Edge of Chaos (7 page)

Two hours earlier…

Luke’s father,
Gunnar, and Mack, his Sergeant at Arms are sitting in their pickup, going over
the details of the plan.

“So how’s this
going to work?” Mack asks.

“We’re tipping off
the Harbingers that some of our guys have gone rogue and are going to make a
run at their lab. That'll cause two things to happen. First, they’ll beef up
security at the lab, and second, they’ll get their entire product out of there
and to a safe house. They’ll just have a skeleton crew moving the drugs since
they’ll have so many people guarding the lab and waiting to ambush the rogue
bikers.

Gunnar points to a
road on a map he has spread out on the seat between them.

“We’ll ambush them
here and take their product.”

“Okay…but what
about the raid on the lab? Who’s going there?” Mack asks.

A dark look passes
over Gunnar’s face. “Luke and Carter will be the only ones there,” he says
grimly.

Mack swallows and
nods. “What happens to them?”

“Don’t tell me
you’re getting soft, Mack. Luke and Carter are well-armed. Luke and Carter are
both Army Rangers. If anybody can make it out of there, it’s them.”

“But you don’t
want them to make it out, do you?” Mack asks.

“What happened the
day I got out of Folsom? Luke and his…buddies made an attempt on my life, but
it didn’t work. I’m pretty sure that time I got shanked in the joint was a hit
ordered by Luke. If I don’t get him first, he’ll get me. That’s just the way it
is, Mack.”

“Your boy may be
good, but he ain’t
that
good. No one’s gonna make it out of there
alive.”

Gunnar smiles
wickedly, his eyes gleaming in the faint moonlight.

This will be a
good day
, he thinks to
himself,
a very good day indeed
.

Ninety minutes
later, another pickup truck drives up, loaded with Kings. Luke and Carter are
following them on their bikes. Gunnar gathers them around for last minute instructions.
After everything's ironed out, they move off. Thirty minutes later, they reach
the rendezvous point. Luke and Carter are the only ones who move further
towards their target, the lab by the quarry.

Gunnar looks around
at his guys. He has eight in all. These guys are loyal only to him; not to Luke.
It has to be that way, otherwise they would balk. Gunnar gives them last minute
instructions and then makes a call to a Harbinger in the lab, setting the plan in
motion.

“All right, Kings,
it’s all set. ” Gunnar says. “At this very moment, the Harbingers are
scrambling, loading up their product. In about twenty minutes, they’re going to
come barrelling down this road on the way to their safe house and this is where
we take them out.”

He takes a deep
breath and is about to continue when he hears a large bike approaching. A few
minutes later, London, one of Luke’s faithful, pulls up on his motorcycle.

“Hey Kings,” he
calls out.

“I think we got
all the guys we need,” says Gunnar.

“I was bored and
Luke suggested I come along, so here I am.”

Gunnar is fuming.
This is the kind of thing that can fuck up a perfect plan. There’s no way they
can go through with this if London sticks around. He tries once more.

“London, I
appreciate your willingness to help out here, but this is a very delicate
operation and we’ve been practicing long and hard to get it right. Having
another person will just throw everything off.”

“Oh, it’s okay,”
London insists. “Luke filled me in earlier. I’m totally ready to help out.”

Gunnar motions him
over to where he is standing. As the other man approaches, Gunnar slowly eases
his 9mm out of the back of his waistband. When London is about two feet away,
Gunnar pulls out his weapon.

Seeing something
strange in the other man’s eyes, London reaches for his own weapon. He just
about levels it at Gunnar when he takes a bullet in the right eye. He’s dead
before he hits the ground.

Gunnar looks
around at his stunned Kings. It’s never a good idea to be running around shooting
members of your own club. It makes people wonder if you have any real loyalty
and if they’re next.

“That rat's only
loyalty lies in Luke, not in the club. ” Gunnar glances at his watch. “Alright,
everybody lights out and take your positions. In about ten minutes, the
Harbingers will be here. Someone get this mess cleaned up.”

Two Kings stretch
spike strips across the road. They’d stolen them from a police car several
months ago and never had any reason to use them until now. Gunnar is anxious to
see just how well they actually work.

