Cowboy Ending - Overdrive: Book One

by Adam Knight

  It was still early. The scent of sweat and pheromones hadn’t quite reached its zenith. The dance floor was only partially full at this point. Line ups at bartenders were deep as patrons were still getting their first and second drinks for the night.

  Over at the main bar I could see Aasif hustling as usual; rushing between stations, checking on liquor counts and giving orders to the bar backs and waitresses. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking for Shelby, instinctively expecting her to be there. A pang of guilt hit my stomach, knowing she’d quit a lucrative job because of me.

  At the VIP section was the usual collection of over-dressed folks. David and Big Mike were holding the fort over there, chatting amongst themselves as people filed past them. Some of them Korean, the others all female and finely dressed. The week’s meeting and private parties were coming to a conclusion in night one of a two night blowout apparently. I don’t remember ever seeing that many finely dressed hotties piling into the VIP section and mingling with guests before.

  Miller was staring a hole through me from across the room. Dressed once again in that barely held together suit and leaning against the far wall across from me in VIP. The scowl on his brutish face was lethal. Next to him sat Mackie, his face drawn and even more disheveled than before. Miller reached up one arm, nudging Mackie and pointed towards the stage. Mackie traced the distance with his eyes. They blinked when they focused on me.

  Off to the right Aaron and Parise were leading another group of ladies and Korean businessmen into the main bar area. Either from the second floor or up from the basement? Who cares? They were here now. Parise froze in place when he registered my presence on the stage. Aaron paused in his glittery silver suit as he too saw me.

  Good. I wanted everyone’s attention.

  Right before I closed my eyes I could see people starting to make their way towards me. Several guards I didn’t know. Miller himself pushing off from the back wall. Parise striding through the crowd.

  When I’d entered the club the sound had been overwhelming. That forty thousand watt stereo system produced a literal wall of noise that hammered at your ears and battered at your flesh. All of that power surged through the lines that were laid along the walls of the club, feeding the massive speakers on either side of the stage and all of the lighting hanging from the ceiling.

  At this particular spot here in the club I was at the literal epicenter of the electrical current that ran through the building.

  It explained so much. Why I was so much more alert in this location, able to see and react to things more quickly than others when they assumed this perch. How it helped to keep me awake and energized on those long twenty-three hour days when I left my first job to come into the club for more.

  In this position I felt more alive than I knew it was possible for me to feel.

  The thrumming in the air pulsed in time to the frantic beat of the music which in turn was mirrored by my heart and the tingling on my neck. The sensation of energy that flowed through me was palpable now, coursing along every vein and every fiber. Begging me to unleash it.

  I really didn’t know what I expected to happen.

  My eyes snapped open. My hands instinctively rising from my sides reaching out to the speaker systems on either side of me. The guards and cops were closing in on me by the second.

  So I opened myself up fully to the feeling.

  I don’t know what it looked like to the people in attendance but for me it was like light. Pure white hot light slammed through my being. Up from the ground and through my feet. Pure electric light illuminating every single cell and neutron in my frame.

  All of that energy, those sensations thrumming through the air warped in space. No longer resonating out into the club, now it all twisted direction focused on one point of attention. One central point of contact.

  Thunder boomed impossibly loud, rocking the entire building on its foundation. Sparks erupted from the back of the speakers, circuits overloaded from the sensation and sent white noise squealing at an insane decibel into the air. Off to the side more sparks and light blasted from the deejay booth, sending the poor disc jockey running for cover as electrical panels burst open behind him.

  Fancy light displays and speakers over in VIP erupted in more sparks and fire. The fancy young ladies screamed in fear and ran for cover. The Korean gentlemen leaped from their seats, drinks spilling everywhere. Miller was thrown forward into Mackie as one of the fancy light displays blew out behind him, sending them both sprawling out of sight into the crowd.

  Over my head the stage lights all burst simultaneously in a cacophony of light and sound. Glass shards rained down from the sky onto the stage and into the very front of the crowd. In fact every light bulb in the building erupted at once, showering the floor and walls with tiny white hot shards of glass and fire. Thankfully most of the people in front of me had turned as the eruption started.

  Then it all stopped.

  No more music. No more stage lighting. The overhead emergency lights hummed and sputtered gamely, running on their own internal batteries.

  People everywhere were scattered and crouched down. Hiding in huddled groups. People were crying and staring at me in abject terror.

