by Terry Persun
“You make me sick,” Dan said.
Chuck said, “We’re on Native land. Things are different here.” Then his head shook violently and he whispered, “Oh, no.” He vomited to the side of the chair, splattering onto the guard’s uniform. He started to whimper. “You did this.”
When Dan heard Richard’s voice on the other side of the doorway, his first reaction was confusion. He might have expected Cora and her men, but Richard had stayed out of the way. Why now?
“Dan, I have things under control here. I’m going to come in. Don’t shoot me.”
Dan knew his friend would come to the rescue if he could. “The door’s blocked. Let me get it.” With the gun stuffed into his pants, Dan pulled the desk from the doorway.
The door opened slowly, and Richard poked his head around the corner.
“Jason’s been shot. He needs to get to a hospital.”
“I’ll take care of it. Otherwise, you seem to have things under control.”
“As much as I can,” Dan said. “It’s good to see you.”
Richard walked all the way into the room. He held a pistol like everyone else. He appeared to be alone. Once he was all the way into the room, he lifted his gun and shot Chuck in the back of the head.
Dan jumped back. “What the fuck?”
“He killed my daughter.” Richard twisted the gun toward Dan.
“Koko was Sarah? I thought you said…”
Richard’s face sagged, his eyes looked blank. “You should have listened to her. You should have listened to Mindy. To me. But, no, you don’t listen to anyone. Grandfather always said you were a natural, but that it’s your talent that would get you into trouble. I expected you’d have died long ago, some of the shit I’d heard about you.” He turned his head and motioned toward Jason. “You get your own son killed, my daughter, and still you stand here all arrogant and sure of yourself.”
“You don’t have to do this, Richard.” Dan kept his eyes planted on Richard’s face, but peripherally noticed Richard holding something in his other hand—Sarah’s tourmaline necklace.
“I wanted to help the community. Get these assholes off the street, the girls, the pimps, all of them. The more girls got off the streets the fewer girls the pimps had to work with and they’d start leaving. At first it was easy, no FBI, no anything. Then that fuck-head,” he pointed his gun toward Chuck, “and his buddy here found a way to make a lot of money.”
“And take care of your problem,” Dan said.
“Sarah saw too many girls go down the wrong path. She had friends… We were helping until… You know, we were poor while she was growing up—that wasn’t all right with her. The money. Things just fell together, and I knew the universe, the ancestors, were helping.”
“That’s not how it works,” Dan said.
“How the fuck would you know? You’ve killed plenty of people. Made a lot of money doing it, too.” Richard glared, his eyes glazed over, the gun held loosely, as if he’d already forgotten that he had it.
Dan didn’t say anything. No sense in riling his friend. He thought of the tourmaline. Everything had become heated and polarized.
Richard yelled behind him, “Come and clean this mess up.”
Several guards, including the leader, rushed into the room. One held his nose. “Jesus. . .”
Richard pointed at Chuck, the guard, and the doctor. “Just get them out of here.” He then nodded toward Dan and Jason. “Leave these two.”
“Jason needs a hospital,” Dan said.
After Dan said that Jason needed a hospital, Richard said, “Not happening. Why would I let your son live?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet.” Richard’s eyes widened, then narrowed and darted, as if he were sliding between focused and unfocused. His mouth twitched at the corner, and he didn’t appear to know exactly how to stand. His head cocked as though trying to come up with a plan for the two of them, but he’d offer a quick shake when nothing came.
Dan could not imagine how Richard felt losing his daughter even though he felt close to losing Jason. But Dan also knew that Richard’s initial reasoning was positive. He wanted to do the right thing; he just didn’t have a strong enough wall between right and wrong. A lot like Dr. Dunst, Dan couldn’t fault him for that. He remembered that barrier well. He’d crossed it more than once. Richard was right about that. Richard’s grandfather had taught them how to cross the line and still get back. Had Richard forgotten?