Ten minutes later,
the Harbingers come barrelling through; first, two guys on their bikes side by
side, followed closely by two trucks and then four more bikes. The spikes work
beautifully. The bikes, doing about 60, hit the spikes and instantly they go
down spilling their riders. The trucks see it happening, but it doesn’t
register that it’s something in the road way until they hit the strips as well.
Gunnar and his men appear out of nowhere, blocking the two trucks with flat
tires from running. They open fire with rifles and small arms. The guys on the
motorcycles that are able to avoid the strips try to turn around and leave, but
the other truck full of Kings prevents their retreat.

Eight Harbingers
enter the kill zone and a scant four minutes later, it’s all over. Not a single
King dies or is even hit. The lead truck in the ambush takes so many hits it’s
impossible to drive. Quickly, the Kings move the drugs from the Harbingers’
trucks to their remaining truck. It takes five more minutes to get everything
loaded and then in a cloud of cordite and dust, the Kings take off with the
score of the year.

Things have gone
from very bad to a whole lot worse for Luke and Carter. The Harbingers are
crazy enough to pursue them. Judging by the lights, it seems to Luke there are
about half a dozen Harbingers climbing down into the quarry. Luke’s biggest
fear is that the bottom will be filled with water. The last thing he wants is
to fall into a deep pool with sheer rock sides all around. They’d both drown
before it got light enough for their pursuers to shoot at them.

Luke takes a deep
breath in an effort to calm down. He cannot remember ever being this scared,
not even in Afghanistan. During a fight, things happen so fast there’s no time
to be afraid. Being pinned down in a rocky pit with no light and being pursued
by guys with guns and lights is a hell of a way to go out of this world,
especially after all the shit he's seen.

Luke glances over
at his friend. They have been through a lot together. Being here with Carter
reminds him of Afghanistan when he and his buddies were pinned down by a large
group of Al Qaeda insurgents in Kandahar. The insurgents had played cat and
mouse with them for almost eight hours before he and his buddies were able to
escape and meet back up with their platoon.

Luke turns to
Carter, motions him to follow and the two men start picking their way deeper
down into the rock quarry. Every once in a while, the Harbingers just start
shooting in an effort to engage them but the two men know better than to play
that game. The minute they return fire, the Harbingers will get a line on them
and it’ll be over.

Luke and Carter
spend the next terrifying 90 minutes getting cut, bruised, and shot at. The
biggest enemy is their own minds. It is one thing to be in a quick fire fight
when you have no time to think, but quite another to be stalked and hunted for
several hours.

Luke crawls out from
his hiding place after the Harbingers finish another of their shooting sprees.
The moment he straightens, a large figure suddenly steps out of nowhere and
opens fire. Amazingly, not a single bullet finds its target, but Luke is
completely blinded by the bright muzzle flashes. As he stumbles back away from
the gunman, reaching for his own gun, he falls on his ass. Luke finally gets
his gun free of his pants and fires off four quick rounds, striking his target
in the chest. The big man goes down in a heap. Now everyone knows where they
are. Suddenly, five Harbingers are lighting up the quarry with a surprising
amount of fire power.

No point in
sneaking around now
, Luke
realizes.
They know exactly where we
are
.

 He turns to his
friend and shouts, “Just run, Carter; just fucking run!”

Luke and Carter
take off in opposite directions, shooting back wildly. This is their last
desperate attempt to get out of the quarry and away from the Harbingers. Luke’s
heart is exploding in his chest, and he expects to feel the hot bite of lead
any second now. It seems like everywhere he turns, there are either muzzle
flashes or flashlights or both. He can’t shoot anymore for fear of hitting his
friend. Their only hope is for the Harbingers to run out of bullets or butcher
one another by mistake.

Either way it’s a
long shot.

