If the circumstances were different, it would have been a truly beautiful place where one could simply unwind. Now, however, there was no time for that.
Ben walked to the edge of the roof, which was enclosed by a balustrade, and looked down, then over at the adjacent house.
“You can’t be serious now!” Anna stated, instinctively taking a step back. “I thought you were really joking. We’d hide out here somewhere and just make it look like we went over there!”
“We have to get over there. We’re trapped here!”
Anna snorted. “Then why did you lead us up here?”
“So we could jump over to the other house.”
Anna threw her hands in the air. “Couldn’t you have said that before, that you actually meant it? Because then I would have said absolutely not!”
Ben looked at Anna. “Would you rather try your luck with those guys down there?”
She remained silent and chewed her bottom lip. Then she shook her head in annoyance. “Shit!”
As she stepped to the edge and looked down, she felt hot and cold. Three stories were already very high and the other roof seemed very far away.
“I can’t do that!”
“Very few people are good at dying. And yet you will if you stay here.”
“There must be another way!”
Ben looked toward the door. “Sure. The other way is through about a dozen armed men.”
Anna looked angry. “I’m beginning to understand why Mo almost never mentioned you. Your attitude is very depressing.”
Ben took a breath. “I’ll make you a deal: I’ll jump over it and get help. And you stay here and hold them off as long as you can.”
Anna’s eyes twinkled. “I hate you!”
Ben smiled. “Good, hate can give you incredible powers and make you do things you never thought you could.”
She gazed into his eyes, then looked back at the other house. “I know that all too well, I’m afraid. Don’t worry. But how do we get over there now? Isn’t there some other way? Anything where we don’t die right away?”
Ben looked toward the door, then walked to one of the edges and looked over. “Could you do that?”
Anna joined him and looked down at the balcony that was there. “As an alternative to jumping over there? Yes. Hmm. Would have to be the Müllers’ balcony.”
“Okay. We’ll take the balconies then.”
“Balconies? Plural?”
Ben nodded. “First that one, then the one below it.”
Anna shook her head. “You really have a sense of humor.”
Before Ben could answer, something pounded on the door.
“But I guess I can get used to it,” was all Anna said, and began to climb over the balustrade. “Will that door hold?”
“Not for too long. It’s designed so no one can break in through it. No one thought of breaking out.”
Just then the door burst off its hinges and immediately three men appeared, dressed in black, who could have been spitting images of those who had attacked Mo and Ben in the apartment, as if they all had the same outfitter. And they looked very angry.
Anna cried out and dropped down. Ben risked a quick glance to see if she had made it to the balcony okay, then turned to the men. They were menacingly close and attacked immediately. The largest of them came through the middle and struck at Ben. Ben dodged, blocked the arm, but could not counterattack, because the next one already kicked him, which he had to dodge.
The third, who had not yet attacked him, went to the balustrade and looked over. When he saw Anna, his face contorted and he started to climb down. Ben saw this, grabbed one of the chairs and hurled it at him, causing the man to lose his footing. He spun in the air and slammed his head into the iron balcony railing barely a yard away from Anna. The crack suggested that he had crushed his skull, the crunch that he had broken his neck as well. Anna cried out as he simply lay in front of her like a wet sack of meat, the blood from his cracked skull spreading out in a dark pool.
His hunky partner looked over the balustrade and his face turned angry red. With his eyes distorted with hate, he looked at Ben. The giant reached behind him and took out a long knife. His partner did the same.
Ben reached behind him and pulled out the pistol. Before the two realized it, he had already pulled the trigger repeatedly and put bullets in each of their chests and their foreheads. Both were thrown backwards by the force and also fell over the balustrade. On their way down, they banged on the balcony railing, then continued to plummet downward, coming to rest at the bottom with a sickening sound.
Anna was shaking all over. In a very short time, she had witnessed how three men had died brutally before her eyes. In front of her and below on the lawn lay various bodies, which in their grotesque contortions barely resembled people.
When she looked up, she saw Ben looking down over the balustrade. Before she could say anything, a noise sounded from the roof and Ben had disappeared.
Ben turned around and saw more men coming out of the door. Immediately he fired more shots, all of which hit their target. But then his magazine was empty. Without hesitation, he threw the pistol at the next man who came through the door, so that it hit him squarely in the nose. As Ben lunged toward him, he grabbed the large knife the giant had dropped and struck his attacker’s arm with it. The force of the blow and the sharpness of the knife, which was more like a machete, were enough to sever his arm cleanly.
Screaming, the man went to his knees while blood spurted from the stump of his arm. Ben paid no more attention to him and lunged at the next man, kicking him in the chest, only to immediately lash out with the knife at another attacker, cutting him horizontally across the face. When the victim swayed to the side, Ben turned and struck with the knife at the man he had just kicked and was now getting up again. The cut went right through his throat and made him sink to the ground, gasping.
Ben grabbed the man’s gun and immediately fired at the door. A man ran into the middle of the hail of bullets and was pulled backwards. Ben stopped firing, changed the magazine and waited. When someone appeared, Ben fired immediately, then waited again.
