The lonely sound of a fog horn and the echoing clang of some bell were the only noises out on the docks this late at night. Thick fog hovered just over the surface of the obsidian black water. Wavelets lapped at the concrete walls of the wharf, making slapping and rushing noises. Streetlights were placed at long intervals, their golden glow muted by the mist that curled up and around the posts. City lights from across the bay testified to the busy nightlife of New York. In the distance I could see the Statue of Liberty, her torch a beacon against the starless night. The taxi driver had sped away as quickly as possible, obviously just as unnerved by the deserted waterfront as I was.
I shivered and pulled my shawl closer around my shoulders. An errant night breeze toyed with the hem of my skirt, whipping long locks of my hair to tease my face. For a moment, I closed my eyes and inhaled the salty sea scent, trying to ignore the goosebumps rising on my skin and the tingling feeling along my spine.
"This place still creeps me out." Ryo breathed, his voice sounding oddly loud in the deep silence.
"Still?" Sage inquired in a whisper. What was it about these surrounding that made us keep our voices down?
"Yeah, I used to hang out around here a lot during late nights." He admitted.
Rowen shuddered, eyes darting wildly around. He plainly was not used to such surroundings.
"Sage?" I asked, turning to face him. "Did you hear what dock we should be at?"
He grimaced as he realized that we could have just asked the driver to take us there instead of walking it. "Dock 18A." He replied, totally chagrined. "Sorry, it just slipped my mind."
"No big deal." I looked around, spotting the wharf designation. "We're at 14C right now, so it's not too long a walk."
A few moments later I was ready to eat those words. I'd dressed this evening for a social gathering, not a hike. Women's shoes may look attractive, but they pinch like nobody's business. I found myself wincing with every step, wishing I could just stop, strip off the shoes and take care of the cramps.
The thud thud of our footsteps echoed eerily off the walls of warehouses. I frowned internally, not liking the amount of noise the four of us made. If anyone heard us coming….
From somewhere up ahead there came a thud followed by a sharp sounding crack and a string of muffled curses. I shot a glance at Sage, who nodded curtly. I understood perfectly.
"Come on." I hissed to Rowen and Ryo, pulling them both into the shadows of a warehouse doorway. Sage went on ahead, making absolutely no sound in the shadows. For a moment, I felt a pang of jealousy. Why couldn't I ever move that silently?
It took me about two minutes to realize that I certainly wasn't going to just sit there! I sighed and wished once more for a pair of sneakers, high heels just made too much of a clicking noise when moving.
As quietly as possible, I crept forward, right hand searching blindly through my handbag for my gun. I didn't want to have to use it, but not having it out to use if need be would have been infinitely worse. Behind me, I could hear Ryo and Rowen. The odd thing was they weren't making much noise. It almost made me wonder what kind of past experiences either of them had had.
We drew up behind Sage, behind a piled up heap of crates, some empty, some full or partially so. He moved to the side a little and let me take a look.
What the…? I blinked in surprise and watched the scene before me with a certain degree of disbelief.
Just ahead of us, perhaps fifty feet away, two men were unloading a truckload of boxes, and it seemed to me they were taking extra care with the cargo. Both of them were dressed nondescriptly. One was tall and brown haired, and the other short and sandy blonde. My curiosity swallowed me whole; I was just dying to know what the crates contained.
"What do you think they're up to?" Ryo's voice tickled my ear. I shrugged without turning around, frowning openly.
Just then, the taller man cursed loudly as his grip on the edge of the crate slipped; the late night mist had condensed on the surface, making it slippery. His half of the box hit the pavement, cracking audibly. Sealed packets of a powdery white substance spilt from the fissure. The man scrambled wildly to scoop them up before the damp stone could affect the cargo.
"You bloody idiot!" The second man swore, setting his edge carton down gingerly. He crossed over to the first man and cuffed him upside the head. "Do you realize how much money you could have just lost us?! You are one lucky bastard; the goods weren't damaged."
