by J. P. Sumner
You gotta be fucking kidding me?
Without thinking - because, let’s face it, if I’d thought about it, I wouldn’t have done it - I ran and jumped.
I was surprised at how small the gap was between the two buildings, and I covered it easily enough, landing and rolling on the neighboring roof. As I stood up, wincing at my ribs, I saw Jones ahead of me. He was at the edge of the roof again, but this time he wasn’t moving. I realized that we were on the edge of the block. Nowhere left to go.
TWENTY-FOUR
He turned to face me, his back to the ledge. We were easily five or six floors high. Enough of a drop that you probably wouldn’t survive it.
I slowed down, catching my breath. I drew my gun and aimed it at him.
‘Finally,’ I said. ‘It’s just me and you. Can we talk now please?’
‘I ain’t got nothin’ to say to you,’ he said.
‘Way I hear it, you got plenty to say. Just a case of whether or not you choose to.’
‘Who the hell are you, man?’
‘I’m a concerned citizen who wants to know what Dark Rain is doing.’
I saw the flash of concern on his face, but he carried on regardless.
‘Never heard of no Dark Rain, man.’
‘Bullshit. I saw the look on your face when you saw Clara. It’s why you ran.’
‘I ain’t talking to you, and you can’t make me. We’ll hunt you down and slay you in the street for this!’
I fired once, above his head.
‘Ironically, you talk too much,’ I said. ‘Now, if you’re not going to start talking about things I deem relevant, I suggest you shut the hell up.’
I stepped closer to him. He looked over his shoulder, down at the street below, then inched himself backward a tiny bit, so he was stood right on the edge.
‘Don’t even think about it, Marcus,’ I said, seeing what he was thinking.
I took a chance and fired, hitting him in the left kneecap. It’s one of the most painful places you can be shot. I needed him to lean forward after the bullet hit him so he didn’t fall off, so the knee was the better option – if I’d shot him in the arm or shoulder, he would’ve fallen backward over the edge from the impact. The knee made him keel over and drop straight to the floor.
He fell forward, screaming in pain and clutching his leg, which was pumping out blood on the ground around him.
I walked over and crouched beside him, putting my gun to his head. As I was about to speak, I heard a bang behind me. I span around, gun aimed high. The door leading to the roof of the building we were on had swung open and hit the wall. Clara was walking toward us.
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘How’d you find us?’
‘I was following you in the car,’ she replied. ‘I could see you on the roof. When we came to the end of the block, I figured the chase was over, so came up through the building.’
She walked over to Jones. She looked down at him, then back at me.
‘Can you interrogate anyone without shooting them?’ she asked.
‘Not usually,’ I replied with a shrug.
‘Maybe I should handle this?’
‘Be my guest.’
I took a step back and Clara crouched down next to him.
‘Marcus,’ she said. ‘I need your help.’
He looked up at her, his teeth clenched in agony.
He said, ‘Screw you, bitch! You’re a traitor, and you’re gonna die.’
Unfazed, she placed her hand on his throat.
‘Marcus, did you know about the uranium?’
‘Do you have any idea what they’re gonna do to you if they find you? Or to me, if I talk to you? Kiss my ass, traitor!’
She squeezed on his throat. His eyes widened and he gasped for air, to no avail. After a few moments, she loosened her grip.
‘Do you have any idea what I’m gonna do to you if you don’t talk? I can make the agony you’re in right now last for hours. Days, if necessary.’
He started to cry.
‘Please - they’ll kill me!’ he begged.
‘Marcus, you’re dead anyway. You’re going to bleed out on this rooftop in a lot of pain. But if you help me, tell me something that we can use against them, you can rest knowing you’ve done the right thing. I can ease your pain.’
I had to admit, she was good. This was probably more effective than me shooting him and beating him. I’m not going to tell her that though.
‘Please, Marcus, did you know about the uranium?’
‘Yes,’ he said, finally.
