Geek Mafia (37 page)

"How 'bout that!" shouted Raff, whooping in delight. "I was right. I told you it would be gas, not a flash bomb!"

Filo regained his footing as he came to a stop next to Kurt, who'd stood motionless throughout the entire proceedings, watching everything unfold with a curious, intense look. Filo tore the gasmask from his head and said, "Yeah, yeah, you were right."

Paul and Chloe looked surprised and scared. When the gas bomb went off he'd grabbed her hand and he still hadn't let go. Together they took a step backwards towards the storage locker's dark opening.

Raff followed them forward, his hand digging into his coat pocket for something. "Ok kids, play time's over.

We've had the fireworks show. Now let's get down to business."

"Ok," said Chloe between clenched teeth. "What do you want?"

In one smooth motion Raff pulled his hand from his coat and whipped it up and then down. With a metallic snap the collapsible metal baton telescoped to its full length. He pointed it menacingly at Paul. "His fucking money!"

"No," said Paul, his voice much calmer than his heart. "Not gonna happen."

"Oh it's gonna happen," said Raff. Behind him Filo stepped forward, his tire iron en garde
and ready for
action. Kurt also came towards them, although his hands remained in his pockets. The shadowy figure to their
right remained where he was. "One way or another. You can take us there now, which is your best option. Or
you can wait for us to beat it out of you, which would suck for you. Or you can let us beat you to a fucking
pulp and we'll just find the locker and get in on our own. We're pretty experienced at that kind of thing, in
case you hadn't heard."

Paul held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Ok, Ok. You've made your point. I know what's best for
me."

Raff didn't stop moving towards him, but he did say, "Great, just let me tie you up and we'll go to the locker."

"No, no, you misunderstood. I've decided to go with option number three. Come and get me, Fuckwad!" Paul
shouted angrily.

He yanked on Chloe's arm and the two of them turned and ran into the dark storage locker, dodging behind a
stack of boxes and out of sight.

CHAPTER 34

177

CHAPTER 34

Peering out from inside the dark locker, Paul watched as Raff turned to Kurt. "Now do you believe me?" he asked. Kurt looked troubled by what he'd seen. Finally he nodded in agreement and pulled his hand out of his pocket. He held an extendable baton that was a twin to the one Raff wielded. He snapped it to its fighting length and joined Raff and Filo as they advanced towards the dark opening.

"Whatcha doing Chloe?" Raff called from a few feet outside the locker entrance. "I'm sure you figured out that that's a dead end."

There was no reply, except a shuffling of feet and boxes towards the storage locker's rear. Raff motioned with his head to his two companions and then glanced to his left at the shadow draped figure that he'd come with.

Then the three of them stepped into the darkness, weapons ready.

From inside the locker, two pairs of dark arms swung baseball bats out from the shadowy corners to either side of the doorway, arcing out from the darkness and slamming into the intruders. Filo took a blow straight to his forehead that knocked him back off his feet. Raff managed to twist away at the last moment, the bat glancing off his shoulder. Before he could react further two more black-clad figures exploded from the pile of boxes in front of him, wooden bats raised and ready for action.

"What the fuck!" shouted Raff, tumbling backwards out of the doorway and into the alleyway. Kurt turned and ran as well, the mystery attackers hot on his heels.

As the fight poured out into the slightly brighter exterior, Raff must have been surprised when he realized that none of the attackers were Chloe or Paul. One of the four was clearly a woman, but she was much stockier and a little taller than Chloe. All four bat wielding ambushers wore dark pants and dark sweatshirts in various shades of navy and black. All had dark bandannas around their faces that covered everything below the eyes and dark ski-caps that covered everything above them. They looked not so much like uniformed soldiers as a quartet of people who'd been told to dress alike for the occasion.

Raff had only a moment to take this in as the group charged forward. Kurt, who was always quick, was sprinting for the car. One pursuer stopped and set his feet before expertly throwing his bat at Kurt's retreating back. The spinning wooden shaft tangled up in Kurt's pumping legs, bringing him down hard on the asphalt.

The masked man raced forward and jumped on Kurt's back before he could get up.

