Recompense

by Alan Richards

  At that moment Alexa moved her right arm up from the floor and knocked the gun from its position just as Pasha pulled the trigger, the bullet bounced off the floor and ricocheted into one of the glass exit doors. Ionna watched as Alexa pulled her right knee up to meet Pashas crotch with ferocious power. He buckled under the pain and slumped to the side of where Alexa was lying. Alexa rolled to the side and stood. Ionna could see the blood seeping through her clothing from the shoulder wound. She found herself stuck to the one spot, she had expected Pasha to finish Alexa with a single shot, she had not expected to see her brother curled up in a ball on the floor. She watched as Alexa looked down at her brother, picked up the gun that he had released and started to make her way to the exit.

  * * *

  Alexa was breathing heavily as she made her way to the hospital exit, the pain from her shoulder was excruciating, but the adrenalin of having a gun to your head was driving her forward. She had no intention of dying. She could see Letitia waiting just outside the exit doors next to a car, she started to jog in her direction. She had nearly reached the exit when a shot hit and shattered the remaining glass door. She turned to see Ionna striding towards her with her gun pointed directly at her.

  “Letitia get in the car,” Alexa shouted.

  She knew Ionna wouldn’t miss again.

  Alexa raised her gun and without thinking fired off a shot in the direction of Ionna, it missed but it did make Ionna stop in her tracks and look for cover. She found some behind a coffee stand in the large reception area.

  “Alexa, there is no way out of this for you,” Ionna calmly explained.

  “I don’t think thats the case do you.”

  “Where do you expect to go, we will find you.”

  “I don’t expect to go anywhere. I will be leaving here and then I will be coming for you and Felicia.”

  “My brother and I look forward to it.”

  “I only said I would come after you.”

  Ionna didn’t understand, her brother was in pain on the floor but he was alive and would be out for revenge after the events of a few minutes ago. She carefully looked out from behind the cover she had taken to see Alexa walking back to her brother, he was still rolled up in a ball on the floor and didn’t see Alexa walking towards him.

  “Like I said, I will be coming after you and Felicia.”

  Ionna watched as Alexa raised her gun and fired a single shot into Pashas head. His body jerked with the force of the shot and then uncurled from the ball he had rolled himself into. Alexa turned and ran to the car.

  Ionna moved out from behind her cover screaming and firing wildly in the direction of Alexa, bullets smashing into glass windows and shattering them as Alexa made her way to the car. Alexa reached the car and got in.

  “Lets get out of here,” Alexa said as she got in.

  Drew hit the accelerator and sped away.

  “Where are we going.” he asked.

  “A hotel, we can’t go back to anyones house, thats the first place the police will look,” Alexa replied.

  The pain was increasing now in her shoulder as the adrenalin wore off.

  “You need to stay awake, Alexa,” Letitia said.

  “I feel so tired.”

  “You’ve lost a lot of blood, but you need to stay awake until I can get you fixed up.”

  “Just get us to a hotel and you can fix me up there.”

  “You need to go to a hospital,” Letitia implored.

  “The police will be trawling the hospitals once they find out I was shot. Thats the first place they will look.”

  “Okay, but stay awake.”

  It was pointless Letitia keep telling her to stay awake, Alexa felt so tired and slowly drifted off to sleep in her arms.

  Fourty

  Trainer arrived at the hospital to what looked like a war scene. All the windows at the front of the reception were smashed and as he looked inside he could see what was obviously a single body lay on the floor covered by a sheet. He hoped it was Alexa. He had taken the call of shots fired at the hospital and he knew immediately that it would have been Pasha and Ionna. Felicia had ordered them to kill her at the hospital. He had hoped it would have been quiet, this mess now meant he would have to investigate or at least show the pretense of an investigation. The entrance was cordoned off and he had to cover his clothes in a paper suit before he was allowed in by the constable in charge.

  He could see yellow markers set out on the floor showing the location of shell casings from the weapons that had been used. There was blood on the floor near the body under the blanket. It was pooled from under the blanket but there was also another pool of blood to the side, blood from a second person maybe.

  Why would there be another person injured.

  He couldn’t work out why there would be anyone other than Alexa under the blanket, she didn’t have a weapon and would be no match for Pasha and Ionna.

  “Get me up to speed then,” Trainer said as he approached the team of detectives working around the scene.

  “We have two bodies and one injured prison guard.”

  “Two bodies?” Trainer enquired.

  “Yes boss. There is the one under the blanket here and then one up in radiography. The one upstairs is a female prison guard. Stabbed.”

  “Any ideas what happened?”

  “From witness accounts it looks like Alexa outsmarted her guards upstairs, she must have stabbed the female guard and then witnesses put her coming down the stairs followed by a male prison guard and the guy under the blanket.”

  Trainer paused for a moment, he was expecting Alexa to be the one under the blanket.

  “So it’s not Alexa under that blanket?”

  “No, it’s an unknown male.”

