Laura, still in shock from this sudden terrifying turn of events, pulled hers out of her purse without thinking and handed it to Ranny, who stuck it in his shirt pocket. Monty sai, "I don't have one - there's no service out where I live."
"Good girl. Now, both of you stand right here until I get inside that compartment, and remember this gun has 30 rounds. Then you, girly, stand by the passenger door where I can see you, and you, cowboy, close this door behind me, then both of you get in the truck and drive out of here. And no hero stuff or you're both dead!"
He stepped from the truck's rear bumper over the tailgate, then unlatched and opened the little door on the side of the compartment. He waved the revolver menacingly at the two standing beside the truck, then stepped up onto the pickup's side to get close to the opening and awkwardly backed into the tight space. Ranny was thankful, for the first time in his life, that he wasn't a large man, because the space was small. Still pointing the revolver out the compartment's side door at his two hostages, he slid open the small window in the front of the compartment and wriggled around from his prone position to get the M-16 pointing toward that opening.
"Now close this door and get in the truck and drive out of here. And remember that this gun is covering your girl" Ranny hissed. "And open that window in the back of your cab so I can yell at you if I need to."
Laura was standing by the passenger door as she'd been told, so Monty had no choice but to do as directed by this madman with his guns. They got into the truck, Monty slid open the small window in the pickup's cab behind their heads, and Laura slid across the wide bench seat close to Monty. He fired up the truck, and the deep rumble of the dual exhausts provided some cover so they could talk without their voices carrying to Ranny's station about 8 feet above and behind their heads.
"Oh, Monty, what are we going to do?" she questioned quietly, her voice quavering slightly despite her effort to keep it even. She lived in a big city, but Montreal was so crime-free compared to most American cities that this violence was something entirely outside of her experiences to date.
"From what he said, it seems like he had a grudge against specific people in the Cow Palace. I think if we stay calm and do what he says until we can find a way to get clear of him, we'll be OK," Monty replied seriously, hoping that what he said was accurate and not just something to calm their nerves. Laura twisted her legs away from Monty's side so that he could use the floor-mounted stick shift, and they started rolling toward the exhibitors' exit gate.