AN: It's Wolrd AIDS day, eveyone. In honor of this day, I'm posting the next chapter. I realize it's probably anti-climatic, but it's how I visualized this chapter to be, more or less. I hope you enjoy it.
In the Rat Fang's new hideout, Kingpin was sitting on an overturned crate, fingering a switchblade in one hand. He only looked up when he heard someone approaching, a cruel smile stretching on his face when he saw that it was Keane.
"So, how's our guest of honor doing?" Kingpin smirked.
"Well," Keane replied with a lewd grin. "She was rather unwilling to open up for a while, but after some…convincing….she's become very welcoming to us."
"I thought it would be as such," Kingpin nodded in satisfaction. "I've always said that all women can be broken. The real question is, is she ready for me? Tell me, how long has Mrs. Cohen been with us?"
"Nearly four days, sir," Keane answered promptly.
"Four days?" Kingpin mused. "Hmmm. Yes, I think that's been more than enough time. Thank you, Keane. Before you go home for the night, be sure to check up on Mrs. Cohen. If there's anyone with her now, tell them to wrap it up. I think it's time that I go and see to her." To emphasize his point, Kingpin began to twirl the switchblade between his fingers.
"Ah," Keane nodded, noticing Kingpin's action. "Has her time with us ended so soon?"
"My dear friend," Kingpin sneered. "Can you think of anything more we can do to further punish her? No, I really think that the poor girl has paid the price long enough. We really should put her out of her misery now."
"Too bad," Keane sighed heavily. "I was hoping for another go."
"Save it for the next one," Kingpin instructed. "You will have plenty of woman available very soon." Keane smiled in perverted anticipation as he headed off, leaving Kingpin alone to test the sharpness of his switchblade. However, a few seconds later, Keane was running back to Kingpin, a shocked and panicked look on his face,
"Sir!" Keane cried. "It's…it's the cops! There's…there's a whole mess of them right outside!"
"WHAT?" Kingpin bellowed, jumping to his feet.
"They must have found out where we were," Keane stammered, beads of stress-induced sweat coating his forehead. "I don't know how, but they…." Keane's voice trailed off when he noticed the cruel smirk forming in Kingpin's face.
"Tell me, Keane," Kingpin hissed. "Did you happen to see if Sergeant Kurtz was with the rest of those cops?"
"Um…yes, he was," Keane confirmed with a nod, unable to hide the sudden shiver as Kingpin's smile grew colder.
"Perfect," Kingpin growled. "In that case, I better go and meet our new guest." Without another word, Kingpin pushed by Keane and made his way to the back of the warehouse-turned-hideout, towards the room where Emily was being kept. He was pleased to find Emily remained in her current comatose state and did not resist when he pulled her to her feet to lead her back through the warehouse.
The police raid of the Rat Fang's new hideout did not take very long, and every gang member had been apprehended within a matter of minutes. Even so, Sergeant Kurtz still felt as if something was wrong, mostly because he had not seen Kingpin among the captured men.
"Officer Blackwood," Sergeant Kurtz turned to his friend. "I'm putting you in charge of overseeing things here for a while. I'm going to see if I can find where they're keeping Mrs. Cohen."
"Do you need backup, sir?" Officer Blackwood asked.
"If I run into any trouble, I'll call you," Sergeant Kurtz promised, patting the walkie talkie attached to his belt. Officer Blackwood nodded in understanding as Sergeant Kurtz headed off to locate Emily
The sergeant made his way through the warehouse, checking in every dark corner, and behind every object. Just when he was sure he'd almost searched the entire place, he stepped in between two storage racks and finally saw her.
A strained sound escaped from Sergeant Kurtz's throat as he flew to Emily's side. Just one look at her, and he felt sick to his stomach, and not just because she was kneeling on the cold floor, completely stripped of all clothing Her face was sallow and blank, and her hazel eyes simply stared right through him, completely dead and lifeless.
"Emily," Sergeant Kurtz whispered, crouching down next to her, throwing his jacket over her body to cover her up. "Emily, can you hear me? It's Sergeant Kurtz. I'm here to get you back home. Everyone's waiting for you. Mark, Penny, Rodolfo, Zack, Lucia….." Sergeant Kurtz broke off with a pained sigh. He had been hoping hearing the names of her loved ones would lead to some sort of response from her, but her face never displayed any emotions.
"Come on, Emily," Sergeant Kurtz spoke tenderly, carefully starting to lift her up. "Let's get you home."
At that moment, he saw someone moving into view out of the corner of his eye. Sergeant Kurtz only had time to turn and recognize Kingpin's face before feeling a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest.
"And I'll take this, too," Kingpin taunted, tearing the walkie talkie off Sergeant Kurtz's belt before crushing it beneath his foot. "It's nice of you to join us, Kurtzy-Kurtz." Sergeant Kurtz grunted as he looked down to see what had caused his pain and immediately saw Kingpin's switchblade buried deep into his chest. With a shaky gasp, he stumbled backwards, staring at Kingpin wordlessly.
"I've wanted to do that for a long time, you know," Kingpin laughed. "But I'm a little disappointed about how easy it was. You shouldn't have let your guard down, Sergeant. Even if you were so worried about my bait.
