Chapter 3 - The Rescue
Jamie stared at Brandon in disbelief. The man had changed from his previous businessman thug outfit into a speedo for the fight. Jamie let his eyes briefly travel up and down the man, wishing to God he wouldn't have to fight. Brandon was pure muscle. He looked like a body builder, but somehow Jamie felt that Brandon focused more on fights and training than he'd given him credit for.
Jamie realized on second glance that the speedo was like bike spandex. The butt and crotch were padded. Wait, what? They're padded? I wonder if he learned to pad those areas from previous experience, Jamie wondered, amused.
He quickly lost his amusement as Brandon snorted angrily and hopped into the ring. It was a boxing ring, complete with ropes and stools on the floor near opposite corners. At least he boxed at work, not that it would do him much good right now. Jamie groaned and before he could get pushed, started forward. His body hurt. He felt like death. But Danny was coming. Jamie could feel that in his bones. Maybe he was extra sure because so many were broken the brother bond was further exposed. Jamie mentally rolled his eyes at how stupid he sounded in his own head.
Talbot jumped into the ring, his good humor restored once more. Oh this can't be good.. What on earth could possibly counter a rage from a location disclosure? Glee over impending doom? Guns? Booby traps? Jamie's thoughts took a dismal turn and he shook his head to clear it. This fight was going to require every ounce of resolve and strength he had, literally. He couldn't afford to start losing focus. As he went into fight mode, Jamie no longer heard Talbot's cheerful speech about how Jamie had put up a valiant fight, but it was time for him to die.
"This match is to the death. However, to keep me entertained, I will give two minute breaks every five minutes, if our visiting officer here makes it that long." Talbot leered in Jamie's direction. Jamie rolled his eyes. Bastard.. You don't think I'll last 30 seconds. Well joke's on you. I'll show you what us Reagans are made of. And when Danny gets here.. You'll wish you'd never been born.
Talbot stepped to the side of the ring and hopped out. He picked up a bell, and with a ding ding, the fight for survival had begun. It was now survival of the fittest.
Danny and Baez lit up their lights and pushed the speed as fast as they could possibly go while still in the city. As they drove, Danny pulled out his cell phone. He handed it to Baez and said, "Hey, get my dad on the phone, would ya? I'm going a little too fast to fiddle with it myself. I need to let him know we're going to get Jamie."
Baez nodded and found his contacts. As she pressed "Call Dad", she handed it back. "Be careful Danny. You might want to slow down a little while you're on the phone. It won't help Jamie if we die in a crash on the way there."
Danny looked at her, and realized she was looking a little pale. He guiltily let off the gas a little, and steadied his driving.
"Dad? It's me. Did you see the broadcast? Yeah. We're on our way now. SWAT is a couple minutes behind us. Mhmm. Yeah, we could use some extra uniforms, Dad. Who knows how many men and guns Talbot has at that warehouse. Ok thanks. I'll be careful, don't worry about me. Mhmm. Yeah. I will bring Jamie home. Yes sir." Danny hung up and with a quick look at Baez, sped up again.
As the pair sped through the city, they noticed less and less traffic. Every intersection was clear for them. "How in the world is this happening? There's always traffic!" Danny wondered.
As he spoke, a dispatcher came over the radio. "All available units, please continue blocking traffic from Queen's street to Lakeside. Those who have been passed already, please follow SWAT and provide manpower."
"Thank God for the NYPD! Thank you Dad!" Danny whooped and stepped on it once more.
Jamie watched the ceiling move slowly by as he sailed through the air. What an ugly ceiling.. I hate warehouses. He landed on his back and immediately saw black dots. His ribs.. Sweet God his ribs. He didn't know if he could get up this time. That uppercut to his chin had the strength of a bull behind it. How many of those hits could he take? Jamie struggled to get his breath back as he swung his leg, knocking Brandon's balance off. They'd been fighting for what felt like a lifetime, yet it was probably only a couple minutes. If he could just make it to 5 minutes, he could rest.