Dr. Dunst walked out first, then the guards lifted their own man and carried him. There were only two more guards, and they each took a foot and dragged Chuck, a streak of blood sliding across the floor behind them. The room still stunk of puke, a putrid metallic odor.
Dan took a single, small step toward Jason.
Richard jumped as though surprised and pushed the gun closer toward Dan. “Don’t try anything.”
“Can I go to Jason, be with him when he dies at least?” Dan’s voice faltered.
Richard’s shoulders relaxed as he softened minimally toward Dan’s request, as though he understood, on a deep level, a father’s need to be near his child. And that’s what Dan needed. He took a full step toward Jason, and as he bent down, ready to kneel near him, he threw his leg out and behind him, slamming against Richard’s knee, forcing it backward, breaking it.
Richard let out a loud scream, but Dan was on him in a heartbeat. He bit Richard’s wrist and pulled the gun from his hand. Then he head bumped his friend between the eyes, knocking him out. Dan had two guns now. If Jason were going to get any help, now was the time.
Dan took a deep breath and stepped into the hall, ready for whatever he encountered. It had only been a minute, and it would take the men longer than that to settle their friend and take care of Chuck’s body. He didn’t have much time, though.
Dan looked back at Jason, still asleep. How was this going to work? He wasn’t leaving without him. He rushed to the wall and rolled the desk chair over to the desk. He unscrewed the back of the chair and threw it aside then raised the seat as tall as it would go. He looked out the door every few seconds. He sensed that there weren’t many guards left. If he were the leader, he’d hightail it about now. People were getting killed. They must have gotten paid something up front. Take the loss, stay out of jail.
As he contemplated the situation and its ramifications, he angled the table and shoved the chair under it, then kicked the legs off the table so that it balanced on the seat. He crammed the desk against the wall next to the doorway and hurried back to pick up Jason as tenderly as he could. There wasn’t much time for being overly cautious. Getting Jason to a hospital was more important. He laid Jason across the desk, legs dangling over the edge, then rolled the table perched on top of the desk chair into the hallway. It was noisy, but he had no choice. He’d be a sitting duck if anyone actually opened the door at the end of the hall. And so would Jason except that he’d be harder to hit because he was prone. That was it.
Dan bent down and crouched under the desk, put his ass on one of the chair legs, as uncomfortable as it was, and used his legs to roll the chair down toward the opposite door. All the while, he prayed that Cora and her men would be there soon. He figured they were on their way as soon as Jason’s ear bud was destroyed. Now would be a good time to break in.
Before they reached the doorway, the opposite doorway started to open. Surprise them first. Dan shot twice and the door slammed shut again. He knew they’d be counting bullets, but did they know how many guns he had? The far door slammed opened—a bold move—and Dan dropped the first two men. A third man shut the door again. But now they knew where he was headed. Dan shot into the door again, knowing it would take a few seconds for them to figure out what to do next. He dropped prone to the ground, too, and kicked the chair and desk back. He heard it hit the far door. He also heard Jason moan. His son was waking.
Dan rolled to one wall and shot two more times into the door at the other end. He felt a bulle
t skim the top of his shoulder, but he still held both guns. “Get on the ground,” he yelled at Jason. Someone on the other side of the door shot through one of the holes, blindly.
When he heard Jason’s thump and moan, Dan rolled onto his back and kicked the table off the chair and swung it in front of them, not that it would help except to hide their location. Several bullets went through the desk. He reached up and opened the door behind him.
Jason looked dazed, staring at his dad in disbelief.
“You have to crawl through that door and into the hallway. Get out of the way.” Dan glared at Jason, then kicked toward him.
Jason responded by getting out of the way of his dad’s foot, and Dan followed behind, sensing his good fortune and thanking the heavens.
“Do your noise thing, Dad.”
Jason was attempting to stand, but Dan could tell it was painful.
“Now?”
“You can relax and do it. Make them think something’s down there with them.”
