BlueK Dynasty: The 1st Seven Days (8 page)

“
Me?
Find him? I don’t know where he could
be.”
  

“
I’m
going to tell you like this. Either you find him, or the police
will find him. It’s your choice.”
  

The line went silent for a
while.
  

The man replied,
“Damn.”
  

The line clicked
dead.
  

9.

The man with a
plan
  

VIN was fierce—Santino
could see that. When Santino jumped from the inside of the
elevator, so did VIN, no questions asked.
  

Santino heard the men’s
voices calling out in fear, but they were slow and drawn out.
Whatever he was… had multiplied eyesight, strength, hearing, and
speed. Santino felt like a superhero, although superheroes didn’t
have his kind of appetite.
  

The cops’ warnings had no
influence on him. Santino hit and smashed whatever came into sight.
Likewise, VIN seemed to be in a rage. He bared his teeth at the
officers, and ducked and dodged their bullets as he counteracted
with his own deadly assault.
  

Santino’s senses were
stretched to the max. He could see how he affected the cops. They
were scared, huddled in groups, acting erratic, and making careless
mistakes.  He felt their bullets hit his body: some scratched
his skin, others bounced off, but none penetrated him enough to
stop him. The cops weren’t slowing him or VIN down, and Santino saw
fear in their eyes before smashing their heads in. The smells of
sweat, piss, and blood hung in the air.
  

Santino heard one officer
to his side radio in for help, and quickly turned to snatch the
walkie-talkie from him. He ended up crushing the man’s hand and
radio at the same time.
  

He could see an emergency
exit down the corridor, and tried to signal for VIN and Kosner to
follow him there. The only problem was that Kosner was nowhere to
be found. While Santino and VIN were busy fighting for their lives
and holding off the police, it seemed as if Kosner, double the size
of his old self, was cooped up in the elevator, shivering of
fear.
  

VIN was taking care of two
police officers at once and couldn’t drag Kosner out. Santino would
have to do it, and the realization annoyed him. He was the youngest
of the three of them,
 
and he felt he should be the
one who was babied, not Kosner. However, this was not the time to
pick a fight; a fight was clearly already in
progress.
  

“
Kosner,
come out of there,” Santino said. In the three seconds it took to
scream this, a wounded police officer shot at him, and this only
infuriated Santino even more. He reached down and snapped the cop’s
neck, finishing him off. Then he ran back to the elevator, grabbed
Kosner by his torn shirt, and dragged him
out.
  

“
Let go
of me,” yelled Kosner. He squirmed and kicked away from Santino,
but could not get out of his grip.
  

After finishing up with
the last police officers, VIN showed up next to Santino and alerted
him of the footsteps he heard approaching from the floor
below.
  

“
Either
you stay here or you come with us,” Santino screamed at Kosner.
“This isn’t a game. This is real life. Those are real cops laying
here dead. Do you get that, man?”
  

Kosner lay sprawled on the
flood, dirty and confused.
  

VIN was the first to
react. He understood Santino completely, and knew it was either
kill or be killed. All the questions would have to wait for later.
He ran down the hallway and burst through the exit door. Santino
gave Kosner one last look and hoped the guy would get a brain and
some balls. Then he was right behind VIN as the door to the stairs
went flying off its hinges.
  

Kosner heard it too, and
it finally registered that he couldn’t just lay there and let the
cops haul him off. He hadn’t killed these men he saw as he lifted
his body from the ground and ran behind Santino, but it certainly
looked as if he’d been an accomplice.
  

Kosner could feel the
vibrations on the floor as the RAID team swarmed into the tiny
corridor. The exit doors were inches before him and open. He could
see the open sky and the tops of buildings as he fled into the
night. VIN was nowhere to be found, but he spotted Santino
way
 
up
ahead, dashing in between vents and pipes. Kosner could smell his
scent; it was kind of guiding him as a map would. He looked behind
him, and sure enough the RAID team had followed him through the
doors and was gaining on him.
  

Kosner felt his legs
double up with speed, so much that his body levitated. He could
leap several feet in the air. He ran faster after Santino, and soon
caught up to him.
  

The two of them ran from
roof to roof, slid here and there, and jumped from building to
building. Only one guy from the RAID team could keep up with
them.
  

“
We have
to jump a building that’s not connected on this block,” Kosner
yelled to Santino as the two ran on. “This guy isn’t getting the
hint.”
  

Santino nodded his head in
agreement and changed direction—and ran directly into VIN. Santino
almost knocked him from the top of the roof with the force of his
velocity; he couldn’t control his own strength.
  

“
Dude, I
can’t jump this length. How are we going to get across?” asked VIN
nervously. He was afraid of heights, though nothing
else.
  

“
You can
do it. Trust me,” said Santino. “It’s all in your mind. See the
building, measure it with your eyes, and tell your body the
distance you need to cover by going the speed you think will have
the most force to propel you forward.”
  

VIN looked
confused.
  

Kosner said, “This is
something I think I can do.” Without hesitation he backed away from
the ledge and ran full speed at the edge of the building. He zeroed
in on the other side and told his body to close the gap, which was
several feet of free fall. He hurled himself in the air and felt
his feet leave the ground. His legs and arms kept spinning; he had
to keep his body moving, or gravity would pull him straight down.
Kosner could see the roof of the other building
looming
 
large in front of him. He landed on it and skidded to a stop.
His legs burned from impact, and he felt his breath catch a bit,
but other than that he felt accomplished. Kosner had never been the
guy to do something first, let alone the guy who did something
first and
 
right
.
  

