110
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Britt closed the door and shuffled across the back seat of the car, putting his hands on the backrest in front of him. Kato, in the driver's seat, was flipping switches and checking details before he put the key in the ignition.
"So first things first," Britt announced. "This car - back-up number one? It's now called - wait for it - it's now called The Black Beauty… Two. What do you reckon?"
"It's ok," Kato smiled.
"Great! This is going to be so cool," Britt wheezed, just a biscuit away from full-on squealing with excitement.
"If we get there and it goes bad, then… be careful. If we get split up, you run and I run and we meet up later, ok?"
"What? No way," Britt said, his face falling. "We don't get split up, dude - we're a team."
"Then you should hope that we can take out this drugs warehouse and not even have to get out of the car."
"Chill, dude! It'll be easy!"
Kato looked at the ceiling, shaking his head. Then he started the engine and revved it a few times.
"Love that sound!" Britt grinned. Kato pressed a button on the dashboard and the doors to the garage opened up, revealing the secret lane. Britt leant over and clapped a hand down on his shoulder. "Let's roll, Kato!"
The car glided out of the garage, down the dark pathway to the main road. A secret hedge opened up and it shot out into the traffic. The hedge closed again, two halves of a fake car closing up to cover the entrance.
"So you know where we're going?" Britt asked.
"I have the route. I know three ways to get back out in case one of them is blocked."
"Planning - I like it," Britt nodded. "So when we get there, I'm thinking we do like we have loads of times before, right? We bash through some windows, use some rockets on whatever their main control place seems to be, set fire to like everything, and then do a runner. What do you think?"
"It took you a whole day to think of that?"
"Impressive, right?" he grinned. Kato let out a chuckle, checking traffic and turning down a side road. "Oh my god - did you just laugh?" Britt teased. "Wow, dude. What happened, you get lucky tonight or something?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means did you and Amy get it on or what? Like finally hook up? Do the old horizontal dance?"
"I am not telling you that," he said, offended.
"But you did go and see her, right?"
He smiled slightly. "We watched a movie and we ate pizza."
"A movie? God I hope it wasn't on your crappy little TV set."
"No - she has a big TV."
Britt paused. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapping a message quickly. "What did she make you watch? A chick flick - like a romantic comedy?" He pressed Send.
"No - a really good movie about riot police and drug lords in Jakarta. They have to fight their way out of a building. It was really good! So many fights - very well done!"
"Wow - really?"
"Really. I find it for you. You will love it."
"Sounds like… she's a keeper," Britt said, surprised. He put his phone back in his pocket, then sat back slowly. "I'm happy for you, man. She sounds cool."
"She is cool." He paused, glancing in the rear view mirror at him. "How is the DA?"
"She's still eating and drinking everything and I keep emptying the bucket and taking her blankets," he said. "We need to seriously take out tonnes of these guys as soon as we can - I feel bad keeping her cooped up in a wine cellar."
The car turned again, crossing street after street, until it pulled into an alley way and slowed to a crawl. It chug-chugged its way down the tight space, coming out at the end to what looked like a private road.
"Ok - we are here," Kato said quietly. "It's that building there."
He brought the car to a stop and they peered through the front window.
A large warehouse was standing in front of them, watching them as if it didn't trust anyone or anything. One side of the building was open to the elements, appearing derelict and unloved.
Kato 'hmm'ed, sitting back. "I don't like it. Where is everyone?"
"Maybe underground, like Sapphire."
"Then we can't use the car."
"Or… can we?" Britt said. "They must have like a loading ramp or at least a parking floor, right?"
Kato brightened. "Right. Good thinking."
Britt slapped his shoulder and Kato edged the car forward. He checked the empty streets, found them cool and dour at just after midnight, and turned onto the road by the warehouse.
The car sloped down the street as if bored as the two occupants looked through the windows to study everything. Kato turned right and they checked the second side - and then the third.
He turned again to drive down the fourth side - and abruptly stamped on the brakes. The car rolled and bounced in surprise, Britt grabbing onto the backrest in front of him for support.
"What the hell, dude?"
"There," Kato said. "Look."
They peered through the dark windows to see metal roller shutters down over what looked like a two-car entrance.
Kato backed the car up, turned, and drove up to them. "You open it."
"Got it." Britt leapt out of the car, leaving the door open to rush to the buttons in a metal box by the brickwork. He puzzled over them for a moment before pressing a large green button. He turned to see the shutters grinding upwards slowly. He dashed back into the car, shutting the door quietly.
Kato waited until the shutters were barely high enough, then took the car under slowly. The green headlamps picked up concrete walls two feet high on either side, steering them down a winding lane that seemed to be heading down.
Eventually they came out to a car park, stanchions dotted about to keep the ceiling up, and nothing but a few metal barrels left around at odd intervals.
"So… they have another underground floor?" Kato guessed.
"There," Britt said, patting his shoulder and then pointing.
Amongst the dust on everything, the concrete chips that had fallen from the ceiling, the rubbish that had blown in from the street, a single metal door was waiting for attention. A wide circle around the door was brushed clean.
"That must be it - looks used," Britt said.
