10
Karl vs The World
As E put her clothes on she watched Karl dress out of the
corner of her eye. She felt a ping of
sorrow for each piece of hard sculpted body he covered with his shirt and
pants. It had been intense and attentive all at the same time.
It was two in the morning and they had to head out. Karl had decided it would be the best time to ‘storm
the castle’ after Sam and the cup.
I’m storming a castle.
E realized just how crazy that sounded and tried not to
think about it. She turned to Karl who
had placed the guns in the back of his pants. He then grabbed a Hawaiian print tourist style
button up. He put it on loosely to cover
up the weapons.
The bright orange and blue’s of the shirt had a disarming
quality that did not do Karl justice. “That shirt is no good on you.”
Karl turned with a smile. “Really? I kinda like it.”
“Can we really do this?” E asked, unable to contain her
concern.
Karl frowned. “You
don’t have to come. I’ll be honest, the
odds are not in our favor.”
“No,” E said quickly. “I’m in it till the end.”
“Alright.” Karl
responded slowly. He was not happy with
that answer. “While we are there, do
everything I say when I say it. I don’t
want to get you killed.”
E nodded, butterflies of anticipation rushing through her. This was it.
They were going to storm the castle and rescue Sam from a psychotic
terrorist, obsessed with an ancient artifact.
Live or die, her life had become so interesting.
They exited the room and Karl locked it behind him. They then walked down the stone hallway of
the fifth floor toward the old elevator passing three other room doors on
either side and pressed the elevator button and listened as the loud and old
machinery kicked to life.
E frowned as the door squealed open. “I don’t feel good about this thing could we
take the stairs?”
Karl chuckled. “Sure.”
Karl turned to the right down the first floor of the box
stair case to the first landing when three men walked around the corner. One was a smaller man covered in tattoos and
wore a muscle shirt and torn jeans. The
second was large with broad shoulders and wearing an open Hawaiian button up,
not unlike Karl’s. The final man was fit
and toned in a cut off tee shirt and basket ball shorts.
All three men were Mongolian.
The one with the colorful shirt had a Glock 9MM concealed
under it.
“Shit,” Karl mouthed, then grabbed E and shoved her into the
open elevator just as the doors closed.
“First floor!” He yelled at her as she hit the back of the
small metal box in confusion.
As the door closed she heard gunfire.
****
Karl knew instantly that they worked for Hoi. He also knew they saw him and in the time it took
them to figure out who he was, he had to get E out of harm’s way. She looked confused as the door shut but he
knew she would understand in the next couple of seconds as his right hand went
to one of the forty-five calibers.
He had the drop on them and the big man couldn’t get to his
Glock fast enough. Karl put two into his
chest and the big man lurched backward toppling to the ground. The other two men went for their weapons and
Karl fired off three more quick rounds as he sprinted back down the hallway.
He heard them yelling at each other and looked back around
the corner to watch them come around the corner. One man had an evil looking hand gun, of
which Karl did not want to be on the receiving end. He shifted his momentum and put all his
weight into the hotel door to his left. The
old door thankfully gave way and Karl toppled into the room as he heard the gun
rattle of a chain of automatic fire.
Karl pulled himself to his feet as the gun stopped firing
and he heard them chasing him down the hall. He sprinted through the small room and covered
his face as he threw himself through the glass window and onto the ancient fire
escape.
He had to think quickly.
Still trying to put distance between himself and his chasers he climbed
onto the railing and leapt across the four story drop to the fire escape across
the alley. At the same time he heard
another chain of gunfire behind him. This
threw him off and he slammed into the railing of the fire escape across the
way.
As Karl caught himself on the railing, the top bar gave way
and the railing swung out. Karl managed to maintain hold, dropping the forty
five into the alley to grab the railing with both hands. The metal squealed as it spun him low and
tossed him onto the fire escape one level below.
Karl hit the metal grating face first. He reached his left hand back and grabbed for
the other pistol. A shadow sailed over
his head as the fit Mongolian easily leapt the distance and landed on the level
above Karl.
“Show off.” Karl mumbled to himself as he pulled the gun to
shoot him.
Before Karl could pull the trigger, out of the corner of his
eye, he caught the other Mongolian with the machine pistol stepping out onto
the ledge. Karl swept the pistol back
toward the way he came and fired three shots.
The first two hit the Mongolian in the chest and the third
in the eye. The Mongolian lurched and
tumbled over the edge of the railing and into the alley below.
Karl turned back to take out his last attacker but he was
too late as the fit henchmen had already dropped to his level and kicked the gun
out of Karl’s hand with a standing roundhouse.
The gun sailed into the alley way and the Mongolian wasted
no time threw to quick and hard punches to Karl’s mid-section before he could
react. Karl staggered and the fit warrior
finished the combo by striking Karl hard with a forearm to the face.
Karl fell backward into the edge of the railing and the
Mongolian stepped in to finish him with a sidekick to send him over, but Karl
had other plans. Karl side-stepped the
blow and hook punched the Mongolian in the thigh with everything he had.
The Mongolian screamed as his leg cramped. Karl wasted no time grabbing the back of his
head and driving every bit of his knee into the man’s nose. The force shattered his face and put him out.
The man hit the metal grating and did not move. Karl took a couple of deep breaths then began
to move down the fire escape jumping down on the last story to the ground. He
rushed out of the alley way then tried to fix his appearance as he watched
police running into the front of the hotel.
Karl looked around trying to find E, starting to feel some
relief that he just took out three of Hoi’s boys he might be able to pull this
off.
The hope was short lived.
His eyes found E sitting on a bench across the street. Next to her was Hoi, grinning with his shark
teeth. Sitting in his lap was a newspaper
which was also covering his hand, without a doubt concealing a gun that was pointed
at E.
Karl shook his head and cursed to himself.
He slowly walked across the street making his hands visible
to the gun lord.
“Sorry, he was waiting at the lobby.” E was the first to speak as soon as Karl was within
ear shot.
“It’s okay,” Karl told her. “Are you okay?”
“Neither of you are okay.” Hoi decided to field this one.
Karl’s attention turned to the international criminal. “How did you find us?”
“Bomani’s bitches where supposed to check in once they
landed safely. They never did.” Hoi
spoke calmly. “Now if you wouldn’t mind
slowly walking to that public trash can and tossing your weapons, I have a car
on the way.”
Karl frowned. “Why
keep us alive, Hoi? Why not kill us
now.”
E frowned at him. “I’m just fine with the whole living thing,
thank you very much.”
Hoi ignored her. “Not
my call. Bomani wants to talk to you
both. If I had my way, you would be dead
already.”
“I see, so what does he want with all of us?” Karl asked as
the car pulled up.
Hoi smiled showing his broken teeth. “Do not know, do not care, but after he gets
done with the three of you, you’ll be all mine.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
