Action: Pulse Pounding Tales Volume 2

ONE

The first cop got his head blown off two seconds after the door burst open.

There were attackers, wearing ski masks and carrying small submachine guns. MAC-10’s, Detective Carver figured before taking cover behind the couch.

He’d been in the apartment for three hours that day. Along with him were two other cops, assigned to safeguard Diane Rosenbaum. Diane had been playing a game of cards with the cop that got his head blown off when the killers entered the apartment. The safe house had been breached!

Carver fired his Glock at the killers while his surviving colleague, Phil Kratz pushed Diane to the floor.

One of the killers pointed his gun at Diane. Phil fired his gun at the killer. The killer was hit in the throat, blood spurting from it like a geyser. The killer’s MAC-10 sprayed bullets, the trigger being pulled in a death spasm. The bullets cut open Phil’s body. Diane survived, thanks to the human shield Phil made.

Carver jumped over the couch, firing his Glock at the second killer. He hit him in the shoulder. Several bullets flew past the detective and riddled the apartment wall with holes.

Hurt, the second killer decided to retreat, Carver still firing at him. When the killer was out the room, Carver decided to worry about Diane first, the killer second. Phil Kratz was dead; there was no doubt about that.

“Are you okay?” Carver asked Diane. He was sitting on his haunches. She was still lying on the floor.

“Yeah, I guess.” Carver helped her up. “My heart is beating so fast I think it will jump out of my body, though.”

“Yeah, being in the middle of a firefight can have that effect.” Carver knew of a man who was as cool as ice in a firefight. That was the man he needed.

TWO

Mike Dalmas was serving spaghetti to his wife and kids when his cell phone rang.

He wasn’t much of a cook but his wife Donna appreciated his effort. For a macho ex-Special Forces guy Dalmas could be pretty domestic these days.

He took a look at his phone. Carver’s number. He didn’t pick it up because he knew Carver would want him to call back on a secure line. Dalmas had been Carver’s go-to-guy for the kind of wet work the cops aren’t allowed to do. Ever since Dalmas killed the guy that molested his daughter and Carver found out he’d been blackmailed into doing the Bay City Police’s dirty work.

Not a nice job, but it beat going to jail and never seeing his wife and kids.

“Who is it?” Donna asked.

“Nothing important. I’ll call him back,” Dalmas said and poured Donna a glass of wine. He had Bud.

They ate, but Dalmas wasn’t feeling at ease. He was wondering what Carver had in store for him now.

THREE

After dinner Dalmas gave Carver a call and they agreed to meet in some fleabag motel in a bad part of Bay City.

Carver opened the door for Dalmas after having a look though the spyhole.

“Be careful with that. Someone can put a gun against the hole and blow your eye out first and your brains second.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Carver said.

They walked into the room. A woman with long blonde hair in a ponytail, wearing a purple skirt, high-heeled shoes and a black sweater sat on the bed. A few freckles were scattered around her longish nose. Her breasts were full and her legs long and strong. In fact, were it not for the nose which Dalmas thought might have been broken as well, she would have been beautiful. Maybe that flaw made her less perfect, but probably twice as attractive. Dalmas was 100% faithful to his wife, but he couldn’t deny this was quite a woman.

“Mike, this is Diane,” Carver said. “She’s the reason you’re here.”

“I had a feeling she was,” Dalmas said.

Diane jumped off the bed and walked over to Dalmas. She shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yes,” Dalmas said.

“Diane is our prime witness in the case against Donny Monaghan. You heard of him?”

Dalmas shook his head.

“He’s one of the leading men with the Irish Mob. Diane used to be his girl. Now Monaghan’s guys are after her. I’ve been moving her from safe house to safe house but we keep getting compromised. Seems like there’s a fucking leak in the department or something. I figured that you could babysit her for a while. Nobody knows she’s here but you and me.”

“I hire babysitters for my kids. I’m not one myself,” Dalmas said.

“Very funny. Come on, man… If there’s one guy who can keep her safe, it’s you.”

“My wife and kids will miss me. I can’t just stay here.”

“Be creative. Lie.”

“I don’t like lying to my wife.”

Carver chuckled. “You probably do that every time she asks you if that dress makes her ass look fat.”

“Dresses don’t make my wife’s ass look fat.”

Carver sighed. “Yeah, you’re right about that. Your Donna is a hot piece of ass.”

Dalmas’ hand shot out and grabbed Carver’s ear. He twisted it.

Carver turned red. “Jesus Christ, Dalmas! Relax. I meant no disrespect, okay? It was a compliment.”

“Next time, rephrase,” Dalmas said.

