Corridor

A man and his friends are the only defense that this city has. The Portland Police Bureau is littered with corrupt Police, bought out by Portland's underbelly.

            The sound of car horns, the dull splash of cars driving through puddles, the heavy pitter-patter of rain on the roof and my hood are the only things that I hear up on my perch. I look down at the hustle and bustle on the busy Portland streets; I’m on the Tower waiting for the signal. Tags are targets that my group and I take care of. After about an hour my phone rings once, that’s the signal. “3 floors down and at the end of the hall, room 1410; stick to the plan.” I tell myself. I just get into the stairwell and my phone rings again and echoes down the well, this was not part of the plan. I check my phone and there is a text from my partner, “Andrew: He’s not alone, improvise but keep it quick. It’s a buyer so take the money and deal with him.” I quicken my pace and enter the hallway, as I pass a maid she hands off the key-card and I slip into the room. I assess the room, your typical high-class hotel room. There is booze, complimentary of course, a couch and coffee table along with the kitchen, a glass door leading to a balcony; my quick escape if I need it.

The maid knocks once at the door, my signal that they are on the elevator and that I have about 30 seconds to hide. I find my spot where I can see the whole room and that is easily escapable, the empty coat closet farthest away from the door, and closest to the balcony. Just as I get settled in the door opens to three men walking in arguing, one of the men carrying a suit case walks into the bedroom and the other two walk into the kitchen area and open the booze. This gives me just enough time to sneak in the room behind the man with the case, just as luck would have it he’s in the bathroom and the case is by the bed. I slide underneath the bed and pull the case in and open it. In the case is at least $30,000, I help myself to about seven thousand in stacks of one thousand; the stacks are made in one hundred dollar bills. The man comes out of the bathroom before I have the chance to place the case back in its spot but he seems to forget about it and starts to walk out of the room, but stops for just long enough so that I can put it back and breathe. He takes the case into the front room and I hear some mumbling, then shouting, then a gunshot. I laugh to myself, “Well I got someone to do my job for me.” I pull myself out of under the bed and walk slowly to the door.

I peek out of the crack in the door and see men lying on the floor motionless. I slowly creep out and I hear a door creak, the walls of the hall are close enough that I jump and spread my arms and legs so I scale the wall just fast enough to miss a swing from the man that carried the case. As he stumbles forward I drop onto his back knocking him to the floor then I slip the knife out of its hiding spot and drive it into the back of his neck severing his brainstem and killing him instantly. I look up to find the other bodies are gone, there are two bullet holes in the ceiling and it hits me; a trap. I played right into their hands. I grit my teeth and prepare myself for a fight I may not win, but I won’t let them win either. I pull my hood up and slip on my brass knuckles on one hand and I pull another knife out of a special sheath coated in poison.

I jump low and roll into the living room and some out of my roll on my feet ready to engage, but there is no one there. I know where they are hiding; I can hear one breathing and the other I can see in a reflection off the sliding glass door. Both are in suits, obviously not prepared to fight someone like me so this will be easy to finish. The man in the reflection is a known informant for a mob family in the area that is known for running drugs, and owns half the local police department and the other man is unknown to me. The mobster is the first to strike, jumping over the back of the couch; bad move. I duck and she flies right past me and slams into the wall and is knocked out cold, the other man, the mysterious buyer is the next to show himself. He slowly steps out of the closet where I was first hiding, gun drawn and trained on my head.

 

 

 “Finally we have you. You have caused us enough trouble!” the man exclaims.

“We? Who are we?”

 

I ask him trying to gather information but mostly to distract him until I can move closer to the door. Just then the sounds of police sirens interrupt the moment and the mobster informant starts awake and stands up. I grab him and use him as a shield should this other man decides to open fire. I press the edge of my knife against his throat and I look at him to see how badly he hurt himself. Only a broken nose, obliterated should better fit the description, totally bent to one side and flat against his face this was a disturbing site but I couldn't help but laugh in his ear because he did it to himself. My eyes still shrouded in shadow from my hood I look back at the other man who hasn't moved, gun still pointed at me and steady.

I miss judged this one, and it may cost me my life. “You won’t make it out of here.” Says the man.

     “Who are you?” I ask.

   “Thomas, Thomas Caine” he says and bows slightly.

