Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution (9 page)

“Do you really think you can get yourselves out of this?” Daniel asked the other, trying to keep him talking while he slowly maneuvered over to the section of the counter where he could step out onto the main floor of the store.

“We have hostages, they’ll listen to us,” the bandit countered.

“That
never
works!” Daniel exclaimed as he lifted up the open section of the counter and moved forward onto the main floor. The thief currently serving as his hostage moved with him. “Don’t you watch the news?”

“Alright, enough!” The lead bandit ordered, using his gun to gesture to Daniel’s feet. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

Daniel took a breath and brought himself to full pump.

“Honestly,” he replied, “I’m kind of making this up as I go.”

He then used all of his strength to hurl the half-limp robber in his hand at his counterpart. The wounded crook flew across the room and crashed into the leader, causing him to lose grip of his hostage.

While everyone was distracted by the man torpedoing through the air, Daniel aimed the shotgun at the man guarding the door and fired, peppering his arms and lower body and shattering the glass door behind him. The force of the blast caused him to stumble backward through the door and out onto the sidewalk.

Daniel then dropped the gun and charged at the leader, who was attempting to gather himself after being pummeled by his own man.

The leader fumbled to grip his firearm and turn it on Daniel but was too slow in doing so. Daniel spear-tackled the criminal, smashing his shoulder into the man’s chest and using the force of his legs and shoulders to hoist him up into the air.

Daniel and the robber smashed through the glass storefront window and out onto the sidewalk. Daniel pivoted and slammed the man back-first onto the concrete.

Daniel heard the lead thief gasping for air as he lifted his head up and saw nothing but the barrels of ten-plus pistols being aimed at his head by Chicago’s finest.

Chapter 5

As the police had Daniel pinned to the ground, cuffing his hands behind his back, all he could think about was Jordan, still locked in the bathroom, ready to put a bullet into anyone who tried to enter the bathroom that wasn’t Daniel. He prayed to God that she didn’t end up shooting a police officer.

Fortunately Jordan wasn’t very good at following directions, and as soon as she had heard the commotion in the store caused by Daniel and the head thief smashing through the front window she had come out of the bathroom to see what was going on. When she saw the gaggle of cops aiming their guns at Daniel’s head, she immediately dropped the pistol onto the floor.

Initially the police had thrown Daniel into the back of a cop car while they tended to the other victims and the three armed robbers. He spent nearly forty-five minutes peering out of the backseat window, watching as some of the officers and detectives asked the victims questions about the attempted robbery while the paramedics made sure that everyone was unharmed. Other uniformed officers were manning the caution tape at the perimeter of the crime scene, trying to keep the media at bay.

After speaking to every customer and store employee, it seemed that the police were satisfied that Daniel was in fact not a part of the robbery attempt, and guided him out of the patrol car and over to a nearby ambulance to have his injuries tended to.

Daniel had only minor cuts on his hands and face from the glass. The paramedics dabbed each one with a cotton ball saturated with disinfectant, and bandaged or butterflied those that were more severe. It appeared that he would need no stitches.

All three of the men who had tried to rob the jewelry store had been taken to the hospital. The first for a broken nose and a severe concussion, the second for having sustained shotgun wounds from the waist down, while the leader suffered from a punctured lung.

A plain-clothed officer asked Daniel questions as the paramedics cleaned his cuts. “So you managed to take down three armed assailants all on your own? And you were unarmed?”

“Yes, well…I
was
unarmed, until I took the shotgun from the first guy,” Daniel clarified.

“Right,” the officer responded, looking down at his notepad.

“So,” he continued, “according to witnesses, you hurled a full-grown man twenty feet across the room at another one of the attackers?”

Daniel chuckled. It sounded ridiculous out loud. It was the first time he had revealed his unique level of strength to anyone outside of the Elite complex.

“I think it was more like fifteen, but I’ve never been a very good judge of distance,” Daniel quipped.

“It’s part of my training,” he decided to elaborate. “I’m a personal security agent.”

“Right,” the officer said again. “We found your ID card in your wallet. Your boss is on his way.”

Daniel suddenly felt his face go flush after hearing that Richfield was on his way to the crime scene. He dreaded to think what the boss might say about him leaving his client to stop a robbery.

After the detective had everything he needed from Daniel, he led him from the ambulance back over to one of the patrol cars, only this time he let Daniel stand outside and lean against it rather than trapping him in the back seat.

“Wait here,” the plain-clothed officer told him as he walked over to join a congregation of other officers a few dozen yards away.

Daniel took a deep breath as he glanced around the crime scene. There were victims in blankets being led away by loved ones in every direction. It seemed the atmosphere had transformed into one of calm and relief. A potentially deadly situation had been successfully diffused and none of the innocent had been harmed. Daniel couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride with his heroics.

That only lasted until he looked to his left and noticed Richfield talking with Gordon Demérs. Demérs had both arms wrapped firmly around Jordan who was now wrapped in a grey wool blanket. She did not speak, just pressed the side of her head into Demérs’ chest and kept her eyes pointed down. Both Richfield and Demérs appeared animated as they continued their discussion.

Daniel sighed and dropped his chin to his chest. Seeing the three of them brought him to the realization of the danger he had put Jordan in by leaving her alone in the bathroom. Had he failed to take out all three bad guys, it was likely they would have searched every room and found Jordan locked in the bathroom, and if they had…

He shook his head to try and rid himself of the grim possibility. What was important was that he had taken out all three men and had managed to keep not only Jordan but every person in that store safe while doing it.