“Sure. Sorry about that. Please, take the mission. If not because of our special agreement, do it to save this poor lady’s life.”

Silence. Dalmas didn’t move. The cogs of his brain turned. Finally, “Okay.”

Carver shook his hand. “Cool, thanks. I have to be going now. I need to put in a testimony on a murder case in half an hour and the DA wants me to comb my hair and clean up first. The two of you will be okay?”

“I guess,” Diane said.

“Yes,” Dalmas said.

Carver left.

FOUR

“That’s a special kind of relationship you two have,” Diane said. “Can’t tell if you guys are friends or enemies.”

“Carver is a piece of slime, but he seems to be genuinely interested in justice most of the time. It’s one of the reasons I keep him alive.”

Diane raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me?”

“I don’t kid while I’m on a mission. Pack your stuff, we’re heading out of here.”

“Heading out of here? Why? I just got here.”

“Carver provided this place. He seems to have trouble keeping the safe houses safe. I’m taking you somewhere else.”

“Carver said he didn’t tell anyone about this place.”

“That might be right. Carver might also be not as good as he thinks. He might have been followed. I trust my own skills better. Pack your stuff. We move out in ten minutes.”

Diane sighed. “I’d just started unpacking.”

“Nine minutes and fifty seconds…”

FIVE

Dalmas and Diane left the motel. Dalmas was carrying her duffel bag. He was a gentleman as well as an officer.

When they got outside Dalmas heard a car speeding towards them. He pushed Diane out of the way, covering her with his body.

The car stopped. A window opened and a shotgun appeared through the passenger window.

Dalmas stepped over to the window with two big strides and grabbed the barrel. He pushed, the gun’s stock connected against the chin of the man holding it. He grunted.

Dalmas took the shotgun from the man and pointed it inside the car. The man who’d been holding it was a bald guy wearing shades and a tattoo of a panther on his neck, along with a look of surprise. A shotgun blast blew his brains all over the car’s upholstery and the driver who was pulling out a pistol.

Dalmas jumped on top of the car’s hood. He put the shotgun against the roof and fired it three times.

He got off the hood again and checked inside the car. The driver was as dead as the shooter had been.

“Oh god, oh god…” Diane stammered, tears in her eyes.

“Get in my car,” Dalmas said and opened the door of his SUV. “We need to be gone before any cops show up.”

SIX

Dalmas called Donna on his cellphone in his car to tell her he’d be out of town a few days on business. Donna knew he sometimes had to do things she didn’t want to know the details of and accepted.

“That your wife?” Diane asked. She was sitting next to Dalmas, wearing sunglasses and a hat.

“Yes.”

“She knows about what you do for Carver?”

“Not the details.”

“Doesn’t she ever ask for them?”

“She trusts me.”

“Right. So where are you taking us?”

“Different motel. San Teresa. Far enough from Bay City and not too far a drive.”

“Nice motel?”

“Private.”

“How do you know that one?”

“Not of your concern.” Dalmas felt no reason to tell her he’d visited it with an old girlfriend before he was with Donna. Her name was Patricia. She’d been black and their parents hadn’t agreed on their relationship. Dalmas’ dad had been an asshole bigot. He liked Donna’s dad a lot better. He’d spent a few nights of passion in that hotel, putting all the money he earned into it. Patricia broke off their relationship after a few weeks. Couldn’t keep up with it like that. Dalmas wasn’t sure but thought she was married to a black man now.

“You don’t talk much do you?” Diane asked.

“I don’t like talking about myself. I’m not that interesting. I am wondering why you took up with an asshole criminal like Monaghan.”

Diane shrugged. “Why did your wife fall for you? I’m guessing it’s not your sense of humor or your slick lines. It’s because you’re a big, strong dangerous-looking guy.”

“I’m not sure about that. Yes, she is attracted to me psychically. I think she knows she can trust me. She knows I’m a dedicated father. And I take out the trash without any arguments.”

“Sometimes I’m not sure you’re joking, you know that? Anyway, that’s the reason I wanted Monaghan, I guess. He was hot, dangerous. Good-looking too. And rich. For a simple little high school dropout from a lousy part of Bay City that’s as much as I can hope for.”

“And now he’s trying to kill you.”

“Yeah…”

“Why do you want to testify against him?”

“He’s sleeping around on me. A lot.”

“And that’s not acceptable? Nice to hear you’ve still got some positive opinions about yourself.”

She laughed. “God, you’re a sarcastic sonofabitch, aren’t you? I can’t believe how coldblooded you killed those guys in front of the motel.”

“Sometimes killing is necessary to complete an objective. My objective is to keep you alive. Killing them seemed inevitable.”

