by Mike Ryan
They got to the second floor, but instead of pulling the door open and taking some more gunfire, like Jacobs expected would happen, he looked back up the stairs. Why not just go straight to the fifth floor first? He took a few deep breaths to calm down as he thought about it and kept looking up. He was sure there was more in store for him. Whether it was just on the fifth floor or on every floor on the way up, he knew there was more. But it made no sense to check the other floors first before finding Tiffany. But then he thought, if he took everyone out before finding her, there was less of a risk of her getting hurt on the way out. If he had to deal with the others on the way down, he’d then run the risk of putting her even more in harm’s way, having her ducking bullets. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized the only thing that mattered was getting to her quickly, and then getting her out. If he had to stay behind and sacrifice himself for her to do that, he was willing to do it.
Gunner started wagging his tail, waiting for his handler to open the door and let him in. But Jacobs went over to the steps and started climbing.
“We’re going up, bud.”
They ran up the steps, paying close attention to what was in front of them as well as keeping their ears open, listening for any sounds that indicated there was someone on the steps coming after them. Or waiting ahead. As they reached each floor, Jacobs expected someone to be there waiting. But there wasn’t. There surprisingly wasn’t anybody on any floor, even when they reached the fifth. Maybe they did it by design so he would start letting his guard down. It wouldn’t happen, but maybe that was their plan.
Jacobs waited for a few seconds to catch his breath. He knew they were definitely going to run into something here. If Tiffany was waiting in room 512, they weren’t going to just hand her over with a pink ribbon attached, wishing them luck. They were going to make it hard for him. He knew that.
“This is it, bud.”
Gunner was getting restless. He wanted the door opened.
“Remember what I said. Once we go in and find her, we take her out. If I go down, you don’t wait for me, right?”
Gunner growled.
“Let’s end this.”
16
Jacobs took a few deep breaths and looked at Gunner, making sure he was ready. The dog was moving his legs around, antsy to get going. Jacobs yanked the door open, and as soon as he did, several bullets came flying in his direction. A couple went into the door, some went past it, but none went in him. Jacobs dropped to a knee and put his hand around the edge of the door and started firing, while Gunner immediately ran into the danger in an attempt to find his first target.
Jacobs heard the screams of one man, knowing Gunner found who he was looking for. There was a second man waiting there, who was just about to put a few rounds into Gunner, when Jacobs saw him and jumped out from the door to save his dog’s life. Jacobs popped him three times and put the man down.
“Gunner, off!”
As Gunner got off his man, another man emerged from a nearby room and opened up on Jacobs. Jacobs felt the blast, immediately putting his arm up to his chest as the bullet knocked him over. Gunner instantly attacked the new shooter, grabbing hold of his arm and pulling him down to the ground. Jacobs lay on the floor for a few moments, thankful that the vest stopped the bullet, though he was still winded. He knew he didn’t have much time to collect himself. He let out a small moan, but was able to pick his head up and saw the first man getting back to his feet and going over to help the other man against Gunner. Jacobs aimed his gun at the man, hitting him a few times in the legs, dropping him to the ground. As the man lay on the ground, clutching at his legs in agony, screaming at the unbearable pain, Jacobs was finally able to get to one knee. He then aimed at the man’s chest and put him out of his misery.
Jacobs hunched over a bit and held his chest and let out a cough. He didn’t have time to think about the pain, though. Gunner was having all he could handle with the other man, who was trying to punch him to get his jaws off his arm.
“Gunner, off!”
Gunner immediately complied with the direction and released the man’s arm. He then retreated back to Jacobs’ position as his owner took care of the man permanently with one shot. Jacobs was out of ammunition with that gun and tossed it away, removing one of his own again.
Jacobs and Gunner started walking down the hall, taking note of the numbers on the rooms as they got to them. Most of these ones were closed, unlike the ones on the first floor. Still wary of someone popping out, Jacobs opened the doors, then allowed Gunner to go inside first to search. Any issues and Jacobs would take care of them. They went through door after door, not finding any other surprises.
Jacobs was starting to get anxious as he reached room 508. He knew there were only a few rooms left until he got to the one he wanted. He wanted to just bypass the others and get there as fast as he could, but he knew that’s probably what Ames’ men wanted too. That way they could duck out of a room and shoot him in the back as he passed it. He had to stay the course. Jacobs was pleased to find the next two rooms empty. That left two more until he got to 512. He was expecting trouble in one of them, maybe even both. He’d be shocked if there wasn’t.
Jacobs opened the door to 510 and let Gunner go in as he kept an eye on the hallway. Gunner quickly came back out. Jacobs went across the hall and kicked in door 511. Thinking shots would be fired immediately, Jacobs dropped to a knee, ready to fire back. But there was nothing coming. Gunner came back out, hitting on no alerts. Jacobs wiped the sweat off his face and looked down both ends of the hallway to make sure no one was coming. They appeared to be alone. Jacobs took a few seconds to catch his breath, assuming that he was going to have more work to do when he opened the next door. He looked down at Gunner to make sure he was all right.