I look at him and smile, “I won’t forget your name.” I back towards the door, as I get closer I kick the man towards the other one and I grab the case and run out. Thomas opens fire on me but I’m already out the door and down the hall. I feel this warm sensation creeping down my arm then a white hot pain hits me almost crippling.

“Great!” I think to myself, “I've been shot; Zach is going to have a field day with this.”

I burst through the door at the end of the hall and sprint up the stairs to the roof, I didn't stop to see if I was being pursued but I could feel them all coming for me, closing in and fast. I bar the door and grab my pack and take out my suit and stuff the case with the rest of the money into it, the suit was designed with a thin membrane that connects the arms to the legs and another that connects the legs together, this is made for gliding like a flying squirrel. I take a breath and put on my head set and brace myself against the wall for a solid push off. Just as I push off I hear the sound of gun fire and kicking at the door, I reach the ledge and leap off the tower that looks over down town Portland. With the wind hitting my face and howling past my ears I can’t hear any of the world; except through my headset. The rush is incredible; I feel fear mixed with excitement, and the sight of the ground racing toward me but feeling time slow like the ground would never reach me. All these feelings gave me slight vertigo until I snapped myself out and opened my arms and legs, then came only one feeling, peace. No sounds of chaos from the citizens, no sounds of machines, no gunshots; only peace.

A crackling sound came into my ear interrupting everything, and then followed by a voice; it was Andrew, “status check?”

   “Courthouse in five.” I respond

I twisted my legs so I bank toward the east and then the radio goes silent again. I am getting closer to the ground so I can see the people. There is a concert going on at the water front, the people are all gathered and shouting, the sound of the music barely makes it to my ears over the wind. My arm is starting to throb and go numb at times, and I knew that the landing would be difficult. I see Pioneer Courthouse Square and bank so I head for a narrow alley and I deploy my parachute and drift to the roof tops. After I land and take my suit replacing it in my pack and slinging it over one shoulder across my back I go to the fire escape and climb down. The MAX is busy today but I find a spot and take it back into China Town.

This is what we do, we live and die to better this city; an unseen, unheard war. We fight for the weak, the defenseless, and the ones that have no hope. We are the unacknowledged guardians of Portland and we will continue to fight until corruption is no more. I am Demetri; this is my corridor.

 

 

I wake up to a surprisingly bright morning for Portland Oregon; it’s usually so dark in the mornings, or foggy; but not this morning. It is going to be a good day; I can feel it in my bones. Or so I thought, my phone rings so I look to my night stand is at and my cell isn't going off.

“Why are they calling so early?” I ask myself aloud and cover my head with my pillow.

“Who is it baby?” I look over to see my girlfriend just waking up and cuddling closer.

“Just the office again. They can leave a message.” I curl back up with her and close my eyes. I’m almost back to sleep when my other cell starts ringing, so I pick it up and look at who it is and to no surprise it’s Andrew again.

“Why!” I say slightly annoyed but answer anyway.

“Hello?”

“De, you need to pack up and leave now!”

“What why?”

“They followed you, move now!”

I spring out of bed not even bothering to hang up; I grab my pants from out where I left them last night after I got back.

“Kaylee we have to leave now!” I shout back at her as I begin to stuff clothes in to a duffel bag for her.

“What’s going on?” she asks in a slight panic.

“Well some men from my last job followed me back, I was careful though I have no idea how they followed me.”

She glares at me although it doesn’t work to scare me, I’ve told her many times that I think it’s cute when she tries to scold me, so I walk up to her and kiss her forehead and hold her for a moment before I go back to grabbing the essentials. She gets dressed quickly as I go to my armory as she calls it but in reality it’s just a coat closet that I keep my knives and guns in. I grab my favorite knife; it’s a long knife about a foot and a half from point to hilt with a wicked curve on it, almost resembling a scimitar. I sheath it and hook it to my belt and find a holster for my gun which is a Smith and Wesson 9mm I received from my father as a present for my first armed security job for the ship ports. I holster it under my arm and grab some assorted throwing knives and poisons and stuff them in the sheaths on my thighs in secret pockets. And the poisons in a pouch on my belt, I turn quickly to see my Kaylee standing at the top of a short stare case in sweats and a hoodie resembling my own outfit. I have to stare and smile at this as she throws her duffel bag over her shoulder.

“This girl is so brave.” I think to myself. Kaylee stands at five foot three with short black hair and the perfect hourglass figure, why she’s with me I have no idea. But I have to keep her safe, at all costs.

