“I got fucking shot, twice, my left arm if totally fucked.”
Cal emerged from the room, “Cisco is dead. He had a bad wound to his stomach.”
“He’s a brave man, he jumped on that last grenade you threw in,” Barry said.
“Shit, looks like you’re my only source. You can’t die, you hear me,” Kyle said to Barry. “Hold him, let me check on Tommy,” Kyle ordered Cal.
Cal happily took Barry.
“What can I do?” Kyle asked reaching Tommy just as a few shots smashed into the door above their heads.
“Get us the hell out of here,” Tommy answered.
“I think we use Barry as a bargaining chip,” Kyle said.
“Hey, Driver Eight!” Cal called out.
Kyle turned to see Cal holding a pistol to Barry’s head.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kyle asked walking towards Cal his arm out motioning for him to lower the pistol.
“If he kills me you’ll never know where I sent your wife,” Barry cried out knowing his life was hanging in the balance.
“Cal put the pistol down. I need to know where my wife is, we made a deal.”
“What did you say? Well, the deal has changed,” Cal snarled then pulled the trigger of his Glock 17. A single nine millimeter round struck Barry in the temple, traveled through his brain and exited out the other side, taking parts of his skull and brain with it.
Barry dropped to the floor dead.
“No!” Kyle cried out. He looked at Barry on the floor, the blood pouring out and pooling around him. With Barry dead so was the chance on knowing exactly where Portia could be.
“Your turn,” Cal said turning the pistol on Kyle.
A shot rang out behind Kyle and struck Cal in the chest followed by a second, then a third. Cal recoiled and fell to the ground. He clawed at the three wounds in his chest.
Kyle walked over to Cal and hovered above him. “You took the one chance I had to save my wife.”
“Payback,” Cal said referring to Dana.
Tommy ran over, “Kyle we have to go, I can’t hold them off anymore.”
Kyle looked at the large plate glass window. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“Only spiders and tight places and right now this place is getting a bit tight.”
“We have one major problem, how the hell are we getting five floors down?”
“Then we need to go out into the hall, to the left at the far end is a stairwell. No one has come up it but I don’t know why?”
“Maybe it’s locked,” Kyle said.
Tommy looked to the door, “Bro, we can’t stand here talking, we need to go, now.”
Kyle looked down at the two remaining grenades on his belt. “We go for the door now,” he said running to the suite entrance. He peeked around the corner and saw seven guards slowly maneuvering down towards them. One took a shot when they saw him poke his head out.
Tommy came up behind him and said, “How’s it look?”
“Seven.”
“My lucky number,” Tommy said and grunted in pain when he shifted to get ready to run. The entire left side of his shirt was soaked in blood.
Kyle pulled the pin on the smoke grenade, stepped out and threw it. The spoon flew and the grenade popped. Smoke immediately began to pour out of it. He took the CS grenade, did the same thing and threw it. With the smoke providing cover and the gas grenade immobilizing the guards they sprinted from the door towards the stairwell entrance.
Tommy took several steps and tripped over something lying in the hall.
Kyle stopped, picked him up and said, “Come on, buddy, no time to be lying around.” He got Tommy to his feet and could see he wasn’t doing well. His face was ashen and sweat was pouring down his face.
“I’m good,” Tommy said pushing Kyle to go.
The two began to move when a volley of gunfire came at them.
Tommy took a round in the back and fell to the ground hard, his face smacking the floor. Kyle spun around and returned fire. He grabbed Tommy by the collar and began to drag him. The stairwell door was only a few feet away but it seemed like a mile. More gunfire came their way but luckily it missed them. With one arm pulling Tommy, Kyle was firing back with his other. He reached the door, and kicked it open. “C’mon buddy,” Kyle said dragging Tommy into the stairwell. “How ya’ doing?” he asked.
Tommy coughed up blood but keeping with his tough as nails persona, replied, “Never been better.”
“Can you stand?”
A serious look came over Tommy as he coughed hard. He spit out a mouthful of blood and said, “Bro, I’m fucking done. Leave me. Go.”
“Never,” Kyle said reaching down to lift Tommy up.
“No, leave me.”
“Not going to happen,” Kyle said picking Tommy up in a fireman’s carry. The first few steps was difficult but soon Kyle adjusted to the added weight. One flight after another he went. He saw a sign posted about the parking garage. He passed the main floor and kept going down. Above him, he heard the door open and people enter the stairwell, their voices echoed down pushing him harder. He took the last step there was onto a landing, the sign on the door read, PARKING GARAGE. He opened it and walked in. The cavernous space was mostly empty except at the far end he saw a line of vehicles. He raced for them. His legs were fatiguing but he knew if he stopped they’d both die. Arriving at the first vehicle he checked to find it locked. Car after car he went, every one of them locked. He turned a corner and there like a shining gem was his truck. “No way,” he said out loud. All he could think was Barry had driven it over here to store. He ran as hard as he could towards it.
The door he exited at the far end of the garage burst open and guards poured out.
Hearing they were coming he pushed even harder until he reached his truck. “We made it buddy, can you believe my truck is here?” he asked placing Tommy carefully into the truck bed.
Tommy mumbled something unintelligible, his eyes shut.
Kyle knelt down and ran his hand under the lip of the truck’s body until he found what he was looking for, a spare key. He removed the magnetic canister, slid it open and let the key fall into his hand. “Thank God,” he said out loud. He unlocked the truck, jumped behind the wheel, and inserted the key. He pressed his eyes closed and said a quick prayer, “Start up, please.” He turned the key and the engine roared to life. Not wasting another second, he put the truck into drive and smashed his foot against the accelerator. The truck lunged forward. He turned the wheel hard left and sped towards the exit. In between him and escaping stood the seven guards who were in pursuit from the fifth level.
Seeing the truck coming at them, they jumped out of the way.
Kyle turned the wheel hard to the right and smashed through the gate and out onto the drive. He made a hard left and again slammed the accelerator down. The truck’s throaty exhaust roared like a lion. Ahead of him was the second gate. The guard saw him coming but didn’t know what to do except get out of the way. Like the garage gate, he plowed through that. The last remaining obstacle was the main gate. Like the others, Kyle’s plan was to run right through it. However this time, the guards were ready.
Two guards stepped in the middle of the drive and began to fire. The rounds hit the truck but weren’t enough to stop it. Unrelenting, Kyle pushed the pedal down as far as it would go. When the truck exploded through the heavy metal gate, he was going over ninety miles per hour.
The events of the past few hours turned out to be a complete failure. He’d risked it all and barely got out of there alive. The Underground would count the night as a victory but it came at a huge cost for Kyle. The one man who knew where Portia had been taken was dead and he was nowhere closer to finding her than he was hours ago.
CHAPTER 8