Whiskey Black Book Set: The Complete Tyrant Series (Box Set 1) (80 page)

Nathan, Denny, Troy, and the others stood up to take off running in a frantic sprint up the road in the opposite direction of the mob. They found themselves having to cut through an alleyway to break the line of sight. Nathan and Denny were ahead of the pack by several feet. They kept looking back over their shoulders as they ran to yell back at them, “Let’s go. We gotta keep it together.” The gap kept growing.

Nathan saw another empty alleyway that turned left from his position. He called to Denny, “This way,” grabbing Denny’s coat sleeve to pull him into the alley and in the same direction he was headed, but up ahead, there was a second mob running through the alley in their direction. They came to a dead stop and turned to run in the opposite direction and into another intersection of buildings. Troy and his men had been cut off by yet another mob. They had no choice but to take another route separate from that of Nathan and Denny.

Seeing they were now alone and trapped, unable to go down any further alleyways, the two best friends climbed up an old dumpster and grabbed onto an emergency stairwell. Both men climbed onto the stairs and began their ascent.

Both Nathan and Denny had their rifles, but there were too many people giving them chase. Thirty accurate head shots wouldn’t have deterred them. Once they reached the top of the building, they felt that they had a momentary advantage. From their position, they could control who was allowed to climb the ladder and who would die trying. It didn’t keep the mob from attempting to reach them. They grabbed onto the ladder and began their ascent. Nathan looked over the edge of the building and pointed his rifle down the ladder. His target was easily chosen; it was the man at the top of the ladder, closest to him. With his left eye closed, he acquired sight alignment and sight picture on the man. One slow steady squeeze of the trigger and the man’s head split open in the rear and his body went limp, falling backwards into the crowd below. The remaining men on the ladder immediately jumped off. Some were lucky landings, and others were not so lucky.

“What now, boss? This is the hairiest situation we’ve ever been in.”

“I don’t know, man. This is a predicament, no doubt,” Nathan answered, turning around and resting his back against the two-foot-tall brick parapet. His rifle was snug against his body and his senses were attuned to the happenings below. Denny maintained a crouching position with his frame pressed snugly against the wall. His rifle was also pulled snugly against his body.

Nathan rolled the back of his head against the brick wall as it rotated to face Denny. “Maybe this is the end for us, eh? It’s been a good run.”

Denny sighed.

“Not exactly the response I was expecting to hear.”

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, and a strange sense of contentment fell upon Nathan’s face. Denny saw it when he returned from looking over the edge to see if anything new was happening down below.

“I hope that’s a plan you came up with just now,” Denny said, hoping to get some reassurance from Nathan.

“Hey, Den, do you remember when Ash and Todd got into a fistfight over the last bowl of Cheerios?”

Denny could see that Nathan was starting to check out. “Yeah, I remember. Where you going with this?”

“Zig came in all nonchalant, not knowing what was going on, and ate the last bowl.”

“I remember, boss.”

“How about the time Heather and Katie were having a girls’ night out on the river and they both came back drenched in
stanky
river water because Katie lost her footing and grabbed Heather for support? That was funny. God, that river stinks.”

Denny and Nathan had always been one another’s moral compass when questionable events would turn up, but this was an all-time low for each of them. They had already lost so many friends and family. It was only a matter of time before their lives had run their course.

“It’s been a good run, boss; it’s been a good run.”

“Yeah, it has,” Nathan said with a soft voice.

“What now? You want to empty out these magazines into our friends down below? Maybe take out as many of them as we can?”

“Nah. Let’s wait until dark falls, and maybe we can make one last push.”

Denny was glad to hear that Nathan hadn’t completely forsaken all hope. “Sounds good. We might as well take turns watching these guys.”

“You go ahead and take your rest, Denny. I’ll take first watch. I’m not checking out yet.”

