Takedown

by Heather Atkinson

  “Fortunately we brought back up,” said Amanda, drawing a gun from inside her jacket. “Did you bring yours?”

  “No.”

  She looked to Eddie, who shook his head.

  “Then it’s lucky me and Ben did,” she said.

  “You think Mickey might turn on us?” said Rick.

  “He’s panicking, so you never know if he’ll try and throw us under a bus.”

  “Well, this just gets better and better,” he sighed.

  They got out of the car and entered by the side door Mickey had directed them to, Ben and Amanda clutching their guns. They walked into the darkened reception area, which was lit only by the fire exit signs.

  “Mickey?” said Ben cautiously.

  There was no reply.

  “I don’t like it,” whispered Eddie, starting to sweat. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Hello,” called back a voice.

  “Mickey?” said Ben.

  “Up here.”

  The four of them walked in and looked up to see the man himself standing at the top of the stairs leading to the floor above.

  “Thanks for coming,” Mickey said in a voice that sounded a little higher-pitched than usual. “Come on up.”

  “No thanks,” replied Amanda. “We’re happy where we are. Why don’t you come down here?”

  “I can’t. I’ve hurt my…leg.”

  “How did you get up there with a bad leg?”

  “I hurt it while I was up here.”

  “How?”

  “I…tripped up.” Mickey stood unnaturally rigid, like he’d turned to granite. The only part of him that moved was his jaw.

  “Why is he being so weird?” said Eddie.

  “That’s it,” said Rick. “I’m out of here.” He turned and shoved the door they’d just walked through but it refused to budge. “Why won’t it open?” he cried.

  Eddie pushed at it too but still it didn’t move. In their panic they started throwing themselves against it, to no avail.

  “Stand back,” said Amanda, aiming her gun at the door, glad she was getting a chance to use it.

  She shot the lock and the door popped open but, before they could run outside, smoke canisters were hurled into the room. Rick spied a towering figure standing in the doorway before the door was pushed closed again and when he threw himself against it, it didn’t budge.

  “You betrayed us you little bastard,” Amanda bellowed up at Mickey when he turned and vanished through a doorway at the top of the stairs, limping as quickly as the pain in his crotch would allow.

  “Fire exit,” coughed Ben, indicating the glowing green sign at the other side of the room.

  They all lunged towards it, barely able to see through the smoke. Eddie, who was last, received a whack to the back of the head and he toppled forward, landing facedown, unconscious. His friends failed to notice because of the smoke and ran for the fire exit, which also wouldn’t open.

  “This isn’t down to Mickey,” hissed Amanda. “It’s the fucking Chambers family. He must have dobbed us in to them.”

  “You’re right,” coughed Ben, clutching his gun.

  “We could go through the café,” said Rick, indicating the doorway.

  “They will have barricaded any exit there too,” said Amanda, eyes reddened by the smoke, making her look even more diabolical than usual.

  “They’re trying to drive us upstairs with the smoke canisters,” said Ben.

  “Into a trap.”

  “Yes but we’ve no choice. We have to go up to escape the smoke.”

  “We can fight our way out of it.”

  “What?” said a startled Rick.

  “Better to go out in a blaze of glory than die cowering like a worm,” she retorted.

  “I don’t know about that.”

  Ben and Amanda nodded at each other and ran for the bottom of the staircase, bellowing a war cry.

  “Mad bastards,” said Rick, watching them go.

  He decided to head back into the café to try there, crawling along the floor to reach the cleaner air. He made it safely into the café, able to see more clearly as the smoke wasn’t as thick in this part of the building. Rick scrabbled forwards faster on his hands and knees when he saw a door behind the counter. To his delight, it opened and he found himself in a small kitchen. As there was no smoke in this room he scrambled to his feet and ran for the exit.

  “No,” he cried when it refused to open.

  Hearing footsteps behind him, he snatched a knife out of the block and ducked down behind the countertop, gripping the weapon tightly. The footsteps were slow and casual, as whoever it was stalked their quarry.