Kato took the car over carefully, leaving it close but pointed back toward the exit. He turned off the engine and looked over the seat of the car. "Ok - we go down there and do what? We can't use the rockets."
"No, but…" Britt straightened his hat, thinking. "We… Ok get this - we go down there real quiet, ok? Like ninjas. If they're processing drugs then they have flammable stuff, right? We cause a fire and we run like hell. We get back up here and hightail it home."
Kato looked undecided. "Sure?"
"What else do we got, dude?"
He nodded slowly. "Ok. But be careful."
"Thanks."
"If you are hurt you're too heavy to carry."
Britt tutted but Kato had already turned and opened his door. He slid out and closed it quietly, looking around. Britt scrambled out of the car and closed his door, pulling his coat straight.
.
.
She pulled on the straps round her ears, adjusting the face mask. "I'm telling you, she's gearing up for something," she said.
The man to her right grunted. "Says you."
"Yeah man - did you see the end of the last episode? Something's gonna go down and it's gonna hurt."
"Yeah but you know next week it's not airing, right?"
"What?" she demanded flatly.
"Yeah. Some political thing instead."
"Goddamn," she tutted. She paused, then looked over her left shoulder, back toward the far wall. "Did you leave the light on in the entrance again?"
"Not me."
"Those kids she gets in to help us refine this shit? They need to learn to use light switches." She peeled off her gloves and set them on the bench, turning and walking off.
He watched her go, shrugged to himself, and went back to his steady inspection of the many tubes and filters set up on the bench. Each tube went through a complicated rollercoaster route before it went off the workspace and back toward a wall full of large metal vats.
It was a few moments later that he paused and turned. He pulled up his safety goggles. "Maria?"
No-one answered.
He put down his pen and wandered over to the far door, seeing a light from underneath it. He put his hand on the doorknob and opened it up.
Two faces looked out at him - both wearing masks. He gasped in a deep breath. "Who—!"
A black and white fist shot out and smacked him into unconsciousness. He sank like a stone but four hands reached out and grabbed him. They pulled him through the door and lowered him gently to the ground. Britt looked around and realised there were a dozen more people at various work benches, wholly engrossed in their work.
Britt closed the door quickly. Between him and Kato, the man was hefted over to the unconscious Maria. They stood back and wiped gloved hands. "There are more people in there," he whispered. "We can't burn this place down with them in it."
Kato went back to the door, opening it a crack to peek through. He closed the door, looking at Britt. "So… we give them time to escape?"
"Yes - we make them run first. Then we set fire to stuff."
Kato nodded. He went to the door, but then paused and looked back at him. "How do we do that?"
Britt pulled on the rim of his hat, thinking. Then he looked at him. "They've got to have a couple of guys with guns, right? We bag one, we fire it, they all run like hell. How's that?"
"I don't think we have a choice."
"Ok then - let's go. Find a guard-like dude first."
"And if the others see us?"
"Don't knock them out - they won't be able to run."
Kato turned and looked down at the two incapacitated people. He slapped the back of his hand into Britt's front, waggling his fingers.
"What?" Britt asked.
"Name cards."
Britt grinned and pulled out two, handing them over. Kato bent down and slipped one each into the top pockets on the white lab coats. He straightened. "Ok, so these can't run because we knocked them out. We wake them up and they run back in there, cause trouble. We grab a gun, make everyone try to escape, then we set fire to everything. Plan?"
"Plan," Britt nodded.
.
.
He stepped back from all the lab coats currently pouring, mixing, checking, and filling in clipboards. Leaning back against the wall, he let his hand move from the butt of the gun in his holster and instead go inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes, shaking one free and fishing his lighter out of his trousers.
He slipped the cigarette in his mouth, put the packet away, and lit the end. Drawing in a deep breath, he blew it out past the cigarette, watching everyone carefully. He raised his watch and glanced at it before sighing and continuing to contemplate the room.
A door shot open so fast he heard it smack into a concrete wall. "Everyone run! We've been found! Run! Run!" screamed a voice.
The guard wrenched his gun free and cocked it, dropping the cigarette to grab his radio. "Everyone! Find that screamer and find out what's happening!"
Lab coats were moving and talking, starting to group together, move toward the back wall.
"Dan - it's Maria, the head," said his radio. "She says two masked men beat up her and Mike - they woke up and ran. What's going on?"
"Find the two men and kill them!" he shouted down the radio. He put a foot out to run toward the group of lab coats.
Something black shot round from behind him and belted him in the face. As he tumbled to the floor his gun went off.
Screaming started. The sounds of something crashing, glass smashing - the guard struggled to his feet. He saw lab coats now stampeding the exit.
He turned. A black boot collided with his head. He slammed into the floor and lay still.
Kato stepped back and raised a hand in the air, waving.
Britt, across the room, nodded and leapt out at the first person not wearing a lab coat. One solid punch to the face; the man went down like spaghetti from a tilted plate. He stepped over him and then crouched to find his gun.
One went off over his head. He ducked; he dived over the body of the fallen man. But when he looked over the top he saw the man with the gun already on the receiving end of a foot to his face, courtesy of Kato. Two other men rushed the man in black. Britt gasped and wrenched himself up.
