“Confessions” Serial, Tech Wars 24
Johannsen, his boss Oscar and the rest of his team stood frozen in disbelief. The section of the wall had slid open revealing a very tough and determined SWAT team consisting of six heavily armed police. The senior policeman spoke crisply to the gangsters.
“Those of you with guns, drop them and all of you lie face down on the floor. Do not resist arrest or we will shoot.”
As the other members of Johannsen’s team reluctantly dropped to the floor, Johannsen unexpectedly grabbed his boss Oscar in a headlock, drawing a gun as he did so. He pointed it at Oscar’s head as he responded to the police.
“This is the man who can give you all the answers to our organization. If you try to get to me, I’ll shoot him and you’ll never build a case against us.”
Oscar’s face grew red as Johannsen applied pressure and simultaneously started dragging the man across the floor towards the door. The police officer in charge called out “Hold your fire.”
He then addressed Johannsen. “You’ll never get away. There’s another ten men guarding the perimeter of the house and yard … so let him go and drop your gun.”
Johannsen laughed. “I’ll take my chances, pal.” He stepped through the door and disappeared. The police officer shook his head. “Murdoch, Levinsky, go get them. I want them alive.” The two team members dashed out of the door in pursuit, while the rest of the team moved forward to cuff the villains lying on the floor.
As soon as he was out of the door, Johannsen released his grip on Oscar and spoke urgently as they approached the main entrance to the building. “Sorry about that. When we reach the front door, I need to grab you again and bluff our way through the cops on the outside. OK?”
Oscar rubbed his neck. “OK … but you don’t need to be so rough on me.”
“Yeah, I do. It has to be convincing. Just play ball if you want to get away.”
As they reached the front door, Johannsen could hear the cops coming up behind them. Glancing back and checking that their pursuers were not yet in sight, he grabbed Oscar’s arm and dragged him into a small toilet just inside the front door. As he closed the toilet door, he could hear their pursuers racing towards the front door, opening it and running outside. He also heard the men shouting to the cops guarding the perimeter. Johannsen opened the toilet door, beckoned to Oscar and led the way back into the house, heading towards the back door.
• • •
Andy and Sally had insisted on coming to the ranch with the police. They were allowed to do so only on condition that they stayed well back until the gangsters had been arrested. They waited in a car just inside the long driveway leading from the impressive large gate to the property. Sally was growing increasingly restless and stared impatiently out of the open window of the vehicle. Andy, having been involved in similar situations before, was more relaxed but also listened carefully for any sounds indicating that the cops and the crooks had found each other.
The serene evening silence of the ranch was suddenly broken by shouts as Murdoch and Levinsky came out of the ranch house in pursuit of Johannsen and Oscar. Andy could just hear fragments of the interchange, picking up random words like “escaped,” “hostage” and “pursuit.” He looked worriedly at Sally. “Something’s wrong. Sounds like some of them have escaped.”
Sally looked at her man disbelievingly. “Surely the cops outnumber the baddies. How would anyone escape?” Andy shrugged. “Dunno, but I need to find out.” He looked at Sally anxiously. “I want you to stay here. Lock the doors and take my gun.” He removed his Glock from a shoulder holster. Sally held up her hands and shook her head. “No way. I’ll never use a gun and you may need it.” They stared at each other for a long moment.
“Then I’m coming with you,” she added. Andy thought of arguing the point but realized that she was right. “OK … but keep behind me and don’t do anything … impetuous.”
Sally gave him a grin. “Would I do anything like that?”
“Definitely!”
“OK. I’ll be a good girl. Let’s go.”
They made their way cautiously through a grove of trees that encircled the spacious lawns in the front and ran behind the ranch house. Andy turned and whispered to Sally. “If you see a cop, let me know. If you see anyone else, still let me know but take cover.”
At the back of the house, Johannsen grabbed Oscar again and propelled him forward, keeping himself masked as much as possible from any of the cops that might see them. He was counting on the fact that the cops at the back of the house would not have been informed of their escape. He was right.
