Xander King BoxSet

by Bradley Wright

  Sam continued forward. She jumped when she heard a couple laughing as they passed on the street behind her. She managed to avoid swinging the gun around when she turned to look. The sirens she had heard earlier seemed right around the corner now. A few steps forward and she noticed another cluster of blood drops settling down into the seams of the cobblestone. Goading her worked once, so why not try it again?

  “Melanie? What are we really fighting about anyhow? It wasn’t that I disliked you when you were Xander’s assistant—my assistant. It’s just, you were a bit of a little twit.”

  Sam walked slowly as she talked, listening for any tiny little movement each time she paused. The sirens just behind her now made it all the more difficult. If Melanie had another weapon, Sam was really putting herself in a bad situation.

  “Look, I’m sure I wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, but, my God, you were secretly working for a mafia boss. I must have been a walk in the park compared to that fatty.”

  The movement from Sam’s left was fast, but she managed to get her arm up to shield her face before Melanie sank the knife deep into Sam’s forearm. The piercing flame of pain was instant. Sam let Melanie’s momentum push her to her back, but when she landed, Sam continued to roll and she kicked Melanie up and off of her. Sam rolled on over to her feet and immediately took a fight-ready stance. After skidding to a stop a few feet away, Melanie too went into a fight stance, holding the knife out in front of her.

  Sam gave her arm a quick glance and found blood pouring from the open wound.

  “So she does bleed,” Melanie mocked.

  “Let’s see you try that again.” Sam welcomed the challenge. Melanie was in way over her head, whether she knew it or not. Sam Harrison lived for this shit.

  Melanie began to move toward Sam, knife out in front. Then she lunged for Sam, shoving the knife forward. Sam easily parried the stab and slapped Melanie across the face.

  “Now . . . you’re going to have to do better than that,” Sam taunted.

  Melanie stabbed again and Sam again parried. This time she countered with a quick punch to the throat. Melanie gagged and doubled over. Sam Thai-kicked her square in the forehead. Melanie flew backward on her ass, groaning in pain whenever she could catch a breath. Sam felt invincible in that moment.

  “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

  Melanie began to regain her breath as she scooted away from Sam on her ass. She glanced toward the street they had just come from.

  Sam said, “Don’t even think about running. It will only make things worse.”

  Melanie didn’t listen. She jumped to her feet and sprinted for the street. Sam pounced, and just when Melanie reached the street, Sam yanked her back by the collar of her shirt. Without letting go of the fabric, Sam turned Melanie around and delivered a knee into her solar plexus. Sam maintained a grip on her collar, and just as she stood her up to deliver another blow, a police car skidded to a halt and a man’s voice bellowed from the loudspeaker.

  “Stop right there! Break it up. Let go of the shirt and back away!”

  Sam didn’t let go. Nor would she. Not until they made her.

  Sam said to Melanie, “You are lucky. I would’ve killed you.” She followed that with a devastating elbow to Melanie’s forehead. Sam could see she had put the lights out even before Melanie hit the ground.

  Sam then turned toward the two policemen running toward her and held up her hands.

  “She started it.”

  44

  A King’s Ransom

  Under the thousands of sparkling little spotlights shining down on him from the iconic Eiffel Tower, Xander sidled his newly commandeered boat up to Khatib’s dinner boat. At the exact moment he shut down the power, he leapt onto the rail of the dinner boat. He figured it best not to leave the boat running unmanned at full throttle. In the couple of minutes it took for him to catch up to the dinner boat, he had managed to cut the wire that Marv told him to cut, disabling the bomb, and he also managed to fit his Glock with the silencer from his go bag. Hanging on to the outside rail with his left hand, he quietly smoked two armed men who were walking around the corner to investigate who had boarded from another boat. Nine-millimeter bullets have a hell of a way of saying hello.