Jamie heard a ding ding and dipped his head in relief. A faster 5 minutes than he'd thought. He staggered over to the stool that Laurence had set up in the ring for him; he surprised there was one at all. He melted onto it, finding it most comfortable to lean sideways onto the ropes while he sat. He did a mental check.
His ribs were obviously broken and battered. His knee was probably going to give out in the next round. His burns were stinging with the sweat dripping into the open wounds, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. His shoulder felt like it had been ripped out of its socket, which it probably had. His face and head hurt from the punches. So overall, Jamie figured he could last about one more round, and then Danny would need to show up.
He gulped some water down and stood up again. It wouldn't do to let himself stiffen up too much. Round 2 was beginning.
Jamie stood up as confidently as he could and looked across at Brandon. The dude had only taken a couple rib shots and a head shot. He leered over at Jamie and drew a finger across his throat. As Brandon stood and started towards the center of the ring, Jamie saw a flash of silver. It was a knife.
"Hold on, assbutt. This is a boxing ring! What's with the knife? Afraid you won't beat an injured cop without it?" Jamie laughed.
"You poor thing. You must have some serious self-esteem issues. Is that why you overcompensate with the muscle? Cause, you know, it's a little overboard. Women like toned muscle, not an explosion of muscle. Just sayin'." Jamie taunted Brandon, hoping the taunts could be a bit of a stall while he desperately waited for his brother. He hadn't heard any gunshots or disturbances yet.
"But then again, I'm sure there's some crazy lady out there who's just perfect for you. Cause everyone has a perfect partner, right? Maybe she's a sumo wrestler. You could bench each other for workouts." Jamie paused as he saw Brandon standing in front of him with steam practically bursting from his ears. Jamie allowed himself a small smile.
"Oh, here's something I didn't consider though. You don't need a woman, because you have a man in your life. What man would take you though? Psh, I sure wouldn't… Man, the look on your face.. Wait. Is it… It is! It's your dad! Brandon, that's incest. That's disgusting and illegal." Jamie backed up a step or two, giving himself space to finish.
"Just sayin'. When I finish kicking your ass, I'm going to arrest it for incest. Gross, man."
Jamie didn't have a chance to get any more jaunts out because Brandon roared with rage and swung his right arm around in a huge arc, knife gleaming in the light. There was spittle flying from his mouth and his face was a startling shade of purple. Jamie ducked and spun around him, a spike of adrenaline kicking in as round 2 of the fight began.
The warehouse came into view as Danny steered the car around a corner. He and Baez hadn't said much on the way there. Lost in their individual thoughts, yet both hoping and praying for the same thing.
As they screeched to a halt in the parking lot, Danny sent a final quick prayer to his brother. Please kid, you gotta hang in there.. I'm here. I'm coming to get you. Just hang on. I'll bring you home. He got out of the car and checked his gun. Baez met him around at the trunk as they both grabbed a couple more full magazines. There was no doubt this would be a bloody fight. They'd need all the ammo they could bring.
SWAT and the other patrol vehicles started arriving, so Danny and Baez split up to start organizing. Danny headed for the SWAT guys while Baez went to split up the uniforms.
After he'd spoken to SWAT about the best tactical entry, Danny came over to Baez, who took a step back and allowed him to take over. It was his brother, after all. She'd step in if he started to lose it.
"Alright everyone. Listen up. Time is really important. This is my brother we're rescuing. He's in bad shape, and he needs us to get in there. Expect a lot of men and a lot of guns. Stay in groups of four and cover the entire building. None of these sons of bitches are skating on this one. They either get shot or arrested. Understand? Alright. I want the EMS on standby ready for the call. Let's move."
A small army of NYPD officers moved in on the warehouse, all exits covered by more than enough men. No officer could get kidnapped without the wrath of the entire NYPD coming down on those responsible. All the officers at the warehouse wanted justice.
