by Jon Mills
“You’re a disgrace to the badge.”
“I didn’t touch her,” he stammered in the hope that he could wriggle his way out of the situation.
“Pick up the cuffs.”
“What the hell?”
“I’m in no mood for repeating myself.”
Gingerly, Alex crouched down and retrieved his from the utility belt.
“Now put them on.”
He stared back at Winchester who had a gun on him. Alex winced as the teeth of the handcuffs cut into his skin.
“Now attach the other end to that post over there.”
“Don’t do this. I won’t say anything.”
“You are wearing thin my patience.”
“Look, can’t we…”
He lowered the gun to Alex’s dick.
“Shit, man. No.”
Alex hurried over to the post and locked the other end of the cuff around it.
“How long have you been working for Sheng?”
Alex stared back him in disbelief. What made him think he was working for Sheng?
“I…”
“Don’t fucking lie to me. I’ve seen your kind before.”
“Six years. But I didn’t touch her. I just…”
Winchester rooted through Alex’s uniform for his cellphone. He pulled it out and handed it to him.
“Unlock it and call Deon.”
“Fuck you.”
Winchester smashed his gun into his face.
“The next is a bullet.”
Alex spat blood on the ground.
“You wouldn’t dare. I’m a cop.”
“Soon to be an ex-cop. Underage illegals. Working for blood money. They don’t need your kind in the department.”
He shook his head staring at the phone. “I can’t do this. I’ll lose my job.”
“You’re going to lose more than that if you don’t make that call.”
Alex glanced at the girl and reluctantly tapped speed dial for Deon.
“Put him on speakerphone.”
The phone rang a few times before it was picked up.
“Yeah?”
“Seems I’ve done your job for you,” Winchester said standing over Alex with the gun pressed against his skull.
“Jack?”
“I’ve got…” he glanced down at Alex’s name tag. “An Alex Riley here with me. Seems he has a taste for underage illegals.”
“Alex?”
“Deon.”
“Go on, tell him.”
Alex hesitated.
“Tell him,” Jack shouted.
“What you said. You were right. I’ve been taking money under the table from Sheng.”
Jack took the phone from him.
“Palm Tree Massage Parlor. You’ll find him along with several underage illegals here. One of them is Zhang’s sister. Do me a favor. When you bring them in to INS, have John handle it. He mentioned something about a special immigrant juvenile status that can be arranged through Kids in Need of a Defense.”
“Jack, you need to turn yourself in.”
“Take care, Deon.”
He hung up.
“They’ll never believe you, or him.”
“Maybe not. But they’ll believe all these girls.”
Alex yanked on the handcuffs. Desperation filling him, he watched Winchester turn to the girl. “Do you know where your brother is?”
“No, they separated us.”
“Okay, stay here. Help’s coming.”
“Please. Take me with you.”
Tears began streaming down her face.
“I can’t.”
The sound of a siren in the distance put Winchester on alert. He cocked his head towards the door, waiting until they got closer.
He bent over at the waist. “Look, I’ll find your brother. Just be sure to tell the police what has happened here. No more fear. No more doing this. You want out of this. Time to be brave. You understand?”
She nodded.
Jack sneered at Alex, tossed his phone across the room, gave him one final look, and then exited. Jack slipped out the back exit, climbed and vaulted over a wire fence as sirens got louder. He tucked the shotgun under his coat, and placed the Desert Eagle in his waistband along with the other handgun. He’d done what he could, the rest was in the hands of Deon.
Chapter 37
He’d been on his way over to Teddy Wu’s place that morning when he spotted the two men from the club. He followed them through Chinatown as they visited several establishments. Restaurants, jewelers, appliance stores, and cigar shops. After they left he went in. None of the owners spoke English and by the looks of what he saw through the window, they didn’t seem to be doing any more than collecting money. The protection racket. It never ceased.
He might not have entered the massage parlor had it not been for the fact that one of the guys had dragged a girl out, and looked as if he was trying to take her by force.
Now, it was nearly noon by the time he made it over to Teddy’s place. A towering white block of apartments just seventeen minutes from Skid Row. A huge palm tree out the front looked out of place. Then again most of the décor inside did. No expense was spared. It looked as if he’d hired ten interior designers who couldn’t agree on anything. A mishmash of everything and anything gave the whole place a tacky feel.
As he strolled into the lobby and waited for the elevator, he caught the reflection in the shiny steel-framed door of three men behind him. His one hand reached into his jacket preparing for the worst. But nothing happened. The elevator dinged and he stepped inside. As he turned they walked in and continued the discussion they were having.
The doors hissed closed and one of them pressed a button for the fifteenth floor. He stepped to one side and pressed sixteenth floor. He stared up at the numbers as it began to ascend. He could see their reflection in the chrome that wrapped around them.
“So which one of you is going to be first?” Jack asked sliding his hand into his jacket.
“What?”