Daniel looked up in time to see Richfield walking in his direction. Jordan and Demérs were nowhere to be seen.

Daniel tried to remain calm as his ex-CIA boss strode toward him. Whatever the consequences of his actions, he would accept them without regret.

“Hello hero boy,” Richfield remarked as he neared Daniel.

He had meant to remain absolutely quiet, but before he knew it Daniel was blurting out an explanation.

“I know I screwed up,” he began, “I had every intention of staying with her but she kept
insisting
that I do something. I know that shouldn’t matter but she broke me down. And I kept her in a safe place and gave her my gun.”

Daniel started to go on but his brain finally caught up to his mouth and ordered it to shut up.

“If it were up to me I’d suspend you,” Richfield stated firmly. “But unfortunately Gordon Demérs doesn’t see it that way.”

Daniel’s eyes widened. That must have been the basis of the conversation he had witnessed between Richfield and Demérs. It also explained why Jordan hadn’t felt the need to speak—Demérs had been speaking for her.

“You’re just lucky you pulled it off,” Richfield continued. “People love heroes. Had your actions resulted in his fiancé being killed he might feel differently, but instead she came away without a scratch and neither of them knows any better.”

Richfield took another deep breath, as if almost regretful that Daniel had been successful in saving everyone.

“He’s impressed,” Richfield concluded. “He is demanding that you continue to be assigned to him from now on, including remaining on this particular assignment.”

Daniel did his absolute best to maintain a serious expression and not show any joy in Demérs’ approval of his actions. He knew Richfield would not be happy about having to go against his will and obey the wishes of an ordinary citizen, but Demérs was a high-profile client that Richfield couldn’t afford to lose.

“Let’s get outta here,” Richfield commented, taking a look around at the rest of the crime scene. “There’s a coffee shop a couple blocks over.”

Richfield grabbed Daniel by the shoulder and guided him around the patrol car.

“Sam-may!” Richfield yelled to his left. A tall black man in a Chicago P.D. jacket lifted his head away from a conversation with a uniformed officer and eventually found Richfield waving at him.

“I’m taking my guy!” Richfield yelled to the man.

Sammy made an impartial face and waved his left arm forward as if to say “get outta here.”

“Here,” Richfield said to Daniel, handing him a large Zip-Lock bag.

Daniel took the bag. Inside were Daniel’s wallet, phone, and gun. He took his things out of the bag and stored them in their proper places on his person.

Richfield and Daniel both ordered a medium black coffee and took a seat in the back of the coffee shop. Daniel placed his lips on the plastic lid and slowly took a sip of his coffee as not to burn his tongue. He swallowed and felt the warm beverage sooth his throat.

Richfield spoke for the first time since leaving the crime scene. “You’ll be remaining the top ranked agent at the complex.”

Daniel paused. After hearing that Demérs wanted to keep him on he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he could still fall from the top ranking.

Richfield continued with his reasoning.

“Demérs is a guy that knows a lot of people—Important people. If I assign someone else to those people they’re going to be demanding to know why they aren’t getting the same guy as Gordon Demérs—that guy who stopped the jewelry store robbery.”

Daniel nodded, not sure how to feel at this point. A part of him felt as though he should be ashamed for breaking the cardinal rule of personal security, but he couldn’t shake the sense of pride he felt from saving lives.

Taking the situation into his own hands at the jewelry store could have potentially been a career-ending move, but now it seemed to have turned into a career-making one. He couldn’t wait to get back to the complex and talk about it over a beer with Charlie and Shifty.

Richfield took a long sip of his coffee and set it back down on the small, round table between them. He looked up from his cup and back at Daniel.

“Did you really chuck a guy across the room?”

A
id you really chuck a guy across the room?"set it back down on the small, round table between them. He looked up from his cup a
fter finishing their coffee, Richfield walked with Daniel back to Demérs’ building, where a black town car was waiting to pick him up. They said their goodbyes and without so much as a handshake Richfield got into his car and Daniel climbed the steps to the front doors of the apartment building.

When the elevator doors slid open at the top floor of the building, Daniel was greeted by Salvador standing at the other end of the hallway with his hand inside his jacket, ready to draw his firearm at the first sign of trouble. When he realized it was only Daniel, he pulled his hand back out of his jacket and took a seat in the cushioned wooden chair beside the door.

“I don’t think any jewelry store thieves will be coming after her,” Daniel remarked.

“Sorry,” Salvador said out of formality. “Everyone is feeling a little skittish around here after this afternoon.”

Salvador pulled out his phone and jumped back into a game of Candy Crush as Daniel made his way to the door of the penthouse.

“Understandable,” Daniel responded, feeling as though he himself should have been a little more shaken up after the robbery attempt.

To him, the robbery was something that had just happened, and stopping it had been a risky move that went far beyond his own safety. Now that it was all over and he had come away victorious, he had already managed to put it behind him.

He walked into the apartment to find Demérs and Jordan in sweats, snuggled up on the couch watching TV. They both turned to see who was disturbing their peaceful environment.

“Well if it isn’t the man of the hour,” Demérs said softly.

Jordan sat upright when she saw Daniel come in.

“Daniel,” she spoke as if she had just woken up from a nap, “are you okay?” She threw her now ragged brown hair to one side as she asked the question.

“I’m fine,” Daniel replied, remembering the cuts on his face. His bottom lip and the area just above his right cheekbone felt a bit swollen. He would need to lie down and heal himself as Horchoff had shown him.

Jordan started to get up but Daniel stopped her.