by Rick Dakan
Raff had only a moment to take this in as the group charged forward. Kurt, who was always quick, was sprinting for the car. One pursuer stopped and set his feet before expertly throwing his bat at Kurt's retreating back. The spinning wooden shaft tangled up in Kurt's pumping legs, bringing him down hard on the asphalt.
The masked man raced forward and jumped on Kurt's back before he could get up.
The other three ignored Filo, who was out cold, and fanned out to surround Raff. He held his baton up in a defensive pose, trying to keep all three of them to his front. It was a losing proposition. The attackers knew each other well, and fought with frightening coordination. Once they had him flanked, some unseen and unheard signal passed between them. They all charged at once, bats swinging.
Raff jumped back and then dodged wildly to his left, moving inside his attacker's swing before the bat could connect. He dropped his own weapon and grabbed his attacker by the shoulders. He twisted hard with his hips, and the two of them went down to the ground in a heap. Raff landed on top, and his attacker hit the ground hard, his head snapping back and impacting the blacktop with an audible crunch.
Raff screamed in pain. One of the other bats had finally connected, hitting his left arm hard. He rolled off the man he'd thrown and onto his back, covering his face just in time to receive another bludgeoning blow on his forearm.
The two standing attackers loomed over him now, bats raised. Paul, emerging from his hiding place, gave Raff three, maybe four seconds before he was bloody pulp on the asphalt. Raff managed to deflect a second blow with his already damaged forearm. Now it was broken for sure. He cried out mindlessly in utter agony.
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Out of the darkness came three rapid roars; a gun being fired from nearby. One of the attackers crumpled to his knees. The other dove forward and out of the line of fire. She acted as if she'd encountered gunfire before and knew to get clear as fast as possible.
Raff seemed only dimly aware of the sudden change in his fortune as he writhed on the ground in pain. Then the shooter was at his side, helping Raff to his feet.
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Paul and Chloe peered out from the storage locker as the fight unfolded before them. A malicious grin covered Paul's face as he watched Raff and his thugs yelp in horror as Winston's heavies ambushed them.
After they received Raff's summons over IRC, they'd needed to act fast. It had been Paul's idea to call in Winston. He knew they needed help. In fact, they needed muscle, and Paul figured that since Winston was a former Weatherman, he must know how to swing a bat. Chloe had resisted, arguing that he'd never help and that besides it wasn't that easy to contact him and furthermore, they could handle this themselves. Paul knew the truth though - she didn't want to appear weak in front of her mentor. She didn't want him to know she'd lost control of her crew.
Eventually logic prevailed over pride, and she'd made the call. They had to assume Raff had the safe house phone covered, along with their cell phones, so they waited for their next-door neighbor in the mountains leave. Chloe broke into his house and used his phone to contact Winston. As Paul had suspected, Winston was eager to help his favorite apprentice.
She and Winston had worked out the basics of a very simple plan - Winston already had a storage locker they could use where he and his crew could set up the booby trapped bag and the ambush. The key would be taped to door, out of sight, all Paul had to do was palm it when he entered the code and then pretend to take it out of his pocket. Chloe and Paul would lead Raff and whomever he was working with into the trap. Then, voila, they'd ambush him and take care of the whole problem.
And so far everything seemed to be working out just as planned. They watched as Filo fell to the first swing and Winston and his crew rushed out of the locker and ran Raff and Kurt down.
Chloe and Paul, who'd run to the back of the locker in order to lure Raff inside, then made their way back to the doorway. Chloe's stun gun was in her hand and Paul had grabbed a baseball bat of his own that Winston had left for him. They reached the outside just as Winston and a woman named Lily were standing above Raff and pounding away at him with their bats.
Then, from their right a figure came running forward. It was the man in the shadows, and he had an automatic pistol in his hand. He started firing, releasing three very loud blasts into the night air. Chloe and Paul both ducked for cover inside the locker. There was a pause and then more shots followed by shouting.
