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too valuable to kill. He told me so himself.”
    A few people in the crowd laughed. They had to be thinking what Connelly and Pepper wanted them to think—that here were two really tough men. Even in the face of a madman holding a gun on them, they had enough presence to joke it up.
    Susan took three steps toward Tom. He got a little frantic there, trying to keep his eye on Connelly and Pepper, but also to peripherally watch Susan as she approached.
    “Stay there, Susan!”
    “I just want to take you home, Tom. You’ll feel better after you get a good night’s sleep.”
    “We’d still be in Washington if it hadn’t been for these two stealing that information and then making it look like I took it.”
    “They don’t matter, Tom. Only you and I matter. Now please just give me the gun and let me take you home. The kids’ll be so glad to see you.”
    “No!” he shouted. Then he raged at me. “I asked you to get her out of here, Noah. Now take her away. I’m going to get a written confession from these two because if I don’t, they’re going to die here tonight.”
    “But you’ll die, too,” Susan said.
    “I don’t care anymore, honey. I had a good record at the agency until these two messed everything up for me. I don’t want my children to think I would sell government secrets. You think I want our children to grow up with that on their shoulders?”
    “They wouldn’t think that, Tom. They love you and they’re proud of you. And they’d know the truth, no matter what anybody else said.”
    “All right, sir. They’re ready to put their guns down.”
    The confusion was getting to Tom. He wasn’t finished talking with Susan, which had to be good for him even under these circumstances, but he also had to watch the two men he wanted to kill.
    His eyes flicked back to them and that was when I moved. It was eight steps to the porch. I eased myself around Tom—his gun couldn’t cover all of us at the same time—and got myself a couple steps closer to the back porch. A heavy summer moon hung lazy in the plains sky. Somewhere a fiddler, innocent of the little drama in the casino, played a sweet sentimental song. The only thing to spoil moon and tune was the other bouncer sneaking up on Tom with a sawed-off shotgun.
    He’d have killed Tom. He didn’t look as if he had much interest in life, just death. Who wanted to spend all that time talking, all that time providing thrills for the onlookers who’d just turn it into dinner table chatter, anyway?
    I moved. Tom saw me. There was no way I could stop that, but he had to choose between keeping me covered or keeping his gun on Pepper and Connelly.
    I saw a moment of panic on his face, and then something like defeat, and then he turned away from me, bringing his gun solidly on to Connelly and Pepper.
    I heard the sound of his hammer cocking, but I had no more time for Tom. I had to worry about thebouncer on the back porch who was going to try and shoot Tom in the back.
    He was maybe five feet from the back door when I stepped in front of him. At that moment, I was like him. I didn’t have any desire for talk, either. I hit him hard enough on the jaw to drop him to his knees. Then I hit him a second time, sending him over backward. The sawed-off I pitched off the porch.
    “I’m not going to sign one damned thing,” Connelly was saying.
    “Then you’re going to die,” Tom said.
    “Why don’t I buy everybody a round or two of drinks and we’ll sit down and try and hash it all out?”
    I was beginning to like this bouncer. Even if he was just cynical, just didn’t want bloodshed because of the casino’s reputation, he wanted a peaceful conclusion.
    I checked to see if the bouncer had taken their guns. He had. They sat together on a near table. But not near enough for Connelly and Pepper to lunge for them.
    I took a deep breath and felt some of the tension leak out of me. Everything was under control by then. Everything was going to be all right. Tom