“Where are we going?” she asks me.

“We are going to see if we can stay with Andrew and Emily.”

She begins to think and she smiles,

“Okay, Emily and I have plans today anyway.”

I run back up the stairs and grab my black hoodie and slip it on and throw the same pack on that I had last night with the cash still in it. Just then I hear a loud rapping at the door then,

“Open up police!”

            I wrap my arm around Kaylee and take her over to the window and look to see if they are really prepared to engage someone like me, and yes they are. SWAT snipers are posted on buildings around mine and dogs, they brought dogs. I push Kaylee back away from the windows and up against the brick walls. I see something appear behind the sniper I spotted before.

“What’s going on Demetri?” Kaylee whispers.

I hold up a finger and then I tell her, “Get ready, when I say go; you run okay?”

She nods her response and tightens her strap. The figure I saw was Andrew, he motions to the next building and I see Zach, they strike in unison taking out the two then I turn to Kaylee,

“Go to the store ok? Don’t look back, don’t turn back.”

I look her in her eyes and kiss her softly when I see she understands, and she goes out the window after I do and gets down the fire escape and takes off across the street and disappears around the corner. I sigh a little then climb to the roof where Zach and Andrew are waiting for me. I join them and we prepare to fight our way out; we check our weapons, ammo is full, blades unlocked. We are ready until we hear something, or lack of something rather. It is silent, except for the usual noises of the city. We each go to an edge and look over and see empty alleyways and empty sidewalks, sidewalks that are usually full this time of the morning.

“This isn’t good” Zach observes

“No, really” Andrew retorts just as the roof begins to vibrate and sway. Then a deafening boom stuns us for a moment until our training kicks in, our inner instincts that tell us, RUN. All three of us take off for the nearest edge with the closest building. I am the first to jump and land, then Zach lands on the fire escape, then Andrew who has no other option but to go through a window. After some screaming from the room Andrew jumped through he appears on the fire escape next to Zach, we all look back at the building, or what’s left of it. The men who invaded my home thought they could trap us on the roof and so they imploded my apartment building.

The more I look and watch more pieces of my home crumble, the more my rage builds. Zach is the first to notice my disposition had changed and he walked over very slowly.

“De, this is no time for irrational behavior, think things through. Okay?”

My gaze slowly trailed to him, and I put my hood on and turn and walk away. Andrew followed me then Zach; we went to the ruins and began to search for anything that could be salvaged. I found my favorite sword an English broad sword that I had gotten when I was a student at a fencing academy here in Portland. I strapped it to my back under my pack, we searched for a while longer but we couldn’t find anything of value.

“Andrew, was Emily at the store?”

“Yes I had her go there to meet Kaylee.”

“Good, where were they going to go after that?”

“Shopping of course.” Andrew laughs

“Guys, we need to move on, they could come back to check.” Zach pipes in

            We all agreed and started to walk across the street just as a fire truck whipped around the corner and men scrambled out. We continued to the store, a safe house of sorts that a local merchant named Joe agreed to let us use in the back of his store after we saved his business from a hoard of thugs. We walked through the door and he waved us through, it was evident that something happened and he knew enough not to ask questions. There in the back was a table that was often used for after-hours poker games, or in this case battle strategy. We all sat and said nothing at first, but then I broke the silence.

“You both need to go home and make sure your security is intact and beefed up, they could know where you both live too.”

“Who are these guys?” Andrew asks deeply concerned

“I don’t know. But I will find out.”

 

Andrew and Zach both leave after our meeting concludes and after three or four hours the girls return.

“De! Thank God you’re okay!”

“Yeah babe I’m fine.” I reply after wrapping her in my arms. “Our apartment is gone though. They demoed the whole thing.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“No, no one was in the building.” I say with a hollow sense of relief.

I stay and help Joe close up shop while Kaylee goes into the back to gather her things then we head over to Andrew’s house. The next day we continue with our routines, Andrew and I go to work to see what we need to do to find out who attacked me.

“We should start with the usual guys to gather information. Zach head to the pearl district. Andrew go across the river and meet your contacts in Vancouver. We part ways and I head to a club called Bohemia where and old friend of mine is the top DJ, he also knows a lot of people. In the club he goes by C4NNIB4L but I know him by Matt Schmitty. I open the door, its quiet but I hear some music coming from a large room in the center of the complex. My approach is slow, careful, and silent; and I sneak up behind him and tap his shoulder, He jumps and knocks over some speakers.

