CHAPTER 30--SHOWDOWN
June 1997
"Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is," said Lazzaro, "It's revenge."
-Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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loored the Dodge down that dirt road, Queen, real fast. Halfway down the mountain, we heard the explosion. Rooster's place was smithereens.
Dust.
History.
Rest in peace, my friend; rest in peace.
Finally, we came to I-15 and headed west towards town. Somehow I knew that if I looked hard enough, I could find him, and we could have it out, showdown style, like at the OK Corral. But first I was going to ditch the kids at a hotel downtown. No point in dragging them into any more danger. This was between me and Tony.
"What was that?" I said to Louie.
"What was what?"
"Right there, up ahead, I saw a car-a black car."
The road had curved slightly, so you couldn't see it. Then it came into view.
"Yeah, it looks like a black car," Louie said.
"Can you read the license plate?"
Louie pulled the binoculars from under the front passenger seat, and fixed them on the car I feared was being driven by a man I hadn't talked to in thirty years. A man who must have thought I was dead, or why would he have left me there, like that, without finishing the job?
"Fucking shit, Jack, it is him. The license plate says DDT. Oh, my God."
Oh, my fucking God was more like it. I pulled the Dodge to side of the road, letting the black BMW disappear once again down the road.
"OK, you two, out of the car. I had wanted to get a hotel for you two, but now it looks like there isn't going to be enough time."
"Not on your fucking life, dude."
"Louie, I'm talking real danger here."
"You're right," he responded. "Ginny, out!"
"Not on your fucking life, Louie."
Yeah, I guess I should have just turned around, Queen. And hid some more, spending the rest of my days wondering if Tony was going to pop my ass when I wasn't looking. Wondering if, like Joey Gallo, he would one day pop my ass as I tried to eat my dinner.
It was time, Queen, time for closure, resolution.
Still, couldn't bring myself to head back down that road, Queen. These two had a wedding to plan. Kids to raise. Lives to be lived. How could I jeopardize that over my own need to finish this ugly DDT business? And then there it was, coming towards us.
Black. Mean. Fast. And deadly.
Shit. I fired up the Dodge, just as he was almost on top of us. The front windshield shattered as Tony fired off the first shot. Glass was flying everywhere as DDT whizzed by, a flashing black blast of terminator speed. I knew he would be back, like
"Louie, Ginny, get down on the floor goddamnit."
They already were. Turned the Dodge around and headed east. Pulled my Glock out, letting it sit in between my legs. Sank my foot on the accelerator and pushed that Dodge as hard as I could. No sooner had I done that when I saw him, coming towards us. He switched lanes and was headed straight for us.
A little game of chicken, eh Tony?
With the glass shattered, it was easy to fire at Tony as he got closer and closer. Aimed and fired. Boom. Damnit to all hell,
I fucking missed.
Took another shot. Damn. Knew I should have been hitting the firing range more often. My marksmanship was feeling the effects of old age and no practice. Now we were seconds away from a head-on; I aimed to take one more shot before taking evasive maneuvers.
Click.
Another shot from DDT’s gun rang out, as I jerked the Dodge to the right, off the highway and off roading into the high desert. In my rearview mirror I saw the BMW turning and around and giving chase. If anything the sporty beamer was the only thing that gave us a fighting chance, Queen. They're fast on the highway, maybe but they weren't made for off-roading. Still, needed to be ready.
"Louie, where are the bullets? I need to reload."
"Bullets?"
"You fucking what? You FUCKING SHIT! Don’t tell me you FORGOT!"
"Shit, I didn't pick up anything yesterday morning. Remember? That was the morning that Ginny…”
He paused.
“And it's not like guns are my favorite thing. Oh God, I'm sorry Jack," Louie said.
"I'm sorry, it's all my fault," Ginny sobbed.
“It’s all right, Ginny” I assured her.
No it wasn’t but I was going to tell her that.
We drove on. DDT was not to be shaken. Son of a bitch. Like for an hour, we drove, dust spinning. Kept glancing through the dust, and just as I thought we had finally ditched him in a hole or gully, his beamer reared its dark head like a shark on a swimmer's ass. When I could see the approaching rim of the Grand Canyon, I opted to turn the thing around and see if we couldn't finally shake Tony by doubling back.
"I always thought Thelma and Louise was a lousy way to end a movie," I said.
"What do you mean by that, amigo?"
"I mean I really don't think driving the three of us off the edge of the
"Jack, what cliff?" Ginny was hysterical. As I tried to turn the Dodge around it stalled. Shit. Turned the ignition, and it just sputtered. That's when I noticed the fuel gauge. It was below empty.