"Everybody back off!" the gunman shouted. "Back off or someone else gets a bullet in the head!"
Paul peeked out from behind an overturned box to see the man help Raff to his feet. Two of the batmen were on the ground and one of them was bleeding badly. He heard a car starting up and assumed this was Kurt, making his own escape. "Hold it right there!" the man with the gun shouted. "We're coming with you."
Raff and his guardian angel shambled out of Paul's line of sight. A few seconds later he heard car doors opening and closing and then the Cadillac kicked into gear and peeled out, headed for the front gate.
"Winston!" Chloe shouted from Paul's side. She ran out into the alleyway towards the bleeding figure. The gunman had shot Winston. Paul ran after her.
Winston's Crewmembers were already at his side, pressing their hands against the wounds. He gurgled nonsense, but at least he was still breathing. They pulled the bandanna from around his head and saw a nasty wound along the side of his neck. The bullet had missed anything vital, but even the grazing shot had torn out a large chunk of flesh. Another bullet had passed through his left bicep. The third shot was still inside him, just below his left shoulder blade. There was a chance it had penetrated his lung.
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"We need to get him to a hospital!" cried Chloe, lifting Winston's head carefully off the pavement and cradling it in her hands. He breathed hard, in terrible pain.
"We're on it," said Lily, pulling down her own bandanna and reaching for her two-way. "Help," she said into the handheld, her voice serious but calm. "Now! Now! Now!" From five rows over they heard an engine turn over and start.
Paul stood over the bloody tableau, dumbfounded. How had it gotten this bad? How had someone gotten shot? He replayed the last minute over and over again in his brain, all the while transfixed by the horror of Winston's blood seeping out onto the ground. The image of the stranger with the gun kept sticking in his head.
The lighting was poor, the situation insane, but something about him was familiar. He wasn't a crewmember, but...
A white, beat up Suburban hurtled around the corner and came to a screeching halt. It was more of Winston's crew, a man and a woman that Paul recognized from the drum circle on the beach. They leaped out of the truck and came running towards their fallen leader, the woman with a first aid kit clutched in her hands. They shoved Lilly and Chloe aside and started tending to their patient.
Chloe stood up and retreated from the scene. "You need to get him to a doctor." She said. "No bullshit."
The woman with the first aid kit was using scissors to cut away Winston's clothing and expose his wounds. "I am a doctor," she snapped.
Lilly, who seemed to be in charge now that Winston was down, took Chloe by the arm and patiently walked her and Paul back towards the truck. "Kelly knows what she's doing," she said. Her presence and composure had a soothing effect on Paul. She seemed so certain of everything she said. "He'll make the call now. If we can treat him we will. If we have to we'll take him to the ER."
"But..."Chloe started to say.
"We've got to discuss something else though," Lilly continued without letting Chloe interrupt her. "What are you two going to do?"
"What do you mean?" asked Paul.
"We'll take you with us if you want." Lilly rubbed Chloe's shoulder with affection. "I know you and Win are close and he told us to help you guys out. So if you want, you can come with us." Chloe didn't reply.
"Come with you where?" asked Paul.
"Into the wind. I've got to pull us out of this thing now - making sure Win's ok is all I care about. We can't help you get your money back right now. Maybe in a couple of weeks we can regroup."
"In a couple of weeks Raff and the money will be long gone," Chloe said. "He knows where it is now and if we don't get it fast, he'll get it himself, no problem."
"I'm telling you I can't help you on this Chloe," Lilly insisted. "I'm sorry but..."
"No, I know, it's Ok. You've done more..." she looked back at where Kelly was working on Winston's wounds. "Sacrificed more than I could have asked. But I can't let Raff get the payoff. Especially not after this."
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"We don't have to do this, Chloe. It's just money," said Paul.
