by Mike Ryan
“This one’s a little different from the building I had,” Bridge said. “They got three guys outside instead of two.”
“Wonder why?”
“Maybe they got a rougher client base at this one.” Bridge noticed the man at the side of the building. “That part’s the same. The driver’s off to the side.”
“Probably don’t wanna have too many people standing around near each other to make people suspicious if they come by.”
“Could be. I can come up on him and take him, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s those two guys out front who worry me.”
“We can take them,” Nicole said.
“It’s not taking them that worries me. It’s whether we can do it quietly. If we get into a shootout right then and there, whoever’s inside is gonna know we’re there. Then the jig is up. Either they escape out a backdoor and let everyone else know what’s going on, effectively ending our operation and our surprise, or they start firing away, which has the same consequences.”
“Or one of them takes the girls out the back while the other keeps us busy, and we still wind up with nothing.”
“Yeah. Or there’s that.”
Nicole thought for a second, then figured it out. “I’ll have to distract them.”
“What?”
“I’ll have to use my womanly ways.”
“What? No.”
“Luke, they’re gonna get suspicious of anyone else who gets near there. If they don’t recognize you, they’re gonna be alarmed.”
“Well, they’re not gonna recognize you either.”
“I’m a woman and I don’t look threatening. All I’ll have to do is flirt with them a little bit, get them to turn their backs, then you come up behind them.”
“I don’t like it, Nic.”
“You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it.”
“And what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out when I get there. I’ll read their body language.”
Bridge let out a loud sigh, obviously not in favor of the plan. Nicole reached over to him and put her hand behind his head. She then reached over and kissed him on the lips.
“It’ll be fine,” she said.
“You’re not going in empty, right?”
She held up her Glock and showed it to him, then tucked it in the back of her pants, covering it with her shirt.
“I’ll wait until you take out the guy on the side.”
Bridge leaned over and kissed her again. He then got out and started walking in the other direction, wanting to come up behind the driver of the van, not wanting to be seen near the front of the building by anyone. It took him a few minutes to circle back around. He got to the back of the building and saw a door. He was tempted to try it, but figured there was probably a guard on the other side of it. He couldn’t take the chance of blowing their cover already. Bridge went over to the corner of the building and peeked around the edge, observing the driver of the van leaning up against the vehicle. He was reading a magazine and had his left leg resting up against the car.
Bridge quickly emerged from behind the building and started walking in that direction. The car and man were safely on the side of the building, not within eyesight of the men guarding the front, so Bridge knew whatever he did wouldn’t be seen. He just had to make sure it wasn’t heard too. Not wanting to alarm the man or make him suspicious, Bridge walked slowly toward him. He pulled out his phone and pressed it to his ear, pretending to have a conversation. He thought it would make him look less threatening if it appeared that he was preoccupied with something else. It seemed to work, as the driver briefly looked at Bridge, concerned that someone was coming, but didn’t look too alarmed based on his actions. Bridge continued walking, looking like he was going to walk right past the man. Then, Bridge suddenly stopped.
“Yeah, yeah, hold on.” Bridge took the phone away from his ear and rested it on his shoulder. “Hey, listen, you speak English?”
The driver peered up from his magazine, not looking pleased at having to talk to someone. “Yes.”
“Hey, do you know where this street is? I got this girl on the phone who’s trying to tell me where she lives so I can get a little, um…” Bridge smiled then faked a cough. “Well, you know. But I’ve been walking in circles for like an hour, and I can’t seem to find the street she’s on. You think you could help me?”
The driver still didn’t look pleased, but shrugged anyway.
“Hey, thanks,” Bridge said. “I got it written down here. Let me just…” Bridge reached around to the back of his pants and put his fingers on the handle of his weapon. He quickly took it out and swung it around to the front of him, smashing it across the man’s face, hitting him with a violent blow that sent him crashing to the ground. The driver was stunned and out of it, but still moving a little. Bridge quickly put an end to that, picking the man up by his head and throwing it back against the side of the van a couple of times. This time, the man slumped to the ground. He was alive, but out of the fight, which was all that Bridge was trying to accomplish. Bridge then opened the door and picked the man up, shoving him inside the front bench seat and laying him down. Bridge closed the door and looked around to make sure nobody was watching. He took a few more steps to the front and saw Nicole walking across the street. They locked eyes with each other and nodded.
Bridge went to the corner of the building and peeked out, seeing Nicole head straight for the two guards. Neither of them had weapons out, but he knew they were concealed somewhere. He just hoped Nicole could get them to turn their backs to him. Nicole walked right past the two men, heading towards the front door of the building.
“Hey, where you think you’re going?” one of them asked.
“I was going in here,” Nicole answered.
“No one goes in there without a badge.”