"And speaking of my bait," Kingpin sneered down at Emily, who didn't seem to even notice what was happening right in front of her, "I think even you would agree she's suffered enough. So, I would be doing a kindness by putting her out of her misery, wouldn't I?" Laughing cruelly, Kingpin reached out and yanked Sergeant Kurtz's gun from its holster.
Sergeant Kurtz gritted his teeth against the pain, pressing his hand against the bleeding wound in his chest. He didn't need a doctor's opinion to know that this knife wound was going to be possibly fatal. His breath coming out in quick, labored gasps, he forced his eyes to open, watching as Kingpin turned his attention back to the unresponsive Emily, a cruel smile on the gang leader's face. Very slowly, Kingpin lifted the gun in his hand, aiming it at Emily's forehead.
In the few seconds that followed, Sergeant Kurtz could no longer see Kingpin in front of him. Instead, he saw a series of faces flashing before his eyes. Most were the faces of various people whom had been the unfortunate victims of Kingpin and his followers; young women whom he'd never even known before filing out police reports and visiting crime scenes, but still regretted not being able to save. However, he also saw four faces he felt deeply connected to. First was the face of Katrina Hollingsworth, the young librarian who he had personally found locked inside a basement, rendered mute for her last three months of her life before passing away immediately after giving birth to Penny. Next were the faces of a couple he saw all the time in framed photographs, Zeke and Natalie Goodhall, two very fine people and loving parents who had been cruelly murdered before the very eyes of their young children, all because of Kingpin's desire to produce a lethal drug. Finally, there was the face of Zack Goodhall, his best friend and partner who he'd made a solemn promise to, right before his death, in a hospital bed years ago. A promise to look after his sister. A promise to make sure she stayed safe, no matter what.
And that was a promise he was fully prepared to keep. He was going to keep it for Zack. For Zeke and Natalie Goodhall. For Katrina Hollingsworth, and all the other victims of Kingpin's gang. And for all the innocent people in the city, who might one day become another victim to this man.
"Beverly," Sergeant Kurtz whispered softly to himself. "I'm sorry, Bev."
Before Kingpin could pull the trigger on the gun, Sergeant Kurtz had lunged forward, grabbing him in an unbreakable hold while redirecting the gun barrel away from Emily's direction. Paying little attention to Kingpin's struggling, Sergeant Kurtz used all of his remaining strength to aim the gun at a spot above their heads before forcing Kingpin's finger to squeeze against the gun's trigger. The released bullet shot into the air, cutting clean through a support wire that kept an overhead light fixture in place. Without the wire supporting it, the light toppled to the ground, landing atop the nearby storage rack. In a domino effect, the falling light forced some of the heavy boxes that had been stored there to fall off the storage rack, toppling right towards Sergeant Kurtz and Kingpin.
Officer Blackwood moved cautiously throughout the now-deserted hideout, his gun at the ready. All the captured gang members had been secured in the squad cars outside and were already on their way down to the station. However, a handful of the police squadron had stayed behind to ensure that no gang member had escaped, and Officer Blackwood had chosen to remain with that group out of concern for Emily, who still hadn't been located, and Sergeant Kurtz, who he hadn't heard from in over fifteen minutes. To Officer Blackwood's growing apprehension, he still hadn't found a single sign of the missing pair after, even though he and the others had been scouring the entire warehouse from top to bottom.
Finally, as he reached the furthermost corner of the building, he finally noticed something out of place at the very end of a row of storage racks. One of the supports for the overhanging light fixtures had apparently snapped in two, and the light had fallen atop the storage rack and the heavy looking boxes that had been placed there. Under the impact of the fallen light fixture, some of the boxes had clearly fallen off the storage racks. The moment he saw this, Officer Blackwood was nearly floored by an intense feeling of sudden foreboding. Hurrying forward, he rounded the corner to assess the full extent of the damage caused by the fallen boxes.
The first thing he saw was a lone figure hunched over, unmoving on the floor, with only an NYPD-issued police jacket covering her bare body. With a sickened jolt, Officer Blackwood recognized the figure as Emily.
"Mrs. Cohen!" Officer Blackwood spoke with relief, moving to her side as quickly as he could while still remaining alert. The officer was unable to hold back an angry growl when Emily didn't even blink in acknowledgement to his presence, and simply continued to stare blackly at nothing in particular. Like the rest of the police squadron who were there, he had been fully informed of what the Rat Fangs had put her through these past few days.
"Come on, Mrs. Cohen," Officer Blackwood spoke gently, carefully pulling Emily to her feet. "We're going to get you back home to your.…" Officer Blackwood's voice trailed off the moment he fully took in the scene in front of him. There, a few feet away, was the pile of boxes that had fallen from the top of the storage racks. At the very bottom of the pile were two men, neither of which were moving.
It took Officer Blackwood a full minute before the ice in his veins thawed enough for him to react, but the instant the feeling in his body returned, his hand went for his walkie talkie.
"Officer down! Officer down!" he bellowed, hurrying toward the still form of Sergeant Kurtz. "Get an ambulance on the scene, STAT!"