21

Dominos

The crash happened so quickly. One minute, Troy was on the phone with Mitch and the next minute he was struck by a blue blur on the right side of his car. The impact tipped the car and sent it crashing over a median and onto a parked car in the parking lot next to the road.

Dazed, Troy tried to gain hold of his senses. He tried to analyze where he was in relativity to the car and the pavement. He looked around and saw that the car was pinned between the median and the parked car and there was very little room for him to maneuver out. He unbuckled himself and grabbed his pistol from his shoulder holster. But that was the extent of how much he could move. He looked over to the window and saw blue cars filing into the parking lot. Not only were there Rollerz cars, but the limo that Troy had been following also pulled in. He only saw a little bit out of the car but he recognized the formation of a perimeter around the car created by Rollerz cars. They were surrounding him.

"Detective Bradshaw!" a voice called out. Troy sighed and said to himself,

"Well fuck."

The voice was that of William Sharp.

"My lawyer is very good. He had a very nice conversation with a friend of yours who happened to mention that you were on the payroll of the Stillwater PD. Our original plan when we figured this out, oh about an hour ago was to call up our mutual friend Mr. Little and give him this information in exchange for something from the Saints."

Questions started to fill Troy's head. First, who would tell Coffman that? Why Coffman and not Julius? Secondly, mutual friend?

"But my lawyer is also very good in spotting people who follow us. Especially if they follow us in a manner that the Stillwater PD would. It didn't take long to realize that you had been following us ever since we left the courthouse. I hope you understand we can't have people following us." Sharp finished and then there was a silence.

Troy again could not see anything but he knew something was going to happen. Suddenly he heard something bounce on the side of the car and before he knew, a grenade bounced into the car.

"Oh fuck!" Troy cursed. He reached down and grabbed the grenade and tossed it back out the window. The grenade lobbed up over the car and exploded. Troy felt the car rock. He grabbed his knife out of his pocket and cut the seat belt. He wriggled out of his seat and climbed to the window above him.

He peaked out of the window and saw that Rollerz surrounded the car. Coffman was behind them all watching. The limousine Troy was following before was parked behind the line of Rollerz. Troy noticed that the Rollerz were loading ammunition into their weapons. Troy thought they must have been thinking that the grenade would have been all they needed to do. Troy pointed his pistol at Coffman. "I'd consider this excessive force." He pulled the trigger.

The shot was good and unexpected. Coffman was hit. He clenched his side and took a knee. Before Troy took cover back into the car he noticed some of the Rollerz moving to their Capo, while the others started to open fire.

Troy heard the clinks of bullets on the car he was taking cover in and the car it was pinned against. He had no idea where his cell phone was. He had dropped it in the crash. Troy perched himself on the side of the passenger seat and took a moment. The bullets were distracting him from thinking straight. He just sat there cursing for what seemed to be a very long time.

He was brought back to reality when he looked over his shoulder and saw a Roller trying to sneak up behind him. Troy pushed himself forward taking cover behind the front and driver seat and then turned and fired two rounds at the Roller, dropping him to the ground quickly.

Troy peeked over the seat again and saw the Roller bleeding out on the pavement. Next to him was a MAC-11 submachine gun just in the line sight of the Rollerz firing at the car. Troy crawled through the car and through the broken windshield.

The Roller wasn't quite dead but he wasn't going to be moving. He was also behind the car enough that bullets from his gang would not hit Troy. Troy searched the dying man's body but didn't find anything that would be very useful. He had been hoping for a grenade. "I guess they only had one. Dumbasses." Troy cursed to himself. He pushed the body over and turned his focus to the submachine gun.

Troy knelt by the overturned hood, his bad pressed against the cold steel. The MAC-11 was just out of reach.

Troy knew there was a good chance they didn't know where he was located and if he opened fire from that position he would take them by surprise enough that he could lay down cover and grab the submachine gun.

He took a few deep breaths and checked his ammo. Of the ten rounds he had in his clip, three of them had been spent. He took a few more deep breaths then pivoted around the hood.

