It wasn’t needed. The car regained its normal position.
She pulled a bowie knife and slid the blade into his neck, slicing through flesh and muscle, cutting the jugular. Blood began to spurt from the wound, so Dani pulled his collar up over his face. With the sound of gushing blood in her ears, she breathed a sigh of relief.
One more down.
Dani was on her feet in seconds and exited the lift just as three men entered the hallway.
Exclaims of surprise and shock filled the air. Two men lifted their weapons – Dani noticed they were M16 assault rifles, extremely lethal in close quarters – and dived behind one of the sofas. A single gunshot shattered the quaint elegance of the room and the leather arm exploded above Dani’s head, puffing cotton and shredded chips of wood onto her hoodie. She swiped the hood down, requiring her entire peripheral vision, and ducked out of range. The smell of gunpowder tickled her nostrils.
The man held a hand up to his comrades. “You might as well come out, there’s nowhere to go.”
Dani listened, her options limited. The bulk of her bulletproof vest rubbed against her creased waist, restricting her movements. She could feel sweat trickling down her sides, itching her neck. “I’m just here for Ross Rhodes. Leave now and I’ll let you all live.”
Howling laughter erupted from the men. The third man slapped his companion on the shoulder as the men whittled down. “Bitch, I don’t think you know who Ross Rhodes is. Come out and we won’t kill you,” the leader said, winking at his fellow soldiers. Both raised their weapons. “Come out or we’ll come to you.”
She found herself laughing under her breath. “Last warning. I want Rhodes. No one else has to die,” Dani said, checking her ammunition. Both pistols were at full capacity, something she had ensured in the lift ride up. Her pockets, now less heavy, jangled with loose bullets.
“Fuck you.”
“Yeah, fuck you, whore, we ain’t no docile husband you can boss around.”
Dani nodded. “Have it your way.”
She stood up, something that surprised the men, something that shocked her. The men all held M16’s, all pointed in her direction. She was a dead woman walking.
The element of surprise gave her crucial seconds.
Dani shot the third man, the furthest away, in the face. His skull staved in on itself with a soggy crack, blood and brains and teeth splattering onto the wall beside him. He collapsed, dead before he hit the ground, his blood-spattered torso careening into a small table adorned with a pot plant, which toppled and hit the floor with a muted thud.
Dani double tapped the nearest man in the leg, bringing a howl of terror and agony from the soldier as he flopped awkwardly to the ground, dropping his weapon as his hands shot to the hole in his thigh. The second man, stunned by the reflexes of such a small woman, hesitated. Dani shot the fallen man in the head quickly then aimed at the second man, stopping him in his tracks.
“Don’t,” she said. She collected the fallen M16 from the floor and looped the strap over her shoulder.
He didn’t. The man placed his weapon on the floor and held his hands outwards, signaling surrender. Dani smiled, the scars tugging once more. She bent down and released the magazine from the second weapon, kicking it aside. “Do you know who I am?”
The man shook his head, his eyes not leaving Dani’s mutilated face.
She glanced down the hallway, expecting reinforcements at any second. She pocketed the magazine. “Did your boss not brief you?”
He shook his head again. Dani narrowed her eyes, prompting a vocal response. “N…no, he just said not to let anyone up here. To kill on sight.”
“Well…you failed, that goes without saying. What will Rhodes do to anyone who…failed him?” Dani stepped in close, pushing her grinning face into the man’s personal space, her wide eyes on him every inch of the way. She began circling him slowly, tapping him with her silenced Beretta gently on his leg, his back, then his arm and finally his chest. “Will he kill you?”
The man nodded.
“Will he…do this to you?” Dani jabbed at her face with the Beretta, the cooling silencer marking her bloodied cheek with gun residue. She ran it along her scars, the metal tingling the blemished skin somewhat. “Will he?”
The man shook his head again, sweat trickling down his face. “I don’t…don’t know.”
“He did this to me. This is your boss’ handiwork. Do you agree with his principles? Mutilating teenagers and slaughtering children in their homes, innocent children?”
