by ARKOPAUL DAS
The remaining man who had a machine gun type of gun with him was firing wildly in the dark. He even forgot to lock the doors, which was his first order to his men. Alan and Alicia went at a corner and stood there for some time, letting the man empty his magazine. The man kept on pulling the trigger just like any crazy person would do without knowing what he was actually doing, he was just wasting all these bullets.
Alicia kept her back against the wall and waited. It took more than five minutes to empty his whole gun as there were no more bullets to shoot.
‘Get to the door’ Alan noticed that the door was still not locked and they were certainly near it, they could easily get out now as they would not have to fear the guns or the bullets. But they would have to do that before this man could again refill his gun and start shooting. But there would be enough time to get away before he could do that, Alan estimated.
But unfortunately for the man , there was no more ammo left, he checked and tried cocking it again but it was no use, the gun totally stopped working and Alan utilised those few seconds by pushing the man out of the way as they all three ran towards the door. Alan pulled the iron door quickly and they came out in the corridor without having to face any more problem.
For a minute, as they came out from the darkness, they had to adjust their eyes with this bright light, although the lights were of poor quality and were not at all bright.
‘Come on, we can’t wait here. He might still follow us’ said Alan and all three of them started galloping out of the corridor. The boy could also run amazingly, not to forget he was a soccer player, so he could run for sure, it was getting hard for Alan and Alicia to keep up with him.
As they reached the end of the corridor, just like Alan guessed, the man came out madly rushing towards them. He was short, beefy so he also had not much speed in his run, he wore a faded grey jacket and his head and face was the shape of a potato.
They could also see that he was having trouble adjusting his eyes with the brightness, but he didn’t wait, he ran anyway.
As they saw that the man was nearing them, they all again turned and ran again coming out of the dingy corridor, and felt some fresh hot air brushing their faces.
‘Walk fast, but don’t run’ Alan warned them as he didn’t wanted to arise much attention towards them. A train was waiting to depart near the 4th platform but there was not much people now. Perhaps most of the people were already sitting comfortably inside the train. The fewer crowds helped them walk freely and walk fast, just like they intended too.
There was a black security guy who was talking with a old woman hearing out her problems and trying to help her out. Alan, Alicia and Jake walked passed him normally, the security guy only turned one time to look at them then he continued talking with her.
As they were past the terminal, they heard that man, that short man yelling again. They turned back to see the man running through the platform like a crazy kid, and shouting ‘I’m goin’ to kill ya’ll, I swear I’ll...come here you bunch of shitheads!’
The security guy heard this and he also turned back to look at the man. He quickly took out his mobile, or was it a walkie talkie? And said some quick words at it before he left the woman standing and came near the man blocking his way.
‘What’s the problem, sir? You got a problem, have you?’ he said with a worried face.
But the man was in no mood to talk with that guy, he tried to push him away saying ‘Get the fuck out of my way’
‘Look you can’t behave like that .You got to understand that, sir.’ The black security guy wasn’t letting him go so easily. ‘You got a problem, you tell me’
‘Leave my way now!’ the man shouted. This time the security guy didn’t had to reply, two more heavy security officers came and the black officer gave a nod to them, and gestured them about something . The other two officers understood what he meant and tried calming the short man down.
But the short man not listening to their words, he tried to break free and run, that’s why they had to take him by his arms and drag him out of the platform area as he continued cursing and kicking like a child whose food was eaten by somebody else.
All the other people now stopped and was looking at the officers who were defending themselves from his punches and pulling him away, with surprised faces, as they haven’t seen anything like this before.
When the man was cleared the boy laughed and said ‘Now that was seriously funny’
THIRTY TWO
‘Okay so here we’re on the bridge’ said Ryan. ‘Where do you wanna go now?’
‘Now we go below it’ said Kevin .Ryan drove the car straight till the end of the bridge then turned the car in a U turn to enter the area below the bridge. It was hot today but Ryan and Kevin had found not much obstacles on their way to the Bronx. McRae was sitting on the back seat, they were all quiet the whole way, because no one knew what others were thinking, and they didn’t want to disturb their thoughts.
The road in this area wasn’t smooth, the car was bouncing occasionally while it ran through gravels ,stones and uneven road. Ryan kept the speed at 20 kmph and went on steadily to a portion where they could park the car. Or hide it.
Kevin checked his watch and said ‘It’s nearly 5, it’s about time’
‘Hope we’re not late’ said Ryan.
‘It’s not 5 yet. Of course we aren’t late. Maybe they will come late’
Ryan drove the car keeping it largely under the shade of the bridge, he saw a line of cars parked at the left side so he steered the car behind one of those cars, and parked it in a way that they could see what was going on ahead.
He killed the engine and sat there wiping the sweat out of his forehead.
The killers had not yet come so they could afford to relax for a few more minutes.
‘From which side are they gonna come?’ asked Ryan.
‘Surely that side’ said Kevin.