The moment seemed to travel in slow motion and as if Troy was in a video game. He saw his pistol rise to the first Roller he saw. He pulled the trigger and in seconds he saw the first Roller drop. He shifted over and unleashed two more rounds into the next two Rollers in the firing squad. He then reached down and grabbed the MAC-11. He targeted three more Rollerz and each received a speeding bullet either in the head or into the chest.

Troy curled back behind his cover of the car as bullets hit his previous position. He jumped back into the car and maneuvered himself in the back seat.

The moment before had been intense but he managed to count how many Rollerz there were and how many he had hit. Not including Coffman, there were ten of them from the start. There was the Roller that Troy dispatched from the beginning and the five that he hit at least. There was also the matter of where Sharp was. Troy presumed that he was back in his limo and there was a chance that there were Rollerz protecting Sharp in the limo.

Troy pulled the strap over his head and holstered his pistol in the shoulder holster. He checked the ammo on the MAC-11. There was a 30 round clip in the weapon.

Suddenly as he saw the rounds he noticed an injured Roller coming around the car firing as he came. Troy didn't have time to fire so he took cover and watched the front seat be riddle with bullets. He crawled to the corner of the back seat behind the hood of the car as the bullets went down riddling the passenger seat.

There was a pause and Troy took the opportunity. He sprung up and fired. The Roller was hit with five rounds. He collapsed to the ground but was quickly replaced by another Roller. Troy fired again and the Roller dropped on top of his partner, his head drooped over the opening of the windshield.

It was almost a fluid movement, Troy sprung up and brought the MAC-11 over the side of the car and killed a Roller trying to overtake the care from the top. The Roller fell and toppled over the car. He got a quick glance and noticed there were still four left standing and two that had been killed by the attack Troy had swung by the edge of the car.

He dropped again and dove to the corpses of the fallen Rollerz next to the hood. He quickly checked their bodies and found another clip of rounds and two grenades.

"Here we go." Troy said. He knelt down and ejected his clip. He inserted another and picked up another MAC-11. He wrapped the strap around his head again and prepped his grenade.

The next move was more of an impromptu move but Troy was so jacked with adrenaline that he could not think of what he was actually doing.

He pulled the pin and dropped the grenade into the car. He then twisted out from behind the car again. All he saw was blue blurs as he reached for his MAC-11s and fired blindly. He backed himself up to the median he had flipped over and he jumped back as he fired, toppling over the median taking cover. He hit the ground hard on his side.

The grenade went off in the car creating a huge explosion not only in Troy's car but by the car it was pinned against. The explosion was actually bigger than Troy expected. It replaced his hearing with a dead ringing sound. It only took him a moment to get back to his senses, minus his hearing and prep another grenade.

He pulled the pin and tossed it hard towards the blue figures and more importantly close to the limo. Troy dropped again before he saw the explosion.

Once again a loud boom broke past the white ringing but it soon returned. Troy didn't care. He pulled the MAC-11s over his head and popped up and pointed them with a new flexibility towards his enemies.

The majority of them were on the ground dead. And if they were not dead they were howling in pains. Troy thought he even saw a Roller with a blown off leg.

"This'll be fun to explain." Troy said to himself, though he didn't actually hear himself say it.

The grenade had done a number on the Rollerz outside the limo. The limo itself was still in tact but the hood was smoking. Just as Troy suspected, two Rollerz exited the limo. But before they could get one shot off, Troy fired his dual submachine guns and brought them both down. One more Roller popped out and fired a shot.

The bullet pierced Troy in the left shoulder making him drop one of the MAC-11s. He cried out in pain but managed to pop off the remaining rounds in the cartridge into the head of the Roller. He slumped to the ground against the limo. The door to the limo was wide open and Troy could see Coffman spitting blood on the leather seats, but still no sign of Sharp.

Troy dropped the empty MAC-11 and pulled out his pistol. He didn't quite remember if he had any more ammunition in it but he prayed it wouldn't make a difference. He stumbled to the limo and slammed against it, leaning on it for support while pointing his pistol with his good hand straight at Coffman.

"Coffman." Troy coughed out. "Is Sharp in there with you?"

Coffman looked at Troy but couldn't respond. Troy noticed the blood stains on his suit. He must have shot straight through his lungs causing them to collapse.

