Black Brick - Part Three Read online

  BLACK BRICK

  PART THREE

  DAN DECKER

  Text Copyright © 2015 Dan Decker

  All rights reserved

  Published by Xander Revolutions LC

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  For my wife, son, and family.

  Contents

  BLACK BRICK PART THREE

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  BLACK BRICK PART FOUR

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  In the parking garage of the hotel, Cherry gave us a final admonition to be careful before getting into her black Chevy Suburban. Like the rest of us, she was gasping for breath. We’d covered the distance between our room and the garage in such a fast time that I doubted that we’d ever be welcomed back. I couldn’t remember how many people we had to dodge around but it hadn’t been a few.

  By the look in Cherry’s eyes and the way her lips were tightened, I could tell that the guilt I’d used to convince her to come had turned to anger. Whether she was mad at me or the situation, I didn’t know. I just hoped she’d be able to channel it to good use.

  Tom took the wheel of the Dodge Charger while I jumped into the rear passenger seat. I hadn’t even closed the door by the time he’d started the engine and was moving. I slammed it shut as he sped away. I’d chosen the rear because I’d have access to the windows on either side.

  Pulling up a rectangular case from between the seats, I checked the rifle that we kept in back. It was an FN F2000. The bullpup design would make it an ideal weapon for the type of close quarter situation we were likely to run into.

  I loaded a magazine and chambered a round before setting it on the seat. I wouldn’t bring it up until we were closer to our quarry and knew more about the situation. I didn’t want some concerned citizen calling into the police and reporting men with guns speeding through traffic.

  The sun hit our windshield as Tom pulled out into the morning traffic and I squinted from the glare. The traffic was heavy, but hopefully it wouldn’t keep us from catching up. I could just make out Gurley’s van turning the corner several blocks down. I caught my breath and restrained myself from telling Tom to hurry.

  It took us forty-five minutes to catch up to Gurley’s black van. It had been a tense drive and we’d lost sight of it several times, only to find it again as if by luck.

  Cherry moved her suburban into the parallel lane while Tom stayed a car behind. The plan was for her to wait until Gurley's van had come to a stop and then to pull in front of them, while we blocked them from behind. Risky, but the best we could come up with on the fly. We didn’t know where they were moving Shannon and Lisa, but I figured this would be our best chance to get them.

  The radio in my hand squawked. “You guys ready?” Cherry asked.

  “Hang on,” I said, “we need to see if they have backup.” Gurley's van had left by itself but I wasn't taking chances that they hadn’t met up with other cars on the road.

  The car between us and the van was a minivan. The driver was a middle aged woman with a harassed look to her; she was ferrying kids to school. We’d have to get in front of her before we made our move.

  To the side of us and behind Cherry’s suburban, were several other cars. A grey Toyota and another smaller compact car I didn’t recognize. The Toyota was driven by a kid with a shaved head and tattoos. There appeared to be a girl next to him, but it was hard to tell because her hair was cut short and she was as tattooed as he was. A possible threat but unlikely. The gang Martinez was working with, didn’t go for the punk look.

  The smaller car—a Kia of some sort?—was a different story. There were several thick looking men. Those might be our guys; the only thing throwing me off was the car.

  The SUV behind us was the most likely candidate, a dark Jeep Cherokee that could have been either blue or black. There was a person in both the driver and passenger seats. I took in all of this information with a casual glance around.

  “Watch out for the Kia to the side and the Jeep behind us,” I radioed back to Cherry. She acknowledged and said she was waiting.

  “Ok,” Tom said. “Keep an eye on them. I'm going to get ahead of this minivan and then we’ll go.”

  While I waited for Tom to make his move, I tried to relax. There was no telling how this was going to work out. My beating heart was echoing throughout my whole body and I felt a little nauseous.

  I was glad that there hadn’t been time to eat after waking. I didn’t want food sloshing around in my belly just now. As a relaxation technique, I tried to imagine that I was out on a run, putting one foot after the other. Remembering the smell of the San Diego beach and the sound of the water, I took several deep breaths. It didn’t work. There was too much on the line.

  The van took a right at the next intersection, spoiling our immediate plan. Cherry continued going straight because she didn’t have another option, but Tom followed the van around the corner.

  We were now directly behind Gurley because the minivan had continued on without turning. My hackles went up. I’m not certain what it was that tipped me off. Maybe the van was going a bit slower or perhaps it was the industrial neighborhood we just entered.

  I ignored the bad feeling, because Shannon was in the van and we had to get her.

  “Cherry,” I said speaking into the radio and consulting the map display on my tablet. “The next right is a dead end so wait for the one—”

  The windshield of our car spidered as several bullets burst through and nearly took Tom in the head. Luckily, I’d been hunched over the tablet as I spoke into the radio, so I hadn’t been a target. I dropped the radio and tablet, pulling out my pistol instead of reaching for the rifle because I wanted the maneuverability. I rolled down the right window part of the way, and then tried to use my elbow to break the glass. It bounced off and rather than continue to beat at it, I finished rolling it down, cursing the lost time.

