Paradise Burns (13 page)

TWENTY-SEVEN

The next three
seconds felt like hours. I had my arms out to my sides. My gun was in my right
hand, and my left was open, to show it was empty.

‘Drop it, now!’ another officer yelled.

‘Guys, you’ve caught me at a
really
bad time here,’ I said.

Bullets exploded into the door behind
me, and I instinctively ducked down and dived to my left. It never crossed my
mind that the police could shoot me when I moved. I just knew that the bad guys
would definitely shoot me if I didn’t.

I looked over, and the police had ducked
down behind their car doors for cover when the bullets started flying.

They had their guns trained on the fire
exit. One officer shouted over to me.

‘Stay where you are!’

There was another burst of gunfire, and
door exploded open.

‘Screw you,’ I shouted back. ‘I know
what’s coming through that door!’

Two of the gunmen stepped out and stood
in front of the police, holding their assault rifles in front of them. They
were AK-47s, which made sense, given Dark Rain was run by a mad Russian. Then
Natalia Salikov stepped out and walked in between the two guys. She had two Heckler
and Koch MP7 submachine guns, one in each hand. There were designated as
Personal Defense Weapons, and were mostly used out in Afghanistan. They were
some serious pieces of hardware.

She was dressed in leather, like Clara
had been when I first met her. But Natalia’s outfit looked different. Almost as
if it was armored in some way. Padding over vital organs and limbs. I reckon
she’d survive a stray bullet at least.

I was off to the left, crouched down,
gun out in front of me, ready to fire. They knew I was there, but they had six
armed police officers pointing guns at them, so I probably wasn’t their main
concern right now.

I watched the scene unfold for a minute
or two.

Natalia stepped forward. She had bright,
flame-colored red hair and dark eye make-up. She looked over at me. She had the
brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. They were accentuated by the dark eye-liner,
so they looked like searchlights. I stared back at her. There was something in
her eyes. Something dark. I recognized it from the times I used to look in the
mirror and think about shooting myself. This woman had serious issues.

She looked back at the police officers,
who hadn’t said anything. They were exchanging glances, and they looked
terrified.

Without saying anything, Natalia and the
gunmen leveled their guns and emptied their clips at the police.

The loud clunking noise of bullets
hitting metal filled the air, and the officers scattered, not even bothering to
return fire. The cars were about sixty feet in front of the Dark Rain assault
team, and it didn’t take long for the middle of the three cars to explode.

The noise was deafening, and left an
eerie silence in my ears, broken only by a constant ringing. The gunmen seemed
unfazed by it, despite their close proximity to the blast. The force had
shifted the other police cars out a good twenty feet or so.

I couldn’t see where the officers had run
off to. As the firing stopped, and they turned toward me, I realized I’d been
stood there like an idiot instead of running for cover. One gunman turned away
and ran off to the right, presumably going after Clara, who I hoped had managed
to get a decent head-start.

As the remaining gunman raised his gun toward
me, I re-focused on the situation and like a reflex, I aimed my gun and
unloaded three bullets into him, dead center, square in the chest. He fell to
the ground as my gun clicked empty.

I looked at Natalia, who was smiling and
raising her guns at me.

‘Oh, shit,’ I said, as I turned and ran
around the corner of the building, narrowly avoiding a burst of gunfire that
chipped the brick just behind me.

I’d turned into an alleyway that led
back to the main street. As I emerged onto the street, I saw the broken glass
all over the floor. The Humvee parked hurriedly at an angle in front of the
bar. The bar itself was destroyed. The front looked like a bomb had gone off.

All over the street there were bodies.
Some dead, some alive but injured. There was screaming, and in the distance
there was a symphony of sirens heading our way. A crowd of onlookers had
congregated a short distance away. People were either talking excitedly into
their phones or videoing the scene for YouTube.

I couldn’t go that way, because I was
pretty convinced by now that Natalia wouldn’t think twice about firing at the
crowd of bystanders.

I ran quickly over to the Humvee and put
my last two bullets into each of the front tires, then sprinted away to the
right, down the street. As I passed the alleyway again, Natalia was just
turning into view, and was preparing to fire.

