Paradise Burns (12 page)

TWENTY-FIVE

We sat across
from each other in the booth, sipping our drinks. The bar we were in was a bit
more upscale than what I’m used to, but Clara was buying, so I had no problem
with her choosing where we drank.

The bar wasn’t too busy or too loud.
There was some music playing low in the background. There was a contemporary
feel to the place. The structure was a mixture of brown leather and dark wood,
as was the furniture. What people were there were seemingly more refined that
the clientele where I usually drink. Everyone was in business dress or smart
casual attire, talking in small groups like civilized people.

I was cradling my two fingers of scotch,
and she had a bottle of Budweiser in her hand. We’d not said much since we left
the rooftop, and we were sat here now, regarding each other quietly.

‘So, what’s the plan?’ she asked,
breaking the silence.

‘The way I see it,’ I began. ‘We need to
start by tracking down this scientist, agreed?’

‘Yup.’

‘Any ideas where they could be holding
them?’

‘Could be any number of places, really.
Definitely within the city – they wouldn’t want to risk transporting the
uranium too far. Especially over state lines.’

‘True. I’ll get Josh to look into it.
You can give him the locations you know of and he’ll work his magic from there.
He might be able to narrow down the search, track them down that way.’

‘Sounds good.’

I could tell she was distracted.

‘You alright?’ I asked.

‘Yeah, I’m fine. Just what Marcus said
to me on the roof, about being a traitor. It’s just like I said – you can’t
walk away from these people.’

‘Hey, you’re going to be fine. You have
my word, we’re going to stop them, okay?’

She smiled, but said nothing. We were
silent for a few minutes.

‘Can I ask you something?’ said Clara,
breaking the silence.

‘Shoot,’ I said.

‘Before, in your hotel room, I got out
of the shower wearing a towel.’

‘You sure did.’

‘And we had a long conversation.’

‘I know, I was there.’

‘You didn’t check me out once.’

I burst out laughing, which caused her
to give me a disapproving look.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘But you’re such a
woman!’

‘What gave it away? These?’ she said
sarcastically as she pointed at her breasts.

I smiled, making a point of not looking where
she pointed.

‘Let me ask you this,’ I said. ‘If I had
checked you out or made a move or whatever, would it have got me anywhere?’

She thought about it for a moment, then
smiled.

‘Probably not.’

‘There you go. So if I had no chance
anyway, why does it bother you that I didn’t try?’

‘A girl likes to be noticed you know,
makes her feel special.’

She pulled a face and smiled. I massaged
my temples again in frustration.

‘Shoot me now.’

She laughed, then it went quiet again. I
finished my scotch and asked her if she wanted another drink. She did, so I
went to the bar and came back with two Buds.

‘Six years ago,’ I said, as I slid back
into our booth. ‘I was working a contract over in Pittsburgh. A guy hired me to
take out the local drug dealer called Darnell Harper, who sold some cocaine to
his son. The boy died of an overdose, and the coroner’s report said the coke
had been cut with some kind of cleaning fluid, which made it toxic. The guy was
beside himself, but knew he couldn’t do anything on his own. He reported it to
the police, but they did nothing, so he hired me to kill Harper.’

She listened intently, occasionally
sipping her drink. I continued.

‘I looked into the guy, and he was just
a small-time dealer. He had a modest operation in the local town, but he wasn’t
in the big leagues. I tailed him for a couple of days, learned his routines and
his hangouts. Then on the third day, I waited until he was alone and I put a
bullet between his eyes with a sniper rifle from a rooftop two streets away.

‘Unfortunately, Harper turned out to be
the son of Wilson Trent, the drug kingpin who ran most of Pennsylvania. I didn’t
find that out initially, because no-one on the street knew about it.
Apparently, Harper used his mother’s maiden name so he wouldn’t be associated
with his dad. He wanted to make his own way, not on Trent’s coat-tails.’

‘So what happened?’ asked Clara.

‘Trent put the word out that his son had
been hit. It didn’t take long to track down my client, and it took even less
time to convince him to give me up. Within a few days, I had five guys kicking
in my front door, intent on killing me. An example needed to be made and a
message sent so that everyone was reminded you didn’t mess with Wilson Trent.’

