Rampage

by Roy A. Teel, Jr.

  Chris and Jim were sitting silently in the foyer. Screams of pain and anguish had been emanating from the dark corridor for quite a while. Chris took a breath and was about to speak when he saw a figure appear in the hall and start walking toward them. “Have you seen enough to know that there is major trouble brewing, Agent Mantel?” The voice was unfamiliar, and the figure towered over him and Jim. Chris looked to Jim for reaction, but all Jim did was light another cigarette and take a sip of his scotch before saying, “Answer the Iron Eagle’s question, Chris.” Chris stood up grabbing for his weapon, but the Eagle disarmed him and pushed him back down into the chair.

  “This is no time for games. Have you learned anything from the lessons of the past several days?” “Yes, I have. What have you done with John Swenson?” Jim let out a little laugh, and the Eagle said, “Swenson is just fine. I have learned of a plot to kill hundreds of students of a local high school at their homecoming dance tonight at an Anchor Store in the Northridge Mall.” Chris perked up and asked, “That’s what the screaming was all about. You were torturing some poor bastard for information.” “I was definitely torturing someone, but he was by no means an innocent man. Jim, I need you and Agent Mantel to go to the mall and get into the store.” Jim looked up at the Eagle and asked, “And do what? You want a SWAT team in the place? Do you want me to order an evacuation?” “No…I want you and Agent Mantel to blend in with the others. Wear street clothes. Take positions on the upper level of the store out of sight of the students, faculty, and police.”

  “What…like sniper positions?” “Observational positions with the ability to shoot in every direction.” “How many shooters are we dealing with?” “I don’t know for certain. I’m going to get that information next. I think a single, but a very, very heavily armed and well-trained shooter. There are most likely booby traps on all of the exits to the store with an emphasis on maximum kill for those who try to flee when the shooting starts.” “Then I need to order in SWAT and the bomb squad.” The Eagle was steady and intent in his tone, “Jim, if you send in a SWAT team and bomb squad all that you will get out of it are a lot of full body bags. The guy will blow up the store, killing as many as he can and move on to plan B if he has one, and given what I know of the killer, he has one.”

  Jim stood up and walked over to the wet bar and washed out his glass and put it on the counter. “Let’s go, Chris. You’re already in street clothes. I need to stop by my house to change and to get some high powered weapons.” Chris stood up, and the Eagle said, “Jim, you can take what you need from my armory. You know where to go and have access. The weapons and ammunition are untraceable.” Jim nodded, and Chris said, “Wait…Sheriff, you know who the Iron Eagle is?” “Yeah…what about it?” “You’re taking direction from a cold-blooded killer? Have you forgotten that we are lawmen? You’re a lawman. You don’t take directions; you take him into custody.” Both Jim and the Eagle laughed, and Jim said, “You don’t know what I know about this man…the Iron Eagle…if he gives me instructions, I have learned over several years to listen.”

  Jim looked over at the Eagle and said, “That didn’t always keep me from getting FUCKIN’ SHOT! But I listen. He knows what he’s talking about, and no one who has ended up in the talons of the Eagle was innocent. They deserved everything they got and some deserved to die even worse. Now, let’s go. I have a feeling we don’t have much time.” Chris turned back to say something to the Eagle, but he was gone, and Jim and Chris were suddenly standing alone in the foyer. The lights had come on, and Jim was walking back into the dark hallway where the screams and pleas had come from. He was waving his arm with a cigarette in his hand and saying, “Let’s go, kid. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  John was sitting in the conference room of his lair looking at Deborah Atwater, asleep on a gurney, on the TV monitor. His cell phone rang, and he answered, “Swenson.” “John, it’s Jade. I have two laptop computers from two victims, Tim Elliott and the kid you wasted at the hospital. I also have documents that came from their belongings which have user names and passwords for a web address I have never heard of.” John asked, “Can you use your computer in the office to video chat with me?” “Yeah, hang on.” John took his phone and plugged it into a single cable that spread in several different directions in the conference room. Jade popped up on one of the large video monitors in the room and asked, “Can you see us?” John could see Jessica and Jade and two closed laptop computers on her desk. “Yes…I can see you both fine. Did you open the laptops?” Jessica shouted out, “No John…I think they are more than laptops. I think they might be bombs.” “Bring the camera around to each laptop and show me what you’re worried about, Jessica.”

