Cowboy Angels Read Online Free PDF Page B

you.’
    Tom knocked Stone’s hand away. ‘You don’t have clue one, do you? Why I’m here, the Old Man made me the kind of offer you can’t refuse.’
    ‘If you’re in trouble, Tom, I swear I’ll do my best to straighten it out.’
    ‘I’m better off here. Better to burn out, bro, than fade away.’
    They stared at each other for a few moments, Tom Waverly mulishly stubborn, Adam Stone angry and frustrated. Then gunfire started up somewhere beyond the head of the train, the snap of rifles, the heavy rattle of a machine gun. Rounds sparked off the boiler, sparked off spoked driving wheels. Tom ran toward the locomotive and Stone ran after him, into the roar of an incoming plane. Soldiers were returning fire. Stone saw Captain Lewis walk up to the three men in overalls who knelt on the ground, saw him shoot two in the head, one after the other, saw him haul the third to his feet and shove him toward the cab of the locomotive. Albert Flynn stood to one side of this, hands raised to his shoulders, two soldiers aiming their rifles at him.
    The plane tore low overhead. Leafless trees threshed in its wake. It climbed and turned back and came in again. Captain Lewis’s soldiers started up a ragged fusillade and the plane’s guns flashed along the edge of its wings, tore long furrows out of the embankment. Then it was gone again, making another turn out in the darkness as random rounds cracked out of black air.
    Tom Waverly ran to a Jeep and lifted a fat cylinder from the back seat - the launch tube of an M-288 smart missile, totally forbidden to locals in any sheaf. No doubt it was another of Knightly’s gifts. Tom flipped open the tube front and back and shouldered it, and Stone yanked the .22 from his ankle holster and shouted Tom’s name.
    Tom grinned at him. ‘That won’t do much against a plane, but I appreciate the gesture.’
    ‘It’s time to go home, Tom.’
    The plane was making a rising noise out in the dark as it swung back toward the train.
    Stone cocked the .22. ‘Put that thing down, Tom. Come with me.’
    ‘Fuck you,’ Tom said and threw the launch tube at Stone and reached inside his jacket for his revolver.
    Stone shot him in the right shoulder, ran forward as Tom dropped to his knees, and clipped him on the point of his chin and laid him out.
    The plane made another roaring pass. Something slanted down with a piercing whistle and flame burst on the other side of the locomotive and a blast of hot air knocked Stone down. He took a little while to get to his feet. The locomotive was venting jets of steam from its broken boiler. Most of the cattle-cars were on fire. A few soldiers and prisoners were stirring; many more lay still. Stone saw Albert Flynn stoop over a body and pick up a rifle, saw a soldier fire a burst that kicked dirt around the big man, saw him spin around and fall flat on his face.
    Stone got his hands under Tom’s shoulders and hauled him into the back seat of the Jeep. Soldiers were staggering out of the steam and smoke. One of them was Captain Gene Lewis.
    The young officer was covered in dirt and soot and he was bleeding from his nose and ears, but he was aiming his pistol straight at Stone. He screamed something lost in the howl of venting steam and the ringing in Stone’s ears, and fired. The shot crazed the Jeep’s windshield and Stone snatched Tom’s knife from his shoulder rig and threw it in a flat arc. Captain Lewis took a step, his hand reaching for the handle of the knife that protruded from his breastbone, and collapsed.
    Stone swung behind the wheel and gunned the Jeep and pulled a U-turn, scattering soldiers. Something big was on fire a mile away and heavy artillery was lighting the horizon beyond it, making thunder under the black sky. Stone swerved past the burning Jeep, rattled over a smashed fence. One of the Turing gates was still open, a circle of beautiful silver light shining at the end of the trackway like a tethered moon. Stone accelerated, saw a