  Xander hopped the rail and hugged the wall. Everything on this boat was similar to the one he had encountered Melanie on. The major difference was that the wheelhouse was situated more in the middle. And to his dismay, the dining room windows had been completely blacked out. He couldn’t even tell if the lights were on inside. But he knew they were. What he didn’t know was how many gunmen Khatib had waiting for him.

  “Aaahhh!”

  Xander heard a woman scream. It didn’t sound like Natalie, but distress can have an effect on your vocal cords.

  “Stop it! Please! You’re hurting him!”

  He heard the woman again. This time, he could tell she was shouting from above him and at the far end of the boat, closer to the stern. He remembered the large rooftop deck of the other dinner boat, so he knew that was where her shouts were coming from. Xander had a decision to make. The woman just screamed, “You’re hurting him.” He assumed that Kyle was the “him” she was referring to. He checked his watch, and he still had twelve minutes left to save Natalie. But what if the timing that Khatib gave wasn’t exactly correct? He didn’t have time to ponder the idea, but he couldn’t make the wrong decision.

  “No! You’re going to kill him!”

  That answered that question. Xander would have to trust that the timer was true. If it was Kyle being hurt, maybe killed, Xander had to do what he could for him. He couldn’t leave his closest friend hanging. He jumped up and grabbed hold of the roof’s edge and pulled himself up. In the bright cast shining down from the Eiffel, he could just make out a few people at the far end of the rooftop deck, at least a hundred feet away. He stayed low and sprinted along the roof past the wheelhouse. He didn’t have time to worry around with whether or not the captain saw him. Fifty feet closer now, he could see that two men were holding a woman, while a man dressed in black tactical gear was beating on a man who had fallen to his knees.

  Kyle.

  The anger that fired inside of Xander at that moment was unmatched by anything he had ever felt. All the battles he had fought for the US, all the vigilante missions, and even more recently the personal wars he had endured, all of them paled in comparison to the fury he felt then. All he could see was red, and tactical maneuvering went right out the window.

  “Khatib!” Xander shouted as he stepped over the rail at the perimeter of the deck. Khatib had his fist cocked, ready to drive it down into Kyle’s mostly battered and semiconscious face. But when he heard Xander shout, he stopped and turned toward him, giving Xander his full attention. Xander took a long hard look at Kyle as he slumped over on his side. He let it fuel his rage.

  Xander stalked toward Khatib, and without even realizing it, he dropped his gun on the ground. As he walked, his face was completely devoid of emotion. Khatib’s men raised their guns, and Khatib made a motion for them to stand down.

  Khatib let a sinister smile grow across his face. “Alexander King.”

  Xander continued his walk as he pulled his body armor vest off and tossed it to the ground. This left him in his black tank, his body now with total freedom of movement.

  Xander growled, “Why don’t you try to see if you can make that karate shit work on me?”

  “I’m right here, big man.” Khatib moved forward.

  Xander swung at him with a haymaker overhand right. If it had connected, it would have wiped that smug smile right off Khatib’s face. But Khatib moved quickly to the left, and before Xander could recover, Khatib hit him twice in the ribs, hard. Xander came back over the top with a left hook, but he was throwing his punches in anger, and it was pulling him off balance. Khatib ducked Xander’s left and countered with a right hook to Xander’s kidney, and a millisecond behind that came a left hook to the jaw.
Xander staggered backward. He wiped his arm across his mouth, leaving behind a trail of blood across his forearm. Khatib was much faster than Xander had anticipated. Much more powerful as well.

  Khatib mocked him. “Looks like my shit works pretty good on you too.”

  Rage again flooded Xander, and he lunged forward without regard for control or technique. Khatib stepped to his left and launched a Thai kick that landed directly in Xander’s midsection. He turned away from Khatib and sucked for the air that had just been stolen from him. If he didn’t get himself under control, if he didn’t regain his focus, Xander was not only going to lose this fight, but he was going to lose the ability to save Kyle and Natalie. If he couldn’t get it together for himself, he had to do it for them.

