by Dale Mayer
“About time,” he said. “Meet Henry.”
“Hi, Henry,” Gavin said cheerfully. “So nice to meet you.”
Henry just glared at him.
“Where’d the shooter go?” Gavin asked.
“He was already gone.”
“In other words,” Gavin continued, “we’re sitting ducks here because the driver, the shooter, or we three will all be the next targets.”
“Unfortunately quite possible,” Shane said. So he nudged Henry and said, “Drive.”
Immediately the vehicle pulled back out into traffic, and Henry asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“To your leader,” Gavin said.
“Well, that’s not happening,” Henry said.
“Why not?” Shane asked.
“Because he’ll kill me,” he said.
“Well, one of us will. If he doesn’t, I’ll kill you anyway,” Shane said with a laugh. “I really don’t give a shit who pulls the trigger.”
Henry glared at him. “No, you don’t understand. He’ll kill not just me but all of you as well.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but, at the same time, I’m wondering if you really understand where your best bet lays right now.”
Gavin asked again, “Where’s the shooter?”
“He took off.”
“Well, of course he did, but where to?”
Henry shrugged.
“No, that’s not a good-enough answer,” Gavin said.
“I’m sure he’s rendezvousing with the boss,” Henry offered.
“And where is that?”
Henry hesitated, still weighing his options, and then said, “The shipping docks.”
“Well, guess what?” Shane said. “We’re up for a ride, so let’s get down to the docks.”
Henry shrugged and said, “It’s your funeral.”
“Actually it’s likely to be yours.”
“It’ll be all of us,” Henry said.
“But at least this way I know you’ll go too.” Shane laughed again.
Sitting beside Gavin, Rosalina had watched the interplay in amazement. “Is this some kind of a game?”
“Of course,” Gavin said. “Henry doesn’t want to tell us where his boss is or where the shooter went because he’s trying to save his hide. Yet, when the boss finds out that Henry got taken, he’s dead.”
She turned to look at Henry. “I’m so sorry, Henry.”
He snorted. “Why?” he asked bluntly. “Your family’s behind all this.”
And that set her back. She stared at Henry. “What do you mean, my family is behind all this? Are you saying somebody in my family is doing this?”
But Henry wouldn’t be budged. He kept his lips closed, moving through the traffic like an old pro on the busy streets.
“Interesting route,” she murmured to Gavin.
Gavin nodded. “I know,” he said. “Backup might be required.”
“I hear you.” She watched in horror as they were slowly led along a much more isolated route toward the big shipyards. “I’m not sure I feel very good about this,” she said. She glared at Henry. “Where are my parents?”
He shrugged.
“Why would you even take them?” she asked. “They are sick and old.”
He laughed. But he didn’t give her an answer.
“I don’t understand what he gains by not telling us.”
“He doesn’t think it’s worthwhile,” Gavin said. “He thinks, if he can deliver us to his boss, and then can convince them that he didn’t tell us anything and that we didn’t get the information passed off to somebody else, that somehow he’ll matter to them.”
“And then he’ll stay alive?” Rosalina asked.
“Well, that’s what Henry figures. Of course it’s all for naught because, the minute they know we’ve got Henry, they’ll also know that he’ll talk.”
“I haven’t said a damn thing,” Henry said.
“But they don’t know that,” Shane said. “Yet you can bet I’ll tell them everything.”
“And that’s just bullshit,” Henry complained.
“Doesn’t matter,” Shane said. “They’ll believe me.”
Henry switched lanes and took the exit heading toward the longshoremen’s area.
She shifted uneasily in the back of the vehicle.
“I told you not to come,” Gavin said.
She glared at him. “Saying I told you so doesn’t really work right now.”
“Feels good though,” he said, and he and Shane chuckled.
She didn’t understand why they were so damn happy. Unless they already had some backup in place upfront. That would make her happy too. That they’d caught somebody involved in this was huge, though it may have been a fluke. “You know that, if your buddy hadn’t shot at us,” she said to Henry, “we wouldn’t have caught you.”
Henry shrugged.
“So this really is all your own fault. I wonder if the shooter is dead already.”
“No way,” Henry said.
“Oh, yeah?” Rosalina taunted him.
“He’s got to be,” Shane said, picking up her gambit and rolling with it. “Otherwise he’d have already radioed ahead that you were likely coming in with us.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” the driver said testily. “We don’t tattle on each other.”
“But he’d be protecting his boss right now,” she said in a smooth voice. “So, therefore, it’s either the boss or you. In this case it becomes the boss, so you’re already out.” She looked at Gavin. “They’re really going to kill him, aren’t they?”
He nodded, and his tone was sincere and quiet as he said, “Yes, unfortunately.”
“Then let’s take him back to the government offices,” she said, reaching out and grabbing Gavin’s hand. “I don’t want someone to die.”
“I get that,” he said, “but, if he’s not helpful, then we’ll use him to get to where we need to be. So whatever’ll happen will happen.”
She shook her head. “If we took him to the government offices, we could interrogate him and get what we needed from him that way.”