"Louie, did you fill up the spare gas tank like I asked you to yesterday," I said.
"Amigo, that was yesterday morning, remember?"
Yeah, I remembered..
I could hear her crying from under the seat. I knew Louie was holding her as tightly as he possibly could, and I knew she was probably apologizing again for her stunt downtown. But that was all water under the bridge at this point. And for a moment there, Queen, I wished that the two of them weren't such wussies when it came to weapons. Here we were, three-on-one, and yet Tony held all the goddamn cards. Well, at least a loaded gun.
Dust whipped up around us as Tony shot past and parked about 20 feet away.
"Louie, listen to me. Listen to me," I said. "And Ginny, keep your ass low in there. I'm going to get out and confront him. Maybe, I could distract him. When you have the opportunity, Louie, get out of the side door, come up from behind him, and let's see if all the money we spent on those karate lessons pays off."
"Louie, no, don't. You could be killed," Ginny pleaded.
"Ginny," I said. "It's us or him, at this point. We really don't have a choice."
She was silent. I could tell she was scared.
Very scared.
So was I.
As I climbed out of the Dodge, I held my Glock up high in the air, above my head. Shit, since the thing wasn't loaded, what was the point of getting shot over it.
"OK Tony," I said. "You got me. You win."
I tossed my gun to the ground. He was walking towards me, pointing a .357 Magnum Automatic on me as he came. For the first time in 30 years, I heard his raspy voice again.
"Well, I'll be damned if it isn't Jack Morrison. And here I thought you were dead. Filled that fuck machine you were in with as many bullets as I had for your friend Rooster. He said he didn't know where you were, but I had a feeling you were in there."
"So, why didn't you make sure I was dead?"
"Figured I'd give you just as much chance as you gave me."
"It's been a long time, Tony."
"Yeah, it has, hasn't it, Jack?"
As he got within five feet of me, Queen, he slowly pulled his black T-shirt up, just as slowly and smoothly as he had rolled down that window just a few short days ago, revealing his bare chest, and the scar I left near the top of his stomach all those years ago.
"Welcome to the beautiful
He let go of his shirt and let it fall.
"I thought you retired and were living in
"Don't believe everything you hear on the street. But I tell you this. I was at the Edgewater. Nice shooting by the way; I even watched you on the nightly news. I said that's the man, the man who fucking left me to die in the fucking jungle back in '70. Really felt I could take you out any time I wanted to, but I'd just landed a new gig with Big Al, and you know Big Al, he always has big plans, and he wanted something else from you."
DDT walked over to his car door, reached in, while holding the gun on me, and pulled out something. He didn't have to show me, Queen. It all made sense now. Rooster's million dollar DATs.
Million dollar pornware. My fucking heart sank, Queen.
DDT was laughing. It was hell. It was pure hell. He casually tossed the porn DATs back into the beamer.
"So, how'd you follow us so well?"
"Isn’t technology wonderful?" DDT said, his smug, ugly face cracking into an evil grin.
"Well, I 'spose it's proprietary information, but since I'm gonna kill you I guess I can tell ya. Poor stupid Rooster ... back when he and Al were still partners in their little project, Rooster slipped him some specs on a floppy. Stupid fuck didn't realize he'd left some proprietary information on them disks-specs and frequencies for that little toy you've been carrying around, the one that makes you a winner in every casino in town. Al got one of his hired tech hacks to build a tracking device that would zero in and lock on the thing once it was used anywhere near town. Of course, we figured it was the old man himself using it to Jew the same casinos that buttered his bread for so many years buying up his little games."
"Anyway, I was actually headed for Laughlin a few days ago, when I get a call from Al. Didn't recognize you at all Jack. Yeah, it came as quite a surprise to me. I knew you'd made it back from 'Nam. I knew you were alive, Morrison. I just knew it. And you know fucking what? It ate at me every fucking day. The asshole that left me to fucking die was still alive, and I wasn't gonna rest until I nailed your sorry ass. Oh, they tried to tell me you were dead. I said, 'let me see the body.' No body than I'm not buying it."
"It's only when I saw the news footage that I recognized you, long hair and all. Something about the way you just held that gun pointed and shot that guy. It was, how shall we say, very familiar to me. But since it was Al who turned me on to you, the least I could do was carry through with the plan to find Rooster. Weird thing is the trail went cold in downtown Vegas. Retrieved this from a trash can in the Stardust."
He pulled the magic box out of his shirt pocket. "I can have fun with this, Jack, can't I? Loads of fun. Or should I say slots of fun?"
He put the magic box back into his pocket.