The beam of one of
the Harbingers’ flashlights saves Luke from charging headlong into a huge
boulder more than once. At some point, he is completely surrounded, so he just
stands up, fires off two quick rounds and falls flat on his belly. Their
reaction is exactly what he hopes for. The tired, frustrated Harbingers open
fire, aiming at the last spot they’d seen his head. The resulting volley of
gunfire leaves three Harbingers dead and two more wounded; one so badly he
can’t even walk. Luke jumps up and sprints away blindly, not caring what he
might run into; it can’t be any worse than the hail of bullets that await him
if he's spotted again.

Moments later, Luke
sees a lone gunman open fire towards a target that he assumes must be Carter. The
return fire is fast and vicious. He just hopes his friend doesn’t pay with his
life for that daring maneuver. Luke collapses in the dirt once more, gasping
for breath and trying not to make a sound at the same time. Fortunately, his
pursuers are not trying to hide their approach. Were they to do that, they'd probably
be a whole lot more successful. Luke risks a brief glance at his watch. It’s
4:45 am. The sun will start to rise in about thirty minutes and if they're
still in the quarry, it’ll all be over for them. It’s time to start climbing
back up.

That proves to be
a lot more difficult than he thought. Normally, anyone climbing would look
around and pick the best route to make their ascent. Luke doesn’t have that
luxury and just has to hope that the route he picks isn’t too treacherous.
Hopefully, Carter is picking his own way back up as well.

After many
missteps and several slides back down, Luke finally makes some progress, but
it’s impossible to tell how much further he has to go. Luckily, his pursuers
seem to be concentrating on the other subject of their manhunt. He just hopes
Carter’s climbing and evading skills are up to the task. It’s still dark when
Luke finally crawls over the lip of the quarry. He lies there for a couple of minutes
until his breathing returns to normal. When he looks up again, the sky has
visibly become brighter. He can also see the tree line and that’s where he’s
going to go and with any luck, his bike will still be parked there; otherwise
it’s going be a long, dangerous walk home. If both he and Carter haven’t been
caught by the time it’s fully light, the place will be crawling with just about
every Harbinger there is.

Luke gets up,
takes a deep breath, lets it out and takes off running. After a couple of minutes,
he realizes it’s been a while since he last heard any gunfire. He hopes that
doesn’t mean they’ve already got Carter. Ten minutes later, Luke is deep into
the trees. He can now see about fifty feet in any direction and the territory
is beginning to look familiar. Even still, he almost misses his bike.

He jogs up to his
Harley as he fumbles around in his pockets for his keys. About to sit on his
bike, he notices the symbol for the Suicide Kings drawn on the layer of dust
and dew covering his seat. That could mean a lot of things to anyone else, but
to Luke it’s a clear sign from Carter that he’s okay and on his way back to the
club house. Luke jumps on his bike and is off with an ear-splitting roar.

An hour later, Luke
pulls into the club house parking lot. Carter’s bike is there and so are his
father’s and several others from his father’s most trusted circle. Luke feels
around for his cell phone, but then remembers it’s in the basket at the
gathering table. Whenever they go on a mission like the one last night,
everybody deposits their cell phones in the basket. Originally, it was just a
precaution to avoid blowing their cover during a raid if a phone suddenly went
off, but now they fear for traitors among their ranks.

Unable to call any
of his guys for back up, Luke pushes the door open and walks in, feeling like
he’s about to be ambushed. No one is in the bar, so he heads to the meeting
room. Unfortunately, he can’t tell what is going on due to the soundproof doors.
Entering, he finds his father sitting at the table with Mack, Carter and Brian.
They are having a heated conversation.  A visible look of relief crosses
Carter’s face when he sees Luke in the doorway. Luke walks over to Carter,
gives him a hug, and then addresses his father.

“What’s going on, pop?”
he asks.

“Just trying to
explain to your thick-headed friend here what happened last night.”

“So what
happened?”

“Well, after you
and Carter left, we waited according to plan and then took off to meet you guys
at the lab. The thing is someone gave them a heads-up and we were ambushed
before we even got near the club. That’s why we couldn’t give you guys backup
when the shit hit the fan for you two.”

Luke thinks about
it for a minute. “So you guys were ambushed then?”

“I said that,” his
father replies, glaring at his son as if daring him to continue.