Diane shook her head. “Wow, you out-macho the macho. But I guess you had the right idea when you decided to get us away from that motel.”

“Yes. In some way the location had been compromised again. Carver is being very sloppy.”

SEVEN

After having signed in as Mr and Mrs John Smith, Dalmas and Diane walked into their motel room. It hadn’t improved much since Dalmas had last been there. For a moment he allowed himself to reminisce about his time with Patricia. She hadn’t been his first love, but she had been his first sex partner.

He couldn’t help notice Diane’s well rounded ass as she bent forward to open her luggage. Being with a woman that good-looking in a motel he had his first night of lust in did rekindle some feelings. Things between him and Donna probably had gotten a bit less passionate. And with a little baby now part of their family their nights were fuller with milk bottles than sex.

Diane turned around. “Are you checking out my ass?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

She laughed. “Right.”

He never blushed. He felt like it however. He decided to get down to business before his mind wandered again.

He closed the curtains on the windows. He took one of the chairs in the room and put it against the doorjamb.

He took a.45 from his waistband, which had been hidden by his grey jacket and put it down on the dresser table. He took it apart and put it together again. He checked the slide. Checked the magazine.

Diane put her clothes in the closet while he was busy with his gun. When she was finished she came over to stand next to him. He’d just started taking the gun apart a second time.

“You’re pretty good at that.”

“A clean gun is as working gun. A working gun is the difference between life and death.”

“I can imagine. Does that relax you? Taking that thing apart?”

Dalmas shrugged. “It passes the time in a useful way.”

“Wouldn’t you rather sit on the bed with me and watch TV?”

“I don’t really like watching TV. Not without Donna or the kids.”

“Don’t you have some favorite shows?”

“Family Guy can be funny. I watch the news. Donna likes a lot of the reality shows. I watch them with her to spend the time with her. I don’t really enjoy them, though.”

Diane put her lips close to Dalmas’ ear. “I’m sure there’s some porn we can watch. Or are you afraid that might get you some nasty ideas?”

Dalmas stood. “I’m not sure but you seem to have the wrong idea about me. You seem to think I’m interested in getting into a psychical relationship with you while we’re here. You are wrong about that. I love my wife and would never cheat on her.”

Diane ran her hands down her body, emphasizing her curves. “You can’t deny the attraction you feel to this.”

“Doesn’t matter what I feel. Fact is I’ll keep you alive, that’s it. If you keep on with these comments I’m going to hand you over to Monaghan.”

She held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. Just trying to have some fun.”

“Try watching Family Guy then.”

EIGHT

“Where the fuck are you?” Carver asked on Dalmas’ cell phone. Diane was watching Jersey Shore, lying on the bed.

“Calling me might be stupid. Are you on a secure line?”

“Pay phone. Now tell me what happened in front of the motel. Two Irish bruisers got shot… Was that your handiwork?”

“What do you think? You got the safe house compromised, Carver. I’ve taken the lady to someplace safer.”

“Make sure she’s at the court house tomorrow morning at ten.”

“No problem. You should look into the fact the safe house got compromised though. Either they followed you or bugged your car.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m a detective, remember? I’ll detect.”

“Fine. I will disconnect.” And Dalmas hung up.

“Carver’s pissed?” Diane asked.

“I made him look like an ass. I do that frequently. He dislikes it.”

“Don’t we all.”

NINE

Diane went to sleep wearing only red undies. Dalmas was pretty sure she did it to tease him. Luckily she didn’t try too much. He didn’t really want to hand her over to Monaghan.

He made himself another cup of coffee and sat on a chair with it. He wouldn’t go to sleep. He was good at it. It had come in handy sniping in Iraq. He could wait for a target to appear for 48 hours without sleeping, finally taking off the target’s head with one well-placed shot like nobody could.

He heard footsteps in the hallway. He grabbed a make-up mirror from Diana’s stuff and placed it so he could look through the peephole using the mirror.

Two guys in the hallway. Dalmas pulled the slide of his.45 and took a deep breath. He counted to three and took away the chair that had been propped against the handle.

He kicked the door open and swung the chair at the men in the hallway. They were big and wearing dark coats. The chair hit them against the head.

One of them fumbled for a gun behind his jacket. Dalmas shot him in the face.

The second one was already holding a gun. A silenced 9mm. Dalmas gave him a push. The 9mm fired into the ceiling. Dalmas’.45 fired three times at the thug’s central mass.

The room went silent again. The thugs were dead.

Diane stood on the bed, half-naked and screaming. It was the first time he saw her breast naked. They were very white and very full.

“Put on a shirt. We’re leaving.”