  “You'll never hit them with that!” Tom yelled when he saw me taking aim out the window. He had shards of the windshield on him. “Use the F2000.”

  I ignored Tom and fired several shots at the van’s tires. The bullets missed and sparks flew up where they collided with the road.

  “Use the rifle!”

  “You wanna hold a rifle out of the window of a moving car?” I continued shooting as Tom sped up and crashed into the van, slamming me into the side of the open window and nearly tossing me out of the car. I screamed as my forearm took the brunt of the blow.

  “Take them out—”

  My gunfire drowned out Tom’s words and I emptied my magazine, scoring a hit on the rear tire. I had time to reload before Tom rammed the van again. This time I was prepared and braced myself.

  The van didn't slow.

  “Armored tires,” I said.

  “Ya think?”

  “Jake, what going on?” Cherry squawked from the radio where it had fallen to the floor. That was when I noticed the slit in one of the back window of the van. I fired several shots at that rear window. The bullets didn’t even come close.

  “Careful!” Tom yelled when he saw what I was doing. “Shannon’s in there.”

  “It's reinforced,” I said.

  “You didn't know that!”

  I snorted
. Why would they have a slit if it wasn’t reinforced? Even though I hadn’t hit the slit, it was now closed.

  Our car lurched and there was the sound of shrieking metal as a car to the left side collided with us.

  I was surprised to see that it was the Toyota that had sideswiped us. The woman in the passenger seat was bringing up a gun and I fired several shots without thinking. The side window of our car shattered and I watched with sickening disgust as the woman’s tattooed face exploded into a bloody oblivion.

  The Toyota slowed to a stop and I spared a moment to see if there was any additional threat. It spun to the right and smacked into a parked car before coming to a stop. Maybe I’d hit the driver as well.

  I didn't have time dwell on the fact that I’d killed a woman because at that moment Tom accelerated and crashed into the back of the van. This time the van slammed on its brakes and our car crumpled like a tin can.

  I landed between the two front seats, inches away from metal that had jutted out. My body was racked with pain but thankfully I hadn’t broken anything. Tom’s head was bloody and bruised. For some reason, the airbags had failed to deploy.

  I heard doors open and looked up.

  “Get moving,” I said, slipping back into the backseat and grabbing the F2000. “They’ll be on us soon.”

  Tom looked around. “I can’t find my pistol.”

  Several of the men removed wigs and tossed them aside. I felt a flash of remorse wash over me because of the way I’d manipulated Cherry. She’d been right; it was a trap from the start.

  We could have avoided this whole situation if we’d listened to her. I felt foolish for how I’d been glad that we’d found them several times during our chase earlier. They’d been baiting us and we’d been too frantic to notice.

  “Can you run?” I asked, training my rifle on one of the men. I hesitated because I’d be firing through the windshield and I didn’t like the angle I had on the glass. The windshield had cracks running all through it, but it was still in place. I didn’t know how the bullet would react to the odd angle.

  “No, I think I can walk. Sharp pain in my leg though.”

  I began to depress the trigger, hoping that the windshield wouldn’t mess things up, and was aiming at the head of the closest man when a vehicle plowed into him.

  “Cherry!” Tom said.

  I yanked the car door handle. Mercifully, it opened and I ran around the back as Cherry backed the suburban up, leaving three men on the ground as she did. Two of them were still moving, but I doubted the third would ever get up again.

  Several others were still in the van and one or two had taken cover around the front of it. I picked one of those men and fired, taking him out.

  That brought their attention to me and I dove back behind the car.

  “There's too many,” I said as Tom crawled up beside me, he’d found his pistol and was gripping it with his right hand while using his left to brace himself on the car.

  Cherry pulled the suburban up by us and we made a break for the far side of it so we could use it as a shield. While we ran, I sprayed the van and surrounding area with bullets. We received return fire and I felt a bullet go whizzing by my arm.

  The next moment, the suburban was between me and them. Tom was already in and I jumped in after him, careful to keep my head down. The vehicle wasn’t armored and wouldn’t give us much protection. Up front, Cherry had her head down and was screaming at us to move faster.

  She sped away once she saw we were in. I counted to three before she peeked her head up over the steering wheel to see where she was going. I was awfully glad that we hadn’t run into anything during those few seconds.

  The rear windows of the suburban shattered, so Tom and I remained hunkered down. The suburban swerved as Cherry tried to take cover while driving, shrinking down as far as she could in her seat. That wasn’t going to work, she needed cover fire.

  Taking a deep breath, I sat up and turned towards the rear window, looking down the stock of the F2000. Most of the remaining men were examining their fallen comrades or trying to help the injured back into the van. I could just make out Gurley’s tall form staring after us, the fury on his face visible even from this distance. He was aiming a pistol our way.

