Fringe

"In the time when corruption reigns, vigilantes will be this city's last hope..."

    The water was too goddamn still.  My hand edged to the gun on my hip.  I always carried, something I had picked up from my first partner.  The metal was cold to the touch, chilling my fingers as I traced a line up the barrel hoping to find comfort.  There was a hurricane coming up a few states below and in a few days it would rain like all hell.  Still, the water was placid and calm.  Something wasn't right here.  I wasn't sure what until I saw the empty black trash bag hanging from a plank of splintered pine at the end of the pier.

    A creak from a board at the opposite end of the pier set my hairs on end.  Even though I knew the soft sway of the water could move the boards enough to cause the noise, I was on edge.  The water remained still.

    "Told ya we were being followed."  My legs tensed for a split second and then I heard the click of the trigger falling into place.  Fluid motion and intense training drove me forward without thought.  The crash of the water around me barely cut the aftershock of gunfire.

    Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I backpedaled under the pier and surfaced.  The sound of aggressively flowing water was drowned out by the furious groans of the aging pier.  One of the two men stopped running just above me.

    "...Must've surfaced somewhere, I heard 'em."  The voice came from directly above me and was smooth and confident despite the situation.  He was clearly a career criminal and likely the superior in the operation.

    "Look, Angelo, he ain't got nothin' on us.  Lets just get it out of here and drop him somewhere else."  The voice came from the end of the pier, just where I had been standing seconds earlier.  This man's voice was shaky and from the amount of valuable information disclosed in his words I would estimate this was his first big job.  He had a gun in one hand and was scanning the water with a flashlight held in the other.  With a heavy step he began to walk closer to the first man.  "Come'on, let's get the f**k out of here."

    Using the noise to my advantage I slowly moved closer to shore to get a better foothold.  The man continued to move noisily while moving the flashlight erratically.  With ample auditory cover I pulled my waterproof nine mil.  

    "We don't leave any holes," said the first man authoritatively, "he knows too much."

    "We gotta take out another one?"  The second man started to mutter.  "S**t, this s**t keeps getting worse;  Danny never said nothin' like this.  F**k man, he just said the money was good..."

    "Shut the f**k up."  The first man barely raised his voice, but in it was the ferocity of a lion.  His clear voice helped me to zero in on him.  The trigger fell back without complaint and the pine board above me shattered.  I landed a clean shot to the foot and the first man fell to the side and into the water beside me.

    I didn't get a chance at a shot on the second man.  He was running scared;  high on adrenaline and fear for his life.  Even before I made it to the shore I heard the clear snap of a single rifle shot followed by a thump and the sound of skittering gravel.  He hadn't even made it to the van on the other side of the parking lot before my partner tagged him.  The second man was screaming from his injury and writhing in the gravel.  I knew it even before I could see him, he was just that f*****g loud.

    By the time I made it to the grass beyond the shoreline I had it all figured out.  The car that we had seen leave had been a decoy.  They must've switched out the body when they stopped at the burger place before they made the drop.  This all hinged on the idea that they had noticed us tailing them from the start.  This was all too well planned out.  Gotta hate organized crime.  I shuddered.  When I was near the van Anthony emerged from the shadows.

    "What the hell went down?"  He asked with a dark look on his face.  It was his first shot on a living target.  Generally, that kind of thing was a little unnerving.

    "It was a set-up.  They were gunning for us."  With a sigh I added.  "Good shot."  In unison we looked at the man squirming in pain only feet away.  "I'll bet the body's in the van.  We've gotta work fast, that many shots and the cops tend to put a rush on it."  I pulled a pair of rubber gloves from the inside pocket of my jacket.  Water squirted out of the gloves as I put my hand inside but now was no time to be picky.  I pulled at the latch at the back of the van.  It was locked.

    "Keys are in the ignition."  Anthony noted.

    "Well, put some gloves on and get them for me."  Anthony did as he was told and tossed me the keys.  I slipped them into the lock with effort; the dim overhead lighting made it hard for me to see just what I was doing.  

    Opening the latch the rancid stink of decaying flesh hit me hard.  Anthony put his hand over his mouth.  Definitely a body.

    I pocketed the keys and made my way to the GT-R.  "Tony, hurry up, you're driving."

    "What?  Me?"

