“Darren! Jason! I’m in the front hallway, first floor. Who has a location on Steph?” He got no reply. “Give me your location, Darren!”
There was no reply.
Ж Ж Ж
Steph pressed her hands against her ears, trying to block the intrusive blasts of sound coming from the siren in the hallway. She couldn’t hear anything else and was terrified by the din. She had told herself that she would be brave, but right now she just wanted to be curled up in her bed back in Port Angeles with her favorite stuffed unicorn with the sparkly rainbow mane. She sat on the floor of the cramped, dark space, her knees aching to stretch out. All she could see was a sliver of light peeking through the gap under the little door. “Mike will find me . . . Mike will find me,” she whispered to herself.
Chapter 44 – Bullets Without Backup
MIKE WAS FROZEN IN PLACE against the wall of the long hallway, not sure where to go, but knowing that the guy behind the desk who had set off the alarm when Jason barged in would not sit still. “Jason!” he called, hoping he would be heard either through the cell phone or just by the shout. Mike yanked the earbud from his left ear; Steph’s stealth phone wasn’t going to be much help. His partner’s voice came back through his other ear.
“I’m in the back. I can’t find Darren.”
“He’s not answering on the phone line,” Mike stated the obvious. “His last check-in said that he was inside in the back. Any other movement on your end?”
“Nothing. It’s like the place is empty. Does your tracker have a fix on Steph?”
“It says I’m standing on top of her, but she could be five floors up, or in the basement. I don’t know how accurate this thing is.”
“What’s the location?”
Mike looked at the screen again to make sure the blip on the little map had not moved. “Looks like it’s in the front of the building. I’ll try the door of the first room here, see if you can find Darren and meet me here in the front.”
“I’m on it.”
Mike slid his back along the wall until he got to a cut-out about four feet wide. A worn sign identified the room as number 102. Mike pressed his ear to the green door, but could not hear anything on the other side. He gently pressed against the lever-style handle, which did not yield. Kicking down the door did not seem to be a particularly likely method of entry. A hotel door, even an older one, would resist his solo efforts. That left knocking and seeing if anyone answered. If Steph was in there, and she could cry out, that would give him much better probable cause to try to break down the door or get Jason to shoot the lock. It would also alert anybody else in the room to his presence. He decided to go with a variation.
Mike slammed his fist against the door three times as loudly as he could. “Hey, we gotta go!” he yelled urgently, hoping that he might sound enough like the guy from the front desk that any bad guys inside would think that they were being advised to evacuate. He stood, listening as best he could amid the continuing screaming of the alarm. He took a step back, giving himself some distance in case somebody burst through the door. Nothing happened. No sound of movement, no scream, and no change in the blank exterior of the door.
Then the alarm suddenly stopped blaring. The absence of the intrusive noise hung in the air like the resonance from the last chord of A Day in the Life. The unexpected silence was accompanied by a ringing in Mike’s ears.
“Steph!” he called out, having no better option. Silence was his only response. But then he heard something.
“Mike!” It was very faint, like it was coming from behind a door. He thought it was coming from inside the room in front of him, so he banged on the door again.
“Steph – are you in there?”
Again, he heard, “Mike! I’m here!” but it seemed to be coming from behind him. He took a step back and turned toward the front of the hallway just as he heard a loud crack, followed by the ping of a bullet ricocheting off the far side of the doorway – right where he had been standing a moment before.
Mike instinctively crouched and threw himself against the other wall. The shot had come from the front. From his position, he could see partially down the hallway toward the back. Remembering that his phone was still live, he spoke softly into his front pocket, “Shots fired front hallway. I’m pinned down. Need–”
Before he could finish saying “backup,” another shot rang out in the hallway, this time coming from the rear. Mike could not see the second shooter, but he guessed it was Jason. “Jason!” Mike said in a sharp whisper into the phone, “I’m going to run across the hallway in front of you to get the shooter’s attention. When he fires at me, you make a run at him.”
Two seconds later, Mike jumped out from his hiding place and dashed across the hallway and into the cut-out of another doorway on the opposite side. As he expected, a shot rang out just as he reached his shelter. He had been counting on the shooter being late with the shot, and likely not all that accurate, since criminals seldom spent much time at the practice range.
A second after the shooter’s bullet embedded itself in the drywall, Jason rushed down the corridor. As he moved forward, a figure peeked out from around the corner. Jason wasn’t sure whether it was the guy from the lobby, but it didn’t matter. He was holding out a pistol in his hand. Jason dropped to one knee, raised his weapon with both hands, and pulled off two quick shots, aiming for the man’s half-exposed torso. At least one shot found its mark as the man spun backwards, his gun flying from his hand as he uttered a guttural “Ummph.”
Ж Ж Ж
When the siren stopped, Steph thought she heard Mike calling her name. She reached for the door of her cage and lifted up. When the door was half-open, she saw the back of a man’s semi-bald head about ten feet in front of her. She wasn’t sure if she recognized the man as the guy from the front lobby. She was absolutely certain, however, that he was holding a gun in his right hand, pointed at the ceiling. He was standing at the corner of the little side hallway as if he was peeking around it. As she watched, the man leaned forward, lowered his gun, and fired with a deafening blast. Steph quickly re-closed the door, plunging herself back into darkness. She sobbed quietly.