TEN

Dalmas was pissed. Obviously Monaghan had found a way to trace the pay phone Carver used to his cell phone. The cell phone was traced to the motel. Another safe house compromised. Plus, he couldn’t use the cell phone again. He would have Carver buy him a new one.

That night Diane slept in the car. She rested her head against Dalmas’ shoulder. It didn’t feel bad. He had to admit he felt sorry for this woman. She’d been in danger more times than anyone should.

He thought about Donna. He’d been gone for one night but already he missed her. Diane was a good-looking woman but lacked the kindness, the incredible warmth of his wife.

Soon he would hand Diane over to Carver at the Court Building. He wasn’t sure that would be the end of it though. It was a probability there would be another hearing. Maybe Monaghan would go free. Maybe Monaghan’s power would extend beyond jail. He sure as hell had proven how mighty he was by managing to track down Diane time and time again. It wouldn’t be easy to make sure Diane was safe. He couldn’t be with her every day. He had Donna, the kids, his job. Maybe he should set up a contingency plan.

Diane started to breathe uneasily. He figured she was having a nightmare. He kissed the top of her head and brushed his fingers through her hair like he used to do when Donna had the nightmares after their daughter was molested.

“Don’t worry. I will make sure you can sleep tight real soon.”

ELEVEN

Dalmas parked the SUV a block away from the Court Building. He stepped out. A Crown Vic parked and Carver left it.

Dalmas walked off. Carver entered the SUV and drove off. Dalmas got into the Crown Vic and drove off.

“Are you okay?” Carver asked Diane.

“I guess. Dalmas took good care of me. Did you find out how Monaghan was able to track me down?”

“That fucker managed to put a tracking device on my car. He had a few guys following me around as well. Very unsuspicious guys, like an old dude and a girl. I’m telling you, your boyfriend is a resourceful sonofabitch.”

“I know,” she said. “You caught the people following you?”

“Punched out the old guy, the girl walked. They made me look like a fucking amateur.”

“Everyone looks like one compared to Dalmas.”

Carver shook his head. “Our boy really impressed you, didn’t he? A regular Batman, right?”

“Yeah. I hope his wife knows how lucky she is to have him.”

“I’m sure she does. I’m not such a bad catch myself, you know? In a Robin sort of way?”

“You’re too old to be Robin.”

“And to look good in spandex. Still, when this is all over maybe we could have dinner together.”

Diane just laughed. Good thing Carver’s opinion of himself was too low for him to be hurt by that.

He shut up and drove the last few minutes to the Court Building in silence.

TWELVE

A rooftop across the street from the Court Building. A wiry guy in a black duster was setting up shop. Shop consisting of an Armalite AR-50 sniper rifle.

He looked down the street through the rifle scope. There was his target. His boss’ old squeeze. She was surrounded by a fat, balding guy in a cheap suit carrying a shotgun, and another dozen armed cops. They would be no defense against the.50 BMG bullets he’d be sending her way though. He’d pack up the rifle after that and leave the building on a bike before the cops would know what had hit her.

He concentrated on the target with his entire being. Concentration was what sniping was all about.

He’d been better off concentrating on his surroundings. He would have heard the guy sneaking up on him and prevented the arm from wrapping around his neck. He wouldn’t have been too surprised to stop the iron hands from snapping his neck.

THIRTEEN

Monaghan left his car flanked by cops. The press tried to snap good pictures or get good videos. Mostly they were prevented by the bodies of Kevlar-clad cops.

Diane spotted her ex-boyfriend. Carver saw her stiffen. He put a hand on her shoulder. He told her not to worry.

Monaghan grinned at her and made a pistol of his thumb and finger. He shot his virtual gun. Diane winced.

When his thumb lowered, imitating a gun’s hammer Monaghan’s head exploded.

Everyone panicked. People took cover. Cops started to look around frantically for the place the bullet came from.

Diane buried her face in her hands, crying. Carver wondered if it was shock or relief.

FOURTEEN

Dalmas left the sniper rifle with the assassin whose neck he’d snapped. His bet that Monaghan would try to pull something like that had been right. As an experienced sniper he had little doubt about where the sniper would set up shop. He’d also spotted the bike the assassin planned to use to escape.

Dalmas would be on the bike and speeding off before the cops would have figured out where the kill shot had come from.

The contingency plan had worked out okay. He hoped Diane would sleep tight now. Maybe he’d send her a card.

BIO:

Jochem Vandersteen is a Dutch writer, writing often in English. His special interests are crime novels and movies, rock music (he is a Rock reporter for a Dutch music site) and comic books. He is the author of the Noah Milano series, The Mike Dalmas series, and of a number of published short stories and novellas. He is the founder of The Hardboiled Collective and is editor of the blog SONS OF SPADE