a gun is crazy," Joe said.
"Considering what we're talking about doing, they might be right," Dan said.
His comment was met with chuckles from everyone.
Sonny said, "The people out here don't understand that they have to take care of themselves on occasion. They think that some superhero is going to appear magically and disarm the bad guys, while wrapping them up in some bars of steel or something."
"They believe in Superman, huh?" Joe said.
"Yes, they do. They don't have a firm grasp on reality out here," Sonny said sadly.
"Give me an example, "Dan said.
Sonny shook his head and said, "There are some idiots out here who think animals should have lawyers so that they can sue people. How would you like to get sued by your herd of cattle?"
"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Joe said. He could believe it though.
Hank spit out some tobacco juice and said, "Bunch of dumb asses."
"Hell, I've heard folks out here say those kinds of things. There was a guy a year back that was being robbed by a guy carrying a knife. He picked up a two by four and swung a home run on the robber's head. He killed him dead. Folks wanted to charge him with involuntary homicide," Sonny said.
"They should have given him a medal," Calvin said shaking his head in disgust.
He agreed with Calvin on that score. Sonny said, "Well, their attitude was that he should have waited for the police to show up and arrest the guy."
"You wait for someone to show up save your life and you'll be planted six feet under," Joe said.
Hank said, "What's that old saying -- when seconds count, the police are minutes away."
Disgusted, Dan said, "The police could have already caught the two assholes that shot Sonny. We found them within forty-eight hours of getting here. Have they arrested them? Hell no."
"Maybe they don't know where they are. They might have more things to do than look for those two guys," Rose said.
Joe said, "We called the cops last night to see if they would stop and arrest them. We gave them everything they needed to know. Nothing happened."
Sonny said, "The police are afraid of them. Rather than going after them for violent crimes where they have to go in and arrest one of them while their buddies are standing around, they'll bring in a whole swat team and take out a couple of them for drugs."
"These gangs are packs of feral dogs. There's only one thing you can do with a feral dog and that is to put him down," Dan said.
"It doesn't matter which member of the pack attacks you, you have to take out the whole pack," Joe said.
"Amen to that brother," Calvin said.
Joe said, "All that means is that we're not going to get any help getting justice around here."
Still trying to keep from stepping over the line into vigilante justice, Dan said, "We give the police some more chances to catch the guys."
The group returned to the circle of chairs. They sat there thinking about what they were getting ready to do. Finally, Sonny brought up the subject that no one had mentioned so far. He said, "You know they are going to charge me with three counts of homicide for killing those guys at the hospital, don't you?"
"I know," Dan said quietly.
Taking the discussion a step further, Joe said, "We're all going to be facing prison time if this turns into a shooting war."
Dan looked around the circle at the people seated there. His gaze lingered on Hank's kids. In a quiet voice, he said, "Vincent and Rose, I think both of you ought to head back home. Vincent, you've got a wife and kids. Your kids need a daddy. Rose doesn't belong out here. I'd tell Calvin to head home, but I know he wouldn't do it."
Vincent nodded his head knowing that there was a lot of truth in what Dan was saying. His kids did need a father. Despite his agreement with Dan's statement, he wanted to help. He said, "I'd rather stay."
"Go home, boy. Take care of your family," Hank said.
It was one of those 'Statements From Dad' that the kids didn't argue against.
Dan said, "It is for the best, Vincent."
Rose asked, "What about you, Joe, and daddy? You're all married."
"Donny is going to be family as soon as he marries you. Joe's wife and your mother are sisters. Your mother wouldn't respect me if I walked away from this," Hank said. He spit into his foam cup and then added, "Hell, I wouldn't respect me."
Joe said, "My wife would leave me the minute I got home if I didn't stay here long enough to see those guys in jail."
"You can say that again," Dan said.
Everyone was quiet for a minute thinking about the ties that bound them together. Joe said, "Maybe Donny ought to head back with Rose."
"Hell no!" Donny shouted while rising from his chair.
Rose shook her head and said, "This is family business. He'll stay out here with his family and take care of business."
Knowing why Joe had recommended that Donny go home, Dan said, "Someone has to take care of our places. That's family business too. Someone has to be there. Our wives can't do it alone."
"No," Donny said returning to his seat. "Those assholes attacked my little brother. I can't leave."
Dan smiled and then said, "Donny, I'm going to have to insist. You'll be helping us out more if you're at home. Besides, you three won't be going back alone."