  Smoke began to fill the air. Even in a marble and stone building there’s always stuff to burn. Orange flames flickered up from the deejay booth. More of it came from behind me where the remains of the speakers and the stage carpeting were beginning to smolder.

  And me?

  It might have been just my imagination that steam was curling up from my clenched hands but it was hard to say for sure. I could tell without looking that my hair was standing straight up on end, yet another excuse to make a trip to the barber shop this week. Thankfully my newly acquired cowboy hat was hiding the majority of the Einstein afro I was likely rocking. I also felt absurdly warm underneath my battered leather coat.

  But alive.

  I felt gloriously alive.

  The silence began to get creepy.

  I gave the crowd staring up at me my fiercest glare.

  “Party’s over. Get out.”

  Chapter 47

  People began trampling each other in their haste to get out of the building. No sense of chivalry here, eh boys? Gonna run right over the same girls you were trying to get naked with in the name of self-preservation.

  Sad.

  Noise returned to the bar. Lots of shouting. Lots of screaming. The crackle of flames became louder as the fires behind me began to get serious. Smoke started to fill the air, rising to the vaulted ceiling in thick billows. Thankfully it was a very high ceiling so the risk of choking was still a ways away.

  Parise was shouting something and pointing my way, a firm grip on Aaron’s arm whose expression was one of pure terror.

  Several men advanced on me through the crush of people. Two hard faced Korean gentlemen and two of the club’s bouncers. I eyeballed them absently while trying to keep my awareness extended towards the innocent people flowing out of the club. Already my little electro-maniacal display had done more damage to these people than I’d intended. Small cuts and abrasions on exposed flesh and the occasional face from the overloaded lighting displays made my guts twist slightly with guilt.

  That same guilt is what kept me from a proactive defense and charging through the departing crowd towards my attackers. As a result, I found myself waiting up on the now burning stage for people to come on down and be the first contestants on the Price is Right.

  My body was abuzz and tingling from tip to tail. Fingers twitched in time with my heart rate as I forced myself to stand still and be an unmoving target for as long as possible.

  You cannot understand how difficult that was. You ever seen a downed power line that was still live? How it would jump and flail every time it touched the ground, trying to find a stable place to complete its circuit? That’s what it felt like for me, like I had built up all of this energy and needed a safe place to release it before completely burning
out.

  Thankfully I didn’t have long to wait. My first victims had decided to take part in the Showcase Showdown.

  I didn’t recognize these bouncers so felt no guilt whatsoever about punting the first one who leapt up onto the stage right in the chops. The impact snapped in the air like a whip, unnaturally loud and echoing in the cavernous old building even over the screaming people. Teeth and blood spurted from his mouth as he torqued back and away, all forward momentum halted as his body crashed heavily to the empty dance floor.

  A second bouncer, this one stockier and more heavyset slid up onto the stage behind me and charged. Trying to drive me off the stage in a big football style tackle. Planting my feet wide I managed to absorb the man’s momentum without being moved back more than a few inches. We had a brief struggle for balance as he tried to get his feet under him, but I still was surging with life and strength.

  Wrapping my long arms around his thick middle and locking my hands together I heaved with my legs, upper back and shoulders. The back of my neck pulsed with glee, shooting white lights of energy down my limbs. The bouncer’s body left the stage with ease, flipping him up to rest over my left shoulder. I stood tall for a moment looking for all the world like Atlas perching the Earth overhead.

  Below me on the dance floor the Korean gentlemen paused in their advance. Big Mike and David had joined the fray and skidded to a stop behind the businessmen, eyes wide.

  Looked like a good target to me.

  With a half step forward I pitched the heavyset guard into the air, sending him crashing mightily into the pile of people fifteen feet away. All four of them hit the smooth dance floor in a sprawl, cursing and crying out as the still hot glass shards beneath them pierced their flesh on top of everything else.

  One of the Koreans dove away from the others in an athletic shoulder roll, missing the dogpile. He came up in a crouch ten feet to my left, a semi-automatic pistol appearing in his hands and tracking towards me.

  The rush that blasted through my nervous system at the sight of that gun was the strongest I’d felt yet. Call it a result of panic, excitement … Whatever. Just seeing that pistol aimed at me brought flashbacks and images that I did not want to relive under any circumstances.

  It was like the night my van got broken into all over again.

  One moment I was standing on the stage. The next I was directly in front of the Korean gunman.

  It was a surge of energy and life that propelled my body forward, faster than my mind could register. I had the man’s pistol arm trapped in one hand and a handful of his suit jacket and shirt bunched into the centre of his chest before my brain caught up with my body.