  “From some of the witness accounts it looks like there was a shoot out between three people in this area.”

  “Three people?” Trainer questioned.

  “Yeah, we had the two who came down the stairs and then witnesses have a female coming out of the lift and joining the male.”

  “Do we have Alexa and the unknown female?” interjected trainer.

  “We don’t have either of them.”

  “Hang on, Alexa is missing?”

  “Yes,” replied one of the detectives.

  Trainer walked over to the body under the blanket and lifted the section covering the face. His stomach dropped as he realised it was Pasha. He could see the single gunshot to the head that had obviously been the kill shot. He tried to stay composed and not show his team he knew who it was. The brother and sister team had killed many people and he knew them through his association with Felicia but they had been good at keeping a low profile.

  “We have no idea who this is then?” he asked of his team, hoping it would cover the fact he knew exactly who it was and what they were doing here.

  “No boss. We are assuming he got caught in some sort of crossfire between Alexa and the female.”

  “Really,” Trainer replied sarcastically.

  “So you think there was some sort of shoot out,” he continued.

  “And during that wild west shootout, this poor guy got hit by a single gunshot to his head.”

  He waited for the notion to sink into his teams brains.

  “He was fucking executed you idiots, no one gets hit by a single shot in a shootout. Check the CCTV for this area.”

  “Sure boss.”

  “I need to see the other body.”

  Trainer got up from beside the blanket and walked towards the lift to take him up to radiography.

  * * *

  Trainer exited the lift and was met by another Police constable.

  “Where is the body?” he asked.

  “Follow me sir,” the constable replied.

  Trainer followed as they made their way through the corridor from the lift to the radiography department. They entered the waiting room, still full of the patients that were expecting to have their scan and then go home for a quiet day; that wasn’t
going to happen now. They would need to give witness statements so Trainers detectives could piece together the events that had ended with two bodies. As he looked round he could see a woman sobbing while a female police constable and some nurses tried to comfort her.

  “Sir. In here,” shouted one of the detectives.

  Trainer followed him into a small room. There was a hospital bed in the middle of the room and to the side of it lay the body of the prison guard.

  “Do we know what happened?” Trainer asked.

  “We have a rough series of events sir.”

  “And they are?”

  “It appears that Alexa’s guards let her into here on her own for her scan.”

  “First mistake,” added Trainer.

  “Yes sir. She forced the radiographer out of her clothes and changed into them.”

  “So why would she need to stab the prison guard if they let her in here on her own and they were stood outside?”

  “She didn’t. According to the witness Alexa left through the door at the back and then the radiographer came out in to the waiting room in just her underwear.”

  “I am guessing the prison guard then went in after Alexa.”

  “Yes sir. But no one remembers seeing anyone go in after the prison guard.”

  “All a little distracted by the lady in her underwear I imagine.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Okay, find out if there are any CCTV cameras up here and if there are then we need the footage.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Keep me up to date.”

  Trainer walked out of the room and headed back towards the lift, he need to see Felicia. This mess was only going to get worse.

  Fourty One

  Letitia got Drew to drive to the only hotel that she knew of in the area. He checked them in and they managed to man handle Alexa to the room without anyone seeing them. Letitia had covered both wounds with her sweater to stem the flow of blood. The bullet had ripped through Alexa’s back, clipping her scapula and then exited through her side just under her shoulder. They were lucky that the bullet had not hit the scapula and stayed put, that would have meant they would have had to dig it out. Letitia and Drew manged to get Alexa onto the bed, she was out cold from the loss of blood. Letitia checked to make sure she was still breathing. Her pulse was strong, she was a fighter.

  “We need to get her to a hospital,” pronounced Drew.

  “Did you not see what happened back there?”

  “Yes, but what else are we going to do?”

  “You seem to forget I’m a doctor. If we can get hold of something to stitch her up with then I can help her.”

  “Your mad,” exclaimed Drew.

  “No, I’m in love. I need to save her.”

  A silence descended between them, Drew knew that he couldn’t leave now but he also wasn’t happy that he had been dragged into this mess. He was used to doing his work from a computer and never having to deal with the consequences of his actions. This was all new to him.

  “I need some fishing line, needles and super glue,” stated Letitia.

  “What do you need that for?” asked Drew.

  “Fishing line is thin and strong, I can use that and the needle to stitch Alexa’s wound and then use the super glue over the stitching to make sure.”

  “Is that going to work?”

  “I have no idea, I read it in one of my books. Its worth a try though.”

  Letitia looked at Drew, he could see the worry in her eyes, but he could also see hope. The hope that he would stay and help and that this would work.

  “Okay, I’ll go find it all. You wait here until I get back.”

  Drew left the room.

  Letitia got on the bed and curled up beside Alexa. She had no idea if this would work, but she didn’t want to think about being without her.

  * * *

  Drew returned with everything Letitia had asked for plus some dressings, food and vodka.

