Smythe and Bobby were holding out home that some lowlife would sell out Miller for the money. They got luck and that lowlifes name was Diana Harrison. She was a meth-head, prostitute and small time hustler.

Even in her drug addled mind she was able to recognize the smell of cooking food coming from the small underground building attached to the back of the civic center. She had been lurking around to either score drugs or a john. She had heard of the reward for information earlier, and despite being human debris, she was streetwise enough to know that this information could be her ticket to $50,000.

Within minutes she was walking to the other side of town, less than 10 blocks, towards the place where the fancy looking men had been set up all day. She knew they were some sort of military contractors from the tricks she'd turned with some of them.

As she stumbled up the stairs into the buildings, some of the contractors noticed her and stopped her from going further. It only took a couple of exchanges before she was being taken to Smythe and Bobby.

"I'm telling you man, I smelled food cooking in the back of the civic center. That building has been closed for weeks while they painted it and people haven't used the room in back for years" she stammered out as she teetered in front of them.

Smythe and Bobby glanced at each other. Cooking smells from a junkie wasn't much to go on, but it was more than they had had all day.

"And nobody is using this building?" Smythe pressed.

"No man, that's what I'm telling you. I take some of my dates in there sometimes and it's been empty until now" she protested.

"Show me where" Bobby ordered.

"Go 10 blocks straight down this road out front man" she chattered. "civic centers right there"

Before she got done talking and returned to picking at the scabs on her arm Bobby was running out of the building.

"Hey man! Where's my money" she demanded.

Smythe poured on the charm. "Why don't we get you something to eat. If your information checks out we'll get you the cash tonight". He had no intentions whatsoever of paying that amount of money to a degenerate like Diana but he'd at least go through the motions for now.

****

Smythe hadn't even escorted the hooker turncoat to a truck to get some food before Bobby and his men were screaming down the road in trucks. Word of this made it back to Sargent Jenkins and the Captain before they even made it to the Civic Center and within minutes they too we starting to converge on the area.

For his part, Dink had gathered up Maggie and made it out of the Civic Center. They were behind some dumpsters just down the street when Bobby's men driving up and crashing to a stop on the front lawn of the civic center. Dink could hear Bobby barking out orders and knew they were in big trouble. It was still light out and would stick out like a sore thumb. He watched the men enter the building, while others moved into a position to surround it.

Dink had been in tough spots before and come out of them. He worked to control his breathing to maintain a good oxygen supply to his brain. They had the good fortune to be behind a dumpster on the side of a restaurant. There was a small sidewalk between the dumpster and the building. It ultimately lead behind the building as it was used for deliveries. The blessing for Dink and Maggie was that the sidewalk quickly went down in elevation as it led to a basement level opening behind the building.

Checking to see that nobody was looking their way, he grabbed Maggie and pulled her along as they took a couple of steps between the dumpster and the start of the walkway. If anybody had been looking their way, they'd be seen and the game would be over. A man with a backpack and a long package wrapped in a jacket along with a young girl stood out.

They moved quickly down the stairs which afforded them cover. Soon they were behind the building which kept them from view of the contractors just a block or two down and across the street. Their luck continued to hold when there was a small cooler at the end of the narrow walkway. It was just tall enough that they could use it to climb out of the sunken walkway but still have the building between them and the Civic Center.

Hoisting her up onto the cooler she gingerly peered over the edge of the walk. Excitedly she whispered "there's a small parking that is fenced in and a couple cars".

Dink soon joined her on the cooler and then helped her up and over the edge. She pulled the jacked wrapped rifle over the edge as he slung up his pack. Soon he hopped over the wall back onto ground level and they made their way to a small sedan.

Maggie watched in amazement as within seconds Dink had the door opened with some small metal shafts that looked like screw drivers. "Don't watch this. I'm a horrible example" he said with a grin.

All the humor then drained from his face. "Now, get in the back seat and lay across the floorboard. There's a blanket in the back seat and I'm going to cover you with it. I'll lay the rifle on top of you under the blanket and the pack on top. If the car comes to a stop you must lay perfectly still and not make a peep." Maggie could tell from his expression that he was deadly serious. She dutifully climbed into the floor in the back and laid still as Dink carefully laid the blanket, rifle and pack on her.

"If you hear a gunshot do your best not to scream" Dink further instructed as he gingerly started the car and backed out of the spot. All those years as a Deputy Sheriff were paying off as he had it running in no time. He eased out of the parking lot and sighed in relief when he realized it opened on a street that kept the restaurant building between them and the civic center.

"Maggie, I'm going to drive normal and not talk to you for a bit. If I suddenly jam on the accelerator don't be scared. Don't worry, we're going to be fine" he called out.

A hushed but confident reply came from the backseat "beats those art magazines huh?"

He smiled as he began driving away from the area. He wanted to put as many blocks between him and the contractors as possible. They'd start a cordon search soon and if they weren't out of there they might get caught up in the net.

Dink drove several blocks as casually as he could. If anybody paid any real attention to him they'd know something was wrong. He was wearing camouflage clothes and a chest rig with rifle ammo which of course screamed "fugitive" to anybody with a lick of sense. So he drove slow, but not too slow. Within a few minutes he was turning off the street onto other side streets. He hoped to make his way out of town via the back streets and avoid the main one like the plague. Fortunately he had patrolled in Lumberton many times so he knew the area.

As he got closer to the edge of town, he failed to notice the Humvee parked off to the side a block away. The black corporal that looked a bit like Cuba Gooding Junior was soon on the radio to base.