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Cuff this one, wait for backup to deal with the other two. That was the smart play.
Piper put a knee on the robber’s back to control his movements, went to cuff his hands, and then remembered she still had her gun in her right hand. She needed to holster it to use both hands to cuff him, but the last thing she wanted to do was to be out here without a gun in her hand and ready to go.
As if to verify her worst fears, a pair of gunshots rang out from the cabin. One whizzed past her ear, making her flinch, but the second hit her right in the Kevlar vest.
Piper could feel the round impact on her right upper chest, like a heavy punch or being jabbed hard with the end of a blunt stick. She dropped to the ground, more out of surprise than actual damage, and shot back once she was down.
It was a reflexive action, shooting back at the sound as much as anything, but after her first shot, she had time to see where the fire had come from. A small window on the side of the cabin, and an arm poking out, pointing a silver pistol at her.
She kept shooting at the window, pulling the trigger until the gun clicked on empty. It had the desired effect; the arm and gun retracted back into the window and disappeared.
Piper took advantage of the pause to roll toward the cabin, getting her legs under her just long enough to spring the last few feet. Here, this close, the shooter couldn’t see her, not unless he stuck his full head and shoulder out of that window, and after the gunfire she’d just unleashed, she doubted that the shooter would be eager to expose themselves.
She had a second now to take stock of herself and her situation. Piper was a little surprised that she was as functional as she was; all the movies and TV shows make it seem like getting shot in the bulletproof vest was a debilitating injury. It hurt, somewhat, and her right arm seemed like it wanted to move sluggishly, but either the shooter had hit her with something weak or her adrenaline had her so spiked up that she didn’t feel it, or both.
Either way, she was still in the fight. The smart play of waiting for backup was pretty much out of the window, not with her pressed right up against the wall of the cabin like this. With two shooters still inside, they could come around on either side of her and shoot her at will. She couldn’t hope to cover all directions at once.
She had to move. Right now, the back door that Black Tooth had disappeared into seemed like the best bet, so Piper reloaded her pistol and moved around the corner to the back of the cabin.
Nobody standing in the doorway, and she couldn’t see anyone in the windows at the back. Her hearing was pretty much gone thanks to the gunfire, but she thought she might hear yelling inside the cabin, near the front.
No better time than now, she figured, and moved up to the back door, gun leading the way. Her ears were ringing but she could vaguely understand the yelling coming from inside the cabin. It was Black Tooth, she was pretty sure, and he was almost certainly at the front door of the cabin.
“Fuck this, man!” he shouted. “I’m gone!”
“Where are you going, motherfucker?” another voice shouted.
It had to be the shooter. There wasn’t anyone else. And if he was busy with arguing with Black Tooth...
Piper moved now that they were distracted, through the doorway and into a back room. Through another doorway, she could see the guy who’d shot her, facing away from her, holding a bloody hand to his left ear. His other hand held the silver nine millimeter pistol that had put a slug into her Kevlar vest.
“Get back here, asshole!” he shouted at the front door. “She shot my fucking ear!”
One of her shots at the window must’ve gotten lucky and clipped him, or maybe just splinters from the window frame. Either way, it didn't matter. Piper lined up her pistol on the shooter and squared her shoulders. There would be no panicking, this time.
“Freeze! FBI!” she shouted. “Drop your weapon!”
She didn’t even have time to finish the last part. The shooter turned, saw her, spat out some sort of curse that Piper couldn’t hear due to the ringing in her ears from the gunfire.
Then, he raised the gun, and Piper shot him.
One shot, controlled, aimed, that hit the shooter just above the left eye. His head snapped back while his body crumpled forward, the gun clattering out of his hand. Piper was no expert, but it was clear that the man was dead before he hit the ground.
She didn’t stare in amazement this time, but stayed all business, moving toward the front room where the shooter had been standing. Piper angled her way along the side of the doorway so she could see as much of the room as possible before moving in, and then moved through the doorway quickly and cleared the front room.
No sign of Black Tooth.
Piper was just trying to think of what to do next when the sound of a motorcycle starting up made its way through the ringing in her ears. Black Tooth, making a run for it, it had to be, and Piper ran toward the front door, kicking it open in time to see the taillights of one of the motorcycles tearing off down the dirt road, away from the cabin.
She raised her pistol but Black Tooth disappeared from view before she could line up a shot. Piper swore, punching the doorframe with the bottom of her fist. She couldn’t believe it. All that had happened, her having to shoot two men, not to mention getting shot herself, and now with nothing to show for it. She’d moved in to get information and all she got was a shootout instead.
She pounded the doorframe again in her frustration. There, next to where her fist landed, a racing jacket hung, the sort that the bank robbers had worn last night at the race and then again today at the robbery.
A set of keys dangled partly out of one of the pockets.
Piper looked at the keys, looked at the two motorcycles left parked in front of the cabin, looked at the now-empty dirt road that Black Tooth had just sped off and away.
She should stay here. That was the smart play. Stay here, meet with the locals, explain everything. Of course, that would ruin her cover, most likely.
