The Kasparov Agenda (Omega Ops Legion Book 1) (23 page)

“They hit her, and now she’s sleeping.” Tears welled up in the little girl’s eyes.

“Who did?”

The girl looked around the bank and then pointed at one of Tony’s surly-looking grunts.

“Hey, grunt!” Scorcher yelled. Half of Tony’s men turned to look at him. Scorcher pointed at the man the little girl had identified. “Yeah, you, grunt! Come over here!” He strutted over.

“Yeah?”

Scorcher swatted him with a powerful backhand across the face. He flew back several feet and landed on the floor, unconscious. “There. Now he’s sleeping too.”

“What did you do that for!?” Tony demanded.

“ ‘Cause he’s an idiot.” Scorcher looked down at the little girl. She still looked sad. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Molly.”

Scorcher looked at the clock on the bank wall. “Well, Molly, hold on to your mother tight and stay out of sight.” He stood up and stretched his arms. “I anticipate things are gonna get real scary in a bit...”

***

It was two minutes to the hour given for Bruce’s arrival. Tony paced back and forth, becoming increasingly more erratic. Every other second, his eyes darted to the clock. His hands were balled tightly into fists.

Scorcher snickered. “What happened to the cool and collected Tony that was beginning to rear his head? Reverting back to the snivelling worm you usually are?”

“He’s not coming,” Tony muttered aloud to himself. “They’re planning something out there to screw us.” Molly’s mother had recently regained consciousness. Molly sat on her mother’s leg and watched Tony race from one spot to the next. “They got us trapped and surrounded...”

“The good guys always win,” Molly taunted. “You’re gonna get busted!”

Tony’s eyes bulged. “THAT’S IT! Trapped or not, I don’t have to stand here listening to this kid!” Tony stormed towards Molly, drawing the gun from his suit jacket.

“No, please!” Molly’s mother begged, while she shielded her daughter in her arms.

Scorcher stood up. “Don’t you do it, Calzone!” he ordered. But Tony was temporarily deaf with rage. The vindication in Tony’s eyes grew as he stared at Molly. He raised his gun…

Without warning, the upper-level window shattered. Brilliant spirals of fire danced around the raining glass. Out from the flames, a figure shot towards Tony and smashed a fist into his cheek. Calzone sailed backwards and crashed into a bank pillar, where he collapsed.
He was knocked out cold
.

Bruce Kasparov rose to his feet to stand as a barrier between the hostages and Scorcher and his men. They had their guns trained on Bruce, apparently waiting for Scorcher’s signal to open fire. Scorcher had his open hand in the air, halting the onslaught. Scorcher smiled. “Impeccable timing as always, Mr. Kasparov. Your natural flare for theatrics are only second to myself.” Scorcher looked back at Tony’s limp form against the pillar. “If you hadn’t taken out that buffoon, I would have. Such rash, impulsive people these mobsters are.”

Bruce quickly scanned the bank and took in his surroundings. He was in the thick of it all. For the most part, all the hostages in his sight appeared to be shaken up, but unharmed. Bruce turned his attention to Scorcher. “Well, you have me... Now let these people go.”

Scorcher chuckled. “Of course, of course. But I feel it’s only right to inform you that there were a few troublesome captives...so we restrained them and left them in the bank vault. You should probably go check on them—‘cause we sure as hell haven’t been doing it.” Bruce’s eyes flickered as he stared down Scorcher, who continued to smirk at him. Bruce made his way to the bank vault as Tony’s men followed Bruce with the barrels of their guns. Scorcher scoffed. “Oh please, lower your guns, you goons. You’re only embarrassing yourselves.”

Mark Solly watched Bruce, then whispered to his brother: “I don’t recall any troublemakers they detained in the bank vault...”

Bruce pulled open the vault door and stepped inside. There were no hostages. There was only one lone figure inside. He was kneeling on the ground, his back facing Bruce. He appeared to be meditating. His deep-blue suit jacket was on the granite floor, neatly folded beside him. His white dress shirt was rolled up past his elbows and rippled against his bulging muscles. Hachiuma stood up and turned to face Bruce. He raised his hand towards Bruce and flames began to lick at his body. Energy particles surged around his hand and the glow consumed his entire forearm. His expression was gaunt...
dark
. His lip curled in a sneer. “Kasparov...”

Bruce’s eyes grew wide as a massive ball of energy shot towards him.