The other three ignored Filo, who was out cold, and fanned out to surround Raff. He held his baton up in a defensive pose, trying to keep all three of them to his front. It was a losing proposition. The attackers knew each other well, and fought with frightening coordination. Once they had him flanked, some unseen and unheard signal passed between them. They all charged at once, bats swinging.

Raff jumped back and then dodged wildly to his left, moving inside his attacker's swing before the bat could connect. He dropped his own weapon and grabbed his attacker by the shoulders. He twisted hard with his hips, and the two of them went down to the ground in a heap. Raff landed on top, and his attacker hit the ground hard, his head snapping back and impacting the blacktop with an audible crunch.

Raff screamed in pain. One of the other bats had finally connected, hitting his left arm hard. He rolled off the man he'd thrown and onto his back, covering his face just in time to receive another bludgeoning blow on his forearm.

The two standing attackers loomed over him now, bats raised. Paul, emerging from his hiding place, gave Raff three, maybe four seconds before he was bloody pulp on the asphalt. Raff managed to deflect a second blow with his already damaged forearm. Now it was broken for sure. He cried out mindlessly in utter agony.

CHAPTER 34

178

Out of the darkness came three rapid roars; a gun being fired from nearby. One of the attackers crumpled to his knees. The other dove forward and out of the line of fire. She acted as if she'd encountered gunfire before and knew to get clear as fast as possible.

Raff seemed only dimly aware of the sudden change in his fortune as he writhed on the ground in pain. Then the shooter was at his side, helping Raff to his feet.

CHAPTER 35

179

CHAPTER 35

Paul and Chloe peered out from the storage locker as the fight unfolded before them. A malicious grin covered Paul's face as he watched Raff and his thugs yelp in horror as Winston's heavies ambushed them.

After they received Raff's summons over IRC, they'd needed to act fast. It had been Paul's idea to call in Winston. He knew they needed help. In fact, they needed muscle, and Paul figured that since Winston was a former Weatherman, he must know how to swing a bat. Chloe had resisted, arguing that he'd never help and that besides it wasn't that easy to contact him and furthermore, they could handle this themselves. Paul knew the truth though - she didn't want to appear weak in front of her mentor. She didn't want him to know she'd lost control of her crew.

Eventually logic prevailed over pride, and she'd made the call. They had to assume Raff had the safe house phone covered, along with their cell phones, so they waited for their next-door neighbor in the mountains leave. Chloe broke into his house and used his phone to contact Winston. As Paul had suspected, Winston was eager to help his favorite apprentice.

She and Winston had worked out the basics of a very simple plan - Winston already had a storage locker they could use where he and his crew could set up the booby trapped bag and the ambush. The key would be taped to door, out of sight, all Paul had to do was palm it when he entered the code and then pretend to take it out of his pocket. Chloe and Paul would lead Raff and whomever he was working with into the trap. Then, voila, they'd ambush him and take care of the whole problem.

And so far everything seemed to be working out just as planned. They watched as Filo fell to the first swing and Winston and his crew rushed out of the locker and ran Raff and Kurt down.

Chloe and Paul, who'd run to the back of the locker in order to lure Raff inside, then made their way back to the doorway. Chloe's stun gun was in her hand and Paul had grabbed a baseball bat of his own that Winston had left for him. They reached the outside just as Winston and a woman named Lily were standing above Raff and pounding away at him with their bats.

Then, from their right a figure came running forward. It was the man in the shadows, and he had an automatic pistol in his hand. He started firing, releasing three very loud blasts into the night air. Chloe and Paul both ducked for cover inside the locker. There was a pause and then more shots followed by shouting.

"Everybody back off!" the gunman shouted. "Back off or someone else gets a bullet in the head!"

Paul peeked out from behind an overturned box to see the man help Raff to his feet. Two of the batmen were on the ground and one of them was bleeding badly. He heard a car starting up and assumed this was Kurt, making his own escape. "Hold it right there!" the man with the gun shouted. "We're coming with you."

Raff and his guardian angel shambled out of Paul's line of sight. A few seconds later he heard car doors opening and closing and then the Cadillac kicked into gear and peeled out, headed for the front gate.