The other guy just cringed and hastily crammed the packets back into the box. "It was an accident!"
"And it may yet cost you your head if the boss sees!" The blonde man snorted in disgust and shook his head. "C'mon, we're already running behind, we'd better get moving.
I heard the soft whisper of a muffled curse from behind me, and turned my head to see expressions of rage on both Rowen and Ryo's faces. Rowen's hands were shaking and that slightly near the edge look was back in his eyes.
I guess my puzzlement must have shown, for Ryo shook his head and leaned forward.
"Cocaine." He hissed. I felt my insides turn to a lump of ice. It looked like Sage's hunch earlier had turned out to be true; they were receiving a drug shipment tonight. I shot a look at my blonde partner, who's face was utterly expressionless as he watched the scene before us.
"Got an idea?" I asked as quietly as I could. "We can't just sit here and let them get away with this stuff."
"Remember you told me to call for police backup." He replied, though I had to strain to hear. "I did. We just have to make sure they don't escape before the cops arrive." For some reason I didn't much like the tone of his voice when he said that.
Silence fell again, a quiet so deep that the ominous creaking noise from over our heads was horribly loud. All four of us craned our necks back and stared aghast as the top of the pile of crates we were hiding behind began to sway. The strain of four people leaning against it was throwing off the balance up top.
I gasped aloud as the topmost crate toppled off of the stack, catching more boxes as it went and bringing down most of the precariously stacked containers with it.
"What the hell?!" The man who'd been berating his partner turned and narrowed his eyes as the tower crumbled.
"There's somebody back there!" The other exclaimed. He reached back behind him into the truck he and his cohort were loading the drugs into, and withdrew a long, dark, shape. My eyes went wide as the barrel of the gun swerved to aim directly at our hiding place. My ears just barely registered the 'click' of the safety being disengaged…but by the time he opened fire I was halfway to the pavement, yanking both Sage and Ryo along with me, praying that Rowen had the sense to drop.
Hollywood gunfire and Real Life gunfire are two entirely different things. In the movies, all you hear is this cute little snapping noise, like a firecracker. But listening to it on a DVD and being barely thirty feet away from a maniac opening fire with what had to be an automatic rifle of some sort are two totally different things. The roar of a spray of bullets shredding the wooden crates to pulp tore viciously at my eardrums. I covered my head with my hands and pressed my face into the concrete, praying that the gun-toting man would be aiming for abdomen height, and not a foot off the ground. Chips of wood rained down on us. I heard the distinctive ping of ricocheting bullets and shards of debris as they whizzed just barely overhead.
After an eternity, there was a clicking sound as the clip ran out and the man ejected it and slapped in another. I took that time to look around at my companions, all of whom had taken the 'heads down' position as well. I breathed a quick prayer as I noticed that no one was hurt any worse than a scratch or graze. Rowen seemed to have seen the shots coming before the rest of us; not only had he hit the dirt, but was also partially sheltered by the corner of the building we were up against.
"Hey whoa!" The short man cried. "Talk about overkill! What the hell do you think you're doing?! The cops'll be here in a second!"
"If they weren't already!" Came the angry retort. "What do you think made those boxes fall?!"
"We'll argue later. Right now we have to get out of here before we're caught."
"Mia we have to stop them!" I heard Ryo rasp out. His voice was slightly strangled considering that he was tilting his head back from his position on the ground. None of us had gotten back to our feet yet.
I looked around wildly, noticing my handbag lying near Rowen. I met his eyes and nodded, and he kicked out, sending it skidding my way. I grabbed it up and hastily withdrew my little 9mm Kurz. It sure wasn't going to do much damage, unless I managed to hit somewhere vital. But I didn't want to kill those men, I just didn't want them to escape before the police arrived. Already I could hear the sounds of the truck engine firing up.
"The'a gonna get away!" Rowen hissed. And then the engine sputtered, and coughed. I felt a relieved grin pull at my lips. Our luck was holding.