"Sharp, if you're in there, I want you to know your lawyer is dying. I can help him but you need to come out, drop and weapons you have and turn yourself in!"

There was a silence. The bulletproof windows were so tinted that Troy couldn't see what was on the other side of them. But he looked straight into them as though he actually saw Sharp and was challenging him face-to-face.

Suddenly there was a click and Troy recognized it as the door of the limo opening on the other side. He spun his pistol around and pointed it straight at Sharp.

Sharp just looked at Troy. His hands were concealed behind the limo and that's what worried Troy.

"Let me see your hands!" Troy shouted. "Let me see them now!" He pulled back the hammer as a way to intimidate Sharp. Troy really hoped there was a round in the chamber.

Sharp raised both hands. One with a pistol he quickly unloaded and placed with the clip on the roof of the limo. Troy quickly raced around the limo and shouted, "Get on the ground! Your hands behind your head!"

Sharp complied and Troy rushed over to him and handcuffed him. They were handcuffs he had had in his back pocket since the night he met Jason. He had been ready to use them for a long time now.

When Sharp was pacified Troy took a deep breath and grabbed Sharp's cell phone.

"Yes, I need a ambulance at the corner of 5th and Jordan. This is Detective Troy Bradshaw." There was a pause. "I'm not on the record, I've been undercover for quite a while now." Another pause. "I know for a fact I don't have to tell you how long I was undercover. Just get me a medic here, I've got multiple wounded, including a key witness in a case I've got going." Troy said looking straight at Coffman. "I'll also need a squad car." There was no reason to be subtle anymore.

Troy hung the phone up and looked down at Sharp. He had a lot of information that Troy would need.

Before moving on with his business, Troy took a deep breath and attempted to calm down. Suddenly a thought came to his mind. He looked down at the pistol he held in his hand and pressed the button to eject the clip. He pulled it out and brought it up to his face to observe it.

When he saw it he gave a sigh of relief. He would never tell Sharp but the pistol he had pointed at him before he surrendered had run out of rounds. Troy looked around to make sure nobody else knew this secret, then reached over and inserted the clip Sharp had put on the limo into his Beretta, switched it to safe, and placed the pistol in the back of his pants.

"There is no way they are getting that chopper." Lorrie finally interrupted once Truman was off the phone.

"Nothing is off the table yet." Truman said not even looking at Lorrie. He walked away from the phone and started to walk towards other officers in another area. Lorrie followed him.

"Bullshit! You know that once Victor and Hector are on that helicopter they are gone. They will not be found again until they're gunned down by Colombian drug dealers in Mexico."

"That scenario doesn't sound that bad." Truman said. He walked up to another officer. "I want you to figure out which news station owns that helicopter." He pointed at a helicopter in the backyard of a mansion down the street from the Lopez mansion. "Let the owner know that they will be compensated if they help out with the situation."

"Are you high?" You're just finding the first helicopter you find? No way to track them?"

"Agent Nelson!" Officer Truman suddenly snapped. "This is hostage situation is not under FBI jurisdiction. The only reason you're being allowed here is that Agent Wellston has been working with the Stillwater PD." Lorrie stopped.

"You know where Agent Wellston is?"

"Yes." He says that you and your people are allowed to assist in our operations but unless it is concerning your mole or any of your FBI assets, you have no jurisdiction. Let us handle Stillwater."

Truman walked away and Lorrie let him. "The hell?" She said to herself. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed Dale's number.

"Agent Dale."

"Dale, its Lorrie. I'm at the Lopez mansion. Things have gone to hell here. And now Stillwater PD is negotiating their escape in exchange for some of their officers stuck in the house."

"Damn."

"Not only that, they're going about it in the wrong way." Lorrie said looking straight at Truman who had found the pilot of the news helicopter.

"Well take control of the situation. Talk Lopez out of some hostages. We were taught this Lorrie." Dale said on the other end.

"I would but I can't. They're saying the situation isn't under FBI jurisdiction."

"You can make it under FBI jurisdiction you know that right?"

"Not if a commanding agent says nothing is within our jurisdiction unless it directly concerns our assets." She then caught one more thing. "Or our mole. Somehow the Stillwater Police know about Jason."

There was a silence on the other line.