“Dude! Why do you do that to me all the time!”

I laugh as he stumbles around, “you make it too easy bro.”

I help him up and we go to his “office” where no one can hear us.

“So what’s up bro?”

“I was attacked in my home. No one knows where I live; I made sure of that when I bought the damn thing. Have you heard anything?”

“Oh man that takes some balls, how’d they do it?”

I laugh again, “that’s the interesting part; they did it with the Portland Police Department.”

Matt’s eyes grew as he thinks through the implications.

“uhm, well; there were these two guys, a couple of regulars that like to talk to me. They started talking about a huge pay off. I think they were Detectives.”

“Okay thanks, you rock.” I say as I turn to leave.

 

            Zach calls me up and gives me an update, “Ya, those guys you wanted me to look up? They are PPD Detectives, William Jep, and Flynn Markov. I checked them both and they both have frequent encounters with I.A.”

I hang up the phone knowing where to go next. Lucky for me they are easy enough for me to tail, so I follow Jep back to his place, a little house in Milwaukie. I park down the block so I don’t cause suspicion; the lights are still off in the house so I circle around the back and peak through a window and I see the TV on and a chair in front of the bright screen. I’ve seen too many cheesy action movies to approach the chair first without checking the surrounding room first, so I go to the door and try the nob, “unlocked awesome.” I whisper with unease in my gut.

 

            I step through the door and stick close to the wall, I watch the chair for a few minutes but I don’t see any movement. I stay still and listen, concentrating trying to hear anything but I don’t hear anything except the television and my own heartbeat. I decide now is a good time to make my move. I slowly and silently walk to the chair and look over the back; there is no one sitting in it. Just then I see Jep’s car back out of the drive way and drive off slowly down the road. “How did I miss him?!” I say to myself out loud. I start for the door when I stop and look back out the window and see several patrol cars pull up and see officers with weapons drawn. I walk into the kitchen and see that there are police in the yard already. “S**T.” I run up the stairs and into the master bedroom and I check the room for anything I can use against Jep, knowing that its protocol to clear the main floor then the basement then the top level, I have about three or four minutes before they are up here.

 

            There are case files lying on the bed: “me, Zach, Andrew, Matt aka Cannibal.” The names on the tabs are my team. I thumb through the pages and no police letter head. I stuff all of them into my pack and search the dresser knowing my window of escape is closing I have to rush. I find a pistol loaded hiding under a pair of shorts so I stuff it in my belt and make a break the window. I climb the roof and leap to the next laughing as I land and take off. “I love tight subdivisions like this.” I circle back to my car and leave for home.

“Hey Babe, I was getting worried!” Kaylee says as she runs up and hugs me. “Sorry, I had to take a little trip to Milwaukie.” I hug her back and we sit down and relax until we fall asleep on the couch. I was woken up by the sound of my phone ringing.

“Hello?”

“Hey we need to talk.”

“Zack? What’s up?”

“You need to get over here now.”

I wake Kaylee up and tell her Zach needs me and I kiss her softly and walk out the door, I get down the steps and there stands two men by my car, I put my hood up and turn down the sidewalk. In the reflections of the shop windows I see that they are following me. “Evade and lose them” this voice in my head tells me. My knives are secured in my pockets and at the next alley I turn down and run; the men follow after me and I call Kaylee and tell her to pack her things and that she needs to get out. I come to an intersection between some buildings and I stumbled upon a gang disputing territory. They all know what I am and they all hate me, I see their colors and of all the rotten luck they are CRIPS and Hillside 12^th street. Two gangs that are very dangerous and very powerful. Today of all days I am being chased by the MOB and I’m caught in the middle of a gang war. “Are you F*****G kidding me?!” I shout catching the attention of several of each side and they engage. I loose a couple knives and I stand ready, as they pull some guns out and open fire I duck and they take out my other pursuers and I launch two of my knives catching some shoulders locking them so they are immobile, then I pull the pistol from my belt that I retrieved from the house last night and I open fire, two to the chest and one to the head just like I was trained by my dad; and since this was an officers weapon it will put him in a bind where he will have to lay low for a while. With two of the gangsters holding their shoulders and two dead that left one more that was coming at me, the rest are seeming to scatter. I duck behind a dumpster as this last one opens up with an assault rifle. Not the best move I must confess but lucky for me this guy was untrained and a horrible aim. He gets closer and his gun jams and he grabs a bar that was sitting nearby, this will be easy; close combat with staves or swords is my specialty, I pull a short three foot sword out of the back of my sweatshirt and step forward. My opponent swings wildly, I take a step back, he swings down with the continued momentum, I set my guard high and as his bar makes contact with my sword I send it off to the side and spin around and sever his head from his shoulders. The shock of actually being in this fight paralyzes me until the sound of sirens break through.