  “I read books as well, you are going to need to clean the needle and wound so I bought some Vodka,” he told Letitia as he emptied his bags on the desk in the room.

  “I may need a drink of that Vodka after I’ve done this, never mind for cleaning,” she tried a forced smile but it never really materialised.

  “Lets get on with it then. We are going to have to move once you have patched her up.”

  “Why?” asked Letitia.

  “CCTV.”

  “What?”

  “The hospital will have CCTV at the entrance and will have got the details of the car. They will be tracking it to here right now, so we need to move once she is patched up.”

  “Lets get started then.”

  Letitia took the needle and thread the fine fishing line through it. She removed the makeshift dressing she had made to expose the wound on Alexa’s back. It was going to be the easiest of the two to stitch up. The bullet had entered her back and made a single hole. She poured Vodka over the wound, Alexa stirred but didn’t wake, her being out of it was the best possible outcome at the moment, as this would hurt if she were conscious. She poured a little of the Vodka over the needle. She hesitated as she put the needle against Alexa’s skin, she had stitched plenty of people up in her career but never in a hotel room and certainly not with fishing line.

  “You just need to do this Letitia.”

  “I know,” she replied.

  “Those wounds need closing up and we need to get out of here.”

  As Letitia pushed the needle into Alexa’s skin she stirred even more.

  “Hold her down,” Letitia asked drew.

  Drew sat on the bed and held Alexa’s shoulders down.

  “We need to be quick,” he said as he looked into Letitia’s eyes.

  Letitia turned back to look at Alexa’s wound and started to stitch the edges of the wound together. Once she had finished she poured more Vodka over the wound to clean it, dried it with one of the dressings that Drew had collected and then poured a little super glue over the edges.

  “That should hold it,” she said. “We need to turn her on her side so I can do the exit wound.”

  They carefully moved Alexa onto her side so they could see the exit wound, it was a mess. The bullet had exited just below Alexa’s armpit and the edges of the wound were ragged. This was going to be much more difficult to stitch together but it had to be done and it had to be done quickly.

  Fourty Two

  Felicia was sat in the chair next to her hospital bed as Trainer gingerly entered the room. He wasn’t looking forward to this conversation.

  “Is it done?” she asked as she looked up from her chair.

  Trainer paused before he answered.

  “No, there has been a complication.”

  “What sort of complication?”

  Trainer didn’t really know where to start, he knew how fond of Pasha and Ionna Felicia was. She wasn’t going to be happy and he knew he would receive the brunt of her anger.

  “Spit it out Frank, what complication?”

  “Alexa escaped from her guards.”

  “And?”

  Trainer could sense she was already becoming annoyed.

  “She made it down to the entrance where Pasha and Ionna caught up with her.”

  “So she is dead then?”

  “No.”

  “No, what the fuck do you mean?”

  “She got the better of Pasha and killed him.”

  Felicia didn’t say a word, she just sat in her chair, the anger growing. This woman was becoming a real problem. She had tried to kill her and now she had killed one of her best assets.

  “What happened after she killed Pasha?” Felicia asked.

  “She took his gun and pinned Ionna down with gunfire while she made it to a car and escaped.”

  “And what about Ionna?”

  “She disappeared.”

  “I assume she wasn’t injured.”

  “Not that we can tell. Alexa was injured though.”

  “Goo
d, will she survive.”

  “It looks like she lost a lot of blood from what I can see in the entrance.”

  “With any luck she won’t survive.”

  Felicia go up from her chair and started to collect her things.

  “What are you doing?” Trainer asked.

  “I’m getting out of here. I’m not waiting for her to come back here and try again. I need to get home and plan what we do next.”

  “You need to stay away from all this. This was a shoot out in a hospital, my bosses are all over it.”

  “I’m not letting that bitch try to kill me, kill one of my best assets and then just disappear. She needs to die at my hand and I can’t do that from in here.”

  “Okay, but be careful.”

  “Don’t patronise me Frank. Now fuck off and find her and when you do I want to be the first to know.”

  Frank left the room. The conversation had gone better than he expected but the outcome wasn’t going to end well for him. He needed to get himself away from all this before he became embroiled in warfare between Felicia and Alexa. He needed to think of himself and try to use the situation to his advantage.

  * * *

  It had been three hours since Letitia had finished the adapted stitching. It had gone well, towards the end of the exit wound Alexa had started to stir and Drew had held her down a little bit firmer to make sure Letitia could finish.

  “We need to think about getting out of here,” Drew said.

  “Why?”

  “The police will be looking for the car and when they trace its route it will lead them straight to us. Plus it will start to get dark in a few more hours and that will be the ideal time to move.”

  “Where are we going to go,” Letitia asked.

  “There is a safe house the group uses when we need to lay low. It’s on the outskirts of London but if we can get another car we can drive there. I can hack the CCTV near the house so they can’t trace the route of the car.”

  “How are we going to move Alexa?”