by Matthew Fish
“The other four aren’t going to be dumb enough to run out here,” Bradley said as he began advancing further on the building. A single man armed with a shotgun appeared from the entrance and Bradley squeezed the trigger on his automatic rifle putting about twenty rounds into the guy before he fell to the ground unconscious. “Okay, one of them is going to be that stupid, 1990…”
“Got it,” Maddie said as she tossed a coin up into the air and with a single, short graceful gesture turned him to ash.
“That leaves only three,” Bradley said as he placed his back against the closed door of the rusty old dock house. “That last guy could have left the door open for us. They never like to make it too easy.”
“What are their years,” Mark asked as he nervously placed his hands near his belt.
“Have to see ‘em first,” Bradley said as he ran up to the old rusty door and kicked it down, breaching it in a single blow and dislodging it from its hinges and sending it flying into the water. The two men with the pistols waiting near the water drew their guns as Bradley began to fire down upon them. The man with the shotgun above got one shot off striking Bradley’s shoulder as blood erupted into the air.
“Maddie…1982 and 1973,” Bradley called as he continued to concentrate his fire on the two men armed with pistols. “Mark, 1990 and 1996…”
Maddie tossed her two quarters into the air as the two men attempted to fight back despite the heavy gunfire. She gestured straight and direct with her fingers together as one quarter passed into the first man, turning him to ash—the second quarter past through the dust and embedded itself in second man, felling him a half second later.
“Hold those coins,” Bradley commanded as the two different quarters floated above Mark’s head.
“Why are there two coins…?” Maddie asked as the man with the shotgun dropped his weapon and raised his hands in the air. Not a very smart move as he was probably warned that there was no such thing as an arrest—perhaps he was just that new. “Is there someone else in the building?”
Mark was keeping an eagle eye focus upon the man and was tuning everything else out—that was his job. He was ready to release the coins at Bradley’s command.
“You know you’re pretty much screwed right now, right?” Bradley said as he pointed to the pair of floating coins in the air.
“Yeah…I…yes, sir,” The man said with a trembling voice. “I’m pretty much dead…right?”
“Not necessarily,” Bradley replied as he dropped his automatic rifle and pulled a pistol from his holster. “You one of Zampa’s men…?”
“What is this,” Emily asked as she started to back away nervously. “This isn’t the plan.”
“Bradley,” Maddie added as she placed her hand on the large man’s shoulder. “This isn’t our job—what are you doing?”
“Get off me,” Bradley said as he pushed Maddie away. She fell to the floor as her knee impacted hard against the concrete. “Keep those two coins up in the air, Mark.”
“Dammit,” Emily said as she grew frustrated with her lack of understanding of the situation. She pulled a lighter from her purse and tossed it at Mark’s feet. “No hard feelings, chum.”
“Shit!” Mark exclaimed as he stomped out the small fire beneath his feet. Two coins tumbled down from air. Mark caught one in his hand—it was the one that Bradley had given him at the house…it was Emily’s year.
“No matter,” Bradley said as he grabbed Emily in his arms and put this gun to her head. “You one of Zampa’s men or not?”
“I…I am,” the man replied as he looked around nervously.
“You have a way to contact him?”
“I do…”
“Then get him on the line now,” Bradley said as he pushed the gun hard against Emily’s head. “Tell him I have one of his daughters.”
“Bradley,” Mark said softly as he cautiously approached the man he thought he could trust. “What exactly are you doing here?”
“I’m getting some god damned answers,” Bradley said as he looked to both Mark and Maddie who stared at him as though he was acting like some kind of monster. “It’s obvious she’s a spy—this is the right thing to do. Get those coins back into the air…one of you—at least on the guy.”
“No need,” the man said aloud as he perched over the balcony a bit. “I have Mr. Zampa on the phone.”
“Tell him I got one of his gifted daughters,” Bradley commanded as he pulled Emily closer and brought his arm around her neck. “I don’t want him—I won’t come after him; just tell him that I just want a name…the old one that I couldn’t place.”