"Sage what've you got?" I asked, not bothering to keep my voice down much as there was little chance our quarry could hear us over the noise of the engine.
"22cal." He answered back, drawing the gun from his jacket.
"Spray or Slug?" I inspected my little pistol, relieved to find a full clip.
"Slug, I don't want to take out the entire area. They've done enough damage."
There was another clinching sound, and I turned to see Rowen with something in his hand. My estimation of the businessman rose a few notches; he had the good sense not to attend Mob gatherings without some kind of protection.
"Am I the only one here without a gun?!" Ryo muttered, but not resentfully. I got the feeling he didn't believe in shooting someone from a distance, but preferred hand-to-hand.
"Looks like it." My reply was slightly absent. "Sage take out the wheel okay? They'll have to get out to look, and we need all the time we can buy."
Ryo and Rowen both plugged their ears, which were probably still ringing from the earlier firing. I had my attention on the truck, so I didn't see Sage shoot, but I watched as the back left tire went out with an angry hissing noise. A stream of loud cursing issued from somewhere in the cab. They had to have heard the shot, and knew that the adversary they'd thought to be gone was still out there.
"Nice shot." Rowen murmured appreciatively as both men scrambled from the truck cab and dug their weapons from the back.
I sucked in a gasp from between my teeth when I recognized the guns. I hadn't realized Arago could afford to outfit his lackeys with AK-47s…
I decided about then that I was in over my head.
From somewhere in the distance, there came the faint wailing of police sirens. The scream grew steadily louder, keening a warning to the two armed men who stood before us. Though they couldn't see the four people hiding behind the remains of the crate pile, we could see them quite clearly. They exchanged a look and came to the obvious decision: Run like the proverbial bat outta hell.
"Let's get outta here!" One shouted, turning tail to flee. I narrowed my eyes and clicked off the safety. The cops wouldn't be here in time, and unless we did something, we'd lose them.
My eyes narrowed and I found myself taking measurement instinctively. My index finger squeezed the trigger lightly, and my arms tensed to take the inevitable backlash.
The taller, brown haired man screamed and lurched forward as the bullet connected with the back of his left knee. He hit the ground hard, his rifle flew from his hands and skittered away, spinning towards the edge of the docks and splashing into the bay. His companion didn't even look back, he just kept on running like there was a demon hot on his heels.
"Damn." I muttered, disgusted at the shorter man's cowardice. I just hoped we could afford to lose him, and that he hadn't gotten a good look at me or my companions. I was almost sure that he worked for Arago or one of the lesser Mob bosses, but we didn't need anyone connecting my small PI agency to this bust.
With a squeal of tires and a burst of flashing lights, three cop cars wheeled into the dock-space next to the getaway truck and the loading van. Uniformed police officers spilt from the cars, the majority of them going over to inspect the cargo of drugs. I heard a lot of startled exclamation as the LEOs* realized what a huge load they were dealing with.
"Looks like the cavalry's finally here." Rowen remarked, his firearm vanishing to wherever he'd drawn it from.
"Late as usual." Sage said dryly, watching as two cops knelt by the man I'd felled and turned him carefully over onto his back.
Another policeman noticed the group of four people standing by the wreckage of the crates and approached us. I tensed up, really not wanting an interrogation just now.
"Oh no…" I heard Rowen sigh. A quick glance back his way showed me he was unusually tense and pale. The answer clicked together in my mind. He'd told me himself that he had some ties to the Mob, and if news of this leaked out to them…he'd be in deep. Real deep.
I was trying to put together some kind of feasible cover story, but then I recognized the cop heading our way, and grinned in relief. There could be no mistaking the stocky frame, ash black hair, and cobalt eyes.
"Kento!" I waved, a wide smile on my face. My old friend did a comic double take, then stared openly at me.
"Mia?!" He demanded incredulously, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?!" Then his gaze locked on Sage, and an expression of utter disbelief appeared on his face. His mouth moved, but he couldn't seem to find any words.
