by Katy Jordan
Bullet looked up at him. Rocket gave her a nod, and Bullet returned the gesture.
She kicked up the stand, Tide wrapping her arms around her waist, ready to get going.
Tide was right.
It was ridiculous that he didn’t even make it through a day.
What the hell happened?
How did they get on to him so quickly?
It must have been from the night when they launched Gecko’s escape plan. They must have remembered him being there.
Well, Jack might not have lasted one day being safe.
But, he also won’t last one night being in danger.
The situation was about to be Colour Coded.
Chapter Sixteen
Bullet twisted the accelerator on her bike like her life depended on it.
Hers didn’t. But, Jack’s did.
The winding country roads seemed a lot more tortuous at high speed, but Bullet didn’t slow down.
She was in control.
More than she had ever been.
Tide clung on as tight as she could as she looked over Bullet’s shoulder, watching the tight turns arrive at top speed, shutting her eyes tightly while Bullet tilted the bike almost horizontally to take the bend.
Coming in from the north meant that Neon’s warehouse was downhill.
Bullet yanked in the clutch and stamped on the gear lever until she got to neutral and switched off the engine, gently gliding down the narrow road. She carefully alternated between the front and back break, trying not to slam it too hard and skid, creating noise.
She had the bike crawling along silently, bringing it to a complete stop, and let Tide hop off before she put the stand down.
Elegantly, she swung her leg over the bike and ducked down low, taking off her helmet and placing it down on the ground next to Tide’s blue one.
As she moved over closer to her, Tide was looking through a pair of binoculars by the bushes.
“Anything?” Bullet whispered.
“Six guards on each side still, one at every corner, and four at the entrance to the compound. This is going to be insanely tricky,” Tide replied.
“What way to the pipe?”
“It runs down towards the warehouse up in the north-west corner.”
“Okay, let’s go. Try not to rustle the bushes too much,” Bullet instructed as they began to carefully crouch-walk through the shrubs and bushes that outlined the warehouse grounds.
“Bullet to Rocket, we’re just about to reach the sewage pipe, what’s your twenty?”
“Rocket to Bullet, we’re just pulling up to the drop off point. Your hour and thirty minutes start in two.”
“Bullet to Rocket, copy that.”
Ducking as low as they could, they continued along, Bullet keeping one hand around the back of her bag to make sure it didn’t catch on anything and bring any unwanted attention to them.
After a few minutes of stealth walking through the straw-like tall grass, they disrupted a bird cowering out of the cold in a bush nearby. It took off with a powerful thrust from its broad wings, breaking twigs and branches on its journey, and a torchlight swung rapidly in their direction.
Without thinking, Bullet and Tide rolled on to their side and played dead. The light from the torch broke through the bushes, grazing the top of Bullet’s leather jacket. She held her breath like it would make a difference, holding as still as possible, trying not to think about the fact that she could feel herself sinking into the mud.
They heard the men shouting, and two guards ran towards the property entrance.
“Army crawl,” Bullet hissed at Tide lying in front of her.
Frantically, they shuffled along through the muck, twigs and branches sticking into them from all angles, Tide’s feet flapping like a fish out of water in Bullet’s face.
The water pipe wasn’t far away.
Neither were the guards.
The shouting got louder and louder as the cast iron pipe sticking out of the ground got closer.
Tide reached out and slapped her hand on to it, dragging herself over to the other side as Bullet wrapped her fingers around Tide’s ankle and went over with her.
Keeping out of view, they stayed completely still.
The voices got louder. Torches were flashing around their general direction. Branches were crumpling under the feet of the guards.
“C’mon man, there’s nothing there!”
“I’m telling you I saw something.”
“Can you see anything now?”
“Well, no, but…”
“Because it was a bird. Just a teeny tiny wee bird, deciding to do a flittin’ at two in the morning, so stop being a nugget wrapper, we need to get back to our posts. You know what Neon’ll do if he comes out and we’re not there.”
“Yeah, I know. Sammy didn’t deserve that.”
“Aye, neither did John, and neither do we, so c’mon!”
The guard that was closest let out an agitated groan, and about turned, the footsteps finally getting quieter as they ploughed their way back through the bushes and out to the main road.
Bullet and Tide let out a breath.
“That… was far too close for comfort,” Tide breathed, lying flat on her back trying to keep herself under control.
“You’re preaching to the choir with that one. Okay, so this is it?”
“Yeah.”
“How the hell are we supposed to get in there?” Bullet stressed through her clenched teeth.
“Worry not, my friend,” Tide whispered with a cocky smile, “the pre-seventies sewage systems had entrance holes, sort of like vault doors. All we have to do is find one and pry it open.”
“Great… Where? And how? Unless you’ve got a tiny little toolkit hiding on that skinny little body of yours, we’re done.”
“Since when are you the one full of doubt? That’s Sparrow’s role in the gang. We’re gonna bring Jack home, Bullet,” she reassured her, keeping her tones low.
Tide looked down towards the warehouse. There was a wheel on top of the large pipe just before it disappeared into the ground.
