Ch. 3: Chase
The station was crowded and noisy as it usually was when I got there. I signed in at the desk and the sergeant grunted 'hello' as he went over forms. I walked through the rabble and semi chaos that was Metro South to the locker rooms where I heard the now to be expected complaining about how we were getting slaughtered out on the streets. I got my gear on and headed back to the front in time to see a perpetrator start fighting against the officers bringing him in and actually break loose and beat the cops down. I was about to enter the fray when another officer jumped in and put the perp out for the count with a solid right cross.
"Miller, get over here when you're done messing up your suspect," the desk sergeant ordered. "Harder, this is your new partner, Ashley Miller; she transferred here a few days ago."
Ashley approached the desk and removed her helmet. She had long blonde hair which she shook out before smiling at me and raising her hand.
"Nice to meet you."
"Same here," I smiled as I shook the offered hand. "So tell me about yourself," I said as we walked to the garage.
For once on patrol the streets were quiet for me and my new partner. There were calls coming in from dispatch but it was for crimes we couldn't get to in time. Ashley was a very interesting person. She was twenty-four, a spitfire, and always seemed to be getting into some sort of trouble at the police academy. But then again, all that fighting was what made her such a good cop. We had stopped at a Starbucks and ordered some coffee and were sipping it outside.
"So, Harder, what's your life like right now?"
"Excuse me?"
"I've told you all about myself, now I want to know a bit about you. Is that a crime?" asked Ashley with an impish grin.
"No, last I checked it wasn't. Anyway, I'm twenty-six, I've been on the police squad for three years, graduated from Stanford with a major in criminal justice and a minor in law, I have a girlfriend whom I've been with for the past five years and just asked her to marry me last night."
"And how did that go?" she asked.
"Brilliant, she said yes," I answered with a silly grin appearing on my face.
We probably would have continued talking but dispatch interrupted us.
"All units sector seven, robbery at the First National Bank. Suspects are in a white paneled van heading North on the twenty-three."
"Hey, we're close. Let's…"
I didn't finish my sentence as Ashley dumped her coffee and got in the driver's seat of our cruiser in a flash.
"OK, you drive, I fire," I said as I got in.
Cyrus Slater was the unofficial crime boss of Detroit. The police suspected him of numerous crimes from counterfeiting to murder but were never able to prove it. He had murdered his competition to take over all the rackets in Detroit and things on the street had gotten worse because of it. He was bold, sometimes pulling heists in broad daylight just to rub it in the DPD's face that they couldn't catch him, like he had just done, robbing the First National Bank.
"Easy money," Slater was saying in the back of the van he and his men were using. "Gotta at least be two hundred and seventy-five grand."
"Hey, Slater!" yelled Emil, the driver and Slater's most trusted man.
"What is it?"
"We got a cop on our tail!"
Slater slid back the covering one of the windows of the back doors and saw Ashley and I closing in on them.
"Floor it, Emil!"
"This is a courier van, they're in one of those new interceptors, they'll stay on our back no matter what I do."
"Damn it! All right, we'll shoot them off the road," Slater snapped as he grabbed a mask.
"I think they saw us," said Ashley.
"I know they saw us. They're gonna try to shoot at us any second now so you need to give me your piece and maneuver the car up beside the van on the left."
"I think I know what you're planning," she smiled as she handed me her gun.
Back in the courier van the goons were frantically getting into position for their little surprise. One of them threw open the doors and ducked out of the way while the others emptied their rifles at… nothing.
"What the hell?" muttered Slater.
Ashley swung the cruiser back into pursuit position while I emptied our guns magazines on the gang members. Almost every shot I fired was right on target and I ended up crippling over half of the gangsters. But the guns ran out of bullets and it was time for Slater's men to get back in on the action. I pulled myself back into the car just as the remaining men in the van started firing again while Ashley just managed to swerve to the right and pull up barely in time.
"I wounded about half of them, but they've got better firepower. We're going to need backup," I said as I reloaded.
"I'll radio in."
"Slater! We've still got some explosives from our last heist! We can get rid of those cops!"
"Then get it ready and toss it out there and do it NOW!"
"Great, we won't be getting any backup for a while! There are no other units in the sector so we're the Lone Ranger and Tonto."
"Hi ho, Silver."
We pulled back out behind the van but I had only gotten off a few shots when Ashley spotted the dynamite. "David! They've got dynamite!"
"Oh, shi-"
Ashley hit the brakes just as one of the goons threw the dynamite at us. I had just pulled myself back in when it went off and flipped the cruiser on its side.
"Ow, I'm gonna feel that in the morning. Ashley? You alright?"
"I think so, how about you?"
"I'm sure I'm going to have a major bruise on my side but other than that I'm fine. Now is there any chance that we can climb out of here through your window?"
"I think so, just give me my gun. I need to break the glass."
Minutes later Ashley and I were standing outside the wreck of our car nursing our wounds and waiting for backup.
"So what was going on with you before they tossed the dynamite?" asked Ashley. "You didn't get back into the car as fast as I'd have thought you would."
"Yeah, I did take a bit longer to get in than I normally would have. But I was not about to lose these guys so I fired a tracking round at their vehicle at the last second. With any luck we'll be able to find out where they've gone when our backup gets here."
A/N: The stage is set for the confrontation at wherever it is that the Slater gang is hiding. What happens there is probably not what some of you are thinking. Post a- WHOA!
Computer sparks and a swirling vortex deposits Gadget in my room.
Me: OK, is this going to become a regular thing with you? Am I going to have to move out of the way whenever I'm writing the Author's Note now?
Gadget: Maybe. But you certainly ended on a cliffhanger. Is the Slater gang going to maim me or blow me up in the next chapter?
Me: I'm not saying anything. Maybe that will happen, maybe it won't.
Gadget: C'mon! I'm the main character! Tell me!
Me: No. You are in the dark as is everyone else. HA! Now, to all the readers, post a review to find out what goes down. See you next time!
Gadget: Can I get a script over here?
Me: Don't give that man a script! I'll burn it or throw it in the pool!
Gadget: Try it!