  Khatib continued to mock Xander. “What’s wrong, Captain America? Never met a man who was better than you? Never been bested in a fight?”

  Khatib stepped forward and landed a quick one-two to Xander’s forehead and chin. Khatib was moving swiftly on the balls of his feet. Very good technique. But Xander let him come in once more. This time when Khatib bounced in and landed another one-two, he left behind all the information Xander would need. Without knowing it, every time Khatib threw the straight right punch, he left his ribs wide open. This time when Khatib hit him, as Xander ate the punch, he shuffled his feet into a switch kick and brought his left leg around his body like a whip, striking Khatib at the bottom of his rib cage. When the top of Xander’s foot connected, there was a pop, and Khatib reeled backward, grabbing at his newly-broken rib.

  Xander began to bounce on the balls of his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Kyle raise his head. He could see that Xander’s head was back in the game, and Kyle knew better than anyone what was coming next.

  Violence.

  Xander bounced forward, and when the injured Khatib threw a defensive right hand, Xander trapped it between his ribs and under his arm and whipped his head forward, shattering Khatib’s nose with his forehead. Blood gushed from Khatib’s face, but he ignored it and put his hands up, ready to defend himself.

  It was Xander’s turn to do the mocking. “Ouch, that one is gonna hurt your chances with the ladies,” he said as he bounced around, hands up, ready to strike. Feeling like himself again.

  Now it was Khatib who let anger get in the way of technique. He lunged wildly for Xander, leaving the left side of his face exposed. Xander capitalized by bludgeoning it with a powerful right hand. Xander could have sworn he heard the thudding sound his fist made echoing across the river. Khatib lost control of his legs, did the chicken dance, and dropped to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Xander noticed Kyle slithering across the deck toward the pistol Xander dropped earlier. The two men still holding Karol were so shocked that their leader was losing, they didn’t even notice Kyle going for the gun. Khatib staggered as he got up, but he managed to make it to his feet. He may have been a son of a bitch, but he was a tough son of a bitch.

  Xander moved forward and easily blocked the lazy three-punch combination Khatib threw at him. When Xander countered, he nearly drove his right hand straight through the back of Khatib’s head. He had never hit a man so hard. Khatib collapsed again, this time on his back. Xander stalked over and straddled him, gaining full-mount position over him. Khatib was unconscious. Xander slapped him lightly across the face twice.

  “Wake up, you son of a bitch. You are going to hear this.” He slapped him twice more and Khatib opened his cold black eyes. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

  Khatib’s stare was blank, but Xander knew he was listening. Xander grabbed the dark hair on top of Khatib’s head in his left hand and held him in place, not letting him look anywhere but straight into his eyes. Xander glanced over to Kyle, and Kyle gave him the knowing glare that Xander was hoping for. Xander then looked back at Khatib.

  “You said it would take a King’s Ransom to save Natalie . . . How’s this for a ransom?”

  Xander held out his right hand, and Kyle tossed him the Glock 19. Xander caught it, put it to Khatib’s forehead, and just as Khatib’s eyes widened in fear, Xander pulled the trigger and blew the brains out of the back of his head.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Xander pivoted to his left and shot one of the men holding Karol in the neck and the other directly through his left eye. Xander turned back and rose to his feet. He stood over Akram Khatib and glared down at him. The vision he had seen in the murky river water earlier—Khatib with blood leaking out of his head—was now a reality lying there before his very eyes. Xander closed his eyes for a moment as he stood over Khatib’s lifeless body. He let a vision of his beloved horse, alive and well, racing down the back stretch at the Kentucky Derby play like a movie in his head. This was the way he would remember his horse. The memory of finding him dead in the stall would now be able to die with the man who was responsible for it. His terrorist blood would wash that horrible scene from Xander’s mind forever.

  Xander opened his eyes, and as he watched the blood leak from Akram Khatib, he tapped twice with his fist against his own chest, directly over his heart.

  “For King’s Ransom.”

