That meeting had been very eventful. We now knew there was going to something going down at the Harbor . We also knew that Hank and I were not going to be needed there. We were assigned to rob some sort of armored car. Obviously we, not only couldn't do that, but both knew that was suicide. Plain and simple. Something tells me the police and the guards on the armored truck would be alerted to the plan. We were the scape goats, made to take the fall while the thing at harbor goes down. I had tried to get a word out to the Captain but wasn't sure if the message had gotten through. Obviously, we had to be careful with that as well.
Hank and I take to the alley's, avoiding places where we would be recognized. Having to walk the five miles back to the hide out was another joke played on us. As careful as we were, Hank cuts his eyes toward me and I look back at him in silence. We were being followed and knew it. The only question that needed to be answered was by whom? Was it one of The First's goons or was it some cop. We were definitely hoping it wasn't a cop as if it was, that meant this was over and we'd be surrounded any moment.
This is where being a cop definitely came in handy. We duck inside the open door of an abandoned building, draw our weapons and wait. We could clearly see if anyone walked into the alley, though they wouldn't be able to see us until it was to late. Sure enough, a hooded figure walks into the alley and begins looking around. We couldn't see his face and his hand were in his pant's pockets but it was clear by his actions he was looking for someone or something...us
"GOTCHA!" I yell as Hank and I both grab the guy and yank him into the building
I put my gun to his head, still unable to see who he was. Hank pulls the hoodie down and we get the shock of our lives. Instead of some low life goon, it was a cop but not just any cop. Standing right in front of us was Captain Renard. Hank and I both take a few deep breathes and take a step away from him. We were still in shock.
"Captain?" I say while looking at Hank.
"That's right. I got your message.." Captain Renard answers back.
"So you aren't here to arrest us?" Hank now asks
"If I was, you'd be in jail already. You two are in lots of trouble though. Every cop in this city is looking for you. They all think you're dirty. You killed a damn CIA Agent" Captain Renard said in a not so pleasing tone
Hank and I look at each other again. This one was going to be a hard one to explain, that was for sure. We find a few chairs and sit down, telling the Captain, maybe he should sit down as well. He declines and tells us to give him one good reason why he shouldn't take us in himself.
"Agent Burke set us up. He leaked where we were to a dirty CIA agent." I say while rubbing my hands together.
"So Agent Burke is dirty." Caaptain Renard answers with
"Yes...No...We don't know?" I say back
"We think he is playing both sides." Hank now adds.
The Captain looks at us as though we were crazy. He decides to now take a seat as he thought on whether he wanted to hear more or just haul our asses in. If we couldn't convince him of what was going on, we didn't stand a chance in this. Agent Burke sure wouldn't help us if it jeopardized what he wanted, that much was for sure.
"What kind of shit have you got yourselves mixed in?" Captain Renard asks.
We begin to tell him everything from beginning to end. All about the guy calling himself The First to the CIA agent and how Agent Burke acts. We also tell him about the Harbor and armored car. It all seemed like some plot to some movie only in this plot, Hank and I were meant to die. That's the one thing we didn't want to do and were determined to change the ending. It was all up the Captain now. He stood up and begin to look away for a moment, taking everything in we said.
"The guy calls himself "The First" Huh?" Captain Renard said without turning to face us.
"Yeah" I answer back.
"This guy, calling himself "The First" or not has made a grave mistake. He decided to operate in my city." Captain Renard says as he turn to look at us.
"Captain, we need to be at that Harbor." I now say
"I agree. I don't trust Agent Burke to do things the right way and if I'm going in, I want two of my best guys there with me" Captain Renard answered back
"So what do we do?" Hank asks
"Deal with the guys now about to show up. They must be tracking you some how...probably cell phones" Captain Renard says as he pulls the hood up over his head, hiding his face once more.
We hear someone yell out "Detectives" "You are suppose to head straight back to Motel Detectives" Hank and I put our guns away, We were going to do this this old fashioned way. It's some thing we been wanting to do from the start of this anyway. Three goons walk in, knocking on the broken door as they did.
"Well what do we have here? Boss wants you to be in your motel room and here you are just hanging out. I smell a rat." The first goon says
"Me too. We knew you were coming long before you got here. Water is your friend pal. Use it sometimes" Hank says in response
"Oh you got jokes huh. Boss wants you alive but that mean we can't rough you up a bit." The First Goon says as they all pick up weapons.
I had a feeling they wouldn't listen to reason but I had to try anyway. Didn't want them running back to the boss and telling him some lies, well truth, before we got a chance to get both the Armored Car and Harbor covered. Something like "The First" would probably kill everyone that could identify him and just move on to another city and start over. We had to stop him now.
"We are just meeting with a contact, getting a crew together to hit the armored truck. Your Boss didn't expect us to take down an armored truck with just the two of us did he?" I say
"That' is what we are for. No outsiders." The Second Goon says.
"You kidding right? We might as well try to take the armored truck down with Nerf guns for all the help you idiots would be" Hank says back
"Tell your boss, he wants this done right, then keep you idiots out of the way and let us do it." I add
"The goon takes a swing at me but I block it and take him down. Another Goon takes Hank on but Hank kicks him where it hurts and then sends him crashing through an old table. The Captain grabs the third goon, knees him in the face, breaking the guys nose and then sends him throw a window, The goon just hangs there half in and half out of the window as Hank and I look at each other and then back toward The Captain.
"What?" The Captain says as he looks at us.
"Nothing...Nothing at all" Hank responds with as both he and I laugh
We grab all three goons and toss them to the floor in front of us. That is when I notice that all three were human. That meant they were the lowest and expendable like Hank and I were. We'd probably be sending them back to their death after The First discovers what happened. We had no choice though. If they didn't go back, The First could change all his plains and we'd never get to him again.
"Now you go back and tell your Boss we have everything under control. The Armored car and everything in it is as good as his. You also tell him we say back off." I say, looking down at the goons
The guys get up and scamper away like roaches. Hank and I once again look at the Captain and laugh. Hank whispers "Through a window" to himself which gets The Captain's attention and causes him to look toward us. The laughter stops and so do the smiles as Hank and I both clan our throats.
"If we needed proof that we were being set up to take the fall, those goons were it. Did you hear them say they were assigned to hit the Armored Car with us?" Hank says while rubbing the back of his head
"Yeah. I don't think there were three good brain cells between them all." I now say as he Captain's phone rings
The Captain walks away for a moment and answers his phone. The look on his face told the story. Whatever he was being told wasn't good at all and that probably meant it wasn't good for us. The Captain finishes up his call and then walks back over to us with a blank expression.
"Anonymous tip just came in. The two rogue cops that killed the CIA agent are planing on hitting an Amored Car rumored to be carrying printing plates for the U.S. Treasury" Captain Renard says
"I knew it. That Son of a Bitch is setting us up to be killed" Hank says
"I'll take care of it" Captain Renard says in a calm voice.
He produces two untraceable phones for us and then asks for the phones provided to us by the boss. We hand them over and he steps on them. It was really gonna be all or nothing now. Tomorrow we were going to hit the Armored Car so the phones wouldn't matter anyway. We are suppose to die.
"Now no more being tracked. I will contact you tomorrow morning with the plan. If it goes off without a hitch, we'll get everyone including The First" Captain Renard says before turning to walk away
"Wait?" I say before walking over and talking to the Captain.
I was asking him for a huge favor...actually several favors . Hank only smiled. He knew what that favor was as immediately used the untraceable phone to make an important phone call of his own. We didn't know how tomorrow would go but if something did go wrong, there were certain people we needed to say a few words to.