"Winston!" Chloe shouted from Paul's side. She ran out into the alleyway towards the bleeding figure. The gunman had shot Winston. Paul ran after her.

Winston's Crewmembers were already at his side, pressing their hands against the wounds. He gurgled nonsense, but at least he was still breathing. They pulled the bandanna from around his head and saw a nasty wound along the side of his neck. The bullet had missed anything vital, but even the grazing shot had torn out a large chunk of flesh. Another bullet had passed through his left bicep. The third shot was still inside him, just below his left shoulder blade. There was a chance it had penetrated his lung.

CHAPTER 35

180

"We need to get him to a hospital!" cried Chloe, lifting Winston's head carefully off the pavement and cradling it in her hands. He breathed hard, in terrible pain.

"We're on it," said Lily, pulling down her own bandanna and reaching for her two-way. "Help," she said into the handheld, her voice serious but calm. "Now! Now! Now!" From five rows over they heard an engine turn over and start.

Paul stood over the bloody tableau, dumbfounded. How had it gotten this bad? How had someone gotten shot? He replayed the last minute over and over again in his brain, all the while transfixed by the horror of Winston's blood seeping out onto the ground. The image of the stranger with the gun kept sticking in his head.

The lighting was poor, the situation insane, but something about him was familiar. He wasn't a crewmember, but...

A white, beat up Suburban hurtled around the corner and came to a screeching halt. It was more of Winston's crew, a man and a woman that Paul recognized from the drum circle on the beach. They leaped out of the truck and came running towards their fallen leader, the woman with a first aid kit clutched in her hands. They shoved Lilly and Chloe aside and started tending to their patient.

Chloe stood up and retreated from the scene. "You need to get him to a doctor." She said. "No bullshit."

The woman with the first aid kit was using scissors to cut away Winston's clothing and expose his wounds. "I am a doctor," she snapped.

Lilly, who seemed to be in charge now that Winston was down, took Chloe by the arm and patiently walked her and Paul back towards the truck. "Kelly knows what she's doing," she said. Her presence and composure had a soothing effect on Paul. She seemed so certain of everything she said. "He'll make the call now. If we can treat him we will. If we have to we'll take him to the ER."

"But..."Chloe started to say.

"We've got to discuss something else though," Lilly continued without letting Chloe interrupt her. "What are you two going to do?"

"What do you mean?" asked Paul.

"We'll take you with us if you want." Lilly rubbed Chloe's shoulder with affection. "I know you and Win are close and he told us to help you guys out. So if you want, you can come with us." Chloe didn't reply.

"Come with you where?" asked Paul.

"Into the wind. I've got to pull us out of this thing now - making sure Win's ok is all I care about. We can't help you get your money back right now. Maybe in a couple of weeks we can regroup."

"In a couple of weeks Raff and the money will be long gone," Chloe said. "He knows where it is now and if we don't get it fast, he'll get it himself, no problem."

"I'm telling you I can't help you on this Chloe," Lilly insisted. "I'm sorry but..."

"No, I know, it's Ok. You've done more..." she looked back at where Kelly was working on Winston's wounds. "Sacrificed more than I could have asked. But I can't let Raff get the payoff. Especially not after this."

CHAPTER 35

181

"We don't have to do this, Chloe. It's just money," said Paul.

She turned on him. "It's not just money Paul. It's your future. It's maybe the only future you have." She paused and then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a fierce embrace. "I'm so sorry, Paul, but I don't know what will happen if we don't have that cash to work with."

"I don't understand," he said. "Isn't it enough we're alive after all that just happened?"

"Have you already forgotten? Why we're here? The cops are after you. Your credit is ruined. You're a wanted man. And maybe, with the whole crew behind us, those would've all been surmountable obstacles. But Raff's poisoned them against us. Kurt's presence here proves that. Without them helping me, I can't save you this time. We have to run and that takes money."

Paul thought about this. He was scared. Scared that she was right and worried about what that meant he had to do next. With everything coming apart around him, she was his only source of stability and support left. To see her scared and starting to come undone made it even worse. He thought about the times she'd already saved his ass; in the boardroom with his partners, in the restaurant with Frank, on the highway with that PI...