Hummingbird (20 page)

‘Jesus, that’s gross,’ she managed, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth as she crouched down and picked up Sammy’s own gun.

Jack came to her and took the Beretta from her bloody hands, Selena noticed his left hand for the first time and tears flooded her eyes.

‘Jesus Jack, what did you do to yourself?’

‘What I had to.’

Jack slipped the Beretta in to the back of his pants.

‘So now what? How do we get out of here?’

‘We don’t, it ends tonight.’

‘What are you going to do?’

Jack moved to Ralphie and found Ralphie’s SigSauer, he made his way back to Selena and handed her the smaller piece.

‘You remember what I showed you?’

Selena racked the slide and flicked the safety off and smiled at Jack, ‘I remember.’

‘Good, stay behind me, I’ll go first, it’s
gonna get noisy, if you see someone that isn’t me shoot ‘em okay?’

Selena nodded her head.

‘What are you gonna do?’

‘Kill ‘
em, kill ‘em all.’

They moved to the foot of the basement stairs, Jack figured it had been less than two minutes since the screaming had started down here in the basement and he was hopeful that anyone up top would think the screams were his but he wasn’t taking chances, Jack raised his right hand, the Glock felt heavy in his ha
nd, his left hand hanged useless and forgotten down by his side.

‘I love you Jack,’ Selena said from behind him.

Jack nodded his head, ‘I know.’

Selena managed a chuckle.

‘If we die here tonight Jack I don’t wanna die without hearing you say it so say it even if you don’t mean it.’

Jack swivelled his head and looked at the bloody siren before him.

‘I love you Selena.’

Selena nodded her head, she believed him: ‘Right, let’s go kill that fat bastard!’

             
                                                        *****

At the top of the
basement stairs Jack swung the door open to reveal the expansive central reception hall, the door slammed back against the wall and Jack saw the two armed men; one was coming down the sweeping staircase, the second was over by the front door, he didn’t pause for a second and he shot them both; the man on the stairs tumbled and bounced down the stairs; his machine gun clattered across the marble floor and Jack moved quickly across the marble floor and snatched the machine gun up, he slipped the Glock in to the front of his suit pants.

Jack checked the machine gun was ready to rock and he spun as the kitchen door was pushed open, three armed men charged through and Jack cut them down with a volley of heavy fire; rounds stitched across the three men at chest height and Jack kept moving, he discarded the machine gun and picked up fresh ones from the three dead men piled in the kitchen doorway.

‘Look out!’ Selena yelled and Jack felt a punch to his left shoulder and he was spun around and slammed back in to the wall, he saw Benny, one of the Fat Man’s youngest foot soldiers grinning at him with victory on his face and then there were four loud concussive pops and Benny was thrown back against a table and crashed to the floor.

Jack looked across at Selena, the
SigSauer smoking in her two handed grip. Jack smiled at her and pushed himself away from the wall.

Jack heard rapidly approaching footsteps from the hallway that led to the library and Jack
unloaded the machine gun’s banana clip in to a mass of bodies, he watched as blood sprayed and he dropped the machine gun and unshouldered the second AK-47 from his shoulder and spun around, he raised his arm and fired back down another hallway, he watched as two more men danced beneath the hail of bullets and he felt the buzzing whine of rounds passing close to his own head.

Jack emptied the gun and the air in the reception hall was heavy with gun smoke and the smell of cordite, spent cartridges littered the marble floor and Jack pointed at Selena to stay close to the wall and he motioned for her to head in the direction of the last hallway.

‘The Fat Man’s den is down that corridor,’ Jack said.

Jack snatched up the last of the AK-47s at his feet and he moved at a loping jog across the hall and joined Selena.

‘Stay behind me, keep your eyes on our backs, you see anyone…’

‘Shoot the motherfucker.’

‘Exactly, are you okay?’

‘Uh-huh, you?’

‘I’ll live.’

They moved down the hallway towards the double doors at the far end. They were half way down the hallway when the left
-hand door was flung open and two men stepped out raising their weapons, they were surprised by Jack and Selena’s presence and the moment of pause was all Jack needed and he unloaded a deadly volley of fire; the two men were shredded from the impact of heavy grain rounds and their torsos and faces turned in to a mess of blood, bone and torn muscle.

Jack dropped the AK
-47 once it was empty and he pulled the Glock from the front of his trousers and he moved down the hallway.

Selena followed close behind him, her heels stepping on the
discharged cartridges, her sinuses burning from the smell of cordite and her heart was hammering so fast she feared she’d pass out and she didn’t even want to think about the aches and pains coming from “down below”, and she definitely didn’t want to think about the fact that she could feel semen running down her thighs.

If we get through this night I’m going to need a lot of tests,
Goddamnit, this is totally fucked
!

Selena was brought back to the moment by movement back down the hallway and she opened fire, she felt the buzz of something part her hair and then the shooter was on the floor and he didn’t move.

Jack pushed Selena back against the wall and stepped up next to the open doorway.

‘You in
there boss?’

A half a minute passed and then Jack heard the Fat Man chuckle.

‘I’m here.’

‘You alone?’

‘What do you think Jackie-Boy?’

Jack chambered a round and moved closer to the door’s opening, he could see in to the den but his line of sight didn’t include the Fat Man’s massive desk.

‘Well boss, I’d say unless Nicky is in there that you’re on your own, I think we’ve killed everyone else.’

The Fat Man chuckled.

‘You always were one tough son of a bitch, I should have just killed you when I had the chance.’

