Takedown

by Heather Atkinson

  “Fine,” she replied. “I’m a bit pissed off but they haven’t hurt me.”

  “Good.” His eyes flicked to Ben. “You’ve got what you wanted. Now let her go.”

  “Not just yet. We want to make sure the drugs are in the coffin. Check it Rick.”

  The bald firefighter handed Eddie his gun and stepped forward, looking a bit nervous as he knelt by the coffin. He grasped the lid and shoved it aside to reveal the neatly-packaged bricks.

  “They’re all there,” Vance told them. “So give us Faith back.”

  “Lift the top ones off Rick,” said Ben. “We want to make sure it’s all there.”

  “It is all there,” said Caleb. “We’re not stupid.”

  “So you’ve already proved but you’re young and impetuous and that type of person makes rash decisions.”

  Everyone watched as Rick lifted the top layer of packages out of the coffin to reveal more. “They’re all here.”

  “Cut one of the packages open to check.”

  He produced a pen knife and jabbed the tip into one of the bricks, which he carefully put to his lips. “Cocaine. It’s the real deal.”

  “You’ve made the smart decision lads,” Ben told the brothers.

  “We know,” replied Vance. “Now give us Faith back.”

  “All right, you’ve earned it,” he said, putting his hand in the middle of her back and shoving her towards them.

  She stumbled, a damaged floorboard cracking under her right foot and Vance caught her and pulled her to him, steadying her.

  “Are we done here?” Vance asked Ben.

  “Not quite,” he said, raising the gun. “We’re busy people and we don’t want to go back and forth, taking the drugs from you only for you to steal them again.”

  “You do realise that if you kill us the Maguires will kill you. Against them, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “Perhaps, if there was any evidence that was what had happened. After all, they only have your word that this has gone on between us. We’re going to burn your bodies up until there’s nothing left. To the world it will look like you did a runner with the drugs.”

  “They won’t buy that,” said Faith. “They’re not stupid.”

  “You don’t need to worry about it,” he said, removing the safety. “Because you’ll be dead.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Vance. “Not unless you want your wife to stay in one piece.”

  Ben’s eyes flickered and for the first time he looked a little afraid. “What?”

  “We took a leaf out of your book. Before we came here we sent our friends to your house and to Amanda’s brother’s, as well as to Rick’s parent’s and to Eddie’s house.”

  “You fucking bastards,” roared Eddie, aiming his gun at him.

  “I wouldn’t do that because if our friends don’t hear from us in the next ten minutes then your loved ones will be subjected to tortures they couldn’t even imagine. You might know how to roast people alive but we’ve become expert torturers. We wouldn’t kill them, we’d just ensure they were maimed for life – blinded, limbs amputated, tongues cut out. The list really is endless,” he said with a cold smile. “I want to thank you all. The inspiration came from your threats to our family.”

  “He’s bluffing,” said Amanda, uncocking her gun.

  “Do you really want to take that chance?” said Vance, eyes glittering.

  “You’ve no way to contact them,” said Rick. “We searched you, you’re not carrying a radio or phone.”

  “But you didn’t check our car, did you? You may think you’re playing the big boy’s game but you’re still amateurs.”

  “Why didn’t you check the fucking car?” Amanda yelled at Eddie and Rick, who both jumped.

  “You never said we had to,” retorted Eddie.

  “Go and check the car,” Ben told them, gaze locked on Vance. “Quickly.”

  Rick nodded and ran out, the two sides staring each other out as they waited in silence for him to return.

  He came back a minute later, panting not with the exercise but with agitation. “I found this under the driver’s seat,” he said, holding out a mobile phone.

  “Now I can give you the proof,” said Vance, holding his hand out for it.

  Rick looked to Ben, who nodded, so he dumped the phone in Vance’s hand.

  Vance dialled and put the call on speakerphone. “Tariq,” he said. “It’s me. Could you tell us where you are?”

