Chapter Six: Of Assassins and Men

I get to the warehouse. The place looks deserted. Not a single car in the parking lot. Makes me wonder where de Killer is parked. Guy like him is probably somewhere in the back alley. I kinda want to look for it, but I`m treading thin ice as it is. I go through the door, and I see rows and rows of boxes. All I`m thinking of is how many places there are for a killer to hide. The place is like a labyrinth. You could easily get lost in here. It sort of gets on my nerves. I get to what must be the exact middle of the place. I turn a corner, and suddenly I feel the tip of a .45 pressed against my temple.

``Don`t move, Detective."

What a gyp. The spineless bastard won`t even let me look at him.

"So, this is how you`re going to do things, then? Rather than dealing with me, you're just going to kill me?"

"Don't insult my intelligence, Detective. Even if you were planning on giving us the tape, you could have easily made backups. Essentially, it's much safer to kill you than to trust you."

"So then what`s the big hold-up, de Killer? Last time I checked, I was still breathing."

"Well, I suppose I just wanted to commend you on how dumb you are."

"Is that so?"

"Look at you. You piss off one of the most powerful crime families in the city, and then you waltz in here alone so you can negotiate with the most feared assassin on the face of the Earth, and you honestly thought that it would work out in your favor? It doesn't take an assassin to know that people as feeble and stupid as you need to be culled, no matter what motivates you. It honestly takes too much effort for me to take you seriously."

He kept going after that, but I sort of tuned out at that point.

"Any final words, Detective?"

"Well, I suppose I'd like to commend you on how dumb you are."

"How so?"

"Because you thought I came here alone."

I turned off the bug my jacket. That was the signal for the cops I'd arranged to meet outside the warehouse to make their entrance. About two dozen officers poured in from all sides. I couldn't see any of them where I was, but they had certainly made their presence known.

"This is the police! We have you surrounded!"

He lowers his gun. He knows he can't shoot me without revealing his location. I finally get a good look at him. See, one of this guy's greatest accomplishments is that he's gone through his entire career without anyone knowing what he looks like. That's how he's made it this long without getting caught; nobody's been able to positively identify him. So, of course, when I get a good look at him, he's wearing a mask. Figures. He starts running to the point where I can't reach him, then he starts climbing to the top of the shelves. Pretty crafty; the cops can't see where he's going up there. He's a pretty nimble little guy. By the time I start climbing, the guy's already at the top.

I get to the top, and I see him making his way out of a window, with yet another grappling hook thingy. Looks like he had this escape route planned before I even got here. By the time I get to the window, he's unhooked it so that I can't follow him. It's two stories straight down.

I can survive two stories.

I leap down, and land on my feet, and the shock my legs are taking make me feel like I'm on fire. When I catch up to the guy, he's getting into his car. I draw out my gun and scream "FREEZE!" The guy turns around and puts his hands in the air. Then something occurs to me.

My gun isn't loaded.

This is going to be fun.

I decide to take this bluff as far as I can take it.

"Take out your gun and drop it on the ground."

He throws his gun on the ground. That went well, I suppose. Now what?

"Kick it over here."

He does. Now I'm in shit. Because now I think he knows. We give each other a nod. I go for the gun, he goes for something in his car. He pulls out- Maggey?

There she was, bound and gagged, with a six-inch dagger pressed against her throat, and de Killer using her as a human shield.

"Drop the gun or I slit her throat."

Maggey's a pretty small girl, but de Killer's kind of scrawny himself. He's almost completely obscured by her, save a little bit of his head peeking over her shoulder. It's an impossible shot.

"There's only one bullet in that gun, Detective. There is no way this is working out in your favor."

Do I have what it takes? Do we all have what it takes?

"DROP IT!"

Bang.