‘How do you know?’ Ryan shot back. ‘Look if they come from the side we came in then they will surely notice our car and we’ll, damn, get caught’
‘Don’t worry, they will not’ said Kevin.
‘And what’s your reason to say that?’
‘I’m still working on the reason part. I’ll let you know when I finish it’
‘Oh brilliant’ exclaimed Ryan.
Two more minutes passed as Ryan looked around the place seeing if it was safe to be here or not. The place was dusty and that was just as they had expected. Most of the skyscrapers start when you go around the corner of the far left side, only this portion was full of garages and safe house kind of buildings. There were also some shops but they were all closed. One or two people were walking by, but mostly the street was empty. And who the hell would come out anyway, in a hot afternoon like this?
‘Wonder what Alan and Alicia is doing now’ said Kevin.
‘It’s going good’ replied Ryan
‘Like you are there now’ said Kevin. ‘How would you know?’
‘Alan is there’
‘Yeah, so?’
‘He’ll surely do everything right’
‘You can’t be so sure’
‘Wait, they said they’ll call us before we make a move.’ Ryan glanced at the watch again. ‘It’s only three minutes left. They didn’t yet call us’
‘That’s why I’m telling you this’ said Kevin. ‘Maybe they didn’t succeed’
‘Nah, they will’
‘Oh, come one. You can only say that forcibly’
‘Okay. Why don’t we focus on our business for the moment’ said Ryan keeping his eyes fixed on the other side, as much as his eyes could see through the dusty air, and long as he could keep staring in the sun.
‘Where is the suitcase?’ asked Kevin.
‘It was in the back seat’
Kevin turned his face to look at McRae. ‘How you doing Mr. McRae?’
‘How do you expect me to do?’ said McRae with a sour voice. ‘I’m full of apprehension, can’t you see t
hat?’ he said with a disgusted face.
‘There’s nothing to be tensed about’ said Kevin calmly.
‘Ok so let’s get this shit clear’ McRae said sitting upright; he moved the suitcase a little further to make more space for him to sit. ‘What am I gonna do when they come?’
‘You just take the suitcase and walk normally towards them’
‘Then what?’
‘Naturally they’ll want to take a look at the suitcase and you hand it over to them’
‘And then they’ll surely kill me when they find out that the case is empty’ said McRae becoming more tensed. Ryan understood that remaining calm would be the key in handling this situation. But if McRae becomes tensed and do something he shouldn’t do then it’ll be hard for them to execute their plan.
‘No they’ll not do that’ said Ryan. ‘At least we will make sure they don’t. That’s for what we came here’
‘So what will your job be?’
‘The moment you hand the suitcase over to them we jump in the middle and will try to bring them down. It’s that simple’
‘Only it sounds simple’
‘We have been in this kind of situation before, Mr. McRae, we know how to deal with it.’
‘But what will happen when the action begins? They’ll have more arms than you guys, I guess’ said McRae throwing another worried look at them.
‘When the action begins there will be action. That’s it’ said Kevin trying to laugh away the tension from him.
‘Your job will be to remain nonchalant and normal’ said Ryan.
‘That won’t be possible’
‘That’ll have to be possible’ insisted Ryan. ‘You try to be calm and don’t show them anything, even if you’re terribly afraid inside. Act like nothing is happening’
McRae did not answer anything to this, and Ryan became quiet as he thought it would be better not to give any more advice and puzzle things up.
Ryan turned his eyes straight again but it was too tough to look, it was too bright. It was just blazing everywhere, you could not really stare a particular place for more than some minutes.
He remembered about the sunglasses that he bought with him and quickly wore it, and instantly felt comfortable. Now he could look everywhere without getting his eyes burnt.
‘Man, how many more minutes do we have to wait here, it’s getting too hot to bear’ said Kevin.
‘It’s 5:02, they will come now, I think’ said Ryan.
‘Hey’ McRae called from the back. ‘Why don’t you two call Mr. Smith and ask what’s up with them?’
‘No we shouldn’t do that’ replied Ryan.
‘Why not?’
‘We don’t know what situation they’re in now. Maybe they are in a very critical situation and a ring from the phone might blow away the whole thing’ said Ryan looking at him from the rear view mirror. ‘So it’d be better not to call them’
‘Huh’ McRae grinned and turned away his face folding his hands.
Kevin was becoming more impatient, he was looking at his watch every few seconds now.
‘You know what’ he said at last.
‘What?’ said Ryan expecting a foolish question from him.
‘When they come I’m gonna put an extra bullet in their head for making us wait for so long’ said Kevin.
‘Why don’t you shut up?’
‘No, hell I’m serious’
‘We came here to arrest them not to kill them, just remember that’ said Ryan. ‘If you kill them then you also become a killer, not a cop’
‘Crazy rules. Killer can kill cops but cops can’t kill the killer’ smiled Kevin at himself. ‘Which asshole made these rules anyway?’
‘Rules are rules, man’
‘What if I make it look like we were just defending ourselves from them and that’s why we had to shoot them having no other option?’