  Jessica picked up the camera and walked over to each laptop and filmed them as John looked on. John said, “Jade, don’t open the laptops. Jessica is right. They are booby-trapped. Can you bring them to me here at the house?” “Um…yeah. I suppose. What’s on them and how are you going to deal with them?” “That’s my problem, just bring them here. They will remain stable so long as you don’t open them. They have lock latches on the front of them. Don’t touch anything, just get them here as soon as possible.” John hung up then pulled out the Iron Eagle’s mask. “It’s time to have a chat with Ms. Atwater.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I’ve seen you. I’ve heard you,

  and I will be watching you!”

  It was half past eight p.m. when Billy Stone and several of his friends walked through the doors at the Anchor Store and to the table to get their badges. Billy stood staring at Cathy Hines and Mary Rubin and said, “Well, bitches, are you going to give me and my friends our goddamn name tags, or are you going to stand there staring at us?” Mary pushed the sign-in book to Billy who picked it up and threw it back at her. “I’m not signing your goddamn book. You and your pals here are a bunch of fuckin’ nerds.” An LAPD officer saw and heard Billy and approached, “Mr. Stone, you apologize to these young ladies.” “Fuck you, fake cop man. You’re lucky I don’t kick your ass.” The officer grabbed Billy by the hair and pulled him to the side away from the other guests. At five foot three and eighty pounds, Stone was no match for the force of the cop.

  “Now you listen to me, you little shit, I’ll beat you and put your ass in a dumpster outside of this building. You will be respectful, and you will apologize, or you will deal with the service end of my nightstick. You got it?” Stone skulked back to the table, his pale white skin and pimpled face, red with embarrassment. His short black hair, which was his pride and joy, was messed up, and he snorted out a derisive, “Sorry,” and took the tags and handed them to the other three that were with him. The cop looked at Billy and his followers and said, “I’ve seen you. I’ve heard you, and I will be watching you!” Stone walked off in the direction of a buffet in search of more trouble. What Billy didn’t know was that the LAPD was not the only person who saw him come into the party…Jerry Pinskey was standing on the upper landing, looking over the railing near one of the four dance floors in the store and saw him come in. He had seen the whole altercation and had a grin from ear to ear as he watched Billy set off for the buffet.

  He spoke under his breath to himself, “Now that the final individual victim has arrived…let the killing begin.” He walked through the crowded dance floor and off into a dark corner of the upper level.

  Jade and Jessica walked into John’s house at just after eight. They entered the living room and called out, but there was no immediate reply. Jade poured herself a drink and asked Jessica if she wanted anything. “Coke Zero, please. I know that John keeps plenty of those for himself.” Jade threw Jessica a bottle of soda, and she said, “Thanks a fuckin’ lot, Jade. Now I have to let it settle or get another.” Jessica was shaking her head as she walked over and pulled another from the fridge and opened it. Jade was about to say something else when the front door opened, and Sara and Karen walked in. Jade laughed and said, “Well, look who the cat
dragged in.”

  Sara shot her a dirty look, and Karen said, “Not now, Jade. Not after the damn day we have had.” Jade and Jessica laughed, and Jade said, “Somehow, I don’t think that this day is anywhere near over.” Sara looked around and asked, “Where’s John?” “Beats the fuck out of me. I called him because we found two laptops that the two dead kids had on them, and he said to bring them over right away.” Sara stood looking at the two backpacks and said, “Two dead kids? You only took one body.” “Yes…well, there was a murder in Northridge, and I had scooped up that body before the hospital event took place. I figured the laptops might give me information on the next of kin on the guys, and John wanted the computers here.” Sara took a glass and filled it with ice and poured herself a scotch while handing Karen another Coke Zero. Karen sat down next to Jessica who started to say, “I wouldn’t do that,” as she cracked open the bottle only to have it explode all over her and Jessica. She continued her statement slowly, covered in the soft drink, “if I were you.”

