"What else could I do, really?" Loubar continued. "I can't let you
go free, and tell everyone about what we've done. And I doubt you'd
choose to keep it quiet. Besides," he said, moving around the chair,
closer to the window, "it will give me such great pleasure to see the end
of you."
Angie and Rollie said nothing. There wasn't anything they could say.
"Go," said Loubar, after a long moment. His voice had a sharp edge
to it. "Get back to work."
Angie looked up at Rollie. She saw a look in his eyes that could
only mean one thing. She tensed ...
Rollie lept toward Loubar, hitting him from behind. Loubar's face
smashed into the glass window. The window held. "Bastard!"
yelled
Rollie.
Loubar struggled, but Rollie was stronger. Rollie spun him around,
and pushed his face inches from Loubar's. Rollie slammed Loubar across
the jaw with his right hand, and there was an audible crack. Loubar
stumbled backward, hitting his hip on the conference table. He reached
below the surface of the table, hitting a small button. "Nice try,
Tyler," he snarled, before Rollie hit him again.
An alarm sounded. Angie ran toward the door. A moment later,
it burst open, and two Victors came in, guns drawn.
Angie kicked out, knocking the gun out of one of the Victor's hands.
She shoved him into the other guard, and the two Victors were slammed into
the wall. Angie bent down and grabbed the gun that had fallen,
it on the two Victors. "Drop the gun!" she shouted.
The Victor who still had a gun didn't stop. He moved toward her.
Angie jumped back. "Drop it!" she yelled.
He jumped toward her ...
... and she shot him. The Victor was hit mid-air, in the lower torso.
He screamed, and fell to the floor.
Angie swung the gun back to the first Victor. "What do you say?"
she said.
The man slowly raised his hands. "All right ... I give up."
Loubar charged toward Rollie. His face was bleeding badly.
Rollie had taken a hit in his stomach that had knocked the wind out of
him. As Loubar ran at him, Rollie backpedalled. At the last
second, Rollie deked to the left, then to the right. Loubar shot
past him, and Rollie hit him hard at the base of the spine, using both
fists as a club. Loubar slammed headfirst into the wall, then crumpled
to the floor, unconscious.
Rollie screamed a battle cry, running toward the slumped form on the floor.
He would kill him. He'd make Loubar pay.
"Rollie!"
Angie's voice barely registered in Rollie's mind. He saw red.
All he could see was Loubar's sneering face ... all the terror and harm
Loubar had done to his and Angie's lives. He had to kill Loubar.
He kicked him hard in the stomach once, then again.
"Rollie, stop!"
"No!!" yelled Rollie, kicking Loubar once more. Suddenly hot
white fireworks of pain flashed in front of his eyes. He felt his
left temple burn. He cried out, pulling away.
Angie had clubbed him with the gun.
"Dammit, Rollie!" she yelled. "Get a grip!"
Rollie gasped for breath. "Must ... must make him pay."
"He will pay!" Angie exclaimed, not daring to turn her attention away from
the other Victor. "But not like this."
Rollie touched the side of his head, and winced. He looked at Angie,
then at Loubar. "Yeah ... yeah, you're right." He slumped back
against the wall, breathing hard. "Jesus."
Angie glanced down at Loubar's unconscious form, then looked up at the
other Victor. He had moved only slightly toward them, hands still
in the air. He hesitated, then spoke.
"I want to help you get out."
"Hey, number ten?"
Victor Ten looked up. "What is it?" he asked.
"We have some activity outside," said one of the Victors. "I'm picking
this signal up on security camera B." He pressed a button, and an
image appeared on the computer screen. On the left hand side of the
screen, a team of five police officers were cautiously making their way
toward the warehouse on the right hand side of the screen.
Victor Ten swore. "How the hell did they find out we were here?"
he exclaimed.
"I don't know, sir," said the Victor, "but it won't take them long to realize
that we're here."
Victor Ten sighed, and nodded. "Send a team up." He motioned
at the screen. "Kill 'em all."
The first thing Jack noticed was the new keypad lock on the door.
He ran toward it, and the other members of his team followed. Examining
it, he turned to the man beside him. "Ed, can we get this off?"
Ed made a face. "Only way past this thing is a whole bunch of explosives,
big guy. This is a no go."
"Great," said Jack, stepping back. He picked up his walky-talky.
"This is team leader," he said, to the other teams. "Any luck?"
The leader of Team B answered first. "Nada, big guy. This place
is old and deserted. Nothing of interest at all."
A second voice came over the air, that of Team A's leader. "Ditto,
chief," was all he said.
Jack sighed. "We may have found something. You two teams come
down here if you're sure your sites are clear. We could use your
help." He shoved the walky-talky back onto his belt.
"Okay guys, we have to get in," he said, to his team. "Ideas?"
There wasn't time for a response. The door began to open. "Get
cover!" yelled Jack, diving behind a parked car just in time as a hail
of automatic fire burst outward. He peeked over the edge of the car's
hood. One of his officers had been hit. It was Ed. He
lay facedown on the ground -- Jack didn't know if he was dead or alive.
The rest of Jack's team had managed to get shelter.
Three people stepped out into the light. Jack's eyes widened in surprise
as he saw who they all were.
They were all Loubars.
Jack peeked out over the hood again, then fired twice. He hit one
of the Loubars in the shoulder. The Loubar cried out, and fell to
his knees on the ground. The other two Loubars ducked back into the
shelter of the doorway.
Jack wasn't sure what was going on until he saw something get tossed out
of the doorway. "Run!" he yelled, moments before the little
grenade exploded. A bright flash of white crossed his vision, and
he fell to the ground.
A stun grenade ...
We've been beaten.
I'm sorry Rollie, Angie ... I tried.
His vision went black.
Comments?
Suggestions? Drop me a note here,