VIII-Need An Exit

[Deleted]

London, England
1547 Hours Local Time

The deafening sound that could only come from the barrel of a gun woke Daniel from his ‘sleep’. More accurately, it woke him from his passed out state after he had gotten a size twelve boot slammed into his face. He looked around, saw a figure slumped against a wall. A bag was over their head, and blood soaked it before running down the wall and onto the floor. He opened his mouth, felt what he thought was drool before the taste hit him. Blood. Sounded about right.

Closing his eyes and sighing as he looked on at the person who had helped him get this far. Roger Kodic. Nice guy. Wife and three kids at home. The money Daniel had offered him for the information provided was too much to pass up, with one of his kids sick and in need of surgery. Daniel looked back in time to see a fist flying at him, and he clenched his jaw in anticipation of the punch. It slammed into his jaw, and his vision went blurry around the edges. He saw purple lights that looked like Cheetos in his peripherals, and he showed as much concern as someone would give to a ‘check engine’ light in their car.

It had been a simple enough job… Get into an office building, get a flash drive from a safe in the manager’s office. Roger had gotten Daniel the combination, and had set off a fire alarm to clear the building. But, the manager had come back when Daniel was in the office. He didn’t know why, but the fight had been on. Daniel had tried to get out, not teleporting so as to not give his ace in the hole away. His mistake. He’d gotten to the roof, and someone blindsided him from around the corner with a metal pipe. Everything went dark after that, and here he found himself.

”You shouldn’t have tried to steal from us.” The manager said, sporting a black eye from the round house that had dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Daniel turned his head to the side until his neck cracked, and took another breath. He spit the glob of blood out of his mouth, making sure to land it on the prick’s expensive shoe.

One more punch, and Daniel looked up with defiance in his eye.

”You shouldn’t have killed him. He was innocent.” Daniel said, his voice low. He wanted the son of a bitch to get real close…

”No, his children were innocent. When I’m done here, I’ll make sure to fix that.” He said, a lecherous smile on his face. Daniel narrowed his eyes.

”I’m going to enjoy this. You have thirty seconds to live. Thirty.” Laughter was heard, and Daniel kept his count going. His hands curled into fists, his knuckles white. The handcuffs dug into his flesh, and it didn’t bother him in the slightest. ”Twenty five.” He said. Nothing was happening. The boss got close one more time. He was smiling again. He wanted to get close enough to whisper.

”Can’t pick the cuffs? Or are your friends lat” The rest of the question was cut off when teeth met flesh. Tearing, bleeding, gurgled screams. The thugs yelled and moved in, but Daniel was already in motion. He disappeared from site, and so did the boss. They appeared a few moments later, the cuffs falling to the ground and the boss being throws at the first thug. The second threw a punch, which Daniel ducked under. He grabbed an arm at the wrist and the elbow. Pulling at one and pushing on the other, a sickening crunch started a scream that was stopped when Daniel clamped his hand on the man’s mouth. Grabbing a fistful of hair with the other hand, he turned the man’s head to the left to loosen it up. And with a quick jerk to the right, the man stopped trying to scream and fell to the ground. Another tried to attack with a chair. Daniel teleported out of the way, ending up behind the man with some momentum. He flew forward, feet out, and caught the fucker behind both knees. Twin cracks sounded, and he too fell to the ground, still screaming. One tried to stomp Daniel in the face, again he noticed by the boots, and Daniel caught his ankle. With a quick turn, it snapped.

Sitting up and taking a look around, he let out a breath and surveyed the carnage. He got to his feet, looked at the thug with the broken ankle, laying on his side and grabbing the broken appendage. With a snap kick to the side of his head, Daniel heard his neck break. The one with the broken knees was still on his stomach. Daniel anchored him to the spot with a foot to the top of his back, reached down, and broke his neck as well. Looking at the carnage, he saw the boss. Still alive, holding onto the wound.

