Desperate Rendition - Chapter 13

Bonnie came back alive as they pulled off the freeway and into the maze of warehouses and factories that filled this small industrial area outside the city, craning her neck around looking from building to building.

“That’s it up there,” Taylor said, pointing down toward the end of the street.

They made it past another warehouse when Bonnie said, “Pull off here. Park around back.”

It was the smart play, Taylor thought as he pulled around the building. It would give them some room to operate, scope out how they were set up inside.

“Alright, let’s check it out,” Taylor said as they got out of the SUV.

“I’m not going in with you,” Bonnie said.

“What?”

Taylor tried to read people, to figure out when they would make this move or that, but he was frankly flabbergasted. Why would she come out all this way just to bail now? It seemed too far-fetched that this was some kind of plot, and she had maneuvered him into being out here.

“Don’t freak out,” Bonnie said, reading him instead. “I saw a skylight up on the roof and those pictures we saw on the listings page showed what looked like a catwalk. I’m going to go up and down through the skylight and provide overwatch.”

“No way. No way am I letting you off on your own while I go in there alone. Not happening. Not with my kid in there.”

“That’s why I’m going to do it. You want to just waltz in the front door? Unless these guys are complete amateurs, they’ll have men on those catwalks. We’ll be walking into a killbox.”

Taylor grimaced. She was right, and the fact that he didn’t see it just showed how much their grabbing Kara messed with him. He wasn’t thinking rationally, and it was going to get him killed. Worse, it would get Kara killed.

“Fine, but don’t even think about…”

“Double-crossing you, or you’ll come after me. Yeah, I get it,” Bonnie said, going around to the rear and pulling out the Remington, attaching a scope to it.

Taylor moved up toward the front of the building while Bonnie sprinted across the fence line toward the back of the warehouse. When Taylor looked back, he could have sworn she was giving him a look that he couldn’t decipher, before she disappeared into the shadows.

Taylor was nervous as he walked up to the front of the warehouse, preparing himself. He had been in a lot of intense situations, but he was walking into a trap and Kara was sitting in the middle of it.

As he got to the front, two men in light tactical gear emerged from the entrance. These guys were the opposite of the idiot PMC guys in Venezuela. Everything they wore was practical, not just a catalog of the latest gear from one of the wannabe suppliers. They didn’t bluster or puff up, they just eyed him while sweeping the rest of the parking lot. They were completely calm. Even.

Whoever Ellsworth hired, these guys knew what they were doing.

“Hold up, we need to check you,” the guy on the left said.

“Like hell you will. I’ve got the girl you want, but I wasn’t stupid enough to bring her with me. Once I knew my daughter is in there and safe, I’ll go get her, otherwise, the deal is off.”

Taylor matched their energy. Three professionals facing each other down. They looked at each other. He was way off the script, and they were trying to figure out what to do.

One of the guys tried to take a step toward Taylor, who said, “You touch me, and the deal’s off. You kill me, and the cops will find her body in a few days when she runs out of air.”

Taylor didn’t move. Didn’t front. He stayed calm, looking the guy hard in the eyes, to make sure he got the message. Again they exchanged glances, with the guy who tried to come forward stepping back again.

“Wait here,” the other one said, and walked several steps away, a hand going to his ear.

He kept in eyeshot of Taylor, smart enough to not leave his partner on his own, but also didn’t want to have that conversation in front of listening ears.

Even that might have been more than he wanted to share. Taylor watched as the guy muttered into a hidden radio, his expression growing increasingly frustrated. It was clear they hadn’t expected this turn of events. They had assumed Taylor would simply deliver Bonnie on a silver platter. Minutes ticked by while they argued, then waited, then argued some more. Finally, whoever was in charge must have given the word, because the guy made a face and put his hand down, walking back over to Taylor.

“Come on,” he grunted, gesturing for Taylor to follow.

They led him into the warehouse, their weapons now out, but not exactly trained on him. They were trying to walk that fine line between security and pushing things too far. The place reeked of industrial chemicals and metal. Enormous pipes and other metal parts were stacked in rows the whole length of the warehouse, which seemed to have been last used as storage for a machining company of some sort.

They crossed through the rows into a more open area at the center of the warehouse, where four men stood around a chair with a figure slumped in it, a hood obscuring their face.

The person in the chair was not Kara. That much was instantly obvious. The woman in the chair was physically just much larger than Kara was, both in height and bulk. They at least had the person wearing a t-shirt and jeans, which was plausible as something a teen girl would wear, but the combat boots the person was wearing were not. Kara almost always wore tennis shoes.

The best guess was they had one female member of their team, and they’d been in a rush to figure something out. Why they hadn’t predicted Taylor might show up without Bonnie in tow, and have a plan for that, was mind-boggling to him. It was one of the more obvious likely outcomes.

It also meant they were keeping Kara somewhere else, off premises.

One of the men, standing just behind the woman, spoke up. “Alright, you see her. Now, bring us the girl.”

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll go get her and be back.”

He was outnumbered and possibly alone if Bonnie screwed him. Now that he knew Kara wasn’t there, Taylor needed to get out and figure his next move.

Unfortunately, something of Taylor’s thoughts must have shown on his face because the guy suddenly pointed at him and said, “Grab him!”

Before anyone could move, there was a deafening crack from somewhere above them. Maybe because it was so unexpected or because no one was hit, everyone froze for a second, most of them looking up, trying to figure out where the shot came from.