“Well, that one will be too close to them to open it without them hearing us,” she informed, “let’s go this way.”
Keeping low, yet again, they made their way further afar from the warehouse, the floodlights lighting up the grounds like that of a football pitch, making it glow in the midst of the hills around them. They followed the pipe back for a good while until they came across another panel with an old rusty wheel on the top.
“Okay, this should be far enough,” Tide announced, speaking in normal tones.
“I hope so, I don’t want to have to crawl another mile to the next one,” Bullet joked.
Tide flashed her a smile and pulled a crowbar from up the back of her blue hoodie.
Bullet looked on in disbelief.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked, laughing.
“Well, it’s not a tiny little toolkit, but considering these types of contraptions are pre-seventies, I kind of thought I’d most likely need one,” she replied with a smile, placing the crowbar into the edge of the panel.
“If your ribs are cracked, I won’t be surprised. Was that not killing you when we were crouched down? Or hiding?”
“I’ll admit it was a little uncomfortable,” Tide said sarcastically, leaning as hard as she could on the tool.
The panel wasn’t budging.
“Nothing?”
“Not even a creak,” Tide confirmed, panting from the strain, “but, it was never going to be a simple job. Can you hold this here?”
Tide held the crowbar in place for Bullet to take it. As soon as she took hold of it, Tide scrambled on top of the pipe, not having to worry about her balance as the pipe was so big, and leaned her foot on top of the crowbar.
“Right, let go,” she instructed, and Bullet took her hand off of the crowbar.
Tide was about to put her full body weight on the crowbar, but Bullet interrupted her.
Tide grabbed Bullet by her wrists and steadily placed both feet on the crowbar.
She started giving light bounces on top of it, the crowbar starting to grow flimsy under her weight.
“I don’t think it’s going to go,” Bullet said, keeping her head down looking at the panel.
“I’ll try it from the other side,” Tide offered.
They struggled over the other side of the pipe and laid out the same setup, Bullet taking Tide’s hands and Tide bouncing on the crowbar. The panel made a small creaking sound.
It was loosening.
“And now from the front,” Tide said, quickly getting worn out from the difficulty of the job.
This time both girls were on top of the pipe, but swapping roles. Bullet held on to Tide this time as she forced her weight hard on top of the crowbar with her feet.
It creaked again.
“Right, now we just need to slacken the turning wheel, and we’ll be good to go,” Tide said cheerfully.
“What tool are you going to whip out for that?”
For show, Tide stretched her hands further out of her sleeves, looking at Bullet.
“The tools which I was born with.”
She slammed her hands on to the iron wheel, her feet grinding through the dirt and grass, pushing with all her might.
Bullet jumped over to the other side of the pipe and joined in on the effort to unlock the now loosened panel into the old sewage pipe.
“Nah, it’s not happening, the ground is too slippery,” Tide expressed.
Bullet checked her watch, stunned at the time.
“Holy sh… we’ve been at this for over an hour,” she informed Tide, who remained deep in thought.
Tide went into her little dark blue hip pouch that she was wearing and pulled out a neatly coiled rope.
“Been dying to see what this can do,” Tide said excitedly as she tied it to one of the spokes on the wheel.
“It’s rope, Tide.”
“It’s got little bits of plastic in it, makes it really hard to break but means it can be as narrow as it is to fit into tight spots,” she explained, looking up at Bullet’s still very baffled expression.
“Let me put it this way, if you were stuck down a hole, this could pull you out with your entire arsenal attached to you and not snap.”
Bullet was mightily impressed, as she watched Tide line herself up with the angle that she had to pull the wheel to as a means of opening it. She jammed her feet up against the pipe, now unable to slip. Bullet stood beside her, also taking a hold of the rope in between her black leather gloves and placed her muddy boot on the side of the pipe.
“Ready… GO!”
Bullet could feel her hamstrings bulging in the back of her thigh as she pushed herself away from the pipe as hard as she could. Tide’s toes were crumpling against the pipe at the ground as she continued to lean backwards, almost lying herself flat on the ground.
They were groaning and moaning, their joints in agony, trying to breathe through the pain.
“Sparrow to Bullet, we’ve reached the top of the hill, what’s your status?”
Bullet ignored him.
The rope was surprisingly holding like Tide said it would. She could feel it breaking through the leather on her gloves, rubbing against her calluses.
If this is how it was for Bullet wearing gloves, she couldn’t imagine how Tide was managing to cope.
The wheel moved slightly, letting out a sound of its age as rust scraped against rust.
“Keep going,” Bullet groaned, as they continued to strain themselves by the old pipeline.
“Sparrow to Bullet, are you okay? We’re around twenty minutes out,” he repeated.
But, the wheel was moving.
Suddenly, they let go of the rope, bouncing into bushes as the rope bounced back, landing across the top of the pipe.
They lay in the grassy field panting.
“You okay?” Bullet asked.
“Yeah… that panel is putting up a helluva fight,” she panted back, “but, we should be good to go now.”
“Your hands, Tide,” Bullet said as she leaned over to grab her wrist.
