by Mike Ryan
The good news for Recker was, even though he was outnumbered, the other men didn’t have much to take cover behind. There was actually nothing other than the small card table, which they flipped up on its side and crouched behind, though it didn’t really offer much protection. It was tough for them to get any kind of shot off without exposing at least half their body. One of the men Recker shot in the thigh and the other got hit in the left arm. There was a brief lull in the action lasting about five seconds as the participants reloaded their weapons. Recker peeked over the counter and saw he had an opportunity to pick off the first person who showed their head. He pointed his gun, waiting for his next victim. The man to the far left of him was the first to raise up in anticipation of firing, though he never got the chance to. As soon as his body rose above the table, Recker blew a hole through the middle of his chest. Seeing their friend shot dead next to them angered the remaining two and spurred them into trying to avenge his death. They both fired furiously at the counter Recker was hiding behind, causing him to get down and take cover. He crawled to his left and the end of the counter, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. The last two of his targets continued firing at the counter, hoping the bullets would pierce through the wood and somehow find a way through and into Recker’s body. They had no such luck, however.
Recker emerged from the side of the counter, firing away at the two men, catching them by surprise. The first man got hit in the shoulder and went down, then the man on the right got shot in the stomach and hunched over as blood started pouring out of his midsection. Recker got to his feet and quickly made his way over to the bodies of the remaining survivors. As the man in the middle, who was clutching his wounded shoulder saw his shooter standing over him, he reached for his gun. His weapon had dropped from his hand when he was shot and wound up laying only a few inches away from him. Recker noticed and kicked the gun away, the weapon sliding across the concrete floor until it hit the far wall. Recker pointed his gun at the man’s head as he gave him a couple options.
“You got two choices,” Recker said. “You can live or you can die. It’s real simple.”
“Screw you,” the man whispered through gritted teeth against the pain, sweat beading on his face.
“Tell me where I can find Jeremiah and you’ll be the only one that walks out of here. Or you can clam up like a good soldier and get buried with your buddies.”
“Once Jeremiah finds out I sold him out I’ll wind up next to them anyway. That’s no deal.”
“Not if I kill him before he finds out.”
“I ain’t telling you nothing.”
Recker straightened his arm out as he steadied the weapon, aiming at the man’s chest. “Last chance.”
The wounded man just looked away, not interested in the deal that Recker offered. A man of his word, Recker pulled the trigger and helped the man meet his dead friends. He heard the last survivor groaning, keeled over on his knees, and clutching his stomach, blood staining his hands and arms, not to mention the gray concrete underneath him. Though Recker assumed it would be a waste of time, he offered the guy the same deal as the last one.
“What about you?” Recker asked. “You feel like talking or you feel like dying?”
“I’m dead anyway. I know I ain’t gonna be able to make it to no hospital.”
“I can call an ambulance real quick.”
“Nah, I’m a loyal soldier. I’d rather die than betray my friends.”
“Suit yourself.”
Recker knew it was a lost cause trying to convince him otherwise and pointed his gun at the back of the man’s head. He pulled the trigger and the man slumped forward onto the ground. Recker took one last look at all the bodies just to make sure none of them were still breathing, and they couldn’t give him a last second surprise. After confirming they were all dead, he took a look around the place to see if the thugs had any papers lying around which would give a clue as to where Jeremiah was now. The place was pretty scarce though, and there wasn’t much to even check. There was a back office to the rear of the building with a desk and a filing cabinet Recker searched through, but the only things he found were meaningless papers. Nothing which would indicate where Jeremiah was or give away any of his business dealings. He took one last look around the building to make sure he didn’t miss anything, then he also checked the dead bodies to see if they had any papers on them. Still nothing. He took a phone out of one of the dead men’s pockets and scrolled through it, hoping he could get something from it. He saw a contact listing for Jeremiah and thought about calling it to let him know he was coming, but thought better of it. He figured once he took out some of his men, Jeremiah would get the word Recker was coming. There was no need to alert him beforehand and get his men hyped that Recker would be coming. With his work there finished, Recker started on his way to the next address on the list. As he walked out the door, he picked up his phone and called 911.
“What is your emergency?” the operator asked.
“Yeah, I’d like to report a shooting. There’s four dead bodies inside a vacant building.”
“What’s the address?”
Recker gave the address then hung up. By contacting the police, he assumed Jeremiah would get the word that he hit his place rather quickly. He called Jones to let him know of the trouble he’d ran into at the first stop, and to let him know he was still alive and kicking.
“I’m heading to the second location now,” Recker said.
“Anything of note at the first spot?” Jones asked.
“Uhh, yeah, four dead bodies.”
“Were they dead when you found them?”
“Nope.”
Jones sighed, hoping he wasn’t going to leave a trail of bodies everywhere he went. “Do you really think it’s wise to be so public with this? Jeremiah will surely know it was you.”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” Recker said.
“Why? Why do you want him to be ready for you?”
