DIE HARD 5: LEARN TO DIE
'NYPD, open up!'
That was Jerry's job, Jerry was what us cops called 'The screecher' we gave him the role of screaming out all the police threats when we make an arrest, we couldn't be stuffed doing it, and good old Jerry doesn't mind screaming and yelling, he said he was born into it. But me, John McClane, I prefer being on the side with the Glock firmly in hand in case something goes haywire, like today.
It was a drug fella we were arresting. Leo Banks was his name. A Kingpin of big money coke, he brought up a name for himself; his mission was for you to buy his stuff, and if not he would make you buy his stuff. He shot some poor homeless guy in the leg for not buying his coke, and then he nearly killed a man who was trying to be the big man and step in. So we were called in, it was pretty easy case, it only took some old gossipy lady to find out who the man was, so we all went down with our weapons drawn, just in case it went messy. It was.
Leo Banks lived in an old warehouse, probably where he organized all the dope before he sold it. It was an old looking place, it needed a paint job badly, and it was so dusty and hidden away I almost imagined Batman living there with his butler and all those bats. Creepy, if you ask me. Anyway, we made a formation up at the warehouse. Becky, who was in charge, always took the lead, she always hogged the action. Jerry was alongside her, to screech out. Stu and Tommy were on the right and Joey and I was on the left, it was going to be easy, but we underestimated the enemy. Leo Banks wasn't just some bozo trying to make some money, and who lost his temper sometimes, he was an expert killer. We came up the front, all of us with our guns tight, waving them around like Dirty Harry. We marched up to the door and Becky turned around.
'You guys know what to do, keep guns aimed at him, make him nervous, if he runs away, shoot him in the leg, leave the rest to me and Jerry here.'
'Got it,' we replied, all pretty much in unison. Jerry had the honours. He slammed his fist on the door.
'Open up!' There was silence; I heard some footsteps, probably the man walking to the door. Suddenly, I heard him.
'Who is it?' he asked. The voice was normal, just like if I knocked on the door of an elderly lady she would answer just like this.
'Police, NYPD, open up!' Joey and I winced, that wasn't going to go down well. But then the voice appeared again, still perfectly calm and collected.
'Come in, can you open the door, my hands are full?' Jerry, grabbed the door handle with his left hand.
'Sure,' he replied as he grasped the handle tight with his hand.
'No, don't open the door!' Becky yelled, but it was too late, the door was wide open. The first real lesson in arresting dangerous people like that is never, I repeat never opens a door when the man asks you too.
I looked out on my right and saw Jerry open the door. I peered in, following his eyes. Leo Banks wasn't there.
'Odd' I thought, 'Whose voice did we hear?' Then out on the corner of my eye I saw a flying green object hit the doorstep. Scram.
I dived as far as I could to my left, hitting the concrete on my shoulder, man it hurt. I had my eyes firmly shut, but I heard it. It was the sound of an explosion rattling through my head, ruining my eardrums. I winced at my shoulder. It was like a hundred bolts of lightning were streaming through it. I pulled my head down in agony. But I couldn't think about the pain. I opened my eyes again. A grenade, the lousy piece of work threw a grenade at us. I looked around, everything was a mess. Jerry was on the ground, probably dead because he was the closest to the grenade. Joey was down, he had hit his head on the pavement, concussion and knocked out probably I thought. I looked ahead and saw Stu, he looked all right, and he stared back at me and did the peace sign, his way of 'I'm okay'. He pointed at Tommy and shook his head. Another casualty, this was going to go down in the history books. Becky threw a stone and it hit me on the leg. I glared at her. She looked in a bad way, there was blood all over her leg, but at least she was breathing and all that. She mimed the word hospital and I slid my phone over to her, she glared back at me, pointed to my glock which was lying next to me and then pointed to the doorway. I nodded, and then looked over at Stu who nodded to. An action station was the way he would put it, I couldn't agree with him more.
I felt my hands grasp the Glock firmly and I moved over to the left side of the door. Stu went to the right. He pulled up his three fingers. Trust Stu to be dramatic.
'Three, two...one, go,' he whispered, and that was all it took. I pulled my gun through the door way and started to shoot. I spotted him behind the stairs, he had something in his hand, something long and like a cylinder.
'Cylinder, long metal thing shaped like a cylinder, no way... it cannot be,' I thought. I lunged to the left again, this time I stayed on my feet, careful not to hurt my shoulder again.
'Get down, the fella has a bazooka!'
The man fired the weapon. It zoomed past the open door, past me and it exploded into a nearby tree. The tree blew up, splattering bark, tree sap and leaves all over the ground.
'What's up his nose?' barked Stu, tightening his grip on his glock.
'Assault, numerous murders, drugs and now illegal weapons, man the courts going to have field day when they hear about this guy,' I yelled.