"Its peculiar enough that Wellston is benching us but its another thing that Stillwater PD knows about our inside men. Something isn't right here Dale." Lorrie explained.

"Call Foreman. See if Wellston has given him any reports on what he's doing going dark. If he hasn't reported in we may have to assume that Ron is compromised. If that's the case then Jason may be in trouble."

"What're you gonna do?"

"I gotta bring Devon king in. He has a lot of information that we may be able to use against the Vice Kings. You need to handle this. I'll do what I can but this might be your arena."

Lorrie sighed in frustration. "Fine, I'll call you later."

Mitch pulled his car up to the street two blocks away from the Price Mansion. The suburb area had turned into a heavy traffic area, especially for the time of night. Rollerz cars were racing up and down the street next to the mansion. Rollerz were bustling in and out of the mansion and there was screaming coming from inside the mansion that Mitch could hear from a block away.

The screaming was that of Joseph Price. He was shouting orders to his men and Mitchell could also hear furniture crashing to the floor.

He made his way across backyard of suburban houses till he reached the grounds of the mansion. Apart from the Rollerz going in and out of the mansion there was a patrolling guard.

Mitchell had seen these patrols before. They were actually really dumb and could be easily passed. Mitchell was surprised the Saints hadn't just snuck into the mansion a long time ago and just killed Price a long time ago.

He made his way up the lawn and to the window he had come to multiple times when he was making sure Lin was okay.

"I wanna know where the fuck my Uncle is!" Price was yelling. There was nobody really in particular he was yelling at. He was just shouting in the middle of the room. "I also wanna know where that motherfucker Troy Bradshaw is. That dirty motherfucker of a cop better not show his face around him. I will fuck him up. I don't care who sees. Dumbass Saints, having a cop as a lieutenant. That's why we're the best gang in Stillwater. Am I right?"

Nobody answered. They were too busy bustling around the room doing things to make themselves seem busy.

"Am I right?" Price shouted again. Again there was no answer. One Roller looked at him with a scared look and meekly said.

"Yes Mr. Pri…" He didn't get to finish the sentence. Price pulled out his pistol and fired a bullet straight through his head. The Roller slumped to the ground.

"Fuck yeah I'm right!" Price said waving the pistol around the room.

Nobody really paid attention to the body in the middle of the living room. Blood spurting out of the exit wound, getting all over the white carpet.

Mitchell backed up from the window.

"Troy? A cop?" he said to himself. "I gotta find Lin." He turned back and approached the window again.

All he saw was a blue tank top and a large fist reaching out.

The window shattered and Mitchell felt a strong fist clench his throat hard. He was pulled into the mansion and tossed onto the blood soaked carpet next to the dead Roller.

Before he could react he got a stiff kick straight in the face and his own blood spurted onto the white carpet. Mitchell was left face up on the carpet, having difficulty breathing. His nose was broke. He looked up and saw the large form of Joseph Price standing above him.

"Well looky what we have here." Price said. He pointed his pistol and fired. A bullet soared down and through Mitchell's kneecaps. He screamed in pain. "We got ourselves a Saint on Roller territory. Who the fuck do we have on security!" Price shouted. Again nobody answered. Price fired again, the bullet searing into the opposite kneecap. Mitchell screamed again. "Who the fuck is patrolling the grounds?" Price said immediately after the shot.

Two Rollerz rushed into the room. Before they could say anything Price fired a shot into each of their heads. They slumped to the ground next to the first Roller casualty. The white carpet was soon taking on a crimson tint.

Price looked back down at Mitchell. "Now… back to you."

Mitchell could feel his pistol in the back of his jeans. But his hands were outstretched on the carpet and he was unable to maneuver down to grab it.

"Who the fuck are you? One of Little's little bitches?" Price raised his leg and stomped down on the bloody kneecap. Mitchell heard a cracking sound and sharp pain jolted up his leg.

"Joseph!" a voice called out. Price held himself back for a moment to look up. Mitchell was too shocked at the pain to acknowledge someone had come to his rescue.

"Back away from him." Lin said. She was dressed in a black tank top and purple windpants. In her hands she had a rocket launcher pointed straight at Price.