Using the radios, the SWAT team prepared to break down every door. As one, every door broke, and the waves of blue began to flood in. Almost immediately, gunfire started. Danny and Baez stuck close together covering each other's backs. The sound of gunfire echoed throughout the warehouse. Danny had seen the blueprints, and knew that the building was massive. It could take several minutes to find Jamie. He leaned slightly behind him so Baez could hear him and yelled, "Baez! We've got to find Jamie! Cover me!" Danny made a break for the nearest hallway, and as he ran, he could see guys dropping as quickly as they showed up. He made a mental note to commend Baez on her marksmanship- especially with her weapon being a handgun.
It was hard to hear anything over the sounds of NYPD officers yelling, and the headache-inducing loudness of bullets being fired multiple times a second, but Danny listened. He listened for anything that didn't sound like a raid. He listened for the voice of his brother, for laughter, for cries of pain, anything that could tell him where Jamie and the sick Ezekiel Talbot were.
As he ran further down the hall, the sounds of the war got quieter. Danny ran, slamming each door open that he came to. Slowly, Danny started hearing sounds of a fight. His adrenaline, which was already sky high, kicked in even further. He knew that was his brother fighting.
Danny came to the last door at the end of the hallway, and busted in, gun drawn and ready to fire. "NYPD! Drop your weapons! Down on the ground!" He looked around as he heard a couple pieces drop. He was in fairly large room with a boxing ring in the middle. And in that ring was Brandon Talbot and Jamie. Danny had just registered their identities when he saw Jamie fall.
"JAMIE!" Danny yelled. He moved towards the ring, looking around, aware that anyone could start firing at him. "Down on the ground! Drop your weapons or I will shoot!"
Brandon got down on the ground and put his hands on his head. It was clearly not his first rodeo. Danny grabbed Brandon's feet and hauled him away from Jamie. Jamie, his beloved and annoying kid brother, was not moving. Danny dropped to his knees next to him and saw a bloody knife beside his brother's hand. Jamie had one hand limply over his hip. Danny lifted his hand and saw a stab wound, just a couple inches above the hip bone. He hissed with anger and fear, and started putting pressure on the wound.
"Jamie, I'm here. Hang in there buddy. Come on man, hang in there. I'm here. It's over. I've got you." Danny suddenly remembered his radio, and grabbed it from his pocket. "I've got Jamie! I need EMS to the northwest side of the building, end of the hall. Quickly!"
Radio contact made, Danny looked over Jamie as he continued to put pressure over the stab wound. There was deep, mottled bruising all over Jamie's torso. Burn marks were all over his arms, chest, and they looked like they went over his shoulders onto his back. His left shoulder seemed to be out of place. Jamie's right knee looked to be about 3 times its regular size, and one of his eyes was swollen shut.
Tears swam in Danny's eyes as he took in the sad sight of his brother. The fear continued to grow as the bleeding continued, when Baez came in. Danny heard her yell at one of the guys on the ground who had apparently decided that it was worth trying to sneak away. She cuffed the three men on the ground, including Brandon. Danny looked up at her as she walked over to where he was. Her soft intake of breath told him that he wasn't imagining how bad it was. Jamie was in terrible shape.
"Goddammit where's the EMS? I can't stop the bleeding!" Danny's voice betrayed his fear to his partner.
"They're right behind me, Danny. They're coming." Baez knelt beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. "They're coming, Danny. We've got him- we've got Jamie, Danny. I'll take care of the pressure on this. You should go call your family, ok?" She nudged his hands gently away.
Danny slowly rose to his feet and grabbed his phone. "Dad? We got him. We got Jamie. Meet us at St. Luke's in 20. And Dad?" Danny paused, gearing himself. "It's bad. It's real bad. I'll let the doctors do the explaining, but you better hope I'm not alone with any of the Talbots, because if I am, I'm going to kill them. Slowly… No, I… Yeah Dad. Can you call-? Thanks. See you there."
After Danny hung up, he realized he'd forgotten about the Talbot's. He'd been so focused on Jamie that he didn't find out if Ezekiel had been apprehended.
"Hey partner. Did that bastard Talbot get grabbed?" Baez looked up and smiled grimly. "Yeah Danny. I got him. Stupid ass was trying to sneak out through a basement door, but I got him. And we've got his idiot of a son right here. They'll never see the light of day again, Danny."