”There’s no point. I nicked your jugular. Twelve. You shouldn’t have killed him. He just needed money that you wouldn’t pay. Nine. I can’t say I enjoy killing people for a living. But I could kill you every day of the week. Six. Why? Because it feels good… Four. Three. Two. One.” Daniel muttered. As he got to five in his head, he got down to his knees. He picked up the man’s head as he might cradle a child. He was ever so gentle. A hand reached up to the man’s chest. His heart was beating a mile a minute. There was a flash of black smoke, a sound of rushing air, and the sound of liquid piddling onto the floor. The human heart in Daniel’s hand seemed to beat one last time, the terrified sound from the boss a mix between a gasp and a gurgle before silence fell upon them.

”Didn’t think you’d have a heart, Grade A son of a bitch that you were. I have been known to be wrong in the past, though.” He said in a casual tone to the man. He wondered if the brain was still working enough for the boss to process what had happened as Daniel dropped the heart on the ground. He wondered if the boss could see with no small amount of terror as Daniel’s boot made its way on top of the heart. And when the squish of the organ sounded, he wondered if the boss could feel that finality of death washing over him. Daniel hoped so.

He walked over to Roger’s corpse and sighed once more. He silently apologized to the man, and promised to leave the money Daniel was going to pay him with his widow. With a bonus, of course. He looked at the window and tried to teleport, but stopped short. Just as he dissolved into a cloud of molecules, he felt sharp pains radiated through his chest and head. Seemed like that was out. The adrenaline had kept him going in the fight, but that was gone now. It didn't stick around as long as it used to. Not after a couple hundred adrenaline highs in his life. He stood and was about to walk out of the room, and into the lion’s den, when a phone started to ring.

[Gabriel Constant]

The trance was both vision and location. Some short time before, he had learned to combine the two, to an extent. The location had been easy, but as his target had been moving it had become necessary to place himself in the actual room. Not physically, of course; not yet. All he needed was to be able to see the room, the building at large, the target, and the exit. A clear field of vision. To see clearly was all.

There were bodies strewn about the room, being thrown this way and that before finally meeting their ends as his target snapped their necks. Daniel had been particularly brutal. Gabriel had watched it unfold in real time from a corner of the room; not the same room Daniel was in, of course, but a psychic projection of it. Gabriel's actual location was of little consequence at the moment. Daniel had successfully taken out the foes on this level, and the boss, but he still needed to get out of the building, and Gabriel was aware that the man's usual mode of quick travel was on the fritz for now.

The extent of his power had Gabriel's eyes clouding over such that his pupils were turning shades of grey to white. It would have been a worrisome sight had anyone been around to see it. Pulling himself out of the trance was difficult, almost painful in a way. Before him on a large sheet of paper was drawn a detailed layout of the building, and routes to take and the approximate positions of enemies. Looking over it, despite his clouded vision, he could see his drawing quite clearly. One hand reached for his cell phone, and he leaned back against the chair, resting as best he could for now. He would need to restore himself to normal in very short order.

"Right," he said simply when his friend answered the phone. His voice was unusually monotone, clearly his own, but somehow affected. "Don't talk, just listen to my instructions. Take a Right immediately out of the door. Three hallways down, take a left. Watch your three. There will be a guard there. Dispatch him and keep straight. I'll know when you reach the stairwell. You'll be safe there until you reach the ground floor."

[Deleted]

”Right,” a voice on the phone said. It took Daniel a moment to place the voice to a face. When he did, he let a small smile cross his face. He was about to say something, talk to his old friend and thank him for coming to his ‘rescue’. But Gabriel quickly cut him off.

"Don't talk, just listen to my instructions. Take a Right immediately out of the door. Three hallways down, take a left. Watch your three. There will be a guard there. Dispatch him and keep straight. I'll know when you reach the stairwell. You'll be safe there until you reach the ground floor." As soon as Gabriel got his first two words out, Daniel shut his mouth. They could catch up and bullshit when Daniel wasn’t in danger of being shot twice in the back of the skull if he was discovered to have escaped. Not to mention killing the mob boss who owned this frigging building.

