Terror Bounty (11 page)

Something was going on and Rick didn’t
quite know what to do. He went to the door and heard a moan again. He wasn’t
sure if it was pain anymore. Maybe she was getting it on with someone? One last
goodbye to an old friend?

He knocked softly. “Olivia?”

There was another sound, this time a gasp,
a tortured groan. It was followed by the muffled shouts of a man.

“Olivia, are you okay?”

Rick drew his gun while he tried the
doorknob. The door was locked.

“Open the door now!”

He was trying to make up his mind between
kicking in the door and shooting out the lock when there was the rattle of a
bolt turning. The door opened and Olivia’s driver was standing before him. In
his hand was a cricket bat.

Rick’s first thought was that it was
okay, the man was her employee. So Olivia wasn’t in any danger. But then he
looked past the guy and surveyed the plain apartment.

In what seemed to be the den, Olivia was
being held down on a chair by none other than Dieter. Her features were drawn,
her cheeks streaked with tears.

There was a third man. He was in his 40s,
wearing a $2,000 black suit with silk tie, and he was holding a weathered phone
book over Olivia’s head.

The cricket bat was making sense, they’d
been hitting her over the head using the Yellow Pages to absorb the hits. Rick
had heard from his dad and uncle that cops used to do that to suspects back
when they could get away with it.

Not exactly knowing where he was getting
the courage from, he raised his revolver and aimed it at the driver.

“Step aside, fat boy.”

Without waiting for a reply, Rick marched
forward, pushing by the driver who had no choice but to retreat. He stood to
one side, thankfully far enough so that he couldn’t swing his bat at Rick.
Dieter and the older man were motionless. Everybody was clearly waiting to see
what the next move would be.

Rick hazarded a glance at Olivia. There
was genuine fear in her eyes. She’d been beaten up for a while and she looked
exhausted. The top button of her blouse had been ripped out but she was
otherwise unharmed. She wasn’t bleeding at least.

Dieter leaned toward the guy in the suit
and whispered something into his ear. Rick understood that this man ranked
higher than all the others.

“Was she escaping with you, Mr. Travis?”
this boss asked.

“Yeah, we’re eloping. You got a problem
with that?”

Rick padded deeper into the apartment,
moving toward the kitchen and placing his back against the wall. He swiveled his
weapon from one person to the next. He was in control.

“I do have a problem with this. When my
employees run away without telling me, it’s not good for business. Not good for
me.”

The man was calm, like this was something
that happened to him every day. He had a slight accent, probably Dutch.

“Throw the book on the ground.”

It took a few seconds but the boss
complied. The phone book landed on the laminate flooring with a deafening thud.

“Why are you stealing my best employee?”

Rick ignored him. “Olivia, are you okay?
Can you stand? Walk?”

She painfully nodded. Rick turned the gun
on Dieter.

“Back off, shit brick.”

The blond man didn’t budge. Rick cocked
the hammer and steadied his aim.

“Seriously dude, I’m still sore from when
you hit me so I’m really itching to shoot you. I said back the fuck off.”

The seconds dragged on but Dieter finally
let go of Olivia. She sprung up while rubbing her forehead. She was unsteady on
her feet, somewhat dizzy.

“Walk toward me,” Rick ordered, his gun
moving from left to right as he tried to cover the three bad guys at once.

When she was next to him, they
sidestepped toward the door.

Olivia held her head high. “Is that what
you call a severance package, Dikmans?”

“I hadn’t realized you’d joined a union.”

Rick was covering her as they backed out.
He found himself becoming giddy, the adrenaline coursing through his veins. They
were almost home free and it was a rush he had never felt before.

This made him lose his focus for a
fraction of a second. Just long enough for Dieter to reach inside his jacket
and draw a pistol.

He extended his arm and fired!

The shot missed and punctured the wooden
door frame which sent splinters flying.

Olivia was the cool one. She tugged on
Rick’s arm and they ran out into the hall.

Oh fuck!

One second he’d been in control of the
situation and the next they were running for their lives. He was definitely not
made for this life. But now wasn’t the time to talk philosophy and life
choices. He in turn put a hand on Olivia’s back to support her but her dizziness
was gone.

“Come on,” she urged.

“My taxi is waiting for us,” he added, heartened
by the fact that they had an escape route.

They reached the stairs and ran down as
quickly as they could. More shots were fired, making the wall’s plaster explode
around them. The men were in pursuit and everything was clear.

They wanted them dead.

Rick’s breathing became more difficult
and he wasn’t sure whether it was because of lacking physical condition or because
of stress. In any case, he noticed that Olivia was cool as a cucumber.

They got to the lobby and Rick couldn’t
keep himself from turning his head to look up the stairs. The bastards were
coming fast and Dieter fired again.

“Shit!” the American blurted as two
bullets smashed into the mailboxes, creating sparks.

He blanked his mind of this and followed
Olivia outside. Next to her was his suitcase and laptop but there something way
more disturbing.

“Where’s your cab?” she asked. “My car
keys are upstairs.”

There was no taxi. They were on their
own.

At the mercy of killers.

“What the hell is going on?” Rick asked.

His mind was going into overdrive and
panic was beginning to take over his body. Soon he wouldn’t be able to function
properly. It was only a matter of seconds before Dikmans and his goons reached
them.

And killed them.

“Let’s go, this way!”

Olivia grabbed his hand and pulled him
away just as rounds were fired at them. The pavement burst at their feet as the
bullets landed short.

