INSOMNIAC: ALAN SMITH #2 (Alan Smith series)

by ARKOPAUL DAS

‘Yeah but just a minute’ said Ryan, and before Kevin could ask what, Ryan started dialling a phone number and put it on his ear. Then he said ‘Yeah this is Ryan Raglan form the detective Bureau Homicide department, badge number 5775. This is to file a report regarding a mass shooting that’s going on currently at the Bronx area. We need some immediate back up, do you copy me?...Great. Thank you’

  He hung up as he looked back at Kevin who had a surprised face.

  ‘Now that was a clever twist’ said Kevin smiling and Ryan gave the smile back but held back the laugh.

  Then Ryan took out his gun, which looked like a Beretta, but it wasn’t one, cocked it and held it in his right hand. They looked ahead and saw that the shouting was still going on, McRae trying to defend himself , though there was nothing to defend, and was occasionally looking back , and the black suited man now had his gun out.

  Ryan and Kevin without holding back any longer came out of the car and ran in the middle pointing the gun at the opponent party and yelling ‘NYPD, NYPD!’

  Kevin also shouted, ‘Put your hands behind your head’

  ‘Now, do it now!’

  They both settled on the both sides of McRae and tried to cover him.

  The other members of the team were all taken aback including the main man in the front. But they didn’t take too much time to regain their senses and when they did they all laughed.

  ‘Is this a joke, huh?’ the black suit said laughing then his face flushed with anger as he shouted the same thing ‘IS THIS A JOKE?!’

  McRae took two steps back but Ryan and Kevin held their position pointing the gun at his chest area.

  ‘What sort of joke is this?’ said the man looking at McRae ‘Mr. McRae you bought cops with you?’

  ‘Actually it’s the opposite’ said McRae weakly. ‘Actually the cops bought me with them’

  ‘Shut up!’ the man yelled hearing this.

  ‘NYPD, drop your weapons’ Kevin yelled again.

  But the man totally ignored them and kept his eyes on McRae. ‘No, you bought them with you right?’

  ‘No you’re wrong’ this time McRae spoke more strongly ‘I was with them all along’

  ‘Terrific’ said the man scratching his jaw with the muzzle of the gun and walked in the area. ‘Your son’s life is in danger; I thought you were aware of that’

  This time Mr. McRae remained quiet. He just turned left to look at Ryan.

  ‘How doltish they can be’ said the man turning to his partners.

  Ryan nodded to McRae and said ‘You don’t need to worry about anything, Mr. McRae we got this’

  ‘You got this? Seriously?’ said the man sighing and making a weird face then started laughing. When Ryan and Kevin didn’t say anything except moving the point of the gun from his chest area to his temple , he went on ‘And this was also the a part of the plan , wasn’t it ? To bring an empty suitcase?’

  McRae just stared.

  ‘I knew it was’ said the man finishing his own sentence.

  ‘Enough of this nonsense’ now Kevin yelled in a controlled voice aiming his gun at everyone. ‘This is gonna be the final time I ask you to drop your guns’

  ‘You order me?’ the man thought that Kevin was out of his mind. ‘Are you aware that I can make a call and have the child killed?’

  ‘I’m aware of everything; now drop your gun dammit!’

  This time the black suited man couldn’t control his anger, he went straight to Ryan took him by his collars and pushed him away a little further. Kevin quickly stepped in between them and in turn gave a solid punch in the man’s face. Kevin was healthy and lean; his blow could be hard and painful. The man pressed his finger on his lip and saw a few droplets of blood coming out as his index finger became red.

  ‘You might want to visit a doctor now, this area is dusty, that cut might get infected’ Kevin jerked.

  He was furious than ever, but still he managed to keep his cool and held his lips to keep the blood in check and he also considered Kevin’s advice maybe, that the cut area might get infected . He didn’t wait anymore, he just said softly to his men . ‘Finish them’

  Within seconds the machines guns were all ready as both the gunmen came forward and started to fire.