  “Take this you bastard,” yelled Rick when the figure loomed over him.

  He lashed out with the knife, the blade meeting nothing but air as the figure leapt back out of harm’s way. Finally finding his courage, Rick jumped to his feet and charged at them, keeping Amanda’s training in mind.

  “Jesus, you’re a psycho,” yelled Caleb as he worked to avoid being slashed.

  “Leave me alone,” cried Rick, eyes wild, sweat rolling down his face.

  “Sorry mate, no can do.”

  Caleb smashed the baseball bat into the side of Rick’s face with such speed he didn’t have time to react.

  Rick hit the floor and lay there, unmoving.

  “Tosser,” commented Caleb before pulling a roll of gaffer tape out of his jeans pocket.

  Faith crouched in a corner of one of the darkened rooms upstairs, holding her gun, waiting for the inevitable storm to arrive. Jason had informed her through her earpiece that two of the firefighters had already been dealt with by Kevin and Caleb. Only Ben and Amanda remained, who would be the toughest of the four and they were armed.

  The room she was in was large and square. Rather than a floor it had four metal gantries running into the centre of the room from each corner and it looked down on a small arcade. Below the gantry was a large net to catch anyone who might fall off one of the platforms. The room was lit only by red and blue panels high up in the walls, keeping the majority of it in shadow but giving Faith just enough light to see by.

  Mickey had already been dragged back upstairs, subdued and tied up, waiting for his friends to join him.

  “They’re in the next room to the one you’re in Faith,” Jason’s voice said in her ear. “They’re not splitting up.”

  She held her breath, straining to hear, able to make out soft footsteps moving slowly, cautiously.

  “Then we need to make them,” replied Vance’s voice through the earpiece.

  “Don’t do anything rash,” Faith whispered back.

  Whatever he did made the firefighters panic because there was an alarmed cry followed by the sound of gunshots.

  “Jason, what’s going on?” she said when it all went silent again.

  “Vance has drawn them into the room he’s in but it’s the one with lots of pillars, so there’s plenty of places for him to hide.”

  “Is there another door out of there?”

  “No.”

  “Shit,” she hissed, getting to her feet.

  She stamped her boots on the metal gantry, which sounded incredibly loud in the stillness.

  “In there,” she heard a female voice yell.

  The room Faith was in likewise had a couple of pillars for people to hide behind and she placed herself behind one, produced one of Raven’s flash devices from her pocket and threw it to the floor as Amanda raced in. Unfortunately she saw the object and closed her eyes before it could do its job.

  Once the light had faded away, both women glared at each other, Faith being careful to keep her body behind the protection of the pillar.

  When Amanda raised her gun to fire, Faith said, “Lights Jason.”

  Amanda released a startled gasp when the room was illuminated by blinking white lights that quickly morphed into red then blue before returning to bright white.

  “Kill the lights,” said Faith.

 
; When it went dark, she took aim and fired at Amanda, who threw herself to the floor. The bullet sailed harmlessly over her head and embedded itself in the wall behind her. Faith tutted. They’d promised Bryan they wouldn’t damage his premises.

  Peering around the pillar at Amanda again she saw she was crouched low, not wanting to make herself a target.

  “Sound effects,” she told Jason.

  An air raid siren burst into life, making Amanda swear so loudly she almost drowned it out. Then a panicked male voice announced that the zombies had broken out of the lab and were on their way.

  “What the fuck is going on?” she cried.

  Screams of fear and pain added to the cacophony as the voice announced that the zombies were attacking staff members. All this was window dressing for the laser tag, to get the players riled up.

  Faith revelled in Amanda’s confusion. She only wished she had some real zombies to set on her.

