Double Barrel

by Mike Ryan

  “Wait, this might be it. White van.”

  Recker took his eyes off the people and tried to look through the windows, though it was a little tougher to see with the bars on them. A few seconds later, he saw the van pulling up in front of the store and stopping.

  “I see it,” Recker said.

  The doors opened up, with three men jumping out of the back. They put black ski masks on just before they entered the store. Recker turned his body slightly to ready himself and get into a position to fire. He removed his gun and held it by his leg, his body shielding it from the view of anyone who walked through that door.

  “Looks like one’s staying in the van,” Haley said.

  Haley got out of the car and started moving around a few other cars, trying to come up on the van through a blind spot near the corner of the bumper of it. The door to the store finally opened, the little bell ringing to signify a new customer. When everyone looked over, they were horrified to see three men with guns and masks on. Everyone immediately started to panic and put their hands up.

  “All right, this is a robbery,” the leader said. “Everyone calm down, do what you’re told, and nobody gets hurt.” The other two walked in, pointing their guns at people. The leader of the group pointed his gun at the male clerk. “You, start putting money and jewelry into these bags.” He had several duffel bags strapped around his shoulder. He put them on the counter.

  As the clerk started to comply with the robber’s wishes, the leader of the group looked over at Recker. He had a bad feeling about him. He didn’t look as worried as the others. Recker had a calm look on his face. It wasn’t natural for someone to be in this type of situation and not be worried.

  “You, get on the floor,” the leader said.

  Recker shook his head. “No, don’t think I will.”

  “I said get on the floor!”

  The man started to turn his gun in Recker’s direction, but Recker just swung his gun around and started blasting away without further provocation. The leader of the group got two bullets in his chest for starters, knocking him onto the ground. A couple of screams were heard from the customers, and the workers, who all quickly dropped to the floor to try and get out of the way of any flying projectiles. Recker quickly got off a few shots at the leader’s buddies, each of whom also received a bullet for their troubles. The shots were heard outside the store, and the driver of the van jumped out of the car to see what was going on. As soon as he did, he saw Haley coming up from behind. The driver reached for his weapon, which was tucked away inside the belt of his pants, but Haley beat him to the punch and quickly dispersed of him.

  Inside the store, one of the men had survived the initial bullet, and tried to stand back up. He grabbed his weapon and got to one knee, but it was short-lived, and Recker finished the man off by putting another bullet in his chest. There were still a few screams that could be heard by Haley outside the store. With his man out of the way, Haley went inside, peeking his head in to make sure it didn’t get blasted off his shoulders first. Seeing Recker standing there without a worried look on his face, he knew it was safe to go in. Haley stepped over one of the bodies and looked at the damage. He was surprised that none of the cases had been shot up or broken.

  “Looks clean.”

  Recker shrugged. “Good aim.”

  “I meant by them.”

  “Oh. Never got a shot off.”

  Haley nodded, impressed. “Guy outside too.”

  Recker looked around at the other people in the store. “Everybody good?”

  Everyone began standing back up again, checking themselves to make sure they weren’t hurt, injured, or cut by something. The male clerk looked at everyone else and then spoke up.

  “I think we’re all good. Thank you.”

  Recker nodded at him. “Glad to help.”

  “Are you with the police?”

  “Uh… different agency. Basically on the same team though.”

  The clerk took a deep breath. “I can’t believe they were going to try and rob us.”

  “Happens quite a bit.”

  “I just… can’t believe it. I’ve never been through something like this before.”

  “Well, hope you never have to go through it again.”

  “Ready?” Haley asked.

  Recker took a few steps towards the door, then looked back at one of the glass cases. He walked back over to it. He looked at something that caught his eye. He saw a necklace that interested him, then pointed to it.

  “Could I see that?”

  The clerk walked over to the case and unlocked it. “See something you like?”

  “Maybe.”

  As it looked like they were carrying on with their day like nothing ever happened, Haley looked down at the dead bodies on the floor. He shrugged. “Usual day at the office, I guess.”

  The clerk took out the necklace and handed it to Recker for him to inspect it. “It really is a lovely piece. Do you have someone you think would like it?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Recker answered. “I think she would. How much is it?”

  “It is only nine hundred dollars.”

  “Nine hundred, huh?”

  “Yes, it’s actually quite a bargain. It’s on sale at the moment. It regularly retails for over fifteen hundred.”

  Haley was starting to squirm a little. He kept looking out the window, waiting for the police to arrive. “Hey, uh, you think we should get moving here? I mean, there are these guys on the floor and all.”

  Recker didn’t bother to look at him, instead, keeping his focus on the necklace. “We still got time. We got a few minutes.”

  Though Haley wasn’t of the jumpy sort by nature, he knew when the clock was ticking. And it was getting near the alarm right now. He cleared his throat and looked out the window again. It wasn’t often that Recker bought something like this for Mia, but she deserved it. She deserved more than he gave her. But he knew she would like this.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll take it.”

  “Excellent choice, sir,” the clerk said. “Let me just put it in the box for you.”