Denny moved from his crouched position to sit on the roof of the building and leaned against the parapet as Nathan had. Nathan was already in a position that overlooked the mob below. A sound came from the adjacent building, and both men looked in the direction from which it came. The sound was coming from a metallic hatch that was opening. Nathan and Denny stood up and ran towards the opposite wall to take cover against the parapet. They both watched as a lengthy wooden board about twelve inches wide began rising up out of the inside of that building. The board clumsily lifted out until it fell onto the roof. It was a solid twelve-foot-long piece of wood, long enough to span the gap between that building and the building Nathan and Denny were on.

“You go watch those idiots in the alley. I’ll cover you from here,” Nathan said.

Denny went back to his original position and took watch over the mob while Nathan aimed down the sights of his rifle in the direction of the adjacent building’s open hatch. He was expecting men to come flooding out of the opening at any time.

“Ammo check,” Nathan called out.

“Forty rounds, boss.”

“That’s eighty of these thugs we can take out before they figure we’re empty.”

“They’re thinning out over here, boss.”

“They’re probably going to even the groups and come at us on both sides. Just keep watch and let me know when they start climbing. Odds are good they’ll start climbing here at the same time.”

It wasn’t long after Nathan had said that that the men began their ascent on the ladder.

“Incoming!” Denny yelled, then pulled the trigger and blasted the first man in the face.

Nathan was looking down his sights, but nothing yet. A second shot was heard from Denny’s rifle, and a third, then a fourth. Finally the first man popped his head up out of the roof, and Nathan pulled the trigger. He was aiming at the chest because it was a wider fatal target. It scored the shot and the man dropped down, but another man came up after that, and he squeezed off a second round—another score. Denny was on his sixth or seventh shot when a smoke grenade was tossed up onto the roof. It landed a few feet from Nathan. He left his covered position to grab it and then threw it downwind. Meanwhile, three or four men had successfully come up out of the hatch and grabbed the board. Nathan shot at the man with the board, but only managed to hit the wood. The bullet splintered as it penetrated but lacked the stopping power to put the man down.

“Need a little help over here, Den.”

Denny was on his tenth kill when he heard Nathan’s call for help. When he looked over, the man with the board dropped it into position to make a bridge between the two buildings. Denny shot him while Nathan grabbed the board and hoisted it over the edge, where it fell to the street. In the process, five more men had come up out of the hatch and were sitting ducks for Nathan. He began shooting at them while Denny turned to see a man close enough to grab him. He habitually went for his Karambit blade, but remembered too late it was taken by the Fist when they were captured. The man at the top of the ladder grabbed Denny by the coat. Denny fell backwards with the man on top of him. The second man on the ladder reached the roof and ran around to assist his associate by knocking Denny unconscious. Nathan was too busy shooting at the men across the way to realize Denny had been silenced. One of the men grabbed Denny’s rifle and walked right up behind Nathan while he was plugging away at the others and used the buttstock of the rifle to knock him out.

Denny awakened first. He was in a dimly lit room and Nathan was across from him. They were both restrained to chairs with their arms behind them and their legs wrapped to the chair legs.

“Boss,” Denny whispered in a loud enough voice to attract the attention of a guard, who was positioned just outside of their door.

The door opened; a skinny man with a rifle looked in. “Ah, good, you’re awake. I’ll get Markus,” he said just before closing the door.

The man had Denny’s attention while the door was open, but now it was closed, and Denny had to make a move. Deep in his gut he knew he was being kept alive for a purpose. He and Nathan had dropped over a dozen of their men, so keeping them alive meant bad news was ahead for both of them. They were sloppily restrained to the chairs. The legs were metal, but the seat and back was a solid piece of molded plastic. Denny simply stood up and shuffled himself to Nathan, where he flopped back down into a seated position next to him.

“Boss, wake up.”

Denny was nudging him with his head. He did so until Nathan was startled awake. Looking around the room, Nathan saw he and Denny were bound to chairs. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, boss. I just woke up, too. There was a man with a gun at the door a moment ago. He said he was going to get some guy named Markus.”

Nathan and Denny both began squirming around in their chairs, attempting to break loose from their bonds.