‘Yeah, you should have.’

‘How’d you get free?’

Jack looked down at his useless left hand, it had started to swell and discolour and Jack knew that his thumb would be beyond any surgical repair.

‘I realised I didn’t need two thumbs.’

‘Damn Jack, that’s what I always loved about you, your ability to plan and to execute.’

‘What are you carrying boss?’

The Fat Man chuckled.

‘You’ll have to show yourself to find out Jackie-Boy.’

‘You know you’re going to die here tonight right?’

‘We’re all gonna die Jackie-Boy, it’s inevitable.’

Jack glanced across at Selena who was leaning back against the wall; the doorway between them and Jack shrugged.

‘I don’t know what to do?’ Jack whispered. ‘I can’t see enough of the room.’

‘I have a question for you Jackie-Boy,’ the Fat Man called out.

‘What’s that boss?’

‘Why? How?’

‘Your time was up, it’s been up for a long time, and you threatening Selena was the last straw.’

‘How did you manage to sneak away from the delectable Ms Boyd, or was she in on it?’

Selena was confused, she didn’t know what the Fat Man was talking about, and she’d been with Jack for the last three days, he hadn’t been anywhere without her…or had he? They hadn’t shared a bed at night, could he have snuck out then to do whatever it was that the Fat Man was talking about?

Jack looked at Selena and mouthed a “sorry”.

‘The bombs were arranged before I left the city, and when I did the shootings Selena was out for the count, easy enough to slip a tranquiliser in to her wine, like you said boss, I know how to plan and to execute.’

Selena’s mouth fell open. ‘You’ve been drugging me?’

Jack shrugged his shoulders.

‘And the hummingbird? What was the significance of that?’

Jack chuckled.

‘There was no significance, it was just misdirection, confuse and confound the enemy and strike where and when they least expect it.’

Selena was so confused, she just wanted to curl up and go to sleep for a month.

Jack waited.

The Fat Man waited.

Jack knew that he had to move soon or it would be all over, he figured that the Fat Man had tripped some kind of alarm or
alerted his friends at the police, once back-up arrived it would all be over and he’d not get a second chance at escape.

And then, as was so often the case in real life, events took over that Jack had no hand in or control over.

Jack heard the doors to the patio open and for a split second Jack feared that the Fat Man was trying to make his escape but then he heard:

‘Ah Nicky, finally,’ the Fat Man said from the other side of the doorway.

Shit! The odds just swung in the Fat Man’s favour
, Jack thought and then…

Bang!

Bang!

Bang-Bang!

Jack and Selena startled at the sudden gun fire and then silence descended on the den.

‘Jack,
it’s done, you can come in.’

Jack lowered
his Glock.

‘Don’t fucking shoot me Nicky,’ Jack said with a chuckle and Selena made a grab for Jack but he brushed her hand aside and stepped over the dead men in the doorway.

Jack walked in to the den and saw the Fat Man slumped over his desk, the top of the Fat Man’s head looked like a cracked open boiled egg and blood pooled all around the Fat Man’s head and shoulders, moving out in a spreading pool across the expensive surface of the desk. The doors that led out from the den on to the patio were wide open and a slight breeze stirred in to the room.

‘The dogs?’ Jack asked.

‘Kennelled,’ Nicky replied.

Nicky glanced at Jack and
holstered his Glock.

‘You can come in Selena,’ Jack called.

Nicky took in Jack’s appearance.

‘You okay Jack?’ Nicky asked.

‘No, I’m fucked, but I’ll survive.’

Selena came in to the room and collapsed on to an empty seat, she looked at the Fat Man, she dropped her pistol on to the carpet and pulled her heeled feet up on to the chair’s seat and hugged her knees to her chest and she began to weep.

‘She
gonna be okay?’ Nicky asked.

‘In time,’ Selena said.

‘So what now?’ asked Jack.

‘I didn’t have anything to do with what happened down in the basement Jack, that’s not my style, I figured out it was you doing all the dirty work, things would be a whole lot different right now if the
Fat Man hadn’t done what he did down in the basement. I can put up with most of his sick shit, but rape? Nah, that’s just not right.’

‘We each have a line right Nicky?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So?’

‘Get her out of here Jack, get your wounds seen to, you have a week to leave the city, no one will bother you, but after the week’s out if you’re still in the city you’re a dead man, the Fat Man had business associates all over, they’re going to want to know what happened here.’ Nicky poured two glasses of bourbon and handed one to Jack, ‘I think it’s time for a new King.’

‘And that’s you?’ Jack asked.

‘That’s the way I see it, of course you could always just kill me right here but then you’ll be hunted ‘til the day you die, like I say the fat bastard had a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, with me alive I can placate them, dead, well you’re on your own.’

Jack raised his glass in a toast.

‘I’m too old and tired to be looking over my shoulder Nicky, just do me one favour?’

‘
What’s that?’

‘Stay away from the underage market.’

Nicky nodded his head, ‘I’m way ahead of you Jack; that shit and the forced prostitution died with the fat fuck, it’s a whole new dawn.’

The two men downed their drinks.

Jack walked across the room and ripped a painting down from the wall to reveal a large safe.

‘You know the code?’ Nicky asked.

Jack nodded his head and typed in a six digit code, the door swung open and Nicky whistled.

‘Is that what I think it is?’

‘Yeah, ten million in cash.’

‘You think I’m going to let you just walk out
of here with ten million dollars Jack?’