Read Online Night Work by David C. Taylor - Free Book Online

the door in time to hear the ragged volley of the firing squad. A couple of minutes until Lopato came in for the next group. “Hurry.”
    She came out of the cell tying the scarf over her hair and took the keys out of the lock and stepped to the next cell and began to search for the key that would unlock it. “What are you doing? We have to go.”
    â€œI can’t leave them in here.”
    â€œDylan, we have to go now. They’ll be in here in a minute.”
    â€œI can’t.” She had the door open and was working on the next. She got lucky and opened it with the second key. Now there were two men with rose shirts in the corridor, and she handed each of them some of the keys and told them to get to work. Cassidy took three keys and moved up the line looking for the doors they fit. Soon there were twenty men in the corridor, and their voices rose as they talked about what to do. One of them moved to the door to the killing ground and slid a bolt across to lock it.
    â€œThey’re not going to make it.”
    â€œThey’ll try, and if they don’t, well, it’s better than sitting in a cell waiting for them to come take you. Do you have a gun?”
    Cassidy handed her the .45 he had taken from the guard. She passed it to the man from the cell next to hers. They hugged, and as she pulled away, she said, “ Suerte, hombre. ” He smiled like a man who knew that all his luck was behind him. Someone tried the door from the killing ground, and the man turned and fired a bullet through it. Someone outside yelped with pain.
    Cassidy hurried Dylan up the stairs and out into the plaza. Gunfire sounded from below the wall. The soldiers there would be firing back through the door. He led Dylan to the narrow street, and as they turned the corner he looked back in time to see four soldiers and Sergeant Lopato come up the stairs from the killing ground. A shot came from the front door of the prison building. One of the soldiers spun and went down, and the others threw themselves flat and began to return fire. The men in the prison block were not going to get out, but they would buy Cassidy and Dylan time. How long before the general alarm was raised? How long before they blocked the gates?
    The two drivers were standing in the shade by the cars smoking and talking. Cassidy led Dylan to the one closer to the gate. The driver flicked his cigarette away and walked over.
    â€œWe have to go now,” Cassidy said.
    The driver looked around. “And the others?”
    â€œThey’ll be a while. You can come back for them.”
    â€œAre you sure?” Did he hear the distant snap of rifles?
    â€œI’m sure.” Cassidy put his arm around Dylan’s waist, and she leaned in and kissed the side of his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m sure.”
    The driver nodded and smiled. “Ahh, yes. Of course. Of course.” He understood the urgency of love in the afternoon. He opened the back door and ushered them in with a flourish, got in behind the wheel, revved the engine to show his appreciation of the need for haste, circled the plaza fast enough to make the tires squeal, and drove out through the gate.
    Dylan put her head against his chest. He could feel her body shake. He felt her tears through the cloth of his shirt.

 
    3
    Cassidy asked the driver to take them to the Nacional, but Dylan had him pull over on La Rampa, and they got out and watched him drive on. “They’ll know you were at the hotel. They’ll go there first.” She led him around a corner and hailed another taxi and asked the driver to take them to the old town and to drop them at the Cathedral plaza where they walked through the beggars displaying their wounds and deformities. She warded off the vendors who took her for a tourist with a smile and a shake of the head. They turned down an alley where the old stucco buildings leaned toward each other and laundry in