The door opened. Both Nathan and Denny stopped trying to get out and turned their attention to the tall black man standing in the doorway. He also had a rifle. He stepped into the room and looked at Denny. He didn’t say anything, but turned and looked at the spot where Denny was originally. He then turned to look back at Denny.

“That’s not where I left you,” the man said. “The two of you killed sixteen of my men and injured three.”

“Who are you?” Nathan asked.

“Typical,” Markus said. “There’s such a sense of entitlement these days. I’ve got the guns, the shelter, the food, and you’re asking me the questions?”

Nathan didn’t respond.

“My name is Markus. I don’t want to keep you bound up like this, but my men brought you here because you shot and killed several of them. I need to determine if you’re good guys or bad guys; that’s it. Simple question: Are you good guys or bad guys?”

“I suppose good and bad are relative to the man in charge,” Nathan answered.

Markus smiled. “This is true.”

Markus walked to the threshold of the doorway and reached around the corner, grabbing the guard’s chair to bring it into the room. He set it in front of Nathan and Denny. “Look, fellas. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m not into torture or anything like this. I need men—men like you. You took out sixteen of my men. Not just took them out, but bravely took them out, with skill. You have skillfulness that I need in this city. I’m offering you a place here in this community, but I need to know that you can adapt to our way of life. Can you adapt to not being in charge?” Markus asked, looking directly into Nathan’s eyes.

Nathan was not intimidated by Markus or the fact that he was once again tied to a chair. The last few months had been more than a callousing experience for him.

“What’s your name again?” Nathan asked him. The goal being sarcasm, but Markus didn’t pick up on it.

“Markus.”

“Markus, I was taught this simple phrase. It’s stuck with me my whole life:
Improvise, adapt, and overcome
,” he answered.

“I like it. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. Like,
improvise
with what you have,
adapt
to your new environment, but I’m getting caught up on the
overcome
part. What is it that you desire to overcome?”

Nathan thought about an appropriate response. This guy seemed clingy to his position, so he didn’t want him to know that his intentions were to undermine that.

“I have no desire to undermine you or anything you do here, if that’s your concern.”

“I have more armed men standing outside this door. If you try anything stupid, they’re authorized to stop you. Do you understand?”

Nathan looked at Denny and he agreed to the terms. “We understand.”

“Release them,” Markus said to one of the guards. “I’m glad you’re here, gentlemen. Maybe we can go for a walk and discuss job openings.”

Nathan realized that he really wasn’t in a position where he had any leverage. The best thing for him and Denny was to follow through on Markus’s course of action and make a move when they saw an opportunity—improvise, adapt, and overcome.

Markus stepped out into the hallway and motioned for Nathan and Denny to exit with him. There were now four armed guards with Markus. One was leading the escort, and three were walking behind them. Markus was the man in charge of the armed guards, but Nathan had more questions than answers.

“So I see you have an operation here that you want us to be a part of, but we still don’t know what you have here.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I told you my name, but you haven’t introduced yourselves yet.”

“I’m Nathan, and this is Denny.”

Nathan wanted to keep the conversation short to prolong it for windows of opportunity. By giving short answers, he knew Markus would ask more questions.

Markus continued with his line of questioning. “Where are you guys from?”

“We’re from southern Illinois.”

“Curious,” Markus said with a tinge of inquisitiveness.

“What’s that?”

“Well, you’re the second person to come through these parts in the last few days that claims to be from southern Illinois.”

Nathan’s curiosity was now drawn into Markus’s line of questioning, but he maintained his composure and remained silent, hoping to draw out more information from Markus.

“You wouldn’t happen to be headed to Goose Island?”

The question surprised Nathan, and his emotions gave him away. He looked at Denny then back at Markus. A telltale sign that Markus was onto something. Nathan collected himself and remained silent.

“You don’t have to answer that, of course,” Markus said. “Your response to the question told me plenty. Tell me, Nathan …” Markus came to a dead stop in the hallway and turned toward Nathan and Denny. “Do you know a Pastor Rory Price?”