Chapter 45 – Out of the frying pan
MIKE JUMPED FORWARD, quickly looked both directions to determine that there were no other people in the narrow hallway, then grabbed the shooter’s gun, which had fallen to the floor. While Jason covered him, Mike sprang toward the prone figure lying on the grimy carpeting. He was face up, his left hand pressed against his right pectoral. Mike thought that he looked like the guy from behind the counter, although he had only seen him for an instant on the way in. The man was grimacing and moaning softly as the blood from his chest wound seeped past his weakening fingers. Mike could not tell for sure if he had been hit once or twice, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He rolled the man over onto his stomach, ignoring the cries of pain, and planted his knee into the man’s lower back, keeping the gun ready.
When the man rolled over, a white rectangle of thin plastic, like a credit card, caught Mike’s eye, dangling from a hinged clip on the man’s belt. Mike grabbed it and pulled. The card came away from the clip, attached to a thin filament of black thread. When the wire reached the end of its length, Mike yanked and the card detached from its clip, which snapped back to its base. Mike pocketed the card, then pulled on the clip again to extend the wire. He grabbed the man’s right hand, which was lying limply on the floor, encircled his wrist several times with the wire, and tied it off in a simple knot. It wasn’t as strong as a set of handcuffs, but it would be difficult for him to go anywhere, even if the gunshot wound in his chest didn’t keep him down.
Jason stationed himself with his back to Mike, pointing his gun toward the empty hallway. “Hallway looks secure for now,” he panted, having just sprinted its length, checking each door along the way. “All the doors are locked.”
“I’m hoping this is a key,” Mike said, reaching into his jacket pocket and extracting the white p
lastic card.
“Is it ever that easy?”
“Sometimes.”
“We gotta call this in now, Mike,” Jason said with his gaze firmly fixed on Mike’s eyes. “Shots fired. Man down. We have to call for backup and an ambulance for this guy, or he’ll bleed out and Sully will have our asses.”
Mike dropped his head a fraction of an inch and nodded. “No way we’ll explain bringing Darren into this shit-show. Tell him to get the Hell out of here after you call it in. No need for him to get wrapped up in our mess.”
“Roger that.” Jason stood up and reached for his cell phone when both men heard a muffled, high-pitched voice cry out.
“Mike!”
They both looked around, trying to determine the source of the voice. The door of the dumbwaiter slid up, revealing Steph’s cramped form. “Steph!” Mike and Jason shouted at the same time.
“Jesus!” Jason exclaimed, as he rushed to the end of the short hallway to help her extricate herself from the dumbwaiter. She groaned as her cramped legs unwound. She let Jason half-carry her out of her hiding place and set her on the ground, where she stood on wobbly legs, holding on to Jason’s elbow.
“You call this in, I’m going to get Steph out of here,” Mike said, taking a step forward and extending his right hand. Jason reached for his cell phone, but then stopped when he heard a voice from behind them, back in the direction of the main door.
“Freeze right there, Motherfuckers! Drop those guns right now or so help me I will blow your brains all over that wall!”
Chapter 46 – Hard Choices
MIKE AND JASON BOTH HAD THEIR BACKS to the voice. Mike shot a quick glance out of the corner of his eye toward his partner and saw Jason shake his head slightly. Mike nodded. They both shared the same thought. If the voice seriously had a gun and they tried to spin around and take a shot at him, they would certainly suffer casualties. But if the voice was bluffing, then when they dropped their guns and turned around, they would still be able to fight hand-to-hand. Mike dropped Bruno’s gun straight down so that he could reach for it quickly if the opportunity arose. Jason tossed his gun off to his left, to a spot he hoped to jump towards later. They both turned around slowly, raising their hands. Steph whimpered softly, trying to stay behind Jason.
When they finished turning, they looked at not one but two men, both holding pistols and standing in the middle of the main hallway, just in front of the security door. Mike recognized the taller, older man as T. Warren Magnan. The other man was short and thin and Mike did not know him.
Mike relaxed his shoulders and smiled, lowering his hands halfway. “Well, I’m certainly glad to see you, Lieutenant. For a moment we thought we were in trouble.” Mike took a step forward but stopped short as a shot rang out and plugged into the carpeting three feet in front of him, fired by the thin guy.
Magnan spoke next. “I’m very sorry, Detectives, that you have wandered into this situation. It seems that you know that young lady. We’ve been conducting an undercover operation here. At this point, I don’t think our cover is completely blown, so I’m going to ask you to please accompany us down the hall where we can talk in private. We will maintain the appearance that you are our prisoners in case anyone sees us, so please walk ahead of us with your hands raised. Go down the hallway to room 108, on the left. We’ll be able to talk freely there.” Magnan smiled at Mike and Jason, then waved his pistol barrel in the direction for them to walk.
