Free The Light at the End of the Tunnel by James W. Nelson Page B

you,
Radford?”
    “I’d like a Colt .45, just like the one I
learned on.”
    “Good choice, my man, and good choice for you
too, young lady. You both have quite often filled that target with
entire loads, so you’re both qualified. I can also take care of
your gun licenses right here too. And now I have an offer to make
you.”
    Both the chaplain and Nicole perked right
up.
    “As I told you earlier, we do certain jobs
here for certain people, and right now there’s a really rich guy
down in Phoenix—one of the suburbs—who wants us to have a talk with
a certain drug dealer. It’s worth $20,000 each for you two, just
to—mainly—tag along.” He hesitated, obviously waiting for some kind
of response.
    “‘ Mainly?’ ” Nicole asked.
    “Well, of course, you both will do something
that will guarantee you both graduate.” Then he added, “And that
$20,000 will take care of your training here, your guns and both
licenses, plus you’ll have quite a bit left over.”
    “A ‘talk’ though? ” the chaplain
finally asked.
    “Yes. A ‘talk.’ The rich guy wants
this puke to stop shipping drugs up to the local kids, and to stop
selling, period, and even to leave town if he has a mind to, but of
course we can’t just stop the guy on the street and tell him
that.”
    “Because he won’t listen….” Nicole said, her
eyes wide.
    “That’s correct. So we have to…for lack of a
better word, kidnap him. Sadie will make the first contact.”
    “Sadie?” Nicole asked, “Won’t that be
dangerous for her?”
    Riley nodded and sent a sober smile, “Sadie
has decided to join our trainers here, and, she’s tougher than most
of us realized. At least as tough as you, Nicole, but yes, it’ll be
dangerous for her, but at least two of us will have her in sight at
all times.”
    “‘ Kidnap’ …him, though?” the chaplain
barely mouthed the three words, “Isn’t that…against the law?” He
kind of chuckled.
    “Yes. We could go to prison, but this guy
isn’t likely to run to the law after we have our talk, and of
course, you two, just by being along, well…as the old saying goes,
and I believe in it: you two would be guilty by association.” Riley
hesitated for a few seconds, appearing to contemplate, then, “One
last thing. You remember I said sometimes we do these jobs for poor
people, well, this one is for free. The rich guy, though, he’ll pay
all right. He’ll pay you two, but my crew and I are doing it for
free. You see, a fourteen-year-old girl died of a drug overdose
last week, and those drugs were—unofficially—traced directly to the
guy we’re going to talk to.”
    “‘ Unofficially?’” asked the
chaplain.
    “No proof, so the guy was back on the street
in an hour. So, are you in?”
    The chaplain looked at his woman. She smiled
and nodded positively.
    “We’re in,” he said.
    ****
    After the conversation, Riley left and the
chaplain and Nicole remained at the table.
    “For the time being, Nicole, I think we
should lock our guns in their cases and store them under the front
seats.” Then he waited.
    “I agree, Radford, but, of course, if we ever
need one in a hurry we’ll be at quite a disadvantage. Of course,
since we likely will be crossing many state lines…well, we don’t
want to be—as you said—banging heads with the local law.” She sent
her bright smile, “I imagine the laws are head-bangingly
different.”
    “We’ll ask Riley about that. Maybe your small
gun could hide in that purse you sometimes carry, and of course,
after we leave here we aren’t exactly chasing a hardened
criminal.”
    “I don’t know about that, Radford.” She got
up and went to another table along the wall, where various
magazines and newspapers lay, searched for a moment, grasped one,
returned and laid it down showing the front page.
    The chaplain quickly read the main headline,
and the minors, then asked, “What am I looking at?”
    Nicole pointed to a sidebar headline.
    He read