Dan scooted near Jason. Before he stood, he closed his eyes for a moment. His face flushed and his hands shook. His shoulder throbbed. But his son was right. He’d been in worse situations in the past, although not much worse, and was able to go into an altered state. In a moment, he was there. He’d make the noise come from the room Richard was in. They wouldn’t know what to expect from there. He hoped.
Dan did his best to create the sound of someone walking down the hall toward the door where the guards were located. Through repeated gun shots, he continued to create the bangs and bumps, hopefully making them nervous about who was coming toward them through the onslaught of bullets. When he felt Jason’s hand on his shoulder, he stopped, took a breath, and opened his eyes. “Didn’t know I could still do all this shit.”
“I did, but it’s time to get out of here.”
“How do you feel?”
“Terrible. Let’s go.”
Dan ducked under Jason’s raised arm, and they began to walk up the stairs. “You’re weak,” Dan said when Jason continually put more weight on him.
“No shit.”
Dan glanced up the stairs. “We’re not even to the first landing. This is too slow. I can’t wait for you to move.”
“Then let me sit here. Go. Get help.”
Dan shook his head. “Not what I meant.” He slipped in front of Jason then kneeled to get his son higher onto his back. “Hold on.”
Jason argued as his dad lifted him completely off the steps and started walking. From the top of the stairs, the door at the bottom of the stairs rasped open, and men clambering out. Dan let Jason down. “Hold on to the doorway.” Then he walked to the stairwell and took several blind shots over the railing. The men stopped moving. Dan imagined them standing flat against the wall. They’d give it only about ten seconds before starting up again, so Dan took several more shots. Then he did it a third time and rushed to close the door. Jason was gone when he turned around. Dan closed the door slowly. There wasn’t much time.
“Dad?”
Dan swung around, and Jason was shoving a chair down the hall. “Perfect,” Dan said reaching over the top of the door ledge. He grabbed a key lock, nothing more than a cotter pin and shoved it into the bar of the door. Then he crammed the seatback of the chair under it as well.
“How’d you know that’d be there?”
“I know a lot of janitors, and that’s where they keep the pin.” He winked. “And I was lucky this time.” They headed toward the front of the building. “Once we’re outside, we’ll be in better shape.”
“You might be.”
When Dan glanced down, he saw that Jason’s wound was bleeding through the bandage. “We had to move you.”
“I know, Dad. No choice. Let’s just keep going. Fast. Feeling woozy.” Jason faltered, and Dan caught him.
“Not much farther.”
“Dad…” Jason went limp.
Dan tried to get under him again but wasn’t fast enough and had to let his son down slowly onto the tiled floor. Just as he was bending to pick Jason back up, he heard behind him, “You can just stop now.”
“You know the FBI are on their way,” Dan said without turning around.
“Just sit where you are. On the ground.”
Dan turned and sat between Jason and the leader of the guards. The man’s jaw locked in anger. There was more to it than that, though. He wasn’t sure what to do. Dan sensed it. Chuck was dead, and Richard was probably still out like a light. “You might want to walk away from this before they get here,” Dan said.
The leader took a deep breath. Only two men stood behind him, one was the skinny man from earlier, the other one Dan didn’t recognize.
“There have already been too many deaths,” Dan said.
“I thought you didn’t do that,” the leader said.
“I promised my son I wouldn’t, but you see where that got me. You see what Richard did when he found out his daughter was dead. You’d do the same thing. I’m doing the same thing…just trying to save my son.”
“You killed some of my family. And I told you—”
“Then who stops the killing?” Dan yelled.
“You can identify any one of us. You both can. I’m sorry…” He raised his gun.
“Hold it,” Richard said as he stepped from the far hallway.
The leader swung around. “Glad you could make it. Would you like to take care of this, then?”
“I can take care of him my own way,” Richard said.
“Plug ’im,” the leader said. “He’ll turn you in just like he’d turn any of us in.”
Richard looked at Dan. He held the gaze for a long time.
