by Mike Ryan
Porter took a look to her left, not seeing anything on the horizon that looked like it might be a danger. She then looked to the street and saw a black unmarked van traveling slowly in her direction. The hairs on the back of her neck called out to her that this was a hit. Considering that there wasn’t any type of space or alley between stores, she really had nowhere to go to get away. So instead of running, she just calmly went into the store.
After going about halfway in, Porter turned around and looked out through the window, observing the black van drive on by, still going slowly. It was most likely turning around and parking somewhere, waiting for her to come out. She then moved to her right a little, tilting her head to see the man across the street. He no longer had the magazine and was now crossing the street. Thinking he was coming inside, and maybe the other man too, Porter knew she had to find an exit.
Porter went up to the woman at the counter. “Excuse me, do you have a bathroom in here I can use?”
“Yes,” the woman said, pointing to a wooden door at the back of the store. “Just go through that door and the bathroom is on the right.”
“Thank you so much.”
Porter took another look at the window before walking to the back of the store. She saw the bathroom and went over to it, peeking inside. There was no window for her to escape out of. She sighed, but was undeterred, and quickly looked around for another exit. Every place had a back door, she just had to find it. She walked through what appeared to be a storeroom, which was basically just a bunch of boxes neatly stacked throughout the room. As she walked the length of the room, she saw the door. She went straight for it, pushing it open, hoping it didn’t set off some kind of alarm. As the door opened, she didn’t hear any wailing sound that doors usually made when they were hooked up to an alarm.
As the door slowly opened, Porter peeked her head outside, observing a small drivable area between the store and a half-wall that was made out of brick. Porter finally stepped out of the store completely, letting the door close. Seeing it close, she observed the door had no handle, so it could only be opened from the inside. There was no getting back in now if she needed to.
Figuring that the men were inside inquiring about her, Porter knew she had to move fast. She was just about to sprint over to the wall when she saw the black van coming from her left, speeding down at her. They obviously recognized her, and she hurried over to the wall in order to escape. She threw her hands on top of the wall and pulled herself up. She stood on top of the wall, looking at the van speeding down, just about at her location. She then heard the back door to the store open, seeing the other two men stepping outside. They immediately saw her on top of the wall and sprinted over to it as Porter jumped down to get away.
Stephenson and Myers had been looking on at the action through a camera placed on the van. They didn’t look very pleased at what was transpiring. Stephenson put his head down and rubbed the back of his head, sighing in frustration.
“This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen,” Stephenson said. “She spotted them a mile away and bolted.”
Myers shook his head. “She’s just too good.”
“Now we’re in a foot pursuit and who knows what will happen.”
“We’ll get her. We’ll find her.”
“That’s what worries me. Us finding her. Or to be more frank, her finding us.”
20
Now that she was on the run again, Porter kept her eyes peeled for a spot she could lose her pursuers. Running down the sidewalk, passing several buildings, Porter kept looking back, seeing two men running after her. Not seeing the third, she had to figure that he was back in the van, cruising around. She came to a corner and turned, making it about halfway down the street before seeing the black van come roaring toward her.
Horrified to see the vehicle, Porter mumbled to herself, then turned around to run away from the van. The van sped up, quickly making up the distance between the two of them. As Porter went back toward the way she came, one of the other agents came barreling around the corner, surprised to see Porter trucking right at him. Porter was more ready for him than the other way around, and she flung herself toward him as he stood there flat-footed, unsure of what was going on.
The two fell to the ground, Porter on top of the man, quickly getting to her knees and unleashing a furious round of punches to the man’s face to temporarily knock him out of the game. With one agent down, licking his wounds, the other agent came running around the corner, only to run into a roundhouse kick to the face from Porter. The man dropped to the ground, Porter kicking him a few more times for good measure.
With both men down, Porter turned around to focus on the van, which was just about on top of her by now. The van screeched its tires, stopping only a few feet from Porter’s position. Porter stood there, looking stunned and not sure what to do. But she was just waiting for her next opportunity. The driver opened the door to get out, and Porter rushed over to him, slamming the door in the man’s face before he was able to get clear of it, the force of the door crunching his back into the corner of the driver opening. The man yelped in pain as he fell to the pavement, Porter taking the opportunity to kick his face to keep him down there longer.
With all the men down that she could see, Porter took a quick look around, only to see the first man she whaled on getting back to his feet. The man quickly removed his pistol and aimed at her. Porter dropped to the ground as the man fired, the bullets lodging into the van. Porter rolled completely under the van, getting back to her feet once she got on the other side. As the man with the gun stood there, waiting for Porter to return fire, he was unsure of which direction to move, wary of Porter’s prowess with a gun. His indecisiveness gave Porter a much-needed head start, and she began running down the other side of the street, the van blocking the man’s vision of her running.