“They ambushed you
because, of course, someone tipped them off, correct?” Luke asks.

“And I’ve just
said that twice now. Get to your point, Luke!”

“I just have a
problem with this whole ambush story,” Luke continues on. “I just don’t
understand why they would have bothered to ambush you when they were taking all
their drugs to the safe house. Now how stupid is that? Surely, they wouldn’t
want to jeopardize their product. They may be Harbingers but they’re not dumb.”

Now Luke’s father
is pissed. “Who the fuck says they had the drugs with them?” he asks.

“I’m assuming
that’s what’s under that tarp you got covering your truck bed.”

“It is,” Brian
confirms. “I peeked.”

“So what, the
drugs are there, so fucking what?” Luke’s father is getting dangerously angry.

“Well, that kinda
makes your whole ambush story one huge load of bull crap, doesn’t it?” Luke
replies.

He is well aware
that he is walking on dangerous ground, calling his father a liar right in
front of his men. But he doesn’t think his father will be brazen enough to try
anything in front of anybody.

“What the fuck is
your problem, Luke. If I say something happened, then it happened.”

“What happened to
my boy London?” Luke asks.

“London….London…,”
Gunnar says like he’s trying to recall who exactly London is.

“He’s the guy I
sent to check up on things,” Luke clarifies. “He was supposed to text me on
this burner phone.” Luke holds up a small cheap phone. “Problem is, he never
texted me so I know something is seriously wrong here. There was no ambush save
for the one that Carter and I walked into. Someone set us up, father!”

The word ‘father’
is like a cue to both sides of the table and suddenly people are leaping to
their feet, knocking chairs backwards. Guns are drawn, and faces become masks
of the rage brewing inside each individual. Luke is pointing his Heckler and
Koch 9mm at his father. His finger is on the trigger, safety off, and a round
is in the chamber. Likewise, his father is pointing his own Glock 17 at Luke.
Both Brian and Carter have their firearms drawn and pointing to the person
nearest them on the opposite side of the table.

“You tried to have
me killed!” Luke rages.

“And you tried to
kill me the day I got out of prison!” his father shouts back.

“Harbingers…it was
the fucking Harbingers,” Luke shouts back, not caring if his father believes
the lie or not.

“Yeah, you were
set up,” admits his father. “But it was a calculated risk. We knew there
wouldn’t be more Harbingers in that lab than you and Carter could handle. It
was a necessary risk to get a quarter of a million dollar load of crystal meth.
The ends justify the fucking means, Luke, so get over it!”

Luke comes closer
than ever to blowing his father’s head clean off his shoulders.
What
a
load of bull crap,
he thinks to himself.

But as bad as he
wants to blow Gunnar’s head off, he knows full well he’d be getting Carter and
Brian killed as well. The way the club has been divided lately, it would be the
end of the Suicide Kings if they were to lose their president, vice president,
and possibly their Sergeant at Arms. That’s the last thing Luke wants. He is willing
to die but not if that means the club will die as well. He has to find a way to
diffuse the situation before someone accidentally or purposely shoots another brother.

Luke takes a deep
breath. “Look, obviously we have some issues to work out here, but is this
really the way to do that?” He looks over at Mack, their Sergeant at Arms.
“Mack, you’ve been like an uncle to me. Some of my earliest memories are of you
teaching me how to ride my mini bike.” Luke looks across the table at a very
big, ugly-looking brother. “Big Joe, you took a bullet for me even before I was
a brother and I’d gladly take one for you.”

“You’ve always
been my brother, Luke,” Big Joe says, and he stuffs his weapon back in his
waist band. “This ain’t right, Kings. We talk it out, not shoot it out.”

Luke puts his
H&K away and so does Brian. Mack follows but Carter keeps his trained on
Gunnar, waiting for the president’s next move. Gunnar looks around him. The
mood has changed and there’s no way anyone present will back his play to murder
his own son; at least not today they won’t. Later, he’ll have a talk with Mack
and Big Joe. They should have never backed down, no matter what Luke says and
no matter what their history is with his son. That was weak and weakness has to
be punished; today's not the day.