Fool's Gold: Carson Lyle's War - Part One by Thomas J. Rock Page A

everything.
    Jack took some pity on him and was going to let him help on the next run and pay him a cut. He'd gone to their place to hammer out the details. All through dinner, Mad Jack was telling him what he was and wasn't going to do, and how he was and wasn't going to do it.
    "You stick with me, Scrub, and I'll learn ya...But you'll have to work for it," Jack had said.
    He excused himself to hit the head. After the door was closed, he sat on the toilet and pulled out the dull, scratched, forty-four. He released the clip and looked at it long and hard. It had one high-explosive bolt round left. He took the round in his hand and held it in front of his face. Lyle fixated on it. Everything else around him turned to a blur as his turned the round in his fingers. Like the face in the mirror, It, too, was tarnished and showed its age.
    He was so possessed by the sight of the round and the relief it could bring, he didn't hear the knock at the door or see it open slowly.
    "Carson," a gentle woman's voice said. It was Betty. "What are you doing?"
    He didn't respond.
    "Carson..."
    "Have you ever wondered," he started, "what your salvation might look like?"
    Betty didn't say anything. Jack came to the doorway at that moment. He started to say something, but Betty held up a dismissive hand.
    "This," Lyle said, holding up the round. "This is my salvation." Then clicked the round back in the clip and slowly slit the clip back into the handle until it clicked and locked into place."
    "Government issued forty-four H-E bolt round?" Jack whistled. "That'll make quite a mess in here, Betts."
    "It seems like you've made up your mind. I only ask that you take it somewhere else," Betty said.
    "Maybe I should."
    "But you know the police will have questions for us," she continued. "It may help things to know why you'd do this."
    Lyle still sat, turning the gun over in his hand. Running his fingers over the impressions in the metal. He cocked the hammer. The metal on metal 'click' seemed to almost echo in the small bathroom.
    He sat for another minute, not saying anything. Jack had pulled Betty back and moved into the doorway.
    "Easy there, Scrub."
    "My name...is not 'Scrub'."
    "Fine then," Jack said with no ease in his voice. "Would you prefer 'Mr. Lyle'?"
    "My name is Carson...Magee and that's one reason why I'm doing this."
    Lyle wasn't sure what came over him. Maybe things had built up inside of him so much they just had to escape. He told Jack and Betty everything; all about what lead up to changing his identity, Wagner, Sarah…everything.
    By the time he was finished he was in tears. Jack was able to take the gun from him, but Lyle didn't care. He'd released the pent-up emotion that had been torturing him for two years. They were the only ones he ever told everything to.
    Jack held on to the gun for weeks before giving it back. Lyle still had it on The Majestic . He decided he'd save it with that same one round for a special occasion; when he found the Mech commander that was leading the attack on Wagner that day. Now that was a real possibility.
    The trick would be to get what he wanted without giving the Authority what they wanted.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 12
     
     
     
     
    After a couple of minutes laying on the floor and regaining his breath and muscle movement. He rolled over and propped himself up on an elbow.
    "That's a pretty solid offer," he said. "I think I'm going to..."
    Sensing affirmation, One said, "Your government thanks you for your—"
    "...tell you to cram it up your ass."
    Agent One stared blankly. Two's smile faded.
    "What was that, Mr. Lyle?" One said.
    Lyle got to his feet and leaned in looking at his reflection in One's visor so he could be sure he had the Agent's attention.
    "I said – and I quote myself – 'cram it up your ass'."
    One sighed deeply. "That's disappointing, Mr. Lyle. Very disappointing. If it were up to me, I'd count it as another act of treason. I may be more irritated that you've