“Lady, I –”
“– do you agree with his principles?” She asked, interrupting her foe.
He stared at the woman, his brain bouncing in his skull, panic making him tremble. The urge to vomit, brought on by the puffy scars across the woman’s face, was immense. “No,” he uttered finally, defeated.
“So, why do you work for him?”
The man shrugged, saying nothing. Dani pistol-whipped him, breaking his cheekbone with an audible crack. He stumbled to one knee, holding his face. “You crazy bitch!”
“Why do you work for him?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. You’re insane!”
“Trust me, this is me being civil. Tell me, soldier, do you possess a comms device, a way of communicating with the other men?”
Spitting blood and a tooth to the carpet, he nodded. “Yes,” he said flatly.
Dani smiled. “And how many of you are there?” She pointed to the ground and waved her arm around. “Not counting these unfortunate gentlemen, obviously.”
The man licked his lips. “Forty –”
“– if you lie to me, I will blow your bollocks off, got that?”
“Twenty one…nineteen not including Keith and Michael.” His eyes wandered to his fallen comrades.
“And that gentleman?” Dani pointed to the lift, its door opening and closing against the protruding leg that stuck out awkwardly. Several hamburgers lay scattered on the carpet. She saw resignation in the man’s face, his broken, swelling cheek fused with defeat. “Eighteen.”
“What’s your name?”
The man hesitated. “Furlong.”
She watched the man, and realised he was telling the truth. “If you want to live, Furlong, I need you to do something.”
“I’m dead anyway, doesn’t seem I have much of a choice.”
Dani said nothing.
*****
“Did you hear that?”
Doug Rinaldi wiped his trembling lips, smearing cold sweat across his palm. The nauseating tendrils of a hangover pulled and poked at his brain, making him feel hot and irritable. The slightest sound multiplied to the roar of a jet engine flying overhead. At first, he thought he was imagining things, and he covered his ears at the deafening blast, but the startled reaction of his comrades told him otherwise.
“Did you hear that? That wasn’t me imagining things, was it?”
Lewis Gilson, his arms crossed, his yellow teeth gnashing a wad of gum, looked at his friend and nodded. “A single gunshot from an automatic weapon? That’s Michael’s MO, he’s very fussy about his ammunition. Sounds like our visitor is here.”
Rinaldi adjusted his cap for the seventh time. “How do you know it’s an automatic weapon?”
Gilson sneered. “Practice. I’d know that sound anywhere.”
Rinaldi gulped. “Shouldn’t we go help or something?”
Gilson shook his head. “We’ve been ordered to stay put, no matter what. We protect Mr Rhodes and we don’t leave this room unless that phone rings. Andrews’ orders.”
Rinaldi eyed the black phone on the corner desk. Normally a busty blonde receptionist, handpicked by Rhodes, would be sitting there, her undone blouse – or the bulging contents of such a wardrobe choice – providing a welcome distraction to visitors. Rinaldi swallowed, his alcohol parched tongue making him cough. “What if they’re dead?”
Gilson laughed. “Who, Team Four? Give me a break.”
Kindra Sowder chuckled
. “You moron. We’re up against a teenage girl. What’s the worst she could do, blind us with her selfie taking skills?” She buffed her M16 with a shirtsleeve, the lethal weapon laid across her thighs. “That woman is walking into a world of bloody hurt. She’s outmanned and outgunned. I don’t even know why we have so many people on this.”
Rinaldi nodded frantically. “Didn’t you start for Rhodes when you were nineteen?”
Sowder nodded. “Yes, but I’m fucking awesome. One of a kind.”
Gilson laughed, his eyes pinned on the door. “One day, Sowder, you’ll give me a rematch. Then you won’t be so awesome. One day.”
“Better get down the gym, pronto. Can’t be losing an arm wrestling contest to a woman twice in a month. I doubt your misogynistic pride could handle that.”
“Fuck you,” he retorted, smiling.
“In your wildest dreams,” she spat instantly. She slammed a magazine into the M16 and stood up, brushing her trouser legs. “Do we really have to sit here? I want to kill shit.”
