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  Chapter 2

  As Chris went “Wild Bunch” with all the guns blasting down the hallway I rolled to my stomach, crawling the couple of yards to the door of the closest room, I tried the doorknob. It was unlocked, so I hurriedly pushed my way through without doing a proper check first. Quickly I rose to my knees, aiming my Glock in a regulation two-handed grip, moving through the room before I reached to the door on the far side.

  I tried the doorknob, but this time the door was locked. A hard kick to the spot just below the doorknob splintered the hardware away from the doorframe and I went in. I quickly checked the corners and blind spots as I entered the room, just as the LAPD had taught me over a decade ago only to find the room empty.

  My heart sank at not finding Lei, but I moved on through to another door and realized the ringing in my ears was nearly gone. In the next room, I could discern another volley of gunfire coming from multiple types of weapons. Apparently, the men that Chris had been “distracting” were returning fire. I hoped that the lack of shots coming from Chris meant that he was reloading as opposed to having been wounded, and a pang of worry twisted in my guts for my overzealous friend.

  Then a single gunshot from his Beretta boomed, followed closely by Chris shouting,

  “Who’s your daddy?!”

  Boom!

  “Who’s your daddy?!”

  Boom!

  “Que es el Padre?!”

  Boom!

  “Donde esta’ la biblioteca?!”

  Boom!

  …and so forth.

  My brain was mentally disgusted with myself as a smile spread across my lips… Chris’ behavior could be exasperating but, damn, the guy was such a spectacle I just couldn’t help but laugh.

  I broke down another door and swept in before immediately having to dive for cover behind a sofa as a shotgun exploded in my direction. The sofa bucked from the impact of the eight pellets of 00 buckshot, but the cushions and frame caught most of it, protecting me from the multiple projectiles. I heard the gunman ratchet another cartridge into the chamber and waited for the accompanying blast when something cut through the air above my head. There was a thud of impact and the gunman’s body twisted back with his falling shotgun firing into the floor at his feet. I could just make out the handle of one of Alpha’s insane-looking knives extending from the center of the man’s chest as the man crumpled to the floor.

  I didn’t wait for Alpha to come into the room but jumped to my feet and took up position by the door to the hallway until Chris stopped firing. Just as I was about to crack the door open and peek out, I heard Chris shout, “Clear!”

  “Clear?” I called back, surprised that Chris could have taken a group of professional agents out with his antics.

  “You sound surprised,” Chris said, his voice oozing with mock indignation.

  I cracked the door open and peeked around the corner to see Chris moving into the larger room, his guns aimed at the door in the far left corner. Alpha appeared to Chris’ right and quickly moved toward one side of the door while I left my spot and joined them.

  Since I saw no bodies lying on the floor, I asked Chris, “So, what happened?”

  Chris never took his eyes off the door, but his voice returned to the John Wayne inflection, “Well, the way I fig’gur it, some folks done need to learn what happens, when Sherrif ‘Boom-Boom’ Barnes shows up to a gun fight. I reckon’ them polecats done be… OW!”

  Alpha had smacked Chris on the back of the head, “Quiet, fool!” He then traced a finger over door where one of a multitude of Chris’ shots had struck it. I studied the spot Alpha indicated and noticed that the .45 caliber round had not penetrated.

  I nodded, “Reinforced steel made to look like a wooden door. Guess we found the safe room?”

  Alpha looked at the doorframe and inspected the walls, “More like a barricaded space that they can hold out inside until help arrives, as opposed to a formal safe room.”

  That news was good and bad. “Good” because a real, professionally-made safe room would be impossible for us to penetrate without the proper tools, and “bad” because there was still the matter of getting to our target, who was locked inside what was obviously a fortified room.

  “So,” I asked, “how do you want to do this?”

  Alpha looked at me and was about to say something when Chris interrupted, “Didn’t I hear a shotgun blast a minute ago?”