Jason moaned and sat back up on his elbow, then wavered and lay back down.
“Kill me and save him,” Dan said seriously. He was done with it. “Enough is enough.” Then he quoted Richard’s grandfather. “The right idea, the wrong implementation. That’ll get you in trouble every time.” He lowered his head. “Well, I’m in trouble. And guess who used to get me out of trouble? Every time?”
“Don’t do that,” Richard said.
“Your grandfather was an amazing Medicine Man,” Dan said.
“But he loved you more. Not even his own family.”
“He didn’t love me,” Dan said. “He saw potential in me. He was the only man who did…besides you. At one time.”
“He doted over you.”
“He told me one time that you were going to do great things, rise to great heights, and look at you. Your position. He was right. All I ever do is this. One thing. My whole life.”
“He told you that?” Richard asked.
“Don’t fall for it,” the leader said. “Get rid of him.”
“The FBI will be here shortly,” Dan said. “Where do you want to be pointing that gun when they arrive.”
The leader, out of anger, stepped forward. He squinted in the partial darkness. “You’re already bleeding.” He smiled. “One of us must have hit you. Let’s just finish the job, then, shall we?”
“Not yet,” Richard said.
“Oh, yeah, now,” the leader said as he stepped closer to Dan, his gun thrust forward.
Dan instinctively knew what to do, but not the outcome. Quick action would get everyone over the brink at once. The fallout would just have to be the fallout. He leaped up and toward the leader for a split second, then dived to the right of him. A simple fake move. A bullet was let loose as Dan maneuvered. He landed on the hard floor and rolled. He didn’t feel shot, but it could have been a delayed reaction. When he looked up, the leader was already crumbling to the floor. His two cohorts turned and backed into the stairwell. Richard’s gun pointed at the leader. Dan heard three more shots then glass falling. The front of the building, the reception area, the FBI. He held up both hands and looked directly at Richard, who still appeared to be dazed. “You did the right thing. You did the right thing.”
Richard crumbled to the floor himself, letting the gun drop. His head sho
ok, his hands went to his face. Dan crawled to Richard’s side and put an arm around him. It wasn’t like him to coddle anyone, yet he felt a strong attachment to Richard. All of his childhood memories included Richard, their friendship, their shenanigans, their laughter, their training.
Agent Blake was the first one to enter the hallway. He glanced around quickly. His gun swayed back and forth with his eyes. “What happened?”
Cora walked in behind him. “Richard Running Deer. I knew you were mixed up in this. Take them all away.”
Agent Blake glared at her for a moment. “Even Johnston?”
“Fuck all of you,” Dan said. “Call an ambulance.” He looked over at Jason. “Now, you assholes.”
Agent Blake removed a cell phone from his pocket.
“Where’s Mercer?” Cora asked.
“In here somewhere, along with all the girls, Dr. Dunst, a dead Chuck O, and a lot of other bodies. Mercer got winged but should be okay.” Dan looked her square in the eye. “It’s done.”
“Once the girls testify, then it’s done. We just have to get through tribal laws, which could easily screw this whole thing up,” Cora said with disgust.
“It’s done,” Dan said again. “We can’t save everyone.”
“Typical,” Cora said. Her warmth toward him appeared to have waned.
Dan didn’t let her words register, though. He had a son to worry about and a friend to care for.
Several other agents walked in behind Cora. She turned. “Glad you could make it. I want everyone in this room except FBI arrested.”
“No you don’t.” Dan stood slowly. “I’m in charge of this operation and you aren’t arresting anyone here. Have your men comb the building, find the girls, collect bodies, and account for everything you find.” He looked at Agent Blake, who was off the phone by then. “You know I’m in charge and so does she. Tell them or I’ll have both your jobs.”
“Ma’am?” one of the other agents asked.
“Do as he says,” Cora said. “But you know that Richard was part of all this all along. I knew it, and I’m sure you do, too, now.”
Dan turned and looked at his friend. “He’s been working for me.”