Chapter 13

A Hope And A Prayer

Ironside sat in his van, slumped down in his wheelchair, his arms cross and glaring at the floor.

They were going too slowly!

So what if the van handled like a bumper car with concrete shock absorbers? That was no reason for them to be going so FLAMIN' SLOWLY! They had to get to the Gun Club!

He'd checked with HQ, and as many the cars as were in the area would be at the Club soon, but he had no idea exactly when; maybe they would get there before the van. Maybe not. He had to plan for either eventuality.

Ironside had doubts about any delay, but he couldn't go in without any backup at all; a few years ago, there had been a time when he would have done exactly that but now, stuck in his wheelchair, that was impossible.

If Ed had been here, it would have been his job to go in and make sure the arrests were made cleanly. Ironside had the seeking suspicion that Ed hated always being the one who had to deputise for the Chief in these situations, although there wasn't usually any other way, and Ed had never complained, not to his face anyway.

As they waited at a red light, the thought that they were going to be too late crossed Ironside's mind. What if he was? What if he wasn't?

At the moment, Ed was likely still alive. Mark's abrupt call, and it had been Mark he was certain, came as unexpected good news, but the relief he'd felt was only fleeting. There wasn't much time left. And with such a short deadline, there was no time for finesse and little else Ironside could do but go in with as many men as he could, and hope for the best.

The van lurched forward again.

At least Mark would be expecting them. There were questions, of course. How had Mark been there? How did he know? He hadn't mentioned Ed, but Ironside made the link anyway. But did Mark know what was going on? There was an outside chance that it was something else.

Whichever way it was going to play, Mark was at the Gun Club, and that was where Ron Lincoln had gone; the connection was too good to ignore. The Gun Club was perfect, and Ironside was sure that was where they'd find Ed too, whatever shape he was in.

Ed was fit and strong, he had a good reach as well, being so tall, and he knew how to handle himself. But though he knew the moves, he wasn't a professional fighter, and against someone who'd been trained to fight and who wanted to kill, he would struggle to last for long. And he might be pushed into fighting back; it wasn't as if Ed hadn't killed in the line of duty before. But one-on-one like this, no holds barred until one of them fell? That was different.

A moment of self-recrimination was all he allowed himself, barely even a minute. He should never have let Eve go out last night; and he shouldn't have assigned Ed to tail her, not without knowing more about what was going on. He'd been too quick to jump to conclusions about Carlson, something that he did not usually do. He'd acted without getting more information, and he'd been fooled into thinking the way he was supposed to think. He drew a short breath, forcing his anger back into its place. Regret wasn't going to do any good. If only they could get this over with, he could worry about regret later, in private, when people weren't relying on him to do his job.

Ironside's face remained set as he looked out of the van's window, silently urging the driver to go faster.

-xxx-

Ed felt like panicking. More than that, he felt like he should be panicking. But instead, he sat half-upright on the floor, his fingers splayed out on the fluffy carpet, looking up at the men in the doorway.

He didn't react to the unexpected arrival of the two men, beyond a slight movement of his head. He had no idea he would take this so calmly. Maybe it was the Ephedrine. Maybe it was the scotch. But deep down, he knew it was too late to do anything else.

Paxton was there, and the man Paxton had referred to as Archie as well, blocking his only way out.

Mikey rose, crossing his arms as he did.

'You've got a lot of goddamn explaining to do, Paxton!' he snarled.

'Mikey? What's going on?'

'I've found out!' spat Mikey. 'I know who the cop is!' There was silence. 'Chief Robert Ironside is his goddamn boss!'

Everyone, Ed included, turned to look at Peter Paxton. He looked back at the group without a trace of concern.

'And who told you that?' snarled Paxton. Ed held his breath, expecting Mikey to point the finger at Mark. But instead, Mikey jerked his thumb in Ed's direction and Paxton gave Ed an extremely unpleasant look.

'So what?' said Paxton, pulling his gaze away from Ed. 'Why should that bother us?' Ironside isn't gonna find us.'

'You son of a bitch, you did know!'

'Calm down, Mikey!'

'How are we supposed to be calm? This is bad, man, real bad! It's trouble!'

'There's gonna be no trouble if you keep your cool, Mikey.'

'Keeping your cool isn't going to help! Ironside's not just any old cop with a shiny badge and an open hand, and he's gonna come after us. And he's gonna find us!'

The pride Ed had felt earlier returned, and he would have smiled if his mouth and face hadn't hurt so much.

'Calm down, Mikey' Paxton said more loudly.

Mikey took a step towards the man beside Paxton, his palms upwards to the ceiling. As he moved, Ed had to blink hard to try and keep him in focus.

'Archie, can't you see? This is it. C'mon man, you can't do this and live.'

But Archie looked back at Mikey with a blank stare and shrugged.

