Breakdown - Bell & Anders
Official Journal - File #---20. Part 5
Everyone piled into the vehicle. Police cars and ambulances still littered the parking lot. The Russian, Igor, had set up some kind of trap to cause a sub-surface explosion that would knock everyone out cold. After the explosion, he and Shade proceeded to take Harrow and run. Where they took Harrow was still a question. I gripped my stomach as it moaned with pain from the wisp’s poison, but I had to get going or else Harrow would be dead. Though, we also had to keep an eye out for Maria. At this point, it was likely that she was killed by Shade, or worse, she had joined Shade. With this probability, we knew that getting Harrow out of his grasp might be tricky, especially since we knew nothing about him.
I pulled out to the park exit. Turns to the right and to the left spooked me. It occurred to me that there was no way I could find out where Harrow was taken. Even if we searched all night, we would never be able to search the whole city before Shade could escape or do something horrible. I shook my head. I did not want to think about anything bad happening to Harrow, but we were powerless in this situation.
“Jon… which way are we going?” Kahrine asked, in a surprisingly worried tone. I looked into the rear view mirror to answer her, and light flickered behind me again. Cowering from the blinding light, I turned around to look directly at the bright object. Sitting next to Kathrine was the illuminated figure of Mrs. Stanton. I had heard of Departed coming back to haunt people, but this… was unreal. She smiled, but then frowned after staring at me for a few seconds. She kissed her fingertips and reached out to touch my forehead. As much as I wanted to move, I stood still, transfixed and held in place by curiosity. She touched my head, and a light flashed, blinding me.
“Raughugh!” I flinched backwards, covering my eyes and landing on the car horn. After a second of honking, I re-opened my eyes to a spinning world and bright colors interpreted by overloaded retinas. Kathrine put away her flashlight while I massaged the pain away from my forehead.
“This isn’t the time to start staring off into your own world! We just need to make a choice and start looking!” I shook my head, not knowing what to think. When I returned my gaze to the road, my jaw dropped. An illuminated path streaked across the road and turned to the left. I looked to Scout. She nodded and mouthed,
“Do it”. Scout must have seen the apparition too. With nowhere else to go, we took the marked path.
I turned on bright headlights as we drove down the empty road, piercing the darkness before us. It was late, and we were all physically exhausted. But we had to save Harrow and Maria, if possible.
“Hey Scout, have you seen or had contact with Ivan today?” She shook her head.
“I have not.” Well crap. As the odds were stacking up against us, and the best man of the DDS was unaccounted for, ever since he left the meeting this morning. Kathrine squeakily twisted silencers onto the barrels of her weapons in the backseat. At least we might have the element of surprise. Might.
Following the illuminated path, I slowed the vehicle when the path turned sharply to the right into bushes on the side of the road. “Do we follow it?” Scout asked.
“Follow what?” Kathrine doubted if we were sane or not.
“You don’t see that?”
“See what?”
“Nevermind. Lets drive over there.” I nodded my head and complied with Scout. Driving off the road and into the bushes, the light trail led us to a concealed roadway. Kathrine became quiet and continued to double-check the silencers on the weapons. I drove up the road a bit, and noticed two rows of large SUVs. After a few seconds of decision-making, we backed our car into the bushes and turned off the engine and lights. Stepping out of the car, mud caught and held our feet. The sky still tormented us with drizzling, but seemed to be lightening up. Kathrine got out and handed Scout and I silenced UMPs. She then wrapped her SCAR over her shoulder and looked to me for direction. The illuminated path still streaked down the road, and I pointed my finger towards the woods along the side of the path. “We need to get into the woods, but follow the road until we arrive at the destination.”
“So, what are the rules of engagement here?” Kathrine asked with a smirk.
“Shoot to kill, do not engage Shade or Igor unless necessary. Wait for my go ahead before shooting anyone.” Kathrine seemed pleased with that answer. We began our slow trek into the woods. At least the rain stopped.
For ten minutes, we walked in silence aside from the wet crunching of leaves and damp sticks. I still had a sick feeling in my stomach from the wisp’s chemical, but I was not going to die. I took a look at Kathrine. She had her rifle raised and was advancing in true tactical form. Focused and steady, she advanced lightly. I turned to Scout. Her UMP bumped against her leg with every step. Her gaze was upwards, towards the sky. Her hair lost its ponytail, and it freely glided behind as she walked. The red almost glowed with life, complimenting her contemplative solemnity. I looked up to the sky through the trees and noticed how the sky had cleared. For once, the stars had come out in vibrant glory. Even with the city lights, the stars shone bright in the night sky. With a gentle breeze cooling us, I lurched and threw up in the woods. Scout rushed over to steady me.