Santino saw Kosner
complete the jump without the slightest of problems. He really
liked VIN for the most part, but he couldn’t let the guy slow him
down.
  

“
Stop!”
yelled someone from behind.
  

Santino didn’t hesitate
for a second. He backed away and jumped the same way Kosner had,
using his momentum to add to his height so he could clear the gap
between the roofs.
  

Santino heard gunshots as
he flew through the air, but couldn’t worry about it. He made it
across the gap and landed several feet behind where Kosner had.
Santino turned, and was glad to see VIN coming across just as he
had, although not as smoothly.
  

VIN fell short and ended
up barely hanging on to the edge of the building. Kosner was the
first to respond. VIN was huge and heavy, and growled in fear as he
hung limply on the edge.
  

“
Give me
your hand,” screamed Kosner. “Let go with one hand, and I won’t let
you go, I promise.”
  

Santino reached over
Kosner and bent over the edge of the roof. He grabbed for VIN’s
clothes. In one smooth motion, Santino pulled VIN’s weight up and
over onto the roof.
  

Kosner looked at Santino
in amazement and envy at the same time. It seemed to Kosner that
Santino did everything right—he didn’t have to try hard at all. How
was it that some guys had it all so easy, as if they were
genetically predisposed to succeed?
  

VIN rose from the ground
shaken and embarrassed. He and Kosner hurried behind Santino to the
access door that led back into the building.
  

“
I’m
glad that’s over,” said Santino as he took the stairs down. “Good
thinking, Kosner. Jumping buildings should keep the police off our
tracks for a while.”
  

“
But
where are we going now?” asked Kosner. It was clear to him that
Santino was the leader, and that he possibly held the answer to why
he could run abnormally fast and jump outrageous
lengths.
  

“
We need
to find a place where it’s dark. Somewhere out of the way,
secluded,” VIN responded.
  

The three men walked in
unison under the night’s protection, taking as many back alleys as
possible. The nights in Alexandria were quite loud. The
restaurants, bars, and diners stayed open all night, and the
sidewalks and bus stations were crowded with people trying to get
to and from. Most minded their own business; Alexandria wasn’t a
friendly city. There was no brotherly love or random acts of
kindness to one’s neighbor.
  

Santino could think of
only one place that was open yet vacant enough to hide out in: the
gym he used when he was growing up. When Santino was very young,
his dad had introduced him to boxing. Santino had loved the sport
and loved his dad for putting him on to it. However, that was the
only thing his father ever did for him before going away to
prison.
  

Trinidad Gym closed late
and opened early for those who had hectic work schedules. Santino
still went from time to time to check up on his old coach and spar
with his friends from school. Ever since he had hooked up with
Kurma, though, he had sort of dropped everything for her; he’d
stopped practicing and seldom showed his face around the gym
anymore. Most of the guys his age there were into some crazy stuff,
and Kurma had always disapproved.
  

Santino knew the gym would
be the perfect cover for the guys. It would be quiet around that
time of night, with guys focusing on their workouts instead of
worrying about three goonies.
  

“
We can
go up to Trinidad’s on thirty-fifth
 
Ave. and lay low for a while,”
said Santino.
  

“
You
don’t think there’ll be people around? A gym is pretty bright. I
don’t want anybody seeing me like this,” said
Kosner.
  

“
Trust
me. The guys there mind their own business. We won’t be in the gym
anyway, but behind it where they keep their extra equipment and
stuff,” Santino said. “It’s time I had the talk with you
two.”
  

“
This
guy,” VIN said jokingly. “You sound like my
father.”
  

“
I am
your father in a way.”
  

VIN didn’t like that. He
was the kind of guy who was his own man. He had had a dad, and he
didn’t like him; besides, VIN was twice Santino’s age, and he
didn’t like being guided by a teenager who was still in high
school. “Don’t joke around with that,” he said.
  

Santino could feel a
slight tension, but it was what it was. Whether VIN wanted to admit
it or not, he came from Santino. Whatever was in Santino’s hands or
skin passed on to VIN, and spawned something very much like an
offspring.
  

“
Look,
I’m hungry and thirsty,” said Kosner. “I’m ready to stop moving. I
say we go up to the gym. Cut the macho stuff out,
alright?”
  

VIN looked at him as if he
were crazy, but didn’t egg him on. Kosner wasn’t a threat, just
puffed out a bit from jumping that building.
 
He wasn’t talking like this
back in that elevator
, thought
VIN.
  

“
We also
need new clothes and jackets, and bigger pants,” Santino said. “I
must have grown. My shirt is split, and my pants are too tight.
We’re going to stand out like this. We need to blend in
better.”
  

“
Good
thinking. It’s late, though. What clothes store will be open?”
Kosner asked.
  

“
Who
said we need it to be open? Goodwill is right down the street.” VIN
wasn’t into following the rules. With his size there weren’t many
who could challenge him. “We sneak in through the back undetected,
grab what we need, and be on our merry
way.”