'I don't care. Cop's gonna get it!'

Paxton gave Mikey a nasty grin.

'It's going down,' Paxton said. 'Ironside's boy or not, there's no other way.'

'You can't do this to us, Pete!'

'You're panicking because it's Ironside? So what if it's Ironside!'

'But…'

'No one had picked up a hint of anything until we wanted them too. We can get round Ironside!'

'How can you say that? You know his rep on the street, man!'

'No one is infallible.'

'If they find Archie, he is going to the gas chamber!'

Paxton swooped over to beside Mikey, looming large in Ed's distorted vision.

'We're all going to the gas chamber if we're caught!' Paxton said with a hiss. 'I know that as well as anyone else. There's no need to loose your cool over this. Ironside is just a cop.'

He and Mikey glared at each other, Mikey's fists thrust down and rigid by his side, the knuckles white.

Any moment, Ed expected Mikey to say something about Mark, since it was clear to Ed that Mark had been the instigator in this. But Mikey just looked at Paxton, disgust and fury on his face. High as a cloud, Ed was still in control enough to know that he couldn't afford to give them any hint about Mark. He didn't even dare look at the other man, and neither Paxton nor Mikey were aware of anyone but each other.

There was silence for what felt like hours to Ed, stretching out in the most improbable of ways. For how long could two men stand and glare at each other?

Then Mikey looked away first, down to the floor.

'Good, so that's settled then,' Paxton said firmly. 'Let's get this over with!'

It took Ed a couple of seconds to realise what Paxton meant, and by that time Archie had grabbed Ed's arm and started to drag him towards the door. As Ed tried to fight back, Paxton caught his other arm, twisting it behind his back with considerable force.

'Man, this is gonna be easy,' Ed heard Archie mutter as he was pulled forward.

'Just make it look good,' said Paxton in a low voice. 'They've paid for this privilege, remember!'

The next door opened, the other room was almost the same as he remembered it, except for a dull murmuring and shuffling of feet. As he was brought forward, the noise petered out, and all the men stepped back against the wall.

As he stood there in the burning white light, Ed caught sight of Mark moving to the far end with Mikey just behind, and he forced himself not to watch what his colleague was doing. He had bigger problems at the moment, and he knew that he couldn't rely on Mark to help; if Mark's cover was blown Paxton would probably just shoot them both and be done with it. He had to deal with this himself, on his own.

The room went quiet, a sense of anticipation crushing down on Ed. Then his arms were released and he was pushed forward, and staggered slightly. The edges of the room slid out of focus and his heartbeat was still racing.

Archie was close by his side, facing him. The silence held as they stood there. Archie looked Ed in the eye; there was no gloating or jeering expression, his opponent seemed almost disinterested in what was happening. Ed looked back, aware that his breathing was short and shallow; his hands were shaking. There was no way out of this. He really had to fight for his life. Oh God…

Suddenly Archie swung with his right hand. Ed recognised a feint, and sure enough the left came round a moment later, and Ed was able to block it with his arm. But even that was unexpectedly painful, making his forearm slightly numb. As he staggered, the right hook came round again, lower this time, and catching him just below his ribs.

Ed gasped as pain spread through his torso. It was sore, but not as sore as it should have been. He looked up and saw Archie grinning.

He stepped back a half-step, never taking his eyes of the other man. Archie stepped forward to attack again and they traded punches and blocks for about a minute, not doing any real damage. Ed felt the shaking growing less, he was getting more control, at least for the moment. His opponent had to have a weakness, and it didn't take Ed long to figure out what it was. Archie wasn't putting his full strength into his attack, and he was starting to get sloppy, not keeping his guard up as high, and not keeping moving. Occasionally he would cast a fleeting look towards Paxton, presumably for approval.

But for Ed nothing else mattered; just staying on his feet and staying alive mattered. That was all, and he could keep focus on that. Archie underestimated him, that was clear enough from his stance, and Ed would keep playing to that advantage for as long as he could.

He had no idea for how long they fought, playing cat and mouse, but somehow Ed always lost more than he gained. His face hurt, his sides hurt and every breath he took made everything more painful. Any injury he'd caused Archie didn't appear to bother the man, as if he couldn't feel it. Perhaps he didn't. A nasty though occurred to Ed; perhaps he wasn't the only one drugged up for this display.

Eventually, there was noise from outside his narrow window of perception; perhaps it was someone speaking, Ed couldn't be sure. Archie then hunched himself forward, taking a more aggressive stance and he lashed out again, left, right, left in quick succession, much faster and harder than he had before. The second and third punches found their targets and Ed staggered, the agonising pain in his jaw taking him by surprise. He vision blurred and he dropped his guard, lifting his hand to his eyes.

With a low growl, Archie thrust his right fist out in a lightning attack, and Ed didn't see it coming until it was almost too late.