Continuing to aim at the door with one hand, he checked the bodies for more magazines, which he pocketed. Then he moved slowly to the balustrade, only to jump down.
Anna cried out. “What the fuck is going on?!”
Without answering her question, Ben pushed her aside and aimed upward. When a head appeared, he fired immediately. Blood and brains splashed down like rain while the rest disappeared from sight again.
Anna screamed again as she tried in vain to get rid of the splashes of blood and brains that had hit her face. Ben, on the other hand, shot at the glass of the balcony door, then reached in and opened the door. Quickly pulling Anna with him, he crossed the room with her and pushed her behind the wall of the next door while aiming outside.
A foot appeared and Ben fired. At that, the man to whom the foot belonged fell down screaming and slammed on the balcony.
Now it was not only Anna who screamed, an elderly couple also looked frightened from their bedroom into the hallway.
“Hide!” shouted Ben, and the couple panicked and did as he said.
As Ben continued to aim for the balcony door, he slowly moved to the front door and undid the locks there. The key was in it and he slowly turned it around.
“Do you have a car?” asked Ben quietly.
“Yes,” Anna breathed. “I always park on the other side.”
Ben nodded, then opened the door almost silently. As soon as he stepped out, the lights came on. To Anna’s amazement, however, he walked back inside and pulled her to the side into the corner behind the door, which he left open.
The next moment Anna heard voices coming from the staircase as well as from the balcony. When she could make out figures, she had to suppress a scream. The figures, however, ran past her and Ben into the stairwell, where they met more and apparently moved downstairs.
When not
hing more could be heard, Ben slipped out from behind the door and closed it carefully, then went back to the balcony, his gun cocked.
The man he had shot in the foot still lay there, left behind by his comrades. Completely surprised, he wanted to scream. Ben kicked him in the head, which crashed against the wall behind him with full force and with a sickening sound, leaving a dark red stain.
“Oh, my God!” whispered Anna. “You’re crazy! You’re sick!”
Ben didn’t care. He looked over the balcony. “Can you jump down there?”
Anna’s eyes grew wide. “Damn, that’s too far!”
Ben pointed to the tree, a birch, that stood between the parallel balconies. “Then we’ll take that one.”
“It doesn’t look very sturdy, though,” Anna pointed out.
“Jump it, then.”
“Screw you!” Anna hissed, making her way to the tree. Uncertainly, she looked down, but then climbed over the railing, took a breath and jumped into the tree.
The next moment the apartment door was kicked open and a broad-shouldered man came stumbling in, followed by someone rather slighter in contrast to him. Ben jumped to the side to get a better shot and fired. He hit the weaker of the two, first only in the arm, but then in the chest and head, but could not prevent the other from jumping at him, so that Ben’s pistol flew down over the railing.
While Anna desperately held on to the tree and slowly moved down, the two men wrestled with each other. The broad Russian relied on his brute strength alone, while Ben moved into hand-to-hand combat, taking a few hard hits at first. Then, however, he managed to block the Russian’s attacks and to strike at him in turn, while deflecting all the attacks. Again and again he punched the attacker in the face with his fists and elbows, turning him into an increasingly bloody mass.
The man staggered backwards against the railing like a battered boxer on the ropes. Quickly Ben took a running start and jumped at the man to tumble over the railing with him. In the process, Ben yanked him around so that it was the man who crashed hard to the floor while Ben landed on top of him.
The Russian groaned and spat blood. As he tried to turn to the side, Ben crouched on top of him and continued to beat him until he stopped moving. Breathing heavily, he looked down at the man for another moment. Then he finally rose, went to his pistol and picked it up.
When Anna reached the ground, Ben gave her no respite. He pushed her against the wall and waited. As soon as more men showed themselves, he shot each one directly in the head. The shots were barely audible through the silencer, while the sound of the head bursting open sounded incredibly loud in Anna’s ears, reminding her of a watermelon falling on a hard floor.
Instead of screaming, Anna just closed her eyes and opened them only when she felt a tug on her right wrist.
Ben directed them to the trees that offered them shelter. Before they went any further, he oriented himself to see if any more men would appear while he refilled his pistol with a new magazine.
“Where’s your car?”
Anna gulped. “Over there – on the other side.”
Ben took a breath and nodded.
Cautiously, as if they were being hunted by a dangerous predator, they slowly ventured forward, taking advantage of every shadow and cover they could find.
“We have to go over there through the playground,” Anna said.
Ben didn’t like that at all. The trees gave them a good hiding place, but they had to cross open ground to get to the playground, and the playground equipment hardly offered any protection. Nevertheless, they had to leave as soon as possible.
Looking around, they finally just walked across without anyone noticing them. As they approached the parking lot, Anna pulled out her car keys, pressed the button, and immediately the lights on her Golf came on.
In the next instant, the attack occurred.
Before the bullet could hit her, Ben pushed Anna aside, then dodged it himself. In doing so, he stumbled at first, but then quickly regained his footing and fired. Again and again.
