This chapter continues from Chapter 15: Sleep of The Vigilante - Day 6 Part I of Feral . . .
Saturday, August 2nd, 2014
The following takes place between 3:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M.
D'Amico Penthouse, New York City
3:31 P.M.
"You have to tell him Rico is dead."
"I'm not gonna tell him; he'll shoot me!"
"Well someone has to tell him."
"Not me!"
"If nobody tells him then he'll just kill us all! He will not shoot you; he needs you."
3:34 P.M.
The gunshot echoed around the penthouse.
"So, he didn't need you; my bad!"
The following takes place between 4:00 P.M. and 5:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
4:19 P.M.
"You sure we can do this, Mindy? We are both fucking exhausted and we haven't had a good night's sleep in a fucking week," Chloe groaned.
"We have to do it; we have him, and we may not get this chance again," Mindy replied.
"Just stop for a minute; are we thinking straight? You and I are knackered. Joshua here is not in our class . . . sorry, Josh."
"No offence taken," Joshua replied.
"Okay, I know this will be a risk, a big fucking risk, but it's gotta be done. Please, Chloe, I need you and Josh," Mindy said.
"I'm with you, Mindy," Joshua said.
"If apprentice vigilante is in, then so am I," Chloe replied.
The following takes place between 5:00 P.M. and 7:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
They all went to get some rest; Chloe was right, they were all very short on sleep.
The following takes place between 7:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
7:10 P.M.
They all got up, showered, and ate a good meal.
It was time; it was their one chance to destroy Ralph D'Amico, once, and for all.
The following takes place between 8:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M.
Safehouse C, New York City
8:08 P.M.
Mindy double-checked Joshua's equipment.
The kid was shaping up and he had followed all of Mindy's instructions to the letter. Chloe though had been a bit distracted; Mindy had been trying not to let those two be alone together as Chloe kept giggling when Joshua whispered things to her. Ugh! Young love.
"You two ready or do you both need a few minutes in bed together."
"I can't believe you'd actually say that," Chloe retorted, angrily.
"Keep your mind on the job, and by job, Josh, I don't mean Chloe."
The following takes place between 9:00 P.M. and 10:00 P.M.
D'Amico Penthouse, New York City
9:18 P.M.
The three vigilantes lugged their gear up to the roof of the previously selected commercial building, across from the D'Amico Penthouse.
The security guards were safe in their office, taped up, but safe. All of the night's recordings had mysteriously vanished.
"I'm not so sure I can do this," Shadow groaned, looking down and across the gap between the two buildings.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Hit Girl snarled.
"Sorry," Shadow replied, somewhat meekly.
9:42 P.M.
They had all of the equipment set up, checked and ready.
The distance was a little over thirty metres, with a ten-metre drop. Hit Girl had double-checked the faked ropes and the Plumett NS50 silent grapnel launcher.
9:55 P.M.
Hit Girl raised, aimed and fired the launcher.
The grapnel flew up and across the roof of the D'Amico building. It landed, and the splines dug deep into the roof. Hit Girl tugged on the line, before securing it to the anchor points pre-fitted to the building's lift shaft and then hauling the line taught. She fitted three zip-line trolleys and double-checked each of the three harnesses, before clipping each onto the trolleys, with a primary and secondary strop.
"Remember, one at a time!" Hit Girl cautioned, and she then looked directly at Jackal and Shadow. "And no fucking screaming!"
9:59 P.M.
As the last one, Hit Girl pushed off and she dropped towards the D'Amico Penthouse.
The following takes place between 10:00 P.M. and 11:00 P.M.
D'Amico Penthouse, New York City
10:01 P.M.
Shadow touched down on the rooftop.
Hit Girl grabbed her and passed her to Feral, who smiled as he grasped Shadow's waist.
"Not now, you two!" Hit Girl growled. "Jeez!"
"That was awesome," Shadow commented, before enquiring. "Is sex anything like that?"
"That was nothing like sex, girl," Hit Girl replied, smiling. "Sex is, oh so much better."
They each slid down from the roof and behind the parapet, to remove their harnesses. So far so good.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Feral moaned. "Shadow was right; you're being foolish."
"If you're saying that coming here was a bad idea, then I'm starting to agree with you." Shadow replied.
"Who's the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?" Hit Girl growled. "Now shut the fuck up!"
10:11 P.M.
Hit Girl peered over the parapet, into that study.
The study where she had had the shit literally kicked out of her and where she had almost died. It was empty right at that moment, but the lights were on. She signalled Shadow, who moved along and under the windows of the kitchen. Shadow had a breaching charge that would destroy the glazing and create a distraction. Hit Girl placed another, identical, charge on the study window. She smiled, at the thought of Kick-Ass, first with a jetpack and Gatling guns, and then with a bazooka.
Then she grimaced at the thought of what had required Kick-Ass to make use of the Gatling guns and the bazooka.
10:15 P.M.
Once Shadow returned from placing her charge, they climbed up to the second floor of the penthouse. The window beside them had an empty room beyond. Surprisingly, there was no alarm or security measure on the window, but then they were well over a dozen storeys up.
10:22 P.M.
The two charges exploded.