Rick followed her down the sidewalk but
he couldn’t help himself from glancing over his shoulder. The only people he
saw that were after him were Dieter and the big driver.

Rick raised his gun but he had only so
many bullets and missing them was a foregone conclusion. He couldn’t waste the
ammunition. And even if he paused to take aim, that would be exactly what the
bad guys wanted. They would shoot him first.

Running was the only option.

So they ran and ran some more, crossing
the street, turning onto another, dodging pedestrians who wondered what kind of
trouble these crazy lunatics were into.

After being tortured – that’s what it had
been – Olivia surprised Rick by how much energy she had. He could barely keep
up with her and he jogged almost every morning. She had more focus than anybody
he’d ever met.

“This way,” she commanded.

They were running for their lives and
Rick was lost as they entered the first of a series of alleys. They were narrow
and cluttered, he had to constantly watch his step.

And all this time the bastards were still
after them, they could hear passersby shriek as they were tossed out of the
way.

Just a little more
, Rick told himself.

Olivia was astoundingly competent, she
knew what she was doing. She knew where they were going. He trusted her at the
moment like he’d never trusted anyone because their fates were connected.

They made a right and stopped in their
tracks. The maze had come to an end. There was a high brick wall blocking their
way and no convenient dumpster to help them climb over.

“Goddamm it!”

Panic was returning for Rick when he had
an idea. He could turn around, crouch, and raise the revolver. He would ambush
the killers – or whoever the hell they were. Yeah, this sounded like a good
plan, their only hope.

“Come,” Olivia said.

He turned his head and saw that her plan
was different. She took a running start and gave herself a boost against the
building’s wall. This allowed her to jump high enough to grab a fire escape.

She held on just in time and the ladder
slid down, stopping with a loud clang. She was already halfway up to the small
balcony above when Rick decided her strategy was probably better.

He heard the footsteps of Dieter and his
partner!

Rick squeezed off a round just as they
turned into the alley. The bullet missed, hitting the brick corner, but the men
had to take cover all the same.

“Climb up now, Rick!”

She was right, he was no match against
these guys. He ran to the ladder and began escalating. From the corner of his
eye he saw Dieter raising his black pistol. He fired.

“Shit!”

The shot missed but it was close enough that
Rick felt the projectile whizzing by his face. If anything, it made him climb
faster. Olivia offered her hand and pulled him up to the landing.

Rick was winded when he reached the
platform. He sighed in relief at the thought of finally catching his breath but
this wasn’t going to happen. For one, Olivia was climbing up again and the
killers on the ground resumed shooting at them.

“Amsterdam sucks.”

Rick overlooked his aching muscles, the
sweat pearling on his forehead, and raced up the narrow metal staircase. At
least it wasn’t a completely vertical ladder anymore.

And just to make sure that he didn’t
entirely enjoy the moment, Rick noticed that Dieter and his partner were coming
up after them.

It wasn’t over.

Once they reached the top floor, there
were by a window. Rick flipped his gun over and prepared to use it to break the
glass. They’d be able to slip inside the apartment and make their escape again.

“No,” Olivia said, putting a hand on his
arm to stop him. “This way.”

She stepped onto the railing and grabbed
the ledge of the roof. She pulled herself up, kicked her legs until she found
purchase, and swung her body up to the roof. She made it look easy.

“Damn, woman…”

“Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Rick glanced down and indeed the two big
guys were coming fast. He shoved the gun down his pants and did the same thing
she’d done. He climbed the railing, reached for the ledge, and shimmied up.
Olivia took hold of his arms and pulled him toward her.

They both collapsed onto the roof which
was covered with gravel. Rick was torn between laughing at his exploit and
lying down to rest. He unfortunately could do neither.

“They’re getting close,” Olivia observed.

She was right, they could hear the hard
breathing of Dieter and the driver. Rick groaned. Didn’t this driver even have
a name? He’d ask about it if they ever survived.

Olivia started running and Rick followed
her. Hundreds of rooftops lay before them in every direction. They were mostly
even with the occasional brick rim where buildings met.

They were jumping onto the second
building when the two guys reached the roof. Dieter fired at them but missed,
sending gravel flying at their feet.

And so the chase was on again. They
charged over the rooftops, jumping narrow gaps. Tucking, rolling.

Never stopping.

But then Rick noticed a tiny problem.
They were running out of space! They were on the last roof and there was
nowhere to go.

What could they do? His first instinct
was to turn around and fire at the guys. But once more he wasn’t confident in
his accuracy. Between his hard breathing, the adrenaline coursing through his
veins, and the lactic acid building up in his muscles, he was bound to miss.

Thankfully there was an alternative:
negotiation. Rick would stop, drop his gun, and do his best to talk his way out
of this. There had to be something they wanted and he would do his damnedest to
make it happen. After all, he had connections with the FBI and CIA. Yeah, he
could negotiate, he could sell it.

It wasn’t Olivia’s plan though.

“Canal ahead. We’re jumping!”

“What!?”

This was the dumbest idea he’d ever
heard. He had to find a way to talk her out of this. Suicide wasn’t on his
agenda this week, surely she could agree with this.

But he wasn’t fast enough. She picked up
speed as she ran toward the ledge and then she jumped off the roof!

Fuck me
.

Getting closer himself, he caught sight
of the water 40 feet below just as he heard Olivia splashing down. The goons
behind were getting closer, their crunching footfall becoming louder. Rick didn’t
have a choice.

He leapt off the roof.