“’Cause I want him to know I’m coming. I want him to know I’m dismantling him and his crew one stop at a time. He threatened me, he threatened someone I care about. I’m not just gonna roll over and tickle him. I want him to know hell’s coming.”
“It surely is.”
“Mike, just be careful,” Mia said, listening on the speakerphone.
“Don’t worry. It’s not my time to go yet.”
“Did you check if there was anything left behind we could use to get a fix on Jeremiah’s location?” Jones asked.
“Yeah, there wasn’t much there. It didn’t look like a place they spent much time at. Probably just a spot to conduct business then leave immediately afterwards.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s what all these addresses are,” Jones said.
“Could be. It might be all Tyrell knows, the meeting places. He might not have been to any of Jeremiah’s strongholds.”
“Well, I’ve already pulled up your next stop,” Jones said, looking at a picture of the house on the computer. “It’s an end unit row home in West Philly.”
“Is it boarded up?” Recker asked.
“It is.”
Recker told his partner he’d let him know when his business was concluded after the next stop. He had a feeling it would be an almost identical situation as the first one. And Recker was just fine with that. In fact, as far as he was concerned, the more bodies piling up, the better he liked it. As long as his wasn’t one of them. The more he thought about everything, the angrier he got about it. Now, he didn’t want to just kill Jeremiah, he wanted to cripple his organization first, then kill him. He wanted Jeremiah to worry about him coming before he got there. Recker figured it would make killing Jeremiah much more satisfying. This was the side of Recker, Jones worried about. When this part of his personality emerged, the one that enjoyed being The Silencer, Jones knew there wasn’t much he could do to stop it. All he could really do was get out of the way and hope nothing bad happened, to Recker, because he knew plenty
of bad things were going to happen to the people who happened to stand in his way.
When Recker got to the row home in West Philly, just like usual, he waited an hour or so to survey the area. Almost immediately, he saw a few men hanging around out front on the porch, alternating between there and inside the house. He saw three different guys go in and out of the house within the hour. Recker was assuming there was more. One thing he knew about Jeremiah was, he never seemed to travel light. In every situation Recker could think of where he interacted with Jeremiah, or members of his gang, there was always at least four of them. Whenever he met with Jeremiah, at the former auto garage, the men trailing Mia, there was always at least four. He figured this place would be no different.
Recker took a few minutes to think of his plan before he walked over to it. He assumed he’d have to improvise once the bullets started flying, but he wanted to at least have something to start with. Once he got out of his car and started walking toward the home, he noticed someone looking out through the upstairs window, which was not boarded-up. It was actually the only window of the house with open glass. Recker figured it must have been the lookout station, the guy who warned everyone inside if trouble was coming. If that was the case, then they’d all know he was coming well before he got to the front door. As he walked on the concrete sidewalk leading up by the house, nobody was on the porch. But as he started up the steps leading to the front door of the house, two men came out to see what he wanted.
“Far enough,” one man said, with a gun firmly visible and planted in the front of his pants, inside the waistband. “What do you want?”
“I have a message from Jeremiah,” Recker said. “He told me to bring it over right away.”
The man looked at Recker eyebrows squeezing together, not knowing a thing about it. “He didn’t say anything about you coming.”
“Well, he was worried about phones being tapped. So he had me do it old school.”
“OK. So, what’s the message?”
“Well, he told me to only give it to the guy in charge.”
“What’s it about?”
“Something about the woman he was having tailed. You guys know about that?”
“Yeah, we know.”
“The guys tailing her were killed and she escaped. We think we got a location on her and I think he was giving you guys the assignment.”
The man sighed and rolled his eyes, thinking he was being a pain. “Get Stash out here,” he said to the other man out there with him.
Just a few seconds later, the man emerged with the third man of the group, a bald-headed man, tough looking, goatee, looked like a weight lifter. He also had a visible gun in the waistband of his pants. Seemed to be a staple of this crew. The leader looked the stranger up and down, giving Recker the impression maybe the man recognized him as The Silencer. If he did, Recker was going to have to come up shooting in a hurry.
“You got a message from Jeremiah?” the leader asked.
“Sure do.”
“I don’t recognize you.”
“Oh, well, I’m kinda new. He just started using me last week,” Recker said.
The man seemed satisfied enough, though he still didn’t look best pleased. “All right, what do you got? Let’s see it.”
“OK, I’m, uhh, gonna reach my hand in,” Recker said, pointing to his coat, acting nervous so they wouldn’t consider him a threat and he could get the jump on them. “I’m gonna reach in and get the message.”
“Just do it.”
Recker laughed, “OK. Just wanted to make sure you guys weren’t trigger happy,” he said, pretending to struggle in finding the note. “So how many guys you got in there anyway?”
“None of your business. Jeremiah must be scraping the bottom of the barrel if he’s hiring guys like you these days,” the leader said sarcastically, growing impatient.