  Since it took me two or three steps to actually come to a halt physics took over, transferring my momentum to the Korean man in my grip. With a mighty shove his tiny body sailed away. My three hundred pounds going at an improbable speed given to his hundred and forty-ish pound frame. He was launched backwards through the air, crashing heavily on top of the main bar and sliding along it’s smooth surface before tipping over the edge and collapsing out of sight.

  I turned to examine the room again, my hair now slick with sweat from the heat and my own exertions. My acquired hat fluttered to the ground off to my right after my sudden explosive movement.

  People stared at me.

  With purpose I strode over to where the hat – fuck it, my hat - rested on the floor. With a simple flourish I picked it up by the brim and repositioned it on my head.

  Dress for success, right Dad?

  Big Mike and David were picking themselves off the floor along with the heavyset guard I’d hurled at them. Their eyes were wide and nervous, but ready to fight if needed. Their gaze dropping to my hand as I approached.

  I still had the Korean man’s semi-automatic in my left hand. I gave it a negligent look then intentionally tossed it high over my shoulder onto the fire engulfed main stage.

  Both of them blinked at me.

  “Tell me you’re not involved,” I barked at them, my eyes tracking Parise and Aaron’s movements nearby. Miller and Mackie were still out of sight, possibly among the figures moving around like shadows in the increasing smoke.

  “What?” That was David, still on his ass and sliding away. “Involved in what? What the hell happened, Joe?”

  “You’re not involved in the prostitution ring? The human trafficking?” My eyes blazed, not literally I hoped. That would be way creepy. I advanced a step on David. “You’re not involved?”

  “Shit, man. No. They just wanted extra guys to help with the girls. For the party. I figured they were hookers, but that’s it! I’m not part of anything else!”

  I turned my gaze to Big Mike. His chiseled jawline nodded frantically in agreement.

  I motioned with my forehead towards the door. “Get out of here. Help anyone who’s having trouble getting to safety.”

  You’ll never see two gigantic, overly muscled men move so fast in your entire life. Practically tripping over themselves in their effort to get out of my way.

  Shards of glass crackled under my feet. Flames licked up the walls of the building behind me having caught the decorations and curtains to the stage alight. Smoke billowed heavily now. Everything getting that hazy, gray-orange glow.

  Parise stood before me still gripping Aaron’s arm furiously, refusing to let go. Aaron himself was simply poleaxed. Terrified and frozen.

  “How do you see this ending, mon ami?” Parise called out to me for the second time as I stalked forward, my eyes narrowed on his face. “The building is on fire and you have assaulted police officers. Hell, you have planted bombs! Become a terrorist in your own city!” He sneered at me then, his perfectly groomed face becoming ugly. “I am the city’s next Chief of Police. This will not go well for you.”

  My small smile appeared on my lips. Energy coursing through my veins in waves, feeding my ego and fuelling my supreme self-confidence.

  “How do you think this is going to go for you?” I snarled, not slowing my pace.

  Aaron began to blubber, fear overtaking his better judgment.

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen, Joe. You have to believe me.”

  Parise yanked on his arm fiercely. “Shut up!’

  “Fuck you! This was supposed to be easy! Easy money!” Aaron turned to me pleadingly, his eyes streaming tears. Fear and smoke most likely. Parise began dragging Aaron back and away from me, towards the main entrance.

  “You knew what you were getting into!”

  “Running a boutique brothel? Sure! A place for high end clientele to spend more money in a safe environment? Getting their rocks off with no one the wiser? Of course!” He struggled then, flailing at Parise and trying to break free. “I never wanted to get in bed with the Koreans!”

  Parise lashed out with his fist, splitting Aaron’s upper lip. Aaron cried out in agony and sagged in the knees. Parise hooked his arm around Aaron’s throat and hauled him up, keeping his body upright like a shield.

  Parise’s face sneered some more. “No one missed those girls,” he spat at me. Literally, he spat. French people. “Those pitiful girls already being pimped out by their precious street gangs, by their families.” He dragged Aaron further backwards, out to the main hallway. “We gave them clothes. Food. A purpose. Safety from street johns who would abuse and assault them.”

  I followed them out, stalking at a distance. People were still milling about here, trying desperately to file out of the burning building and into the street. Big Mike and David were directing traffic as best they could at the main entrance.

  Parise saw the crowd of people and swore, redirecting towards the marble staircase.