Escape (Chronicles of Hart) (19 page)

“Call more backup in. Let them know there are ten rouge men in the house,” demanded one of the men that had come in with King. He was a short square man of a very solid build he looked up talking to the taller man at the door beside him.

King looked at her confused expression as she watched them talking “Grace, these are Platt and Peters, trust them
.” Grace looked from a tall Platt to the short stocky Peters. King appeared to believe these men were on their side. He had also believed that the others were. Grace decided to stay as close to King as possible, casting weary glances to his companions.

“Where is Ethan?” she asked, craning her neck to see past the men and into the smoky hallway, still listening for him in the commotion below. Downstairs she could hear breaking glass as cups and plates were being thrown into the mix. They were trying to conserve their ammunition supplies by fighting with anything around them. A chair was swung, cracking in half as one of the legs spiralled onto the landing outside the bathroom door. The chaos was getting closer and soon the bathroom would be taken over by the savages downstairs. Grace backed farther into the bathroom waiting for her answer. She wondered if King had heard her, or if he was afraid to tell her the answer.

“In the car,” Platt answered flatly. Grace breathed out with relief, realizing that she had been holding her breath in fear. She looked over to Platt sizing him up for a second time. He seemed alright. She was still going to keep her distance until she knew Ethan was safe for sure. Until she saw him with her own eyes, she couldn’t be sure that this wasn’t one of her fathers’ ploys to lure her in. She relaxed her shoulders for a moment before tensing back up at the atrocious sounds from downstairs.

Gunshots were getting closer. They could hear them at their feet as bullets rebounded off of furniture and into the ceiling below their feet. It was becoming very dangerous to stand still. As a bullet pierced through the floor clanging into the side of the sink, they all burst forth in a fury of movement. Their escape was becoming more important as the fight became more intense. Several men were fighting in the kitchen. The agents upstairs were in the hall guarding the stairs.

“King,” Grace whispered, pulling him in close so the others wouldn’t overhear her. “The files are in Ethan’s house.”

King looked to Grace startled. He had been curious what the end game had been with convicting Hart. He smiled. “Show me when we get out of this, okay?” Grace nodded in agreement.

***

Downstairs Jay and his team had set off two more smoke grenades in the kitchen and foyer, taking down as many men as they could under the cloud of confusion. Two of his commandos had snuck out the front to patrol the property, ensuring no one escaped. They monitored the number of cops and agents that went in and out, keeping the perimeter clear. The smoke was slowly dissipating and by the grunts and bangs he could tell they were low on ammo. Picking up a discarded gun, Jay walked through a small living room searching for the hidden girl.  He kicked at low surfaces listening for sounds with his gun pointed forward. He tossed furniture out of his way with a swipe of his boot. The room hadn’t left him many places to look, and it was the last room on this floor of the tiny house.

Now that they had cleared the ground floor they were going to have to separate. Three would go upstairs and three down to the basement; one lay dead on the kitchen floor. Looking up from the bottom of the stairs through the little smoke left, they could see that it was heavily guarded. Jay smiled. She was probably trapped up there. Jay sent his team ahead to the upstairs, slinking out back into the yard to wait. He knew they were outnumbered, his team would thin them out and then he would be waiting ready to out maneuver them and get the girl back when they left the property with her. Lulling them into a false sense of security was his specialty. It was almost too bad he would have to lose his team over this. He would be sure that the girl paid for it in spades before he turned her over to Hart.

Jay snuck around the side of the property to peek around the front, seeing how his two men were holding up. It was pertinent to his plan that they not die prematurely or she would sneak past him unscathed. He could tell from their dark jackets that they were hiding beside a car, guns ready and near enough to take out any opposition entering or exiting the home. He was almost proud of them for a moment before he snuck back into the trees to watch from a distance. Close enough to see what was going on and far enough to get to his car if this invoked a pursuit.

***

Ethan sat in the back of the car, hunched so as not to be seen by the two armed men outside the car. He folded himself into the space at his feet, keeping them in view. The tips of their weapons popped up into sight through the window momentarily. He held his breath afraid he had been spotted. They didn’t look like the good guys and they were heavy with guns and strings of bullets. He held his breath for a moment longer as the guns receded back out of sight. More likely they were settling themselves in for a long wait, watching the house from under the car and through the many cars mirrors. They had a good vantage point and would be able to see anything happening in or around the small house. Ethan was stuck here. He slid down further into the alcove behind the driver seat.

He reached under the front seat, searching for anything that might help if the men saw him. He felt a cylinder. Pulling from under the seat, he saw that it was a road flare. It would have to do. He clutched it tight, silently watching the armed men duck beside his window after standing to check the houses’ door. Breathing slowly, so as not to be overheard by the close by gunmen, Ethan slowly twisted his body so he could see out one of the side mirrors without being seen through the window. The position was uncomfortable, but at least now he could see the front of the house and maybe warn someone before retaliating gunfire pelted him through the car. He waited silently, breathing shallow through the pain in his ribcage.

From the car, Ethan could hear the gunfire in the house. He watched the smoke pouring out of the hollow of the front door into the red and blue flashing lights of the night. Ethan thought the house had been set on fire and couldn’t imagine why there was so much fighting happening over one girl.
It must be Grace in there
; he thought hopefully wishing she could come out the doors soon. But not before these rouge gunmen were taken out. He could hear glass shattering and watched as the outside of the house slowly started to resemble what he imagined the inside was looking like. Shutters fell from window frames and glass from the windows themselves as bullets pierced every inch of the house ripping it apart from the inside out. He could tell that the previously curious neighbours had all closed their blinds to the implosion of the house at the end of the street. They would likely be cowering in their basements until morning, clinging to baseball bats and garden shears for protection. The thought made him sick. People were willing to watch others suffer. Unless it could get them hurt, then they would cower away never offering up a helping hand. This was the problem with people today.