‘What’s the big picture?’
‘Once they’d mined it, I was going to transport it to their lab.’
‘And then what?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘Marcus, come on.’
She squeezed slightly on his throat again.
‘Please! I swear, I don’t know. I heard talk that they’re holding a scientist somewhere until the uranium’s ready. They’re going to make them process it into weapons-grade material.’
Clara looked up at me. I wondered what they had planned once they’d mined the material. Now we know.
‘Marcus,’ I said. ‘Where are they keeping this scientist?’
‘I sw-swear I don’t know. I just heard a couple of people talking.’
Clara stood up and motioned me to follow her. We walked a few paces away from Jones, who was still clutching his knee.
‘I believe him,’ she said.
‘Okay.’
‘Ketranovich doesn’t tell any one person everything. He tells people only what they need to know to carry out their assignments.’
‘That’s very smart. So now what?’
She looked over at Jones, then back at me.
‘Do you want to do it?’ I asked.
She shook her head.
I nodded, then walked over to Jones and put a bullet in his head.
We had a lot more to go on than we did earlier. We know they’ve got a scientist somewhere waiting for the uranium. And it turns out that Dark Rain was going to starting converting it to weapons-grade material themselves. I bet GlobaTech didn’t know about that! Christ, you can’t trust anybody nowadays, can you?
If we can get to them before the mining starts, we can take away their ability to process the material. If they can’t make weapons with it, we might be able to stop their grand plans before they even start. Coupled with the fact that I have the deeds to the land, stopping any mining from starting any time soon, we’ve just bought ourselves a healthy amount of time.
‘What now?’ I asked her.
She sighed.
‘Drink?’
Back
Shoot To Thrill
TWENTY-FIVE
We sat across from each other in the booth, sipping our drinks. The bar we were in was a bit more upscale than what I’m used to, but Clara was buying, so I had no problem with her choosing where we drank.
The bar wasn’t too busy or too loud. There was some music playing low in the background. There was a contemporary feel to the place. The structure was a mixture of brown leather and dark wood, as was the furniture. What people were there were seemingly more refined that the clientele where I usually drink. Everyone was in business dress or smart casual attire, talking in small groups like civilized people.
I was cradling my two fingers of scotch, and she had a bottle of Budweiser in her hand. We’d not said much since we left the rooftop, and we were sat here now, regarding each other quietly.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ she asked, breaking the silence.
‘The way I see it,’ I began. ‘We need to start by tracking down this scientist, agreed?’
‘Yup.’
‘Any ideas where they could be holding them?’
‘Could be any number of places, really. Definitely within the city – they wouldn’t want to risk transporting the uranium too far. Especially over state lines.’
‘True. I’ll get Josh to look into it. You can give him the locations you know of and he�
��ll work his magic from there. He might be able to narrow down the search, track them down that way.’
‘Sounds good.’
I could tell she was distracted.
‘You alright?’ I asked.
‘Yeah, I’m fine. Just what Marcus said to me on the roof, about being a traitor. It’s just like I said – you can’t walk away from these people.’
‘Hey, you’re going to be fine. You have my word, we’re going to stop them, okay?’
She smiled, but said nothing. We were silent for a few minutes.
‘Can I ask you something?’ said Clara, breaking the silence.
‘Shoot,’ I said.
‘Before, in your hotel room, I got out of the shower wearing a towel.’
‘You sure did.’
‘And we had a long conversation.’
‘I know, I was there.’
‘You didn’t check me out once.’
I burst out laughing, which caused her to give me a disapproving look.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘But you’re such a woman!’
‘What gave it away? These?’ she said sarcastically as she pointed at her breasts.
I smiled, making a point of not looking where she pointed.
‘Let me ask you this,’ I said. ‘If I had checked you out or made a move or whatever, would it have got me anywhere?’
She thought about it for a moment, then smiled.
‘Probably not.’
