Ice Cold

by Mark Graham

  Ice shimied up a drain pipe that worked for him and when he reached the top he rolled over onto the roof. He felt his body fall about two foot onto the flat roof. He was actually glad that there was a two foot, cement brick wall around the entire roof. If he half stood, and especially stood all the way up he could see for blocks away since the roof he was on was the tallest in the immediate six block radius.

  Joyce got her stuff up in two trips. On the way to finding the window she stepped and almost tripped in what she thought was human shit. When looking she realized there was a lot of human shit in this corner. She looked and found a nasty sleeping bag over on the other side of the room so she used it to wipe the shit off her shoe, then turned it over and swung it so it covered most of the poop. She thought ever since getting into the building that it smelt really bad. She remembered her days as a cop when they put a dab of Vick’s into each nostril, neutralizing the bad smells of a dead body.

  She looked carefully and saw that the lot was completely empty, with no one else around. She took one of the guns and knocked out the remaining glass in the windows she would use. There was two right next to each other. She picked a spot that was three or feet away from the window where she could see most of the lot except right below her. She did like Ice showed her and took all the weapons and put them down in a place she knew she wouldn’t have to walk, and in turn trip over. The ammunition of each weapon right next to it. She put her special .44 magnum bullets right by the gun that was sitting just under the right window. She loaded it first, then all the other weapons she made sure all the magazines were full and ready to go. She carried her Glock on her hip, Joyce remembered that Ice had said it would be dark when this thing started so she rearranged the guns in a different manner and memorized where each was, all within reach of where she was and from the window. She found a busted up chair that would work and brought it close to where she would be. The last thing she did was click her walkie talkie three times. She received one squawk back.

  Talon didn’t have much problem getting set up. He’d done this many times and could do it in his sleep. The biggest problem he had, was the rats on the way up. Evidently previous people had tossed a couple pizza,s to the half way up landing of the stairs. There was a bunch of rats so he actually stomped two of three of them, then ran up the stairs, reminding himself to remember them on his way down. He definitely didn’t want to fall next to a dead rat, or a live one. He thanked the Lord he had put on combat boots before going out of the motel door.

  Once on the roof, Ice walked to the side that was just up from the empty lot. If he stood up he could see right to the ground next to the wall. He knew he wouldn’t get that close so stepped back and kneeled, then kind of knee stepped closer. Once he could see the whole side of the lot away from him, including half way back from where he imagined was the middle might be. He set his stuff up too, just like Joyce had except he put his in a row right up next to the wall.

  All of them waited in the dark, thinking about a number of things. All were a little nervous, Joyce a little more so than the other two.

  At about nine-thirty two cars pulled in. Both jacked up Cadillacs with risers and the thin tires, big wheel set up. One was a brilliant white and the other one that was about a year older was a nice medallic mid-green. Both drivers got out and did their hand bopping and whatever else they always seemed to do. The guy in the white Cadillac left his car running with the music blasting. It was blasting loud enough to even piss Talon off.

  In another fifteen or twenty minutes about a dozen cars pulled in. Some with one passenger, and others with four. By the time ten rolled around there were at least twenty cars, parked together. It appeared that there were fifty or sixty of them. Although the street light had been broke out years before, a light from the next intersection gave some light.

  Ice thought, to advantage, “four or five or those cars have left their parking lights on and doors open. We might not be able to see into the shadows, but it looks like we all have a good line of fire.

  Ice and Joyce heard their walkie-talkies give off some clicks, followed by Talon’s low and slow voice. “My first shot is to get that white Cadillac that’s making all that God forsaken noise.

  “10-4,” on that Ice said.

  Ice gave it ten more minutes and glad he did because two more vehicles showed up with four in each. One was a big Hummer which was customized to the extreme. When it stopped it was the closest to Joyce’s position.

  Ice clicked the walkie-talkie twice then held it down. “Joyce, your first shot will be with one of those .44 bullets and take that Hummer out. Hit it behind the rear wheel and about a foot up. You should get, or be real close to the gas tank.”

  Ice got two clicks back. He then put out to both of them, “In three or four minutes I’m taking my first shot, then you do the same. After that it’s whoever you can get or blow up. Keep an eye on the other two agents, and near their buildings where they can’t see.

  Ice waited for a full five minutes before sighting in on a low rider that had a couple people inside and several people sitting on the hood, and a couple on the trunk. He squeezed the trigger and watched as the low rider disintegrated. Within five seconds the other two got their rounds off which ended up enflaming all the cars and the most people.

  Talon had his hands full because there were several trying to escape through the broken down fence. He shot one of the powerful bullets in their general direction then started picking them off one at a time, very efficiently.