Mike and Jason exchanged skeptical glances, but nodded to each other and started walking with their hands up. When they got around the corner and were ten feet or so ahead of Magnan, Eddie retrieved the dropped guns, then hurried forward ahead of the prisoners and opened the door to room 108. He trained a gun on them as they walked in, with Magnan trailing behind. Once in the room, Magnan motioned for the two men to stand next to the bed. Eddie grabbed Steph by the arm and pulled her away from Jason. He shoved her toward the corner of the room, where she sat on the floor, fighting back tears and breathing heavily.
While Magnan covered them, Eddie frisked Mike and Jason, removing their cell phones – both of Mike’s phones – and satisfied himself that neither man had any other weapons or electronics. Magnan then had Mike sit on the floor several feet away from Jason.
Mike said slowly, “You’re not undercover and you’re not letting us walk out of here. You’re the one we have on tape talking about the whores and the drugs with your buddy here, aren’t you? My advice is that you give up and not add murdering two police officers to your list of offenses.”
“He’s full of shit!” Eddie cried out.
“Quiet,” Magnan said calmly. “Let’s presume that we are, in fact, under surveillance, although I can’t imagine how. We are guilty of nothing and we are engaged in a legitimate police operation. The question is how to extricate ourselves from this situation while maintaining our cover. I would love to discuss this in depth, but time is short. Eddie, I think we will need to restrain the detectives. Do you have some cuffs?”
“I got one pair on me, but I can get another,” Eddie responded.
“Warren, stop!” Darren’s voice came seemingly out of nowhere and caused everyone to freeze and look up. Darren was standing at the edge of the room, next to the short hallway that led to the door. He faced Magnan, holding his Glock in both hands.
“What the fuck, Curran?” Eddie called out and redirected his aim toward Darren, leaving Magnan to cover both Mike and Jason.
Magnan glanced to his right, in Darren’s direction, and said in a remarkably calm voice, “Stay out of this, Curran. Go home. You don’t want to be here.”
“It’s over, Warren,” Darren said in a quavering voice. “It’s time to stop and walk away. We can all just walk away right now.”
“Like Hell we can!” Eddie shouted. “You’re such a schmuck, Curran.”
“Fuck you, Eddie! I’m done. I’m out.”
“Fuck me?” Eddie said with a wry laugh. “You’re just as fucked as we are. You’re not done. You can’t just walk away. You’re as deep in the shit as we are, Asshole.”
“I’m not. I didn’t do anything illegal. I’m still clean. I can deny any knowledge of your whores and your drugs. All I did was let you steal my ID card.”
“That’s all you did?” Eddie shot back, still pointing his gun at Darren. “You snorted more meth than the whores, and you had your fun with them, too.”
Mike turned his head toward Jason, while the three men holding guns continued their Mexican standoff. He silently mouthed to Jason, “What the fuck?” Then he turned to Steph, who had a confused and terrified expression on her face. Mike raised his eyebrows to get her attention, then mouthed to her, “Be ready to run.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Curran,” Magnan interjected, still aiming his gun at Mike, but turning his head to speak to Darren. “You took the money; you knew what was happening. You can rat us out, but you’re just as guilty. The DA isn’t going to grant you immunity if you’re an accessory to murder, so grow a pair and face reality. Grab that gun on the desk, it belongs to Bruno. He’ll take the fall here, and we’ll be heroes for taking him down. You and Eddie will back me up. And why the fuck are you here, anyway?”
“I came in for a hit and a fuck.”
“Who else knows you’re here?”
“Nobody.”
“What about them?” Magnan asked. “Who knows they’re here?”
Darren hesitated. “How the fuck should I know?”
“Then we’re clear,” Magnan said. “We need to make this look plausible right now. These two came storming in, Bruno took them both out, then we shot Bruno. Put down the damned gun, Curran!”
“I can’t let this happen,” Darren said, his gun shaking in his hand. “There has to be a way. I’m telling you we can all just leave, right now.”
“You think these two are just going to turn their backs and let us walk out of here? Pretend they were never here?”
“Yeah, I do.” Darren kept his gun pointe
d at Magnan, but glanced at Mike with pleading eyes. “Mike, you gotta agree. You’re in deep shit here. We all are. You walk away with Steph, I walk away, they walk away and never come back to this shithole, and we all just keep our mouths shut. It’s a solution for everybody.” Darren looked at Jason. “Dickson, you’re in, right?”
“Sure,” Jason answered, “that’s a whole lot better than the ending I’m looking at.”
“What about you, Mike?” Darren pleaded.
“I’m in, Darren. Let’s just all put down our guns and walk out there into the hallway.” Mike looked at Magnan. “Warren, you and Eddie here are working undercover, right? So, you had a problem tonight. An addict came in and you found out that the guy at the front desk was selling drugs. The addict busted in and Steph here, who had run away in search of her sister’s killers, got in the way and we came in and Jason shot the guy when he pulled a gun. You guys were upstairs running your surveillance operation. You came down to support us after you heard the gunshots. Darren will go out the back like he was never here. We’ll all file reports and nobody downtown will care about some scumbag drug dealer who got shot. You dump this sleazy operation and we’ll all play dumb and keep moving toward retirement. I’m good with that.”
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