  ‘Take cover!’ shouted Kevin as Ryan quickly jumped behind the nearest car that was parked there. And Kevin found a large dumpster and rolled behind it.

  The machine guns roared just like the black suited man should have roared when Kevin hit him , and the bullets came flying towards them from all the sides but the men never got an perfect shot.

  The bearded man with torn jeans aimed at the car and fired recklessly trying to shoot the whole car down, as the mirrors and windows burst out and pieces went flying everywhere, getting smashed when they hit the walls on the other sides.

  ‘They ain’t stoppin’ ’ Yelled Kevin from the other side , it was tough to talk now as maybe a piece of glass or bullet might enter your mouth anytime.

  ‘Let them clear their magazine’ shouted back Ryan. The bearded man took out another gun, even before this gun was empty and pointed both the guns now at the dumpster as the bullets kept hitting the edges of the steel cans and sides of the dumpster instead of hitting Kevin.

  The other grey suited man reversed his gun towards the car and kept squeezing the trigger to the furthermost position.

  ‘Where the hell is McRae?’ Kevin yelled as he tried peering his head out to see what was going on but he didn’t want to give them a perfect head shot.

  ‘I don’t know, he was there in the middle’ Ryan answered back with much effort.

  ‘He will get shot’

  ‘What can we do right now?’

  They waited for some more time, they knew that they couldn’t act unless they stop shooting and they would not stop unless they need to reload again. So they had to wait, their Glock stood no chance in front of some high quality machine guns. The MP5, one of the man was carrying was making more noises hurting their ears, but they knew this MP5 wasn’t going to last longer. It would probably stop after 40 rounds or so.

  ‘Wait for them to finish all the rounds, after that we do what we can’ instructed Ryan from the other side.

  Kevin gave a thumbs up sign and looked away letting the bullet bounce of, and just like they had expected, after two minutes of so, the flow of bullets dried up as both the men started reloading their guns. And reloading a machine guns takes a lot of time when compared to normal pistols.

  ‘Now!’ Ryan said and they soon took this opportunity to stand up and shoot targeting their legs.

  They couldn’t fire wildly just like they were doing, their guns contained less bullets and when they fire it they had make it count. And they knew if they missed their target in these few seconds they would reload their gun and this time they would surely kill them. Just as they thought they took their aim at the both pair of limbs and shot two to three bullets at a stretch. But it was too unfortunate that they missed it as the bullets hit the ground and tossed off.

  ‘I only have seven left in me’ said Ryan.

  Now that the gunmen were busy reloading, the main black suited man came forward and pointed his gun at them. Although his lips were bleeding, he still managed to give them a smile as if nothing had happened. ‘Give it up, man’ he said.

  Ryan saw that McRae didn’t get shot, he was standing at one far corner and was watching the action that was going on, he was at least well out of the main shooting zone. And now no one was even bothered to look at him or shoot him, they knew that if they could shoot the cops down it would just be a matter of time before they take the aim at McRae.

  The man shot another bullet pointing at Kevin but Kevin was alert so he easily ducked away and the bullet sped away past him.

  ‘Take cover, Mr. McRae’ said Ryan out of precaution but McRae didn’t hear that, he just stood there.

  Kevin fired two more shots, then checked his gun and saw that he had only three left in him. He stopped shooting and turned
to Ryan. Ryan usually held his position and sometimes moved from one side to another so that the opponent doesn’t get a clean shot at him.

  ‘Man I’m bleeding bullets’ said Kevin.

  ‘Don’t worry mate, me too’ Ryan replied back swiftly.

  ‘And soon you’ll run out of your lives too’ said the man who was back on power.

  By now the machine guns were ready to fire another 20 to 30 rounds at least, but it seemed like both the men were inexperienced that was why when they shot, they never hit the target.

  Ryan and Kevin easily took cover from the current round of bullets that came and this time the men were aware that they should not fire the bullets wildly; it would do no good except emptying their guns. This gave Ryan and Kevin one or two occasional chances of shooting back, but they held back as they didn’t have much bullets. They also didn’t have any more ammo with them, and they knew that eventually they would get killed.

