Looking up to make sure nothing fell on my head, I spotted a metal staircase that led up to a mezzanine level and a couple of rooms. I ran towards it, keeping an eye out for hiding Kingsmen but didn’t encounter anyone. I could hear our guys shouting out to each other as they cleared rooms.
I ran up the metal staircase, slowing when I reached the top, keeping my gun up. Anyone could be up here. Glancing over the metal railing I saw we’d caught one of the Kingsmen. He was down on the floor with his hands behind his head. Dirt came out of another room with the girl who was sobbing, and half dressed. I figured the guy they’d caught had been the one with her. Dirt was being gentle with her though, but I was sure he’d searched her already.
I moved slowly along the walkway until I got to the first door. I listened at it but didn’t hear anything. Touching the handle, I checked it wasn’t locked and slowly turned it, then pushed it in and went in low. The room was empty, it had a desk and chair and some filing cabinets but didn’t look as if it was recently used. There was trash all over the floor and I spotted a couple of used condoms and grimaced. These guys were fucking animals. The disgust quickly turned to fear for Waverley.
The second room was empty too. Shit, she wasn’t here. I hurried back out to go downstairs when something made me turn around, a prickle of awareness making me duck into the open doorway of the first room. A bullet hit the wall where I’d just been heading. Running feet hit the walkway, as whoever it was came after me.
I moved away from the door, got down behind the desk with my gun up, just as a guy came barreling into the room. His face was a mask of rage. I fired but he managed to duck out of the way before I could hit him. Then he suddenly jolted forwards and red bloomed on his white t-shirt, a look of total shock on his face. His gun dropped out of his handas he fell forward again. He dropped to the knees, then fell, slamming his face into the floor. War stood behind him.
“You good?” he asked.
My hands were shaking from the adrenalin, but I nodded. He hadn’t got a chance to get a shot off. I stood up as War stepped over the body, reaching down he flipped him over, stared at his face, and checked the patch on his cut.
“It’s him, their Sargent-At-Arms. Mad Hog,” he said.
I moved to stand over him. The shot had gone through his heart. He was deader than fuck. We looked at each other, knowing it had to be done because he could have killed me, but War just killed one of the Kingsmen’s officers.
“Is he dead?” Dirt stood in the doorway. “We got everyone else, there is no sign of her here. Who is that?” he stepped into the room, then whistled as he recognized him and put his hands on his hips. “I’ll call Hammer. The guy downstairs gave up some information.” He dismissed the dead officer at his feet, but we all knew this was bigger than anything else that happened recently. “He was one of the guys in the van when they took her. Said they went to a house in Dover.”
“Dover, that’s East,” I said with a frown. “Everything else has been pointing South.”
“Yeah, probably why Kansas lost them, we were looking in the wrong direction,” Dirt said.
“Let’s go then,” War kicked the downed Kingsmen, making my lip twitch. “We don’t have time to wait for Hammer, those explosions won’t have gone unnoticed. We need to burn the whole thing.”
We headed out of the room, War calling for Casper. “Hey asshole,” he shouted, but he was grinning. “You couldn’t be discrete with the explosions.”
“No such thing as a discrete explosion,” he replied. “Worked didn’t it.”
“Also alerted everyone within a ten-mile radius,” he pointed out. “It’s your lucky day, we need all the evidence gone. There is a dead officer upstairs, go make sure he’s unrecognizable then take down the whole building. Do it fast, we need to get out of here.” Casper saluted him and ran off.
“You know they’ll know it’s him anyway, if this was where he was hanging out,” Dirt pointed out.
War brushed it off. “What’s done is done, we got what we came for.”
“For the record, I’m not annoyed with the shit you’ve pulled but King is gonna kick your ass.”
“Yeah well, as VP, I’m allowed to make these decisions if I think it’s right for the club.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Dirt chuckled.
War wasn’t all that worried about King’s reaction. Even he would have to admit, we’d gotten good intel after both moves we’d made against his orders. It felt like we were a step closer to her. It wouldn’t be long before they knew we’d hit this place though, we had to keep moving.
Headlights came towards us as we came out of the building, and we all tensed. Fortunately, it was our guys with a van. They pulled up behind the burning bikes and the others started loading the Kingsmen into the back. Then we all headed off for our bikes, leaving Casper and one other guy to clean up the mess.
The warehouse was a raging inferno by the time we got back to our bikes. Casper had done a thorough job of ensuring it would take the authorities a while to figure out what went down. The sirens had already started, making us hotfoot it out of there.
The van and others had already left but War wanted to make sure things got done. He was showing himself as a true leader, despite King being unhappy with the way things were going.
Speaking of the man, War’s phone rang as we were about to get on our bikes. He answered, and this time put it on speakerphone.
“The only reason I’m not making you get your ass back here right now is because of what you’ve found out.”
“I told you I’m not sitting back and waiting for something to happen. My sister is out there somewhere. Hustle and I will barrel through anything and anyone to find her.”
“An officer is dead.”
“I don’t give a shit,” War said, his teeth were clenched hard but he was keeping his voice as tempered as he could.