“Guys like this,” Gavin said, “they don’t give a shit what you say to them because they won’t believe you.”
She stared at him in shock. “But he’s got to believe us. We just want my parents back.”
“I know that, sweetheart, but he’s already committed himself down this pathway, and people are counting on him. The fact that he’s already been taken means that their trust was misplaced.”
“Well, then he should give us everything he knows,” she cried out. “To save himself.”
“But he’s still holding on to hope,” Gavin explained. “Hope that they will believe him.”
“But why would they?” she asked, feeling bewildered.
“Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it?” Gavin said, patting her hand gently. “Remember. You could have stayed at home.”
She glared at him. “I didn’t know you would put people’s lives in danger.”
He laughed. “Yours or his?”
She slumped back on the seat and didn’t say anything because, of course, he was right. They had tried to shoot her, or maybe all of them, already.
Gavin had been watching the driver’s facial expressions throughout the conversation, and it was interesting to see him considering his options, based on everything she said. It was a good gambit on her part, and he knew it wasn’t even a trick. She truly was concerned about Henry’s well-being and was wondering why he would do what he was doing.
Gavin tapped the comm in his ear to give Shane warning, as they had slowed perceptibly. Shane reached up and tapped his comm twice. They couldn’t see any snipers from their vantage point in the vehicle, but it would make sense to be on the alert for them.
Gavin looked at her and said, “I want you to duck down and to stay down, no matter what happens. Do you hear me?”
When she opened her mouth to argue, he immediately grabbed her shoulder and
pulled her toward him, until she lay flat on the seat. With his hand hard against her head to hold her firmly in place, he leaned over so he could look out through all the windows around them.
“What are you expecting?” she asked.
“A sniper,” he said. He felt the shock go through her body and gently squeezed her shoulder. He hadn’t meant to be so forceful, but sometimes you had to, to get people to sit up and to pay attention.
In this case, she found her voice in a big way. From being quiet and watchful, she now let out some of that emotion that she had been bottling up.
The vehicle kept driving forward, until it came to the large set of double metal doors of a huge hangar-looking building. Henry stopped the vehicle and said, “Well, for better or for worse, here we are.”
Something about his tone Gavin didn’t like. “Interesting,” he said, “That’s quite a gamble you’ve taken.”
“Well, if I’m going down,” he stated, “remember what I said. You’re going with me.” And he grinned.
Shane smiled, nodded, and said, “So hop out, and go open those doors.”
Henry shrugged, exited the vehicle, stretched for a moment, and walked forward to the double doors. Just as he went to open them, a single shot was fired into the back of his head. A red spot appeared in front of him, all over the metal doors. Slowly he fell forward and slumped down.
Gavin felt another shudder rock through Rosalina.
“That was Henry dying, wasn’t it?”
“It was,” he said.
Shane barely opened the front passenger door, the quiet snick heard, and Shane said, “Give me three.” And, just like that, he slammed open the door and bolted around the side of the building. Gavin checked out where the shot had come from, and he noted only one possible spot for the sniper. Part of a large loading bay where machinery with huge arms for loading were parked. Gavin had seen one man standing there.
“So, I need you to stay down,” he said. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she said faintly.
“I mean it. If somebody comes looking, make sure you look dead.”
“Got it,” she said.
He opened the door wide and waited while he looked to see if anybody else was up and around. When he saw no signs of anyone, he quickly slid out and dropped to his knees, his handgun up and at the ready. He wished he had a rifle, but he figured the sniper would already be long gone. It was just that kind of a scenario. Gavin headed around the same building as his partner had, knowing that Shane was already on the move.
Gavin took one look at Henry and the doors he would open, then quickly reached down, grabbed the body, and dragged it out of the way. The doors weren’t locked—at least not from the outside—so Gavin counted to three and pulled one open, hiding himself behind it. Instantly gunfire erupted from inside the warehouse. He waited, and, instead of going in at full height, he dropped to the ground. He snuck around the door and saw two men standing there with handguns. Gavin quickly fired two shots, low, one for each. Both men dropped, and he ducked back behind the door.
Inside, he heard somebody roar, “You son of a bitch,” as all kinds of chaos broke loose.
Gavin grinned to himself as he waited. He knew that they would know where he was, so his position was already suspect. He studied the outside area, still seeing no signs of a sniper, and headed toward another vehicle parked down a little way. By the time he reached the safety of cover, he still saw no sign of the gunmen inside the building. He figured they’d gone around to the back.
When he heard gunfire erupt on the other side, he figured that Shane had found them, or else they’d found Shane. But Gavin didn’t dare take the time to worry. He raced around to the far side, trying to find his way into the building, when he found another door that led inside. He opened it, and no more sounds of gunfire were heard. He slipped inside; it was pitch-black.
Dropping to the floor in a crouch, he searched the darkness. He was in a stairwell in a hallway. Then more gunfire erupted. He raced toward the sounds, peering through each doorway as he went. No sign of anyone. That was interesting; the area should have been busy. This was a huge port, so why wasn’t this hangar active? As he came around the corner, his intercom tapped. He tapped back twice, telling Shane that Gavin was on his way.