'If they hear about this guy,' Stu exclaimed. I looked into his face and saw his anger and his frustration. Some of the people lying on the pavement were his friends and Tommy and him were pretty much brothers. I looked into his eyes and I saw him almost crying.
'Man up, Stu, take in the pain and let's take this dude down,' I said.
'You can't talk about manning up, McClane, ' he exclaimed. He stood up, clocked his gun and went ahead.
'Don't you dare, Stu?' Stu picked up the body of Jerry, he checked his pulse, and pulled the corpse up in front of him. He pushed forward, diving into the doorway. Leo was taking shots at him, left, right and centre. But Stu kept running forward, taking ground. The bullets started to hit the corpse of Jerry, smashing into the stomach, legs, arms and even the head. When Stu reached the stairway, he dived left into an open door, entering an office. A bullet clipped Stu's leg and he dropped down on to the ground. I peered out into the warehouse, at Stu on the ground.
'He got me, the nutta got me, in the leg!'
'Serves you right for going Rambo on him,' I replied. Stu looked up and looked into my eyes.
'Go get him boy, make us proud.' Stu slid his glock across floor as Leo started firing at it. The glock stopped straight at my knees and I picked it up and placed it in my left hand. I now had two pistols, I was ready, and I had a plan. I turned over to Becky; she had moved herself over to the grass and had a firm look on her face.
'The ambulance is on their way, so is back-up, keep him in there, till they arrive,' she said.
'Impossible, there's a back entrance, I can't cover two entrances at once, he can just slip out the back, so he's the plan, and I need your Vodka flask.' I held out my hand while she gave me a dirty look. The metal flask dropped into my hand.
'Then I need a piece of wood,' I said. She pointed to the blown up tree. I went and got what looked like a dry slab of wood.
'Now I just need a lighter, pepper spray and a tazor.' Luckily Tommy was a heavy smoker and Joey had the Tazor and pepper spray.
'You're not doing that are you, John?'
'Of course I am, this dude has pretty much wiped us out, to get a fish out of water you contaminate his water, to get this dude out of the warehouse, you...'
'Set his warehouse alight, got you.'
I took the lid from the flask and threw it away, and grabbed the lighter.
'Are you sure about this, Reece?' she asked. I looked at her closely.
'Of course not, this is the only plan I have, do ya have a better one?' Before she could respond I dropped the lit lighter into the flask and I threw it into the open door. I sprayed the pepper spray in, threw the chunk of wood, and I tazored randomly. I heard the rush of the flame. Stu hobbled out into the open, and looked at me.
'He's in there all right, swearing his head off,' he said. I threw his glock back. Shoot him if he come out.
'Where are you off to?'
'To the back entrance if he tries to run out there,' I replied. I ran around the warehouse to the back door. He wasn't there.
'Where on earth is he?' I thought, 'Ahh, the fire escape, I forgot.'
I started to sprint down the back alleyway. My head was up, facing towards the building looking for the fire escape. There it is, damn he's already halfway down. Now it was my turn to be the screecher.
'NYPD, police stop in the name of the law!'
The dude kept on running, he didn't stop. I chased him. Passing down the alleyway, out into the open. My feet was painful, they needed to stop running. My knees, they were literally on fire. But couldn't stop, not now, not now. My arms were out in front and my gun was tucked in my pants, he wasn't going to get away with it. He got out into the middle of the road. I pulled my gun out and took a shot, a wild shot. Worse mistake ever! The shot missed, everything went into turmoil. Woman were fainting, screaming running around panicking, it was like he had just pressed a button and the world changed, immediately. Welcome to America. Leo pulled his gun out, desert eagle, and waved it at an upcoming BMW, he was stealing a car, and he wasn't going to get away. Ripped my badge out and waved it at a Toyota. The Toyota stopped quickly and the driver looked at me oddly.
'What?'
'NYPD, I need to you use your vehicle, any damage will be paid for, quick get out,' I yelled ripping the door open.
'Cool, police chase, my favourite!' The driver got out and I jumped in and pushed the accelerator till it hit the floor.
'Let's go!' The car zoomed forward, and I was suddenly back on the road. I looked up ahead of me and saw the BMW pushing forward, gunning it, and going about 100. The car was easy to use I my hands and I found it so smooth and so easy to drive. The car hit about 100, and I had trouble moving away from all the traffic. I heard some swearing and some 'What are you doing?' but no one tried to stop me that was good. I spotted the Blue BMW again and suddenly was gaining on him. I stretched my back out and reached for my glock. I ripped it out and started to fire. The guy swerved to the left, nearly hitting a pedestrian in doing so, he was a crazy maniac. The chase was on. He pushed into fifth gear and was streaming down the streets into the more crowded area; this was just great.