Tide’s palm was rubbed raw, the skin broken, blood threatening to start trickling down her hand.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Sparrow to Bullet, can you hear me? What’s going on?” Sparrow nipped in their ears as they scrambled to their feet.
“Bullet to Sparrow… we’re fine. Got into a fight with the pipe entrance. We’re almost ready.”
“Sparrow to Bullet, we’re midway through our descent down the hill to the west of the warehouse.”
“Bullet to Sparrow, copy that. What’s your twenty?”
“Sparrow to Bullet, we’re at the south-west corner of the warehouse, are we anywhere near you?”
“Bullet to Sparrow, head north about a mile and a half and you will be.”
“Sparrow to Bullet, E.T.A is approximately ten to fifteen minutes, hang tight.”
“Tide to Sparrow, the guards are on full alert, Bullet and I were almost compromised. Take it easy. If you need to take the long way to us then do it.”
“Sparrow to Tide, I hear you. We’ll do what we have to.”
Bullet strolled over to Tide who was wrapping a cloth around her stinging hands.
She was worn out. Tired. Aching.
As was Bullet.
“Right, now to open it,” Tide said, getting ready to go at it again.
“I’ll do it,” Bullet said, gently pushing Tide away from the wheel, “I have gloves on.”
She braced herself before she began forcing her body weight away from her arms with as much force as she could muster up.
After a few attempts, the wheel came loose, throwing Bullet off her feet as she slid down the side of the pipe.
Her muscles were burning with pain, her hands numb with the pressure she put into turning the wheel, her feet throbbing with the force she was throwing on to them. Tide hobbled over and sat down next to her.
“Let’s just pretend that was the easiest job in the world whenever they decide to get here,” she joked.
Bullet smiled.
She couldn’t even force a laugh out she was that tired.
Her breath was visible in the cold night air as she panted heavily, leaning her head back against the pipe.
Suddenly, she sat bolt upright.
“Is that how it’s going to be when we’re getting into the warehouse?”
“It should be easier to open from the inside. It won’t have been exposed to the natural elements, the notch is on the inside, and there’ll be more of us,” Tide explained, “it’s a plus all around.”
Bullet nodded and slouched back against the pipe again, closing her eyes, praying that they would make it in on time to save Jack. There was a noise.
A scuffle.
A branch snapping.
Bullet’s head darted ninety degrees like someone snapped her neck. She pulled her handgun from the side of her thigh, holding it out in front of her, cocking it. Sparrow and Gecko appeared from behind a bush with their hands in the air.
“What you going to do with that?” Gecko asked sarcastically.
Bullet sighed with relief, lowering her arms to the ground.
“You scared the shit out of me!” she growled.
“Sorry,” Sparrow said, “we didn’t know how much noise would carry back to the warehouse so we chose to be as quiet as possible until we found you. Are you ready?”
“Yeah, we got it open,” Tide announced, gesturing to the panel.
Sparrow walked over to it and turned the wheel effortlessly, like it had been that way the whole time. Gecko helped him to lift the heavy iron panel up.
The smell that burst out was horrendous. The four of them looked into the darkness. Gecko pulled out his torch and shined it in. It looked worse on the inside than it
did on the outside, and the exterior was pretty ugly.
“Are we sure this is the only way?” Gecko asked, a disheartened frown inhabiting his forehead with disbelief.
The stares he received from Bullet, Sparrow and Flare were enough of an answer for him. There was no other way.
Bullet pressed her finger to her ear.
“Bullet to The Spectrum, the four of us have reunited, and the old sewage line door is opened. We’re going in.”
Chapter Seventeen
One by one, they dropped into the sewage pipe, Bullet leading the way. Her leather boots crashed into the old, thick sludge that used to be trickling water, grimacing at the sound.
She pulled out her handgun, activating the torch on it that joined the other streams of lights coming from Tide, Sparrow and Gecko’s torches behind her.
“A gun? Really?” Sparrow scoffed before Tide smacked his arm.
“Do you really want to take any chances when it comes to Neon?” Bullet retorted over her shoulder.
They began down the tunnel. Their footsteps echoed both forward and backwards, down the cast iron tube. They took it slow at first, but that turned into a brisk walk, which soon turned into a steady jog, and then finally into a slow run.
“Here’s a panel,” Sparrow announced, aiming his torch up to the top of the tunnel.
“That’s the first one we’ve come across, which means it’s the one at the edge of the grounds. We probably want the next one,” Tide said.
They kept running, trying to maintain their speed.
“Rocket to Bullet, we are in position,” he tickled everyone’s ear.
“Bullet to Rocket, we’re almost at the underside of the warehouse. Keep you posted,” she replied.
The further down they ran, the worse the smell got. Almost unbearable. Almost.
In the distance, there was an odd shadow on the roof of the tunnel.
The next panel.
Their access to the warehouse to Jack. To Neon.
“Thank God we made it, I think I’m going to throw up with the smell in here,” Gecko panted.
They stood directly under the door to the tunnel, shining all four torches on it, studying it.
“What do you think?” Bullet asked Tide.
“I think we’ll never know how stiff it is if we don’t try and open it,” she replied.