"The Maróczy Bind"


"Is this blue-collar enough?" Kara asked as she came into Michele's room of his apartment. She wore a yellow t-shirt over a black turtleneck with jeans and white lace-up sneakers. In her hand she held her customized messenger bag, which held her H&K XM8 PDW.

"That's fine," Michele replied. He wore a striped button down shirt and blue chinos with white moccasins.

"Why are we even bothering dressing like this when we're driving the F430?" Kara asked.

"Because we don't have time to rent a Grande Punto," Michele said. "We'll just have to park a block or two away and walk."

They headed for the garage and with Michele at the wheel, headed for the Pioltello industrial suburb east of Milan.


The day before, Michele received a phone call from the 'Milan Tourism Promotion Agency' informing him that one of their contacts wished to meet with them about a warehouse he claimed served as a transfer point for Padania and had been used to move the weapons and body armor used by Dante and his men in Venice. The contact claimed the warehouse currently stood empty, however Director Lorenzo felt it worth checking out. As the Pagani fratello maintained a residence in Milan, they were chosen.

"We should have taken the time to rent the Punto," Michele admitted as they drove down streets with cars whose average value sat well south of €20.000. They made sure to not drive within two blocks of their destination and found a parking spot a block and a half away. They exited and locked the car and then started back.

They reached the correct corner and started down the road. At first glance, the buildings appeared abandoned, their facades weather-worn and their windows thick with grime. Loose trash and leaves collected in corners and along the intersection of brick wall and concrete sidewalk. Weeds sprouted through cracks in the sidewalk and every ten meters a bare dirt square marked the grave of a former planting. Only the line of cars parked along both sides of the street gave testament that the area remained inhabited.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Kara asked, her eyes sweeping the windows and doorways.

"According to the Sat-Nav," Michele replied, his own head swiveling around as he took in the surroundings. He followed the numbers until he reached their intended address.

Michele tried the front door to find it locked. The grime on the window rendered it almost opaque, but Michele could barely make out a large open area with a few crates scattered about.

Kara walked along the front past two large roll-up doors. She noticed the padlocks on each showed signs of rust and that, along with the trash and leaves along the bottom, led her to believe that the building had not been used for some time.

Michele joined her and as she turned to tell him her thoughts she saw a flash out of the corner of her eye and fell forward, landing on Michele and driving him hard into the ground under her hundred kilo weight. The 5.56x45mm ball rounds speared into and through the first generation Lancia Zeta minivan they fell behind, raining fragments of tempered glass down on them. They heard some rounds pass through the car and impact the door behind them. Fortunately for them, the aim was ragged and the rounds went high, passing over them. Their shooter emptied his magazine and the firing stopped.

Kara rolled off of Michele to land in front of him, shielding his body with her own. She removed her PDW from the messenger bag while Michele removed his own P2000SK pistol.

"Did you see where the fire came from?" Michele asked.

"Warehouse across the street. Ground floor. Under 10 meters," Kara replied as she slammed home a magazine and cocked the weapon. She then positioned herself to look out from under the van for anyone approaching their position.

Michele looked forward and back down the street. The streets were full with a mix of small hatchbacks and sedans along with vans of all sizes. Kara swung up, took aim at one of the shooters, and drilled him through the chest with a half-second burst. She dropped back down as a second rip of gunfire lanced out, shredding the minivan even more.

"We can't stay here!" Kara yelled.

"We need to get to that Volkswagen!" Michele yelled back. Kara turned and saw the van with racks of green-tinted glass panes on either side two cars down.

"Are you nuts?" Kara exclaimed.

"Trust me," Michele said with a lopsided smile.

Kara shook her head, but rose to one knee. She nodded her head and Michele took a position similar to a runner in a starting bloc.

"Go!" Kara yelled and Michele launched himself forward. Kara rose and sent a one-second burst of fire towards the one open window on the ground floor of the warehouse, knocking the gunman back inside. She started after Michele as a short burst of fire answered in return, but again it went wild, striking the car between Michele and Kara. Kara emptied the remainder of her magazine in the direction of the bullets, but she didn't know if she hit the shooter or not.

