Alexei sees the bus that brought everybody to the compound. “Viktor, check out the bus.”
Viktor, a young Russian thug of maybe twenty, runs over and steps inside. “Keys still here, Alexei.”
“Change of plans. Let’s get on.”
Alexei’s men get on the bus while Alexei gets back into the Mercedes.
The bus and Mercedes ram into the wall of The Barn, breaking it down.
Leopards dash out of the building.
The Russians escort the children onto the bus. Alexei personally escorts Tanya into the Mercedes.
The buzz from the drugs has worn off them all. Nobody is high, nobody is stoned, nobody is in withdrawal. They are just all really, really scared.
While Alexei and his men were preoccupied with The Barn and getting the kids, Prince’s men had quietly gone off to get weapons. They return. One of them tosses Prince an AR-15.
Alexei sees this and screams, “Go! Go! Go!”
Prince and his men begin firing, and Alexei’s men return fire.
The doors to the bus and the Mercedes close, and the vehicles begin to move.
“We gotta follow them. Get the trucks,” yells Prince. He and his men shoot one last burst of fire then run toward the back of The Barn where the vehicles are stored.
JJ stand in a moment of hesitation - which way should he go? After Alexei or after Prince? And where is Sam?
***
Abby sees that Li Peng has glanced in the direction of the activity in the compound.
She nods her head slightly. Olivia and Willie Mays nod in return.
“Aah!” Abby gurgles and falls to the ground. Li Peng looks down in her direction.
It’s time enough for Olivia to kick Li Peng in the groin then for Willie Mays to finish him off with an elbow to the head.
Willie Mays picks up the AR-15. “Anyone know how to drive standard?” asks Willie Mays.
“I do,” says Abby.
“Then do it.”
Olivia, Abby and Willie Mays jump into the Toyota.
They drive into the clearing and start chasing the bus.
“My boy is in the bus. We’ve got to follow them,” says Willie Mays as he opens the window and puts the rifle out the window.
The Toyota starts out from its hiding place on the narrow dirt road.
“Let’s just give them the damned money,” says Olivia.
“Kidnappers don’t work that way. You give in, and they’ll still kill them,” says Willie Mays.
“That’s what Noah says,” says Abby.
“Give them me. Trade me for the girls and Walrus,” says Willie Mays. “I am not going back without my son.”
The car enters the compound and guns after the bus and Mercedes as it enters a different road into the compound.
Abby looks out the window to see JJ glimpsing into the car.
He sees her and starts running after the Toyota.
“Sorry, Willie Mays. No one wants a policeman who’s eaten too many doughnuts,” says Olivia.
Willie Mays sees a marksman pushing an AK-47 out of the Mercedes.
“Now!” says Willie Mays.
He begins firing. Nothing. The rifle’s cartridges are empty. They had no way of knowing it, but Li Peng, the martial artist, had never shot a weapon in his life and didn’t know there were no bullets.
However, there are plenty in Alexei’s AK-47.
A sheet of bullets comes right through the front windshield of the Toyota.
Willie Mays and Abby are riddled with bullets.
The Toyota drives directly into a tree.
Olivia is woozy but manages to scramble out of the car and crawls into the brush.
The Japanese car bursts into flames. If the bullets didn’t kill Willie Mays and Abby, the fire certainly will.
In the compound, JJ falls to his knees and sobs.
***
Sam was hiding under a pile of blankets. When he saw Alexei from the window, Sam was sure that he was going to go after the girls and would not miss him, so he told the girls to pile loose blankets on top of him to make it look like a raggedy pile.
Sam guessed right. He waited for the bus to load all the girls, then makes his move.
Sam throws the blankets aside and sees the leopards escaping through the hole in the side of The Barn. He dashes to the back of the building where Prince’s cars are.
Sam’s background as a young hoodlum comes in handy. He pulls out a sharp martial arts star and slashes tires of the three SUVs. One tire on each vehicle is enough to disable it, and he finishes barely in time to run in the opposite direction before Prince and his men show up.