Nicole looked confused as she walked back to the pair. “I don’t understand. Otto didn’t say anything about needing a badge.”
“Otto?”
“Yes, Otto sent me over.”
“Otto sent you here? What for?”
Nicole moved closer to the guy. “Well, he told me to come and surprise a few of the men he had working here. He said I was to, uh, give them a good time, if you know what I mean.”
“Otto said nothing about this.”
“Well, duh, he said he wanted it to be a surprise. He said his men have been working hard for him, have been loyal, and he wanted to give them a treat.”
The man smiled. “And you’re the treat?”
Nicole seductively smiled. “I sure am. He said to let his men do whatever they wanted.”
“Whatever we wanted?”
Nicole nodded, then put her hand on the man’s chest. “Are you one of his guys?”
“I am.”
She then looked at the man next to him. “What about him?”
“He is too.”
“Oh. Well then… maybe we could all do something at the same time?”
The man smiled. “The both of us at once?”
“Why not? Unless you don’t think you can handle me with just the two of you.”
“One of us should stay out here,” the other man said.
Nicole looked disappointed. She then looked at the front of both of their pants, playing it up like she was really interested. “Aww, don’t be a downer. If I take both of you at once, I can give you some one-on-one time after.”
Nicole continued rubbing their chests, hoping to get them excited enough to abandon their posts. She then backed away from them and slid a little to her left, hoping to get them to turn their backs fully to Bridge’s position.
“I tell you what, guys,” Nicole said. “Let’s just go in there for a few minutes, or as long as you want, and I’ll let you do whatever you want to me.”
“Whatever we want?”
“Whatever you want.”
Nicole kept moving until she got firmly into the position that she wanted. The two men
also kept turning with her. Now, they were exactly where they needed them to be. Bridge jumped out from his spot and began running toward them. To make sure they didn’t hear him coming, Nicole kept talking to them seductively. It worked. They never heard Bridge coming. He came up behind the man to the left and smashed his pistol over the back of the man’s head. As the man fell face forward, the second man quickly turned to face him. Nicole kicked him in the back of the knee, taking his leg out and forcing him down to a knee. Bridge then whipped his gun around and backhanded it across the man’s face, also knocking him down. Neither man was out yet, though. Bridge and Nicole saw to it that they were soon enough, as they each delivered powerful kicks to their faces, knocking them out.
“You all right?” Bridge asked.
“Good as can be. It was easy. All you gotta do is talk like you’re easy and these men crumble. They’re such pigs.”
“Well, lucky for us that they are.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go.”
They went up to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. Bridge lightly knocked on the door, not knowing if someone would answer.
“Hope those guys didn’t have a secret knock or something,” he said.
“Should we hide those bodies first?”
“Too late now.”
Bridge knocked again. He put his ear to the door and thought he heard footsteps.
“Sounds like someone’s coming.”
A few seconds later, the door slowly opened. It was only a crack. They could barely make out a face.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“Um, we were told this would be discreet,” Bridge answered. “No names necessary.”
“What do you want?”
“Uh, the same thing everyone else wants I would guess.”
“Got a badge?”
“Yeah, it’s here in my pocket somewhere.”
Bridge knew the game was up at that point. They weren’t getting in without a badge. They were only getting in by force. He fumbled around with his pocket to pretend he was looking for one, though he was only trying to catch the man off guard. He pulled out his gun, while at the same time picking up his leg and forcefully kicking the door open. The door struck the man and caused him to stumble back a little, giving Bridge and Nicole the opening to go through it. The man had a rifle on him; the strap going across his chest. As he spun his rifle around, Bridge and Nicole both put one round in his chest. Bridge and Nicole looked around, seeing a long hallway with a bunch of doors on each side. There was also a shorter hallway to their right, which led to the backdoor.
“What do you wanna do?” Nicole asked. “Get them out?”
“Not until we’re sure the guards are taken care of. Last thing we need is to get people hurt in the crossfire.”
“Maybe there aren’t anymore.”
“You go down that hallway and I’ll check the back.”
They split up and went their different ways. Within seconds, a man jumped out from the end of the hallway, firing a round at Nicole that narrowly missed her head. She dropped to a knee and fired a couple of rounds into the man’s body as Bridge spun around to see what had happened. With his back turned, another man appeared from the back door.
“Luke!” Nicole yelled, seeing the man in back of him, though he wasn’t in a good enough spot for her to take the shot.
The man fired at Bridge, just as he dove to the ground. The bullet dug into the wall as Bridge rolled over and fired two rounds back at the man. The man dropped his gun and held his stomach as he started to bleed out. He then dropped to both knees, eventually falling flat on his face as he perished. Nicole closed her eyes and took a couple deep breaths, scared of the close call that her boyfriend had. Bridge got up and looked at her and nodded, letting her know he was all right. They then swept the rest of the building for any more guards, but it was clean.