My bluetooth earpiece was still in, so I
quickly dialed Josh as I was running.

‘Josh,’ I said, wincing in pain. I was
still hurting from chasing Marcus Jones down, and I was breathing heavily yet
again after coming under attack from Dark Rain. My cracked ribs weren’t happy
about it. ‘Google Maps, now. Quickest way to my hotel. Avoid main roads where
possible.’

‘On it,’ he said.

I chanced a look behind me, but couldn’t
see Natalia. I thought of Clara, and hoped she’d got away alright.

‘Right,’ said Josh. ‘Take the next left
up ahead. On the right is an alleyway that cuts through the block and brings
you out two streets over from your hotel, but approaching from the back. That’s
the best I’ve got.’

‘You’re the man, thanks Josh.’

I sprinted off the way he told me. As I
emerged from the alleyway, two police cars sped past me, sirens blaring. I
slowed to a walk so as not to draw attention to myself. When they were out of
sight, I jogged over to the back of my hotel.

I walked around to the front and went
inside, having a look around to make sure I’d not been followed. I walked down
the hallway toward my room.

The door was open.

I took my gun out. It was empty, but
whoever might be in my room wouldn’t know that. Clara would’ve shut the door,
which means they’ve found out where I’m staying. I pushed the door open gently
and went in, dropping to one knee and raising my gun.

My room had been trashed. Two things
caught my attention.

My mattress wasn’t on the bed frame,
which means whoever did this now has the deeds to the uranium mine.

And Clara was face down on the floor in
a pool of blood.

TWENTY-EIGHT

‘Clara?’ I
said.

No response. Shit.

I resisted the urge to immediately run
over to her. I did a quick sweep of the room, to make sure we were alone, then
knelt next to her body, being careful not to step in any blood.

I felt for a pulse. There was one, but
it was weak.

‘Clara?’ I said again.

Still nothing.

I did a quick assessment and determined
there were no broken bones. The blood was coming from underneath her, and I
couldn’t see any exit wounds on her back, which means if she was shot, the
bullet was still in there.

I grabbed her right shoulder and rolled
her toward me. She’d been shot in the left shoulder, just below her collarbone
and to the left of her breast. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but she’d lost a lot of
blood and needed urgent medical attention.

Shit.

I looked back over at the bed. Whoever
did this now has the deeds to the uranium deposit. If this was Dark Rain, then
I’ve seriously underestimated them. They managed to track me down and nearly
kill me before I’d barely heard of them.

For a split second, I questioned whether
Clara had really turned her back on them. But she’d been with me pretty much
the whole time, so she couldn’t have told them where I was staying. Plus, you
can’t fake being attacked by a hit squad and shot like this. She was just as much
an enemy to them now as I was.

I took the gun back that I leant her,
then cleaned the room of any sign that I’d ever been there. The room was under
a fake name, and I’d paid cash up front, so nothing could be traced back to me.
I grabbed my shoulder bag and jacket - which had thankfully not been taken as
well - checked the room one last time, then left.

After a couple of minutes on foot, I
rang for an ambulance. Part of me felt bad, because I was putting Clara in a
bad position. She was going to be questioned, and she could find herself in a
lot of trouble. On the other hand, she needed medical attention, and she’d be
safer in a hospital than with me right now.

I made a mental note to ask Josh to
track her progress once she’s admitted. I’m sure he can hack his way into the
hospital databases without too much trouble. I need to stay clear of any kind
of authority for now. After the attack at the bar, and the police being there,
I’m probably close to the top of everyone’s priority list now.

First thing I needed to do was find a
new place to stay. I kept to the back streets and alleyways where possible, and
slowly navigated my way into the city center. I took my time to make sure I
wasn’t being followed, either by police or operatives from Dark Rain.

I detoured through a park which was
situated just off the main stretch of road that ran through the center of town.
It had been a long day, and I needed time to get my head straight. Since waking
up on my hotel room floor and finding Clara in my shower a few hours ago, I’d
chased a courier in a car and on foot, I’d been shot at by Dark Rain, almost
arrested by the Heaven’s Valley Police Department and found Clara unconscious
and shot on my hotel room floor. On top of all that, my back and ribs were
still killing me from last night’s excursion to The Pit and my run-in with Pick
Axe. Not that I envisioned getting any R and R any time soon. But five minutes
sat down in a quiet park would work wonders.

