Bounty

Chapter 9

Double, double

Alex found herself suddenly no longer in the hotel room, feeling James’ not-so-hot breath on the back of her neck, but in some sort of alley way in what looked like the South Bronx. She glanced around and jerked back when a translucent blue screen popped up in front of her and James’ face could be seen on the projection.

“Alex.” He said, “Your objective for this round is to find one they call Rodney Jackson and end his life. Is that understood?”

“James I” she was cut off when he continued speaking and for a second she was offended but that soon changed to feeling dumb when she realized that it had been previously recorded. She remained silent for the rest of the briefing.

“You have been given a 1911 pistol for now but you will be able to pick up different weapons along the way. There will be different obstacles and plenty of his henchmen to face, as well as check marks where you will be logged back into me for further instructions.” The bodiless head nodded. “God-speed.”

The screen faded and left Alex there alone. She spotted the handgun on the ground. “1911 handgun: check.”

“Intruder stand down!” she heard the loud firm voice from behind her and could have sworn she felt the heat of the red dot that the laser pointed weapon left on the back of her head.

She sighed. “Henchmen: check.” Alex slowly put her hands up, her mind going blank only leaving the current situation in her thoughts. Already she could see the man lying face down on the ground with blood spilling from his fresh and fatal wound.

“Drop the weapon Miss.” He instructed which she did but not to his meaning.

Alex let the weapon go and before it hit the ground turned and swung her foot out with enough speed and force to kick the small light weight gun the required ten feet for it to slam directly into the man’s forehead. His head jerked back and he dropped his weapon to the cement ground, stumbling back a step or two before faltering and ending up on his back. Alex made her way over to him and flipped him over with her boot. Bending down she equipped herself for any possible scenario that James would put her in. Taking his gun belt and buckling it securely onto her own waist, checking each gun for its amount of bullets before sliding them into their respected places. One at each hip, one tucked into the back of her pants, leaving the laser-guided rifle where it lay. She liked to travel light; big guns were not her style. A thought crossed her mind momentarily when she moved to step forward.

She wondered if everything she had on her when she began the simulation was still there. She bent forward to check her boot. The large dagger like knife she kept in a compartment was there still and she allowed herself a smirk. “Sweet.” She mumbled and set off towards Rodney Jackson.

Alex encountered three other henchmen on her way into the big apartment building that something told her Jackson was housed in. All three had been easy work and she had leveled the first and the third with single bullets to the head and chest. The second received a classic double tap from the 1911 and caught both bullets to the face. The three had been standing in virtually the same area and Alex had taken them out with four rapidly shot bullets, each one hitting the target before the other men could even flinch. Now she was pressed against the outside wall of the building with a gun in each hand preparing herself for anything beyond this door she now stood beside.

But first a message from our sponsors.

“Alex.” James voice was sudden and made Alex have to work to hide the surprise that she felt. “You have reached a check point. Beyond these doors is certain death. Twenty armed men stand between you and apartment 3B. If and when you get there I will check back in with more news.” The screen again faded and Alex allowed herself a minute to get her heart rate back to semi- normal.

“Wait. If?” She shook her head. Now there was no way she was going to fail. Even if she was doing it just to prove him wrong. “Let’s blaze.” She muttered and turned on a pivot kicking the white door down in the process. Four armed men looked up in shock and she put a bullet in all of them before they could even raise their guns.

The first stairwell sat directly in front of the door and the previous gunshots had alerted others so she had to get up them fast before she was cut off at the top. Taking two or three steps in one stride she reached the top rather quickly and met the first opposition there. He was close enough so that Alex received a few droplets of blood on her neck and left side of her face when she put a bullet between his bright blue eyes. She was already turning down the hall for cover when he hit the ground and the sound of more rushed footsteps could be heard down the hall. She ignored the blood on her face telling herself that it was virtual blood and not real blood, not that it would have mattered much. Virtual or real she could still feel it sliding down her neck. She shivered but pushed the feeling into the back of her mind when she heard the footsteps grow nearer. These were not well-trained lackeys. She gathered that when she noticed they hadn’t slowed from their run as they neared the end of the hallway and Alex was able to pick them off one by one when they ran past her. She counted them as she continued her advance down the hallway. Four at the door, one at the top of the steps, and three in the hall. Which totals to eight in all. Twelve to go. Quickly reloading both guns with the clips she kept in her pockets, while still moving, she found herself passing apartment 2B. Just one more story and Jackson’s all mine. She told herself.

In the next second she was taking fire from behind her and had to dive for cover inside the doorway of apartment 2E. She winced when bullets cracked the drywall in front of her and full on grimaced when she tried to move her right arm. A bullet had not just winged her but lodged itself fully into her right shoulder only inches away from her neck. She clinched her jaws. Man for this to be a virtual reality it sure hurts like the real one. She gripped her gun and found that the pain had only made the haze in her eyes lessen and now she was both angry and more determined. The mess of bullets hadn’t stopped and she was now what others would consider “trapped”, but Alex was not others.

