Episode 4- Big Problem

4

Big Problem

The Biers’ research room was to be envied.  It was 40’ x 40’.  One wall was a series of windows overlooking the city.  The wall opposite the entrance was a large 5’ safe complete with combination lock that housed all the most important items.  The other two walls were lined with books of all shapes, sizes and origins.  Across the middle of the room where two long tables covered in maps writings and open books.

The place had the feel of a mad scientist’s lair.  Primarily because this is where Sam usually spent most of his time, when not partying that is, concocting theories on the location of the strange artifacts they hunted.

Karl exploded into the room, the door swinging open violently.  Inside he found the strange Middle-Eastern man and his large Mongolian accomplice.  The two intruders spun at the disturbance and the Middle-Eastern barked an order in the Mongolian’s native tongue and the large man charged Karl.

The Middle-Eastern stranger turned back to the safe and went to work on the number dial.

Karl knew both men would be unarmed for two reasons, one being that security downstairs is under strict orders to never let guns on the premises, and two, if they had guns they would have used them on Karl.

They obviously didn’t.

Karl’s muscles tensed in preparation for the inevitable fight.  The big Mongolian opened with a big hooking right hand.  Karl quickly dodged the tree trunk of an arm striking a hard response blow to the Mongolian’s ribs.  Karl wasted no time coming up and striking a second quick hard jab to the big man’s face.

The blows affected him, but not in a big way.  Karl wound up and threw a big left hand.

The Mongolian caught the punch in his own fist with a loud clapping noise.  The Mongolian front kicked Karl to the chest and sent him through the air and slamming into one of the book selves.  Books rained down on him while he gasped for air.  “That didn’t go as planned…”

The Mongolian was on him before Karl could catch his breath grabbing him by his throat with both hands and effortlessly lifting Karl off the ground in order to choke him to death.

At this point, awakened by the noise, Sam, still completely naked, stumbled into the room.

“What the hell is all of the racket?” Sam began before suddenly seeing the situation.  “Holy shit, Karl, is that the Mongolian from the train?!”

Although being choked, Karl still managed sarcasm.  “Good observation.  Help!”

 Sam lunged into action.  Naked action.  He cocked his hand back and gave a still right hand to the large Mongolian’s face.

The Mongolian didn’t notice.

Sam, however, screamed in pain as he held his hand.

“Sam!” Karl gurgled.

Sam turned around and began to machine gun punch at the big man’s ribs with no effect.

“ARE YOU EVEN TRYING?!” Karl managed.

“What do you want, the guy is a tank!” Sam responded.  “And I don’t have any pants on!”

“What do pants have to do with it?!” Karl screamed.

Sick of watching Sam fail, E who had been standing in the doorway, walked behind the large intruder, wound up and kicked the man in the groin.

 The Mongolian grunted and lost focus on Karl’s neck.  Karl dropped his hands on the big man’s elbows, breaking the hold he had on his neck.  Karl dropped to his knees and gasped for air.

The Mongolian turned and right crossed Sam, who stagger and went ass over head over one of the tables.  

As Sam crashed to the floor in a heap on the other side, the Mongolian turned his attention to the woman who had done him the injustice.  E.

E’s face turned to one of fear and regret as the giant lumbered toward her.  She instinctively moved backward, prepared to run.

Karl caught his breath and ran forward, leaping onto the giant’s back, trying to get his arms around the big man’s neck.  The Mongolian struggled and began to thrash as Karl hung on for dear life.

E was trying to figure out how to help Karl with the lumbering beast when she heard the loud click and turned her head toward the Middle-Eastern man, opening the large safe door.

E grabbed a pen off the table and against her better judgment, decided on a plan.

****

The thief had no interest n the fight behind him, so long as it gave the thief the time he required to get the safe open and get to his prize.

The fight had the desired length and effect, and as the last tumbler slid into place the thief popped open the safe and pulled the large heavy door open.