    "If anything goes down I don't want my hands too full."  Anthony stood and stared at me for a moment, for a mans first night it had been a rough one.  I'd cut him some slack later, as for now time was of the essence and things had to be done just right.  "Just get in the car and start the f*****g engine."  As if woken from a trance he immediately did as I told him.

    First thing first I scanned the shore.  The man I had shot on the pier had washed up.  Good, one less head to worry about.  However the man near the van wasn't in such good condition.  I reached into my pocket.  "D****t."  My phone was drenched from my dip in the water.  I would have to smash it later.  I walked hastily to the car.  

    "We ready to go?"  Anthony asked nervously, clearly coming down from his adrenaline rush.  

    "Almost.  Need your phone first."

    "What for?"  He asked, coughing up the other disposable phone I had bought the day before.

    "Calling an ambulance, this kid'll bleed out."

    "Can't the police handle it?  And don't we have to go?"

    "One, he could be dead by then.  Two, we leave when the job's done and not before.  And just for asking, you get to call."  I walked over to the van to make sure the body was in plain sight.  You could never make a cop's job  too easy.  That was the whole reason we were out here for this job.  The cops were too tied up in red tape to do anything about the organized crime problem in the city.  A criminal group named Energie, had the DA hopelessly caught up in law and loopholes.  Meanwhile they went on a killing spree as the pushed drugs down the throats of influential businessmen.

    Luckily, there was a group of vigilantes working within the city.  That was us; and we were the only thing keeping the city alive and together.

    It was like my partner used to say before we went out on hunts.  'We live and die in this city.'

    The rev of the engine brought me back to my senses.  Something about this operation wasn't right.  I could smell the danger on the air.  I could hear the distant sirens.  Police, I could tell from the pattern.  The ambulance would be around soon.

    I tugged off my gloves and tossed them inside the glovebox as I adjusted the passenger-side seat.  Anthony was a bit taller than me and had his seat tilted back to put more room between his head and the low roof.

    The nimble Japanese sports car sped across the dirt and gravel path leading out of the park.  Despite the speed and uneven terrain the car didn't lose much traction.  When we hit pavement the car gripped the road furiously.

    "Hit a main road for speed and distance.  No more than five over, don't want any attention from the cops."  Anthony took a hearty breath.

    "Is it always like this?  Like once a week?"

    "When ever we're needed. 'We live and die in this city.  Hundreds a year.  One life is a drop in the bucket.  Millions a year survive.  Our obligation is to them.  So the bucket doesn't run over.'  Same thing I've heard a hundred times before, but I thought you might like to hear it.  We try to solve the crime issues.  Take out the repeat offenders.  And while we ignore the legal process to get results, we don't kill them.  For every one of them there is a chance to change, and while we can't deny them that, we can beat it into them."

    A glint of headlights in my side mirror put my attention momentarily behind us.  A dark vehicle was roughly a half mile behind us.  As of now it was no concern.

    "You see, most of them think they can hide behind loopholes and bribes.  They kill witnesses, hire attorneys to protect them.  They would push heroin to babies if they thought it would turn a dime.  The system, courts, judges, it's all really beautiful in theory, but there are some big names, important cases that just slip through the wide nets that keep the innocent free."
    
    The car behind us had moved into our lane and had probably picked up about an eighth of a mile.  Other than its headlights the car was almost invisible, most likely a flat black.  From its shape I would say it was a newer model sporty sedan.  It was looking suspicious, but it was still too early to call it.

    "Then there's us.  The fringe of culture.  We do what no one is supposed do in an ideal world, but the thing we have to realize, is that our world is no utopia and never can or will be.  Again, we are the fringe, if there was a hundred like us, there would be chaos.  If there were none, corruption and tyranny.  And when corruption and tyranny are at their worst the fringe makes it's move and then it becomes the norm.  The American Revolution.  We are the new wave, we are the future.  A self regulating, autonomous society.  

    But we're not there yet.  So we fight.  Fight the norm.  Fight 'right'.  We will be among the first to brave the new dawn ..."  I stopped my speech.  It was a bit excessive anyway.  The car I had seen earlier was still there and gaining speed.  However that wasn't what was bothering me.  I saw the glint of metal and a motion of hand.  But trained perception told me otherwise.

    "We have a tail.  Passenger has a sawed off.  Window's down, his hair's moving.  And as you can see, he's closing in."