The entire room was glued to the situation unfolding in front of them. Via the camera on the black van, everyone could see the battle going on in the street. They saw Porter completely get the best of and dismantle all three agents. All Myers could do was shake his head, in awe of what just transpired. Stephenson buried his head into his hand, covering his eyes, not wanting to see anymore. After a minute, he finally ran his hand down to his chin, letting his eyes see again. It was obvious to him, and anyone else who was watching, that they were totally overmatched, even if no one else was willing to say it. After Porter escaped, Myers just turned and looked at his boss, unsure what to say. Not that there was a lot that could be said. It was all said right there on the screen. Porter was too good. At least for the men they had there.
“Uh, well, at least she didn’t kill them,” Myers said, trying to find a bright spot.
Stephenson just sighed in response. “They need to pick her up again.” He then buried his head into his hand again, shaking his head, still not believing what they just witnessed. “Three agents,” he said. “Three agents against one and they looked like buffoons against her. She made them look like three flyweights matched up against a super heavyweight.”
They continued looking at the video on screen as the driver of the van got back into it and started driving along the street again.
“They need to show some mettle here,” Stephenson said. “Stop pussy-footing around, stop playing games, stop everything. Just take her out. Those are the new orders. Just take her out. As soon as they get a shot, they are to take it. I don’t care where they’re at, who’s around them, anything, I just want this situation under control. I want her gone.”
“What about fallout?”
“We’ll take care of any fallout afterwards. Right now, I don’t care about anything else other than Porter being eliminated.”
Though Porter had gotten away for the moment, she knew she had to duck in somewhere before the men picked up her trail again. At least if she went inside somewhere, anywhere, they wouldn’t know where she was. But once they saw her again, it was going to be tough for her to disappear. The next building she cam
e across, Porter just went inside. She didn’t care what it was. As soon as she went through the glass doors, she turned around to watch the street. She tried to stand to the side so she would be out of sight if the men went by.
Just a minute or two later, the black van rolled by. Porter let out a deep breath as it drove past her, thinking that she may have successfully eluded them again. She still wasn’t willing to step out into the street again. Not yet. She didn’t yet know if the other two men on foot were still on foot, or whether they had joined their friend in the van. Porter kept backing up, unaware of what was behind her.
“Can I help you, miss?” a woman asked.
Porter jumped, startled at the sound of the woman’s voice. She turned around, seeing a middle-aged woman sitting there behind a desk.
“What?” Porter hurriedly said.
“Can I help you?”
“With what?”
“With why you’re here?”
Porter then started looking around, seeing a tiled floor, and a bunch of people in suits and nice dresses walking around. She could only assume it was some type of office building.
“Oh, no, no thank you,” Porter said with a smile. “I know exactly where I’m going.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes. I’m just… I’m gonna go there now. Um… second floor.”
Porter saw stairs to the left of her and walked quickly over to them, looking back to see the receptionist still staring at her. Porter shot her a fake smile as she ascended the steps. Once she got to the second floor, she looked around, seeing a bunch of doors on both sides of the hall. It looked like a nice building, though she still wasn’t exactly sure where she was. As she walked the hallway and passed some doors, it looked like a mixture of business. Lawyers, financial advisors, mostly people that smelled of money. She started walking around the building, all five floors of it, planning all of her exit strategies.
Stephenson and Myers were looking at the screen, seeing the video that the van was shooting, still driving through the streets as they looked for Porter.
“It’s like she disappeared,” Myers said.
“She’s gotta be there somewhere,” Stephenson replied.
“She’s a ghost.”
“Well, that is what she’s been trained for.”
“Maybe we trained her too well.”
“OK, let’s rewind the footage from the van after Porter escaped,” Stephenson said loudly. “She ducked into a building somewhere, she had to. Let’s see if we can find her.”
“Slow down the footage. Let’s look at each shot, look at the background, see if you can make her out anywhere. Maybe she’s observing from somewhere.”
Stephenson and Myers moved closer to the screens, standing only a foot away to give themselves a better view. As the van went about halfway down the street, Stephenson thought he detected something.
“Stop, stop. Roll it back a few frames.”
“You see something?” Myers asked.
Stephenson started pointing at the screen, waiting for the picture to materialize. “There, there.” He pointed to the front door of the building, seeing a woman standing there.
“Is that her?”
“Zoom in on that,” Stephenson said.
A few seconds later, the face of the woman in the doorway became clear. It was Porter.
“It’s her,” Myers said.
“Get the address of that building. Find out what that building is and direct every agent to that location.”
“I’m on it.”
Porter was coming down the steps to the first floor when she looked at the entrance, horrified to see the same three men entering the building. She did an about-face and walked back up the stairs before they saw her. The men went up to the receptionist, showing her a picture of Porter to see if she’d come in. After confirming that she did, the men went to the stairs and started going up. They each split up, taking the second, third, and fourth floors, then they’d meet back up on the fifth.
