Chasing Gold

CHAPTER FIVE

The armed men made good use of the few scattered parked cars dotted around the parking lot, moving from cover to cover. Alicia judged the figures as barely adequate — yes, they’d had some training but their instructor had either been severely rushed or intensely incompetent.

Out here, under the stark bright lights, everything was in the open.

She saw the male and female thieves, Terri Lee and Paul Cutler, their faces bloodied, black leather suits ripped. She could see stress carved deeply into their features. She counted nine armed men surrounding and urging them on; although nobody was standing up to be the leader. The thieves were weakened, wilting under the weight of the banner and the skill it took to keep it straight as they ran among men that cared nothing for their welfare.

“Hey, where are they going?” Russo suddenly shouted.

Alicia looked closely. “Shit, they’re running for the store. And it’s open.”

The large structure was a twenty-four-hour supermarket with two large sliding double-doors waiting to greet the runners. Alicia sped at the same pace as those they chased, seeing them disappear through the doors and then, a moment later, hurl a grenade out into the parking lot.

“Bomb!” she cried.

The team dived onto the tarmac, scraping exposed flesh and staying low. As low as could be. The grenade rolled before it exploded, closing the gap. The noise was chilling, the expectation of what might happen nightmarish. Alicia heard deadly fragments striking the light-stanchion she’d rolled behind, felt two small tugs at her clothing, but nothing penetrated. When she looked up, the parking lot ahead was clear.

“We okay?”

“Go.” Crouch was already on his feet.

Alicia took back the shotgun and leveled it as they approached the doors, carefully skirting the new hole that had been blow into the car park. A quick glance inside revealed nothing. She moved closer, activating the doors and then slipped past. A white-painted, well-lit entryway met her and then the entire store opened up just a few meters ahead.

“Gotta be at least three exits,” Russo grumbled.

Though the store was relatively quiet, some civilians were inside and screaming at the sight of the men with the guns. Alicia saw someone running from a home furnishings aisle to the left and ran across. The man running away saw her, tried to stop quickly, and ending up slipping on the polished floor, rolling to her feet.

“Don’t worry,” Alicia hefted the shotgun, “I’m Wonder Woman and this here is The Slug. We’re on your side.”

Russo grunted in resignation, then moved past her. They reached the end of the aisle and peered carefully around a crate of on-sale DVDs.

“Clear,” Russo said.

The team sprinted to the far end. Another quick recce revealed two more shoppers escaping an aisle marked DIY and the sounds of angry men shouting in a Middle-Eastern dialect.

Alicia crossed the supermarket aisles quickly. To left and right were high shelves stacked with all manner of goods, everything picked out in bright lights, red labels that shouted Reduced and Buy Two Get One Free positioned at eye level, but in truth this was an alien place to her. Alicia couldn’t remember the last time she’d visited a megastore like this.

She checked the DIY aisle with Russo at her side. Even as they glanced past an eight-foot-high stack of beer cans two men came at them, guns out as they rounded the corner. Alicia saw no alternative. She threw herself at the beer cans, toppling the entire stack just as bullets were fired. The tumbling metal cascade collapsed and slithered across the floor, smashing into the knees of their attackers.

Alicia followed it, falling among the cans herself but hitting the two men with effective force. Both staggered and went down amid the cans. That left Russo standing, skipping to the right to evade the flow. He picked the first attacker off instantly, shooting him through the head. Blood sprayed the beer cans and the man fell dead. The second scrambled at Alicia; the two slipping and sliding among the cans. Several burst then — their contents shooting up and out in forceful jets.

Crouch came around the corner to witness it.

“What on earth? What happened here?”

Russo tried to sight the second attacker. “Alicia happened,” he said.

“Say no more.” Crouch led Caitlyn and Austin down the next aisle, trying to hang on to the thieves.

Alicia ignored the sudden soaking of her legs and hair, and jabbed a fist up at her opponent’s throat. The man choked, but still held on to his gun. A shot was fired, the bullet slamming into the cans and then glancing away. More beer spewed across both of them. Alicia jumped at the gun arm, pinning it down, taking several blows to the ribs and the back of the neck, but ignoring them in favor of grabbing the weapon. Her own shotgun had slid under a nearby rack of shelving. In pain now, she broke the man’s wrist, yanked the gun away, and turned it upon him.

“Hands up.”

He lunged for the gun.

She shot him through the face. More blood mixed with the pooling beer. Alicia rose quickly, dripping, and tried to squeeze the legs of her jeans and her hair dry. She pocketed the gun and took off after Crouch.

Russo was with her, chuckling to himself.

“What?” she grumbled.

“I’ve never seen anyone stop for a beer in the middle of a fight before.”

“Fuck off.”

“You do smell better than normal though.”

Alicia shepherded a gaggle of scared shoppers away from the area and then caught up with Crouch. The thieves were running along the back wall of the store, passing the bedding aisle and then hurrying among the freezers. Alicia parallel-tracked them, taking the next aisle and ducking as bullets burst through the shelving. She didn’t fire back in case she hit Terri or Cutler.

Pure instinct saved her life then, and the lives of some of her crew. Something changed in her peripheries. It was sheer impulse; just the knowledge that they were suddenly under intense threat. She yelled out and rolled, then looked up.

A man lay over the piles of toilet paper stacked on top of the shelves, twelve feet high. Had she seen a shadow? Heard a rustle? She didn’t know, but fired instantly. The bullet missed but the man shifted in fear. The plastic-wrapped piles crumbled away from each other, sending him sprawling to the floor, landing flat on his face. The groan told her he was hurt. Austin didn’t ask, just jumped over to restrain his arms.

Alicia jumped up and made the end of the aisle in just a few seconds. The thieves were being pushed through a rear door whilst four men watched their backs. Bullets peppered the shelves all around Alicia.

She fell back quickly.

“They definitely have a plan,” she said. “They’re exiting through a fire exit back there.”

“Time to stand up and be counted.” Russo loaded his weapon.

Alicia accepted a gun Crouch had collected from one of the fallen thieves. “Austin, stay back. The rest: We ready to save America?”

Crouch nodded with determination. “We chased the bloody treasure this far. How much further can it go?”

“And watch out for those two thieves,” Alicia said. “They might be scared, but they could be tricky too.”

Russo sniffed at her. “C’mon, beer breath. You’re stinking up the store.”

Alicia moved out.