“Easy now…” she said, holding up my shoulders. I heaved a few times, with drool hanging form my chin, but the sickly feeling soon left me. After regaining balance, I carefully wiped my mouth on my loose jacket and kept walking. I felt better, but I still kept to myself. I was too worried over the safety of Scout and Kathrine. We would be walking strait into enemy territory with little information; we could be walking into a trap too. I honestly could not tell if any of us would survive the night.
A few minutes later, Kathrine held up her fist and crouched. Scout and I immediately took a knee. Listening, we could hear chatter and laughter. Kathrine crept up a few meters, stood to look over the crest of the hill, and then returned. She held up five fingers and pointed towards the turn in the road. Our targets were around the corner, possibly waiting for us. Scout pointed up the hill, and I nodded. We all knelt and crept up the hill as quietly as possible. Behind some trees, we hunkered down for cover and took a peek down the hill. An old van and car sat with their headlights pointed towards each other, forming a central, lighted area. Several men, probably ten, stood around laughing as a large man stood in the center of the lights telling jokes. After Igor’s punch line, the men laughed in a great roar, allowing us to move in closer. I started scanning the situation, evaluating who was where and what weaponry the men had. Harrow was not anywhere.
After a few minutes, a large SUV pulled up to the circle. Its blue lights shone brighter than the other, more ragged vehicles. Out of the SUV came five men in bulletproof armor. They pulled out their assault rifles and stood in front of the vehicle. All of the Russian’s henchmen returned cold silence to their show of power. From behind the vehicle came a tall man and a woman. I took a closer look, and recognized the woman. Maria Anders. She must have kept her word to join Shade, likely the man that she accompanied. Wearing a loose tie and a crisp business suit, he nailed the “business casual” look. Something about it, however, made him ever more mysterious and difficult to interpret. He sauntered over to Igor.
“Well you clean up good Iggy. You’re not as sticky as last time, which is wonderful! Congratulations.” His sarcastic tone was cruel and spiteful. Igor didn’t seem happy with the comment.
“Big talk for man who does not dirty own hands.” A small chuckle resonated among the Russian guards over Igor’s comeback.
“Right, of course. Enough banter. Where is she?”
“You have money?”
“Of course. Hey, Bobby? Yeah yeah, grab the money from the trunk for this gorilla, okay? Awesome.” He grinned as one of his guards opened up the trunk of the second SUV. Now where is Harrow?” I caught my breath a bit. At least they kept her alive.
Igor snapped and had someone open up his van. They dragged out a woman with curly hair. She was gagged, blindfolded, and had her hands tied behind her back but the walked her to the center with Igor and Shade. Placing her on her knees, they removed the blindfold. Harrow seemed blinded by the light. After recovering, she nearly fell over from seeing Igor.
“Now now lady. I’ve got you.” Shade engaged his switchblade. Harrow squeaked a bit, but she stared at Shade with ferocity all the same. “Hey, listen,” Shade knelt, pointing the knife at Harrow. “I could slit your throat and we’d be done here, okay? I wanna talk. But if you yell at me, I might have to cut out your tongue, okay? Chill girl, you’re going to be fiiiine.” He stood and cut off Harrow’s gag; she almost snapped at him. Instead, she forced herself to withdraw from fighting. “Good, glad we could understand each other. Hey big man, here’s your dumb money. 200 grand is good enough?” Shade’s henchman threw the case to him. He opened the case with curiosity, and then smiled. “Good to see two gentlemen could make an arrangement. Now for you…” Shade knelt next to Harrow and put his arm around her, holding her side. She audibly squirmed a bit, but he ignored her.
“I’ve got a business proposition. For you. You have quite the history. Busting criminals, solving mysteries, and fighting for the greater good of the city!” He endeared the last point with a sarcastic overtone. “However, I want to do some, ah, remodeling, for the city. And frankly, it would be better if the police worked for me, you know? Things work out better that way. I wouldn’t have to kill so many people then!” He laughed joyously, but Harrow seemed shocked as the laugh echoed creepily through the woods. “So, I’ll personally pay you to work for me. I’ll get you promoted to police chief, and you answer to me. That, or if you actually have weird morals, you can take off and disappear. Either way, I’ll personally pay your way to make sure you’re set for life. No worries. You can go to freakin’ Disneyland for a year, or send kids to college. What-do-ya say? Deal?” Harrow eyed the ground, refusing to speak. “Oh, don’t be shy honey. If you really do feel smitten by me, you can let me know. I don’t break hearts, much.” Harrow looked disgusted at this point. I also noticed Maria shifting a bit, likely uncomfortable from that last remark. What kind of history do they have? Maybe she didn’t want to be on Shade’s side.