***
“It’s too big. The damned bus is too big,” hollers the driver into his cell phone.
The bus can’t squeeze through this part of the dirt path the way a smaller vehicle might.
“Back up,” barks Alexei.
The path is too narrow to turn around so the Mercedes is thrown into reverse back down the narrow road.
“JJ!” shouts Sam. “Watch out!”
JJ snaps out of his funk to see the Mercedes backing up right at him. He quickly rolls out of the way.
“Horse,” yells Sam in full flight as the bus enters the compound as well.
“Okay.”
JJ runs a few yards towards the bus, positioning himself.
Sam catches up and makes a handspring using JJ as a pommel horse and vaults himself to the top of the moving bus.
JJ then runs to the other side of the Mercedes to avoid the AK-47 and leaps on top of the German car.
The leopards that roam the compound see the movement and JJ and Sam. They chase after the vehicles.
This is totally crazy.
Inside the bus are girls are screaming at the top of their lungs. Riding on the top of the bus is thirteen-year-old Sam. On top of the Mercedes is JJ. At the sides of both the bus and Mercedes are leopards leaping up trying to get at them.
Alexei closes the window to avoid having his arm as the leopards’ snack.
And now, from the sky, a loud whirring noise gets louder and louder.
Noah leaps down twenty feet from the chopper onto the top of the bus.
“It took you long enough,” says Sam.
“My bad,” grins Noah.
The two share a quick hug, then back to business.
“There’s three of Alexei’s men in the bus and two plus Tanya in the Mercedes - the driver and Alexei. They all got AK-47s.”
“Perfect.”
***
Prince and his men arrive to discover the SUVs with the tires.
“Damn. Let’s change a tire. Fast. Fast. Fast,” barks Prince. He figures that it will be faster to change a tire and use an SUV to track down the bus and Mercedes rather than to catch up with it on foot.
***
Noah jumps up from the top of the bus and grabs a branch from a tree. He yanks it off and throws it to JJ on top of the Mercedes.
JJ uses the branch as a hammer at the Mercedes front windshield. While the glass is reenforced, it is not as strong as military-quality bulletproof glass.
Inside, Alexei aims his AK-47, waiting for JJ to break through the windshield - he will be easy to take out.
Then suddenly, there is hammering on the rear windshield as well. It is Noah. When Sam said there was just Alexei and the driver in the Mercedes, he figured that an attack from both rear and front was the way to go - Alexei couldn’t take them both out.
CRACK! The rear window breaks first, and Alexei turns his head to check.
CRACK! The front window breaks.
Both Noah and JJ look inside to see Alexei holding a Sig Sauer to the doped-out Tanya’s head.
“Welcome. We meet again,” says Alexei.
He cocks the trigger. “I suggest you be very careful of your next move. Tanya may not feel anything, but her death will haunt you until the end of days.”
Suddenly, Tanya’s head snaps and bites Alexei in the hand, chomping off a piece
of flesh.
“Ow!” Alexei fires, but his hand is knocked away from Tanya’s head. The bullet goes directly into JJ’s skull.
Tanya, like a hellion, takes out five syringes full of heroin or whatever it is Alexei had put in them. She had pretended to be strung out just to gather additional needles for the right time, and that time was now.
With needles in both hands, she empties them into Alexei’s neck. He pushes her off, but Noah dives into the car and punches the big Russian in the head.
The driver pulls out his own gun, but Noah reaches over and pushes his hand out of the way.
The driver loses control of the car and crashes into a tree.
“Save my sister,” says Tanya.
“Okay.” Noah opens the door and runs out toward the bus.
Tanya takes the Sig Sauer from the woozy Russian’s hand.
“No, Tanya. I love you,” says Alexei.
Tanya fires the remaining bullets save two into Alexei’s head.
One of them is saved for the driver.
The other is for her. She points the gun at her temple.