  While Amanda was distracted, Faith hurled another flash device her way and this time she screamed in pain, dropping her gun and clamping her hands to her eyes. Satisfied she was finally subdued, Faith ran at her, boots banging off the gantry. As she reached Amanda she raised her arm, intending to knock her out with the butt of the gun to the side of the head but Amanda’s eyes flew open and she tried to snatch up her dropped weapon. Faith kicked it out of reach and it went over the side of the gantry, landing in the netting. Before she could strike, Amanda grabbed her arm, attempting to get the weapon from her but Faith hung on and the two women started to wrestle for the gun. Faith was strong but Amanda was even stronger and Faith was horrified when the barrel was slowly pointed towards her face. She flicked on the safety with her thumb, so when Amanda squeezed the trigger nothing happened. Faith kneed her in the stomach and she gasped with pain and released Faith’s arm before slamming the side of her hand into her right wrist. Faith dropped the gun and it too fell into the netting.

  Now neither of them had a weapon, the two women laid into each other with their fists.

  Vance crouched down low behind the pillar, listening to footsteps wandering around the room.

  “It’s Ben,” Jason’s voice said in his ear. “Faith’s fighting Amanda.”

  The sound of gunshots from the next room sent adrenaline surging around Vance’s body as he panicked at the thought that Faith might have been hurt.

  “She’s okay,” said Jason’s voice. “Don’t worry.”

  Vance thought that was easier said than done.

  “Ben’s off to your right and he’s got a gun,” said Jason. “Want me to hit the lights and sounds?”

  “Yes.”

  An orange light started flashing above the door, accompanied by the wail of a police siren.

  “Shit,” exclaimed Ben before charging out of the room.

  Vance winced at Jason’s bark of laughter in his ear.

  “He thinks it’s the police, he’s heading for the stairs.”

  Vance tore after him out of the room.

  “Get down,” yelled Jason’s voice.

  Vance threw himself to the floor as a shot rang out, sailing over his head and ploughing into the room he’d just exited. He fired back but all the lights and sounds were disorientating him and he missed. When he saw Ben continuing for the stairs, Vance leapt up and ran after him.

  Faith was knocked sideways by the blow to the face and landed painfully on the railing of the gantry. Amanda was one tough bitch and she was struggling to bring her down. She dodged out of the way of the follow-up punch and kicked her in the thigh. Amanda grunted and kicked back, catching Faith in the stomach. Her eyes widened when a hand grabbed her hair and pulled her backwards.

  “Dead leg you ugly cow,” said Kevin, slamming his foot into the back of her right leg.

  Amanda’s leg went out from under her and she dropped to one knee. She grabbed Kevin’s arm and dragged him over her shoulder. He hit the gantry with a clang and blinked up at her in surprise.

  “What happened?” he asked in confusion.

  His interception gave Faith the breathing space she needed. When Amanda pulled a knife from inside her jacket, Faith leapt over Kevin and grabbed her arm. As Faith twisted her wrist with one hand, turning the blade away from her face, she drew the extendable baton from the back of her jeans, snapped it out and slammed it into Amanda’s extended elbow. Her howl of pain echoed around the room, silenced by Faith smashing the baton across her face. Faith experienced a grudging respect for the woman when she remained on her feet, although her expression was vacant. When Faith rammed her elbow into her face, Amanda finally went down.

  “Nice one,” exclaimed Jason in her ear.

  “Where’s Vance?”

  “At the top of the stairs fighting Ben. It’s fucking brutal.”

  “On my way,” she told him. “Kev, tie her up before she wakes up,” she said before charging out of the room towards the stairs.

  She found the two men locked in a furious struggle to push each other down the stairs, both matched in strength and ability. They had lost their guns in the skirmish.

  Faith chose her moment carefully, not wanting to get caught up in the carnage. She dropped to her knees and slammed the baton into Ben’s left leg. This was enough to give Vance the upper hand, who grabbed him by the throat and slammed him down on the floor, his body making a resounding bang as it impacted on the metal gantry. Despite Ben’s struggles, Vance was able to flip him onto his front. He wrenched his arms up his back while Faith pinned down his legs as he thrashed.

  “Kev,” she yelled. “Hurry up.”

  Kevin rushed up to them wielding a roll of gaffer tape.

  “I can’t find the end,” he exclaimed, frantically scratching at it with his nail.