  He rhymed off an address, this statement followed by a wicked chuckle. “I’m enjoying myself. She’s taken a shower and is wandering about in just a pink dressing gown in her bedroom without drawing the curtains. Fucking gorgeous tits.”

  “I’ll kill you, you bastard,” roared Ben, for the first time losing his cool.

  “Who the fuck is that?” said Tariq’s voice.

  “Her husband,” replied Vance.

  There was another chuckle. “I’ll bet she’s ready for a real man.”

  When Ben started to yell again, face turning purple, Vance ended the call. “I can call my other friends if you need more confirmation?”

  “That’s enough,” hissed Ben, eyes wild.

  “Now I suggest you let us all go,” said Vance, pocketing the phone. “Before our friends lose their patience and get to work.”

  Faith couldn’t help but smile. Vance had played a blinder.

  “We should still kill them,” said Amanda. “Then we can deal with their friends and get back here and finish the plan.”

  “I don’t know if it’s worth the risk,” replied Ben.

  “We’re so close,” she barked, dark eyes flashing. “If we let them walk out of here this will never be over. Don’t you want it all to end?”

  “What about your brother?”

  “How do we know their friends are really where they say they are? Let’s just kill them. Ten minutes is enough time, your house is only five minutes from here. Think about it,” she pressed when he appeared uncertain. “All your money troubles gone. We have never not completed a job yet. Let’s not start now.”

  Resolution filled Ben’s eyes and the gun, which had been hanging limply by his side, was raised again.

  “We were afraid you’d make that decision,” said Vance.

  There was an enormous bang that sent them all staggering, not just from the force of the blast but because the explosion shook the already damaged building. Vance pulled Faith down to the floor while their siblings likewise took cover.

  Startled, random shots filled the air as the panicking firefighters let off a few bullets but none hit their mark, mainly because they couldn’t see. The explosion had emanated from the small device hidden inside one of the parcels in the coffin. It had burst the few genuine cocaine bricks and the powder now hung in the air.

  A brick sailed through the window behind them, smashing it and three small round devices were thrown through the gap.

  “Close your eyes,” Vance told Faith. The two of them were still laid on the floor and he was shielding her body with his own.

  There was a blinding flash and the firefighters cried out with surprise.

  Caleb wrenched the panel off the back of the coffin that they’d cut into it and pulled out three guns, sliding two across the floor to Vance and Faith, who snatched them up. He kept the third one for himself. As they’d only been able to fit three guns in the compartment, he pulled out two knives and slid one towards Kevin and the other to Vance so he could cut Faith’s bonds.

  “Go for the window with Kev and Jason,” Vance told Faith. “Me and Caleb will hold them off. We need to get out of here before we all get high. I’ll cover you.”

  “I’m not going without you,” she told him.

  “Go Faith,” he said, firing at one of the firefighters when they ran for the shelter of the office.

  “No,” she retorted, firing too.

  “You’re one stubborn woman.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Kev, Jason, go.”

  While the th
ree of them fired at the firefighters to keep them back, Jason ran for the shattered window first and flung himself out of it. Kevin followed, wincing at the sound of gunfire, expecting to be hit but he dropped to the ground outside, unscathed.

  “Are you okay?” said Abi, rushing up to them. “Did you get everything I threw inside?”

  “We did but the others are stuck,” replied Kevin. “The firefighters have got guns.”

  “Oh my God.”

  All three of them looked back at the furniture warehouse.

  “What do we do?” said Jason.

  His brother and sister didn’t reply. They had no idea.

  CHAPTER 19

  Fortunately the cocaine floating in the air had settled, although Faith did feel a little light-headed. Whether that was from the drugs or the shock of the situation, she wasn’t sure. Ben and Amanda had retreated to the back room and were shooting at them from around the door while Eddie and Rick had taken refuge behind a large solid wardrobe to let off random shots.

  “Can you smell that?” Caleb yelled to his siblings over the noise of gunfire.

