by Mike Ryan
“Backtracking!” Malloy yelled.
“Roger that.” Recker immediately turned and ran for the bottom of the stairs. He then turned back to the door and dropped to a knee, ready to fire. A few seconds later, Malloy met him there.
Then more of Jerrick’s men showed their faces in the door. Recker and Malloy instantly fired at them, keeping them at bay for a little while. Malloy turned around and saw a group of men coming through the back door and fired a couple rounds at them.
“Got five coming through the back.”
Recker focused on the front door. “And there were at least four right there.”
“I say we start going up.”
Recker nodded. “All right.”
“At least then there’s only one way up.”
“No elevator?”
“No. If they’re coming up, they’re walking. Unless they got ladders to come from the top.”
“Let’s go.”
They instantly turned and scurried up the steps to the second floor. Once there, they each set up on different sides of the stair opening. As they waited, they each checked their ammo.
“How many rounds you got?” Recker asked.
“Twelve. You?”
“Fifteen.”
“We gotta make them count.”
“I guess if we run out we’re going hand-to-hand.”
“I guess.”
They waited a few minutes, surprised that nobody was rushing up the stairs yet. Though maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Whoever rushed up those steps first was likely as good as dead. Everyone knew it. They then heard some faint noises in the background. It sounded like it could have been gunfire. After a few seconds, the noises stopped.
A voice yelled out from the bottom of the stairs. “Hey, Haley, you hear that? Those noises you just heard was the sound of your boys being met by mine. Don’t think things went so well for them.”
Recker and Malloy looked at each other.
“How many was Vincent sending?” Recker asked.
Malloy shrugged. “Didn’t say. Just said help would be arriving. I assume it might be in waves depending on whoever was closest.”
“Great.”
The voice from the steps yelled out again. “If you wanna make things easy on yourself, you can just give yourselves up now.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good option,” Malloy replied.
“Listen, maybe we can make a deal.”
“I don’t make deals.”
“Just listen. It’s true, we originally did want to kill you.”
“Heartwarming.”
“But now, maybe we can come to some other agreement.”
“And what’s that?”
“Listen, you got nowhere to go, right? And help’s not coming. At least not that you can use. Maybe you dying here’s not the only thing that can go down.”
“You’re not saying anything.”
“Give yourselves up. It’s the only way you’re getting out of here alive.”
“Like I said already, doesn’t sound like a good option.”
“If you give yourselves up, you got my word we won’t kill you.”
“You’ll excuse me if I don’t exactly trust you. I’ll take my chances up here.”
“We don’t have to kill you to get what we want. We can use you for leverage.”
Recker looked at Malloy. “He’s talking about a trade. Just keep him talking. I know Chris is on the way. Every minute we can buy gives us some time.”
“And if we give ourselves up?” Malloy asked. “What then?”
“Then maybe we can do some business that doesn’t involve anyone getting killed,” the man said. “At least not today.”
“I’m listening.”
“You’re Vincent’s right-hand man, right?”
“That’s the rumor.”
“So maybe he’d be willing to pay a premium price in order to get you back in one piece.”
“What kind of price?”
“Like, maybe he’d be willing to give up some of his territory. The territory that was Jeremiah’s and now rightfully belongs to Jerrick.”
“Vincent won’t agree to that.”
“Well if he doesn't, then you’re as good as dead.”
“Or you are.”
“I think he might be willing to talk about it.”
“I’m telling you, Vincent won’t agree to giving up anything for anybody. That makes him look weak. He won’t do it.”
“Not even for you?”
“Not even for his own mother.”
“Well then you’re gonna die here.”
“I’m prepared for that. Question is are you? ’Cause you gotta come up and get me.”
Recker pointed at his wrist, wanting Malloy to take up some more time. Malloy nodded.
“What about Recker?” Malloy asked.
“What about him?”
“What if he gives himself up? You got a deal for him?”
“We might be able to work something out.”
“We don’t deal with might’s. You either do or you don’t.”
“Hey, there’s always a deal to be made.”
“Well you think about it and get back to us.”
“Might buy us a couple minutes,” Recker whispered. “I’m gonna go around and check the windows, see if I can tell what they’re doing out there.”
Malloy nodded as Recker left. The voice from the bottom of the steps started talking again.
“What do you say, Malloy? You ready to deal?”
“I haven’t heard anything about Recker yet.”
“Maybe if he agrees to never lift another finger against us, no matter the circumstances, and maybe if there’s some time of large cash payment involved, then maybe he can get an out-of-jail card too.”
“I dunno. I’m not sure you’re capable of delivering on what you’re saying.”
“Believe it, man. Believe it. You ain’t got any other options.”
“Sure I do. I can just let you come and get me. And I know the reason you’re hesitating is because you know you can’t get up here without losing a bunch of you. And if you lead the charge, you’re going first.”