‘There you go. So if I had no chance anyway, why does it bother you that I didn’t try?’
‘A girl likes to be noticed you know, makes her feel special.’
She pulled a face and smiled. I massaged my temples again in frustration.
‘Shoot me now.’
She laughed, then it went quiet again. I finished my scotch and asked her if she wanted another drink. She did, so I went to the bar and came back with two Buds.
‘Six years ago,’ I said, as I slid back into our booth. ‘I was working a contract over in Pittsburgh. A guy hired me to take out the local drug dealer called Darnell Harper, who sold some cocaine to his son. The boy died of an overdose, and the coroner’s report said the coke had been cut with some kind of cleaning fluid, which made it toxic. The guy was beside himself, but knew he couldn’t do anything on his own. He reported it to the police, but they did nothing, so he hired me to kill Harper.’
She listened intently, occasionally sipping her drink. I continued.
‘I looked into the guy, and he was just a small-time dealer. He had a modest operation in the local town, but he wasn’t in the big leagues. I tailed him for a couple of days, learned his routines and his hangouts. Then on the third day, I waited until he was alone and I put a bullet between his eyes with a sniper rifle from a rooftop two streets away.
‘Unfortunately, Harper turned out to be the son of Wilson Trent, the drug kingpin who ran most of Pennsylvania. I didn’t find that out initially, because no-one on the street knew about it. Apparently, Harper used his mother’s maiden name so he wouldn’t be associated with his dad. He wanted to make his own way, not on Trent’s coat-tails.’
‘So what happened?’ asked Clara.
‘Trent put the word out that his son had been hit. It didn’t take long to track down my client, and it took even less time to convince him to give me up. Within a few days, I had five guys kicking in my front door, intent on killing me. An example needed to be made and a message sent so that everyone was reminded you didn’t mess with Wilson Trent.’
I took a long sip of my beer. Memories were flooding back into my mind. Visions of that day that have haunted me. The darkness I tried to crawl out of in the years that followed.
Clara attempted to break the silence that had descended.
‘You alright?’ she asked, with genuine concern.
She leaned forward and leant on the table.
‘You don’t have to explain anything to me, y’know? I was just kidding around before.’
‘I know,’ I replied. ‘Thank you. But it’s okay. I want to tell you.’
‘Okay.’
She leaned back against the seat and took another sip of her beer. I continued.
‘I wasn’t home when they came round. But they kicked down the door and stormed in to find that my wife and daughter were. Maria was just seven years old...’
I let the sentence trail off for a moment as I pictured my baby girl, smiling at me.
‘When I got home later that night, I found them both hog-tied on the kitchen floor with bullets in their heads and chests. The house had been turned upside down and trashed almost beyond repair. At the time, I had no idea what had happened. I just packed a bag, grabbed my guns and left. I rang the police a couple of hours later, said I was a concerned neighbor who had heard gunshots. I’ve not been back home since.’
‘Jesus, Adrian, I’m so sorry,’ said Clara. Her eyes were filling up with tears.
‘I’d been in the freelance business just over three years by then, but I hadn’t really stepped up and taken any big money, high profile contracts. I was out of my league going up against a man like Trent back then, so I stayed clear of the East Coast and traveled around taking the jobs Josh could get for me. I was in a bad place for a long time. I owe Josh a lot for getting me through it.’
‘He sounds like a sweet guy.’
I smiled.
‘The guy’s an asshole,’ I said, starting to laugh. ‘But he’s like a brother to me. We were both serving in the military. I’d just turned eighteen and was working my way through the ROTC; he was in his twenties and working intelligence for the British. I was just a kid, really. But I had a flare for the violence and found a comfort in the killing. It didn’t take long for me to get handpicked for a black-ops team, which was a joint effort with the British. We typically operated overseas. We met in that unit and cut our teeth in the business together. Josh learned his trade for research and espionage. I learned how to properly fight and kill people. By the time I was approaching thirty, I’d finished with the military, met Janine and we’d had Maria. I wanted to settle down and be a husband and a father. And I had a good three years of doing just that, while juggling my freelancing. But since that day when Wilson Trent murdered my family, I’ve never settled anywhere. I learned to embrace my anonymity.’