“You good?”
Gunner let out a low-sounding growl. He was ready to keep going.
“Here we go.”
Jacobs put his hand on the knob of the door and tried to turn it. It wasn’t budging. It was locked. He stayed to the side of the door.
“What are the odds?” he thought.
The one door he needed to go in just happened to be locked. That wasn’t some small coincidence. He knew that meant there was someone in there besides Tiffany. That someone would be armed, and there’d likely be more than one.
Jacobs looked down at Gunner, then took a few steps into the middle of the hallway. He knew the doors in this building weren’t very strong, and considering the place was practically falling apart, wasn’t very sturdy now at all. He thought about crashing through the door to make his entrance, but didn’t want to put himself at a disadvantage as he went through it. He gave the door a powerful kick, though it didn’t open.
Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the other side of the door, causing Jacobs to dive onto the floor and roll to the side to get out of the way. It sounded like it came from an automatic rifle.
Jacobs scurried to the wall and put his back against it. “Well, now we know. They’re definitely in there.”
Jacobs leaned over and looked at the door. With all the holes in it now, it was definitely weakened more. Getting through it shouldn’t have been much of a problem. It was dealing with whatever was on the other side that would be the issue. Jacobs got back to his feet and looked at the door, though he was still staying to the side of it. His thoughts were leading him back to crashing through it. If he kicked at it again and it didn’t open, he was setting himself up to take a few bullets. Of course, he could’ve been doing the same if he crashed through it and hurt himself in the process, taking himself out of the fight for a minute. That would be plenty of time for them to kill him while he was stunned. But he couldn’t stay there all day thinking about it either. He had to make a decision. And he made it.
He looked at Gunner as he took a few steps back. “Get ready.”
Jacobs then took a running start and hurled his body into the door, crashing through the middle of it. As Jacobs went through it,
he stumbled to the ground, pieces of wood flying all over. Just as he hit the ground, Gunner followed the hole in the door and went through it, running over top of Jacobs’ body as he looked for a subject to sink his teeth into. Almost immediately, the man with the rifle started to fire at Jacobs. Just as a few of the shots ripped into the floor, Jacobs rolled to the side. Gunner put his mouth on the man’s forearm, making him drop his weapon, and yanked him down to the ground.
Jacobs shook his head to shake off the effects of crashing through the door. Seeing that Gunner had things well in hand, he peeked around a wall to see if anyone else was there. A man came running down the hall that led to the bedrooms, giving Jacobs a clear target. He didn’t miss. As Jacobs looked down the hall, he saw another man stick his head out. Jacobs didn’t hesitate in firing, instantly dropping the man with a bullet to his head.
“Gunner.”
Gunner released his victim and Jacobs nonchalantly put two rounds into his chest. Gunner then turned around and started growling, looking at the door. Jacobs turned his and waited for someone to come into his sight line. A few seconds later, someone did. The man barely showed himself in the door before Jacobs fired, notching another one in his belt.
Jacobs kept his gun pointed at the door in case there was anyone else coming, but Gunner’s lack of focus told him the danger was done there. Gunner started moving through the rest of the place, first going in the kitchen, then coming back out and going down the hall to the bedrooms. There were two of them, along with the bathroom. Almost immediately after going into one of the rooms, Gunner started whining. He came back out and came up to Jacobs, letting him know he found something. Jacobs followed Gunner into the room. He immediately saw someone sitting in the middle of the room on a chair. It looked like their hands were bound together and tied behind the chair. He couldn’t tell who it was with the hood over their face. As Jacobs looked at the person on the chair, his heart started racing. They weren’t moving. As he moved closer, he noticed the front of their shirt was soaked with blood. His heart sank, thinking he was too late. How could he have let this happen again, he thought? How could he allow someone to get close to him, even if it was only for a minute?
Gunner went up to the person on the chair and started sniffing. He kept whining. That was enough to tell Jacobs that the person was dead. But he still had to make sure, even if he didn’t want to see what he thought he would. He walked over to the body and put his hand on the hood. He kept it there for a second, bracing himself for what he was about to see. Then he yanked the hood off. Jacobs stood there for a moment, staring at the victim. He was a little surprised, though happy, to see that it wasn’t Tiffany. He didn’t know who the person was, but it was a man. Jacobs put his hand on the man’s neck. He was dead, but his body was still warm. He hadn’t been dead for long.
“It’s not her, buddy. That’s the good thing. Hopefully this guy wasn’t an innocent victim too.”
They then walked out of the bedroom and checked the other bedroom and bathroom. There was nothing in them. Now Jacobs’ thoughts turned to figuring out where Tiffany was being held. Was she somewhere else in the building? Or was she never even there to begin with? Jacobs sighed, knowing it was a daunting task. There was still the rest of the fifth floor to check, not to mention the three floors below them. And he was assuming the first floor was still clear, and there weren’t more men who filtered in after he left. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his forearm. He checked his ammunition. He was still good for a little while, depending on how many more were out there.