I took a long sip of my beer. Memories
were flooding back into my mind. Visions of that day that have haunted me. The
darkness I tried to crawl out of in the years that followed.

Clara attempted to break the silence
that had descended.

‘You alright?’ she asked, with genuine
concern.

She leaned forward and leant on the
table.

‘You don’t have to explain anything to
me, y’know? I was just kidding around before.’

‘I know,’ I replied. ‘Thank you. But it’s
okay. I want to tell you.’

‘Okay.’

She leaned back against the seat and
took another sip of her beer. I continued.

‘I wasn’t home when they came round. But
they kicked down the door and stormed in to find that my wife and daughter
were. Maria was just seven years old...’

I let the sentence trail off for a
moment as I pictured my baby girl, smiling at me.

‘When I got home later that night, I
found them both hog-tied on the kitchen floor with bullets in their heads and
chests. The house had been turned upside down and trashed almost beyond repair.
At the time, I had no idea what had happened. I just packed a bag, grabbed my
guns and left. I rang the police a couple of hours later, said I was a
concerned neighbor who had heard gunshots. I’ve not been back home since.’

‘Jesus, Adrian, I’m so sorry,’ said
Clara. Her eyes were filling up with tears.

‘I’d been in the freelance business just
over three years by then, but I hadn’t really stepped up and taken any big
money, high profile contracts. I was out of my league going up against a man
like Trent back then, so I stayed clear of the East Coast and traveled around
taking the jobs Josh could get for me. I was in a bad place for a long time. I
owe Josh a lot for getting me through it.’

‘He sounds like a sweet guy.’

I smiled.

‘The guy’s an asshole,’ I said, starting
to laugh. ‘But he’s like a brother to me. We were both serving in the military.
I’d just turned eighteen and was working my way through the ROTC; he was in his
twenties and working intelligence for the British. I was just a kid, really. But
I had a flare for the violence and found a comfort in the killing. It didn’t
take long for me to get handpicked for a black-ops team, which was a joint
effort with the British. We typically operated overseas. We met in that unit
and cut our teeth in the business together. Josh learned his trade for research
and espionage. I learned how to properly fight and kill people. By the time I
was approaching thirty, I’d finished with the military, met Janine and we’d had
Maria. I wanted to settle down and be a husband and a father. And I had a good
three years of doing just that, while juggling my freelancing. But since that
day when Wilson Trent murdered my family, I’ve never settled anywhere. I
learned to embrace my anonymity.’

‘You’re hardly anonymous though, Adrian,’
she said. ‘Most governments and militaries in the world have heard of you. Not
to mention the criminal element to your fan club.’

‘Well, the reputation came a couple of
years afterward. And I still can’t be found unless I want to be. I’d call that
pretty anonymous.’

We smiled at each other.

I took another sip of my drink and
glanced around the bar. That was when I saw the black Humvee pull up out front,
four people get out and proceed to open fire.

TWENTY-SIX

‘Everybody get
down!’ I yelled.

I grabbed Clara’s hand and dragged her
out of the booth and over to some tables next to us, which I turned over to try
and provide some cover. I looked around and saw people running and screaming in
blind panic. The furniture and decor of the bar was ripped apart by automatic
weapon fire. The glass behind the bar shattered and exploded everywhere. The
smell of cordite burned strong all around. I heard the dull, squelchy impact of
bullets on flesh, as people dropped dead to the floor. A few people had found
some cover, but nothing would protect anyone for long under this onslaught.

I took a peek over the table, to get a
glimpse of who was firing. I saw four people through the smoke and haze. I saw
a woman, who judging by her figure and outfit must be the one Clara called
Natalia Salikov. The other three were men I’d not seen before. But if Natalia
was there, that meant Dark Rain had found me.

Or found Clara.

I looked over at her as she looked at
me, clearly coming to the same conclusions.

‘You packing?’ she shouted.

I reached behind me and produced my two
babies.

‘Always,’’ I said, handing her one. I
reached into my pocket and produced a spare magazine, which I also gave to her.

