Pop-off Rookie by Leo Hoban Read online

  he’d played games in. He knew every byway, every pathway in and out of the abandoned HE raised his right foot and kicked in the warehouses.

  window pane. The shatter of glass was

  His elation became acute

  deafening in the quiet.

  disappointment. Fourteenth and Walnut

  He went head-first through the window

  Streets were deserted. No cars, not a person as a gun banged and a slug droned hungrily was in sight.

  near his head.

  O’Rourke waved him down and leaped

  He hit the floor, rolling, and came up

  off the running-board to examine the driveway with his automatic clenched in a steady fist. A that led into an abandoned brewery.

  deadly calm held him. Here was the fight he’d Miles saw him wave his arms been looking for. Here was surcease from impatiently. He sprang to O’Rourke’s side, galling insults.

  looking down at the fresh tire tracks that Two guns roared up front. There was a

  disappeared behind the huge sliding doors, yelp of pain, then silence.

  before O’Rourke had finished grunting his Miles started forward on his hands and

  satisfaction.

  knees. He went for to the right, until his

  “Here’s your chance to vindicate shoulder brushed the wall. A blurred figure yourself, bud. I’m guessing that inside we’ll passed near him, walking on tip-toe. Miles, find Bernadino and the three mugs who were smiling without humor in the dark let the man in the sedan with him. Scared?”

  pass. Then he went forward with the sure

  “No, sir,” Miles said, loosening his

  memory of childhood guiding him, making a gun. “If you’ll take the front, I’ll go in through wide arc to his left.

  the back. I know how to get inside.”

  The dim ray of light that peeked from

  “I’m giving the orders,” O’Rourke under a crack in the doorway almost was snapped. “We’re going to bust in through the indiscernible. Miles stood erect and moved old office door. Understand, bud?”

  back into the shadows.

  “Yes, and you’re out of your head.

  “We’d better take him now,” a voice

  You’re going to get hurt if the jewel thieves said from the other side of the partition. “That are inside. It’s dark, a perfect trap where they partner of his will be bringing help. Let’s can spot you and you can’t do a thing about it.

  scram.”

  I’m going in through the back.”

  “Last I saw of my partner; he was

  “You’re doing as you’re told, pop-off,

  running like a scared rabbit away from

  Pop-off Rookie

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  trouble,” O’Rourke snarled in a bitter, tight his right shoulder that drove him flat against voice. “A cop—running away.”

  the wall.

  “Cops don’t run away,” the first voice

  said. “And it didn’t sound like mice breaking HE saw two men go down. Then O’Rourke

  that window in back.”

  came surging from his chair, swinging his one

  “You don’t know the cop I’m talking

  good fist. The room became a roaring inferno about,” O’Rourke growled. “The yellow rat of deafening sound. Another man went down.

  cracks under pressure. He’s just a pop-off.”

  Miles’ gun clicked, empty. He threw it with Miles, watching the dark blur approach

  all his remaining strength at the face of the from the building’s rear, felt like laughing dapper Bernadino.

  aloud. He supposed this was how a man felt, The thug swung his gun-filled fists

  after being restored from the strange clutch of upward. But O’Rourke reached with one hand insanity that had held his mind in a vise.

  and twisted his positive free. There was one The blur became a man, and the man

  more shot—O’Rourke’s and Bernadino was

  tugged open the door.

  flat on his face on the floor.

  Miles

  galvanized into action. An

  O’Rourke spun about to face Miles.

  upraised foot sent the man spinning into the

  “You’ll never learn to obey orders, I

  small room. Miles followed him like a suppose. But at least I know how you’ll act hurricane, then blinked in the uncertain light.

  under pressure. I was wrong, being so

  Five men were there. One was careless. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have—”

  O’Rourke, sitting on a chair and clutching a

  “But your orders were to break in the

  bullet-punctured hand. The four men all rear,” Miles said innocently. “That’s how my carried guns. One, easily recognized as dapper report will be made out.”

  Georgie Bernadino, had two guns—his own

  O’Rourke looked levelly at Miles.

  and O’Rourke’s.

  “Always popping off, eh, partner?”

  On a table in the middle of the room,

  “Yes, sir,” Miles answered

  an open valise squatted. Divided into four respectfully.

  even piles near the valise lay jewelry, gems.

  He wanted to ride the cruiser with

  “Get ’em up!” Miles started to say.

  O’Rourke for many years to come.

  “You’re all under arrest for—”

  He knew intuitively that his new

  The man with two guns tried a partner felt the same way.

  snapshot with the positive. Miles’ gun bucked

  “Pop off all you want, copper,” said

  malevolently in his hand, and kept bucking.

  O’Rourke gently. “I’m beginning to like it.”

  He felt the shocking impact of a slug against