Mandy absently brushed a lock of her auburn hair from her face as she rapidly poured four mugs of beer. It was happy hour and the place was packed like coins in a roll. ?Looking out over the crowd in Bandit?s Cantina, she shook her head. The crowd of men started coming in just after five o?clock and they continued to arrive hour after hour. That?s the way it usually was on a Friday night at the Cantina, non-stop action, non-stop noise, non-stop beer, and for Mandy and the other waitresses, non-stop work. ??She didn?t mind the pace too much, it made the evening past fast.
She grabbed all four mug handles in one hand, in the other she carried bags of pretzels and chips. ?Most of the guys in the bar worked in the harbor or nearby. ?They were hard working men and hard partiers too. What made Mandy?s job easier was the fact that the men recognized that she too was working hard and didn?t mind hard partying as long as they respected her. ? There were a few times when she had to clarify her status to a newcomer who hadn?t been informed about Cantina decorum. ?Sometimes she had to quickly make it clear that she was one of the team in this bar. ?She might need to swear like a longshoreman. ?There had been a couple of times she even had to deck a drunk who forgot the rules.
Tonight she managed to handle everyone and everything. The pace was frantic but smooth. Nyla bounced around inside the bar, mixin’ and pouring as fast as she could attending to the waitresses and the guys bellied up to the solid oak bar. As soon as Mandy set the four beers down and picked up the cash, she motioned to Ruby to take her area while she went outside for a quick smoke. ?She moved through the noisy kitchen, passed the Chinaman and his south of the border crew, the chips, salsa and pots of refried beans to the quiet of the back alley. The dank narrow street was lit by the acrid, yellowish glow from the light above the steelback door. ?Mandy stood on the concrete landing just to the side of the door, somewhat out of the lights cast halo. ?She fumbled in her barmaids apron for her pack of cigarettes.
She was suddenly startled by the sinister exhaust pipe rap that vanished as quickly as it came. ??Her head snapped up and her eyes searched the darkness of the alley. In the jumbled collection of boxes, dumpsters, barrels, and assorted trashmade she was concealed from the light. The sound was not the frequent rumble of a Harley, but sharp whine of a foreign make. ?
Just then, just beyond the end of the alley, she heard the mechanical snap of a kick stand being put in place. Bandit and Marko had taught their staff in the arts of close- quarters combat, mostly for crowd control, but it gave the girls a sense of knowledge and security when something went wrong. ?Mandy crept to the edge of the landing. ?There at the end of the alley stood two riders and their bikes. ?Carefully so as not to be caught, she leaned farther out to try to catch a glimpse of their faces. ? What she saw was two tall, muscular riders all dressed in black motocross leathers and full helmets with blackened visors. There was something sinister about the mechanical movements of the two men. ???Just at the knee of one of the riders Mandy caught the glint of light reflected off of the coldsteel barrel of a sawed-off, pump-action shotgun. Mandy stiffened at the sight of the shotguns.
Mandy quickly but quietly returned to the bar. In the kitchen. She picked up the phone, dialed Bandit?s code, then pressed 911X. ?This was the code sign that warned Bandit of an emergency situation. ?
As she exited the kitchen and moved behind the bar, she scanned the bar room for Marko. ? ?Damn, she muttered to herself, ?where is he when you really need him?? ? Finally she heard Marko’s easy going laugh on the other side of the room. ? ?Marko,? she shouted and gave him the code hand signal for armed intruders. As he casually rounded the end of the bar, he spotted Mandy squatting down and unsheathing a MAC 10. ?There was a jaw clenching sternness to the way she slammed home the magazine of ammunition.
Nyla took note of the action and checked her weapon carefully sheathed under the edge of the bar.
Silently handing the automatic handgun to Marko, Mandy loaded her own 12 guage riotgun. ?Just as she stood up the two motocross riders entered the room. There wasn’t time to clear the room and panic would mean a bloody melee, so she thought she’d let them play out their hand???..