Anna was grabbed by the hair and pulled up. But then her instinct took over. In the next moment, she grabbed her attacker’s arm and spun him around, causing him to let go and kicked him, as she had learned to do. She hit him in the knee and heard a cry of pain, whereupon she punched him in the face. Still, the man grabbed at her, clasping her left hand with a grip as strong as a vice.
Anna reached for the knife Ben had given her. Without thinking, she stabbed the man until the blade penetrated to the shaft next to his neck. The man’s grip loosened and he sank to the grass with his last breath.
Before Anna even realized what she had done, the next man came. As he approached her, he pulled out a knife himself and Anna thought her heart would stop. Before he reached her, however, he was suddenly yanked backwards as a bullet slammed into his chest.
Startled, she backed away, turning around to see a man come very close to Ben and point his gun at his head, as if he were simply going to execute him. Anna cried out, but Ben had long since reacted. He dodged to the side, punched the attacker in the arm, then pulled his legs away and slammed them onto the hood of the car. He turned the attacker’s pistol against himself and pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times.
Inhaling deeply through his nose, Ben straightened up and looked around. Then he wrestled the pistol from the dead man and picked up his own.
“To the car!” he said curtly, and Anna followed him as if in a trance. She picked up the keys she had dropped and handed them to him. While she sat down in the passenger seat, mechanically fastening the seat belt, he was already starting the car, reversing and then just driving off.
“Who the hell are you?!” shouted Anna, looking around to see if any of the attackers were still pursuing her, but nothing was moving anywhere.
Ben took a breath. “Someone who wants to fulfill a friend’s last wish.”
“But you’re not just a banker, geez!” Anna was still beside herself. “I mean, I know Mo trained in self-protection for years and his father was a cop, but that? You don’t learn that in a class! You killed those guys without batting an eye. And how come you’re such a good shot? And fighter? Who are you? Where did you learn all that?”
Ben was silent. Anna’s words had triggered a flood of images and emotions in him that he didn’t need right now. He had to concentrate, because it certainly wasn’t over yet.
Already he saw in the rearview mirror that a car had turned onto the road some distance behind them and accelerated.
“Could you say something, please?”
Ben looked in the rearview mirror again. “I just want to make sure no one is following us.”
Anna laughed mirthlessly. “Who? You’ve killed everyone, haven’t you? Everyone who attacked us is dead!”
“I was just protecting you.”
As he continued to look in the rearview mirror, she looked around in horror. She clearly saw the headlights of the other car, which she couldn’t quite make out.
“That could be anyone,” she said.
“I’d rather not assume that.”
The car followed them, but then turned off. Ben nodded, but remained alert.
Anna swallowed and looked ahead again. “What are you going to do now? Do you have a plan?”
Ben nodded. “Mo was right. We have to stop them. Until we stop them, you won’t be safe. We really need to know what’s on the list. In addition, we need to know what’s on the computer.”
“But surely they’ll be guarding that?”
“Nevertheless, this is our only chance. And we have to get there fast, before they delete everything.”
Anna shook her head. “You’re leading us into the lion’s den with this, aren’t you?”
“Call me Ben.”
Anna took a deep breath. “Ben.” She looked out the window, and nodded. “Anna.”
Ben nodded curtly as well. “Yes, Anna. You’re right about us heading straight into the lion’s den.”
&nb
sp; Anna seemed to resign and shook her head. “First you save me so I can escape them, and now you want to drive me into their arms for better or worse.”
“I’d rather know you’re in a safe place, but the danger is too great that I need you to get the information. Besides, it’s the only way I can keep an eye on you. Unfortunately, though, you can’t have one without the other.”
Anna exhaled. “I believe you, unfortunately. Otherwise I would have left long ago.” She was silent for a moment and then looked at Ben. “Where should we go first now?”
“For now, we’ll find a safe hiding place. There we’ll decipher the coded list.”
“You can do that?”
“Yes. The code is based on Mo and my favorite book. When we wanted to send each other co-designated messages, we’ve always used that book, or rather a specific page.”
Anna nodded. “If you don’t know that and you don’t know the page, you’re screwed. So the list wouldn’t have done these guys any good.”
“No, not without the book and knowing which page to use and how.”
Anna took a breath and shook her head with a resigned smile. Then she looked at Ben. “I’m sorry about your friend. Mo was really...”
Ben nodded, but there was a flash in his eyes. “Yeah.”
“And he told you to look out for me?”
Ben nodded. “Yes. It was the last thing he wanted.”
Anna shook her head. “Unbelievable. Why did he do that? I mean, he was dying and he was still thinking about me?”
“That’s how Mo was, that’s how I met him. I don’t mean exactly like that. In the beginning he was very distant and would have preferred to get rid of me. Later I found out that he was the Mo I really got to know. He was always worried about others. He preferred that something happened to him rather than someone else. Family and friends came first for him. Equal. He himself, well he himself didn’t play a big role for himself.”
“But to you.”
Ben took a breath. “Mo and his father were the most important people to me.”
Ultimate Rage - Ragnarok (Thriller) Page 8