“You’re…a fucking idiot,” Emily choked as she attempted to free herself.
“Mr. Zampa asks if it’s Eva or Lola,” the man relayed.
“No!” Bradley shouted in reply as he was growing even more frustrated. “I got that stupid little bitch that he planted in my own god damned house. Now I just want a name—and I’ll let her walk. He has my word.”
The man relayed the message the best he could and then returned with an answer, “Is it Emily?”
“Of fucking course it’s Emily!”
“I’m sorry…he says to go ahead and kill her, she’s not his…anymore?” The man nervously replied. “And he also just hung up…”
“Let her go,” Mark said as he placed a hand on Bradley’s shoulder in an attempt to calm down his anger.
“No,” Bradley said as he placed the gun to Emily’s leg and squeezed off a round into her knee. She screamed out in pain as blood seeped through her black jeans. “Fucking talk—talk or I’ll make this real painful for you. Tell us the truth.”
“Ronald…Mcfucking Donald…” Emily choked out as she looked as though she was attempting to concentrate through the pain, perhaps trying to project but could not.
“What’s his year?” Maddie asked as she reached to her chest and fingered the satchel of coins.
“I…I don’t know,” Mark whispered.
“You…were not even supposed to be here tonight,” Bradley said as he then turned the gun on Maddie and without warning, fired a shot into her right shoulder. She fell down to the floor holding the wound tightly as tears came streaming down from her eyes. “Mark, again, you promised to do whatever I’d ask of you. This is for you—this is for your father. We need that name…get those damned coins in the air.”
Mark’s mind was racing. Things were moving so fast, this was not at all what he expected. Things were going way off track. He was seeing a side to Bradley that he hated. He pulled his gun from his holster and placed it to Bradley’s head. “Let her go…this isn’t what I signed up for…she’s my friend.”
“You’d trust this lying bitch over me? Over your father’s partner…?” Bradley asked as he turned his eyes to Mark as he felt the pressure of the gun against his head. For the first time since he took Emily his resolve seemed to soften. Anger then washed over his face once more as he pushed his head against the gun. “It won’t kill me, plus—you don’t have the balls to do it, so why don’t you just…”
“I can conduct just as well with my left arm….” Maddie spoke as she was back on her feet with about twenty coins hovering above her. “I’ve picked random years—all except 1996,” Maddie added as she swung her left arm wide with her fingers outstretched wide. All twenty coins flew down and hit Bradley at different parts of his body as a series of loud bangs like a succession of fireworks filled the air. He flew back to the ground, releasing his hold on Emily as he bounced a few times. There was blood everywhere. However, he did not turn to dust. He looked a mess, his clothing torn and tiny bits of rounded metal sticking out of heavily bleeding wounds.
“Asshole…!” Emily shouted as she attempted to kick at Bradley’s unconscious body with her good leg and nearly fell over in the process.
“Look…I umm,” the man above said as he began to back off towards a room above. “I didn’t see any of this—I’m just going to go. We can just call this even, right?”
“Yeah you’re free to go. However, consider yourself fired,” A woman’s voice spoke from behind him as the man erupted into flames and began screaming. He jumped from the top floor and landed into the water and disappeared beneath the dock house.
“Eva…” Emily whispered as she grabbed a hold of Mark. “We need to leave…”
“Hey sis,” The woman spoke as she stepped into the light. She had long dark brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail and hazel eyes just like Emily’s. She wore a strange looking black low-cut top with long flowing arms and the majority of her breasts exposed, or at least it looked as though they might easily escape from their meager constraints. She had tight fitting black leather jeans and as she approached a plume of flame erupted from the palm of her hand. “Or…former sis isn’t it? Father was right though; this Spotter asshole was actually dumb enough to try and get revenge…and brought kids with him. How fascinatingly, pathetically sad—don’t worry though boy, you’re coming with me alive.”
“Can you still project,” Maddie whispered over to Emily.
“I’m pretty sure I can,” Emily whispered back.