  Ryan didn’t hold back, he stood up from the cover took another aim overcoming the incoming bullets and this time he was able to hit the bearded man’s leg. The man stopped shooting, threw the gun away and howled in pain. This gave Ryan another chance to shoot at the remaining two men but the grey suited man pointed his gun at him, that was why he had to take cover again. At least Ryan was happy that he didn’t let both the men zero in on them, that would be like a death trap.

  ‘What can we do now?’ said Kevin.

  ‘I’ve no idea, man!’ said Ryan. ‘The only things we can try to do are back of, and escape’

  ‘What about McRae?’

  ‘He should have escaped by now’

  Kevin shot one more bullet missing the target as usual then his gun made a clicking sound, which told him that there were no more bullets left in it.

  Ryan condition was just the same, he only had two more bullets and he wanted to use them only in emergencies.

  The black suited man raised his hands and signalled something as the gunman stopped shooting suddenly.

  The he looked back at them, crossed his arms and said ‘Now that you have no bullets left in you, do you have anything else to defend yourself? Because you hardly got any time to live, no doubt about that’

  Ryan and Kevin both of them took another step back and looked at each other.

  ‘Very well then’ said the man with the bloody lip, ‘I’ll take that as a no’ the man continued. He turned to the other two gunmen and instructed ‘Shoot them down’

  But Ryan held up his hand and said ‘No no, wait a minute’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘You asked us if we had anything more left in us, but you didn’t wait to hear our answer, did you?’

  ‘What would have been your answer?’

  ‘Look behind you’ said Kevin.

  He turned around and saw nothing. He thought that these two cops are just joking with him and trying to buy more time, but that was not so, he soon understood that when two cars zoomed past the street and came around the corner, then slowly pulled up just some metres away from the black Mercedes. And they were not any normal cars, they were all official NYPD cop cars.

  Two more cars came from the opposite side, where Kevin and Ryan stood. The doors flew open and more uniforms and armed officers came out of the cars and took their position within, pointing their expensive guns at the kidnappers.

  Some of the uniforms came in the front and took position in a kneel down manner while the other officers took cover behind the cars, but the only similarity was that all their guns were pointed at the three criminals.

  It was Henderson who came in the front at last and the only one who didn’t have a gun in his hands. He came near Ryan and Kevin and said ‘You two okay?’

  ‘Yeah, great’ said Ryan, he didn’t want to say it aloud in front of the criminals that the criminals nearly got them.

  Henderson then edged closer to the black suited man and said softly ‘Now I think you can probably guess what I will advice you right? What’re we waiting for then? Drop your weapons, and put your hands behind your head’

  The man stared coldly at Ryan and Kevin as if he wanted to say ‘This ain’t ending boys, I will come back to grind you all’, but they didn’t get a chance to say that as most of the uniforms were yelling ‘Drop the guns, NOW!’

  ‘Look man I can be wrong but everyone present here is telling you the same thing. Drop everything you have and give up. They are all probably not wrong, what do you think?’ Henderson smiled.

  But the three men could do nothing, they were hugely outnumbered and they didn’t stand a chance at this moment. They could only growl under their breath and curse themselves for not killing those two cops right away when they got the chance, and then they dropped their weapons. The black suited man looked around and examined the area for the last time trying to see if there was a way from where they could escape. But wherever he looked he could only see the tips of the guns which were aimed at him.

  As he found that there was nothing he could do at this time, he signalled his men to drop their weapons, and he himself threw his gun roughly on the ground.

  ‘That’s more like it’ Henderson jerked again, as he knew he had the upper hand. ‘Was it too hard?’

  The cops now relaxed a bit as the weapons were on the ground. One of the uniforms came and picked up the guns and threw it to someone else on the left side. They were all professionals and they knew what to do.