“Easy there, Bundy,” Gilson uttered. “You’ll get your chance. Well, if she makes it this far.”
Rinaldi sat in silence, listening, his head booming with every miniscule sound. “I think someone is coming.”
Sowder eyed her colleague nervously. “I can’t hear a thing. How much did you drink last night?”
“Too much. How was I to know Rhodes would call me in on my day off?”
“You knew the risks when you signed up. Still, beats being a copper, eh?”
“Until four weeks ago, I was a fucking copper,” Gilson interjected. “I don’t miss it, joining Rhodes was the best decision I ever made. The amount of coppers I knew who lived in fear of our boss…man, it made the job so hard. The wage was fuck all, not worth the risk.”
“Explains a lot,” Sowder joked. Gilson rolled the gum around his tongue, poking it out at his female counterpart. She said nothing.
Rapid gunfire made all three soldiers stand to attention.
The muted thuds of lethal projectiles hitting unseen objects became a dull soundtrack of broken noise within seconds. Squeals and shouts of pain and agony pierced the noise, providing brief intermissions. The sounds of slaughter filled the small lobby.
“Remember, hold your ground,” Gilson said, his gun aimed at the double wooden doors before him. He shot a wary glance at Sowder, who nodded. She slid behind an overturned desk with her weapon propped and aimed. Rinaldi crawled behind Gilson, hands pinned to the sides of his head.
Silence filled the room.
Then, the phone rang.
*****
Dani dropped the bullet-ridden body of Furlong to the blood-drenched carpet. She staggered to the wall and leaned against it gratefully, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her blood-soaked palms gained no purchase on the surface, so she held them out before her, pushing with her back. She rubbed them on the damp carpet sharply, one that was quickly guzzling the blood from eight fresh corpses.
Her idea had worked, but it wasn’t without severe consequences.
Her main concern was the noise. And the hole in her arm.
Due to the fracas, there was no doubt that every remaining soldier – eleven by Furlong’s previous count – would now be on high alert. Dani stepped over his punctured body and moved towards the corner, the branch of the hallway that would take her to Rhodes.
She sagged, leaning against the wall.
She wanted to close her eyes, take a breather, just for one second.
The idea has been simple. After Furlong explained the setup to her, under duress from a Beretta in his ear, she understood there were four teams. She’d dismantled Team Four on her exit from the lift. Team One was assigned with protecting Rhodes, so that left Two and Three. She’d forced Furlong to radio his fellow men, asking them to change tactics and supply reinforcements to his team, and they’d promptly arrived.
The order in which they arrived had nearly been her downfall.
Whilst standing in the middle of a long hallway, team two emerged from the front and team three from a rear doorway, boxing them into a narrow hallway. Dani couldn’t help but notice the sly smile on Furlong’s face, an indication that he had deceived her. Dani bit her lip and surveyed the odds – three men on one side, four on the other, all aiming a variety of weapons at the defenseless woman. Furlong leaned in close, goading. “You’re screwed now, bitch. Fuck you.”
Dani realised she was screwed, a dead woman, until Furlong did something extremely stupid.
He turned his back on her.
So, Dani shot him in the back of the knee.
Furlong screamed as sinew and cartilage flapped into the air, spattering the wall. He tumbled backwards, on top of Dani as she slipped to the ground. The man span, not wanting to land on his back, and pinned Dani to the floor, unintentionally protecting her from gunfire. She elbowed him in the face, dazing him, and fired, hitting one of the men to the rear.
The bullet powered into his shoulder, crushing the clavicle, the muscle and bone destroyed by the projectile, ripping as the lead tore through with no effort. He whipped around, his loose trigger finger spraying bullets at his team, killing them both. One of the other men fired his shotgun, a chain reaction from the close assault, blowing the first man’s head off in a splurge of red mist, his head disintegrating behind the buckshot. Dani watched as the two other men were punctured and rag dolled by the close proximity of the automatic weapon, the friendly, accidental fire quickly destroying them and turning them into ragged piles of bloody mush. All three men flopped to the floor, dead and mutilated. Bullets embedded in the wall were still smoking.
