Playing With Fire
The Pravada-Banda had always been Santa Barbara's toughest gang to catch, as they all wore masks and left no trace. They seemed to be ghosts. Pravada Banda itself translates from Bosnian to mean, "Justice Gang". The Pravada has never done much harm to the city of Santa Barbara, and the police have had no reason in the past to focus efforts and manpower on them. That is until recently. The gang's sudden spout of crime activity seemed to mirror rioting and violence outbreaks currently in Kosovo.
Now the police have new reason to believe that not only is the Pravada Banda rising in the streets, but is also gaining members- and it was beginning to seem like more than just mischievous crime; the SBPD got their hands on one member's burn phone, and there were calls to and from the governments of Ecuador and Kosovo.
With the impending threat of this becoming an issue of national security, and trying to find the connection between Kosovo, Ecuador, and Santa Barbara, the Pravada was becoming Santa Barbara's number one concern.
So when an anonymous call was dropped saying that the Pravada was functioning out of an abandoned building on the edges of inland Santa Barbara, the police pounced on the opportunity. If anything was known about the Pravada Banda, it was that they didn't tend to stay in the same place for very long.
And that's how Detectives Lassiter and O'Hara ended up sitting in his car, parked outside the building, slumped low in their seats and uncomfortable bulletproof vests, staking out the building in broad daylight. The tree line around the building made it impossible to get any sort of view from farther away.
"Do you see what I'm seeing?" Lassiter asked in a low voice, binoculars held to his face.
Juliet shrugged in pure boredom. "I see a bunny." They had been sitting around for three hours with absolutely zero activity on the building. She was beyond frustrated that Lassiter was hogging the binoculars and was once again tempted to hold his half-eaten grilled chicken sandwich up to the front of his binoculars when he wasn't expecting it.
"Focus, O'Hara. I'm being serious."
"So am I! All I see is the building, a bunch of rocks, and some trees. Maybe if you let a fresh pair of eyes use the binoculars to see the building up close, we might actually get somewhere."
"Security cameras." He said, ignoring her comments. "Above both doorways, and on the overhang of the balcony. They probably know we're here. They've probably known for the past three hours." He let the binoculars in his hands fall to his lap, defeated.
"Security cameras?" She asked.
Just then, the red metal door on the building opened into daylight, and a masked figure stepped out, fully clad in black military gear, with an accompanying AK 47. Another guy dressed the same rounded the corner of the building, and approached the other man. They spoke briefly, then both rounded the corner away from the door, attempting to push the door closed behind them as they walked away from it.
Except for one detail. The red door didn't close all the way.
"That's our move." Lassiter growled, dying for some action.
They both exited the car and approached the door, guns raised and heads swiveling, protecting each other's backs. They stopped once they reached the door, and pressed their back to the building wall on either side of the door.
"I'll go around, see where they went." He breathed. "You wait here. Do not go in. Wait for me. I'll be right back."
She nodded in confirmation and he took off around the side of the building.
Juliet squinted up into the sun and looked at one of the security cameras Lassiter had seen before. Something still didn't add up in her mind… Why would an abandoned building have security cameras? Unless, it wasn't abandoned and this was a set up. A trap.
"Carlton!" She shouted, trying to give her partner warning.
Suddenly a masked man came out the red door entrance right next to her and covered her mouth from behind. Quickly, he kicked out her knees from behind and she collapsed to the ground.
Twisting around quickly, she grabbed her gun from her hip and raised it, firing one shot. He kicked the gun harshly from her hands and the bullet missed, hitting the building behind the man.
He was standing over her, and she was now unarmed. Naturally, there was one defense she resorted to that she knew worked every time. She kicked him in the balls.
The man grabbed his crotch and bent over for a second, giving Juliet enough time to hop back to her feet. She slugged him in the face while he was still recovering.
Pissed, he grabbed her by the neck and threw her into the wall behind him, coming close to her so she wouldn't escape. She spit in his face and reached for his gun, which he stupidly left unprotected hanging from his shoulder.
One shot went off, and it felt so close for a second Juliet wasn't sure who it had hit: her or him. She heard his growl of pain, muffled behind the mask, and glanced down to see a small hole in his boot.
Using this moment to her advantage, she brought her knee up and shoved him away with a solid enough kick to break a rib.
She turned away and reached for her gun on the ground, only to be knocked sideways just inches from it, with a solid crack that ricocheted throughout her skull. She fell sideways onto the ground, her gun just a foot away but her brain unable to send the signals to tell her arms to move.
The masked man had smacked her with the butt of his gun, but was now standing above her, raising the barrel end to her where she lay face down on the ground. She was able to crane her neck just enough to see the gun pointed at her.
The rounds started firing, rapidly and incredibly loud in Juliet's ears. The dirt and rocks around her jumped to life and sprayed up like mini volcanic eruptions. They came horribly, incredibly, terrifyingly close. But none of them hit her. Surely at this range bullets from an AK-47 would have pierced her bulletproof vest and with this number, easily would have killed her by now, if not left her dying slowly.
But not a single bullet hit her, and a sick feeling rose in her stomach as she realized there was no possible way this guy was that unskilled. No, he wanted her alive for some other reason. Her mind turned to the worst. Hostage, torture, rape, and eventual death; that's all she saw in her future in that moment.
She could've puked, and the growing headache had much to do with it.
The man tossed his gun aside once it was emptied out onto the ground around her. He reached down next to her and picked up her police-issue gun.
With very little warning, a blunt pain erupted in her back, followed by the familiar sound of a gunshot from her gun. She let her head drop to the ground and squeezed her eyes shut, fighting through the pain and more confused than ever as to what this guy wanted with her.
One by one, the remaining seven bullets from her gun were also emptied into the back of her vest. It was made for more long-range bulletproofness. Or at least not 2-3 feet away. By the sixth bullet, Juliet could feel her blood sticking the vest to her and soaking her shirt underneath. By the seventh, she was unconscious.
~/~
Upon rounding the second corner of the building, Lassiter had been immediately ambushed by six more masked men. They took his gun, and roughly pinned each of his limbs to the ground, covering his mouth. He could do absolutely nothing as he listened to the rounds fire on the other side of the building, where he had left his partner.
Then he heard her gun go off. Eight times. A spark of hope lighted in him, thinking maybe she had somehow overpowered whoever was firing at her. He wouldn't put it past her. The female detective continued to impress him on a daily basis.
Finally, all six men let go of Lassiter at the same moment, and retreated to a van and sped away.
Lassiter didn't dare waste his time trying to follow them. He gasped for backup into his radio, completely out of breath as he ran back around the building.
Only to find his partner facedown, two empty guns laying around her, and eight pancake-shaped dots of silver on the back of her vest.
He dropped to his knees next to her and saw the blood seeping out from under the vest, up by the back of her neck, and the jagged, thick line of blood from her temple. More blood continued to spill from the corner of her mouth.
His voice shook yet was robotic at the same time as he reached for his radio and said, "Officer down, officer down."
~/~