***

There was no room to dodge—not with innocents behind him.
Grit your teeth and bite the bullet.
Bruce planted his feet, and energy began to surge through Bruce’s hand. His left arm formed a karate knife-hand that crossed over his opposite thigh. The moment the energy ball was in range, Bruce’s arm shot upwards on the diagonal and deflected Hachiuma’s blast, sending it through the vault doorway and into the roof. “MOVE!” he roared, as roof rubble came crashing down. Everyone directly under the blast radius scrambled to avoid the falling debris. Bruce took a quick glance over his shoulder: everyone had cleared out safely.
Good.
Bruce’s eyes strayed downwards to his smoking hand. He shook off the wisps of smoke and grinned. “Man, that smarts. Not too—” The heavy thudding of footsteps caused Bruce to look up—just quickly enough to see Hachiuma’s fist smash into his face.
 

“Christ Almighty, what was that?!” Morring yelled. He had just witnessed Hachiuma’s energy blast tearing through the bank roof.

“It’s okay, Bruce has it under control,” Santos reassured. Varick and Santos had joined the police stationed outside the bank.

“Under control? The goddamn roof of the bank just ripped open! It doesn’t look like he has control of anything!” Carter challenged.

“Trust me, it must have been a deflected projectile,” Santos stated. “When the explosions are ripping down the walls where hostages are in the line of fire, that’ll be the time to worry.”

Carter wasn’t buying it. Not for a second. “We’re out of time, we need to move in now!” Carter shouted.

Santos appealed to Morring: “We go in now and those hostages will be put in more danger than they’re in now. We
need
to stick to the original plan. Wait until Bruce clears the windows so we aren’t going in blind. That will be the time for your men to move in, not before.”

“And if he gets killed before he gets the chance?” Morring asked.

“He’ll do it. Bruce will do it.”

Morring gritted his teeth. “No offense, Santos, but I place more stock in the judgement of cops.”

Carter smiled triumphantly. “I’ll bring those hostages out alive, sir.”

“You’re not going in just yet, Carter,” Morring interjected. He turned to Varick. “Former GSG-9, this is one of your fields of expertise, yes? What’s your take?”

“Unbelievable,” Carter muttered under his breath.

Varick narrowed his eyes. Instead of facing Captain Morring, he stared long and hard at Santos. He then turned his back to them and looked at the covered windows of the bank. “Wait.”

Bruce’s head was ringing from the blow he received from Hachiuma. He slowly got to his feet
after being knocked on his back.
Just got caught off guard,
Bruce told himself.
If this guy wants to get right down to business, so be it.
From the corner of his eye he could see Hachiuma on the attack again. Another big swing, but this time Bruce was ready. He caught the punch with his left
and buried a heavy
right cross into Hachiuma’s body. Hachiuma slid back several feet. He clutched his chest and looked  livid.
Bruce and Hachiuma stared each other down. Then, without restraint, they both charged down the warpath.
The fight had begun
. Vicious flurries of punches were exchanged. For every blow thrown, a deflection or dodge was ready. The hostages, Scorcher and his men, the Thai mercenaries—all stood as an audience for the battle that was raging inside the bank vault.
 

“We should try to get a weapon off one of these bastards,” Lucas muttered.

“No, not yet. This ain’t a sufficient enough diversion. And keep in mind that the police are right outside. We’re going to escape without bloodshed—without firing off weapons. We’re going to be real upstanding citizens.”

Lucas scoffed. “Right...”

Mark smiled grimly. “You’ll know when.”

At first, it appeared that Hachiuma and Bruce were evenly matched. But as Bruce picked up the pace, Hachiuma was finding it
increasingly difficult to keep up. A palm strike grazed across Bruce’s cheek as he turned away from it and countered.
Crack.
Bruce landed a hit, clean into Hachiuma’s jaw. He staggered. Hachiuma aimed his hand at Bruce’s abdomen and sparks of energy ignited at his fingertips. Reacting immediately, Bruce caught Hachiuma’s arm and directed it down to the floor as he fired off another energy bomb. The granite floor trembled and cracked.

With Hachiuma’s arm locked, it was Bruce’s chance for another counter—a spinning back elbow to Hachiuma’s face. He was down. Hachiuma held his mouth to feel his own blood running down his fingers. But he wasn’t out yet.
Not even close
.