I decided to give it all that I had, everything, even if I die, this dude would go to hell. What type of man does this guy thinks he is, killing cops, selling drugs, assaulting people and all for money. I realised this was the first real time I had a real passion to kill someone. I didn't mind, only if I saw this dude's corpse at the end of the day, I would be happy.
My foot hit the accelerator so hard that the car slowed down for a little bit before hoofing it around the corners. The pedal was touching the ground. I pulled my glock out the window again and fired some shots; one of the bullets edged left, hitting the bottom, left side of the boot, the next bullet was a bit more accurate. It crashed into the back window, breaking the glass and giving the dude a mighty shock. We were coming up to Titans, one of the biggest shopping malls in the world, just my luck. I had no idea what he was going to do. Was he gonna turn right, down into the residential area, or was he going to keep on going straight, deeper into the heart of the city. He even could turn left, into the mall. The dude turned a sharp left, into the underground shopping mall car park, I followed, this nut wasn't gonna get away so easy. But this dude wasn't as dumb as I thought he was. He had a trick up his sleeve. He braked hard when he got into the car park, leaving me to just crash into him. The Toyota smashed into his boot hard, pushing up the front of my car. If it was crazy this guy wanted, it was crazy he was gonna get. I decided to try and drive on top of his car, yeah, I know stupid. But it seemed like a fine idea at the time to get on the wrong side of him. My foot was on the accelerator again and I heard the horrible noise of the wheels as I almost glided up on top of his car. It must have been a funny site, a Toyota on top of a BMW in an underground car park. My left hand went outside of the window, and it pointed down and I fired three shots into his car. All of them missed, but it was a good exercise on annoying some bozo like that. He decided to move forward. Yeah, I forgot about him doing that. I tried to reverse, but my wheels were just digging into the car, I wasn't going anywhere. But then I felt the car move, backwards. The Toyota fell back into the pavement, smashing hard. It first started kind of slow and then it dropped super fast in to the pavement, with a giant thud that scared the living daylights out of me; and trust me, it is kind of hard to scare a man like me. Anyway, I quickly recovered, and the car seemed to be okay, enough. It was still working reasonable enough. I started to follow the man, deeper into the car park. I think it quite surprised the dude, he probably thought his little stunt had shaken me off; he needed to try a little hard to shake me off. This dude was gonna pay, big time. My car followed him, right behind him, the sneak was gonna come nice and slow, or die painfully. I had a plan. But my mind knew it was a risky one. But more like a crazy one. Saw it in a movie once, but as I have to keep on reminding myself, this is not the movies. I hit the accelerator hard, feeling the engine noise, like a voice saying,
'Yippee-ki-yay,' I yelled. I jerked left at the final possible moment, as he was turning the corner. So when he turned the corner, I drove so fast into the side of the car, as fast and as hard as I could. Some people would call hit a T-bone. I kept on going, until an obstacle stopped me moving, it was a pillar. The momentum was powerful, and amazing. I have trouble recording what happened exactly, I saw it done once in a Jason Bourne Movie, but it looked so much cooler doing it yourself. Man my mates back at the station are gonna be jealous! I looked up at my bonnet, it was munted, but that was not on the same planet as the BMW looked like! I unbuckled my seatbelt and pushed the airbag away. When I got out of the car I ran up to the BMW, my glock was pulled out, and was in front of me.
'Make no mistakes, McClane, a quick kill, a quick kill' When I reached the car I opened the car door and looked inside. Leo Banks was still alive, his eyes were moving about and his mouth was opening and shutting. Nothing else of his body was moving. He was breathing heavily.
'You gonna make it quick, or are you gonna pull me in?' I stared into the man's eyes.
'Dunno, probably will kill you, save the paperwork, and the ambulance. Anyway, you don't deserve prison, they will be too good for you,' I replied. He laughed a nervous laugh.
'Look, I've got money, a lot of money, and the right connections, I can make you a rich cop.' The last comment angered me so much I hit the man straight in the face, he didn't even flinch, but I saw that it was painful.
'How dare you spit out your money filth at me, is that what you ever care about? Is that why you killed two officers and seriously injured three more, for money, to get away from you arresting you. Man, you are a greedy slime ball.' The man whimpered in fear, I relished that fear. My glock was pulled up to his head, and was placed on his forehead. I dug it in hard.
'Are you gonna live boy?'
'Yeah, I hope so,' he muttered.
'Wrong answer!' I pulled the trigger and it was all over for him. I stepped out from the car. I noticed that people were staring at me in shock, confusion and fear. I pulled my badge out and waved it at the people and asked them to clear away from the area. A lady passed me a water bottle and I poured it all over my face.
'Who are you?'
'John McClane'