  Jade looked on and said, “Oops, sorry…I threw that to Jessica a few minutes ago.” Sara shook her head and threw Karen a towel. She was drying off and heading to the sink near the wet bar saying, “How the fuck could this day get any worse?”

  “It’s going to get a lot worse if I don’t see those laptops and get information out of Atwater,” John said. Jade pointed to the backpacks on the floor and said, “Here they are, and here are the papers Jessica found among the victims’ belongings.” John took the documents, looked at them, and then grabbed the backpacks and asked Jade to follow him. The others sat and spoke quietly as John and Jade disappeared into the Eagle’s lair.

  Rosedo’s homecoming dance was really rolling. The floors were full of boys and girls of all ages. Students and teachers danced under disco lights. Two DJs were calling out for requests and spinning vinyl albums and making rap music sounds. The tables on the lower level near the buffet were full of gabbing preteen and teenage boys and girls whose biggest concern was who liked who, who hated who, and if what they were wearing was cool or not. Most of them had some type of electronic device in their hands, and they were taking self photographs or shots with their friends and uploading them to their favorite social media sites. The only event bigger than homecoming for these students was the prom. Sure, for the seniors, graduation was the end all be all, but the seniors were the minority, and they had broken off from the rest of the group and formed their own corner of the store. While there was no official separation of events, the underclassman allowed the seniors to commandeer a dance floor on the lower level as well as several large areas of the store for themselves. There was plenty of room, and for a school known for its racial and gang violence, the party was a nice respite from the day-to-day violence and disruptions they dealt with. The fact that there was a strong police and faculty presence hadn’t hurt the event either, so things was fun and calm.

  Billy Stone was tormenting a pair of freshmen near a back restroom. They were taunting two boys that were trying to have a good time. He had lured them away with the promise of some weed and now had them in a dark corner out of sight of police and others. Randy Gilchrist was taking the brunt of the abuse. He was a nerdy ninth grader known for his great intelligence and passive nature. Billy had him pinned to the floor and was smacking him in the face. “What? Come on…don’t whine, talk…what’s that you say…you little pussy… you too fuckin’ smart to talk to us?” Randy was crying and trying to speak, but Billy was sitting on his chest, making getting a breath difficult. Billy looked at the freshman pinned against the walls by his buddies. They were taking turns punching the kid in the stomach.

  He said, “Hey…guys…let’s take them into the bathroom and really fuck them up.” He winked at one of his friends, who grabbed Randy and drug him inside. Billy was the last to get in there and grabbed Randy by the hair and threw him down on the white tile floor and said, “All right you two, strip off your clothes.” The boys refused, and Billy and his crew pulled out razor knives and box cutters. Billy slashed Randy across the arm with the blade and said, “Strip, you mother fuckers, or we’ll hack you to pieces.” One of the guys with Billy said, “Smart move, taping the plastic cutters to our legs under our socks, so they didn’t get picked up by the metal detectors.” Billy laughed as he removed another from his other leg and said, “Yeah, and they call this piece of shit a genius.” He was pointing to Randy, who was standing with the other boy in his underwear.

  “I said strip…mother fuckers…underwear, too…get them off and pile your clothes right in front of me.” The boys did as instructed and now stood nude against the bathroom wall. Billy ordered their clothes picked up and thrown in the trash outside the bathroom. The naked boys looked on as Billy unzipped his fly and pulled out his penis.

  Sara and Karen joined John and Jade in the Eagle’s lair. Sara looked at him and said, “Here is the drug.” Jade took the syringe out of Sara’s hand and the five stood looking at Debbie Atwater who was asleep when Jade gave her the injection of SP-117; the drug worked almost instantly, and Debbie was alert and talkative. “Where are Alan, Tim, Mark, and Jerry?” The Eagle sat next to her on the gurney and said, “All but you and Jerry Pinskey are dead.” Debbie began to scream, and Sara slapped her on the side of her face and said, “Silence! We need answers, not your whiny ass shit.” The Eagle said, “You killed several young girls two nights ago.” Debbie fell silent and asked, “How could you know that?” The Eagle stared into Debbie’s eyes with his own dead black icy stare through his mask and said, “It’s my job to know these things. I know that you have helped with several killings, and that you are in on the killings for homecoming.” Debbie started to cry and said, “Oh God…you’re going to kill me.”