I picked a bench near a group of nicely colored
flower beds and a water fountain, in the center of the park. I had a good look
around and made sure I was alone before sitting down. It felt so good to not move,
I could’ve been asleep in an instant.

I took out my phone and dialed Josh.

‘You made it then?’ he said as he
answered.

‘Just about, yeah,’ I replied. ‘Clara
wasn’t so lucky though.’

‘What happened?’

‘I found her unconscious on my hotel
room floor, shot.’

‘Oh, man. I’m sorry, Adrian.’

‘Thanks. It gets worse though.’

‘Doesn’t it always?’

‘Whoever broke in and shot her took the
deeds to the uranium deposit.’

‘Shit!’

‘That’s what I said.’

‘You need to be careful, Adrian,
seriously. Dark Rain is two steps ahead of you here, and you’re alone in a town
where everyone seems to wanna shoot at you as soon as they see you.’

‘I’ll cross those bridges when I get to
them. Right now, I need you to find out which hospital Clara has been taken to,
and find out what condition she’s in.’

‘I’m on it.’

‘Also, we believe Dark Rain have
kidnapped a scientist, who they’re holding somewhere in the city. They intend to
make them process the uranium into weapons-grade material.’

‘Jesus, these guys are relentless, aren’t
they?’

‘Tell me about it. Can you look into any
well-known and respected scientists that haven’t been seen lately? See what
comes up.’

‘Yeah, I’m on that too.’

The line went silent for a few moments.

‘What’s the matter, Josh?’ I asked.

‘I’ve just searched all hospital
databases within a twenty mile radius.’

‘That was fast.’

‘It’s not a difficult thing to do,
Adrian.’

‘Alright, show-off. So, what’s with the
silence?’

‘No-one has been admitted today fitting
Clara’s description. No Jane Does, no gunshot wounds, nothing.’

‘I rang the ambulance. There’s no way
they didn’t get to her.’

I was worried. After everything that’s
happened, for Clara to disappear after being shot and left for dead in my hotel
room is the last thing I need to be dealing with. Could Dark Rain have got to
her before the ambulance arrived? I checked the area before I left, but if they
found my room and took the deeds, it’s feasible they were hiding somewhere nearby.

Shit!

‘Adrian, you alright?’ asked Josh. I realized
I’d been quiet for a while.

‘Yeah, I’m alright,’ I said. ‘Goddammit!
I shouldn’t have left her.’

‘You did the right thing, don’t blame
yourself.’

‘I’ve got to find her. You focus on
finding this scientist, alright?’

‘Will do. What are you thinking?’

‘I’m going to head back to my hotel, see
if I can find anything that might indicate what happened to her.’

‘Take care, man.’

I hung up, took another minute to relax
and focus and then made my way out of the park and into the city center.

It was evening and most of the stores had
closed. The sun was on its way down and the bars and restaurants were starting
to fill up for the night. There was a street vendor on the corner, selling hot
dogs and burgers out of his cart. I headed over. He was an older man, probably
mid-sixties. He was dark-skinned with gray hair and dark eyes. He was whistling
to himself, and I instantly got the impression his cart had been on this street
corner for many, many years.

‘Hey, can I get a cheeseburger please?’
I asked.

The guy looked at me and his eyes
widened slightly.

‘Oh, man, you look like shit!’ he
exclaimed. ‘You alright?’

I was in no mood for small talk.

‘I’ll be better when I’ve eaten.’

‘I heard that,’ he said with a smile. He
produced a cheeseburger and I paid him for it. I set off walking, tucking into
my food as I went. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever eaten, but it’s the only food I’ve
had all day and I’m not complaining.

Back in the day, when we were on a
mission somewhere, you could easily go a couple of days without the opportunity
for food. You soon learn to eat all you can, whenever you can - you never know when
or where your next meal will be.

I was about to cross over the road, when
a black limousine pulled up at the side of me. The window buzzed down and Jimmy
Manhattan leaned out of the window.

‘Get in.’ he said.