‘The killer tag will still be presented to you’ said Ryan. Ryan knew himself that they could kill people, they could also shoot killers down when needed, you don’t always get sued for that, only you get, in some particular situations or conditions. But he couldn’t explain this to Kevin now, as he might get encouraged and start aiming the head of the killers, and kill them right away. They need to arrest these men for further questioning, they just couldn’t kill them now, they needed to capture this whole gang first.
‘Look’ said Ryan and Kevin also turned to look ahead. They saw a black Mercedes, which was glowing in the sun and the black window glasses, was really good for reflecting the lights. The car came to a stop and pulled up a good 120 metres away from them at the far end of the road. Then it came up slowly a little further (they thought it had stopped but it hadn’t actually, it was just slowing down) coming to a complete stop. And their car was not bouncing so they could guess that that side of the road was a lot smoother than this one.
‘Mr. McRae’ said Kevin. ‘There they are. You better be ready’
‘Yes I’m, I’m’ said McRae.
‘Then go ahead, what else?’ said Ryan. ‘And make sure you keep in mind what we said’
‘Yeah yeah I got it’ he said and opened the door of the car. He was nervous for sure.
‘Here take the suitcase’ said Kevin and gave it to him.
‘Yeah’ McRae grabbed it.
Then he didn’t look back. He walked straight up to that car on the other side, trying to keep his body and his hand steady from shaking. As he walked a few more paces, the nervousness gradually went away and he felt strong. Yes, he could do it. He would have to do it. At least for Jake’s sake.
By now the opponent party had came out of their car. The men in the front were slim, lean, tall and elegant looking, with a pair of expensive shades stuck on their eyes. He was dressed in all black .Behind him on the both sides of the car two more men stood , one had a brown moustache which was not at all looking good on him, and wore a torn pair of jeans and a half sleeved jacked kind of thing. The other one wore a normal grey three-piece suit. He also wore shades. Both of them had heavy high quality machine guns, which were all loaded and ready to fire anytime.
Ryan and Kevin watched carefully as McRae walked up to them. They didn’t wanted to miss a single moment as they would have to jump in at the right moment and would have to be extremely cautious about certain things.
McRae walked slowly but at the end, he picked up more speed and covered up the rest of the space between him and the black suited man quickly. He wasn’t sure if these men had noticed his nervousness or not, he hoped not.
As he reached the place, he stopped a few metres away from the man as the suited man himself came forward and started saying something.
‘Ok, so far so good’ Kevin muttered looking at them.
‘What’s there to talk about?’ said Ryan.
‘Beats me’ replied Kevin.
‘Maybe they are asking if McRae bought the right amount of money or not’
‘That’s possible sometimes they do talk about such things, just to warm up’
‘But that’s really stupid isn’t it?’ said Ryan. ‘If a person can bring such a big amount of money them of course he will bring the correct amount.’
‘Then maybe they’re talking about something else’
‘Yeah’ replied Kevin. ‘And I mean have you ever seen an action movie where the villain didn’t talk any shit before trying to kill the protagonist?’
‘Can’t remember really’
‘That’s what I’m saying’ said Kevin. ‘These people I don’t know why, have these bad habits of gossiping and trying to sound clever before they kill the main character’
‘And they don’t succeed do they?’
‘How can they?’ said Kevin. ‘The wastage of time gives the other person an opportunity to escape or kill the villain. Or so they shows in the movies’
‘Right’
They turned their attention again towards the black car area as the two men stood in front of it.
The man gestured some
thing to McRae and McRae answered it quietly .He didn’t talk or use his hands to answer it, he just nodded and let them know the answer.
The man again asked him something, this time he also had a slight smile in his face, in answer McRae bought the suitcase forward, showed it and pointed at it. After looking at it the man turned back and said something to the grey suited man signalling him to do something.
‘Yeah so now they’re asking for money’ said Kevin and looked on eagerly.
Ryan kept his eyes fixed at the spot. ‘Sure they are. The main thing is that we will have to act quickly as he handovers the suitcase’. Ryan watched along as the grey suited man came forward keeping his machine gun steady, he took the suitcase from McRae, and McRae without any hesitation handed it over as politely as he could.
The man took it and placed it on the roof of the car, and tried opening it. They failed to open it at the first attempt but they found two switches kind of thing on both sides, they pushed it and the lid opened.
McRae stood there watching the face of the man as he came back with the open suitcase towards him without saying anything.
First, he was quiet as he gave the news to the black suited man who was the main in this three man team and was doing the talking. Then they took exactly one and a half minute to absorb the things before they blurted out random things and yelled at McRae. McRae had no words to calm them down.
‘It’s time for action’ said Kevin checking his gun if it was loaded or not.
‘Yeah’ said Ryan and suddenly his phone buzzed with a ringtone that Kevin hated, Ryan received it and said ‘Raglan’
He waited for some seconds then said ‘Perfect timing’ disconnecting the call.
‘Who was it?’ asked Kevin.
‘It’s Alan’
‘What did he say?’
‘They got the kid’
‘Great, let’s roll then’
