Last Man Standing Read Online Free PDF

looked down. He saw the fire, witnessed
     the explosion as fuel vapor met flames and then ran back to his car. The two vehicles kicked up gravel leaving the scene.
    As they did, Randall Cove slowly rose from the spot where he’d been thrown when the driver’s door had been ripped open by
     the first impact with the ground. He had lost his gun and it felt like a couple of ribs were cracked, but he was alive. He
     looked down at what was left of his car and then back up at where the men who had tried to kill him had raced off. Cove stood
     on shaky legs and started slowly making his way back up.

    W eb clutched his wounded hand even as his head seemed primed to explode. It was like he had taken three quick slugs of straight
     tequila and was about to reflux them. The hospital room was empty. There was an armed man outside, to make sure nothing happened
     to Web—nothing
else
anyway.
    Web had been lying here all day and into the night thinking about what had happened, and he was no closer to any answers than
     when they first brought him here. Web’s commander had already been in, along with several members of Hotel and some of the
     snipers from Whiskey and X-Ray. They had said little, all of them reeling in their personal agony, their disbelief that something
     like this could have happened to them. And in their eyes Web could sense their suspicions, the issue of what had happened
     to him out there.
    “I’m sorry, Debbie,” Web said to the image of Teddy Riner’s widow. He said the same to Cynde Plummer, Cal’s wife and also
     now a widow. He went down the list: six women in all, all friends of his. Their men were his partners, his comrades; Web felt
     as bereaved as any of the ladies.
    He let go of his injured hand and touched the metal side of the bed with it. What a sorry wound to bring back with him. He
     hadn’t taken one round directly. “Not one damn shot did I get off in time,” he said to the wall. “Not one! Do you realize
     how unbelievable that is?” he called out to the IV stand, before falling silent again.
    “We’re going to get them, Web.”
    The voice startled Web, for he had heard no one enter the room. But of course a voice came with a body. Web inched up on his
     bed until he saw the outline of the man there. Percy Bates sat down in a chair next to Web. The man studied the linoleum floor
     as though it were a map that would guide him to a place that held all the answers.
    It was said that Percy Bates had not changed a jot in twenty-five years. The man hadn’t gained or lost a pound on his trim
     five-ten frame. His hair was charcoal-black without a creep of white and was combed the same way as when he first walked into
     the FBI fresh from the Academy. It was as though he had been flash-frozen, and this was remarkable in a line of work that
     tended to age people well ahead of their time. He had become a legend of sorts at the Bureau. He had wreaked havoc on drug
     operations at the Tex-Mex border and then gone on to raise hell on the West Coast in the LA Field Office. He had risen through
     the ranks quickly and was currently one of the top people at the Washington Field Office, or “WFO,” as it was called. He had
     experience in all the major Bureau divisions and the man knew how all the pieces fit together.
    Bates, who went by Perce, was usually soft-spoken. Yet the man could crumple a subordinate with a look that made one feel
     unworthy to be occupying a square foot of space. He could either be your best ally or your worst enemy. Maybe that’s how a
     man turned out after growing up with a name like Percy.
    Web had been on the end of some of the classic Bates tirades before, when he had been under the man’s direct command in his
     previous professional life at the Bureau. A good deal of the abuse had been deserved, as Web had made mistakes as he learned
     to be a good agent. Yet Bates did play favorites from time to time and, like everyone else, sometimes went searching for