After long seconds, Harrow glared at Shade. “What happens if I don’t join your plans? How about you go screw yourself,” she boldly replied. Shade let out a forced laugh. As the laugh gained momentum, some others began to chuckle a bit too. He suddenly whipped around and kicked Harrow’s jaw with a forceful kick. Everyone’s laugh stopped abruptly. Kathrine, Scout and I now had our weapons trained on Shade. There was no way he would kill Harrow without receiving a few bullets first.
Harrow’s body lay still on the ground with her hair covering her face; no one dared to move except for Shade. After releasing tension in his body, he slowly massaged his forehead. He then knelt down next to Harrow and pulled a pistol from his pocket, proceeding to nudge Harrow’s head with the muzzle. She stirred, and Shade pulled back her hair. Blood was running out of her mouth and nose, staining her gentle face. “Listen…” Shade began. “I may have not made this clear before, but my deals are not negotiable. You can make a deal, or you can die. Its pretty simple; at least to me. Now, do we have a deal?” On the ground, further soaking the ground with her blood, she did the unthinkable.
She shook her head and closed her eyes.
“Well, this is unfortunate.” Shade said, now standing. “I gotta say, I thought you would see reason, but I suppose I don’t have any other-“ Suddenly, the car lights extinguished with a burst of sparks. Besides the stars, there was no light, and all of the guards simultaneously became erratic. "Plic!" A small noise was heard, and one of the heavy guards dropped to the ground instantly. "Plic Plic." Two Russians a second later. “Heeee-aaack! Get ooaaACK” Shade’s voice rang out as he was being choked and his guards took action. One ran to Shade while the others took cover and opened fire on the Russians. Without cover, several of the Russian henchmen dropped.
Kathrine was preparing to fire, but I shook my head. If they killed each other off, it made us much safer. Looking back to the fight, Maria had ducked and started dragging Harrow towards a Russian car for cover. Someone was choking Shade, but it was too dark to see.
Too dark. Dark. Ivan.
The lights started to flicker on again, and Shade suddenly threw Ivan over his shoulders and into the middle of the light. The fighting stopped at the sudden realization of what had happened. With a crazed look, Shade spotted Maria and Harrow. Maria stood to block him, but he shoved her to the ground. “You!” Harrow sent a trembling, yet damaging punch into Shade’s side. A loud grunt of pain burst from his mouth as he kicked Harrow in the knee and threw her to the ground once more. “Deal’s off!” He drew, pointed, and cocked his pistol. “Say goodbye!” We raised our rifles, but his gun fired.
A black blur whipped in front of Shade. The gun was sent flying, and Ivan landed several quick punches into Shade’s chest as the gunshot rang across the forest. The guards fired at Ivan, but he leaped over Shade and pulled him away from the bullets. Shade launched his heel into Ivan and followed with a left elbow into his gut. Countering, Ivan used the momentum of Shade’s arm to take him to the ground. He pulled his pistol and fired the rest of his clip at the guards. “Quick! The guards!” I shouted, releasing us from our stealth. Our bullets ripped apart the SUV, taking down at least two guards. Shade forced Ivan off and punched at his face several times. Ivan tried to counter the punches, but each punch came too fast. Maria ran over and lifted her foot into Shade’s abdomen, as he was about to throw another punch. Ivan grab Shade’s slower fist and proceeded to crush it with pure force. His cry of pain was almost louder than the bones snapping into pieces. Maria pulled out her own pistol and crouched, and turned towards the guards. She began firing at the SUV to suppress the enemy. She glanced up at us.
“Scout! Go and-“ Scout, instinctively seeing the opportunity, had already slid down the hill to get to the SUV. She rolled on the ground and ran to the open trunk of the second vehicle. Turning the corner, she hit the first guard with the stock of her weapon, and shot the remaining guards. Kathrine monitored the Russians, who had run down the road in the confusion to escape the fray. After seeing the last Russian drop his gun and run into the darkness, I watched Ivan slam Shade’s head into the hood of the first SUV. Ivan released his hold as his body slumped to the ground with a groan.
After a moment, he turned his stare to us, and tipped his hat.
He carefully walked over to Harrow’s body lying peacefully in the soggy grass. I ran to meet him, possibly to pay my respects.
When at the bottom of the hill, I dropped my gun and sprinted to Harrow and Ivan. I gave the two some space, as Harrow seemed to be in bad shape, if not already dead. Ivan, calm and collected, had taken a knee to examine Harrow. He knelt in silence, silently observing her on the ground. With a gloved touch, he pulled the handkerchief form his front pocket and gently wiped away the blood from her mouth and upper lip, and then placed two fingers on her neck for pulse. He leaned over and whispered into her ear, and then he pulled back. Seconds ticked away slowly, but Harrow’s eyes eventually cracked open. Tension in my body eased out of my system; she was alive, somehow. Ivan scooped her up and turned towards us, losing balance on his right leg for a split second. His pants had a small tear, and the tear appeared soaked with a liquid.