Simultaneously, Hit Girl smashed the window and they all entered the penthouse. There was a lot of shouting, mostly from downstairs, and she could hear movement outside the door to the room. She did not think that anybody had heard her smash the window, over the noise of the explosives. Shadow slowly pulled open the door, while Hit Girl peered out and checked the corridor. It looked clear and was very similar to the corridor directly below them. Again, flashbacks, a mixture of good and bad ones. Hit Girl moved out, MP7 up and ready. She went to the left while Shadow kept the corridor to the right covered. Feral remained between them, keeping a wary eye on the door opposite. There were three bedrooms up where they were. One, they had entered through and there was another opposite, with the main suite over towards the left the elevator which was over to the right.
10:35 P.M.
The floor was clear; everybody was downstairs.
So far, nobody knew they were in the penthouse, but that would not last long. They made a final check of their gear and then they headed towards the elevator.
They did not want to call the elevator, as that would have alerted everybody on the floor below that they were there. Instead, Hit Girl forced open the doors to the elevator and they each dropped downwards, onto the elevator car which was in position at the floor below. Hit Girl pulled open the inspection hatch which was located in the roof of the elevator car. The elevator was empty and the doors were closed, so she dropped down, followed by Shadow and Feral.
They took a brief moment to compose ourselves and catch their breath.
"Stand to!" Hit Girl growled, grabbing two grenades.
10:46 P.M.
Shadow stabbed the 'door-open' button as Hit Girl pulled both pins and then rolled the grenades through, as the doors opened. Shadow then stabbed the 'door-close' button repeatedly. While the doors had been open, Hit Girl had seen over a dozen watchdogs, plus the bonus prize: Ralph D'Amico himself. Unfortunately, for them, he was down the corridor, but at least he was there. A second later there were shouts and screams, followed a few more seconds later by two large explosions, and the elevator shook worryingly.
Shadow stabbed the 'door-open' button again and . . . wow!
"Hey!" Shadow exclaimed when she saw the results. "Stir-fry!"
Hit Girl looked at Feral.
"We really need to talk to this girl, later on," Hit Girl commented while Feral just nodded with a smirk and then shrugged.
Hit Girl grabbed a conveniently present severed lower leg and wedged it into the lift doors to keep them from closing. Shadow shook her head at that.
"What?" Hit Girl exclaimed.
10:48 P.M.
The three vigilantes advanced from the elevator, weapons up.
A head appeared from a doorway, over on the left, and Shadow blew it apart. Hit Girl started getting some nasty flashbacks of the corridor which now lay ahead of her, however, she was not going to run out of ammunition, but neither would Kick-Ass fly in with a jet-pack and Gatling guns to rescue her should things go bad. There was a lot of shouting; some of it very concerned shouting. Over the shouting, there was another, louder, more commanding voice.
Hit Girl had never heard his voice before, but it was similar to the voice of Frank D'Amico and it got her blood boiling.
The following takes place between 11:00 P.M. and Midnight
11:01 P.M.
The three of them were engaged in a fierce gun battle.
They were still beside the elevator, using bodies and furniture as cover. The watchdogs were getting bold, or D'Amico was giving them no choice. Either way, pairs of watchdogs would appear and work their way down the corridor towards the vigilantes before they were dropped.
"Hey, I got one!" Feral called out excitedly, dropping a watchdog with a combat knife.
"Great, kid. Don't get cocky!" Hit Girl replied.
'Why the fuck was she quoting Star Wars that evening?' she thought to herself.
11:10 P.M.
They were finally able to move forward as the watchdogs thinned out.
Another watchdog appeared from the right and Feral pounced on him, smashing him across the face with the butt of his MP7.
"He certainly has courage," Hit Girl commented.
"Yeah, but what good is that, if he gets himself killed?" Shadow replied with some concern in her voice.
They reached the first doorway on the right. Hit Girl dived in and she found that the room was devoid of targets. She covered the door opposite while Shadow kicked the door open and gunfire erupted almost instantly from within the room.
"Fire in the hole!" Hit Girl shouted as she pulled the pin from a grenade.
She threw the explosive device across the passageway before diving away from the doorway with Shadow and holding her tight. Joshua dived to the floor. The grenade exploded two seconds later after an attempted scramble by the watchdogs to escape. Feral jumped up and crossed the corridor, into the room. Bits of watchdog were everywhere, but two more watchdogs appeared from behind a heavy desk, over to the right and they each received a pair of nine-millimetre bullets to the chest.
Feral lowered his pistol and they moved back through the same doorway, stepping over the bodies.
11:16 P.M.
Two more rooms to clear, then the main area at the end with that kitchen.
They each advanced slowly up the corridor with Shadow to Hit Girl's left and behind, then Feral behind her. Hit Girl knew the room to the left was D'Amico's study. The room to the right used to be Frank D'Amico's training room and they would clear that room first. Feral kept an eye on the door to the left and the area at the end while Hit Girl kicked open the doors to the room on the right and Shadow dove in to find an empty room. One room left. D'Amico was in there.
The end was close, very close, Hit Girl could feel it.
11:20 P.M.
The three vigilantes each aimed their weapons and Shadow kicked open the door.
You are advised to read Chapter 17: Sleep of The Vigilante - Day 6 Part III of Feral next . . .
Updated: March 2018