Porter was already on the fifth floor, walking to the far end of the building, where she previously observed an open maintenance door that led up to a roof hatch. Porter climbed the ladder, getting up on the roof. There was a maintenance worker patching a hole in the roof, wondering who the strange woman was.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“Just seeing the sights,” Porter said.
“You gotta get out of here.”
“Don’t worry. I’m leaving.”
Porter ran to the edge of the building, looking down at the small alley between the buildings. The next building was roughly the same size; at least, it had the same number of floors. Porter looked back, knowing she didn’t have many options. With the maintenance man looking on, Porter took a few steps back, then took a running jump at the next building.
“Holy Hannah, what the…” the maintenance man said, in awe of what he was witnessing.
Porter landed on the next building, rolling over onto her back as her feet touched the rooftop. As soon as she looked back, she saw the other men coming onto the roof she just left.
“What the hell is going on here today?” the maintenance man asked.
Knowing the men were coming, Porter ran to the end of the second building. As she got to the edge of that one, she looked at the next building, which was only three stories. She looked back and saw the men running and leaping onto the second building as well, making her decision easier. She took a few steps back, then jumped onto the next building, hurting her ankle as she landed and rolled. She grimaced and rubbed her ankle as she knelt there, looking up at the building she just came from.
To give herself a few extra minutes for the pain from her ankle to subside, Porter took her gun out and aimed it at the top of the building. As soon as the men were in sight, Porter fired a few rounds at them. They quickly took cover, dropping to the ground to get out of her range. Porter stood up, putting pressure on her ankle to make sure it wasn’t broken. It wasn’t. The pain was more bearable now. She saw one of the men take another peek over the edge of the building and Porter let loose a few more rounds in their direction, causing them to duck again.
Porter ran to the edge of the building, seeing a small ladder that went down to the halfway point of the first floor. As Porter climbed down, hanging on the last rung on the ladder, a small truck drove by. She swung her body over, letting her fingers loose from the ladder, dropping onto the top of the truck as it continued driving by. As the truck drove away with Porter lying on top of it, she looked back, seeing the three agents on the roof of the third building, looking down to see where she had gone.
“See ya, jerkbags,” Porter mumbled.
As the truck drove down the road, one of the agents pointed at her, seeing her on top of the truck. They were resigned to the fact that she’d gotten away, but they quickly climbed down to get back to their van, hoping they could catch back up to her.
Myers had just gotten off the phone and walked over to Stephenson. He really wished he wasn’t the one to always relay the bad news.
“She got away,” Myers softly said.
Stephenson sighed, wanting to bury his head somewhere. Luckily he wasn’t standing next to the wall, or he would have banged his head into it. He looked disappointed, but he had no words to say. What else could he say? Porter was better than the guys he had on the ground. That’s all there was to it. Stephenson’s shoulders slumped, dejected as he walked out of the room. He wasn’t sure they would get another chance at her, and truthfully, even if they did, he wasn’t sure they could handle her anyway. Somehow, he had to figure out another way to stop her.
21
Porter kept ringing the phone, wondering why he wasn’t picking up. She’d been calling for several minutes. She knew he had to be there. After calling several times, stopping for a minute periodically before calling again, she picked up the phone again. Finally, this time she got through.
“Yeah?” Nails asked, aggravated at hearing the pho
ne ring so many times.
“Took you long enough. What’re you, sleeping?”
“No, I wasn’t sleeping. I got things to do here.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Like stuff. By the way, who is this?”
“Forget me already?” Porter asked.
Nails took a few seconds to think, then realized who he was dealing with again, his shoulders slumping in disappointment. “Oh, no. Not you again.”
“It’s me again.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have picked up the phone.”
“But luckily you did.”
“Lucky for who?”
“Listen, I need your help.”
“Aw, come on, man, I don’t wanna get killed.”
“What makes you think you’re gonna get killed?” Porter asked.
“Because if you’re asking for more help, that means it’s bad news, most of all for whoever helps you.”
“Just stop talking and listen.”
“Fine. What do you want?”
“I just need to know how to get out of the country illegally,” Porter said.
“Huh? What? Why would you need to do that? I just gave you some beautifully well-made documents so you could go right through a border with no problem.”
“It’s not the documents that I’m worried about.”
“Then what?”
“Whoever’s after me seems to know where I am at all times. It has to be someone with powerful connections. What if they’ve got alerts out at all the entry points to look for me?”
“Hmm, you might have something there.”
“I need to disappear.”
“So why come to me?”
“Because right now you’re the only one I can trust,” Porter answered.
Nails was touched by the sentiment, allowing his heart to soften for a second. “Well… but, anyway, I’m not in that business.”