Somehow, though he wasn't sure quite how he'd done it, Ed was fast enough to move back and avoid the wild swing. He felt the cold rush of air as the fist whizzed past his nose.

As Archie scowled, Ed stepped back, out of range of his jab, the pain in his face slightly less. His own racing heartbeat was almost all that Ed could hear, but distant in the background he thought there was a slight cheer, just fuzzy noise.

Archie swung again in a combination, with Ed only managing to block two out of the four punches. They hurt, but again it wasn't as painful as if could have been, the power had gone out of Archie's arm.

There was no doubt about it now. He was being toyed with; Archie was doing as Paxton wanted, and stringing it out for as long as he could, slowly weakening him until he could go in for the kill. The thought made Ed shudder. He was just entertainment.

There was a cry from somewhere outside the room, but Ed paid no attention; he couldn't afford to let his guard down and stayed completely focused on his opponent.

So when Archie glanced to the side, Ed struck out with a right hook, fast and hard, swinging his shoulders to get more power, and catching Archie by surprise for the first time.

The other man reeled back with a howl of surprised and pain. But he turned to face Ed, his face was livid with anger, blood streaming down his chin from a cut on his lip.

Ed recoiled from the violence and rage in the other man's eyes. He really was going to kill. And this was a fight Ed was never going to win unless he was a ruthless as his opponent, unless he too fought with the intention of killing. As that realisation hit Ed, Archie launched himself forward, grabbing at Ed's throat, and trying to knock him over.

There was another shout, and this time the word caught Ed's attention: Cop.

For the first time since the fight started, Ed looked around, seeing what was happening to everyone else. The other men were moving in a panicking mass. Mark was still there, but there was a great deal of confusion. Ed caught sight of Peter Paxton, white faced and backing away towards the door.

Suddenly, Archie cannoned into him, knocking him backwards against the wall, and knocking the breath out of him once more.

Mark started forward, Ed saw him out of the corner of his eye. But he was too dazed to do anything but stare as Archie bore down on him, his hands tight around Ed's throat, crushing his windpipe.

Ed might have blacked out for a moment, as the next thing he knew he was propped up against the wall, the pressure on his throat was gone, as was Archie. There was a loud shout.

People were everywhere, far more than there were when this show had started, but as he pushed himself up, he saw Mark on the floor close by looking dazed with Archie standing over him, lifting his fist and about to bring it down across Mark's face. Without hesitation, Ed threw himself towards the two men, hooking his arm around Archie's waist and tackling him to the ground, away from Mark.

Carried by his own momentum, there was nothing Ed could do to slow his fall. He was going to land at a bad angle, partly underneath his opponent, and it was going to hurt!

A fraction of a second later, Ed's side hit the concrete and he was crushed under Archie's considerable weight. He would have cried out in pain and surprise, but the force of the impact had knocked most of the air out of his lungs already, so he only gave a small wheeze.

Aware that Archie had the advantage, he tried to get himself out as fast as he could, but to his surprise, though Archie moved, there was no attack.

Instead, there was the blur of fast movement. He saw many more people that there had been a few moments ago, and suddenly Archie was pulled off him. Ed looked up in a daze to the man who had helped, with a vague feeling of recognition. He looked at the sea of motion behind, realising that these men were cops! The white noise suddenly snapped into focus, and Ed hear them talking, giving orders, and making arrests. Archie was pulled away and handcuffed as Ed watched, Peter Paxton already being pulled towards the door.

Ed blinked hard, or tried to. He looked up to the plainclothes officer that had Archie by the arm, and gave the ghost of a smile.

'You can take it easy, Sergeant Brown,' said an unfamiliar voice. 'Everything's under control.'

Ed nodded faintly. Then Mark appeared at his side, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

'Hey, man!' he said to Ed, gripping his shoulder gently, but the touch still sent a lance of pain across Ed's back. 'Hey man, it's good to see you in one piece. You fight well for a cop, you know that?'

In response, Ed gave a half-nod and closed his eyes, letting his head drop forward, overcome a relief that he didn't want anyone to see.

It was over.

Ed stayed still, comforted by the presence of his friend and the other officers, willing his heart to stop racing. He ached just about everywhere he could still feel, but somehow it was all too far away to really matter. He let the sounds of the other officers doing their work wash past him. He could worry about it all a little later; just now he had to concentrate on not being sick.

But then there was the sound of metal wheels on concrete, and that made Ed open his eyes.

The Chief himself loomed in the doorway, looking between Ed and Mark as they sat side by side on the floor. Ed stared back, slightly dazed, but Ironside did not smile, and his expression was one of fury and disgust.

The relief Ed had felt just a moment before vanished, the enormous feeling of guilt that he'd had earlier coming back. He might be still alive, but he wasn't out of trouble yet!

-xxx-