Geek Mafia by Rick Dakan (beach read txt) 📖

lo and behold, here we are at a storage locker. You even explained why it wouldn’t be under your name; that your cousin had rented it. Of course we didn’t have time to look into the paperwork on every locker here since we didn’t know which storage facility until we followed you here so we couldn’t check on that.”

“Where’s this going, Raff?” Chloe asked. Paul didn’t like the fact that Raff was giving away so much information about what he did and didn’t know. Chloe’d told Paul time and again that you never reveal what you know unless you have to. Paul was wondering if their brilliant plan was really all that brilliant.

“I’m getting there,” said Raff. “Patience. As I was saying, we couldn’t check up on who rented out this storage facility. But we could check up on your family.” Paul’s heart started to thump heavily in his chest. “And it took some doing, but we found the cousin who’s not really a cousin. Francesca Kohl, right?”

Paul stared at him dumbly, kicking himself for mentioning his cousin in the first place. But he knew enough not to nod or acknowledge Raff’s statement. Deny, deny, deny. “Doesn’t ring any bells,” said Paul, keeping most of the anxiety out of his voice. 

Raff kept on as if he hadn’t heard Paul. “And lo and behold, the credit card records for Ms. Kohl do indeed show a monthly rental charge for a storage locker facility in the Bay Area. Just not this one.” He paused to let this sink in and then turned to Chloe. “See babe, this is what you get when you work with talented amateurs. Moments of brilliance intertwined with dumb fucking mistakes.” He looked again towards Filo. “How’s it coming over there?”

“Ready when you are!” Filo shouted back.

Paul glanced at Chloe. She caught his eye and ever so slightly nodded to her right. Paul looked over at the fourth figure hiding in the shadows. He wondered who the hell that was, but decided it didn’t make much difference at this point. 

“Go ahead!” Raff called to Filo.

Silence for a moment. Paul held his breath in anticipation. Chloe tensed her muscles. Raff watched with a serene smile, like some malevolent, skinny Buddha. 

A loud, sharp pop came from the open car trunk, followed by a powerful hissing noise. “Fuck!” Filo shouted, and they all looked over to see a billowing cloud of green smoke pouring out of the car trunk. Filo came stumbling around to the front of the car, his face concealed by a gas mask. He had a tire iron in his hand.

“How ‘bout that!” shouted Raff, whooping in delight. “I was right. I told you it would be gas, not a flash bomb!”

Filo regained his footing as he came to a stop next to Kurt, who’d stood motionless throughout the entire proceedings, watching everything unfold with a curious, intense look. Filo tore the gasmask from his head and said, “Yeah, yeah, you were right.”

Paul and Chloe looked surprised and scared. When the gas bomb went off he’d grabbed her hand and he still hadn’t let go. Together they took a step backwards towards the storage locker’s dark opening. 

Raff followed them forward, his hand digging into his coat pocket for something. “Ok kids, play time’s over. We’ve had the fireworks show. Now let’s get down to business.”

“Ok,” said Chloe between clenched teeth. “What do you want?”

In one smooth motion Raff pulled his hand from his coat and whipped it up and then down. With a metallic snap the collapsible metal baton telescoped to its full length. He pointed it menacingly at Paul. “His fucking money!”

“No,” said Paul, his voice much calmer than his heart. “Not gonna happen.”

“Oh it’s gonna happen,” said Raff. Behind him Filo stepped forward, his tire iron en garde and ready for action. Kurt also came towards them, although his hands remained in his pockets. The shadowy figure to their right remained where he was. “One way or another. You can take us there now, which is your best option. Or you can wait for us to beat it out of you, which would suck for you. Or you can let us beat you to a fucking pulp and we’ll just find the locker and get in on our own. We’re pretty experienced at that kind of thing, in case you hadn’t heard.”

Paul held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Ok, Ok. You’ve made your point. I know what’s best for me.”

Raff didn’t stop moving towards him, but he did say, “Great, just let me tie you up and we’ll go to the locker.”

“No, no, you misunderstood. I’ve decided to go with option number three. Come and get me, Fuckwad!” Paul shouted angrily.

He yanked on Chloe’s arm and the two of them turned and ran into the dark storage locker, dodging behind a stack of boxes and out of sight.

CHAPTER 34

Peering out from inside the dark locker, Paul watched as Raff turned to Kurt. “Now do you believe me?” he asked. Kurt looked troubled by what he’d seen. Finally he nodded in agreement and pulled his hand out of his pocket. He held an extendable baton that was a twin to the one Raff wielded. He snapped it to its fighting length and joined Raff and Filo as they advanced towards the dark opening.

“Whatcha doing Chloe?” Raff called from a few feet outside the locker entrance. “I’m sure you figured out that that’s a dead end.”