"Lin? Baby? What the fuck are you doing?" Price said. He was still jacked up on the fit he had been having before but the look of a rocket launcher pointed at his face was at least a little sobering. He then noticed the purple pants. "Wait a second." He then looked down at Mitchell who was barely conscious. "You're one of these scums?"

"Back away from him Joseph!" She shouted. Her grip on the rocket launcher and trigger was not hesitant. There was no question that she would use it. Price knew this. He lifted the hand that didn't have the pistol and he slowly started to back away from Mitchell.

"What's your plan Lin? Shoot your way out of here with a rocket launcher. You see that in video games, not here. Let's be honest. You have no exit strategy do you."

"If by exit strategy you mean walking out of here while your corpse burns behind me. That sounds like a good exit strategy." Lin said scoping in on Price.

Price continued to shuffle away from Mitchell and towards the door. A number of Rollerz had entered the room and were pointing their pistols at the crazed Asian with the rocket launcher. Lin saw this.

"I suggest you put those down if you don't want to see what this'll do to your boss." The Rollerz looked at Price for some kind of direction. He nodded and they lowered their pistols.

"What do you want Lin?" Price said. He had finally shuffled close enough to his Rollerz and more importantly to the door.

Lin didn't say anything. She just pulled the trigger.

A rocket screamed out of the launcher and jet lined straight into Price. It was going at such a high velocity that it ripped right through him and kept going behind him into the wall of the mansion where it exploded with a large blast. It launched Rollerz across the room and out windows, as well as set the impaled Price on fire. But the most critical, it blasted a hole into the mansion wall and sent the roof above the blast crashing down. All that was left was flames as carpet and furniture started on fire.

The blaze spread quickly and started to engulf the entire room.

Lin dropped the rocket launcher, pulled out a Beretta then rushed to the side of Mitchell who was still dazed from the amount of pain he had experienced before the commotion had started.

"Mitch. Mitch! We gotta go!"

Mitchell started to regain a focus on the situation and he saw Lin above him. When he saw that, despite seeing flames surrounding them, he smiled.

"Hey Lin." He said in a very calm voice.

"Hey dumbass." Lin responded. She then quickly pulled Mitchell up and put his arms over her head and started to lead him through the flames. He couldn't do much but drag there which was very cumbersome to Lin.

She however managed to pull him over to the window that had been his entrance. She pushed him out of the window.

Mitchell landed on his mangled leg and cried out in pain. His legs buckled and he stumbled down the hill of the mansion.

Right after Lin pushed Mitchell out of the mansion, the structure of the mansion busted and a part of the roof collapsed on the window. Lin jumped out of the way and managed to dodge the rubble. However her exit was closed. She looked around for another exit.

The entire room was engulfed in flames now.

"Hell if I had known that thing would've had this big of an effect I would have just used an AK." Lin joked to herself.

Outside the mansion Mitchell was laid out on the grass, crippled. He had no way of moving. He could only see Rollerz gathering around the Mansion. They couldn't see him but he could hear what they were saying.

"What the fuck is going on? Why is the Mansion on fire?"

"You didn't see it?"

"Lin blasted Price to pieces."

"That bitch."

"Is she still in there?"

"Yes she is. I say we finish her job."

The dialogue shook Mitchell. He was still a little paralyzed from the fall and the pain he was experiencing.

He saw the Rollerz moving to vehicles and pulling out molotovs cocktails. Within seconds they were lighting them and tossing them at the mansion. Most just hit the brick and spread onto the patio outside the mansion. But some made it through the cracks and into the Mansion.

The Rollerz were destroying their headquarters for the mission of killing one Saint.

Mitchell started to find ways in which he could help Lin. He didn't see her anywhere so he assumed she was still in the Mansion. He knew he couldn't move but he suddenly realized there was a pistol in the back of his jeans.

He painfully leaned over and pulled it from his pants. He then rolled over on his stomach and pointed the pistol at the Rollerz attempting to burn down the mansion. He pulled the trigger and seconds after the shot one of the Rollerz dropped. He continued to pull the trigger and the Rollerz continued to drop until they were all on the ground.

Once the clip was empty, there was nothing else Mitchell could do. All he could do was watch sit up and watch the Mansion's supports break and collapse on the woman he loved.