"First Kayla, now Kento." I sighed, giving Sage a rueful look. "You just seem to have that effect on people."
"The look on your face was priceless too." He chuckled.
"What…how…what the hell is going on here?!" Kento demanded, thoroughly puzzled by this point. His eyes flickered from myself and my blonde partner, to the two young men who stood behind us like shadows. Ryo seemed to shrink back against the darkness beyond the pool of gold from the streetlight. I wondered again about his past; why would he feel he had to avoid all police officers? Sometime in the near future we were going to have to have a talk about that.
Rowen also seemed to try to hide, but there wasn't much he could do to conceal that shock of azure hair. Kento's eyes narrowed in recognition.
"Suppose you explain to me why you're out on the docks at midnight, with a dead man, a rich guy, and some street punk…and you might want to tell me why there's a truckload of crack right over there as well." He said mildly, fixing me with a deceptively calm gaze. I sighed inwardly, knowing that the man was as stubborn and patient as stone, and wouldn't let up until he got a satisfactory answer out of me.
I groaned aloud and palmed at my face. A long moment passed before I decided the best thing to do would be to tell Kento the truth. Whether or not he chose to believe it was entirely up to him. However, I had to consider a few other things before letting the cat out of the proverbial bag.
"Fine fine." I caved, but held up a cautionary finger as an expression of triumph crossed Kento's face. "I'll spill, but not here. And I have to get a promise out of you first."
"What would that be?"
"As you can probably tell," I began. "My blue-haired friend over here doesn't really need this kind of publicity. All I want from you is your word that he won't be involved in your report on this bust. The press hasn't gotten here yet, but I don't want any of our names appearing in tomorrow's papers, check? It'd be really bad for everyone concerned if that happened."
Kento have me a searching look, as if trying to figure why I would request such a thing. The silence stretched on for a minute or so, the sounds of the police not thirty feet away seeming oddly distant. Finally he spoke.
"Whatever's going on, you're in pretty deep, aren'tcha Mia?" He inquired, a sudden insight that didn't surprise me much. Most people mistook my friend for a stereotypical jock; all muscle and no brains. But there was a shrewd mind behind the calm demeanor. If there hadn't been, he wouldn't be as high up in the force as he was.
"Pretty much." I admitted, fidgeting with the hem of my shawl for a moment. "Do you know the Subway™ on the corner of 3rd and Broadway?" I waited for the nod of assent before continuing. "Meet us there when you get off shift. When is that?"
"Give me about half an hour." Kento promised. He indicated the scene behind us with a grimace of distaste. "I'll take any excuse to ditch the paperwork that's gonna come with this little bust." He smiled warmly at me, chuckling under his breath. "We could use the catchin' up anyway." Kento turned to leave, but stopped and faced Sage for a moment before speaking. "I knew you weren't dead…you're just too damn smart to get yourself killed like that."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment." Sage grinned, ignoring the mystified expression on Rowen's face. I had to try not to laugh; I'd forgotten that the young man knew practically nothing about any of us.
"The Subway™ it is then." I said decisively. "I think maybe we ought to change first." I eyed my three companions meaningfully, simultaneously brushing self consciously at the front of my dress. The fabric was damp from the ground and ripped slightly around the hem. The guys' tuxes weren't in much better shape.
"That can wait." Ryo shook his head. "We didn't get out of that skirmish totally unharmed."
I took a closer look at him, noticing for the first time the trickle of blood dripping from a shallow graze wound on his temple. Rowen's left pant leg was slashed just below the knee, and I caught sight of a stain on the dark cloth.
"Right." I nodded in agreement. "First aid first…and by then we should just head for the Subway™ and worry about changing later."
As we quickly left the scene before anyone else noticed us, Rowen fell into stride beside me.
"Ya sure lead an…intahresting life Ms. Koji." There was a ghost of a smile in his voice.
"Believe me, I'm beginning to prefer boring."