“You’d really rather go down here instead of making a deal?”
“I already told you. Vincent isn’t making any deal under those parameters. Not for me, not for anybody. So I already know that as soon as you try, he’s gonna say no, and then you’ll wind up killing me, anyway. So if I’m gonna go down, it might as well be now. It’ll be quicker.”
“If that’s how you wanna play it.”
“I think so. It’s just a matter of how many of you guys I’m taking with me.”
Recker came back to his spot and reported what he saw outside. “Looks like just one or two guys out there by their cars. Everyone else must be downstairs.”
“You took out a couple, I took out a couple, if there’s one outside, then there’s probably around ten down there?”
“Assuming they haven’t had more arrive when we weren’t looking.”
“Well, in any case, at some point they’re gonna have to make a move,” Malloy said. “They’re gonna have to come to us.”
“They might not see it that way. They might think they can wait us out.”
“I don’t think they’re that dumb. Well, maybe. But they gotta know that even if they took out the first wave of guys that Vincent sent over, they’ve gotta know there’s more coming. And I’m sure they’re well aware that Vincent’s got more firepower than they do. So they gotta be on some kind of time schedule here if they really wanna do us in.”
Recker nodded, agreeing with his point. “Yeah, it would seem they can’t wait all day. Unless they’re waiting for Vincent to bring his men, then they bring more, then they got everyone here… maybe they’re looking to do a final stand or something. Get it all over with at once.”
“I don’t think Jerrick’s got the guts to do something like that. He’s not willing to go down in a blaze of
glory. He wants to take Vincent apart bit by bit. This was his first step with that.”
They continued talking, though Recker suddenly put his hand up to put a halt to their conversation. He thought he heard something. He leaned in closer, thinking he might have heard footsteps. If it was, they were trying their best to be deathly quiet. A few more seconds went by and Recker was sure someone was coming. They were doing a good job in keeping quiet, but Recker detected a very small noise that sounded like the bottom of someone’s shoes skidding across a step. He waited another couple seconds. He was sure they were getting closer. He put his finger in the air to signal Malloy when he was ready to give them a surprise.
Five more seconds went by. Now Recker was ready. He gave a slight nod of his head, then quickly pointed at him, letting him know he was ready. With their arms stretched out and their guns ready to fire, Recker and Malloy both jumped out from the side of the steps, standing next to each other in the middle of the platform, looking down at the steps and the men below. Recker was right on target. There were six men coming up the steps.
Recker and Malloy instantly opened fire, easily mowing down the two men that were leading the charge. As they fell, Recker and Malloy continued firing, quickly connecting on their next targets. As the next two were dispersed, the final two men in back of the pack fired, though each of their shots went wide. They didn’t get another chance as Recker and Malloy each took down one of them.
With the charge temporarily pushed back, Recker and Malloy retreated back to their previous positions on the side of the steps. They looked each other over, neither of them saying anything at first, making sure neither of them had any new holes in them. They each removed their magazines to check their ammunition.
“I got six left,” Malloy said.
“I got nine.”
“We can probably hold off one more charge like that. Maybe two. Not more than that though.”
“They might try something more creative next time,” Recker said. He then went off and started checking the windows again. He saw a couple more people outside this time, though it still wasn’t many. After looking out the window for a minute, he returned to his position across from Malloy. “Still not many out there. Most of them are probably still down on the first floor.”
A barrage of gunfire broke out, sounding like it was coming from several automatic rifles being fired at once. Recker and Malloy both turned their heads as the shots ripped into the wall between them. They knew it had to be a diversion and couldn’t afford to be caught sleeping. They each took a few more steps back, knowing they were about to have company any minute.
Recker dropped to his stomach, knowing that if anyone came up there, their sights would be higher, expecting him to be standing there. If they had to readjust their eyes and their sight lines to the floor, that would give him an advantage. And they definitely needed one at the moment. Seeing Recker’s position, and thinking it was a good idea, Malloy followed suit and dropped to the floor as well.
It was a good thing they did, as seconds later, several men raced up on the top steps and started firing wildly into the air. They didn’t even have a target in sight. They were just hoping that a few of the bullets would find a match. They were also hoping that by firing in the manner that they were, that Recker and Malloy would be too busy ducking to be able to fire back. They were wrong. Less than a few seconds after appearing, Recker and Malloy both dispatched the men that had appeared.
They weren’t alone, though. A few more men appeared, with Recker and Malloy exchanging fire with the new men, though they eventually took care of them as well. Malloy was out of ammunition now and Recker wasn’t far behind with only two shots left. They were about to grab the automatic rifles from the men that they killed, but a couple more men showed up. With nothing else to do, Malloy charged at one of them, trying to take him on before he was able to fire at him. Recker and the other man fired simultaneously, with the bullet aimed at Recker just narrowly missing his head. Recker’s shot didn’t miss and nailed the other man in the chest.