  Joyce also had her hands full. Some of the people had run to the side of the building where Ice was and started toward the back, and others had hit the front fence and trying to get over. “Ice, you have half a dozen right below you mid way.” Immediately picked her rifle and shot all the people on the fence and below it. Ice had quickly dropped a grenade over the side. Then she heard, “Joyce, someone is coming around your side. Keep your ears open and get that son of a bitch before he gets you.”

  Ice had shot one of the pair as they stood beside the house, the other one ran around the front when Ice called to warn her.

  Joyce had to admit she was a little more than nervous, and all her nerves and senses were on high. She heard the man drop through the window and into the house, then heard him carefully come up the stairs. She picked her biggest handgun up and headed to the door which was quite close to the top of the stairs. She saw the head of the guy as he snuck upstairs. She aimed and squeezed. It was too late to wish the powerful special bullet back. When it hit the man it exploded. The concussion knocked Joyce back. If it wasn’t for the wall she knew she would have been hit by shrapnel. Her ears were ringing and she knew she had lost her night vision for a while, but she crawled to the door and looked. What she saw was most of the wall that was the outside wall just to the back of where she shot somebody in the head almost blown completely out, with what remained in fire.

  She quickly went back into the room and collected everything she could and looked out the window. Nothing was moving, but she could hear a couple of screams. She ran to the back window, thinking she would have to jump. But when getting there she saw that there was a real, metal fire escape.

  When she got down she went nearer the fence to see if she could see anything and then back to where Talon had been and saw that the wall around the window had been peppered with either a shotgun or a number of bullets. She worried about him but thought she needed to get to the van as soon as possible. Before she took her first step she heard some kid yelling and crying. She looked back and saw a kid, probably no older that fourteen or fifteen yelling to no one in particular. As soon as she seemed to be able to hear what was going on she heard a loud pop, and watched the kids head explode by what was probably a high powered hollow point, with the mass blowing toward the back fence.

  She froze for a second, and thought, “Ice, he actually did it!” then ran off to the van.

  Talon did well and picking his stuff up too. He suddenly realized he’d been hit becaus
e he saw blood. After feeling all over he found that he had been grazed along his side, and when checking his head found a hung of flesh missing from his ear. He thought, as the jokster he was, “there, now I will look real bad!” He succeeded in getting all his stuff together and ran to the van about a minute after Joyce had started running from the scene. What they didn’t see, Ice could because he was still on top of the roof.

  Within only a few minutes after the shooting started he saw a car coming with it’s lights on top of the car going. Then when carefully looking all three-hundred and sixty degrees he counted at least ten other emergency vehicles on their way. There was no way to know that two gang investigation officers were in their cruiser just two blocks away getting ready, and waiting for two other vehicles. All three were going to go to the same empty lot. If they would have been three minutes sooner they would have ended up in being in the middle of the mass killing.

  Ice knew he had to get down and out as soon as possible. Most, if not all the cops would first go to where he saw they were going, and that was to the van. He immediately realized that once the original arrests were made that there would be lots of cop cars covering this entire area, looking for someone else. It was built into their nature, Ice believed.

  Ice kept his Glock with two extra clips and a knife, along with an icepick in his boot. Everything else went into the net. The last thing he put in was a package. He flipped up a little panel that showed a time piece and set it to go off in five minutes. It would definitely get the attention of all the cops and everybody else. Knowing any evidence would be destroyed, he looked as well as he could and got down the rope in what he thought was record time. He ran behind the building across the street and down the alley. When he got to the next street, he looked, waited for a car to pass and ran down the next alley through the middle of that block. After doing this past several streets he found himself on a street adjacent to an IHOP. He casually walked to the lot and started looking for a car to steal. It didn’t take long and he found an old Chevy pickup. He was happy to find the treasure because it was lot easier to wire the ignition and get the thing running. About the time he was finishing the wiring and got the truck started he heard a God awful explosion. When he looked it appeared that flames were going quite high with a lot of black smoke.

  He drove out of the lot and toward their motel. When still on the roof he had heard a voice say, “they got us” and that was all. He drove beyond the motel several blocks and parked the truck. Walking again down an alley he walked to the motel and let himself in. He remembered there was a vending machine right around the corner and bought a Coke and a peanut bar from the machine next to it. He returned to his room, set down, and relaxed, thinking and getting himself in the right prospective.

  After several minutes he felt settled enough to make the call. He called the number that rang into a recorder. “This is Ice, operatives two and three have been captured by the Houston Police Department. I am well, but don’t know if either of the others have been hurt,” he said and immediately put the phone down,.

  Ice turned the TV on but really couldn’t get his mind to pay very good condition. He was worried for his two partners. He didn’t trust real cops and cops of Houston Police Department had been known earlier to be a rough bunch. He only dared himself to think that they had been taken in and were now being questioned.

  Both were going through what Ice thought they would be doing. When Talon was taken into a questioning room he found a paramedic there who would check out his wounds. A uniformed cop and what he thought was a detective there just watching.