“Ivan, did you get shot?”
“It is just a scratch.”
“Ivan, you’re shot!”
“Jon, just call some police to grab Shade and get a car for us... please.” His voice stated calmly.
“Uh… Right.” Some things never change.
Ivan carried Harrow into the emergency room with a lightly bandaged leg. He refused to put Harrow down until he could personally place her into a gurney. Before slipping into the endless white walls of the hospital, she pulled Ivan down whispered into his hear again. Ivan lifted his head, adjusted his hat, turned, and limped to us as the emergency room staff carried her through the doors. Scout began wrapping his leg with sturdier gauze. He politely protested the procedure, but he did not force her to stop. When she was done, I held my hand out to him.
“Case closed. We found the killer and busted up Shade. Police should have him nabbed up by now. Good work out there.” He reached and shook my hand.
“Thanks are unnecessary. We almost lost Sionne. Losing any of the DDS detectives would be detrimental to our cause.” I wanted to debate with him, but he had a point. We had all been in danger, and we came too close to losing people this time.
“If I may…” Maria spoke up for us. We all turned to listen to her. “Shade is a worthy opponent. Getting everyone out alive was very unusual, especially considering what happened last time someone rejected his offer."
“Yeah, and you’ve got some explaining to do with these past experiences, right?” I spoke with a bit of a bite.
“Yes. I'll explain all my thoughts later, but in the meantime," she hesitated a few seconds, "I want to thank you for saving me. Next time Shade threatens us-"
“Excuse me ma’m,” Ivan interrupted. “But, Shade is in custody with the police forces we sent after him. There will not be a 'next time'.”
Maria sighed. “This type of situation has happened before, and he has come back. You all obviously underestimate him."
Everyone looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate.
"Shade is one of those guys that always has a backup plan. He's got connections, especially right now, who are sure to come after him. But even if he didn't, I do not doubt that he'd figure out an escape. He's one of those people that seems to defy all odds."
"What else do you know about this Shade character?" I asked, or maybe demanded. I wasn't in the most patient of moods.
She chuckled bitterly. "Oh, a lot..." she said lowly, "More than I'd like to know actually." She returned to a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "Shade isn't someone to fool around with. You can manipulate him, but only carefully—make a mistake and it will all fall apart. He doesn't care about anyone beside himself. He'll play nice, so long as he's getting what he wants, and he's not afraid to kill or be cruel. One time, I was trying to trick him into handing two important captives over to me for phony money. Unfortunately, his current partner had some background in forgery that I was unaware of and spotted the ruse. Shade flipped out his gun, shot the two captives, and left saying 'Nice doing business with you.' Yet..." She groaned like she didn't like next part. "Yet, admittedly, he's not completely devoid of humanity. Shed the tough guy act and you have someone different. A poet, an adventurer. He's never been courteous or moral or even very nice. But he didn't use to be so... cold, or vicious. But it doesn't even matter. Ever since he got up to his ears in debt to that drug lord, anything remotely decent in him went out the window."
Her final sentence had temporarily silenced our judgments and fears, allowing the ringing phones and whirring air condition to quietly fill the atmosphere with small amounts of noise.
"That was a nice character sketch," Ivan said after a moment, "But what we really need is how Shade is related to the case."
"My point," she replied sharply, "Was that he's become ruthless. Not to mention dangerous. I'm trying to get you to see just how unprepared and un-knowledgeable your little group is. To get you to see just how much you need me on your side."
Her purpose finally hit me. "You want something before you'll help us."
She nodded. "Immunity. I've got a horrible legal record. The police as well as a few government agencies would love to lock me up for life." She turned to Kathrine. "You can fix that. If all of you guarantee that no police force or any form of law enforcement will get a hold of me, then I'll help you. Then maybe I can find a new city to hide in and build a normal life."
Despite myself, I felt a twinge of sympathy for her. She was probably wrapped up in plenty of dirty business. But at least she was trying to stop.
"Well," Kathrine said, "I've got a lot of strings to pull, but I might not have that many. Particularly with the higher government agencies."
Maria laughed, "No problem. Shade's not the only one that can boost your position. With your reputation, it won't be very difficult."
The rest of us looked at each other uncertainly. An awkward silence would have filled the space if Scout hadn't spoken up, "I say we all just wait a day or two to settle down, and then we can discuss this together."
Kathrine, and I nodded in agreement. Maria smiled with a slight smirk. She handed a folded piece of paper to me.
"What's this?" I said as I opened it up.
"My email address. Contact me with your decision. Until then, I'll be nowhere."
Maria quickly walked out the door before anyone could think to protest. It made sense. If we decided against her deal, she'd still be able to make her own escape.
It seemed the team had a lot of things to discuss.
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