  I pointed to the door I had been crouched behind, “In there.”

  Chris looked over and nodded, “Okay, be right back.”

  Chris tucked his twin Berettas inside the waistband of his jeans, and casually walked back down the hall and through the door. Alpha and I exchanged a look of confusion before Chris re-emerged with the shotgun in one hand and Alpha’s bloody knife in the other.

  Chris held the blood smeared handle of the knife out to Alpha, “You lose this?”

  Alpha accepted the blade with a smile, “No, I knew exactly where I put it,” and then licked the blade clean of blood.

  Chris’ face initially screwed up in a disgusted expression, but then froze as he reconsidered, looking a little deflated, “Wish I had thought of that.” He then turned to the door and aimed the shotgun at the doorknob taking a moment to sigh, “Damn, now I’m hungry,” before shooting the hardware clean off the door.

  Alpha and I both jerked our bodies out of the way to keep from being hit by the buckshot or any shrapnel, as the targeted area on the door cleared of smoke and revealed only deformed steel and a small, quarter-sized hole where the knob had been.

  Chris ratcheted another round into the shotgun and stepped back in preparation to kick the door in.

  He looked to Alpha and me, “Ready?”

  We nodded and Chris launched the bottom of his foot, driven by the entirety of his body weight, directly to the spot he had just blasted with the shotgun. A resounding impact of boot on metal reverberated through the room just before Chris let out a howl of pain and collapsed in front of the still-closed door, while gripping at his knee.

  Initially, I worried that Chris might have blown his knee out, but when he stopped groaning and clearly said, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, well that sucked,” I guessed that no permanent damage had been done to his leg.

  Alpha was smiling broadly, “That was… entertaining, do we have a “plan B”?”

  I was shaking my head in a negative way when a shadow fell over the room, just as if someone had put their hand in front of the only light. The three of us turned toward the hallway where the enormous silhouette of a man blocked most of the light coming in from the hall. We all knew the man, but his presence always conveyed a sense of dread whenever he simply appeared like that.

  William was nearly seven feet tall and so thick with muscle that it almost seemed he should have trouble moving, but anyone having a muscle-bound impression of him couldn’t have been further from the truth. William stepped nimbly through the various detritus strewn about the room, stopping next to where Chris was lying on the floor and leaned down to curl his index finger through one of Chris’ belt loops.

  “Can you stand?” William asked, his voice a deep and gravelly sound, as he effortlessly lifted Chris from the floor as if he were weightless.

  Chris’ expression never changed as he dangled from the belt loop in a limp, bent at the waist position. Slowly he flexed and extended the questionable knee before simply nodding his reply. William carried Chris away from the door and gently lowered him until his feet touched the floor.

  Alpha rolled his eyes, “Well, I suppose we could try to do this the straight-forward way.” He strode up to the door and knocked three times before raising his voice toward the door, “I don’t suppose you gentlemen would consider surrendering at this point?”

  When no one reply came Alpha knocked again, “Really there’s no need for any more violence. We simply wish to gather what we came for and depart.”

  A voice, muffled behind all of the steel and drywall, could be heard as Pollard called b
ack, “The police have been notified and are sure to be en route. You should be thinking about getting out before they arrive.”

  As soon as the voice had sounded William shifted to his right, away from the door and traced his broad hand over the wall. He looked at me and gestured with his free hand in such a way that I guessed he wanted me to keep whoever had spoken, talking.

  “We aren’t leaving without the woman,” I offered.

  There was a brief silence before a different voice called out, “Woman? What woman?” William shifted to the right another three feet and pointed at a spot on the wall. Alpha seemed to understand and moved to the spot indicated and then William walked back to the door.

  “No woman?” I asked as if confirming the information, “Well then, I suppose we should just go then?” I turned away from the door and spoke quietly to Alpha, “You have what you need?”

  Alpha had placed his hand on the wall in the same manner that William had, and nodded.

  I turned to William, “Count of three?”