As he found his feet Kato had already back-fisted one man in the face and spun to heave his boot into the other. They both went down but Kato turned again - and another guard was swiped to the floor by his foot.
"Whoa," Britt breathed.
Kato straightened his hat and looked around. Then he picked up one of the guns and checked it over. He fired it into the ceiling once, twice.
The last group of lab coats was already screaming and crowding the exit. Kato stood back, nodding to himself, then looked around. Guards were groaning and scrabbling to get to their hands and knees.
Britt got up and ran toward Kato. "Ok! Let's burn this place!"
Kato went to the nearest workbench. He put down the gun and tried to read the tags on the many glass tubes and bottles. "I don't know what any of this is," he blurted.
"Smash 'em all - just don't get splashed!" the Hornet said. He picked up one large glass container in both hands and threw it at the floor.
"Hey!" came a voice. He spun to see a man with a handgun. "Get out of here before I shoot you!" the guard warned.
"You get out of here before this place goes up! And tell your boss the Green Hornet sends his regards!"
The man raised the gun. Britt threw himself backwards over the bench. Glass and metal went flying. Shots buzzed all around him but he found himself on the floor and unhurt.
He looked through the legs of the bench. The man's feet were still there - but suddenly so were Kato's. One disappeared and a swift smack and a hurrgh told Britt that he should move.
A body crashed into the bench above him. He pushed himself out from under it and shot to his feet. He grabbed the man now lying on it and hauled him across to fall to the floor. He snatched up the man's gun and pointed it at him. "Now give her that message!" he shouted.
The man got to his hands and knees. He began to crawl off as fast as he could. Britt pocketed the gun. He turned and started shoving things off benches.
Kato bent at the waist, his hands on his knees, looking winded. Then he pushed himself up and copied him.
Finally Britt stood back. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and looked at Kato. "Get ready to run!"
Kato located the exit and started to sprint.
Britt grinned and flicked the lighter. He crouched and set the edge to a stain of odd-looking purple water on the floor.
It caught light immediately. He backed up and chased after Kato, and the two of them pounded through the exit.
They broke out into the parking floor. Britt was already to the car but Kato was behind him, puffing with exertion. He pulled open the driver's door and slid in as Britt slammed the back door shut.
"Go go go!" he grinned. He opened the window and tossed out a couple of name cards.
Kato started the car and it tore off, back up the winding exit lane as fast as he could without getting too close to the concrete edges.
"Aw shit!" Britt gasped, pointing up ahead.
"I see it! I'm driving!" Kato snapped, his eyes picking up all too well the way the metal shutters were coming down over the exit. He glanced down to his right and flipped a switch. Something whined with sudden power. He leant forward with an unexpected grunt and snapped a toggle switch.
A rocket flew out and hammered into the shutters. The force pushed them out and up even as it tore a gigantic rip in the middle. As the parts flew out to the sides, the car shot out onto the street unscathed.
It fishtailed as Kato brought it around. And then it streaked off, turning first one way, then another down the side streets.
They burst out onto the main road. Kato slowed the car abruptly, matching the sleepy speed of the midnight traffic as they made it down the main street.
"That was amazing!" Britt cried. He ripped off his hat, leaning over the front seat. "Dude you were like lightning, kicking people in the face, punching them out! Awesome!" He slapped a hand on Kato's shoulder.
He grunted with effort, hissing. Britt lifted his hand, coming forward and looking over the seat at him. "You ok, dude?"
"I thought I was," he managed, his voice laboured. "But now I think - I'm not."
Britt climbed over the seat, pushing himself into the front passenger side. He found Kato with his left hand on the wheel, his right clamped to his side. "Shit - let me see." He lifted Kato's glove and found torn cloth - and blood. "Holy shit - you're hurt alright. What was it, glass?"
"It can't be glass - I'm wearing the body armour," he hissed.
"A gun then?"
"Body armour!" Kato cried in anger.
"Ok, alright - get us back to the garage. I'll call in Lenore, get some help on the quiet."
Kato said nothing, just pursed his lips and sped up a little.
Britt climbed back over the seat to sit in the darkness of the car. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit the phone app, scrolling through to find her number. He pressed it and pushed it to his ear. "Come on… Come on… Oh! Lenore!"
"How'd it go?" she asked quickly.
"We did ok but Kato's hurt. Can you get someone to the garage?"
"What do you mean he's hurt! Hurt how?"
"I don't know - a cut or something. It looks bad - there's blood everywhere." He glanced up to see Kato watching him in the rear view mirror. "But what do I know - I'm not a medical doctor," he added louder. "We need a real person to check him, confirm that it's nothing."
"Shit - I'll meet you at the garage." The line clicked.
Britt looked up. He climbed back over the seat and yanked a bandana from the top pocket of his coat. He folded it and then pressed it into the blood now leaking quite freely from Kato's side.
"Ow! Shit!" he snapped.
"Sorry dude but it's all I can do until we get back, ok?"
Kato's mouth sealed shut in a thin line.
Britt looked out of the front window. "C'mon, c'mon - home has gotta be round the next corner, right?"