***

Men had approached the bottom of the stairs, King ordered the agents to shoot and keep them in the downstairs. They treated the upstairs like their fortress, guarding the only entrance with a vigilant hand. The extra men stood guard behind their counterparts creating a second blockade. They held their guns at the ready.

Gunfire broke out in a haze of slow moving smoke and debris fell as the house began tearing apart. Bullets pelted thought the drywall, leaving smoking holes of dust fluttering into the madness. Grace ducked, fearful of bullets whizzing past the lines of men between her and the stairs. A fire had broken out in the kitchen, the smoke wafting in to replace the thick smoulder of the grenades that had all but thinned out into nothing. The fire alarms had gone berserk, melding with the police sirens into a melancholy song. King and his counterparts were rushing around her, heads ducked to the falling debris. She had no idea what they were doing. All she could do was watch as the ceiling outside of the bathroom began falling in pieces. The hall light had finally lost its flicker, going out completely. She wasn’t sure if it was due to the old bulb or the barrage of gunfire. It was obvious that the men at the bottom of the stairs had doubled their numbers. They knew she was up here from the barricade of officers guarding the stairs. She watched through the dark hall as the fire crept up higher, black smoke billowing toward
s her like the breath of a fire-breathing dragon threatening to roast her if she didn’t leave soon. Behind her the glass of the window shattered. King was beating at the leftover shards with the toilet seat and then covering the sill with a thick folded towel. She looked back out the door closing her ears to all the yelling and sirens and gunfire, they were ringing from the strain. Grace felt as if she were in a horrific nightmare. The shock of it all was causing her to see it all in clips and pieces; smoke, fire, window, rope. She didn’t know how, but she was suddenly standing outside looking at a black car. Out of the back window a flare went off, Grace ducked. Gunfire sounded. She looked up to see Ethan’s face, smiling and then she fainted.

MARKED

The smoke was billowing up the stairs now, black and thick consuming the hallway in swirls that grew lower and lower. They ducked under the heaviest parts avoiding the inevitable breath of burning smoke entering their lungs. King pulled Grace in as the flames began flickering within view, pulling her away from the door where she stood like a statue frozen in the encroaching heat. Platt had rummaged through a hallway closet, passing folded piles to his partner as Peters tied the pile of sheets into a rope. He wrapped it around Grace and King. They ducked out the window as the rope was tied off, propelling lazily into the backyard. King kept one hand around Grace holding the sheet-rope steady as his other hand held his pistol steady with his sweeping eyes as they lowered to the ground. Peters and Platt were followed out by two of their men moments later landing softly on the patchy grass. King untied himself and Grace as they stood point. A fire crew was already hooking up their hose out front when they slipped around the side into view of the car waiting. Having been on route to the initial call they were not wasting time to take out the cause of the smoke. King turned to his car as a flare erupted out the back window. He pulled his gun just in time to meet the two strangers as they leapt from behind the vehicle, caught off guard by the sudden lightshow. He fired twice. They slowly hit the stone walkway, dead.

Around the corner of the house the rest of their men had climbed down the rope and were filing through the yard, cautious of falling debris and smoke. They were coughing from the putrid air of the bathroom they had come from. One of them had set the rope on fire hoping to deter the others from following. It sent up spirals of light smoke into the flashing air. Peters was down behind him with Platt holding him up. He had been shot in the left leg as the last man had fallen, pulling the trigger as he dropped. Platt helped him hobble over to the closest emergency vehicle, a fire truck, to sit him down. Paramedics approached cautiously searching for other threats, while Ethan raced from the car. He held Grace’s face in his hands. She smiled as her eyes rolled back in her head.

Peters winced as the paramedic cleaned his wound, snarling at the house like it had wounded him personally. He bit back sour words as he was bandaged up, testing his leg while popping back some pain medication handed to him with a bottle of water. The paramedic team scooted off looking for more injured, cowering from every loud noise like scared animals during hunting season.

“I’m taking them out of here,
” King told Platt as he lifted Grace from the walkway. He began marching towards the first shiny black vehicle parked just past the emergency crew. Ethan was quick in tow as he walked to the car. King set Grace to the ground where Ethan took over holding her steady. He looked under the visor on the driver’s side, producing a set of keys. Turning them into the ignition he sat in the seat as the engine turned over. He stepped out to pick up Grace and slide her into the back seat. Ethan climbed in with her, settling her head on his lap and brushing the hair from her face. King looked over to Peters, sitting in his own bullet riddled car behind him. Peters had taken up the drivers’ seat, despite his injured leg and was revving his engine at King in acknowledgement. They were coming too.  Platt slipped in to the passenger seat as a second set of men walked off to find their own car to trail with. It looked like they were getting an entourage after all.

“What’s your address
?” King looked back at Ethan, giving the other set of men time to find a car in the mess behind them.

“What? You’re not taking us to my house.
She needs to be somewhere safe,” Ethan protested.

“She said there is a file there and we need it to get this case closed.” King turned, looking Ethan in the eyes over the back of his seat, “before Hart burns them to the ground too
,” he added very seriously turning to the house as a point.