 

I walk up to Zach’s door and he opens it up before I even knock. “Get in here” he pulls me in and sits me down. “They are casing my house, they know where I live!”

“Dude chill okay? I’ll take care of it just lay low.” Just then the door burst open and several armed men came in screaming at us to throw our weapons down. They were not police, so the only other organization they could be is the mob we were after to finally clean up the city. Zach raises his 9mm. Smith and Wesson to my ear level, I nod and he pulls the trigger hitting one of them in the chest. I drop to my knees and launch two knives at the others; they lodge themselves in their skulls and Eryn, Zach’s girlfriend jumps down out of the loft landing on top of the last intruder burying a pen in his eye socket up to the cap on the back. We grab the bodies and drag them to the back and throw them in the dumpster in the alley. None of them are the second mole in the police department.

 “Who was that Zach?” Eryn asks worried.

“This crusade that De here has started has peaked the interest of some dangerous men.”

I look down and around rubbing the back of my neck in frustration.

“Okay okay… I’ll deal with it don’t worry.” As I walk down the alley I think to myself, I need to find that mole.

 

Kaylee opens the door as I walk up and turns around, “Oh my GOD!” she takes a step back “you scared me!” she slaps my arm and keeps walking down the hallway.

“Hey where you going?”

“Shopping, we need some groceries.”

“Oh, may I join you?”

“Sure.” She smiles at me as she takes my arm and we walk down to the markets. As we are browsing the food I take Kaylee’s hand and ask her, “Hey baby? How would I catch a mole in the police department?”

She looks up at me confused a little, “what do you mean?”

I sigh and look around, then out of the corner of my eye I see something, then the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, a sure sign that something is up. “Kaylee stay here.”

“Okay? What’s going on babe?” but before she could ask I was already three rows over and out of earshot. I fell like someone is following me, so I put my hood up and walk briskly under the Burnside Bridge and to the back of the rest of the stalls and I wait, the person will show if I was really being followed. Just as I anticipated a man in slacks, wearing a badge on his belt was shadowing me. By now they have to know that I am better than that. But the realization was too late. I was already in the trap. A sharp pain shoots up my back and I lose control of my body, it locks up and I fall to the ground. Just before I black out I look up to see the man walk towards me and I the last felling I have is the feeling of cold handcuffs being slapped around my wrists.

 

“Hey hey, Wake up!” I am woke up with a slap to my face and out of reflex I jump back and try to defend myself but my arms are restrained and the air is dank and stagnant.

“Who are you?” I’m trying to get my eyes to focus but everything is so blurry.

“In this case we are your new best friends.” The voice was next to me, male sounds like mid to late thirties and authoritative.

“How so if I may ask?” I ask trying to buy time till I can see clearly.

“Well we know where Flynn Markov is and we have men on him as we speak.” My mind begins to question how they know that I was looking for Flynn and why they need me, and what they are going to do to me once they are through with me, “Why do you need me?”

“We need you because he is always four steps ahead; we need some unorthodox methods to capture evidence.”

“And what happens to me and my family once we are done?” I ask just as my eyes are back to normal. I look over at him and right in his eyes as cold and as hollow as I could muster.

“If you touch them, I know what you look like now; I will hunt you down and I will make you suffer like only the devil himself could. Is that clear OFFICER?” He looks back into my eyes unafraid almost and smiles as he says, “Special agent, actually; and no nothing will happen to them, but we need you. We can’t get close to this guy.” He undoes the cuffs and steps back. I feel the tension in the other room build as he drops them on the tin table; it looks like we are in an old house dealing with a lot of neglect, mold, dry-rot, and serious water damage up the foot of the walls. I stretch and walk around and peak out the window but I don’t recognize where we are.

“Okay I’m in, why are you investigating him special agent?” I emphasize the last part to be sarcastic.