Then JJ, bleeding profusely from his wound, reaches over and pulls it away from her.
He says slowly, “La-rri-sa.”
Then his world goes black.
“Thank you, JJ.”
Tanya has one needle left. She injects it into JJ, then looks at the bullet hole in his head - the bullet did not penetrate the skull.
She uses her thumb and index finger to spread the wound open a bit more. She reaches in, squeezes on the bullet and pulls it out.
She takes off her top, tears it and ties it around JJ’s head to stem the bleeding.
***
The bus is less than fifty yards ahead of him, but there are six leopards that are chasing the vehicle too. It’s a good thing that the road is so difficult to navigate, otherwise Noah would never catch up.
It’s a good thing that Noah loved to read as a child. Because his parents were so poor, videos, television and movies were a rare treat. However, library books were free, and Noah had read all twenty-four of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books. Without that, Noah might never have come up with the idea of getting to the bus by tree.
While he couldn’t use vines to swing like his hero, leaping from branch to branch works too, and he soon rejoins Sam on the top of the bus.
“You’re crazy,” admires Sam.
“That’s just the beginning. Now we get to work.”
***
Pietr waves his rifle at the children. Having been one of Alexei’s top lieutenants for years, he knows the system and all Alexei’s connections. Privately, several rival mob leaders of Alexei had approached him to join them, but Pietr always refused. The gang leaders thought it was loyalty, but in reality Pietr knew it was only a matter of time before Alexei’s bullheadedness would get the best of him and his own time would come.
The whole bus had just witnessed Alexei’s demise, so that time is now.
“We head back to Kandinsky’s,” announces Pietr.
“Yes, boss,” says the driver.
Boss! Has a nice ring to it. But there’s not a lot of time to reflect upon it.
“Daddy, daddy!” cries Walrus inside the bus. He goes ballistic on Pietr. With one fell sideways swoop to the head, Walrus is knocked unconscious to the floor.
Still in reverse, the bus zigzags on the narrow path, hitting tree after tree, trying to shake Noah and Sam off.
Like acrobats cum gymnasts, Noah and Sam go with flow, hopping from foot to foot, sometimes ducking a tree, sometimes grabbing a branch.
Somehow they manage to avoid getting thrown off the bus.
Pietr leans out the window pointing his AK-47 toward the roof, waiting for Noah or Sam to make an appearance.
Inside, one of his men shoots at the bus roof, hoping to get a lucky hit.
That strategy backfires. With the bullets going through the roof, their velocity is considerably slowed. It is easy pickings for Noah to leap out of their way and grab the bullets in the air.
Sam has moved to the edge of the roof.
“Now!” yells Noah.
Sam jumps down facing the side of the bus. He kicks the window in.
Noah has taken his handful of bullets and throws them right at Pietr’s hand, dislodging the AK-47. The rifle falls to the ground.
Noah jumps off the bus’ roof and grabs Pietr’s hands. It is all the Russian can to do stay inside the bus.
Using Pietr’s arms as a rope, he pulls himself inside.
Sam then breaks the glass and jumps into the bus.
He runs to driver and starts hitting him. However, the driver is yet another huge Russian, and he swats Sam’s fists away like flies. Driving only with one hand makes the bus ride even more erratically.
Pietr takes out his pistol and fires off three rounds at JJ. Noah stands calmly and snags all three bullets out of the air. Left hand, right hand, left.
Noah throws them back at Pietr. One hits his left eye, another hits his chest, the third one hits his hand. Pietr screams. Every one of the bullets imbedded itself into his body.
Like a good soldier, Pietr fights through pain. He takes out a knife and launches himself at Noah, slashing away. Noah avoids Pietr’s dangerous movements and begins a counteroffensive.
Noah shoots out two kicks - left, right at Pietr’s arms, extending his legs as high as a ballet dancer.
Reeling backwards, Pietr stumbles all the way to the front of the bus with two of Noah’s hammer fists.