  “Haven’t you just used it to tie up Amanda?” grimaced Faith as she struggled to maintain her grip on Ben.

  “Yeah but I dropped it and lost the end again. Got it,” he said triumphantly.

  Vance and Faith only released Ben once his hands were taped behind his back and his ankles were tethered together. When he started to yell and complain, Kevin slapped some tape over his mouth.

  “Thank God for that,” breathed Faith. She was aching and sore but the night wasn’t over yet. “Are you okay?” she asked Vance.

  “Fine,” he panted, still recovering his breath from the savage fight. “You?”

  “Fine.” The urge to take his hand was so strong she almost gave into it. Instead she looked to Kevin. “Where’s Caleb?”

  “Shoving the other two into the van,” he replied.

  “Did they give you any trouble?”

  Kevin snorted. “Course not.”

  “Let’s put Ben and Amanda in the van with their friends. Jason, you can come out now,” she said into the microphone. “Kev, can you retrieve the two guns that fell into the netting?”

  “On it,” he said before jogging back into the room where Amanda was tied up.

  “We caused some damage,” said Vance, frowning at the bullet holes in the walls.

  “I know,” replied Faith, gathering up the pistols he and Ben had dropped. “But we’ll have to sort it out later.”

  Vance looked down at Ben. “Come on dickhead. You’re going to have a reunion with your friends.”

  Amanda gasped when she was doused in cold water. Her body ached and her head thumped. It took her hazy vision a moment to clear, eyes still stinging slightly from the effects of the smoke canisters. She found she was bound to a chair, Faith and her brothers facing her. Ranged around the room was who she recognised to be Tariq and four of his friends, who worked for the siblings. All of them were smiling with anticipation. Tariq held a gagged and bound Mickey Gunning, who was slumped on his knees. Ben was on Amanda’s left and on her right were a terrified Rick and Eddie, the four of them in a row. Her three colleagues were similarly gagged and tied to chairs. They weren’t in the laser tag arena anymore. They were in a small warehouse, which was empty, the floor concrete. Most worryingly, she and her friends’ ch
airs had been placed on plastic sheets.

  “Now you’re all finally awake we can begin,” said Faith. “As it’s late I’ll get straight to the point – this ends now. We’re sick and tired of you lot interfering with our business, which you obviously can’t handle. We warned you and you didn’t listen, so we’re left with no choice but to resort to a short sharp shock. Take off their gags.”

  Jason and Kevin tore the gaffer tape from the mouths of the firefighters.

  “We know you conspired with Mickey to rob us,” Faith told them. She gestured from Mickey to the firefighters. “Line him up with his friends.”

  She waited while two of Tariq’s men marched him across the room and shoved him to his knees beside Ben’s chair.

  “Mickey told us everything,” she continued. “About how he got you in deep with an Albanian gang. You don’t need to worry about them anymore. We’ve had a word with the Maguires and they’ve smoothed things over with them. After all, they don’t want them coming here and causing havoc.”

  “Smoothed things over how?” said Amanda.

  “They used their own machetes against them. They’re still alive but they won’t be needing a pair of gloves anymore.”

  “Oh God,” breathed Eddie.

  “You’re lucky the same hasn’t been done to you,” said Faith. “It’s only your standing in the community that means you’re still breathing but we have a dilemma – we don’t think you’re smart enough to let this drop, forget about it and move on with your lives.”

  Panic raced through Rick when she pulled a gun from the waistband of her jeans. “We won’t mention it or even think about it ever again,” he gabbled.

  “What a wuss,” commented Tariq with disgust.

  “The problem is,” said Faith. “I don’t believe you. It would be simpler to bury you all, so we can be certain.”

  “I swear I’m telling the truth,” said Rick. “It’s over. We’ve learnt our lesson.”

  She walked behind him and jammed the gun against the back of his head.

  “Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me,” he repeated over and over, tears sliding down his face.

  “I don’t want to,” she said, removing the safety. “But you’ve pushed us to this.”