  I fired at the same time as him, missing him by a wide margin. I cursed and ducked, but his shot went wild too.

  Gurley wasn’t the type of man to forget an insult. What I’d done to him in the club would eat away at him until he had a chance to even the score. Cherry was right, I’d need to look over my shoulder. It was a pity that my bullet had missed.

  Cherry took a left through a red light, nearly crashing into another vehicle. The driver was flipping us off until she saw my rifle. Her face was a mixture of fear and anger; I could just imagine what she was thinking.

  My smile faded as I looked back and saw a police car zoom up behind us. I looked at my watch. From the time that the first shots had been fired until now, it had been two or three minutes, maybe five at the most. The policeman must have been nearby and heard the shots.

  “That’s quite the mess you boys made back there,” Cherry said. “See what happens when you don’t listen to me?”

  “Wish we could tell the cop the people he wants are back there,” I said.

  “Government agents doing this kind of damage, are you crazy?” Cherry asked. “No way would the cops keep something like this quiet.”

  “Let’s do it Jake style then,” Tom said, grinning.

  “K,” Cherry said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked before I thought better of it. I already knew the answer.

  “Slash and burn,” Cherry said. They both laughed. They wouldn't have found it funny if they had the deaths of a lot of innocent people hanging around their heads.

  “I prefer Cherry's way,” I said, forcing a smile that I didn’t feel, “smash and kill.”

  “Buckle up,” Cherry said as she increased speed. My phone rang but I didn't answer it.

  “Beltran?” Tom asked. I nodded. Beltran was the last person I wanted to talk to right now. He claimed to have a sixth sense about knowing when we were in trouble and I was reluctant to answer the phone and confirm it for him.

  A few seconds later, Cherry slammed on the brakes. Once the police car had crashed into us, she hit the gas and turned left while Tom tossed a grenade out the window.

  “No!” I yelled.

  Tom smiled. “Slash and burn.”

  I watched in horror as the grenade bounced and started spewing smoke. A smoke grenade. How had I missed that?

  My phone rang. Beltran again.

  “You better get that,” Cherry said. “He'll just keep calling till you do.”

  I answered as more sirens filled the air.

  “Is that the police?” Beltran asked. “Is it possible for you kids to do anything without setting the whole world on fire?”

  “We're handling it.”

  “Try to leave the boys in blue alive, we're all on the same team.”

  “Doing our best,” I said as Tom leaned out the window and aimed my F2000 at another cop that had pulled up behind us and fired. I watched as the front wheel exploded. Cherry quickly put distance between the vehicle and us.

  “Are you shooting at them now?” Beltran demanded, anger showing in his voice.

  “Tom is releasing some tension.”

  “Don’t kill them!” Beltran yelled.

  “Tom, Beltran says we shouldn’t kill the police.”

  “Noted,” Tom said.

  “While you’ve been out causing havoc,” Beltran said, “Payne was seen leaving the bookstore in the mall. Next time he goes in we’re going to pick him up. I’ll need your help so try to get back here in one piece.” He paused. “And keep the police from following you home.”

  “We’ll do our best,” I said hanging up and relaying Beltran’s message about not bringing the cops back with us.

  Cherry rolled her eyes as she hit the gas.

  Chapte
r 2

  The sun had long since reached the middle of the sky and was on its way down by the time we returned to Black Brick. It had been hours since we’d last seen a cop and I hoped that we’d completely left the chase behind.

  While Cherry had driven like a mad woman, I’d bandaged up Tom’s leg so we could move to another car. His wound wasn’t bad and I was relatively certain he would be on his feet in no time. We had changed vehicles twice in the last couple of hours and had finally decided it was safe enough to return.

  “Five dead found at the scene,” Cherry said. I looked over from the wheel. I’d told Cherry she was risking our lives with her crazy driving and had taken the driver’s seat when we had switched cars.

  “They give any details?” I asked, thinking about the two people that I’d shot—the woman with the tattoos and the man at the front of the van—and hoping I’d only killed two. I couldn’t remember if Tom had used his weapon or not, but if he had, he hadn’t used it much.

  “Yep. Four men and one woman. Strange I didn't see a woman. Must have been a bystander.”

  I shook my head. “She was in the Toyota that sideswiped us.”

  “I see. Looks like I got two with the car because they were run over.” She didn’t sound pleased or bothered, it was just a comment. I knew her well enough to know that it was a facade and that she was dealing with some inner turbulence. As far as I knew, it was the first time she’d killed on a mission.

  That left two for me in addition to the woman, assuming Tom hadn’t gotten off a shot.

  I tried to avoid thinking about the woman and found I couldn’t. It had happened so fast and I'd acted out of instinct.

  My phone beeped, disturbing my morbid thoughts. Once we had parked in Black Brick’s underground parking, I checked it. The email was from Kris via my student email account. In all the commotion, I'd forgotten about my interaction with her the evening before. It already felt like a distant memory and it hadn’t even been more than a day yet.