  ‘Cuff them’ Henderson instructed one of the officers as two of them came to the men, deliberately kicked their legs roughly to make them sit in a kneel down manner on the ground then they pushed their hands down and pulled their hands to the back before tying the handcuff as roughly, and as tightly as they could have done.

  Then the other uniform who picked their belongings made them stand up with the help of the officers, and pushed them towards the car. They frantically obeyed and walked up to the nearest car.

  ‘So these are all Donovan’s men?’ asked Henderson to Ryan as the criminals were turned into hostages.

  ‘Yes, these are his men’ replied Ryan. ‘They came to take the money which they didn’t get of course’

  ‘I see, so it all ended well’ then he saw McRae standing timidly at one corner, he turned to one of the officers and asked him to help McRae.

  He came and this time he behaved a lot gently with McRae as they slowly walked towards Ryan’s car.

  ‘Someone told me that Ryan Raglan called the help desk of the emergency department in the main building and asked for back up’ said Henderson. ‘I instantly knew what the problem was and where to find you. And that’s why I asked the patrolling officer to sent some backup with me, and thank god he obeyed without trying to be a jackass. And of course you guys were in a pathetic position when I came with the back up , I don’t want to estimate that had I not come just in time , how much more time you would have lasted in the hands of this criminals’

  ‘That’s what the backup is for’ replied Kevin. ‘And we still survived with nearly empty magazines’

  ‘That’s correct’ said Ryan.

  ‘Okay, you two did a good job’ said Henderson patting Ryan’s back ‘I was kidding.’

  The criminals were loaded in three separate cars and as soon as they were done, the cars left. They didn’t want to give the criminals much time before they turned them from hostages to prisoners.

  ‘Anyway, what about the kid we were looking for?’ asked Henderson expecting a positive answer. ‘Got any news about him?’

  Ryan smiled. ‘Positive. The boy is in safe hands now’

  THIRTY THREE

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah, why not? I’m fine’

  Alicia drove the car in an average speed as Alan gave company to Jake in the back seat.

  ‘It’s hot out here, isn’t it?’ Jake said.

  ‘Yep, still it’s cooler today than the past few days’ said Alan. ‘Why? Was it cooler where they kept you?’

  ‘Not really, but of course cooler than what I�
�m felling now’

  ‘I see’ said Alan. ‘So tell me, did they try to hurt you or something?’

  ‘No no, not at all’ said Jake. ‘But they do have a tendency to become too much vocal when becomes angry. And most of the time they argued among themselves’

  ‘You mean there was a conflict going on between them?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe their habit is just like that’

  ‘And what about the place? Was it always dark?’

  ‘Not always, no’ then Jake thought a little more and said with a soft voice. ‘Sometimes it is, other times a LED bulb always glowed. And I can keep up in dim light. That’s not a problem’

  ‘So what was a problem?’

  ‘Scarce food and water’ said Jake.

  ‘They gave you less food?’

  ‘Not too less. It was about okay’

  ‘Hmm’ said Alan and looked at the boy more closely. He had a white and beautiful round face with blue eyes, the colour you see when you go scuba diving. He was of average height maybe a little too tall for a fifteen year old, but it was still okay. He was a little taller than Alan’s elbow portion. But he didn’t look healthy enough, he was pale and lean. That was the only negative effect Alan found in him. But he was still a lot better than you would expect a kid to be, who lived with a bunch of killers for a week.

  ‘But I was wondering about something’ said the boy looking outside.

  ‘And that is?’ asked Alan.

  ‘Why did they care to kidnap me, what did I do anyway?’

  It was a tough question for Alan to answer. Even he himself didn’t know why.

  ‘That’s a long a story’ he finally said.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yep’

  ‘You know what, I once read in someone’s Facebook status that when someone says ‘It’s a Long Story’ it actually means they are not interested in saying it’

  Alicia laughed from the front seat hearing this, and admiring the kid’s wit.

  ‘Well that’s not the case here’ said Alan defending himself. ‘It really is a long story and a convoluted one. Let’s just say you were at the wrong place at the wrong time’