Taylor knew where it came from, or was pretty sure he did. It was Bonnie. It was also his chance.

He drove his elbow into the gut of the man on his left, then smashed his forehead into the face of the one on the right while they were distracted. As they staggered back, Taylor bolted between the towering stacks of metal parts.

Their surprise was very brief, and gunfire erupted behind him, bullets pinging off the stacked metal. Taylor sprinted through the maze of industrial metal, keeping his head low.

“Cut him off!” someone yelled.

Taylor pulled his gun and moved around several more stacks, taking several turns to keep his path from being predictable and putting some room between them, to allow him to operate.

He caught movement to his left. Through a gap in some of the pip, he spotted two of the gunmen. It was a narrow shot, but he didn’t hesitate, pulling up his weapon and squeezing off a shot. It wasn’t a great shot, since he had a limited field of fire, but he hit one of them, striking him in the shoulder. The bullet staggered the guy, but remained on his feet.

Taylor ducked as a hail of return fire came back at him from the pair, bullets smashing off of the metal around him, forcing Taylor to duck and print off again, blind firing as he ran across an open section. He didn’t have a chance to hit anyone, but he wanted to force them to take cover and give him an opening to reposition.

It worked, to a degree, since the gunfire ceased momentarily as the men dove for safety. Taylor used the brief respite to reload, leaning against the pile of whatever parts and leaning around, trying to get an idea of where everyone was, when a flash of movement to his left caught his attention.

Turning, he saw a gunman coming around an opposite stack, his gun already up, aiming at him. Taylor started to turn, throwing himself to the side in hopes the guy would only wound him.

He didn’t need to.

Before he’d even started to move, a large caliber bullet smashed into his chest, taking the guy off his feet.

Bonnie was up there after all, Taylor thought as he scrambled to his feet and started moving again. He’d been lucky that time, and didn’t want to push his luck again. Instead of cutting across the main floor, like he’d tried to do a moment ago, he backtracked, to the back wall, trying to circle around to the other side of the warehouse.

Taylor edged along the back wall. Not running but steady, his head on a swivel. He had made it to the far end of the warehouse when he spotted movement to his right. Two figures, one supporting the other. The guy he shot in the shoulder earlier.

Without hesitation, Taylor leaned out and squeezed off two rapid shots. The first caught the wounded man high in the chest, above the vest, dropping him instantly. The second sent his friend down after him, gut shot below the vest.

Taylor kept moving. Rounding the corner to start coming up the other side of the warehouse, he nearly collided with another gunman. Both men reacted instinctively, their hands shooting out to grab each other’s gun arms.

They struggled. The guy was big and stocky, but Taylor had height on him, which Taylor used, trying to leverage the guy back, as they both tried to get their own gun pointed enough to pull the trigger.

The other guy tried first, his gun going off and the bullet whizzing past Taylor’s ear. The sound was deafening and Taylor could barely hear out of his left ear, his entire skull feeling like it was ringing.

He pressed harder as the recoil forced the guy’s gun hand back, moving the weapon further off line. The guy staggered back a step, trying to get control again, and Taylor used the moment, driving his knee up, aiming for the gunman’s groin.

The man twisted, partially avoiding the blow, but it threw him further off balance. Taylor seized the moment, slamming his forehead into the attacker’s nose. There was a satisfying crunch, and the man’s grip loosened slightly.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Taylor managed to wrench his gun arm down and inward. He didn’t have a clean shot, but at this range, it didn’t matter. Taylor squeezed the trigger.

The gun roared between them. The attacker’s eyes went wide as the bullet tore down, through his body. He stumbled backward, his own weapon clattering to the floor.

Taylor didn’t wait to see if the man would fall. He was already moving again.

It was a good thing he did, because the two shots had drawn fire. Taylor dove behind a large metal container, bullets thudding into it. Bonnie fired from above, and the bullets stopped, although from the sounds of running, it was more scattering them than hitting the shooters. Taylor could hear one running parallel to him and took off in the same direction, hoping to intercept him.

They reached the far end of the warehouse at the same time, but Taylor was ready this time, already turned and pointing his weapon as the gunman, or woman in this case, appeared, and turned to face him, as if she was planning on running down and around him.

She wasn’t wearing any armor, just the t-shirt and jeans that she’d been wearing when she’d pretended to be Kara in the chair. Her eyes went wide as Taylor pulled the trigger, putting two rounds in her chest.

If he had seen everyone, then they were almost all gone. Maybe one more person, which he really needed alive, so he could find out what happened with Kara. He hadn’t been able to think about that until now. Six shooters versus just himself was bad odds. He had to whittle those numbers down. With one, he could wing him and beat the answers out of him.

Taylor moved down the rows, looking, but wasn’t finding anyone. He was almost in the center again when some kind of movement woke him up. Taylor looked up and saw Bonnie sprinting along the catwalk. The bullets that started sparking off the railing as she ran told him what she was running from, and where the last gunman had gone.

Bonnie was running out of room and the guy was drawing a bead on her. Taylor cursed to himself. He needed her alive too. Taylor lifted his weapon and fired three quick shots. The man jerked and then toppled over the railing, hitting the concrete floor with a sickening thud.

Bonnie had a momentary expression, and then looked down, making eye contact with Taylor.

Back to ground zero. Again.