Rum Running III

“I don’t see anything,” David commented, peering out of the dark windshield. For the last few miles Arthur had refused to turn on his headlights. Arthur had finally pulled off on the side of the road and announced that they were there but for all David could see it was a normal cornfield.

“If you could see something then I would be very suspicious,” Arthur said, digging a revolver from under his seat and sticking it in his overcoat pocket. “Just in case,” he explained when he saw David’s face. “I don’t expect any trouble. Just the same, keep your head down; I don’t want you getting seen. If you get pulled into this business you’ll never get out of it, it keeps a hold on you. Just in case something happens to me, drive out of here as fast as you can.” Before David could protest about any of what he had said, Arthur left the cab of the truck and walked a couple of feet into the corn.

“Who’s it?” demanded a coarse voice. Arthur had no doubt that it was armed; they always were, so he stopped.

“I’m from the Huntley Hotel,” Arthur said, naming his father’s headquarters, knowing that would be enough. No need to spread unnecessary names around, his name for instance, if he had any say in the matter.

“Step into the light,” said the voice, and suddenly there was a light farther into the corn field. Arthur walked towards it, admiring the caution his contacts displayed. It made him feel safer to know that there wasn’t likely to be any leaks.

There were three men in the clearing in the corn, for a moment Arthur wondered what the farmer thought of that clearing and then dismissed the thought. The farmer was probably paid handsomely for use of his field; he might even be more involved in this affair then that. All three of the men having guns trained on him was a more immediate concern for Arthur. They guns were only lowered marginally when he held his hands slightly up to show them empty.

“You alone?” asked the man who was obviously the leader of the trio.

“There’s a guy waiting the truck for me,” Arthur admitted. He didn’t want David getting involved but it would be even worse if he got shot because Arthur had lied to some trigger happy gunmen. “He’s not involved in this, he’s just there in case you boys decide that I’d be better off dead,” Arthur bluffed. He had never been to deal where the dealers were this cautious, or this well armed. Arthur was starting to wish that he had told David about the Tommy gun under the passenger seat, he was sitting right over it but Arthur doubted David would look.

“You park the truck like you were told?” asked the leader of the group. The other two didn’t look like much the talking type, and they were holding their guns too casually for Arthurs comfort. The leader didn’t look quite so much like the shoot first type but Arthur recognized his type too. He was the sort to order other people to do horrible things to people without a pang of conscience, he was the leader type, he was the same type as Arthur’s father.

“That’s right, your pay for this stuff is where we told you it’d be so you load this stuff up and we’ll be off.” The leader type’s face contorted for a second, anger? Arthur knew he had said something dangerous, it had never been part of their deal for the dealers to load the truck but it would have been a lot of work for just he and David, and it would have left them in a position where they could have been shot down easily. It was hard to carry a gun while carrying crates of hard liquor. Arthur was counting on that, he wasn’t going to try any funny business but it would get the gorillas to put down their guns. This was supposed to be a gentleman’s transaction and Arthur had thought that his father’s street reputation was still intact enough that people wouldn’t feel the need to bring muscle. Arthur decided that he really didn’t like the look of the leader type.

Arthur watched as the two muscle types loaded up the truck, the leader type did nothing and neither did Arthur. It would have been faster had Arthur and the other man joined in but both were too busy glaring at the other to turn their backs on each other. As for David, Arthur certainly didn’t want to make him an accomplice to such an extent. It wasn’t until the others sunk back into the corn field that Arthur even walked up to the cab to talk to David.

“Glad to see you back without a bullet in your back. I don’t know how to drive,” David commented. Arthur remembered his advice to David about getting away fast if anything happened and laughed. It wouldn’t have been funny had David been stranded in the middle of nowhere with an illegal load but now that the danger was past it was funny to think about.

“We’re going to get out of here, we need to get back to the city by dawn so no stops this time,” Arthur said, pulling himself into the cab. They pulled onto the road again. Arthur had no intention of turning on his headlights, not now that they had a cargo, it was better to go unnoticed.

“This has been fun,” David commented after a few minutes of silent driving. “I’m glad I came with.”

“It was also dangerous, still is,” Arthur corrected. “We aren’t safe yet.”

“I don’t care, I need some adventure in my life every once in a while and there’s no such thing as adventure without danger.” Arthur thought about this but couldn’t think of anything in reply so they just kept driving.

It was around one in the morning that another car, also without headlights, pulled onto the road next to them. It was only Arthur’s quick reflexes and instant suspicion that saved both him and David as the guns went off at them from the car. Arthur peered over the steering wheel and decided that shedding some light on the attackers was more important then secrecy.

“Keep your head down as you can,” Arthur ordered David, switching on his headlights. He slowed the truck so that the car, not expecting the reduction in speed, went past them. In the headlights Arthur caught a glimpse of the leader type and his goons. Apparently they hadn’t been satisfied with getting their money. No wonder his father’s boys had been having some problems with the deliveries, not one of them had realized it was the people they had just bought from, or if they had realized they hadn’t been the ones to live to tell about it.

“Hold on,” Arthur shouted, though whether it was to David or himself he wasn’t sure. He forced the truck off of the road and through a pasture as the car slowed down to take another shot at them. Their windows were already shattered and Arthur realized in a dazed way that his arm was bleeding from a piece of glass.

“Does this always happen?” David asked, he seemed to have pressed himself to the floorboards, which was something for Arthur to be grateful for. At least David wasn’t about to be hit by a stray bullet. “By the way, is this a Tommy gun that’s digging into my ribs?”

To be continued...