She turned on him. "It's not just money Paul. It's your future. It's maybe the only future you have." She paused and then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a fierce embrace. "I'm so sorry, Paul, but I don't know what will happen if we don't have that cash to work with."
"I don't understand," he said. "Isn't it enough we're alive after all that just happened?"
"Have you already forgotten? Why we're here? The cops are after you. Your credit is ruined. You're a wanted man. And maybe, with the whole crew behind us, those would've all been surmountable obstacles. But Raff's poisoned them against us. Kurt's presence here proves that. Without them helping me, I can't save you this time. We have to run and that takes money."
Paul thought about this. He was scared. Scared that she was right and worried about what that meant he had to do next. With everything coming apart around him, she was his only source of stability and support left. To see her scared and starting to come undone made it even worse. He thought about the times she'd already saved his ass; in the boardroom with his partners, in the restaurant with Frank, on the highway with that PI...
"Christ!" he exclaimed. "Oh fuck..."
"What?" Lily and Chloe said together, looking around for some new danger.
"That guy with the gun. Fuck. That guy! I know that guy. It was the fucking private eye from the highway and that money pick up."
"Are you sure?" asked Chloe.
"Yes. Absolutely sure now." And he was. Even in the bad light he'd recognized the man's frame. Although he'd never gotten a good look at the shooter's face, he'd heard his voice, the same voice that had threatened him on the side of highway 17.
"What the fuck was he doing here?" Chloe asked, of no one in particular. Her eyes were unfocused, her mind deep in thought, calculating this new piece of information's ramifications.
From over where Winston lay, they heard Dr. Kelly say in a loud voice, "Ok, on three. One. Two. Three."
They looked over to see four of Winston's crew lifting him and carrying him towards the truck. Lilly broke off from their conversation and ran over to help them.
"How's he doing?" she asked Kelly.
"It's not as bad as it could've been. Nothing vital hit. Two through and throughs and the other is lodged in his back. I think I can get it out, but I need better light and conditions. We need to go. Now." The others were already loading Winston into the back of the van.
"Ok, go," Lilly said. "I'll take the other car and meet you at the safe spot." Kelly nodded and then rushed back to the truck.
Paul and Chloe stood and watched the van disappear out of sight, following the same path Raff had retreated down just a few minutes before. "What's it going to be?" Lilly asked them. "You coming with me or not?"
Paul looked to Chloe for confirmation and they both silently agreed. "Not," he said. He wasn't ready to give up yet.
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"Ok," Lilly replied, a hint of sadness in her voice. "Good luck." She gave them one last look and then scooped her bat off the ground and started to jog off into the darkness.
"Lilly, wait a sec," Chloe shouted. "Can you do us one last favor?"
"Sure," she said, "What is it?"
"Can we switch cars?" Chloe asked.
"Why?"
"Raff bugged and put a tracker in ours and I haven't deactivated either device yet. We need a clean vehicle."
Lilly thought about this for a moment. "Then he'll be able to track me, won't he?"
"Yeah, but he's not looking for you." Lilly didn't seem to buy this line of reasoning. "I know it's a pain in the ass, but we need to move fast and I don't have time to put that thing up on a lift and go over it. And I know you don't either, but..."
Lilly held up a hand to stop her. "No, it's ok." She pulled a key ring out of her pocket and tossed it to Chloe.
"It's Win's car anyway. He'll be pissed if he finds out I didn't give it to you when you asked."
"Thanks, Lilly!" Chloe said, tossing Chloe her own keys. "I really appreciate it."
She took the keys and climbed into Chloe's car. From the open window she said, "Green Jetta, parked in the lot across the street." Then she tore off into the night.
Without looking back, Chloe and Paul set off at a run for the exit. They knew they didn't have much time.
When Filo finally regained consciousness hours later, he had no recollection of what had happened.