A large policeman loomed out of the darkness with an automatic rifle pointing in their direction. Before he could say anything, Johannsen called out, “Hey, I’ve got one of them. Come and help me.”
The cop moved forward, not seeing in the dark that Johannsen wasn’t wearing a uniform. As the cop came closer, Johannsen moved his Glock, which he had much earlier fitted with a silencer, and shot him. He collapsed with a gasping breath.
Once again Johannsen released Oscar and the pair raced away to the trees some twenty yards away. They made it moments before two more cops crossed the lawn heading for the back entrance of the ranch house. Johannsen figured that unlike the man he had just shot, at least one of the other two was linked by radio to other members of the team.
Meanwhile, Andy and Sally had skirted around the front of the house, keeping under the cover of the trees. Andy figured that any escapees would come out of the back of the house. This put them on a direct course to intersect with Johannsen and Oscar. Andy saw the other two before they saw him. He raised his gun and – signaling Sally to remain where she was – he crept forward silently, taking cover behind the trunk of an old oak tree that had been planted by the first owners of the ranch many years before.
As the two villains drew closer, Andy could see that only one of them had a gun, which was pointed forwards. Andy was at right angles to the men. He stepped forward and pointed his Glock at the armed man. “Drop the gun!” he yelled, hoping that some of the cops would hear him. Johannsen was an old and experienced fighter. Instead of dropping the gun, he swung it rapidly and fired, missing Andy but hitting Sally, close behind him. As she cried out, Andy’s instinctive reaction was to turn to her, to see that she was clutching her arm and not seriously hurt.
This was all Johannsen needed. He barreled into Andy, knocking his Glock from his hand. Johannsen was a big man, somewhat overweight but still fit enough to take on the younger and more athletic-looking Andy. Johannsen followed up with an uppercut to Andy’s jaw, which Andy managed to partially avoid yet it was powerful enough to send him flying back against the trunk of the tree. Johannsen brought his gun up again, but Andy launched a desperate kick which caught the other man in a place where no man liked to be kicked. Johannsen doubled up with pain. Andy swiftly followed up with a blow to Johannsen’s forearm, which knocked the gun out of his hand.
As Johannsen gritted his teeth from the pain, he fought back savagely. He and Andy were evenly matched with Andy as the fitter and faster of the two and Johannsen as the bigger and stronger opponent. Both Oscar and Sally stood transfixed as the two big men went at each other. It seemed as though Andy was gaining the upper hand, when he stepped forward and caught his foot on the root of the old tree running along the ground for a few feet. As he stumbled, Johannsen caught him with a heavy blow to the side of Andy’s head, knocking the young man to the ground. It gave Johannsen the precious time to rush forward and pick up his gun.
Andy shook his head to clear it. He saw Johannsen step back out of range and aim his gun – not at him but at Sally. The man who had chased the pair all over the world, in order to put a stop to Sally’s effective exposure of some of the cabal’s Internet-related scams, now had his target in front of him.
“If you move,” Johannsen said, addressing Andy, “She dies.”
Andy looked helplessly at the woman he loved. She was still holding her arm where Johannsen’s previous bullet had hit her but was clearly not badly hurt. She stared defiantly at Johannsen.
“Even if you do shoot me, your organization’s busted. This was a sting operation to draw you into it and it worked.”
As she spoke, Andy gathered up his strength to launch a desperate dive at Johannsen before he could shoot Sally. Johannsen spoke again, with a gloating edge to his voice. “You may have slowed us down but we’ll be back in operation again soon enough. Say goodbye to your man. He’ll be following you into the hereafter; so, who knows, you may meet again.”
As Johannsen’s finger increased pressure on the trigger, a throwing knife thudded into his throat. He gasped and clutched at his throat, but it was all over. Johannsen sank to the ground spurting blood and clearly bleeding out. Andy and Sally watched in amazement and confusion as Johannsen died at their feet.
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.