The Eleven

by Adrian Popa

  As we reach in on Copper Lane, we get a call from Rat. "Good luck, and don't get killed". Jane sighs and says "Typical". We reach the street and scope out the area slowly for Haylin. After a short while of navigating from the roofs we eventually see a strange masked man in a trench coat. Looks like our man. He seems to be minding his own business, leaning against the front of a convenient store building. Doesn't look like he's planning to strike now, perhaps he's waiting, I mean, It is getting late. We wait a little, at least 30 minutes had passed until he had budged. He walked for a while, and we tailed him. He reached the end of Copper Lane and was heading into Silver Street. We continue to tail him, hiding in the shadows and watching his every move, making sure we don't blow our cover.

  After a nice long stroll down Silver street, whilst enjoying the quiet and dead scenery of the night, Haylin finally begins his move. He pulls out a small remote, I hear Jane through the headphones we had agreed to wear and communicate with.

  "He's on the move"

  I take out my sniper rifle and position it towards his head, if Jane doesn't take him out, than ill be the one to. Something unexpected happened, perhaps we were too careless, or perhaps they were already ahead of us. As I see Jane rush towards Haylin with her assault rifle I see Haylin take out a pistol and brandish it towards Jane. He's using a gun?! , I zoom in with the scope and see that what he was holding in his left hand was just a replica. I see him drop it quickly and reach for a second gun. He's saying words to Jane but I cant make out what he's saying. I aim towards his hand, and as he's talking I pull the trigger. It hits his hand but instead of the bullet piercing his hand, it bounced right off, he must be wearing some kind of bullet protection. Haylin flinches a little and while he recovers Jane takes the opportunity and begins firing. All of her bullets hit Haylin, only for his protective armor to mock her. As she fires she also retreats, she talks

  "This guy is bullet proof, no way we can beat him this way, load the special incendiary bullet, let's set this guy blazing".

  I quickly take out my current magazine and load in a special magazine with the incendiary bullets. As I have my new bullets in I take aim once again and pull the trigger. The bullet hazes through the air but Haylin dodges this one, he tumbles to his left, I repeatedly fire at him until he takes cover behind a building. Jane speaks

  "There's no use, cover me I'm going to drag him out and hit him with a instant contact grenade"

  I quickly run to a vantage point where I can get cover fire for Jane. Haylin makes a break for it, not this again. I tell Jane

  "Hold up, he wants us to run after him"

  "What should we do?"

  A break in the headphones followed by a buzzing sound alerts me. After the static clears up a familiar yet hateful voice springs up.

  "Well hello Adam, looks like you brought friends"

  John, he hacked into our signal and is now speaking to me through my head set.

  "Your little friend hasn't run far, make sure to take it slowly, it could decide a life"

  With that he cuts off and I get connected with Jane again, and betting everything I have I tell Jane.

  "Jane I don't think he ran too far, do you see that building over there? throw a grenade to it"

  Jane throws a grenade to the place where I think Haylin is hiding in, and he comes running out just as I expected. I fire a bullet towards him this time he gets caught. A fire ravages him, this is the perfect chance I yell out

  "Jane Now!"

  She throws her instant contact grenade towards him, and once again I see it all in slow motion. As Haylin lights up the streets and ravaged by confusion a small death bomb flies towards him. As it reaches him and lands on him an explosion occurs, and the burning body flies into a building putting out the fire, and him. He lays on the floor, probably dead, but the feeling of satisfaction didn't hit me. This wasn't Haylin, He didn't use his remote at all and, he wouldn't have fallen for that, this person wasn't him, maybe an acquaintance or a partner, but definitely not him, we were tricked, but none the less one step closer to putting out Haylin.

  Chapter 6

  "A surprise explosive attack has put the police force on Dumont street in danger"

  Rat turns off the TV. "Well, while you guys were out fighting his henchmen, Haylin was blowing up police men". I ask Rat,

  "And did you know he was there when it happened?"

  "Well yes, because I was there trying to stop him"

  Jane intervenes "Wait, you knew he was going to be there and yet you sent us off to fight a jockie", Rat doesn't budge, his expression remains expressionless, perhaps he was feeling remorse over what he did, but if Rat was really powerful than how come he couldn't stop Haylin. I ask "Rat, was the police in your way?" Rat answers

  "Yes, they were, I couldn't risk fighting Haylin if the police were there I did not want the police firing ate by accident, I tried my best to stop Haylin from a far but it was no use"

  Jane grabs Rat by his shirt collar and asks angrily "Why the hell didn't you ask us for help, why the hell did you send us off to fight someone else when you knew the real target was somewhere else , this isn't the time to be the hero and take everything on your shoulders, we should be doing this as a team, why the hell are you doing this Rat, this isn't like last time"

  "I know Haylin, not from my own information but I know him personally, he is powerful, I would say that he is as powerful as me. with all three of us combined, he could still kill at least one of us and injure another, this guy knows how to manipulate the battle field, and although he seems like a coward, he does it on purpose, there are no tricks that are useless when in battle, if you guys were here, than I wouldn't feel comfortable fighting Haylin, I would have to look after and make sure you guys don't die, maybe I'm just feeling selfish but, I don't want to see another friend die because of me, not this time, and not last time"

  Jane lets go of Rat, and a sad expression covers her face, something happened in the past, but now is not the time.

