This chapter operates in parallel with Chapter 59: Sleep of the Vigilante – Day 2 of my other story: Forsaken which should be read first . . .
The next day
Tuesday, July 29th, 2014
The following takes place between Midnight and 5:00 A.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
Mindy kept waking up.
That bastard, D'Amico, was constantly on her mind and she could hear that Chloe was restless, too. What nightmares did D'Amico have waiting for them?
Hopefully, his new nightmares would be no worse than those she had already.
The following takes place between 5:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
5:42 A.M.
Dave just called, and he told Mindy about the firehouse being bombed.
D'Amico was escalating; that was not good, and Dave had agreed. He had been very worried when Mindy had told him about the explosion, just the previous night.
Mindy promised that she and Chloe would look after each other and stay safe.
The following takes place between 6:00 A.M. and 7:00 A.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
6:12 A.M.
Mindy finally found out what the explosion was, the previous night.
It was an FDNY fire boat that was blown up. D'Amico being as creative as ever. Quite a few firefighters were dead, needlessly. However, that small act had caused a lot of fear across the city as D'Amico had most probably planned. Mindy really was shocked at the depths to which D'Amico would go to cause trouble.
Targeting the Police and the Fire Department was just wrong.
The following takes place between 7:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
Mindy woke Chloe up and they spent the next couple of hours training and training.
They had to be better than anything that D'Amico could throw at them.
9:05 A.M.
They were both dripping sweat and very hungry.
The two girls showered, and they had a good breakfast, before sitting down to talk things through and work out a plan for finding and taking down Ralph D'Amico.
The following takes place between 10:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
10:22 A.M.
Mindy came to a decision.
"Chloe, call that brat of a boyfriend of yours, and tell him to meet you down the block," she directed.
"He's not my boyfriend . . . well, maybe he is . . ." Chloe stopped talking and picked up her cell while Mindy grinned and she went slightly red.
10:47 A.M.
The Safehouse door clicked open and Chloe entered, followed by Joshua.
"This must be quite a novelty for you, Joshua," Mindy teased.
"Why?"
"Not having to break into one of my Safehouses."
"Funny!" Joshua responded, looking around. "So, this is where you trained; I knew there had to be another place."
"He's not as stupid as he looks, is he?" Mindy responded, slightly impressed. "Okay, Joshua, I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt, at least for now."
"We want you to help us. We're going up against Ralph D'Amico," Chloe explained.
"Suits me fine; he killed my Dad. I'll do whatever you want, Hit Girl," Joshua replied, then he smirked. "Within reason, of course."
"Wind down your hormones, Joshua, I have some body armour for you. Much better than the crap you've been using," Mindy said.
The following takes place between 11:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M.
The D'Amico Apartment Building, New York City
11:42 A.M.
Joshua was now wearing body armour under his normal clothes which made him look a little larger than usual, but otherwise he looked normal – for him anyway.
He was there as backup for Chloe, while Mindy stayed hidden, a block away. She had loaned Joshua a spare concealed communications earbud and she had shown him how to use it. Chloe would not be armed, at all, for the reconnaissance; that had included removing her Balisong, which she only did reluctantly, and Mindy had it in Her pocket, along with Chloe's FN Five-seveN pistol and holster. She did not want Chloe caught by a corrupt cop while armed. Joshua, she really did not care about, so he was armed with his/her Glock 26, which she had recovered from Marcus.
Chloe looked just like any other kid, walking down the street. Mindy watched her closely through some binoculars, from her cover. Chloe was her typically brazen self and she walked without any hesitation, directly up to the building and straight up to the main doors, before the doorman turned her away. Chloe swore at the man, before setting off in the direction she had been walking.
Mindy was actually very impressed; Chloe did really well and Mindy hoped no suspicion would be attached to her.
The following takes place between 12:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
12:32 P.M.
Joshua and Mindy were back at the Safehouse first.
Chloe came in giggling, a few minutes later.
"I enjoyed that," she stated with a mischievous grin on her face.
Mindy hesitated, she had not seen Chloe like that before, but apparently Joshua had.
"What did you do this time?" Joshua asked with an exasperated tone.
"I'll trade ya," Chloe said, ignoring Joshua and holding out her hand to Mindy.
"You had better not have done anything stupid," Mindy cautioned, handing back both her Balisong and the holstered pistol.
Chloe just smiled as she dumped a disassembled cell phone onto the kitchen table.
"You lifted the doorman's mobile phone?" Joshua blurted out.
Mindy was actually rather impressed. It had never occurred to her to do that. Chloe had also thought to remove both the battery and the SIM card, so nobody could track the phone.
"You clever, little, brazen bitch!" Mindy exclaimed, giving Chloe a hug.
The girl was good, really good. Then a thought occurred to Mindy.
"Where and when, did you learn to lift things from people's pockets?" she asked.
"Let's just say a girl needs to keep some secrets, eh, Hit Girl," Chloe replied, looking a little shy.
"You knew Chloe had been up to something?" Mindy asked, looking at Joshua.
"Yeah, I've seen that look before, when she's done something out of the ordinary and usually bad or naughty," Josh replied.
"Such as?" Mindy hinted.
"Joshua, open your mouth again and I will shut it permanently," Chloe said, blushing, as she expertly flipped open the Balisong, meaningfully.
"What psycho taught you to use that fucking thing, anyway?" Joshua demanded.
"That psycho," Mindy replied proudly. "Would be me."
"You two are fucking nuts!" Josh pointed out forcefully.
12:43 P.M.
