Savior (The Savior Series Book 1) (20 page)

41. GODSEND

HOWIE:

A SOFT THUD FROM BEYOND THE DARKNESS PULLED ME back into consciousness. I frantically looked around, searching for an indication of where I was. It all slowly came back to me as I peered into the blackness before me.

I could tell that I had been unconscious for several hours as I attempted to stand. Another thud from beyond the walls of my personal prison stopped me in my tracks. I had been held captive there for nearly five days by that point and in that timeframe, there was never so much as a peep from beyond the walls of my cell.

I placed my hands alongside the walls and felt my way over to the locked exit. I pressed my ear against the solid steel door and listened. To my surprise, the cold steel was actually quite soothing to the hunger headache that I had developed.

The next thud was much closer than the others.
What’s going on out there?
I wondered as I continued to listen. As if to answer my question, the sound of automatic gunfire suddenly rang out. I hurriedly backed away from the door as the lights flickered on just outside of my cell. My eyes had not seen a single photon of light in almost a week by that point. Therefore, the bits of light that seeped in through the corners of the door were absolutely blinding.

“Stand your ground, men! We can’t let him near the prisoner!” someone shouted from just beyond my cell. My heart throbbed frenetically as I realized that my team had come for me at last.

“Here he comes!” someone yelled and I heard a barrage of gunfire and other commotion ring out as my cell started to violently shake as if it was suddenly thrust into the middle of an earthquake.

I pressed my body against the back wall as something large suddenly slammed against the door of my cell. I sank deeper into the back of the room as another thundering impact shook the entire cell and caved the door in.

A wave of blinding light poured into the cell as the door was suddenly ripped from its hinges. I squinted and stared at the dark figure standing before me, immersed in a blanket of brilliant white light like an angel emerging from the heavens surrounded by its holy aura.

My eyes had not yet adjusted to the point where I could focus well, but I knew it was Adam. I knew that The Reaper had come for me.

42. ALPHA MALE

REAPER:

I TOSSED THE CRUMPLED DOOR ASIDE AND STARED DOWN at Howie. It hurt to see how terrible he looked. As I peered at him through the tinted visor of my Reaper gasmask, I could tell that he hadn’t showered in days and his lips were completely dry and cracking as he attempted to speak.

I kneeled beside him and placed my hand on his right shoulder. “It’s okay, Howie. You’re safe now,” I said as I hugged him. He attempted to return my embrace with his right arm but didn’t appear to have enough energy, as his arm fell to the floor.

“I’m sorry, Howie,”
I muttered, holding back tears,
“I shouldn’t have left you.”

“It’s okay,” he whispered, his voice barely audible.

“I’ll make them pay for this, Howie. I swear to God I’ll make them pay!”

“Just get me out of here,” he said as he began to shiver.

“Absolutely,”
I replied. I heard several footsteps behind me as I took off my long black trench coat and placed it around Howie’s shoulders in order to keep him warm.

I had nearly demolished the entire room beyond Howie’s cell when I ambushed The Strangers that were guarding him. As I peered over my shoulder, I saw that amongst the rubble and unconscious bodies now stood four more Strangers. Three of them had M16s aimed at us, but they weren’t the ones that I was worried about. The fourth Stranger was gigantic. He stood nearly seven feet tall and had to weigh over 400 pounds. Despite his size, he didn’t appear to have an ounce of fat on him. I knew who he was. Howie had shown Jason and I profiles on all of the Stranger officers during the preparation for our last mission. This mountain of muscle was the Stranger officer known as Alpha. He wore the same black body armor and expressionless white mask as the other Strangers, but he was almost three times their size.

“This doesn’t end well, Reaper,” Alpha grumbled in an incredibly deep voice, “Stand down or my men will shoot.”

“You’ve got one chance to get the heck outta my way. I’m not gonna ask again,”
I growled as I balled my gloved hands into tight fists.

“We have you dead to rights, Reaper. There’s no way you can win this!” Alpha barked.

“I want you to remember something, Alpha. When they’re lying on the floor, crippled and pissing blood and you’re crouching in the corner praying that the same thing doesn’t happen to you…just remember that I gave you a chance to walk away.”

“Alright then,” Alpha said darkly as he looked to his gunmen. “Kill them both.”

In a blur, I grabbed the crumpled metal door from the floor and held it before me, shielding Howie and me from the onslaught of automatic gunfire.

“I’ve located the package, Ace! But I’ve got my hands full at the moment. I may be a few minutes late!”
I yelled as the bullets continued to ricochet off the steel door.

“10-4! Same here!”
I heard Jason shout through my earpiece. He sounded like he was under duress, but I couldn’t worry about him at that moment. Saving Howie was my number one priority.

With the battered door still held before me, I planted my feet and launched myself toward my attackers. Alpha dove out of the way as I slammed into the smaller Strangers and knocked them unconscious. Alpha and I wrestled for control of the door before I yanked it away from his grasp and tossed it aside.