“Get Mark out of here,” Maddie spoke as she sent a handful of coins in the air.
“Though alive is a very vague word…you can take a few burns and still…live,” the woman spoke with an overly creepy tone of glee in her voice. “Coins aren’t really going to do much…especially when you took your own Spotter out.”
“They’ll at least shut you up—go now!” Maddie shouted as she let a few coins fly as the room was quickly engulfed with fire.
Mark could feel himself being pulled violently away as his stomach lurched at the odd feeling. “Maddie…” He whispered as he opened his eyes and found himself right outside of the door to the rusty metal dock house.
Maddie burst from the room a plume of smoke and flame following behind her. She shot Emily a confused look as she began to run. “That’s it?”
“I’m not that good yet!” Emily shouted back as she began to run as best she could despite the gunshot wound to her leg. “Plus that asshole shot me!”
“Back to the car,” Maddie commanded as she quickened her pace. “I got her with at least one…should buy us a little time.”
Mark was silent as he allowed himself to be pushed swiftly towards the Charger off in the distance. His mind was still confused over Bradley’s actions that night. Like a mindless drone he ran on as a plume of fire erupted from behind them.
As they reached the car—Maddie pushed Mark into the driver’s seat as she slid over the hood of the car. Emily launched herself into the back seat and let out another cry of pain as she clung to her leg.
Mark looked out the window and saw that crazy woman running towards them as another plume of fire erupted next to the car.
“Mark!” Maddie shouted as she jolted him with her remaining good arm. “Drive!”
“Right…” Mark whispered as he put the car into drive and sped off. He looked out the rear view mirror only to see the woman in black giving him the finger. She then gestured as though she was throwing a baseball and the back of the Charger erupted in flames. “…and we’re on fire.”
“I got it,” Emily said as she turned her attention to the back window and placed her hand against the hot glass. With her fingertips she slowly traced a line down until the fire disappeared.
“You can put fires out as well?” Mark asked.
“I’m not very good at it…” Emily said as she sounded rather annoyed. “I can put small ones out—we’re not on fire anymore, we’re still alive, and one of us hasn’t been shot tonight so what more do you want?”
“We need to get to a hospital,” Mark said as he looked over to Maddie who was holding her arm tightly, tears were still streaming down from her eyes.
“We need to get back to the police station,” Maddie added as she typed in the directions into the GPS—hospitals won’t be safe.”
“And…going to the police station will be?” Emily protested. “That crazy asshole seemed as though he worked for the Perpetual Police Department.”
“We can both get treatment for our wounds,” Maddie said as she pulled a cell phone from her pocket and dialed a contact. “Captain Dickson…this is Maddie—things didn’t go well. We’re on our way in. We will be there in twenty and we need the med room. One gunshot wound, right arm. Emily has a gunshot wound to her right leg—I’ll explain when we get there.”
“I can’t believe he did that,” Mark said softly as he followed the directions on the navigation console. “I just…I trusted him.”
“Well, look how stupid I look,” Emily said as she gestured towards her leg. “I wish that shit-biscuit were a tiny pile of ash right now…now that’s one more thing as Mark’s bodyguard that I’ll have to worry about.”
“If it’s of any comfort, he won’t be coming back to the station when he regains consciousness,” Maddie said as she struggled to pull her Heart Stash over her arm and tied it into a makeshift tourniquet. “What he did, even for someone in the service, carries a death penalty…no matter what his intentions were.”
“So it was all about revenge,” Mark said as he shook his head. In a way, he had suspected it—he felt stupid for not seeing it earlier. Bradley had been too eager to take Emily in…too quick to get Mark to training.
“At least you turned him into coin pie,” Emily added. “And what was with you, Mark? You just stood there with my coin in the air like a fucking zombie—thought you were in on it for a moment.”
“That’s…kinda my fault,” Maddie said as she rested her back into the car. “With only three days I had to train Mark to tune everything out—I didn’t think he’d go into that trance state, but without the proper training, it’s what can happen.”