Everybody had just disappeared. As he stumbled to his feet he noticed the pool of blood in the middle of the alleyway. With no idea whose it was or where his friends were, he ran, his head pounding. It took him another hour and a half to make it back to the main Crew house. When he arrived the locks had been changed and the place was stripped bare. The Crew had gone.
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"Where are we going?" Paul asked a few minutes later. "The real storage locker is that way." He pointed toward a freeway onramp.
"We need a place to plan first. Besides, if he knows where it is then he's got it covered. He'll have the place staked out."
"I knew we should've gotten the money first," he said.
"If we'd done that they would've caught us there instead of where we had reinforcements. Raff would have the money and we'd have our heads cracked." She pulled the car into a Denny's parking lot, shut the engine off and turned to face Paul.
"First let's talk about this private eye fucker," she said. "You're sure it was him? I never got a good look at his face."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Abso-fucking-lutely. What I don't know is what it means. How did he get there? Why was he helping Raff?"
"I think he was always helping Raff."
"But he was with the CFO when I went to pick up the money. He's the guy who tackled me in the park. He can't have been working with Raff then...?"
"Why not?" said Chloe. "Why couldn't he have been working with Raff all along?"
Paul had no answer for this startling suggestion. Could that be possible? Had he been planning this ever since then?
"Raff is the one who set up that whole Gondry con," Chloe said. "He put that whole thing together while we were away and he was definitely the lead on that."
"Do you mean the whole con was a setup?"
"No it was genuine. The payoff was certainly genuine and the whole Crew worked that sting. Not even Raff could've fooled us all on something that big. Not even I could've done that. But the Private Eye was a late addition to the mix - he must've used some cover story to get close to the mark so he could be there at the exchange. That's why we were all so surprised when he showed up at the park."
Paul thought back over the debriefing. "Which finally makes sense of why Raff called me in at the last minute. He didn't need a fresh face and he wasn't trying to help me get into the crew. He was setting me up.
Setting the whole thing up so that he could put pressure on me. He told the Private Eye where to find my car and put him on my trail."
"I don't even think he's a real Private Eye at all. He's just Raff's accomplice. His 'Winston' maybe. He knew I had someone in the life outside the Crew. I always suspected that he did, too, but I could never find any hint of wh
o it might be. This homicidal old fuck must be the guy. Raff's mentor in the biz."
"That can't be good for us," Paul said.
"Not good at all."
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"So they've been after the money since the beginning. Just to split it between the two of them?" he asked.
"Looks like."
"Fuckers."
"Yep."
"It's really pretty brilliant," Chloe mused. "I have to say that if I wasn't so pissed I'd be impressed. The really clever thing is that he's managed to poison the whole Crew against us. My own goddamned crew."
"Maybe he didn't get all of them," he said hopefully.
"It doesn't matter. Now that I know he got some of them, there's no way I can trust any of them. That's the brilliant part. He knows I won't risk it now and all the while he'll win more of them over to his side." She frowned. "By the time it's safe to show my face - if that ever actually happens - I'll have no chance of winning them back."
"Unless we can prove he's the one who really betrayed them."
"Not fucking likely."
"But worth a shot huh?"
"Maybe," she said. "But that's tomorrow's problem. Right now we've got to get the money before they break in and take it."
"The storage place my cousin used is actually pretty high tech. It's not the rat hole we just came from. All indoors. 24-hour security. Cameras. The whole thing's only a few years old."
"They'll need to con their way in then," said Chloe. "At least that'll take them a little longer to put together."
She thought for a while, running over scenarios in her mind. "What we need is for someone we can trust to go in there and get the cash out for us. Someone they won't recognize. But someone we can trust."
"Why not try disguises?" Paul suggested.
"Too risky. That's what they'll be looking for, especially now that they know we're on to them."
They both thought silently for a long while. The car started to become uncomfortably stuffy.
"This is the problem when all your friends turn against you," said Chloe. "You've got no one to pick up your stolen money for you in the middle of the night. Especially not in this neighborhood."