  Faith sniffed the air. “It’s petrol.”

  Looking around she saw Rick and Eddie tipping over barrels of the stuff and it went pouring across the floor. They were careful to splash it up the walls too.

  “This place will go up like a roman candle with that lot,” exclaimed Vance.

  “Caleb, go,” Faith called over her shoulder. “We’ve got you covered.”

  “No chance,” he said. “You’ll be too outnumbered.”

  “Find us a way out,” she told him. “You’re good at that.”

  “All right,” he nodded, pumping a few shots in the direction of the back room before making a run for the window. When a number of furious shots struck the wall in front of him, he was forced to throw himself to the floor, covering his head with his hands.

  “We’re stuck,” said Faith.

  Faith and Vance looked at each other when there was an alarming crack. A horrified Caleb watched as his brother and sister vanished, plummeting downwards as the section of floor they were lying on gave way.

  “No,” he cried.

  Caleb rolled behind the coffin when Rick stepped out from behind the wardrobe and fired a few shots at him. He cringed as the bullets slammed into the wood of the coffin next to his head. Thank God it was lead lined or they might have gone through it and into him. Peering around the coffin, he saw Rick and Eddie holding lit matches.

  “Oh shit,” he yelled as they dropped them into the petrol soaking the floor. It went up like a bonfire, the fire following the trail of petrol, which had trickled in his direction.

  Picking up the lid of the coffin and holding it like a shield, he ran for the window, grimacing as bullets struck the lid, which fortunately stopped at the lead lining it. He leapt through the window and hit the ground hard, shoving the lid aside and scrambling to his feet, ducking down behind the wall.

  “Jesus,” he cried when a hand clamped down on his arm. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was Abi flanked by Kevin and Jason.

  “Are you okay?” she asked him.

  “Fine but Faith and Vance are still inside. The floor caved in and they fell. I don’t know if they’re okay and the room is on fire.”

  “We need to distract the firefighters,” said Abi. “We still have some of these,” she added, holding out Raven’s flash devices, which Jules had sent to Jason as the present she’d promised him, knowing they’d probably need them.

  “All right,” said Caleb. “Let’s skirt the exterior of the building, see if we can find another way in. If we walk through the front door they’ll just shoot us.” He ejected the spent clip in the gun and slammed in a full one, being careful to pocket the empty. “Let’s go and stay behind me.”

  All the air was knocked out of Faith’s body as she hit the floor of the level beneath and for a few frightening seconds she couldn’t breathe, until the shock of the fall wore off and she managed to drag in a breath. She’d landed facedown on the wooden floor, debris scattered around her.

  “Vance,” she gasped. “Vance.”

  He shifted beside her and groaned.

  “Are you okay?” she rasped.

  He coughed and raised his head, blood trickling from his lower lip. “I think so.”

  They flopped onto their backs and stared up at the hole they’d fallen through a few feet above them.

  “The building’s on fire,” said Faith flatly. “How marvellous.”

  “Let’s get out of here before we get roasted to death or shot.”

  “Good idea.”

  They pushed themselves up to a sitting position, aching and grimacing before dragging themselves to their feet.

  “Christ I’m sore,” groaned Vance.

  They looked around the room they were in, which appeared to be a cellar, odds and ends of furniture left hanging around. Both thought themselves lucky they hadn’t landed on any of it. They managed to find their guns thanks to the glow of the fire lighting up the room.

  “There’s a door,” said Faith.

  “That will take us back up to the ground floor and the fire and bullets,” replied Vance. “But it’s the only way out. There aren’t any windows down here.”

  “Then we’ve no choice,” she sighed.

  Vance shoved her in the chest, knocking her back against the wall.

  “What the hell?” she gasped, recoiling when bullets smashed into the wooden floor where she’d just been standing.

  Looking up, she saw Amanda firing down at them through the hole they’d fallen through.