Jack noticed that two of them were carrying. Their faces changed from feigned laughter to deadpan. A slow movement towards their jacket and it was game on. Jack dropped, sliding the blade out and twisting around to jab it up into the thigh of one of the men. Another one grabbed him from behind with a choke hold and slammed him into the wall ahead. Still holding the knife, he punched backwards into the man’s torso. He let out a pitiful scream and released his grasp. Meanwhile the third guy pulled his weapon but without a clear shot, he tried to get around his friend and only ended up firing a round into his chest. Jack brought his forearm into his throat and stabbed him four times while he donkey kicked the guy on the ground behind him.
Disarmed and unconscious, he finished them off with a bullet each.
Jack glanced up at the elevator numbers, which indicated he was nearly at the fifteenth floor. He stacked the dead men upon each other to create a footstool and reached up to push out the ceiling tile inside the elevator. Hauling himself up through it, he positioned the tile back in place and waited.
The upswing of working in crime syndicates was he had seen every trick in the book. The way bad men protected themselves. The way they paid others to try and kill him before he killed them.
They hadn’t chosen the fifteenth level by chance. They knew he was coming.
The elevator chimed announcing its arrival. He pulled the sawed-off shotgun that was tightly held inside a holster around his waist. The door slid open and multiple bullets peppered the walls inside, then there was silence. He reached for a grenade, yanked the pin, and tossed it down through the partially lifted tile until it rolled out of the elevator.
Several men yelled and then an explosion rocked the building. Not wasting a second he dropped down, raised the shotgun, and started unloading rounds at those who had survived. Smoke filled the corridor as he moved down the hall shooting at anything that came out. The middle of the floor had been torn apart, along with parts of the walls. When he ran out of b
ullets in the shotgun, he ducked into an area where there were two vending machines and an icemaker. Down on the floor he reloaded the shotgun, pulled the Desert Eagle, and then took a glance around the corner. Drywall dust hung in the air as though someone had shaken a bag of flour around. A few coughs came further down. With the pump-action in one hand and the handgun in the other, he stepped out into the corridor and pressed on.
He passed by one of Teddy’s men clinging to his stomach. Blood trickled out the side of his mouth as he waited for death to take him. He didn’t have to wait long and Jack wasn’t going to waste another bullet on his sorry ass.
As he passed by a doorway, he barely caught out of the side of his eye the man who plowed into him with all the power of an NFL player. They slammed into the wall.
He heard someone shout not to shoot because they couldn’t see a damn thing.
The floor was thick with smoke. The fire sprinkler had gone off which meant it wouldn’t be long before the fire service was on scene.
Grappling the man after having his gun knocked out of his hand, he jammed him in the eye with two fingers, then followed through with a punch to the throat. Gasping, and with the man immobilized, Jack brought his forearm around his neck, wrapped his legs around him, and choked him out. After pushing him off, he cast a glance up and down the smoke-filled corridor. Already inches of water had collected on the ground. Soaked, and covered in blood he collected his weapons. He rose up holding the shotgun in one hand and the Desert Eagle in the other.
Amid the smoke he saw the silhouette of more men approaching. Breathing hard he fired into the smoke, bringing them down one by one.
Pressing forward towards the stairwell, he loaded another magazine into the handgun.
One more level. He had to be here. He wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble to protect himself if he was elsewhere. The moment he staggered into the stairwell he became embroiled in another fight for his life.
Between dodging bullets pinging off the walls, and returning fire, he found himself confronted by a guy who looked like a fucking sumo wrestler.
Jack raised his gun and it clicked.
“Shit!” The worst time to run out of bullets.
The oversized goon grinned back, flashing a few gold teeth.
Jack slid the shotgun and handgun back into place and pulled the serrated-edge bowie knife. He tossed it around a few times in his hand then charged. Big mistake. It was like hitting a rubber ball, except instead of bouncing back the man locked his arms around Jack and began squeezing.
Even though he still had the knife in hand, with both arms locked tight against his side it was useless. It didn’t help that the guy looked like he was enjoying himself. Where the hell did they find him? Like an anaconda wrapping itself around its prey in an attempt to crush them. This meat suit had Jack clamped so tight he could barely breathe. With his face inches away, he reeled back his head and slammed it as hard as he could into the guy’s nose. He blinked hard but seemed oddly unaffected by the blunt force of Jack’s forehead.
Fuck it.
He gasped feeling him tighten even harder.
Again. Again. Again. He drove his forehead against the bridge of the nose.
Even after the man’s nose burst he wasn’t letting go. Enraged, Jack screamed in frustration. There in the stairwell surrounded by smoke, dust, and the smell of blood lingering in the air he was about to be crushed to death.
The final time he drove his head into the man’s face he clamped down on the nose with his teeth and tore sharply to his left. The man screamed in agony as Jack removed the nose in one bite.
Released to the ground, Jack spat cartilage and flesh out and lunged back up before he had a chance to react. He slammed the knife repeatedly into his neck, then in one smooth motion slashed his throat. A shower of blood spewed out all over Jack. Down on one knee, he slid the knife back into its sheath, pulled out the shotgun, and reloaded using loose shells inside his pockets. He slammed his final magazine into the handgun and started up the stairs. Out of breath and feeling every bone in his body ache, he ascended the steps. Water from the pipes had turned the stairwell into a mini river of blood.