As another man appeared, Recker was also out of ammunition now, and joined Malloy in hand-to-hand combat, jumping on top of the newest combatant. As they landed on the floor, all four men began rolling around, each trying to get the upper hand on the other. They all eventually rolled onto the main part of the steps, in plain view of the men below. Recker and Malloy each finally got on top of their man and delivered a few facial shots. As they each got to their feet, Recker brought his man up with him. He looked down below, just in time to see one of the men lining him up with a shot. To shield himself, Recker bear-hugged the other man, just as several bullets ripped into the man’s back. Luckily for Recker they stayed lodged in the man’s insides and didn’t go through or else he would have had a new problem. Though the man was now dead, Recker held him up for a few moments, just until the gunfire stopped. As soon as it did, Recker let the body drop, and he jumped to the side of the stairs, out of the view of the men below.
Malloy, upon seeing and hearing what was happening to Recker, pushed his man down the steps and jumped to the side as well. His man wasn’t dead, but he was badly beat up now, not only from Malloy’s fists, but also from his journey down the steps. Recker was able to pick up one of the assault rifles as he got back to his previous position on the side. The rifle from the other dead man was out of Malloy’s reach, but Recker was able to get it without putting himself in harm’s way.
“You wanna slide me one of them?” Malloy asked.
Recker slid the other rifle across the floor. As Malloy took a few deep breaths to collect himself again, he checked the ammunition on the rifle.
“This should be good for a little while.”
Recker nodded. “We’ll see what they have up their sleeves next.”
“You know it’ll be something.”
“No doubt about it. They’re not through yet.”
11
The exchange of gunfire lasted a minute or two. The men at the bottom of the stairs continued firing, then, after ducking, it was Recker’s and Malloy’s turn to do the honors. This back-and-forth volley kept on for a few more minutes. Jerrick’s men didn’t seem to be advancing, or even trying to, which was a good thing, though Recker suspected they had a reason for that.
“If they just stay right there for a little while, we might actually be all right until the cavalry arrives,” Malloy said.
“Assuming we can hold out that long.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“I have a feeling they’re trying to make us waste the rest of our ammo,” Recker said. “They’re not really doing anything other than wasting bullets.”
About a minute went by with no activity on either side. It was one of those eerily quiet moments where you expected terror to jump out at any moment. Right on cue, another sound was heard. Luckily, there was nothing horrific about it. It was Recker’s phone. He quickly looked at the caller ID before answering.
“Yeah?”
“We’re just outside now,” Haley replied. “There’s a bunch of men on the gates, though. If we try to go through there, might take us a while to get to you.”
“See if there’s a back entrance you can make your way through.”
“That Haley?” Malloy asked. Recker looked over and nodded. Malloy put his hand out. “Let me talk to him.”
“Hold on, Malloy wants to talk to you.” Recker put the phone down on the ground and slid it over to him.
Malloy picked it up. “Chris. Go around to the back northeast corner of the property. The entire fence is wire and chain, but in that corner, you’ll see a small corner of the fence that’s cutout, almost like a doggie door.”
“Can I get through it?”
“Yeah. You’ll have to crawl, but you’ll be able to make it. There’s a metal covering around it that you’ll have to get off first, but that shouldn’t take you more than a minute or so.”
“Anything I gotta worry about when going through? Traps or anything?�
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“No, it was put there in case of emergencies and we had to get in somehow. There’s two tall trees directly in front of it to hide it a little.”
“OK, I’ll find it. We’ll be there in a few minutes. How many people are we looking at?”
“Maybe ten, fifteen, we’re not sure exactly. We’re on the second floor of the building that’s got the blue-ish roof. You’ll see the one when you get here.”
“OK. Relief’s on the way. Just hang on.”
After Malloy was done, he slid the phone back over to Recker, who picked it up and put it back in his pocket. “Back door?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t your boys do that before getting ambushed out front?”
“They either didn’t see anybody out there waiting for them out front or they didn’t think it was a problem.”
“Hopefully Chris doesn’t find a similar situation out back.”
“These guys don’t even know that spot exists, so he should be able to make it through OK.” Malloy looked away for a second, then thought about something that Haley said. “Hey, Chris got someone with him?”
“What?”
“He said we’ll be right there. Who’s he got with him? Can’t be Jones, is it?”
Recker laughed. “No, it’s not David.” He didn’t even think about not telling him the truth. Part of the meeting that he wanted to talk to Malloy about was the fact that Recker was leaving for a bit. He thought it would be helpful if Vincent knew that Recker would be gone for a while, that way nothing was lost in communication or they didn’t expect help that obviously wouldn’t be coming. “We’re bringing a new man on the team.”
“What? There’s gonna be three of you? What are you guys doing, setting up your own corporation?”