As Michele approached the van he saw a door on the warehouse open and another shooter appear with a rifle and take aim at him. With no time to return fire, Michele went into a forward tumble and the rounds impacted the greenhouse of the Fiat Tipo 5-door hatchback and tracked with him. Michele arrested himself next to the forward tire, the strong block of the four-cylinder diesel engine effectively stopping the rounds. Michele stuck his pistol hand up over the hood and squeezed off six rounds in quick succession as Kara, crouched low, sped past him. She grabbed his left arm and yanked, almost pulling it from the socket as Michele was literally launched from his position. He stumbled ungracefully through the gap between the Fiat and the VW and landed in her lap behind the van, rolling off her. Kara continued forward to the end of the car, took aim with her pistol, and neutralized the shooter. She then scooted backwards and looked at the tall sheets of glass above her head with worry as she reached into her bag and removed a fresh magazine for her XM8.

Another long burst of automatic weapons fire rang out and they could hear it hitting the opposite side of the van, but no rounds exited the other side though Kara saw some craters appear on the glass closest to the van.

Michele wrapped his knuckles on the pane. "Laminated glass. 5.56 ball ammo doesn't penetrate very well."

"They still outnumber us and outgun us," Kara noted. She looked underneath the van, but could not see anything. She tried looking between the VW and the Fiat for the first shooter in case he was coming up the street, but saw nothing. Considering the size of the warehouse, she figured they were maneuvering within it, using it for cover.

Kara stepped out and looked around. Movement caught her attention and she turned and fired, dropping a man with a rifle. Another rifle answered and Kara shuddered as three-rounds slammed into her back. She turned around, took aim, and fired again and then dropped back down behind the van.

"Are you okay?" Michele asked.

"The jacket stopped it," Kara replied. Both wore long-sleeved leather jackets using the latest SWA ballistic armor as an inner lining and Kara had the added advantage of her built-in armor.

"You need to get to the car," Michele said.

Kara vehemently shook her head. "No, you go. I'll cover for you."

"Kara, you're faster than I am and your sneakers have better traction than my loafers. You're also better protected than I am so you're more likely to make it. Don't worry, I'll keep them at bay long enough for you to come get me."

She nodded and handed Michele her XM8 along with the last magazine. Another long burst of fire impacted the van, the rounds hitting forward blowing out the passenger window. Michele figured their opponents were moving into a better position, each firing to cover the other.

"Go now," Michele ordered.

Kara nodded, but then took his face in her hands and planted a kiss on his lips. "Don't you dare die on me," she ordered. She dashed off down the street, staying low behind the cars as she fired her pistol to draw their attention.

Flustered by the kiss, it took Michele a moment to recover, but he did, moving away from the van and taking position behind the Fiat's front. He saw a shooter in the doorway take aim at Kara and start firing. Michele returned fire and forced him to duck back inside, but a second shooter opened up from an upstairs window.

Bullets landed all around Kara and she stumbled and went down, tumbling forward, but came back up on her feet and continued running. Michele squeezed off a one-second burst at the window and then finished the magazine off aiming at the door. He saw Kara make it around the corner and disappear.

Michele figured they'd both concentrate on him and he wasn't wrong. He slapped home the final magazine and set the XM8 for three-round burst, trying to keep his attackers from flanking him. Soon he heard the banshee wail of a Ferrari V8 and saw a red streak appear as Kara took the corner at the absolute limits of the tire's adhesion, the car violently tank-slapping as she straightened it out. She did a hard handbrake turn to spin the car around and then stood on the brakes as she hammered the throttle, laying down a thick cloud of acrid tire smoke that drifted back to obscure visibility.

Michele set the selector back to full auto and rose, firing a long burst at the shooters to get their heads down and then plunging into this concealment, concentrating on the sound of the tires and looking for the LED brake lights as bullets started to whip past him. He refrained from returning fire with his pistol, afraid the muzzle flash might give him away. As soon as he was halfway inside, Kara took her left foot off the brake and the car launched forward. The passenger door slammed closed, catching him in the shin and knee and Michele barked in pain.