“I’m with internal affairs, we are investigating him for ties to a Mob family here in Portland, I need to confirm this before I bring the FBI in on this.” Deep in thought I walk around.

“So you want me and my team to shadow him and report where he is going and people he talks to?”

“In essence yes, we also need information from those he does talk to; I want an air tight case against this guy.” I nod my agreement and I turn to him and look him in the eyes again. “I have some people to talk to now, am I free to go?”

“Yes you are; thank you for your cooperation.”

As I walk out the door I say over my shoulder, “If you want revenge dig two holes, if you want justice at any price dig one for each you drag into it.” I stop just outside the door and turn to him again. “Are you prepared for that? Oh and I want your word that you guys will leave me and my team alone after this, none of my guys get arrested. Got it?” and with that I walk down the stairs and to the side walk.

 

“Hey Matt!” I yell over the sound of his music in his apartment. He lives in down town Portland in a rundown apartment complex with three other people. He never answers his door so I have resorted to using the fire escape. “Matt!” I knock on the window and he looks over and unlocks it, “Dude, keep the music down, you’re going to get the cops called on you.. And that’s not a good thing. They are looking for you.”

“They are looking for me? Why are they looking for me? I didn’t do anything.”

“I know you didn’t, but they are looking for me and they know you and I talk. Just keep your head down alright?”

“Alright. Anything else or did you just come here to tell me that?”

“There is something else, I was just taken by the police to some safe house and I was more or less recruited to help them in exchange for them leaving you guys alone. I need intel on where Flynn is, anything coming up? I need a jump on him.” Matt looks around and points at me as he walks over to a pile of papers and begins going through them.

“Here we go, one of his boys was at the rave last night and I got him to talk a little.” He passes a napkin to me with writing on it. It leads to a house off of 33^rd Drive.

 

I arrive at the house and lay in wait for whoever is coming. The house is abandoned, locked door, no furniture, un-kept yard. It sure looks like no one has been here in months. As I walk around to the back of the house I hear car doors shut.

What? I didn’t even hear them pull up!

I dive into the bushes to stay out of sight, I peek out and see that no one was coming around the corner so I look through the window and see that there are four men standing in the room shouting at each other.

“This place isn’t safe! What if he knows where this place is?!”

“That’s impossible; no one knows where this place is. Not even the boss!”

“Well he found Will’s he will find this one too!”

Then one of the men storms out of the house and I hear a car door slam. “Well this will be easy” I say to myself. I find a low hanging branch that is close to the house and I climb onto the roof. I take one of my knives out and I throw it at the car windshield. As the blade sticks half way out of the glass I hear the man shriek and fall out of the car. I laugh and jump on the other side of the neighbor’s fence all four of them are now searching the property for me but they didn’t think to look in the neighbor’s yard.

 

They decide to split up and look from every side, smart for grunts. As one of them backs up to the fence I grab his wallet, I break the chain that connects it to his pants and I begin searching it. I take his driver’s license, his money, and I take a weird shape key that is in the bottom crease of his wallet. On the back of the key it has three numbers and a magnet.

“This is interesting.” I say quietly to myself. Then I throw the wallet over the fence into the bushes, causing another distraction so I can get into the house. I run up to the door and open it, I look around to make sure no one saw me. Once I was in the house I looked around, nothing. There was nothing in the house, no furniture, bare walls, and no phones. “What is this house used for?” I think to myself. I look around a bit more and find some loose floor boards.  I make a note of where they were at in the room and I continue my search. The bedrooms are a bare as the rest of the house, there are no doors that lead to a basement, and the attic is empty as well. “There really is no point to this house.” While in the attic I hear the front door close and I hear rustling below. I move some insulation around and take one of my knives and break a hole through the sheet rock and stucco. One man went into the kitchen and grabbed his coat and looked around the room one last time, then left. When the car was gone I climbed down carefully to make sure that none of them were left behind, after clearing the property I went back to the boards in the living room and they were already pealed up. “What was down there?” I reprimand myself for not taking them out when I had the chance and taking what was down there. I search the hole where the object was kept. There on the loose dirt was a little pill, I take it and slip it into a baggie and leave.

The rain is bad today; my coat is soaked all the way through. I wait outside the precinct in down town, next to the Fed’s car. As he walks out I can tell that this was a long day for him. “Wow, you look beat. I know a great place to get a drink.”