They went to the first door and opened it, finding a couple of people in bed, the man on top. They didn’t appear to hear the door open. Or the gunfire outside.
“Hey!” Bridge yelled. “What’s going on here?”
Startled, the man got off the woman and looked back at him. “Who are you?”
“Who are you?!”
“I paid for my time.”
“Yeah, well, your time is up!”
The man stood up, holding the sheets over his lower half. “This is outrageous. I’ve never been treated like this before. I’m going to complain about this.”
Bridge held his gun up and pointed it at him. “You got something you wanna complain about?”
“Uh, no, no. Just, uh… no.”
“Beat it, get out of here. This business is closing. Go get a life or something.”
Bridge then looked at the woman. “I take it you’re not here of your own free will?”
The woman held the sheets up to her neck, looking afraid. She shook her head.
“You wanna get out of here?”
The woman nodded.
“Well, put some clothes on and let’s go. I’m getting you guys out of here.”
Bridge and Nicole split up, each taking a different room. They were all pretty much the same. And they got almost the same reaction in each one of them. After all the men had left, and the women had gotten dressed, they all stood near the opening of their respective rooms. It was as if they were afraid to move out of them unless they were told to. Bridge knew it was probably a result of them being held captive for so long.
“Listen, ladies, we know you’ve been through a lot, but we’re on a time crunch here. We need you to trust us and we need you to move fast. We can get you out of here and back to where you belong, but we need to move now. There’s more of you out there, and we need to get to them before these guys know what hit them. OK?”
Everyone started moving quickly, and they piled out of the building.
“What are we gonna do with these guys?” Nicole asked, observing the two men she flirted with, still knocked out.
“You know what, I’ll drag them inside and tie them up. I saw some ropes and handcuffs in a couple of those rooms. That’ll take them out of commission for now.”
“What about the girls?”
“Put them in the van.”
“Evelyn’s not one of them.”
“I noticed.”
“Then what?”
“Then we hit the other place.”
“With them?” Nicole said, pointing to the ladies behind her.
“Let’s just get out of here first and figure everything else out after that.”
Bridge then started dragging the men inside as Nicole helped the ladies get into the van.
“I know you girls aren’t crazy about getting back in this van, but I promise it’s for the last time,” Nicole told them.
“There’s still more of us that they’re holding,” one of the women said.
“I know. We’re gonna get them.”
Bridge came back to the van a few minutes later after taking care of the other two men. When he got there, there was a surprise waiting for him. Nicole was waiting by the front door with the driver of the van.
“Look who woke up,” she said gleefully.
“We got some questions for you, my man,” Bridge said.
“I just get paid to drive, that’s all,” the driver replied.
“Perfect. You’re just the guy we need then.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“You drive the van, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you know how to get into those buildings, right?”
“I guess.”
“And you also know how many people are inside, right?”
“I guess.”
“Then you know everything we need.” The man sighed, knowing he was going to be forced to do things he didn’t want to do. “So I’ll give you two choices. If you help us, and give us no problems, I give you my word that I won’t kill you when this is over. In fact, I may be nice and just
let you walk away without handing you over to the police. But if you try to trick us, or don’t cooperate, or lead us into some type of ambush, I promise you that you’ll be the first one I kill. Understand?”
The man nodded. “I understand.”
“Good. Now would you like to help us?”
“I would.”
“Great. See how easy this is?”
“How you wanna work this?” Nicole asked.
“I’ll drive with him in the van. You tail us in the car.”
“Where to?”
“Other building first,” Bridge said. “Then the warehouses after that.”
Nicole nodded, then walked back to the car. Bridge turned his attention back to the driver.
“You ready to have some fun?” Bridge asked.
“Not really.”
“Great. Me too.”
16
They immediately drove over to the second building. Parking in the same spot as Bridge did the day before, the setup looked the same. The driver on the side of the building and one man in front.
“You know the setup here?” Bridge asked.
“Yeah,” the driver replied.
“How many inside?”
“Two.”
“How come the other building had an extra guard?”
“Rougher client list.”
“If there’s more than two in there, I’m gonna come back and put a bullet in your head.”
“There’s only two. I’m sure of it.”
Bridge and the driver got out of the van and opened the back door, where the rest of the ladies were. A minute later, Nicole caught up to them.
“Our friend told me something interesting,” Bridge said.
“What’s that?”
“When the van pulls up to the warehouse after they’re done here, there’s a small camera mounted on the gate. He says they scan to make sure it’s the same driver. If not, they don’t open the gate.”
“So we need both drivers alive to get in,” Nicole said.
“Looks that way. As soon as they see it’s their guy, they open the gate. If it’s someone else in the driver's seat, it’s a different ball game.”