As he listened, Daniel took a look around the room for something he could use as a weapon. He hadn’t brought anything with him, not here. They searched everyone as they entered the building, and Daniel was supposed to blend in until the alarm went off to clear the building. So as he looked through the selection of guns, he picked up a Sig as well as a pocket knife that looked like it could do some damage. He slipped the Sig into the back of his waistband and kept the knife in his hand. Folded, slightly hidden. He wanted to be as incognito as possible, for the moment.

He stood to go toward the door and stumbled for a moment, his vision doubling before he quickly focused up again. ‘Keep it together… Just a few minutes…’ He said to himself.

”This needs to be fast. I don’t have long before my concussion starts getting worse.” He said aloud, allowing the sound to filter down to the speaker. He took a deep breath and opened the door, looking out and seeing it clear. Just as promised. He hung a right and then ran down the three hallways. He spun the corner and came face to face with the guard. To his credit, the guard was throwing a haymaker as soon as he saw Daniel. But he still didn’t stand a chance when Daniel ducked under it and twisted. With his arm locked behind him, he couldn’t do much as Daniel flicked open the knife and stabbed him in the center of the back. Jerking the handle right, he felt the resistance clear as he sliced through the guard’s spinal cord. He went down quite easily, and Daniel continued straight down the path. He saw the door with the stairwell emblem and opened it up, snapping it closed and leaning against the door. He let out a heavy breath and then pitched forward to throw up on the stairs leading higher into the building.

A few ragged breaths later, and he got back to his feet and started going down the steps. Gabe had told him he’d be safe there until he reached the ground floor. That told him he’d be going down.

[Gabriel Constant]

Sitting back, Gabriel pulled himself out of the vision for a moment. It wore on him sometimes, especially when he needed to exert himself as much as he was. It was worth it, though. Daniel had become very much a friend to him. He hoped Alex would see that one day, despite the way they'd all met. But for now, what was important was that this man was a necessary part of Gabriel's life, not only because of Gabriel's plans, but mostly just because he plain liked having him around.

The stairwell would give Gabriel enough time to recuperate, then try one more vision before getting involved himself. He had a plan for that, of course. He heard Daniel mention a concussion and swore very softly under his breath. He would make it, though. Of that the precog was certain.

"Okay." Gabriel took a ragged breath. "Out of the stairwell you'll be in a hallway. There will be two enemies guarding a door, to your right. Don't worry about what's behind the door yet, just kill the guards." Unfortunately, the guards were guarding a handful of other mooks, who would hear the commotion and break up their card game to go out to the hall and see what was happening. By then, Daniel would have cleared the hallway and made it to the lobby, but the lobby would be swarming with people who needed bullet or knife wounds. With the mooks closing in from the hallway, Daniel would be beset on all sides. He wouldn't be surprised if Daniel thought it was all a setup.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, blue and blank. He was looking at a vision just a couple of minutes into the future. Luckily he knew this to be the exact future what would play out, due to the proximity of the time. He knew exactly where each gunman would come from, which weapons he would have, and where to aim on each of them. Good. "Now. Once those two guards are down, run like fucking hell. You'll be in the lobby. Lots of goons for the killing. Focus on your twelve and nine. It'll look like shit, but please do exactly what I said. Good luck."

Abruptly, he hung up the phone. Daniel didn't need the distraction, and Gabe couldn't very well make his next move while on the phone. He was banking on - as much as a talented precognitive ever "banked on" anything - the fact that Daniel's arrival in the lobby would distract the doormen enough that Gabriel could slip in and take them out as well as the men who would be trailing Daniel. If Daniel didn't freak out or think Gabe a traitor, and followed his instructions exactly, getting him out of the building would be a piece of cake. A blood-layered piece of cake, but one couldn't be choosy.