He throws his things in the trunk and gets in the car, “what place is that?” then he opens my door and we drive off.

We pull up to an apartment building and a concierge comes to park the car. The seasoned officer looks genuinely confused, with Lloyd center mall just next door it is a little loud and busy, but no bars in sight. “Hey, where are we going?”

“A friends, he is a bartender and he has the perfect stash of booze.”

“A friends? What is he one of your accomplices?” I shoot him a dangerous look and he stops mid step.

“He is a partner and a good asset to this city.” He holds his hands up dropping the subject and follows me into the elevator and up to the pent house.

 

“Pretty lavish for a bar tender isn’t it?” we walk up to the door as the door opens before we even get there.

“De, we agreed that there were no visitors here.” Zach points to the man following me.

“We need a secure place to talk and we could also use a drink.”

Zach points at him again and says, “Alright but he pays for his.” We both laugh and walk in, the officer is even more confused and a little hesitant walking in.

“Wow, this was not what I was expecting.” In the entry way were bookshelves, floor to ceiling bookshelves, all stuffed with books of all kinds, different ages, different genres, different subjects, as we make our way to the main living room the books continue around to one of the walls. “Like to read much?”

“It’s a collection.” He says shortly and pours the liquor. He tosses me a can of soda and slides the cup sown the little bar he has in the corner of his room.

“What is your name OFFICER?” he says half making fun. I snicker but then look over because I realize I have yet to learn his name as well.

He looks up from his drink, “well right to it then I suppose.” He sets his cup down and loosens his tie. “My name is John Cree. I’m a senior detective -or was until I took a job with the US Marshals.”

Zach almost drops his cup as the words came out of John’s mouth. I freeze knowing that if I move Zach would most likely throw something at me. “A Marshal… You brought a Marshal into my home.” I feel his eyes burning into my skull trying to make my head explode.

He grabs my collar and pulls my in. “We are Vigilante’s… Wanted criminals! What the hell were you thinking?!” He whispers in rough very exasperated fashion.

“No need for whispering, I already know what you guys do. Who you are. And I’m willing to wipe all of that away in exchange for this one last mission.”

“What is the mission?”

“We need Intel on who these guys are and who they have working for them.”

Zach looks around still obviously pissed off. “I can’t believe this. We ha-”

“We have been looking for this opportunity!” I cut him off in a half yell. “We need this! For our families, ourselves, we are in way over our heads on this one… we stepped on the wrong tails.”

John stares at me shocked at my grip on reality. Then I look to him, “how are we supposed to get close when they know what we look like?” John looks around trying to think of something useful to say.

“I honestly have no idea, I didn’t think you would even consider it.” Knowing he just tipped too much of his hand he closes his mouth.

“Then what was the plan if you thought we would say no?” Zach asks as he slowly moves around the wall to his rapier tucked into the corner. Zach has had in depth sword training through the years, something I have always been extremely jealous of.

“My plan was if you said no I would take you both into custody or kill you, I was authorized to neutralize you in any way I see fit. I thought that if I came here and offered to help you would comply and this with no cause to fight for you would cease and desist, or face imprisonment or death.”

Zach springs forward with the rapier at throat level, I catch the basket and force it down and to the side. With a loud thump the tip of it is plunged into his oak door. John steps back and looks at how close he came to death, then how calm we both were. At this point he grasps how dangerous we actually are.

For the last few hours now I’ve been sitting the library of Zach’s house and watched him pace nonstop. “You’re going to kill your rug if you keep doing that.” He glares in response.

“I told you that we needed to be careful, only do the petty crimes, like house break-ins… stolen cars…” he keeps going on and on for a few minutes. “Hey! Pay attention when I’m yelling at you!”

“I fucked up okay?! I got it!” I get up and walk to a wall of books and rest my head against them. The smell of old book’s must and dust fill my nostrils and calm my mind slightly. Zach I can feel still standing where he stopped and still fell his eyes burning into my back. “I need to fix this, but I need your help.”

“I know you need my help, that’s why we went in on this together.” Pinching the bridge of his nose he walks over to his scotch bar and pours himself a drink. “What do you need me to do?”

“Call a meeting, everyone… even our guys currently on assignment. Bring them all in. this could end us, they need to be informed.”

“Where are we all meeting?”

“Pittock Mansion.”

Zach looks up at me, “We haven’t used the mansion in a long time, and it fits.”