Mindy called Marty to tell him that she was sending him the phone, next-day delivery, early A.M., and that he should get onto it directly. She also told him where the phone had come from and that it was 'hot' and he should take precautions to prevent anybody finding out its location. Marty assured Mindy that that would not be a problem and that he would let her know the results, as soon as possible. It was only after she had put the cell down, that it occurred to her, that she should probably have asked to speak with Dave.
She started going through the video which had been recorded during Chloe's little trip. Both doormen looked ordinary, but they were armed. The double doors had armoured glass, which had been expected. Damn! That lobby brought back some memories, or two, none of them good. That was just about the only successful part of her previous visit to that building. This time, though, Dave was not around to save her, if all went to crap. She would need to work on a plan. She could not just dress up as a little girl again; she thought that they would be wise to that little ploy. Plus, neither Chloe, nor Mindy, were young enough to pull that one off and Joshua had not got the legs. She would need to come up with something different, completely.
It would need to be completely unexpected or D'Amico would have already thought of it and put defences in place.
The following takes place between 1:00 P.M. and 2:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
1:22 P.M.
Now, that was interesting.
He was seeing a completely different side to Chloe. She was, and she was not, the Chloe he used to know. The sweet, giggly, girl was still there, but so was the new side to Chloe; the serious vigilante. He knew that Chloe was very much into Aikido and that was how he had met her, while they were in Martial Arts class at school. He never knew that she would actually go as far as becoming a young vigilante; he wondered what had made her do it. Anyway, she really was hot and not to mention the fact that she had grown a bit, in all the right places. Yeah, she knew she was not big in the breast department; he'd seen girls Chloe's age with bigger, but he liked compact and Chloe was compact, all over. He was not so sure about the new hair colour, but he decided that it may grow on him. He supposed that she had had to dye her hair after that vicious attack at the bank in Chicago. Knowing that the girl in the video had been Chloe, had really shocked the boy; the behaviour was well . . . way out of character, but way cool. Joshua just hoped that he could keep her, once it was all over. He supposed that I would have to move to Chicago. Maybe Hit Girl would take him on; that could prove to be a long shot as he did not think Mindy liked him very much.
Hopefully, Chloe could put in a good word for him, once all the shit was over.
The following takes place between 2:00 P.M. and 3:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
2:01 P.M.
Mindy treated the boy to lunch which was a nice surprise.
Maybe his charm was working, he thought.
Then again, he thought, maybe she just wanted him as cannon-fodder.
The following takes place between 3:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M.
D'Amico Penthouse, New York City
3:45 P.M.
"Boss, Arkady has been killed, by the Chicago PD," Rico said.
"What! They were supposed to be investigating those vigilante lunatics., D'Amico responded, a little perturbed. "How the hell did they find him?"
"Our information says that they are not investigating Fusion," Rico replied.
"Is that right? Then we must dissuade them," D'Amico responded, with an evil smile.
The following takes place between 4:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
4:22 P.M.
Mindy sent Joshua back to the other Safehouse for the moment, so that she and Chloe could prepare for the night's action. The intention was to check out the area immediately surrounding the D'Amico penthouse. There were also several buildings which might prove suitable for the plan that was slowly forming in her mind.
The following takes place between 5:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
5:42 P.M.
The two girls went out to grab themselves something hot to eat.
That turned out to be pizza, which filled them both up. Chloe had a surprisingly good appetite and she could put away quite a lot of food. But then they would be burning quote a few calories as the week progressed.
The following takes place between 6:00 P.M. and 7:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
6:55 P.M.
They were back at the Safehouse and ready to gear up.
For some reason, going anywhere near that D'Amico building made Mindy nervous. She thought that Chloe had noticed it too, but Mindy was glad that she had Chloe; there was no way that she could have done it on her own.
Even with Dave, it might have been a problem, as she was certain that he was no fan of that place either.
The following takes place between 7:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M.
Central Park, New York City
7:55 P.M.
The girls were loitering in a dark alley, just a short distance from Central Park.
For a change, they were on the Ducati and in their combat suits, ready for anything.
"You ready?" Hit Girl asked.
"I am, but are you?" Chloe replied, knowing that Hit Girl was not happy going anywhere near their destination.
"I'll be fine; thanks for asking," Hit Girl replied.
The following takes place between 8:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M.
New York City
8:33 P.M.
They carefully checked out each of the buildings that surrounded the D'Amico penthouse.
The majority were commercial properties, with at least one being residential. The commercial properties were expected to have better security than the residential ones. However, the commercial properties would have less people around during the later hours of the day.
At least that was Hit Girl's logic.
The following takes place between 9:00 P.M. and 10:00 P.M.
New York City
9:55 P.M.
They had excluded several blocks, by that stage and there was only, really, one option remaining.
The following takes place between 10:00 P.M. and 11:00 P.M.
New York City
10:11 P.M.
Shadow and Hit Girl were one block over from the D'Amico penthouse building.
They wanted to checkout that particular building as it was slightly taller than the D'Amico building, and it had a flat roof. Hit Girl's idea was extreme, but they needed extreme, to defeat Ralph D'Amico. They managed to find their way up to the roof. It was expansive, and it had a solidly built lift shaft which extended above the flat roof. From that vantage point, they could see down onto the D'Amico Penthouse.
Hit Girl could now plan her entry.
The following takes place between 11:00 P.M. and Midnight
D'Amico Penthouse, New York City
11:50 P.M.
"So . . . no explosion, I assume," D'Amico seethed.
"No, Boss," Rico said, feeling a little concerned for his health.
"If at first you don't succeed, Rico . . .?"
"Try, try again, Boss."
"Call Vasily, in Chicago, I have a job for him, an urgent job."
"By your command."
You are advised to read Chapter 60: Sleep of the Vigilante – Day 3 of my other story: Forsaken next . . .
Updated: January 2018