There was no reply, except a shuffling of feet and boxes towards the storage locker’s rear. Raff motioned with his head to his two companions and then glanced to his left at the shadow draped figure that he’d come with. Then the three of them stepped into the darkness, weapons ready. 

From inside the locker, two pairs of dark arms swung baseball bats out from the shadowy corners to either side of the doorway, arcing out from the darkness and slamming into the intruders. Filo took a blow straight to his forehead that knocked him back off his feet. Raff managed to twist away at the last moment, the bat glancing off his shoulder. Before he could react further two more black-clad figures exploded from the pile of boxes in front of him, wooden bats raised and ready for action. 

“What the fuck!” shouted Raff, tumbling backwards out of the doorway and into the alleyway. Kurt turned and ran as well, the mystery attackers hot on his heels. 

As the fight poured out into the slightly brighter exterior, Raff must have been surprised when he realized that none of the attackers were Chloe or Paul. One of the four was clearly a woman, but she was much stockier and a little taller than Chloe. All four bat wielding ambushers wore dark pants and dark sweatshirts in various shades of navy and black. All had dark bandannas around their faces that covered everything below the eyes and dark ski-caps that covered everything above them. They looked not so much like uniformed soldiers as a quartet of people who’d been told to dress alike for the occasion.

Raff had only a moment to take this in as the group charged forward. Kurt, who was always quick, was sprinting for the car. One pursuer stopped and set his feet before expertly throwing his bat at Kurt’s retreating back. The spinning wooden shaft tangled up in Kurt’s pumping legs, bringing him down hard on the asphalt. The masked man raced forward and jumped on Kurt’s back before he could get up.

The other three ignored Filo, who was out cold, and fanned out to surround Raff. He held his baton up in a defensive pose, trying to keep all three of them to his front. It was a losing proposition. The attackers knew each other well, and fought with frightening coordination. Once they had him flanked, some unseen and unheard signal passed between them. They all charged at once, bats swinging.

Raff jumped back and then dodged wildly to his left, moving inside his attacker’s swing before the bat could connect. He dropped his own weapon and grabbed his attacker by the shoulders. He twisted hard with his hips, and the two of them went down to the ground in a heap. Raff landed on top, and his attacker hit the ground hard, his head snapping back and impacting the blacktop with an audible crunch.

Raff screamed in pain. One of the other bats had finally connected, hitting his left arm hard. He rolled off the man he’d thrown and onto his back, covering his face just in time to receive another bludgeoning blow on his forearm.

The two standing attackers loomed over him now, bats raised. Paul, emerging from his hiding place, gave Raff three, maybe four seconds before he was bloody pulp on the asphalt. Raff managed to deflect a second blow with his already damaged forearm. Now it was broken for sure. He cried out mindlessly in utter agony.

Out of the darkness came three rapid roars; a gun being fired from nearby. One of the attackers crumpled to his knees. The other dove forward and out of the line of fire. She acted as if she’d encountered gunfire before and knew to get clear as fast as possible. 

Raff seemed only dimly aware of the sudden change in his fortune as he writhed on the ground in pain. Then the shooter was at his side, helping Raff to his feet.

CHAPTER 35

Paul and Chloe peered out from the storage locker as the fight unfolded before them. A malicious grin covered Paul’s face as he watched Raff and his thugs yelp in horror as Winston’s heavies ambushed them. 

After they received Raff’s summons over IRC, they’d needed to act fast. It had been Paul’s idea to call in Winston. He knew they needed help. In fact, they needed muscle, and Paul figured that since Winston was a former Weatherman, he must know how to swing a bat. Chloe had resisted, arguing that he’d never help and that besides it wasn’t that easy to contact him and furthermore, they could handle this themselves. Paul knew the truth though – she didn’t want to appear weak in front of her mentor. She didn’t want him to know she’d lost control of her crew. 

Eventually logic prevailed over pride, and she’d made the call. They had to assume Raff had the safe house phone covered, along with their cell phones, so they waited for their next-door neighbor in the mountains leave. Chloe broke into his house and used his phone to contact Winston. As Paul had suspected, Winston was eager to help his favorite apprentice. 

She and Winston had worked out the basics of a very simple plan – Winston already had a storage locker they could use where he and his crew could set up the booby trapped bag and the ambush. The key would be taped to door, out of sight, all Paul had to do was palm it when he entered the code and then pretend to take it out of his pocket. Chloe and Paul would lead Raff and whomever he was working with into the trap. Then, voila, they’d ambush him and take care of the whole problem.

And so far everything seemed to be working out just as planned. They watched as Filo fell to the first swing and Winston and his crew rushed out of the locker and ran Raff and Kurt down. 

Chloe and Paul, who’d run to the back of the locker in order to lure Raff inside, then made their way back to the doorway. Chloe’s stun gun was in her hand and Paul had grabbed a baseball bat of his own that Winston