Pietr tries to get up, but Noah leaps on him, forcing him to the ground. Noah lifts Pietr’s head up, and the assaulter becomes Noah’s punching bag. Left uppercut. Right jab. Hard right to chest. Hard left to chest. Knee to the groin, causing Pietr to buckle.
However Pietr did not become one of Alexei’s lieutenants by accident. From somewhere within, he draws a burst of energy.
His foot launches at Noah’s chest, and an uppercut sends Noah skyward.
Pietr takes out his knife, raises it high in the air and comes down hard.
CRASH! The bus abruptly stops. The bus, still in reverse, collided with Prince’s SUV.
The abrupt movement knocked Pietr’s hand and plunging knife off course, and the knife imbeds into the floor. Noah leaps up and jumps on Pietr with such force that the handle end of the knife lodges into Pietr’s chest.
And then the bus topples over. Prince and his men pushed it over.
CHAPTER 24
“Five hundred million dollars. If you don’t transfer it now, I kill one of the kids every five minutes,” says Prince to Noah.
The son of Chin glares at Noah in the parking area of the compound. Noah, all the children, an unconscious JJ and Olivia are tied up.
Prince pulls Noah by the hair and forces him to look at the direction of Sam, who has an AR-15 pointed at his skull.
“Don’t do it, Noah,” says Sam.
“It’s not worth it. Give it to them,” says Olivia.
Noah’s head is yanked again to face Prince.
“I suggest you listen to the girlie girl. So is it this?” Prince cuts Olivia free from her ropes.
“Or this?” Prince uses the same knife to stab Sam in the stomach. The knife doesn’t go in very deep, but it’s enough for the message to come across.
A laptop is brought in front of Noah, and his ropes are cut off.
Noah has one play, and he hopes he’s right. During the walk back from the SUV and bus wreck in the forest, Prince bragged to Noah about his toughness, how he was the son of Chin and some young tart, how he was so much better than his father or any of his siblings. Then he bragged about his sexual prowess, about the several thousand girls. After all, none of them had survived in a battle against him. Noah’s got to play all this up and God, he hopes he’s right.
Noah looks at Prince. “You want to screw your mother, don’t you?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“There are two reasons you choo
se young girls as partners. One, you are so pumped with steroids you can’t perform properly. Only young girls would know the difference. Two, you have what is called the ‘Oedipus Complex,’ a desire to have sex with your mother.”
This isn’t exactly what the Oedipus Complex is, but Noah is sure that Prince doesn’t know. However, dropping a fancy Latin term adds weight to his argument.
“I never even knew my mother.”
“No, but you know your father, and you hate him.” Noah looks around at The Ranch complex. “Everything you’ve got and are doing is to try and impress him. Your father had sex with one teenager. You’ve done it with a couple of thousand. Your father fought tigers for small groups - less than a hundred. You wanted to do it with five hundred.”
“So what?”
“So this. You will never be better than your father unless you beat me in a fair fight. He couldn’t do it, and my guess is that you can’t do it either. You can have all the girls you want, fight all the leopards you can but unless you can beat me, you can never say that you are better than your father. He may be mobster, gangster, Triad leader but in his heart he is Shaolin, and you will never be more than him unless you defeat me, a Shaolin grandmaster.”
“I will destroy you.”
“Bring it on.” For once in his life, Noah is glad that he studied psychology in college.
***
The burnt-out Arena hosts its final match. With the roof gone, the charred remains of its structure and the battered bus give an added sense of drama. In the background, the toppled vault serves as a reminder for broken dreams and maybe a new reality. The metal fence has been removed, and nothing stands between combatants and audience. While the audience is smaller than at the first battle, the stakes are substantially higher.
Noah and Prince, both dressed in martial arts uniforms, stand twenty feet apart from each other. Their eyes focus on each other like lasers.
SLAVERY UNBOUND: Cruelty & Lust with the Emerging Eastern Mafia (Noah Reid Action Thriller series Book 4) Page 16