[Deleted]

486

The soft thumps as Daniel descended the stairwell were his only noise for the moment. Gabriel was silent on the other line, probably mapping things out in his head. Good thing about having Gabriel on his side. Everything always went according to plan. That was the only reason Daniel was listening. If it had been him, he’d have made a break for the roof again. He was still in fighting shape, for the most part. For now, anyway. He could have handled it. But Gabe leading him the opposite direction gave him some doubts about that. There was probably something waiting for him that way that he didn’t think of…

”Okay. Out of the stairwell you’ll be in a hallway. There will be two enemies guarding a door, to your right. Don’t worry about what’s behind the door yet, just kill the guards,” Gabriel told him through the phone. Daniel got to the door in question and took a breath.

”One second,” he said, putting the phone in his pocket. He’d need both hands. He opened the door and swung out to the right to see the two guards about ten feet down the hall. They both looked over at the door as it opened and both made their way over to deal with him. The first threw a punch that Daniel ducked under. In the same motion he broke the second guards knee with his foot. The first grabbed at his throat and spit out some blood after Daniel jammed two fingers into his throat. The second was stunned into silence by an elbow to his mouth. Daniel alternated blows in a quick and brutal fashion, and in the span of ten seconds both of them were on the ground. He didn’t have time to finish them off, because when he pulled the phone from his pocket he heard Gabriel’s next instruction.

”Now. Once those two guards are down, run like fucking hell,” the voice told him. Fuck…

Daniel didn’t ask which direction to run, because he only had one way to go. Mustering everything he had, he broke out into a sprint that led him to an open area down the hall.

You’ll be in the lobby. Lots of goons for the killing. Focus on your twelve and nine. It’ll look like shit, but please do exactly what I said. Good luck,” Gabe told him, and he heard the line go dead. This was gonna be interesting…

He slipped the phone back into his pocket as he ran and rounded the corner that lead into the lobby. Just like Gabriel had said. Lots of people… Lots of bad guys. He didn’t slow down, running right toward someone who was running at him. With a high jump, he met the man’s chest with his knees. As they landed, Daniel shoved the man’s head toward the floor and was rewarded with a sharp crack as flesh and bone met unforgiving marble. The man went limp and Daniel was up again. Gabe had been right. It did look like shit… But like he had been told, he was going to trust the man that had never lied to him or fucked him over in the past. And so, when given the choice between going after the man on his left or at his right, both of whom were charging right at him, he leapt into the air with a spin and kicked the one on his left in the jaw. He was able to slip right under the grip of the other man and keep running.

[Gabriel Constant]

The sound of his neck crapping twice, first to one side and then to the other, was loud enough that it would have shaken Gabriel if he had not been the one doing it. Staring into visions and using his location ability had a way of making his body settle uncomfortably. He shook out his arms and stretched his legs as far as he could, seated as he was, and then tapped his pockets, and his sleeves, and his sides, and his socks. All in place. He had learned a few things from Alex. That much was evident.

He swung open the door and stepped out of the car. Then, after stretching his legs and arms a little more, quite casually, he crossed the street with a leisurely gait and strolled right into the building. Just as he had seen, the goons who should have been guarding the door were converging on Daniel. No one even saw Gabriel walk in, and no one noticed him still when he removed a throwing knife from his left sleeve and let it loose, the projectile lodging itself in the center of one man's back. It wasn't until Gabriel removed a gun from his left holster and put a bullet in the back of another mook's neck that the others realized he was there.

That was on purpose, of course. Dividing the enemy meant Daniel and Gabriel would have fewer targets each to deal with. And indeed, a little more than half of the assembly turned Gabriel's way, intrigued by the newcomer, and ready to kill him too. Gabriel shot two and them slammed the butt of the gun into one who had gotten too close to him. None of them had thought to arm themselves with guns, fortunately; that would have made matters much more difficult.

Someone wrapped a set of beefy arms around Gabriel's neck. The man was taller and heavier than Gabriel, so throwing him was out of the question; instead he slammed his foot into the man's instep, rounded on him when the arms fell slack, and broke the man's nose with the bottom of his palm. Gabriel's left-side gun was on the floor now, but instead of wasting time in picking it up at the moment, he kicked it away while in mid-run; it slid away from the fight, under the reception desk.