  "Alright, I understand Rat, we should just let this slide for now, no use fighting amongst ourselves, we should move on and stop Haylin together, no trying to be a white knight, we need to do this together, if we have a plan than we can do this"

  Rat adds "You're right, but the matter still exists, this guy is way too powerful, the only way is if I go in and you two back me up, that way we can have a bigger fighting chance", Jane jumps in

  "Fine, but this time no sneaking around or lying, if we do this were in it as a team"

  "Yeah, so Rat where is Haylin anyway?"

  Rat answers

  "I have a few guesses , but for now, it is safe to assume that he's going to attack Dumont again, and even more police will be there, we have to create a diversion and than fight Haylin"

  I ask "How do you know he's going to attack Dumont again, what kind of criminal strikes at the same place over and over?"

  "I have none the less figured out why he is doing this"

  Jane inquires "Well lay it down for us"

  "Alright, but remember, this is all just my guess."

  "Haylin Smith used to be an ex gang leader", I reply "That seems to be the case with everyone" Rat continues.

  "All records of the gang he was in were seemingly erased, all I know was that it was pretty big and they did some normal gang activities, the only question was why they tried so hard to erase there name off of Courtlyn when they disbanded, I mean some old members still exist today like Haylin, but the gang seemed to have left the dust"

  Jane replies "And what does him being in a gang have to do with anything?" Rat continues .

  "Him being in a gang is the key to this fiasco, he was in that gang for about 5 months"

  I add in surprise

  "five months seriously, that is like nothing, and yet they tried so hard to cover up a gang with only that little experience"

  Rat continued

  "Well, even though it was a relatively new gang, they did do some dangerous things, I mean, did you e
ven once hear about them in the news?"

  I wonder out loud "Now that I think about it, not really, that's strange, even if we couldn't get the name of a gang, if they did really big stunts than their name will be widespread in no time". Rat continues,

  "I have been hot on their trail ever since they started doing some big scale things like bombings, I mean we get bombings every now and then, but these guys were aiming at other gangs, drug and firearm warehouses and even decided that bombing Nexus was a smart idea"

  Nexus was the headquarters of a division of police in Courtlyn. They have high tech equipment and were the most feared among criminals. Little is known about why they were created, I mean we got normal cops roaming all around, but now we got these high tech assholes who come in whenever serious crap goes down, luckily I haven't ran into them yet, and hopefully I never will. I have never heard of any of these bombings from the past five months, what the hell is going on. I ask

  "These attacks, they were never shown on the news, or spread throughout the industry, were they"

  Rat replies

  "Of course not, they were too invisible, they hid, and stayed underground, it was hard to track them, even for me"

  Jane asks "Then how did you get this much dirt on these guys",

  Rat replies "Simple, Haylin popped up, and is now causing ruckus again. Everything can be traced back to him since he was the leader, all I needed to do was pull a few strings and everything was in the grasp of my hand". That isn't simple at all, but that doesn't matter right now, what matters is what's his motivation. I ask "So why is he doing this then, what could he possibly gain?"

  "Revenge, All he wants his revenge, his gang didn't just simply disband out of the blue, they were wiped out."

  By the Nexus.

  " You probably already guessed it, but after bombing the Nexus, they pretty much started a war against them, and lost. Only a few survivors of that gang remain, and the Nexus has not been able to track them down yet"

  So Haylin plans to do a bunch of bombings in hope that he can get the Nexus' attention again. He probably waited for a while hoping that his situation will die out and that the Nexus will lose interest, and when the time seems right he would strike, he wanted to have the element of surprise. Rat finishes "You can already guess why he is doing these bombings, Haylin is powerful, but by himself he stands no chance, he has something up his sleeve, something to combat the Nexus, and that is precisely why he is dangerous, if he has so much confidence to call out the Nexus, than he must have created something devastating". Jane jumps in

  "So what should we do now? I don't supposed you plan to raid Haylin and kill him knowing that he has a trump card up his sleeve do you"

  Rat replies "Well that is one option, I would rather us not just wait around for the Nexus to stroll in on their deaths. And besides, I have a location that I think is his hideout"

  Jane says in excitement "Really? Then let's get on it and teach Haylin a lesson". Just the other minute she was mad, but now she's exciting again. But I can't lie, if we know where he is, than we might as well give it a try, this is the only lead we have, and I am not letting it pass. I say to Jane and Rat "Alright, lets head on to it, we can decide our strategy on the way there, lead the way Rat".

  We make it to Haylin's hideout, it seems to be a warehouse. I ask Rat "So, I guess if this is where he is, than he must be storing something ". Jane adds

  "Alright, Rat and I will raid the place, you give us support"

  I take out my sniper rifle and take a good vantage point where I can get a good view of the place. If anything goes wrong than I can back them up, but for now I don't have much to do. I see Jane and Rat break in through a side door, well now we play the waiting game again.