  “As far as your side goes, I can just use four or five butterflys, and as long as you don’t stretch that area it should be fine. If you think you need to act out we will have to put you out and stitch it. Talon just looked at the paramedic and said quietly, “thanks.”

  “As far as your ear goes I am going to put some ointment on it, then put a bandaid on it. After several hours feel free to take it off. Or, if they let you sleep, and you wake up and the tape is missing you may find blood on your pillow or whatever it is they give you. As long as it isn’t bleeding much don’t even touch it. If it needs more care than that, someone will just repeat this process. Good luck,” the man said kindly. Inside, the man was half scared to death just looking at this guy. He wondered if this guy could have been a mass murderer on the lose.

  Joyce was taken into another room, only a few doors down from Talon. There we already two detectives across the table. They’d brought her a Coke and just sat there hoping she would say something; anything.

  After about ten minutes the senior guy figured this was going no where. If they had an innocent person she would be running off at the mouth. Only the most disciplined criminal didn’t say anything.

  “Well, what’s your name miss?” he asked.

  “I know my rights and refuse to answer any questions until my attorney is present,” she said kindly and seriously.

  “Oh, come on, just your name,” the other detective said to her.

  She repeated, “I know my rights and refuse to answer any questions until my attorney is present,” She repeated.

  “How about we call a public defender for you. Then you will have an attorney here within ten or fifteen minutes,” he detective lied. He knew he wouldn’t get anybody here until the next morning.

  “Just allow me one phone call and my attorney will be here as soon as possible,” she said, again seriously.

  “I can tell she’s not going to work with us at all,” the younger detective said to his partner.

  He then turned to her and threatened, “Since you won’t work with us you will be charged with a number of murders, attempt to escape, carrying weapons without permits, and a couple ATF charges because of the grenades and explosives you had on your person.”

  Joyce repeated what she had already stated twice. It seemed to piss the younger detective off.

  “We’ll be right back,” he told Joyce and left, then went into the next room where they could view her through a one way mirror.

  “I sure would like to know who she is,” the older detective said, looking at his partner.

  “Yeah,” the other one responded, “in reality, she and her partner should be given an award for taking all those dirt-bags out of commission. From what was left of a few of the cars I think I know who some of those ass-holes were.”

  The phone buzzed and the older detective answered. “Anything from your lady over there?” the man asked who was in a similar room next to Talon.

  “No, you?”

  “Nothing here either,” the detective said scratching his ear. “Your guy looks like an absolute animal. Wonder what she was doing with him. Think we should let them call?”

  “Yeah,” the voice answered, “give them three minutes and three minutes only.”

  The detectives watching Joyce picked up a phone with a wire attached and took it in for her. The detective plugged the end into the wall.

  “Okay lady,” you have three minutes and only three minutes.

  “First, where am I at so I can tell them?” she asked softly and politely.

  “You are at the headquarters of the Houston Police Department in downtown Houston.”

  She picked up the phone and dialed a number, When it was picked up on the other end she heard, “Go ahead.”

  She stated, “this is the lady in Houston. I am at the Houston Police Departments headquarters building located downtown Houston. I am being charged with a number of charges.” She hung up.

  The younger detective looked at his senior with a look of unbelief. Many times a person would of course give their name, and if she had said it they would be able to learn everything they needed to know. The same thing happened with Talon with the same response.

  “Can I get a bottle of water or anything?” she asked.

  The younger detective went out and returned with three waters, one for each of them.

  She just said, “thank you very much.”r />
  The three of them sat there, with the two detectives talking with each other. Joyce sat their with a pleasant look on her face. She was wondering what the cops thought of all the gear they did or would find on their persons and in the van. It kind of made her laugh inside herself, and she had a hard time containing it. Ice had told it right, “sit next to yourself as a completely other person and just observe what happens. Ignore any pressure or pain for that matter.”

  Of course, this wasn’t Talon’s first rodeo. He actually got the cops talking about police work, themselves, and what they thought of things. He was actually enjoying himself. They were under the impression he was some idle-brained fool who had been led along. He didn’t do anything to make them feel differently.

  About a half hour later the older detective answered the phone. All his partner and Joyce heard was ,”yes sir,” “no sir, two more yes’s” and he hung up shaking his head. The other team received the same phone call.

  “What the fuck?” the younger detective said coming out of his seat.

  The senior detective told him, “These two have federal warrants out on them for some mighty serious charges. Worse then we have. We’re to take both up to the Captains office.”

  “Captain’s office?” the younger guy said, obviously getting quite upset. “The Captain is never here at night, why this time?”

  “I don’t know. It’s my job to follow my commands,” he responded with a negative smirk.

  The four detectives and two suspects met at the elevator. One could do it but they figured the big guy could definitely cause some trouble.

  They got off the elevator several floors above, walked down the hall and right into their captain’s office. He saw three men in suits and could only assume they were federal agents.