As I glared up at him, I realized that he looked even bigger up close. He was easily three times my size in terms of volume, but technically I outweighed him by about 400 pounds. I held my fists ready as he rotated his head and stretched his bulging neck muscles. My heart rate increased as he pulled his tree trunk sized arms in front of him and struck an aggressive stance.

We leapt at each other in unison, but he pulled his head slightly to the right, causing my fist to zoom by without hitting its mark. He jabbed me hard in the stomach before I could get my guard up. I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t ready at all. If I had been holding my stomach tighter, I could have easily taken the blow, but I was so focused on knocking him out with one punch that I left myself completely open to his counterattack. Alpha was easily capable of generating well over 2000 pounds of force with his punches, so even with my dense molecular composition, I was vulnerable if I wasn’t tightening my stomach.

The wind rushed from my lungs as I stumbled backward, reeling from what felt like a stick of dynamite exploding inside my stomach. As I tried desperately to catch my breath, he bull-rushed me and tackled me to the ground.
This may take a little longer than I anticipated,
I thought as I fought to defend myself against Alpha’s raining haymakers.

43. THE FAT LADY

CHARLIE:

I WAS MADDER THAN AN ALBINO TRYIN’ TO HITCHHIKE IN a snowstorm. For the first time in my life, I was down to my last two bullets. I never carried much ammunition because, frankly, I never really needed much. Almost every bullet that had ever ripped out of the Fat Lady’s barrel ended up somewhere, in somebody’s pumpkin. But not that day. Ol’ Ace of Spades had managed to either dodge or deflect just about every shot that I’d fired at him.

I couldn’t believe how fast that little sucker was. It’s no wonder he was able to tag Tango so many times on that rooftop. Don’t get me wrong, Tango still ended up puttin’ a few lumps on his head big enough to need their own birth certificates, but I still had to give the kid his due. Before then, I had never even seen Tango take so much as a punch in a fight.

The room was dead silent and still completely dark, but I knew he was still breathing. Ol’ Ace had dove to cover behind a control panel across the room from me after I fired my last shot. There was no way I was about to walk over so he could hop out and stick me with that sword of his.

“You still kickin’ over there, Hoss?” I yelled.

“Why don’t you come over and find out!”
he shouted, his voice distorted by his mask.

“I gotta say, Hoss. You’re a lot better than I gave you credit for. After watching Tango tear into you and your partner like a hobo on a couple of ham sandwiches, I thought for sure you’d be nothing more than a light snack for me.”

“Tango will get his!”

“Is that a fact?” I asked.

“That’s a promise,”
he replied.

“Well that’ll be the day. What do you say we go ahead and get this over with, Hoss? Ol’ Charlie’s gettin’ tired of waiting.”

“What kind of a fool do you take me for?”
he demanded.

I walked over and opened a nearby exit, letting the light from outside spill into the room.

“Are you giving up?”
Ace yelled.

“Course not. Just settin’ the stage, Hoss.”

“Setting what stage?”

“Hoss, I’ll level with you. I’m down to my last two bullets and before now, I ain’t never missed so many damn shots in my life. I s'pose I've got you and that fancy sword of yours to thank for it.”

“You’re welcome,”
he quipped.

“Now we can keep hangin’ here like a couple of loose teeth or you can take me up on my offer and get this thing over with.”

“What are you talking about?”
Ace asked, skeptically. I smiled because I knew that I had him. He wouldn’t have even bothered to ask a question if he wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say.

“You blocked just about every one of my shots with that toothpick of yours so I figure you’re pretty good with that sorta thang, huh?”

“Damn right I am!”
he boasted.

“Well, Hoss I gotta tell ya, if you and me squared off one last time, I’d bet my last bullet that I can slide one by that butter knife of yours and plug you right in the chest.” The room fell silent as he considered my offer.

“What are you saying?”
Ace finally asked.

“I’m saying you and me should have us a good ol’ fashioned show down, Hoss. Now, I’ve got two bullets left. You take a stand and I’ll rip one at ya. If I hit my mark, that’ll be the end of it, but if you somehow manage to block it with that piece of scrap metal, I’ll plug myself with the second bullet.”

“Not a chance!”
he scoffed.

“Stakes too high for you, Hoss?” I demanded. “I thought you said you were good!”

“How do I know you won’t try to shoot me as soon as I stand?”
he questioned.

Without hesitation, I tossed my revolver across the room and over the control panel that he hid behind. “There ya go, Hoss. I can’t shoot without a gun, now can I? Now you just walk on out and toss it back and we’ll get this thing settled.”

“What's stopping you from pulling another gun as soon as I walk out?”

“Hoss, I ain’t never needed a second gun and that ain’t about to change.”

He didn’t move or reply for about thirty seconds. I smiled when he finally emerged from his hiding spot, holding my gun in his right hand and his sword in his left. Even with the light spilling in from outside the room, his jet-black ninja armor made him almost invisible against the countless shadows that surrounded him.