She knew she’d got extremely lucky, but she didn’t have time to pause and rest on her laurels. The teams wouldn’t risk killing Furlong, or each other, in a crossfire, but that was no longer the situation.
Dani span on her stomach, hoisting Furlong off her back, positioning him in front of her as a shield. One man fired, taking a risk, the bullet glancing her exposed arm, tearing the skintight suit and hoodie with ease. The flesh erupted; blood sluiced from the narrow valley that shredded the skin and muscle. Wincing, she fired again, her aim seriously compromised by the wound. The bullet glanced off the wall harmlessly.
The four remaining men all took up offensive positions. Furlong groaned before her, his arms beginning to find their function again. Using the butt of her Beretta, she rapped him viciously on the back of the head and swapped hands. Furlong sagged with a grunt.
“If you don’t give up, we’ll kill you.”
“All you guys do is fucking talk,” she said, and fired at them. Again, the bullet fired wide, shattering a picture on the wall. The frame crunched to the carpet. The nearest soldier stepped around it.
Dani wiped hot droplets of sweat from her brow and realised her hair was damp, her neck slick with warm perspiration. Her vision began to blur at the edges, so she slapped herself, realising the peril of the situation. Her arm was on fire, the pain becoming unbearable. Her fingertips began to numb so she shook her arm. It felt like waving a heavy log in a strong wind.
“Give up. Now.”
“I’m here for Ross Rhodes –”
Furlong began to shake in front of her, struggling, his arms flapping, his elbows driving into her sides. She attempted to cover her head before one blow knocked her injured arm. Dani hissed, the pain searing through her body, white-hot agony paralyzing her for mere seconds. Furlong struggled to his feet, kicking Dani away.
She was exposed. Furlong ran to his comrades. “Shoot the bitch, do it.”
Dani knelt on the carpet, fully at their mercy. Her left arm hung limp, blood soaking her torn sleeve. Her right hand gripped her Beretta, the second abandoned on the carpet behind her. Furlong continued to stumble forward and leaned against the wall. “What are you waiting for?”
One soldier nodded, his head bobbing a mess of red hair, and ambled forward. He pulled a pistol from his holster and aimed at Dani. “You had it coming.”
She smiled, the muscles tugging on her scars.
He fired.
The bullet smashed into Dani’s chest, sending her sprawling.
“Ha!” Furlong said, bouncing, pointing at the fallen woman. “Fuck you, bitch!”
Dani couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, the pressure in her chest was overwhelming, crippling her every living instinct. Pain spooled throughout her battered body, her veins ignited with blistering agony and her teeth tingled, her lungs ached for glorious release. The first flames of instinctual panic began to ignite at the base of her brain.
She thought she was going to die.
Her right hand slapped at the bulletproof vest and felt the lead embedded in the Kevlar, the bruising a dull ache beneath, the black blemish already beginning to form on her left breast. The same hand sprawled to the carpet, blindly searching for her Beretta, her only chance of survival. Her left arm, coated in blood, began to tremble and twitch.
Don’t die, sis. Don’t die.
Dani heard Teddy’s voice in her mind, but couldn’t remember where from, probably a videogame or something. One of the many cherished memories she’d tried so hard to forget.
Don’t die.
Or was she on the verge of death, was she receiving a second chance?
Don’t die. Dobber dobber boffin –
Finally, the air escaped her lungs in a whoosh, making her gasp loudly. She slowly rolled over and pushed herself up, grunting, ignoring the absolute agony rippling through her chest and arm.
Furlong narrowed his eyes. “You gotta be fucking kidding me?”
As if witnessing a miracle, the men watched in awe as Dani staggered to her feet, her crippled arm pinned to her side, blood dripping from her numb fingertips. Her legs were uneasy, wobbly, her dark clothing hiding the ceased trajectory of the bullet. Her right arm held a Beretta uneasily against her leg.
Grin Page 15