  45

  The Clock Is Ticking

  The sound of a submachine gun firing from the other side of the boat and bullets hitting the deck and clanking against the rail around him broke Xander from his deadly trance. He dove to the floor and turned to shoot, but he couldn’t find anyone in his sights.

  Xander shouted to Karol, “Get down! Get down behind one of those bodies and don’t move!”

  Without hesitation, Karol dove back behind the bigger of the two men Xander had just gunned down. Xander could see that the shock of what she had just witnessed hadn’t worn off, but at least she could still listen. It would be the difference between living and dying for her. He military crawled over to where she was, and Kyle followed behind him. Before he picked up the dead man’s MP5 lying just beyond the man’s hand, he checked his watch.

  Four minutes.

  Xander’s internal clock started ticking in time with the countdown on his watch.

  A streak of panic flashed through Xander. He had to get to the dining room below.

  Now.

  “Kyle, is Natalie in the dining room below us?”

  When Xander looked at his friend, his heart nearly broke. Kyle hardly resembled himself. He must have been taking that beating from Khatib for a while before Xander arrived. As Kyle propped himself up on his elbow, Xander could see that every movement caused him pain. Finally, Kyle nodded, confirming that Natalie was indeed in the dining room below them.

  “I’m going to get us all out of here,” Xander said to Kyle as he handed him the second gunman’s MP5. “Just stay here and make sure no one gets close to you. It looks like the magazine has forty rounds in it. Don’t be afraid to use them.”

  Xander checked his own MP5’s magazine, and to his relief it was completely full. More bullets came flying from the direction of the wheelhouse. The dinner boat had slowed to a stop, right at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. This would help Xander see what was coming. And if Xander could see what was coming, everyone else was in trouble. He fired a couple of rounds back in the direction of the wheelhouse. The yellow lights from the tower were reflecting off its darkened windows. That was when he heard Natalie for the first time.

  A muffled scream came up through the roof to their ears. It was so faint that Xander had to look to Kyle to confirm. He had heard it too. Emotion swelled inside Xander. He was so close to her, but still she stayed strapped to the wall in danger. He couldn’t wait to hold her in his arms.

  “I’ll only be a minute, buddy,” Xander assured Kyle.

  Kyle managed a half smile through his bloody and battered face as he looked from Xander to the Eiffel Tower. “Take your time, I’m enjoying the view.”

  Xander tousled Kyle’s hair and rose to a crouch. He put the butt of the MP5 to his shoulder and began to move forward toward the incoming bullets. For the first time he s
aw a shadow move just beyond the wheelhouse. He squeezed the trigger, and a string of bullets shot toward the shadow. There was no way to tell if he had hit anything, so Xander used his bullets as a moment of cover and sprinted forward, closing the distance between himself and the end of the deck in just two seconds.

  Three minutes.

  This time, Xander was close enough to see the man leaning out from behind the wheelhouse. When Xander fired from behind the deck rail, the man jerked and fell to the ground. In the next moment, it was dumb luck that Xander glanced back over his shoulder at Kyle. If he hadn’t, all three of them might have been dead. Instead, the man who had climbed the stairs to reach the rooftop deck behind Kyle was met with a burst of three nine-millimeter bullets in the chest. He collapsed backward and fell back down to the lower level. Kyle jerked his head from Xander to the man falling, then back again to Xander.

  Xander shrugged. “Maybe don’t spend so much time enjoying the view?”

  He didn’t wait for a response; he had to move. He jumped over the rail and sprinted across the roof, past the wheelhouse, but had to dive to the roofing when he saw another man hidden behind its wall. The man shot at Xander, but Xander managed to roll out of the way of the three bullets that clanged against the metal roofing right beside him. He quickly returned fire, and the man dropped when Xander’s bullets hit him. Xander rose to his feet and trained his gun toward the wheelhouse. There was an itch that he would never be able to explain––an itch at the top of his spine that told him someone was aiming at him from behind the tinted windows of the wheelhouse.