At the top he pushed through the door out into the corridor and unloaded a round into his next victim. With every kill he didn’t feel anything. They were just a roadblock in his way. Later he would see their faces. Later he would be haunted, but that was then, this was now.
Jack reached Teddy’s apartment. It was locked. He fired two rounds at the lock and then kicked it open before ducking out of the way. Another series of bullets snapped out as he kept to one side.
“Jack, I have the boy. You want him to live, put the weapons down.”
He quickly cut the corner to see what he was going up against. Three men, four tops. In the center of the room in a chair was the boy, gagged and bound. Behind him stood Teddy holding a gun to Zhang’s head like a coward.
“This only finishes one way, Jack.”
Jack pushed a few more rounds into the shotgun.
“You remember what I told you, Teddy.”
He heard him mumbling something to his men. He glanced up and saw a pressurized hand-held fire extinguisher on the wall along with a large red hose. Pocketing the handgun, he slid up and unhooked the metal, then tossed it into the room. The sudden distraction as it rolled across the floor gave him enough time to lunge out and shoot the fire extinguisher before landing on the other side of the doorway. The explosion was deafening as pressure was released, sending a fountain of powder all over the room. It shot out rapidly, and in a matter of seconds the room was filled with a cloud of dust. Staying low to the ground Jack fired round after round at the men’s legs. The shotgun cut through bone like butter, bringing them down. He hadn’t killed them, only critically injured each one. They writhed around on the floor more concerned about the pain in their legs than who was approaching. Coughing and spluttering he saw Teddy trying to catch his breath. That was the thing about fire extinguisher powder, it was a bitch to breathe in.
Jack fired a round at Teddy sending him down.
As he stepped over Teddy’s men, he fired a round into their skulls putting them out of their misery. Jack placed his gun down. As he untied Zhang, the dust began to settle. All of them including Jack looked like ghosts covered in a layer of white powder.
“Jack?”
“Your sister’s safe.”
The sound of fire engine sirens could be heard beyond the window. In a matter of minutes, the lobby would be swarming. Jack stood up and walked over to where Teddy was.
“Where is Sheng Ping?”
He said something in Chinese. Jack dropped down on one knee on Teddy’s throat and began applying pressure. “Where is he?”
Teddy tried to speak so he released his knee.
“Down at Long Beach Harbor. A yacht called the Voyager.”
Jack nodded slowly and patted him on the side of the face. Rising to his feet he pointed the shotgun at his face.
“But I told you what you wanted to know.”
“And I told you if I came back here…”
The gun went off finishing what he should have done in the beginning. Turning back to the kid, he placed his hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get you out of here,”
“Jack,” he yelled as Yu Cheng appeared in the doorway. Jack only caught the glint of silver as he raised his hand. Turning into the boy to protect him, he felt the full force of it hit him in the back.
Chapter 38
There was no time to dwell on the excruciating pain. Yu slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. Sprawled out, Jack breathed in hard as he tried to catch his breath from the initial impact of the knife. Out the side of his eye he saw Zhang duck behind some furniture.
Then, he felt the knife yanked from his back.
“Now you die.”
Yu pulled back on Jack’s head and brought the knife around; Jack brought his hand up just in time to have it slashed. Jack screamed in agony as the blade cut
through his hand. He latched onto Yu’s wrist and pulled as he rose up. Like a large gorilla on his back, it took everything in him to rise. They spun in circles smashing into furniture as Jack tried to throw him over his shoulder.
Then he felt it again.
The wire coiled around, the metal cutting into his throat, and the loss of breath. Dropping his head down so that Yu’s was above his, he ran at the wall and drove Yu’s head into the drywall. The sudden thud of his skull against the wall caused him to release the herculean grip.
Spluttering and spitting blood, Jack smashed his foot into Yu’s stomach repeatedly. The fourth time, Yu locked on, twisted, and brought him down hard.
Everything about this guy was starting to piss him off.
Yu rained down a series of kicks and punches, each one more painful than the last until Jack was barely moving. As the sirens got louder and he knew police and firefighters had arrived, Yu stopped.
In the dust and haze of the room, he saw him approach Zhang. Yanking him from a place of safety he was about to leave with him.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” Jack muttered spitting blood on the floor.
Yu stopped and cast a glance over his shoulder.
Jack began rising back to his knees. “Come on, you little fucker.”
Enraged, Yu ran at him. Jack blocked the kick, grasped his leg, and smashed his fist into his nuts. Not once, but twice, then held onto him even as he rose to his feet. Dragging him by his leg, Jack pushed out of the room to where the fire extinguisher roll was on the wall. He yanked it out. Kicked Yu in the face to stop all his squirming, then proceeded to tie it around his neck.
With Yu out cold from the kick he pulled his gun and shot the window ahead of him. Dragging his unconscious body towards the window, Jack didn’t even think twice about his decision. Shooting him was too easy. With both hands he yanked him up, then launched him out the window. The reel spun wildly as it let out more of the roll, and then upon reaching the end it jerked tight.
He didn’t even bother to look down. There was no surviving that. Jack tore off a piece of cloth from his shirt and tied it around his bloodied hand.