“I tuned everything out…I had no idea what was going on at first,” Mark said as he suddenly felt rather guilty. “I’m sorry.”
“Well…” Emily muttered as she poked at her wound and grimaced. “I wasn’t expecting an apology or nothing—I’m just glad you two weren’t trying to kill me as well. That’d really piss my nits off.”
“You’re not a bad person,” Maddie said, if somewhat reluctantly. “For a fire-bitch…”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard you say a naughty word,” Emily said with a little laugh. “We’re breaking down walls here.”
“I just got shot in the shoulder,” Maddie said as she rested her head against the cool window. “I’m allowed to be a little ungraceful.”
My first night out…my first mission—turned out to be a complete shitstorm. I felt foolish that night…foolish and concerned. As I pulled the Charger up to the front of the police station, Captain Dickson had two crash carts ready for both Emily and Maddie. Maddie was losing consciousness—she was rushed into the building. Emily was fighting and had to be restrained as she attempting to punch a nurse in the face. When Captain Dickson approached me and asked about Bradley, I simply shook my head. I did not know what to say at the time. He simply nodded and placed an arm around me and we entered the building. He put me up in a dorm-type room in the 4th floor basement. I never felt more alone that night—I missed Emily’s dumb jokes and Maddie’s kindness. I hated myself for it, but I also missed Bradley. For all he had done wrong—we had good times. As much as I hated myself for missing him, I hated him for doing what he did…for hurting my friends and for pulling that douche move. It took me quite a long time to fall asleep that night. The bed was uncomfortable and my mind was filled with the events that happened before. I could not shut off the noise of all the thoughts and anger. I was worried about Maddie. I knew that Emily would be fine in the morning—I just hoped that I would wake up and everything would be fine…well, as fine as things could be.
In the morning Captain Dickson knocked on my door and brought me into his office. It was an odd room full of wooden walls that contrasted sharply with the smooth concrete floor. He had pictures of ducks and deer, no plaques or fancy symbols of recognition tha
t I would have expected. I suppose I should have remembered that our job was a thankless one. He kept looking away, to the blank and empty spaces around the room—almost as though he felt as guilt ridden and screwed up as I did. As I sat across from him, he kept nodding his head as though he was attempting to process all the information contained within. He finally placed his hands upon the wooden desk and allowed himself to fall back into his tanned leather office chair. Then, he finally spoke.
“Your friends are fine,” Captain Dickson spoke as though he was trying to find some jumping point to start off on.
“I’m happy…happy to at least hear that,” Mark said as he internally let out a sigh of relief.
“There’s a lot of bad news though,” Captain Dickson added as he put his hands together and cracked his knuckles. “We couldn’t find Bradley’s body. They might have taken him—or he could be out there somewhere.”
“Do you think he’s dangerous?”
“He’s a liability right now,” Captain Dickson replied. “I don’t believe that makes him dangerous to you. However, his actions have serious consequences—he’s definitely emboldened Zampa’s men. I fear we will see a lot more gang activity once word gets around.”
“So we’re not all out of jobs then,” Mark said, attempting to find some silver lining in this piss cloud.
“No,” Captain Dickson said as he hesitated and pulled out an envelope from a drawer and handed it over to Mark. “However, if you wish no longer continue—your decision to not will be looked down upon in the least.”
“What’s this?” Mark asked as he placed his thumb against the fold of the envelope and revealed a single sheet of paper. It was addressed to Bradley.
“This was in Bradley’s locker.”
As my eyes scanned over that old letter—it hit me like a baseball bat to the head. It was, essentially, a message to Bradley stating that if anything should happen to my father—I should be never allowed to be a Conductor. That Bradley would do his best to keep me from that lifestyle. He mentioned all the enemies he had made, all the time he had lost that he could have spent with me…the loss of his wife. The letter nearly brought me to tears. He was never disappointed that I did not take much of an interest in his coin collecting—he was attempting to steer me away from that lifestyle. He never explained how I could get this power—finding that coin of my own birth year—because, he never wanted me to have this power.