  The two went over to the register, where Recker paid by credit card. Haley started tapping his foot on the floor, hoping they would hurry it up. He put his hand on his face, feeling like trouble was coming any second. Once the necklace was paid for, Recker put the small box in his pocket and walked over to his partner.

  “Uh, excuse me, sir,” the clerk said, putting his finger in the air. “But, uh, what are we going to do about… them?” He then pointed to the bodies on the floor.

  Recker looked down at them. “Oh, them? Don’t worry about it. The police will be here in a few minutes to mop things up. Thanks.” Recker gave them a salute as he and Haley walked out of the store.

  The clerk’s mouth fell open, unsure of everything that just happened. “Uh… thank you… I guess.”

  As Recker and Haley got near the car, Recker tossed his partner his keys and jumped in the passenger seat. As they pulled out of the parking lot, several police cruisers pulled in.

  Haley loudly sighed and shook his head. “That was close. Too close. Did you have to go shopping now?”

  “What?” Recker held the necklace up. “Mia will like this, don’t you think?”

  “She’ll love it. Did you have to make it so close though?”

  “What, told you we had time.”

  “Is there a specific reason you had to get that?”

  “No. Nothing other than she’s the best.”

  “Well I’ll agree with you there.”

  They were about halfway back to the office when Recker’s phone rang. He looked over at Haley.

  “It’s Malloy,” Recker said. He then answered it. “How’s it going?”

  There was no immediate response, but judging by what Recker heard in the background, he could tell how it was going. He heard voices yelling and screaming, what sounded like guns being fired, and he even thought he detected an explosion, though he couldn’t say for c
ertain.

  “Uh, is everything all right?” Recker asked.

  There was a brief pause before Malloy’s voice was finally heard. “No!”

  Recker heard more gunfire. “What’s happening?”

  “We’re pinned down. Need help. Can you get here?”

  “Where you at?” As Malloy rattled off the address, Recker tapped his partner on the arm and motioned for him to turn the car around. They were headed in the wrong direction.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Too much to talk. Just get here!”

  “We’re on the way. Give us twenty.”

  After Recker put his phone down, Haley wondered about what was happening. “Where we going?”

  “Looks like one of Vincent’s warehouses.”

  “What for?”

  Recker shrugged. “Didn’t say. Some kind of trouble. Sounded urgent. Said they were pinned down.”

  “Who? Just him?”

  “Didn’t say. Judging by what was happening in the background, didn’t sound like it. Sounded like the whole platoon was there.”

  “Who they up against?”

  “Don’t know. Maybe it’s Jeremiah’s men.”

  “You mean Jerrick.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Recker said. “One and the same seems like.”

  “So what are we, the reinforcements?”

  “Seems like. When I left that meeting with Vincent, they said his men had been ambushed. They went off to check it out. I’m guessing this is the result of that.”

  “Looks like it was a bigger ambush than they thought.”

  “Looks like.”

  “Guess we’re the cavalry.”

  Recker nodded. “Off to save the day again.”

  17

  Vincent and Malloy were taking cover behind their car, keeping their heads down as much as possible to avoid them getting shot off. They periodically rose up over it to get off a few shots of their own.

  “I’m not sure we can hold them off until Recker gets here,” Malloy said.

  “We just need to keep them at bay for now,” Vincent replied. “We don’t need to take wild shots and try to take them all out now. We just need to keep them busy.”

  Malloy looked past his boss at one of the other cars, which also had two of their men behind it, in the same situation that they were in. “I’d say it’s more of them keeping us busy.”

  He then looked back to his left, where there was another car with two men behind it. That was all they had left. The six of them. When they first arrived at the warehouse, upon hearing that four of their men had been ambushed there, there were twelve of them. Four of them went down on the second ambush. The other two were lost during the subsequent fight, which was still going. They never had a chance. As soon as they rolled up on the scene and started looking at their fallen comrades, the second round of fighting started, picking off some of them immediately. Only a minute or two later, another one of them went down. The bullet appeared to come from the side this time.

  “They’re starting to flank us!” Malloy yelled.

  “We’re gonna have to get inside,” Vincent said.

  Malloy turned his head to see how far it was to the warehouse. It was a good thirty yards or so to the door. And it was a wide open space between that and the cars.

  “I don’t think we’re all gonna be able to make it. They’ll pick a few of us off.”

  “It’s better than them picking all of us off here,” Vincent replied.

  Malloy looked to the car to their right, which now only had one man behind it. “Hey, John! We’re gonna make a run for the warehouse! Move to our car first and I’ll try and cover you!”

  The man instantly made a dash for the car Vincent and Malloy were behind. As soon as he started running, Malloy rose up and started firing where he thought their attackers were, even though he couldn’t see any of them. All he was trying to do was make them duck their heads while the bullets were flying to give their man a chance. Once their man made it safely to the car, Malloy looked to the other car.

  “Guys!” Malloy pointed to the warehouse. “Start making your way there! We’ll try and cover you from there! Then when you get there, you cover us!”