"Then Al gets a call from one of his friend's in blue downtown. You were spotted headed to the Virtual Dead show. And fuck I searched all night and couldn't find you. There goes my bonus, I thought, when, the next morning, I happen to see that one-armed Mexican freak friend of yours running across the lot and hopping into the Dodge. Nice make over, by the way. Anyway, Al's going to be very happy. Very happy. He just might give me a bonus. And then maybe I just might retire to
He let out his trademark maniacal laugh.
"So, for Al, I just want to say thanks, Jack. And, thanks to your friends as well. By the way, where are they?"
That's when I saw Louie, just over Tony's shoulder, who didn't see him, as Tony edged closer to look for them in the Dodge, all while keeping his gun pointed at me. So quietly, so perfectly, Louie had maneuvered behind a bush to DDT's and the Dodge's right. Louie was within striking range.
"Oh, don't mention it Tony," I said sarcastically, trying to keep him from noticing Louie sneaking up behind him.
"Nice car by the way. How many people did you have to kill to pay for it?"
"Fuck you, Morrison," he said, turning his attention back to me.
"Maybe, I should go ahead and kill you now and deal with your little friends later."
"Black has always been your color, Tony."
He lifted the Magnum. Big black mean-looking metal.
That's when Louie acted, moving forward as fast he could, and closing in on the target. Maybe it was my glancing over at him, or maybe DDT could just hear Louie's bare feet scrape lifting from the dirt as he launched a kick, but, damnit, Tony turned and saw him. Wasn't fast enough to keep Louie's foot from connecting with his square Italian jaw, as a shot rang out and Louie's right leg completed its mission.
Louie's kick gave me just enough time for me to move in and connect his face to my fist, undercutting him as he tried to stand. The Magnum went flying off into some scrub as he hit the ground hard. When I saw him hit the ground was when I saw the blood. Not two feet away from him lay Louie. He was holding his stomach. Blood flowed freely. He looked up at me and all he could say was "amigo."
Louie!!!
That's when Ginny burst out from her hiding place in the Dodge and fell down on her knees next to him. She held him and cradled him, talking to him, letting the sound of her voice be the last thing he heard before he heard the sound of heaven.
Didn't have time to pay Louie my last respects quite just yet. Made a beeline straight for where I thought I saw the gun land. And all I could see was a big patch of Mesquite cacti. There was no other place the gun could have landed. It was hidden in that thorny web of brush, and retrieving it wasn't an option at this point. And the poetic justice of it all struck me poignantly for a moment, Queen. That a prickly cactus plant had evened out the hand between me and Tony; that without weapons it was now just man-to-man, fist-to-fist. Honorable conflict, like Louie always talked about. When I turned to duke it out with him, I saw the cocksucker hopping into his BMW.
And starting the car.
And coming towards me.
So much for an even playing field.
It's the scariest fucking feeling, Queen, when someone's determined to kill you. People in the movies made it look easy, but it was terrifying. And I fucking ran as fast as I could, screaming at Ginny to run like hell. I yelled at her to "get her sugar-spun ass out of there." Again the only thing that gave me a fighting chance was Tony's hankering for a sporty import, and his having to negotiate the rough terrain with a car made for the highways, not the highlands.
Managed to run down a grade, with some scrub off to one side blocking the view of the Canyon. When my left foot hit a rock and I fell, scraping my face bloody red, I almost died right that from cardiac arrest. Oh, my God, Queen, I was staring into a huge hole in the ground: the Grand Canyon. Had no fucking idea we were that close to the edge. I managed to stand up, and turn around to see that Tony was almost on top of me, rolling his German-made death machine over the rocks and cacti, bouncing as he moved in for the kill. As I saw him coming towards me, I realized that if I didn't see the edge until I was at almost falling into it, than neither could a pissed-off
I stood like a man who is prepared to die with dignity, with courage, with valor, and all that shit, and with his middle finger up in the air.
"Fuck you, Tony. DDT. Punk. I saw what you did in 'Nam. I saw what you did to Rooster," I screamed.
Tony gunned the car forward.
Zeroed in. Point blank.
If there is a hell he had no idea how close to it he was.
Was ready for our sweet embrace as well, Queen, when a loud shot rang out. The BMW suddenly lurched to my left. I went forward and right, barely noticing Tony's bloodied head leaning forward in a bath of the shattered glass of the driver's side window. Then all I saw was the dirt of the earth, and rocks that scraped my bloodied face even more. And then everything was quiet for a moment.
Tony and the beamer were gone, off the edge.
A distant boom.
The twisted, mangled sound of metal, rock, fire and flesh connecting.
Welcome to the beautiful