Running over to Daniel to offer him some relief, Gabriel threw a punch at one man's temple, knocking him out at once, then spinning to punch the next one's Adam's apple before the guy had even thought about hitting him. After Gabriel threw an elbow into another guy's ribcage, they had a moment of respite before the remaining mooks closed in them. In that short moment, he turned to Daniel and grinned. "Having fun yet?"

[Deleted]

He could tell that they were getting apprehensive about coming at him straight out. He'd just put down the three that had tried that. They were spreading out now, and he could see that at least two of them were trying to make their way behind him to catch him off guard. Normally, it wouldn't have worked. But right now, unable to teleport and unable to keep going like this for much longer, he didn't know how well he was going to keep this going. He was going to get too tired eventually. And they would get him. They'd probably try to capture him again. Then they'd see what he did to their boss and the other members of the gang further in the building, and they'd probably just put two in the back of his head before he got it up again and tried to escape a second time. That's what he'd do to someone like himself, anyway.

Deciding that he was fucked and the best he could do was take out a few more of them for the trouble, he noticed a figure walk into the lobby. A figure that looked an awful lot like Gabriel. And wouldn't you know it, the figure produced a gun and fired a round. Several turned to see what the noise was, several didn't, and Daniel saw his odds getting better. With renewed vigor that came from seeing a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, Daniel charged ahead at one of the men. Anticipating this, the man tried to reach out and grab Daniel. What the guy didn't anticipate was the low drop kick that Daniel jumped into, landing both of his feet into the guard's right knee. It shattered, the two sections of the leg bending into the opposite of what nature intended, and Daniel reached up with his hands to grab the man's head. Using all of his weight, he spun and heard the crack of the neck bones. Rolling to the side to avoid the dead weight of the dead body from falling on him, he got back to a knee and had to duck under another kick. Catching the man's foot on his shoulder, he slammed down with his right arm to break the knee cap and pushed the man onto his back.

He saw Gabriel emerge from the crowd and make his way over, a smile on his face. Daniel didn't have much to be smiling about, but he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as well.

"Having fun yet?" Gabe asked.

"Fun usually involves naked women and alcohol, so no, I can't say this is very fun," Daniel said. He squared his shoulder with Gabriel's, looking at the group of men in front of them, slowly closing in. In a slightly lower voice, he leaned over to Gabe. "If you have another gun, this can go a whole lot faster," he whispered. If he could give Daniel a gun, Daniel could go back to his Delta days and clean house quick, fast, and in a hurry.

[Gabriel Constant]

Well, Daniel was right about that. A night with Alex and perhaps the Babysitter and a few bottles of wine would have beat a gunfight in terms of “fun.” But years of being that guy who brought a knife to a gunfight had bred in him a sort of enjoyment for the challenge, to the adrenaline rush. Those wounds that still scarred his skin were nothing to him; Alex had admitted that she had found them distasteful at first, but had later come to accept them as part of him. That was what they were; his past, reminders of that, and of not making the same mistakes over and over again.

He had never served in the military; various branches of militaries from friendly countries had actually stepped in to save his ass a few times when he put himself in ended up in conflict areas. Following that, he had learned some self-defense. He had honed his shooting skills as well, but he was sure he was nothing compared to Daniel in that, so when Daniel asked for a gun, Gabriel slipped the right-hand one to him. The other was still underneath the reception desk.

That did not mean Gabriel was unarmed. Not by a long shot. Alex would have been proud. That is, she would have been proud right after she kicked his ass for putting himself in danger. “Well, gentlemen, shall we wrap this up?” he said to their opponents, causing, naturally, a final rush at Daniel and himself.