  Sara reached down and pulled the bandage off Debbie’s lower leg where her foot had been amputated and handed the bandages to Karen who laid them on a steel hospital tray next to the gurney. Sara said, “All I have to do is remove two stitches, and you will bleed to death right here, right now. Do I want to kill you? Yes…I do. I think you deserve it, but that’s not my call. It’s up to the Iron Eagle if you live or die, so answer his questions and do it now.” Sara was dressed in a white hospital coat with a surgical hat and mask on and a plastic face mask as were the other women in the room. Debbie asked, “What do you want to know?” The Eagle had Tim Elliott’s laptop open and the TOR screen up. There was an instant message window in a chat room open as well, and he asked, “I have read all of the plans of Mr. Elliott as well as Alan Marks. I have read their manifesto and what they plan to do, the killings that they planned, and are planning. I have also read the manifesto of Jerry Pinskey.”

  Debbie screamed, “Jerry has lost his mind. He’s going to try to do it all alone.” “Explain!” The Eagle had every monitor on in the room, recording everything that Debbie was saying. It was ten after nine when Debbie finished talking, and she had given the Eagle all he needed to deal with Pinskey. The Eagle looked down at the half-naked girl and said, “I was out at Valley Circle. I heard what Johnny Belk and his friends had done to those boys. I know they couldn’t go to the school or the police, and I don’t blame them for the actions they chose to take. All of their attackers are dead except Bill Stone.” Debbie yelled out, “He’s the worst of all of them. He’s a sick twisted fuck who takes pleasure in raping and torturing anything with two legs.”

  “I know.” “And what are you going to do about it, Mr. Eagle? What are you going to do to stop this massacre? They are all there. If Jerry has set the bombs, then he will start to shoot every person in that store, and there’s nothing you can do to stop him.” The Eagle sat back and looked at the clock on the wall; it was a quarter past nine. “I have forty-five minutes before he is to start shooting, according to you,” the Eagle said. Debbie responded, “Unless he kills Billy first. If he kills Billy, and he’s alone, he will most likely start killing everyone ASAP and exact his revenge and then bug out before anyone knows
what happened.”

  The Eagle stood up and told Sara, “I have to get to the mall. Can you handle things here?” Sara nodded, and Karen said, “We have things covered here. Do what you need to do.” Debbie said, “I know your voice, lady…you’re that doctor at the ER who was trying to save me and my foot. You were the one who talked Alan down until the FBI came in the room and killed him. You’re doctor…Faber…yeah. The kid doctor. As soon as I’m well, I’m going to the media, and I’m going to tell them all about you. They might lock me up…but I will take all of you with me.”

  The Eagle turned around and said, “No…Debbie…no, you won’t. You killed and assisted in the killing of several people. You’re not going to prison or jail.” Debbie let out a loud laugh and said, “I knew I would get away with it…I have you fuckers by the balls. I hate that Alan, Timmy, and Mark are dead…but then as Jerry always says, ‘shit happens.’ Jerry and I were keeping our relationship a secret until after the rampage for homecoming. He planned to shoot the others during the attacks, and he and I would run off and be together in Aruba. No one knows about that but us. He had to work so hard to hold back his love for me. Shit, he even blew part of my foot off as I ran with Alan…I couldn’t let him get away…Alan would have gone to the cops. He so loved me, and he thought I loved him…HA! Joke’s on his dead ass. I love only Jerry, and as soon as he has finished the killing we will be together.”

  The Eagle said, “Yes…Debbie…the one thing I can promise you is that as soon as I’m finished with Jerry Pinskey you two will be together in whatever world lies beyond this one.” Sara had a syringe full of a light blue liquid in her hand, and the Eagle said to Debbie as he took the syringe from Sara and stuck the needle into the IV in her arm, “This is really, really going to hurt. You might have killed your victims with a quick shot to the head, but you’re not going to be so lucky.” The Eagle injected the fluid into the IV, and Debbie began to scream almost instantly. He said, “I’m sorry it could not have worked out differently, but I will make sure if I can that Jerry sees your dead body.” And with that, the Eagle left the room headed for the mall.