  The men nodded, understanding the plan. They immediately ran toward the warehouse, with Vincent, Malloy, and the other man all firing to try and cover them. After a few seconds, Malloy looked back to see if their men had made it. One of them had. The other was lying face down, motionless.

  Malloy sighed. “Lost another one.”

  “We can’t worry about that now,” Vincent said. “It’s our turn to move.”

  Malloy tapped the other man on the shoulder to give him the plan. “We let Vincent get ahead of us. We’ll stick right behind him and try to cover him as much as possible. I don’t want them to get an easy shot at him.” The man nodded. “We’ll turn around once or twice to give him more time to get there.” The man nodded again, good with the plan. “You ready, boss?”

  “Let’s go,” Vincent replied.

  Vincent rose to his feet and took off toward the warehouse. Malloy and the other man stood up and started firing wildly. The man already at the warehouse did the same. After a couple of seconds, Malloy and the other man ran towards Vincent. Once they caught up to him, they both turned around and started firing again. Just as they were about to turn back and start running again, Malloy’s partner bent over and clutched his stomach. Malloy saw him hunch over and went over to him to help him, but just as he got there, another bullet penetrated the man’s torso, sending him to the ground. Malloy knew he was gone. All he could do now was help himself. He dropped to a knee and continued firing blindly. He turned his head around to look at the warehouse and saw that Vincent had made it safely.

  “Jimmy!” Vincent yelled. “C’mon! We’ll cover you!”

  Malloy quickly got back to his feet and sprinted toward the warehouse. As he did, Vincent and the last remaining man fired furiously, hoping that one of their badly aimed bullets would be lucky enough to hit something. They didn’t, but it did happen to be enough to get Malloy to the warehouse unscathed. Just as he reached it, the other man burst through the front door to open it, Vincent and Malloy following him inside. Once in there, they immediately took up spots by windows.

  Malloy was still breathing heavily. “That should at least buy us a few minutes.”

  Vincent looked at the time. He was concerned, but not yet worried. He knew Recker and Haley should have been arriving any minute. If they weren’t coming, he might have felt like the walls were closing in. But he wasn’t at that point yet. Right before Malloy called Recker, he called more of Vincent’s men, but they were farther away conducting other business, and while they were coming, they were likely at least five or ten minutes behind Recker.

  “We just need to hold them off for a few more minutes,” Vincent said.

  “When’s Recker getting here? Should be here by now.”

  “Patience, my friend. He’ll be here. He may be already.”

  “How you figure?”

  “If I know him, just because we can’t see him, doesn’t mean he can’t see us. He may be out there stalking his prey.”

  “Man, I sure hope so,” Malloy said. “Depending on how many people they got out there, if they start rushing us, I’m not sure how much longer we can hold out.”

  “Just have to give them a few more minutes.”

  Malloy checked his weapon and had a new concern. “I’m running out of ammo. Only have one mag left.” He looked to the other man. “What about you? What do you have left?”

  “I got two.”

  “Make every shot count. Can’t spray and pray.”

  Recker and Haley had pulled up just in front of the gate that led to the warehouse. It was closed and locked, which made them get out and look for an alternate entry point. They grabbed a pair of bolt cutters and walked around to the side of the property, finding a piece of the tall chain-link fence that they could cut through to make their entr
ance. Once they crawled through, they immediately heard gunfire coming from their right. Recker motioned to Haley about splitting up, with Recker continuing to follow along the fence, while Haley would move around some shipping containers.

  As Recker and Haley merged closer to their targets, the sound of guns firing grew a little bit louder. They were close. They just had to find the exact spots of the shooters. After a few more seconds, they found the first one. They were on opposite sides of one of the containers, and Recker looked up, identifying one of the men as being on top of it. He couldn’t see them yet, but they were there. He looked at Haley, then pointed at himself, and made a motion with his fingers that he was going to go up on top of the container. Haley nodded, then started looking around to give his partner protection in case someone else came along, so Recker didn’t have to worry about anyone other than the man on top.

  Recker slowly climbed the ladder on the side of the container, making sure he didn’t make any noises that would give away his presence. Surprise would be his ally here. As he reached the top of the ladder, Recker peeked his head over the side of the container, seeing a man lying flat on his stomach with an automatic rifle. He was positioned away from Recker, so he didn’t see him coming. Recker pushed himself up on top of the container, making the slightest of noises as his handle of his gun brushed up against the metal container. It made the shooter flinch and look back. Upon seeing the strange man standing there, he rolled over and tried to get a shot off, though Recker fired three rounds that all landed before the man could do the same to him. That shooter was gone, but Recker looked over at the other dozen containers that were lined up to the right of the one he was standing on, and saw four more shooters spaced out.

  “Oh, crap,” Recker said, observing the four men all turn to look at him.

  The bullets came only a few seconds later. Recker immediately dropped to his stomach and quickly slithered his way back down the ladder, giving the shooters as small a target to shoot at as possible. Once back on the ground, he and Haley came up with a new plan.

  “There’s four guys up there,” Recker said. “Spaced out.”

  “Well they got nowhere to go. No need to rush and do anything stupid.”