Read Online The Last Infidel by Spikes Donovan - Free Book Online Page A

truck.
    Tracy pulled a small flashlight out of her jeans pocket and flipped it on.  She waved it around like a fairy holding a wand and said, “Light up the darkness, right?  And yes, I know what a detonator looks like because I saw it magically disconnect itself and fly out of the back of the truck.”
    Cody, still kneeling in place, turned his head.  “It couldn’t have.  It was duct-taped onto the---” He reached out and tried to grab the flashlight.  Tracy pulled it back.  “You---”
    Tracy put the flashlight under her chin and made her signature platypus lips, something she used to do with Pringles back when you could still get Pringles.
    Cody felt himself become breathless and his heart began to race.  He looked at the woman’s face – if it was Tracy, she’d changed – but maybe the absence of her long, blonde hair, usually worn in a ponytail, skewed his memory. 
    “Light up the darkness,” she said.  “That’s what you always said.”
    Cody stood up, but he never took his eyes away from Tracy’s face.  He watched her stand up, turn off the flashlight, and sit on the tool box.
    “It’s been a long time, Cody,” Tracy said.
    “You mean since you tossed my detonator onto the road?  Why did you do that?”
    “I didn’t like sitting in a truck rigged up as a car bomb, that’s why.” 
    “You make me ill.”
    “You’re getting out, aren’t you?” Tracy asked, running her hand down the back of her shaven head.  “You’re going to take out the checkpoint and hike out of here.  Fifty pounds of C-4, a backpack, and a couple of canteens.  You’re just going to slip out of here under cover of night, Mr. beacon of light?”
    Cody shook his head.  “You and me?  We stopped talking two years ago and I see no reason to start now!”  He turned around and walked towards the tailgate of the truck.  He stopped, turned around, and pointed his finger.  “You run out on me and then, somehow, it’s not fair for me to run?”  He jumped to the ground and started walking towards the driver’s side door.  Tracy came off the tailgate just behind him and walked around the truck towards the passenger side door.  She tapped her hand on the bed of the truck with every step she took, almost rhythmically.  When the sound stopped, Cody looked in her direction.  He couldn’t see her.
    A few seconds later, Tracy popped back up.  “You’ve never run before, Mr. Sheriff of Rutherford County, Mr. Line-in-the-sand!”
    Cody, angry, came back around to the rear of the truck – as did Tracy – and they crashed together right behind the tailgate.  Cody put his finger within an inch of Tracy’s face, and he watched as her eyes weighed him.  “I will tell you this, little miss . . . little miss . . . whoever the hell you think you are.  You and all the rest of these idiots brought this upon yourselves.  You and your cheap Muslim labor!  You wanted to keep all of those wonderful little stock portfolios of yours looking nice and fat.  Didn’t I tell you all this would happen?  I sure as hell did, and I said it over and over again – at council meetings and in private.  But did anybody listen to me?  No.  Enough said.”  He shook his finger, thinking of something else to say, but he just bit his lip and turned and walked away.
    Tracy, not to be outdone, came up behind him with her hands up.  She put her right foot forward and around Cody’s left ankle, tripping him.  He fell to the ground and started to get up, but Tracy put her foot down on his neck.  She grabbed his arm and cocked it up underneath his shoulder blade, not expecting him to moan, and she put her mouth next to his ear.  “You will take me back to Murfreesboro so I can do my job for Tennessee, do you hear me?  As far as your little plan for escaping goes, it’s a no go, unless you have another detonator.  So bite into that, big boy.”
    Cody swung around, lifted his legs, and caught Tracy’s head between his