The back glass cratered as rounds peppered the back of the car. Kara cut the corner too tight and sideswiped the back quarter panel of a Fiat Punto delivery van. She floored the throttle and the Ferrari tore passed in a screech of metal on metal.

"Are you hit?" Kara yelled as she barreled up the street at speeds well beyond both "safe" and "sane".

"Just my leg," Michele said, mistakenly thinking she said "hurt" and not "hit".

Kara barreled through an intersection, just missing an Iveco van that momentarily went up on two wheels as it swerved to avoid her. She slid around the corner almost sideways, causing the driver in an oncoming Peugeot to stand on his brakes and blare his horn.

"Slow down before you kill us or somebody else!" Michele bellowed as he braced himself against the door. Kara relaxed her right foot and allowed the Ferrari to slow down to a more reasonable speed.

"How are the gauges?" Michele asked.

Kara swept her eyes over the dashboard. "All nominal."

"Then head for the highway and back to the apartment."

"What about your leg?" she asked, still thinking he'd been shot.

"It hurts like hell from where the door slammed into it, but I don't think anything is broken. I'll probably have a nice bruise to show for it, however."

"I thought you said you were shot?"

"Shot? No."

"I asked you if you were hit and you said your leg," Kara persisted.

"I thought you said 'hurt'," Michele replied. "When you took off I had not fully pulled in my leg and the door slammed into it."

"Oh," Kara said, relieved.

"How about you? I saw you go down," Michele noted.

"I was hit in the arm and upper shoulder, but the armor stopped it."

As Kara drove west on State Highway 103, Michele called Jean on his cellular phone and informed him what happened. Jean acknowledged the report and said he'd send Hillshire and Triela, who were part of the fratelli patrolling the XX Winter Olympics in Torino. Twenty minutes later they were in the underground parking garage of Michele's apartment next to the Parco Solari.

Kara turned off the engine and Michele carefully extracted himself and examined the car. The rear tires were worn down to the cords – he was surprised they hadn't blown out on the highway. The entire right side was punched in from where Kara had clipped the Fiat, streaks of yellow paint from the van ground into the red top-coat. He walked around back and counted seven bullet holes in the back. The right inside indicator light had been shot out as there were multiple holes in the mesh that helped vent the engine bay. The back window had multiple deep craters and gouges in it, the shallow angle and laminated construction causing most of the bullets to "skip" off rather then penetrate. Two had gone through, but were then stopped by the thick laminated acoustic glass that separated the passenger compartment from the engine compartment.

"This is going to be fun explaining to the insurance adjustor," Michele noted. "I don't want people to see the damage, so let's cover it."

Kara nodded and went to the forward luggage compartment and removed the heavy car cover which the put over the body. They then headed up to the apartment.


"That's going to leave a mark," Michele noted as he removed his chino pants in the master bedroom. Most of his right leg sported a massive bruise from where the door had slammed into him.

"I think it already has," Kara noted as she came in. She'd removed her jacket and proceeded to pull off her tops and toss them on the bed next to him, leaving just her bra. She walked by him into the master bathroom and examined her shoulder and arm in one of the mirrors.

"It will be a couple of hours until Hillshire and Triela get here so I'm going to soak in the Jacuzzi tub for a bit," Michele noted.

"I think I'll join you," Kara noted and moved to unbutton her jeans, causing Michele to make the "time out" motion with his hands.

They both suddenly burst out laughing, letting all the stress that had built up in them out. She came over and sat down next to him.

"When I went to get the car I was so scared," she admitted. "I kept thinking what if they hurt you while I wasn't there?"

Michele placed his arm around Kara and pulled her close to him, kissing her on the forehead.

"You did well, today," he told her. "You kept your head about you and you got us out alive. Thank you."

"Anytime, partner," Kara replied.