Invasion USA Read Online Free PDF Page A

a gun. He hoped that nobody had gotten hurt inside the bank, but he knew he couldn’t count on that. The members of M-15 were notorious for being trigger-happy. They shot first and didn’t give a damn who got hurt. Fred knew he couldn’t afford to take chances or give them any sort of break. He drew his sidearm as he threw open the door of the cruiser. Crouching behind the door, he aimed at one of the Explorer’s rear tires and opened fire.
    The Explorer’s driver didn’t try to back around and use the exit on the far side of the parking lot. Instead he got out of the space quickly and gunned the vehicle toward the deputy’s cruiser. Fred kept firing, aiming at the windshield now as the Explorer came at him. He saw the glass spiderweb under the impact, but it didn’t shatter. The driver twisted the wheel and sent the Explorer bumping over the curb and across the cactus garden toward the street. A tall saguaro went down under the impact of the Explorer’s grill.
    One of the robbers was in the back seat now, firing toward Fred as the Explorer turned broadside to him. The high-powered slugs slammed into the door of the cruiser but didn’t penetrate it. However, the bullets knocked it back against Fred, and it hit him so hard he was stunned and lost his balance as he crouched there. He slid down to the pavement. His legs stuck out from under the cruiser door.
    Bullets chewed into them, tearing flesh and breaking bone. Fred jerked and jittered and screamed as the rounds practically sawed his legs off at the thighs. The gunner quit firing as the Explorer’s rear wheels bounced over the cactus garden and the powerful vehicle surged onto the street.
    Fred slumped to the side, falling out from behind the car door. He didn’t know if he had any bullets left in his service revolver or not, but he managed somehow to lift the heavy weapon, steady it with both hands and pull the trigger, as he felt himself losing consciousness. The gun blasted, so he tried again, operating purely on instinct now. Dimly, he heard the explosion of another shot.
    Then he didn’t hear anything. He had passed out from shock and loss of blood.
    He had no way of knowing that his final bullet had struck the rear window of the Explorer, penetrated cleanly, zipped past the ear of the robber in the back seat, hit the headrest of the driver’s seat, gone through that, and caught the driver in the back of the head, shattering his skull and boring on through to burst out the front in a grisly shower that coated the inside of the windshield with blood and brain matter. The man slumped to the side and turned the wheel as he did so, sending the Explorer rocketing straight at the sidewalk.
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    Carla let out a little cry of surprise as she saw the big vehicle suddenly careen over onto her side of the road. Instinctively, she slammed on the brakes to keep the Explorer from hitting her head-on. She knew her little Nissan would crumple like tinfoil in a crash like that. Andy yelled in alarm as he was thrown forward against the seat belt. Thank God she had forced him to buckle it.
    In front of her, the Explorer jumped the curb, crossed the sidewalk, and slammed into a storefront that housed the office of a certified public accountant and notary public. The building’s front wall collapsed around it in an avalanche of glass, broken masonry, twisted metal, and dust. Carla sat there in her stopped car, its engine still ticking over, and stared at the destruction. She wondered if the Explorer’s driver had suffered a heart attack. Something had caused him to lose control of the vehicle. She reached for her purse, thinking she would get out her cell phone and call 911.
    Before she could get her hands on the phone, two men came running out of the cloud of dust that seemed to envelop half the block. They carried bags and something else—guns, Carla realized with a shock. Their faces were streaked with blood