Jacobs’ head suddenly perked up. He heard a ringing sound. It was a phone going off. He went back through the main room, following the sound to the kitchen. There was a phone lying there on the counter.
“Gunner, door.”
Jacobs wanted to make sure nobody else surprised them while they were in there. Gunner guarding the door would solve that problem. It’d at least give him a heads-up that someone was near. Jacobs then looked at the phone again, which kept ringing. He stared at it, assuming that it was for him. He didn’t really want to answer it, figuring it was bad news, but knew that he should. Even if it was bad news, and he really knew it would be, it was better to know and be prepared for whatever was coming then walk into something blindly. He let out a sigh and answered it.
“Hello?”
“I see you made it.” It was the same voice that Jacobs spoke to before.
“What do you want? Where is she? You told me she’d be here.”
“Things… changed.”
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“The deal also wasn’t you walking in there and shooting twenty people, was it?”
“First of all, it wasn’t twenty people, and secondly, did you really think I was just gonna walk in here and let you kill me before I get the girl?”
There was a brief hesitation on the man’s part. “No. You played things exactly as we expected you would.”
“So what did this accomplish? Besides me killing a bunch of your men and weakening your crew?”
“Oh, they’re not ours. Just some hired guns we brought on for the job. Nothing more.”
“OK, I really don’t care about any of that right now. I want to know where Tiffany is. I came here to fulfill my end of it. I’ll give myself up to you once I know she’s safe and secure. That means out of your hands. I won’t do it before then.”
“She’s at another secure location right now.”
“You mean she’s not even here?”
“That’s right.”
Jacobs’ shoulders slumped. “C’mon, man, why do we gotta jump through these hoops? Tell Ames that if he wants to do this deal, then just do it. Does he want me or not?”
“Oh, he does. Believe me, he does. But this is the way he prefers it for now.”
“And who’s this guy in the bedroom with the hood on his face? He another victim on your list of pawns?”
“Oh, him. Believe me, he is not innocent. Don’t shed any tears for him. He’s got a record as long as your arm. He’s just someone who ran afoul of us and didn’t do what we asked of him. Let him be a lesson to you and show you what we’re capable of with people who don’t do what we want.”
“I don’t give a damn about your lessons or what you’re capable of. Stop playing games with me, or I’ll show you what I’m capable of.”
“I’m already aware of that, Mr. Jacobs.”
“Then stop with the nonsense. I’m done playing games with you. I told you I’d do the deal with you. I’ll trade my life for hers. But not before I know she’s out of danger.”
“Well, I guess we’ll be in touch soon then.”
“What do you mean we’ll be in touch soon? We’re not doing it now?”
“Perhaps. First, you’ll need to get out of that building. Once you do that, then maybe we’ll talk.”
Jacobs was getting angrier by the second. “Why do you have to wait until I get out? Why can’t you just do it now?”
“Because I’m not sure you’ll be available later to make the deal.”
“What’s that even mean? You’re talking in circles. Stop playing games. That’s what this whole thing is to you guys, isn’t it? Just one big game?”
“Well, maybe sort of. But the game isn’t what you think it is. It isn’t yanking your chain or anything.”
“Then what is it? Me fighting my way in here to find an empty room and making me think Tiffany was in that chair with a bullet in her chest?”
The man laughed. “No, but that was amusing, wasn’t it?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“To each their own. But to answer your question, no, the game isn’t watching you fight your way in. The game is… whether you’ll be able to fight your way out.”
17
Jacobs ended the conversation by hitting the red button on the phone and dropping it to the ground. He then looked over to the doorway, concerned about what might be coming. Gunner wasn’t growling or sending out any alert
s, so there must not have been anything close, but Jacobs knew the danger was out there. It was waiting for him. Probably on the lower levels.
There was an eerie quiet. Almost too quiet for Jacobs’ liking. But he knew at any minute there was likely to be the sound of loud gunfire filling the air for an extended period of time. It was just a matter of how fast it’d get there. He walked over to the door and peeked his head out, looking at both ends of the hallway. There was nothing there. At least nothing that he could see. But he knew the trouble was lurking. Gunner was sitting there, looking calm as could be. Before doing anything else, Jacobs took out his phone and dialed Franks’ number.
“Hey, what’s going on in there?” Franks said.
“Tiffany’s not here.”
“What?!”
“I’m in the room, she’s not here. Listen, this whole building’s a trap for me.”
“What do you mean, a trap?”
“I mean this entire thing was designed to keep me in. I just got a call from that guy—”
“How’d you get a call?”
“I don't have time to explain. Just listen. I had to kill like eight or ten people just to get up here. That guy told me the game is whether I’ll be able to fight my way out. That means there’s a lot more down below waiting for me.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“I dunno. You see anybody out there?”
“Not from here. Hey, you see any vents or anything?”
Jacobs quickly went around the room and found one. “Yeah, I got one, why?”
“Maybe you can crawl through there. I see it done in movies all the time.”