We instinctively checked the magazines
and reloaded our guns. I motioned for her to stay under cover where we were.
She nodded in agreement. I took another quick peek at the front and made a run
for the next batch of tables to our left. I blindly fired three rounds as I
moved, sliding down behind the cover. I looked over at Clara. I knew we had no
chance of winning a straight up shootout against these people - we were too
heavily outgunned.

I looked around, thinking. There had to
be a back way out of here.

Clara broke cover and let off four
rounds, which caused one of the gunmen to cease fire and duck away. She could
certainly handle herself. Right now, I was very glad to have her on my side.

I put my bluetooth earpiece in and dialed
Josh, firing off another two rounds in response to a burst of gunfire that hit
the floor just in front of me.

‘Adrian, how’s it going buddy?’ Josh
said as he answered.

‘I’m getting shot at,’ I replied. ‘How’s
your day going?’

I didn’t hear what he said next, because
I squeezed off another couple of rounds, narrowly missing one of the gunmen. It’s
very hard to aim when you’re under this much pressure.

‘What?’ I shouted down the phone.

‘I said, you gotta be freakin’ kidding
me?!’ he shouted.

‘Wish I was. Listen, me and Clara are
pinned down and we’re taking heavy fire. There are civilian casualties all over
the place and we’re low on ammunition. You’ve got to get us out of here!’

‘Already on it, gimme a sec.’

I didn’t want to blindly run into the
back area, as I’d run the risk of being trapped if these guys followed us. I
needed to know exactly which way to turn, so I could minimize any risk or
delay.

I looked over at Clara again, who was firing
off a few more rounds. The table splintered just above her head. I looked
around to see which of them was firing at her specifically. The gunmen were
stood in a line, with Natalia Salikov being second from the left. The guy on
the far right was emptying another clip in Clara’s direction. I ducked back
down to avoid another burst, then sprung up and unloaded three at the guy on
the right. One missed, but the other two hit the spot. One caught him in the
chest, making him stagger backward and spray bullets in a wide arc toward the
ceiling. The second caught him on the jaw, and the bottom half of his head
exploded in a pink and white mist, as bone and blood flew off in all
directions.

The guy stood next to him looked over at
his comrade and shouted something as his body crumpled to the ground, then took
a few steps forward into the bar, fanning his bullets left and right.

Clara looked back over as she reloaded.
She was down to her last mag, and I wasn’t far behind.

‘Josh, whatever you’re doing, do it
faster!’ I yelled, as another burst hit the table I was behind.

‘Got it,’ he shouted down my ear. ‘I
tracked your location from the GPS in your phone. I’ve pulled up the blueprints
of the bar you’re in from the City Records. The door to the right of the bar
leads to a storeroom of some kind. There’s an entrance there to a cellar, as
well as a fire exit leading out back.’

‘Thanks.’

I hung up and looked at Clara.

‘We’re leaving,’ I said. ‘Follow me.’

She didn’t need asking twice. She
crouched low and ran to my cover, firing blind as she did. When she slid next
to me, I pointed at the door and counted down from three on my left hand.

We both ran, firing blind in the enemy’s
direction. We barged through the door, knowing it would be mere seconds before
the gunmen followed us inside.

The fire exit was ahead of us to the
left, and the entrance to the cellar was on the right, halfway down the
corridor.

‘There’s got to be a way in and out through
the cellar,’ she said. ‘That’s where they load in the barrels from the delivery
trucks out back.’

I nodded.

‘Okay, you take the cellar, I’ll go out
back. If we can split them up, we stand more chance of surviving this thing.
Meet back at my hotel room, okay?’

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Be careful, Adrian.’

I smiled.

‘You too.’

With that, she opened up the cellar
doors and descended into the darkness below. I shut them behind her just as our
attackers appeared in the doorway behind us. I fired at them as I ran for the
fire exit. I burst through the door and out into the small parking lot at the
back, then stopped in my tracks.

‘Freeze!’ someone shouted.

There were three police cars, each other
two officers stood behind their open doors, guns aimed at me.

Oh, you have
got
to be kidding
me?