  Jane and Rat quietly make their way across the corridor, making as little noise as possible. They soon reach a metal door in front of them. Jane slowly pushes the door open and mutters "Wow, not locked". They make their way in, and to their surprise, they see nothing. Rat mutters

  "It's been abandoned, well I guess if he's not here, than, we better look somewhere else"

  They spend about 30 minutes fully inspecting the warehouse and find no signs of any life being there. They both turn and begin walking out, the search has come to a stop, all they found was an abandoned warehouse, simply that, Haylin was still out causing mayhem.

  I ask them "Now what, we have no leads". Of course the only thing we can do was to wait for him to strike, but I just wanted a speck of hope that maybe they had a better idea. They remained silent, they must have the same thought as I did, to simply wait till he kills more people or blows up more of the city and then chase him but even then we would probably be caught in the middle of fire between him and the police that will indefinitely come, he's been at it for so long, they must be alert by now, and soon the Nexus will come, and Haylin would have won. Rat says skeptically

  "Well first off, we are only assuming that Haylin is doing this for revenge and the fact that Haylin even owns something to stop the Nexus is debatable as well, hopefully my theory isn't correct and this is just another case of a bored guy with a lot of free time on his hand, but if this is for his own personal issue, than i think his resolve is what will be the end of us"

  With a dead streak on our hands we can only hope that he ends up striking in a place that we can reach him fast enough, I did not expect such a boring goose chase. A call from my phone breaks the silence, I look at the called I.D, private, well I wonder who this could be. I answer it.

  "Well hello Adam, it's nice to see you working so hard with your friends to find Haylin. By the way, do you have any clue where he could be?"

  Now he's just mocking us.

  "No, we don't"

  "Well that's a shame really, I mean, wasting all this time to only come to a dead end, must be frustrating"

  Not as frustrating as these calls. I ask "What do you want?"

  "Well I just decide that i might as well tip you off, I mean no use having you do me a job but end up being completely useless, although this might be the last time i give you such useful advice, please do make yourself more resourceful in the future"

  This guy is asking to get his ass kicked, he expects me to do crap for him and gives me this. "Haylin might be hiding at a little place called Silver Line". Silver Line, that used to be a hardware store but it got closed down.

  "It may seem strange, but please check it out, some people just have the strangest hiding places sometimes"

  He ends the call. Rat and Jane both give me a questioning look. I give a half hearted answer "It was no one". I then give it a suggestion

  "Why don't we check out a place called Silver Line"

  Rat replies "That place has been shut down, what, you want to rummage the ruins or something"

  "No, but I think we can find Haylin there"

  Jane asks in confusion "Why would he be hiding there, and where did you even get the idea that he would so specifically be at that hardware store". I answer vaguely "Just trust me". I have no reason to not believe John but at the same time I have no reason to believe him. But since he has proven to be giving me real information and I have to admit that he has helped me out, I can't really deny him. Although he seems like he's an asshole, maybe he actually does want to help me, but whatever. Whether he just wants to use me or not, well, we will see.

  We reach the abandoned hardware store, its windows have been boarded and no sign of life is evident. The door has been barricaded pretty tight. The store is pretty big itself, with two floors. We were at a good vantage point, I could get a clear shot at each floor's window plus a good view of the front door and side door. There seemed to be an entrance on the roof leading to the second floor. I tell Jane and Rat to try that way and see if they can find any traces of him. As Rat and Jane quietly descend into the second floor they hear the noise of a T.V. They both stop, and listen it. Jane whispers "Alright, looks like someone is here". Rat replies "Careful". They quietly make their way to the stair case l
eading to the first floor. Rat says

  "If that really is Haylin, than we seriously have to be careful"

  "Yeah, I know, but, are we just going to barge down there"

  Rat thinks for a moment. He then says "Throw a grenade down there, and prepare to shoot anyone who comes up".

  Jane takes out one grenade, she takes off the safety and then lops it down. they back away, guns ready. The explosion sets off. It shook the second floor, and, they hear no one coming up, the T.V had inevitably been destroyed, but whoever was down there, either got caught, or in a miracle, survived. They waited in silence and when they were about to report that it was a dud they hear gun shots coming from outside. They quickly get out of the Hardware store and back onto the roof, only to see that a man taking cover from bullets. We were still wearing out communication head sets and I told them in a hurry

  "That's Haylin, he came rushing through that door after some explosion happened, give me support quickly"

  Jane and Rat soon sprang in action, and fired at him from the roof, Haylin was hiding behind the neighboring store. He's probably wearing Kevlar, I ask Jane to throw a couple of grenades at him. This is game over Haylin. Jane throws one grenade in the area in front of Haylin, one behind it and one directly at him. While the three grenades come flying down, I readying my sniper for him in case he does get away. Today must be my lucky day, I see everything happen in slow motion. The three grenades reach their destination and exploded. Rat and Jane both stop there fire. I ask them "Can you see anything?". Rat says in a monotone voice "He's dead, we can clearly see him there". Rat does not seem excited at all, and Jane didn't budge a bit, this was too easy as well, no flavor, was this really Haylin. Even I was disappointed that something like that worked, this just didn't feel right.