I took off my black hat and removed my red theatre mask and tossed it aside. “I suppose you’re thinking about just shootin’ me yourself and getting it over with, huh?” I asked as I placed my hat back on my head.

“I’d rather watch you do it,”
he said confidently as he tossed the gun back to me and took a step forward into the stream of light that cut through the room. I caught the pistol with my right hand and stared at it.

Betty, Brutus, Big Iron, Boss Hawg, Dallas, Hand Cannon, and Mrs. Jackson. These were just a few of the names that I had come to know my daddy’s gun by. She had earned many names during my lifetime but my favorite was always The Fat Lady.

That’s what Pop used to call her.

Nearly every ballad she had ever sung meant the end for some poor soul. It was now down to the last song but the target in front of me was somehow still standing.

Either way it goes, it’s over for one of us,
I thought as I aimed for his chest. He pulled his sword in front of him and held it with both hands.

He didn’t flinch as I started to spin my gun on my right index finger. I thought for sure I’d get him to at least move an inch or two but he just stood there as still as a statue.

Here goes everything,
I thought as I dove to the right, still spinning the gun with my right hand. Suddenly, there seemed to be nothing in the room except for him and me. Nothing else in the building. Nothing else in the world.

Still outstretched and in midair, I caught the handle of my spinning revolver and squeezed the trigger. Ace twirled his sword in a figure eight motion as the bullet ripped through the air.

The song was beautiful. I had fired my gun just before I hit the ground. I thought the upward angle of the bullet’s path would give him hell for sure, but I was wrong. Dead wrong. Not only did Ace deflect the bullet, but he knocked the sucker right back at me. To my surprise, a piece of the bullet whizzed a few inches over my head before hitting the wall behind me.

He didn’t gloat like I thought he would. The son of a gun had just done what no other man on God’s green earth could lay claim to and he actually had the audacity to be humble about it.

As I stood to face him, all of a sudden my face was hotter than two hamsters fartin’ in a wool sock. He didn’t say much. He just walked over to the exit, then paused and looked over his shoulder to make sure I’d hold up my end of the deal. The reality of my failure hit me like a kick in the gut. As I stared down at my father’s gun, I couldn’t help but feel that I wasn’t even worthy of it anymore. Heck, if Pop had been there to watch me squeeze off eleven shots and not hit my mark once, he probably would have cheered me on as I swallowed that last bullet.

“Well alright then, Hoss. I guess a deal’s a deal,” I said as I placed the barrel of the Fat Lady under my chin. He nodded his head and turned to exit, which is exactly what I was hoping he would do. I knew that Pop was probably watchin’ and, he wouldn’t like it very much, but I had no intentions on keeping my word.

Ace paused as I aimed the Fat Lady at the back of his head.

“What do you say we go double or nothin’ Hoss?” I asked.

“And how do you supposed we do that?”
he replied without facing me.

“Well, I figure your back being turned gives me
double
the chances of pluggin’ you with this here last bullet and from where I’m standing, there’s
nothing
you can do about it.”

I heard several footsteps hurriedly approach from just outside the room as he stood in silence.
The cavalry has arrived,
I thought as I thumbed the hammer of my pistol down. I had wondered what was taking them so long to respond.

“You would go back on your word?”
Ace demanded, still facing away from me.

“All’s fair in love and war, Hoss,” I replied as I squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened. I squeezed again, then a third time, and a fourth, but no matter how many times I squeezed, that last bullet never came ripping out of the barrel.

“Son of a gun!” I shouted before popping open my gun, checking for my last bullet. A feeling of humiliation washed over me as I realized that the gun was empty.

“Looking for this?”
Ace asked as he displayed my last bullet with his right hand. That sucker must have removed it before he threw my gun back over to me.

“Well played, Hoss. Well played. It’s almost a shame that our little game here has to end. I don’t know if you heard the footsteps, but boys are right outside.”

“You’re right, they are. Just not the boys that you were expecting,”
he said.

Moments later, armed men dressed in black tactical combat gear poured into the room. He was right; these weren't the boys that I expected. These were feds.

It hurt like hell to watch them take the Fat Lady away as they slapped the cuffs on me. As much as it pained me to have been bested, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of respect for ol’ Ace.

“Hey Ace,” I called out, just as he was about to leave. He paused and glanced over his shoulder.

“Now, I know I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain as far as our bet goes, but I will give you a piece of advice instead. If you ever see Tango again, you make sure you do two things: run and watch for the right.”

He lingered for a few seconds before exiting the room without replying. I wasn’t sure if he really knew what I meant, but a part of me still felt like I had sold out my buddy Tango. Funny thing is, another part of me felt like I owed the kid. Either way, that bit of information I gave him certainly wasn’t gonna single-handedly win him the fight. It would definitely keep him alive, but winning the fight was up to him. I just wished I could have been there when they finally squared off again.