“Oh, here it is,” Recker said, putting his fingers on the handle of his gun. “I got it.”
Recker quickly pulled out his weapon, catching the three men off guard. His first shot hit the leader in the chest, then in a matter of seconds, turned toward the other two and hit the both of them before they were able to withdraw their guns. Without knowing how many were inside, Recker hurried to the door before he had company. Before going inside, he couldn’t take the chance of any of the three men on the porch sneaking up on him inside. He had to make sure they’d all stay down permanently. Without a second thought, he delivered a head shot to each of the three gang members, though as it turned out, two of them were already dead so it didn’t matter but, ‘better be safe than sorry’ as his old daddy used to say. It gave him piece of mind knowing he wouldn’t have to worry about them again.
Recker returned to the screen door, throwing it open as he stood in the doorway, ready to fire. As soon as he showed himself, a bullet whizzed by him, ripping through the mesh screen in the door. Recker quickly identified where the shot came from, locating a man standing on the second floor, at the top of the steps. He returned fire, grazing the man in the leg, dropping him to his knees. The man cried out in pain and grabbed for his legs, though he knew he had to dispatch of the dangerous man at the door before he came up and finished the job. As he brought his gun up and tried to aim at the man in the door, Recker took aim himself. He fired a couple more rounds, both of which found its intended target. The man at the top of the stairs lost his balance as the bullets ripped through his insides and proceeded to tumble violently down the steps. The man came to his final resting spot just in front of Recker. He was flat on his back with his arms outstretched, blood soaking through his white shirt. Recker gave him a nudge with his foot to make sure he was gone. He was.
All was quiet for a few moments. Recker wasn’t quite sure which he preferred, the deathly silence or the action fueled haze of gunfire and bullets flying all around him. At least when people were shooting at him he knew what to expect. He worried more when he wasn’t sure what was around the corner or lurking in the shadows. As he stepped into the living room, he immediately noticed this house seemed to have more furnishings than the others he’d been in so far. There was actually a couch, some tables, and a few lamps. It actually looked like people spent time there instead of using it for a few minutes for a transaction then leaving for somewhere else. Recker cautiously and methodically went through every room on the first floor, ready for more shooting practice. Luckily for them, nobody else was present.
Recker then proceeded to go up the steps to the second floor. Once he reached the top step, he heard a noise coming from the first bedroom to his right. The door was closed, leading Recker to believe somebody was in there. The rest of the rooms on the floor, two other bedrooms, and a bathroom, had their doors open. Recker quickly swept his way through them to clear them before returning to the room with the closed door. He assumed he was going to be met with gunfire the moment he opened the door, maybe even once he jiggled the handle. Recker figured he’d bypass all that and quietly stepped toward the door then forcefully kicked it open. A gun fired, and a bullet lodged into the swinging door. Recker took a step inside the room and found his next target, ready to pounce on him. Just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, though, he let up and took his finger off it. The person who fired the shot at him looked awfully young. He looked like he was just a kid, couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old. Seeing someone like Recker pointing a gun right at his head, the kid looked beyond terrified and dropped his own gun as he waited for the inevitable from the dangerous man.
“How old are you, son?” Recker asked.
“Sixteen.”
“Your folks know you’re here?”
The kid, still looking scared as could be, shook his head.
“What are you doing here with these people? How long you been here?”
“They were just initiating me this week.”
“Is this really the kind of life you want?”
The kid just looked at the floor and shrugged. “What’s your mom think abo
ut all this?”
“She’s worried about me ‘cause I dropped out of school.”
“You know anything about the man you’re working for, Jeremiah?” Recker asked.
“Not really. Just what they tell me.”
“Well, I’ll tell you now, there ain’t no future in it. I’m putting him out of business.”
The kid nodded, not sure what the man was going to do with him.
“You know who I am?” Recker asked.
“No, sir,” the kid said.
“They call me The Silencer. You heard of me?”
Not knowing what to say, the kid nodded again.
“You wanna die before you hit seventeen?” Recker asked.
“No.”
“’Cause if I was of that mind, you’d be joining your friends out there.”
The kid nodded again, knowing the man could’ve killed him easily by now. “Are you gonna let me go?”
“It kind of depends on you,” Recker said. “If you were two or three years older you’d be dead already ‘cause I’d have killed you the minute I laid eyes on you.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m gonna give you a second chance, which I don’t give many people.”
“Thank you.”
“I don’t want thanks. I just don’t wanna see you out on these streets again with a gun in your hands,” Recker said. “You go home, hug your mom, get back in school, and do what she tells you. You do that, you’ll be all right.”
“I will,” the kid said, running past him to get out of the house as quick as possible.
Recker stopped him before he got out of sight though. “Hey,” he said, stopping the kid in his tracks. “I mean what I said. I catch you next week or next year running with some thugs again, and you got a gun, next time I’m pulling the trigger. And you’ll make your mom a very unhappy woman. You understand me?”