  “Wait,” Chris looked confused but drew his Berettas from behind his belt, ejected the near-empty magazines and replaced them with full ones and then ratcheted both slides to chamber the fresh rounds. He aimed them to one side of William as I simultaneously did exactly the same thing with my Glock, and William turned to me and simply nodded.

  I returned the gesture and looked to Alpha, as I held up one finger, “One.”

  Alpha stepped back from the wall but never took his eyes off the spot that William had indicated.

  “Two.”

  Alpha drew in a deep breath as he readied himself for the third count.

  “Three!”

  Alpha’s fist shot forward driving into and through the wall. There was an explosion of drywall clay and dust, along with the sound of wood splintering as Alpha’s fist, forearm and elbow penetrated through the wall, finally stopping at mid-bicep. There were some muffled screams from inside the room when Alpha wrenched his arm back and pulled the body of one of the men through the wall and then flung the limp form to the other side of the room. Alpha immediately sought cover as gunshots exploded and bullets came through the new hole he had created in the wall, just as William’s nearly four hundred pounds shot forward into the steel door. Legs the size of tree trunks and a body dense with muscle slammed hard into the reinforced door and the impact shattered the frame and surrounding wall, which exploded inward with a cacophony of sound. The door was ripped from its hinges as William charged forward into the room still carrying it in his hands as he went. Screams of shock and terror came from the men inside who responded with a fusillade of gunshots, but William was using the steel reinforced door as a shield, which must have weighed as much as he, and blocked any bullets fired in his direction. Chris and I followed and shot down the remaining gunmen as they tried and failed to accomodate to what was happening.

  I couldn't see him, as William was still holding the door blocking my view, but I heard Pollard screaming as he fired rapidly into the unforgiving steel door that he had so confidently thought would protect him and his people a moment ago. Suddenly the gunshots stopped as William slammed the door into Pollard with enough force to send the man rocketing back and into the far wall of the room where he crumpled to the floor. William tossed the door aside as if were no more than a paper dinner plate, before stepping up to Pollard and throwing the man back into the center of the room toward me. Pollard had barely come to a stop when I lowered my Glock and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. My anger threatened to overwhelm me as I lifted him to his feet while screaming into his face.

  “Where is she?!” I screamed through clenched teeth, “Where is Lei?!”

  Pollard smiled at me like an adult might at the cute antics of a toddler, “You think you have what it takes to make me talk, boy?”

  Something in the way he said “boy” caught my attention and a sick feeling crept into my stomach. I frowned as I read the man’s face and realized what Pollard had actually told me. “You’re no government agent,” I accused, “or at least that’s not all you are!” Pollard didn’t answer, but his smile grew wider, mocking me.

  I took a deep breath and calmed myself... and then I shot Pollard in the knee.

  Pollard went down screaming in agony while his lower leg bled and waggled around like a marionette’s as the bones had been totally shattered at the knee joint.

  I knelt down, “Listen to me Agent Pollard, or whoever you are, you took someone very dear to me, and there is no level I will not stoop to in order to get the information I need from you.”

  Pollard tried to stifle his groans by gritting his teeth together as he glared murderously at me. In response I moved in closer and whispered, “You should also know that, despite the pain you are in and the atrocities I am prepared to commit upon your person, I am not the one you need to worry about.”

  Pollard’s eyes continued to glare at me, but they had lost a good deal of their fire, as William shifted into place behind me.

  I started talking very calmly, “See the giant behind me? Although you might not have been directly responsible for his abduction and torture, you were partners with the people who were.”

  Pollard blinked rapidly and his head shifted slightly as he took a better look at William before looking back at me. Any trace of threat or defiance had left his face, and I could almost feel his fear as the sight of William overwhelmed the pain he was in.

  “You should probably know, if you don’t already, that the people you’re involved with have his daughter, and as badly as I can make you hurt, it is nothing compared to what that man can do to you.”