Immediately, Gabriel pulled another throwing knife out of his other sleeve and threw it at one mook, then drew a switchblade from his back pocket to elbow one guy and then slice through his neck. Turning around, he saw another mook coming entirely too close to him, and, moving quickly on his feet, slipped right past him and cut open the back of his neck. He saw two others that were moving around to come to him, and threw the last throwing knives - the ones in his socks - as quickly as he could reach and then throw them. that one, admittedly, had a bit to do with luck. Those knives had been meant as backup. As it happened, though, by then the lobby had fallen mostly silent aside from the last echo of the gun and some groaning from the mooks that were still hanging on for dear life.

“Well,” Gabriel said. “I think that takes care of all of them. Now might be a good time for a long, scenic drive away from here.”

[Deleted]

Some people may have accused Daniel of relying on a gun too much. His other skills were usually the better option, but he couldn’t deny that he could do the most damage with a gun in his hands. Considering most of his other skills were out of action right now, the easiest option seemed like the best one.

When he felt the steel frame of the Beretta Compact in his right hand, he entered what could be called a Zen state. When he used his hands or his knives, time seemed to speed up, a telltale sign of adrenaline. Being able to think and move in that sped up version of the world was one of his best skills. But with a gun, things seemed to slow down. He had all the time in the world when he was using one. There were very few people in the world that could outrun a bullet, and even then, he’d never met any of them. His left hand found it’s place over his right, the bends of each finger touching the knuckles of his dominant hand. His thumb reached up to ride on the frame to combat muzzle flip, and his left eye shut. His right eye became a laser, connecting his vision to the rear sight, to the front sight, to the target. He squeezed the trigger until the six pounds of pressure was all but used up. The breath he’d been holding during this process started to leave his lungs in a quiet sigh.

“Well, gentlemen, shall we wrap this up?” he heard Gabriel say. As if his voice were the start of a sprint, Daniel pulled the trigger the rest of the way.

It was some of his best work, he liked to think. The first shot hit dead center, the upper lip of the first man that had the misfortune of being in his sights. Before he hit the ground, the second shot was fired. It too ended the existence of the bag of flesh it connected with.

With the sound of the shots having less than a second between them, he watched a few more bodies fall to the ground. It wasn’t long, less than a minute after that, that everyone was either dead or had decided that their boss didn’t pay them enough for this and had beat feet out of the line of fire. Daniel, feeling justified in doing so, picked off as many as he could as they ran before the slide locked back. Automatically, his thumb hit the slide release and he flipped the safety on as he lowered the gun. Taking another breath, he did a final scan of the area before he turned back to Gabe. He silently handed the gun back, barrel pointed toward the ground, and looked at the corpses on the ground.

”We do good work,” he said.

”Well. I think that takes care of all of them. Now might be a good time for a long, scenic drive away from here,” Gabe said. Daniel couldn’t help the grin that crossed his features.

”That would be best. If you don’t mind me messing up the interior of your car,” he said. If he could get a ride back to the safehouse in town, he could recover enough to be on his own way.

[Gabriel Constant]

Daniel was an excellent fighter, a soldier, a weapon in himself. Gabriel had learned how to defend himself, especially in an ambush, and could use just about anything at his disposal. Separately, either man - especially Daniel - could be lethal; together, they were unstoppable.

Gabriel rubbed a bit at a bruise he had gotten from somewhere. He had been so “in the zone” that he had not noticed from whence it had come. Then he turned toward the reception desk that his off-hand gun had slipped under and pulled it free. Guns were valuable things. He placed it in the right holster and glanced outside to make sure his car was still there and in one piece. It was; no one had seen him enter, and likely no one had been left standing long enough to make the connection.

The mafiosos or whatever they liked to call themselves would have to cover up this massacre, or risk outing themselves. As for Gabriel and Daniel, there was hardly any way to identify him. If they did somehow, then, well, they had seem what Daniel and Gabriel could to to a rush of mooks.

“Ehh, the car has probably seen worse.” It was borrowed from a contact who also did some vigilante work. Gabriel would probably stick around long enough to help him clean out the bits and pieces, and then be back home to his wife and children just in time for supper. God bless time zones.

He tossed his head toward the car. “Then we’ll get going. Don’t be a backseat driver. I hate those.”

(fin Gabriel)