  “I’m sick of that bitch,” said Faith, taking aim and firing back, forcing her to duck out of sight.

  “Let’s go for the stairs,” said Vance.

  They ran up the stairs to the door at the top.

  “It’s locked,” said Vance. “Stand back,” he told her, taking aim at the lock.

  He fired and there was a clang as the lock snapped. Cautiously he opened it an inch and peered out, the heat of the fire raging around the room making his skin tingle. “I can’t see anyone. Hopefully they’ve got out because of the fire.”

  There was a crack and a section of the roof caved in.

  “Get back,” he told Faith, slamming the door shut.

  There was an alarming rumble on the other side of the door as the masonry hit the floor. When the rumble ceased, he tried to push the door open but it wouldn’t shift.

  “Shit,” he yelled. “We’re trapped.”

  “Caleb and the others are still out there,” she said. “They’ll get us out.”

  They retreated back downstairs, the cellar now thick with choking smoke, huddling together, helpless as the fire ate its way towards them.

  “What the hell are we going to do?” cried Abi, tears in her eyes as they watched the flames engulf the warehouse.

  “We need to call the fire brigade,” said Jason.

  “They’re already in there, you prick,” Kevin yelled at him.

  “Someone’s coming out,” said Caleb. “Get back.”

  They pressed themselves against the wall as they watched Ben and Amanda stagger out of the rear of the warehouse wearing breathing apparatus.

  “Are you going to shoot them?” whispered Kevin as Caleb took aim.

  “I’m not a good enough shot from this distance,” he whispered back. “And they still have their guns.”

  “It’s all gone to fuck,” screamed a furious Amanda, tearing off her mask.

  “Shut up and get in the van,” Ben told her, dragging her towards the white transit van parked a distance from the rear of the building. They’d been careful to leave it out of reach of the flames that they knew would destroy the warehouse.

  Rick and Eddie followed, likewise wearing their breathing apparatus. They paused to shut and lock the back door of the warehouse behind them.

  “Get in,” Ben yelled at them as he and Amanda jumped into the front seat. He started the engine, flood
ing the car park with light.

  Both men ran for the van’s rear doors, pulled them open and jumped in the back.

  “We can’t just let them leave,” said Jason as the van sped out of the car park.

  “Never mind them,” said Caleb. “We need to get Faith and Vance out of there.”

  Vance frowned when light suddenly engulfed a large wardrobe at the opposite side of the room. “What’s that?” he said, pointing to it.

  They both ran to the wardrobe and shoved it aside.

  “It’s a window,” exclaimed Faith.

  The light died away and over the crackling of the fire they heard the roar of an engine outside. The room was now black with smoke and they were both coughing, their eyes stinging.

  The window was six and a half feet above the floor and was quite wide but only a foot and a half tall. Faith was too short to see out but Vance could just see by going up on his tiptoes and found himself eye level with the car park. The light had come from the headlights of a transit van, which was pulling out of the car park, no doubt containing Ben and his friends. He writhed at the handle, almost laughing with relief when it opened outwards and he breathed in the fresh air.

  “I’ll boost you up,” he told Faith.

  “How will you get out?”

  He indicated an ornate wooden chair.

  Vance pulled her to him, shielding her as there was another crack from above and more of the ceiling caved in behind them. The fire had eaten away all of the floor above and was now climbing down the walls of the basement towards them.

  “Go,” Vance told her.

  He formed a cradle with his hands. She stepped into it and he pushed her up to the window. She grabbed the sides and managed to drag herself through, grimacing as her back scraped the top of the window.

  “There she is,” yelled a voice.

  For one awful moment Faith thought the voice belonged to one of the firefighters, so she was relieved to see Caleb and the others running towards her.

  Caleb and Jason grabbed her arms and hauled her through the gap and she breathed in the fresh air before launching into a coughing fit.

  “Vance, come on,” yelled Caleb, taking one of his arms while Jason took the other.