Inside was a stifling amount of junk, books and money.  None of that interested the thief. His eyes scanned for the item of his desire until finally he landed on the last piece of a very old puzzle he was determined to solve.

The man reached in slowly and grabbed the golden Ankh, finally putting his hands on the key to his life’s work.

A stiff object pushed against his back and his smile faded, he heard a woman’s voice, “Don’t move!  FBI!”

The Thief was worried for only a second till he used his honed powers of deduction understand he was in no real danger.  “I doubt that very much.  Are you not the woman from the hallway?”

E’s resolve faded.  “So?  Just because I was naked then doesn’t mean I don’t have a gun now.”

The thief smiled.  “I am impressed with your bluff, but not impressed enough to be afraid.  A gun to your back has a very different feeling than a fountain pen.”

“Don’t move, I swear…” E tried futilely to keep up the façade.

“Game over, my dear.” The thief said as he pulled a concussion grenade out of his pocket, pulled the pin and dropped it at E’s feet.

The thief swiftly moved for cover.

****

E watched as her idea failed in the worst way.  She wasn’t familiar with stuff having to do with war and killing, but she wasn’t stupid.  She knew a grenade when she saw it.

The explosive device dropped to her feet and she couldn’t move.  She was frozen there in the moment of her impending doom.  All she could do was make a sort of muffled sob.

That’s when she felt the hand…

****

Sam wasn’t a fighter.  In all respects he hated fighting.  It never solved anything and he only ever ended up with pain.

This time the pain was in his head.

He was starting to shake off the blow when he saw the bomb hit the floor.  Sam had only a couple of seconds to react, reaching over the table and grabbing E’s collar and in one motion, dragging her backward over the table to the floor, falling over her.

The grenade went off with a deafening boom and a blinding flash of light.  The force of the blast blew out the windows, assaulting the room with the warm morning air.  The smell off burnt sulfur filled the air.

It took a second for Sam to regain his awareness but as he came to, he watched the Middle-Eastern thief run across the room and leap out the window.

“Weird,” he muttered before looking down and seeing E below him blinking awkwardly.

Sam smiled.  “That’s the second time in twenty-four hours I have been naked on top of you.”

E frowned.  “Don’t remind me.”

Their conversation was cut short as a shadow was suddenly cast over them.  Sam and E looked up to see a very angry, very large Mongolian standing over them.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”  Sam muttered, deflated.

Karl was suddenly there and drove his foot into the back of the Mongolian’s knee.  The pop of its dislocation was audible.  The Mongolian giant lurched forward and howled in pain, dropping to a knee as his joint collapsed.  Karl stepped in behind him wasting no time with a brutal chop to the man’s collarbone with just enough force to fracture it but not kill.

Karl then grabbed the back of the giants head and drove it into and through the corner of one of the hard oak tables.

Dislocated knee, fractured collar bone and a major concussion put the giant down for the foreseeable future.

Karl watched to make sure the man stayed down.  He did, then turned to Sam and E, “Are you guys okay?”

E just nodded and Sam smirked.  “Can’t say I haven’t been better.”

Karl looked around the room.  “He got into the safe.”

“He jumped out the window,” Sam added.

Upon investigation, Karl noticed that the thief hadn’t merely jumped, he had attached himself to a rappelling rope and basically ran down the side of the building.

“He’s good.  You know him?” Karl asked as he investigated the rope.

Sam sauntered over to the open safe with no regard for his nudity.  “I do not, but he was Middle-Eastern, I would guess Egyptian, and we definitely know what he was after, he only took the Ankh.”

“I’m calling Carolyn.” Karl said.

Sam got a sour face.  “Do we have to?  I hate Carolyn.”

“Excuse me.”  E had been standing there watching the scene play out as if it were a normal occurrence for a giant Mongolian to attack them while a thief blew up their house and jumped out a window in order to steal from them.  “Does this happen often?”

The two brothers looked at her wide-eyed, then back at each other then back to E.

In unison they said.  “Kinda.”

TO BE CONTINUED…