As Scorcher watched Hachiuma and Bruce’s fight progress, he grew increasingly more agitated. Once Hachiuma fell to one knee, that was the last straw. He’d had enough of sidelining. With Bruce’s back to the vault door, it was the perfect time to intervene. Without warning, Scorcher charged into the vault and tackled Bruce to the ground. He stood up while holding Bruce in a clinch and attempted to crush him in a savage bear hug. “You didn’t think this would be a fair fight, did you!?” Scorcher bellowed in Bruce’s ear. Hachiuma sprang to his feet as well and delivered uppercut after uppercut into Bruce’s lower torso. As he struggled to free himself from Scorcher’s grip, Bruce gritted his teeth to endure the pain from Hachiuma’s onslaught.

Scorcher held on tight and let out a rumbling laugh. “This fella’s not much on talk, as you can see, so I’ll introduce him for you. Hachiuma’s his name, and he flew in all the way from Thailand just to meet you. Don’t you feel honored?” Bruce squirmed futilely against Scorcher as Hachiuma continued to throw vicious strikes into his body. “I’m curious, Kasparov, you probably have a better perspective on this than I do: how’s his right hook?” Scorcher laughed again. Bruce yelled out in frustration. In a few moments, he would sustain far too much damage to do much of anything. He had to act quick. As Hachiuma threw his next punch, Bruce met it with a kick; the heel of his foot smashed against Hachiuma’s knuckles. Stopping the punch in that instant, he mustered all of his strength and pushed out against Scorcher’s hold. Bruce yelled out as he exerted his force. Scorcher strained against the overwhelming power, but he could not keep Bruce restrained. Bruce’s arms shot out and broke his grasp.

“Not in the gut, not in the gut!” Scorcher begged, as Bruce combined a punch with an energy shot and blasted Scorcher in the stomach. He was lifted off his feet and smashed through a bank window. The covering ripped off, and Scorcher landed outside the bank and immediately retched on the concrete. He looked up to find the police staring at him, bewildered. “Oh damn.” Just as suddenly, another window covering was removed. Inside the bank, Bruce was working quickly. He had managed to evade Hachiuma’s reprisal and run to the windows. Hachiuma chased after him, but he was too late. The final covering was removed: Bruce had restored sight to the police.

“Do it now, GO!” Morring ordered. SWAT teams moved towards the windows and began to target hostiles. The main police force smashed open the bank entrance doors with a battering ram, ready to lend support. Firefights erupted across the entrance side of the bank, with hailstorms of gunfire being exchanged.

Carter was out in front, leading the charge. “Get those hostages out of there, that’s priority! Move, move, MOVE!”

On the roof opposite the bank, Arthur Finch was in position. He was staying in New York for a few months, and Bruce had managed to get in touch with him on short notice to lend his expertise. His sniper rifle was mounted and ready to go. One. Two. Another. Arthur was targeting and neutralizing bank hostiles as quickly as possible. “Stay away from the windows, fools!” Hachiuma bellowed when he saw several men drop from sniper fire. Tony’s men were reinforcing their positions as the police began to force their way into the bank through the main entrance.

Lucas and Mark didn’t need to communicate to each other what they had to do. They lashed out in unison, slugging at the gunmen holding them prisoner. “Attack them! Get to the doors!” Lucas yelled to the other hostages. Most didn’t bother to fight; they stayed low to the ground and ran to the police. Police provided the covering fire that was required for hostages to escape safely.

Hachiuma had no time for the small fries. He eyed Bruce, who was back inside the vault to avoid the gunfire. Bruce stared back at Hachiuma and waved him forward. Hachiuma bared his teeth and broke into a charge. Hachiuma engaged him with such a ferocity that Bruce was momentarily overwhelmed by the initial exchange of blows. This was not the same person Bruce had fought with a few moments ago. This was a man driven to win at all costs.

Tony Calzone had regained consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes and touched the back of his head. His hair was damp with blood from when his head hit the bank pillar. He spotted his pistol on the floor and picked it up. Gunfire was discharging all around him, but he was not totally in his senses to be fearful of it. He stood up and slowly walked towards a sofa. He sat down behind it, out of harms way. He felt dizzy. And then he spotted the brat and her mother, hiding behind a large potted plant. They were still inside the bank...unable to move...paralyzed by fear. “Bitch…” He tried to keep his hand steady while he pointed his gun…