Shane whispered, “Under fire. Four men.”
“I’ve taken two down from the other side. Coming up inside the building.”
“All handguns—still a sniper somewhere.”
“On it,” Gavin replied, as he came to another set of double doors, which appeared to be locked. He pulled his trusty tool kit from his wallet and quickly picked the lock, letting the door slide open just a couple inches. He could hear yelling and screaming as people shouted orders. Gavin spoke to Shane, “Are you outside?”
“Yes.”
“I’m inside, coming at your six.” He stepped forward as two men stood there, yelling at each other and the other two men, both barking orders, but neither was respected enough by the others to assume command. With two shots Gavin took them both out, then held his gun on the two remaining, standing there, staring at him in shock. He whispered to Shane, “Two dead, two secured. Come in slowly.”
Shane stepped in through the open door on the side, then quickly disarmed the two men before knocking them both out. “That was fun,” he said.
“We’re still missing a man,” Gavin said.
“The sniper.”
Just then somebody made a noise as they tried to break free from the back of the building. Shane went after him. One of the men slowly sat up, looked over at Gavin, and asked, “What the hell?” He stared around at all the bodies and shook his head. “This is just carnage. What did you guys do?”
“You mean us or you?”
“We didn’t do anything,” he said.
“Funny, the handguns told a different story.”
The man looked at him and frowned. “We weren’t shooting at anything.”
“Yes, you were,” he said, “you were trying to shoot another man.”
“No, we were trying to shoot the woman,” he said. “We were told the woman was coming, and we needed to take her out.” Then he stopped, shook his head, and winced. Apparently his brain rattled around on the inside, maybe knocking some sense into him. “No, that’s not what I meant to say.”
“Too damn bad,” Gavin said. “You already said it.”
“It’s not what I meant.” He reached up, cupping his temple. “I don’t feel so good.” Then, sure enough, he rolled over and vomited.
“I suggest you lie down beside your buddy and stay there,” Gavin said, as he searched the area, coming up and around the back and the double doors.
“Nothing’s here,” the gunman said, his voice kind of woozy. He laid back down beside his buddy, pointing to him. “Did you kill Johnston too?”
“No,” he said. “Just the two who tried to kill me.”
“That was the muscle,” he said. “They were hired, but they’re not us.”
“Where are the captives?”
Silence.
“I asked you where the captives are.”
“I’m really hoping that you’re not for real,” he said.
“Oh, I’m for real all right,” he said. “Where the hell is the old couple? Come on already.”
“An old couple was here this morning,” he said. “They were removed, but we didn’t know how they got here.”
“Seriously?” Gavin wanted to laugh at him. But that note of confusion in the man’s voice rang true.
“Yeah, when we got to work this morning, they were in the building, both of them unconscious. We called the bosses, and they came and dealt with it.”
“Yeah, obviously,” he said. “Where’d they take them?”
“To the hospital, man.”
Gavin stopped and thought about that. Command central would have checked the hospitals and the morgues to see if the old couple had been taken there and dropped off, but nobody had confir
med with him. He’d have to ask, but it wasn’t the time. “But you didn’t see any ambulance, did you?”
“No, but we weren’t allowed back in here.”
“Were they tied up?”
“No. Like I said, they were unconscious, just lying there. We didn’t have a clue how they even got in. But we’ve had break-ins before, so we figured that was part of it. That’s why we have security around here.”
“If you say so,” he said.
“Look. We’re not the bad guys. I can’t believe you shot these men.”
“Remember that part about them shooting at me?”
“Well, if you were breaking and entering, and you came in with weapons, of course.”
“Remember all the gunfire a few minutes ago, before you got knocked out?”
“Yeah, they said a gang was coming in,” he stated, again sounding very confused. “This isn’t what we do,” he said. “I’m a longshoreman. I don’t deal in gunfights. I don’t know what the hell’s going on right now.”
“Yet you had guns in your hands.”
He stared down at his. “The only way that would be, is if they gave them to us in all the confusion.”
“So you didn’t fire it? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I might have,” he said honestly. “I don’t even know.”
“Well, you better get your story straight,” Gavin said, “because they’ll find GSR on your hands and your clothing.
“Well, if I was shooting, it was because everybody was,” he said. And now a note of panic was in his voice.
“Ah, I see. So, when people jump off a bridge, you jump off because everybody is, right?”
“You don’t understand,” he said. “I thought we were in danger.”
“You don’t understand,” Gavin said. “I was in danger.”
And that shut the man up. “So now what?”
“Well, a hell of a lot of people will be coming through this place very quickly,” he said. “But why is the building empty and not full of people working?”
“Well, we are working,” he said, “but a strike is going on, so this corner has been shut down for today.”
“Just today?”
“A couple days, I think.”
“And who would have arranged that?”
“I’m not sure that I know,” he said. “My head really is killing me,” he said.
