scans_daily

He was the object of the game this time.

He'd bought his retirement from it with blackmail, blackmail that'd expired.

Now he was in Chicago, walking out of an alley.

He heard a car revving, and then gunfire rak-kak-kaaking at him.

He ducked and ran- another Button Man came up behind him.

" Hate to shoot a man in the back, Harry! Turn around! "

Harry ducked into partial cover, turned around, and put a few bullets into his harrier's windshield.

The guy crashed into another car and staggered away, conceding the round.

Harry left the scene, wondering just how Button Men kept finding him.

South of Chicago, an idea formed in his mind.

He knew that back in Montana, where he'd retired to, he'd been having an affair with the local dentist's wife.

The idea sharpened into plausibility as he got off the bus.

With a credit card he'd picked off a Button Man he'd recently killed, he bought himself a motorcycle- and lifted some pliers.

He drove out for a while, pulled off to the side, and checked his suspicion.

He headed west, back to Montana, the transmitter with him but not in him.

At a truck stop, Harry called his friend Wiley up and asked him to do something, then asked him to take the dog he'd left with him and lay low for a few days.

Back in their game room, the voices who ordered the Button Men were talking.

They sorted their Button Men out, and then themselves.

In Montana, a scene right out of a movie adaptation happened.

Ugly John's boss called in to him, let him know that Harry was in a truck.

Ugly John was waiting for the truck to come.

The truck came.

(However he pulled that off speaks to some excellent timing, at the very least.)

He went over the car, into a woods, and into a culvert.

He came out the other side and hitched a ride on a train to where he was going- the place he'd asked Wiley to leave supplies.

He knew his cabin wouldn't be a safe place- he saw the remaining Button Men, eight of thirteen, making their base there.

He knew they wouldn't move until they had the light of dawn, so he started preparing.

(This kind of protagonist's effect on the people close to them isn't normally so direct.)

Wiley told Harry he'd left his dog down at the feed store, then died.

Harry prepared his weapons and attacked the cabin.

With a sniper shot, he made eight Button Men seven.

They scrambled- one of them went around, found the snowmobile Harry'd bought for himself, and came at him with it.

He caught Harry in the knee with a shot.

Harry caught him in the neck with a thrown knife.

There were six Button Men now.

One of them fell- the others hit the ground alive.

One of the surviving charged in Harry's direction.

His legs caught on a tripwire.

Harry's reflexes kicked in- he shoved the grenade back down on the dying man and dove away.

Harry's answer was another sniper shot that left only Gann and Ugly John.

The two of them- they dove when Harry threw a grenade their way, thinking " I'll need one of them alive. "

He covered them as they prone: " Did I forget to arm that grenade? Imagine that. Sure is your lucky day. "

He picked Ugly John: " You'll do. "

There was only Gann and Harry, and the anxious trackers of the game.

Harry took Gann out on the lake in a dinghy he had.

Back in the game room, Harry's tracker blinked out.

The man who had Gann as his gamepiece got a call from him.

Gann said that Harry was dead, that his body was at the bottom of the lake, and that he had a part of his fingers as proof of the kill.

Harry gave him that part, taking it off with a knife.

(Gann's voice had promised him freedom from the game if he got Harry.)

The game was over- there was only the loose ends to tie up.

Dennis the dentist, he didn't have to do- the men behind the game had taken care of their loose ends.

Harry drove away from his widow at her husband's grave, having only one more thing to take care of.