Apartment 2F sat slightly diagonal to the one she now found cover in and her plan to get out of this alive had just begun to unfold. She pressed herself against the door of the apartment she was near and threw herself the short distance across the hall. She twisted in mid air so that she faced the shooters on the other end of the hallway and found there to be just two of them each with automatic weapons, both releasing rounds into the air. Alex soared only two feet off the ground turned completely horizontal in the air and it all seemed like slow motion. With just two double taps on both of the triggers she fired eight shots into the air, four for each shooter. They hit the ground, and she barreled through the wood substitute of apartment 2F.

The impact had been harder than she had expected and she had taken almost all of it on her wounded right shoulder. The pain increased and for a moment she saw double. But she shook her head clear of all the cloudiness and got to her feet with a grunt. After looking around she found the apartment to be well furnished and saw that the wind was rustling the curtains on the window across the room. She wondered if this was where she was supposed to be but decided it didn’t matter when she heard more footsteps outside.

Three men entered the room and wasted no time emptying their weapons into the apartment. After the men were content with the thought that they had surely hit something the sounds of bullets leaving barrels and striking objects stopped. The men searched for the body but none was found. One noticed the open window and moved over to it peeking his head out and looking up and down before deciding there was nothing there. “Search the other ones boys.” He ordered and the three moved out.

Alex allowed herself to breath once again and winced feeling the strain hanging from this ledge was putting on her wounded shoulder. She had pressed both hands and both feet into parallel walls that sat at least six feet from each other and was now dangling there. She grunted and looked up surveying her options. She decided it would be all right to try it. She moved one hand up followed by the other one, then her slammed both feet into the wall again except now a little higher in the crevasse. Alex continued her movements grunting all the way, that shoulder was going to need some serious tending to when all this was done. Cannot believe James has got me scaling a building. Who does he think I am? Friggen’ Spiderman? She calmed her nerves by humming the Spiderman theme song all the way up to the next floor grunting around notes.

After opening and entering the window to apartment 3F she pulled out her guns again, reloaded and set off for Apartment 3B. Slowly she opened the door and peeked out. Since there was no offensive fire she opened it a little more but only enough for her gun to peek through. She slid through the door and didn’t bother to close it behind her. She checked both directions and heard footsteps from both. “If it’s a fight you want.” She raised both guns, one pointed down the hall in the opposite way of the other. “Then it’s a fight you’ll get.”

All ten men then proceeded to file into the hallway; five on both sides, and Alex began to pull her triggers. Every bullet went exactly where it needed to go and when her much used double tap system exhausted both guns with a shooter left on either side she ducked low and pulled the gun from the seat of her pants. With a double tap to each side both men fell. She smirked and blew the smoke from the barrel of the 1911 that James had issued her from the beginning. With a chuckle she moseyed her way down the hall to stop in front of Apartment 3B. All she had to do now was kill Jackson and whamo. Instant victory.

The shotgun blast that went through the door and into Alex’s stomach, blowing her back and into the wall told her otherwise. Alex sucked in breaths hungrily knowing full well that it would only make her heart beat faster which, in turn, would make the dying process more painful, but it was instinct. The door opened and the last thing Alex saw before she blacked out was Jackson, a tall dark skinned man armed with a double-barreled shotgun and a smirk.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

James was the first thing Alex saw when she opened her eyes, and found herself back where she’d started in the hotel room. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck and made the tank top she wore stick to her body. She was glad it wasn’t white or James would have gotten more a show than he already had. He placed his goggles on the table in front of him and smirked when Alex reached for her stomach and watched her sigh with relief when she found no hole there. She checked her shoulder next and only found the previous bullet wound on her arm. “That was crazy.”

“You did well. Save for that last part.” James shrugged his brows.

“You never said that my target had a shotgun.”

“You should have expected him to have a nuke.” James said, “You must expect everything.”

Alex’s eyes were full of every bit of determination as before except now they were multiplied by at least one hundred. “Well lemme at ‘em again. I betcha this time I’ll be ready for the shotgun.”

“Well I would.” James said taking the goggles from her and placing them back into the bag he had brought them in. “But too much stimulation with these things can cause major brain damage.” He continued off the look she gave him, “This is only the prototype; the ones on the black market have yet to have had the kinks worked out of them.”

“Ok well you keep sellin’ those death traps and I’ll mind my own business.” She smirked and took another swig of her drink, smiling around the opening of the bottle while she watched James glare at her.

“I- we’re not- I.” He paused and sighed, giving up. “On second thought I think I will have a little of that.” He reached out and took the bottle right from Alex’s lips making some spill but both ignored it. James took a swig and made a face. He noticed her watching him and tried to play it off. “Good stuff.” If “good stuff” burns my throat like that just did I’d hate to taste the bad stuff. James thought as he handed it back to a still smirking Alex who took, not a swig or a gulp, but a short chug, swallowing two mouthfuls before putting the bottle back down on the table. She never even flinched. That girl is like an Amazon or something to that extent.