‘You’re hardly anonymous though, Adrian,’ she said. ‘Most governments and militaries in the world have heard of you. Not to mention the criminal element to your fan club.’
‘Well, the reputation came a couple of years afterward. And I still can’t be found unless I want to be. I’d call that pretty anonymous.’
We smiled at each other.
I took another sip of my drink and glanced around the bar. That was when I saw the black Humvee pull up out front, four people get out and proceed to open fire.
TWENTY-SIX
‘Everybody get down!’ I yelled.
I grabbed Clara’s hand and dragged her out of the booth and over to some tables next to us, which I turned over to try and provide some cover. I looked around and saw people running and screaming in blind panic. The furniture and decor of the bar was ripped apart by automatic weapon fire. The glass behind the bar shattered and exploded everywhere. The smell of cordite burned strong all around. I heard the dull, squelchy impact of bullets on flesh, as people dropped dead to the floor. A few people had found some cover, but nothing would protect anyone for long under this onslaught.
I took a peek over the table, to get a glimpse of who was firing. I saw four people through the smoke and haze. I saw a woman, who judging by her figure and outfit must be the one Clara called Natalia Salikov. The other three were men I’d not seen before. But if Natalia was there, that meant Dark Rain had found me.
Or found Clara.
I looked over at her as she looked at me, clearly coming to the same conclusions.
‘You packing?’ she shouted.
I reached behind me and produced my two babies.
‘Always,’’ I said,
handing her one. I reached into my pocket and produced a spare magazine, which I also gave to her.
We instinctively checked the magazines and reloaded our guns. I motioned for her to stay under cover where we were. She nodded in agreement. I took another quick peek at the front and made a run for the next batch of tables to our left. I blindly fired three rounds as I moved, sliding down behind the cover. I looked over at Clara. I knew we had no chance of winning a straight up shootout against these people - we were too heavily outgunned.
I looked around, thinking. There had to be a back way out of here.
Clara broke cover and let off four rounds, which caused one of the gunmen to cease fire and duck away. She could certainly handle herself. Right now, I was very glad to have her on my side.
I put my bluetooth earpiece in and dialed Josh, firing off another two rounds in response to a burst of gunfire that hit the floor just in front of me.
‘Adrian, how’s it going buddy?’ Josh said as he answered.
‘I’m getting shot at,’ I replied. ‘How’s your day going?’
I didn’t hear what he said next, because I squeezed off another couple of rounds, narrowly missing one of the gunmen. It’s very hard to aim when you’re under this much pressure.
‘What?’ I shouted down the phone.
‘I said, you gotta be freakin’ kidding me?!’ he shouted.
‘Wish I was. Listen, me and Clara are pinned down and we’re taking heavy fire. There are civilian casualties all over the place and we’re low on ammunition. You’ve got to get us out of here!’
‘Already on it, gimme a sec.’
I didn’t want to blindly run into the back area, as I’d run the risk of being trapped if these guys followed us. I needed to know exactly which way to turn, so I could minimize any risk or delay.
I looked over at Clara again, who was firing off a few more rounds. The table splintered just above her head. I looked around to see which of them was firing at her specifically. The gunmen were stood in a line, with Natalia Salikov being second from the left. The guy on the far right was emptying another clip in Clara’s direction. I ducked back down to avoid another burst, then sprung up and unloaded three at the guy on the right. One missed, but the other two hit the spot. One caught him in the chest, making him stagger backward and spray bullets in a wide arc toward the ceiling. The second caught him on the jaw, and the bottom half of his head exploded in a pink and white mist, as bone and blood flew off in all directions.