  I could feel Pollard’s body shift back as William took a first heavy step toward us, “Are you really an agent of the CIA?” I asked as William took another step, crossing half the distance to us.

  Pollard’s eyes went wide, as his head swiveled away from William and back to me, “Yes, I am an agent of the United States Government and you can’t…”

  The moment Pollard tried to stray off the topic I slapped him hard over the wound on his ruined knee. His scream was high pitched and desperate.

  “Focus please.” Despite the violence of my actions, I kept my voice eerily calm. “Okay, so you are indeed a CIA agent, but am I right at guessing that you are also working with Dimitri Lagos?”

  I could sense Pollard’s pulse speed up at the mention of Dimitri Lagos, leader of the vampire collective in the territory that used to comprise the former Soviet Union. It had been Dimitri who had provided the information that eventually sent Lei and myself to Bangkok. The bastard had been using us in order to dispose of his former partner and our old enemy, the late Dr. Phineas Whelan.

  Some resolve returned to Pollard’s voice as he said simply, “Dimitri who?”

  William hovered over me, and I had the strangest sense of claustrophobia at being between a solid floor and William. The giant knelt forward and extended his index finger as if pointing at Pollard’s knee. Then slowly he extended his arm until the tip of his hot dog sized finger hovered above Pollard’s wound.

  I looked at the finger and winced at what I thought might follow, before turning to Pollard, “Well, I tried to warn you.”

  Pollard’s eyes looked from the finger to William’s face and then back to me as I stepped back. William shifted and pressed one of his ham-sized palms down on Pollard’s chest, pinning him to the floor, as he slowly pushed his index finger into the open bullet wound at Pollard’s knee. Pollard’s body went rigid and his face drained of color as the pain overwhelmed him. He began flailing wildly, but remained pinned to the ground under William’s hand, like a still-living insect might after being pinned in a specimen tray.

  When William finally removed his finger from deep inside Pollard’s knee his hand went into one pocket of his black jeans and removed a small piece of paper. He turned the paper over and then grabbed Pollard by the hair, making him look at it. It took a moment for the tears to clear from Pollard’s eyes, but once he could see
again he found himself looking at a small photo of a tiny Thai girl.

  “This is ‘Pha’” I volunteered, “his daughter, and we know that Dimitri has both her and Lei. Where are they?” Pollard only whimpered in response and William casually slapped Pollard hard enough to break his nose. Blood sprayed to the side and Pollard’s opposite hand rose in response to the immediate pain and temporary disorientation caused by the blow.

  Alpha moved to William’s side, and whispered under Pollard’s muffled cries, “We need him alive my friend.”

  A disinterested grunt was all that William said in reply as he looked to me in a silent signal to continue. I tried not to show my concern as I handed Pollard a paper towel from a roll that I saw lying on the floor.

  “Where are they?” I asked again as Pollard fought to compose himself. Something seemed to shift in the man as his features tightened and seemed to slowly change into something more feral before our eyes. There was no true physical change to his form, as much as there was a shift in the way he seemed to register the pain he was in. I have to admit the shift was a bit eerie to observe, but not nearly as strange as when Pollard spoke again.

  Pollard’s voice had changed as dramatically as if an entirely different person was lying on the floor in front of us, “I tell you, then you leave me here,” he said with a slight Slavic accent.

  I was going to say something, but Alpha cut me off, “Done.”

  Pollard looked into his own reflection within Alpha’s sunglasses, “You speak for all of them?”

  Alpha nodded, “I do.”

  “Um…What just happened?” Chris asked, as baffled as if he had missed a crucial play in a football game that had changed the entire outlook of the game.

  All of us stared in stunned silence as Pollard hissed out each breath, but Alpha was either unaffected or completely unimpressed as he knelt in front of Pollard to face him.

  “You know who I am?” Alpha asked in a way that managed to convey the entirety of Alpha’s insurmountable power behind it.