The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set) Page 26

  All of the men wore swastikas, and one of them, a huge blond bastard, had one tattooed above the bridge of his nose.

  He was one of four men going through the gathering of Burke’s employees and culling out people of color. They were herding them, and making them stand over against the left wall.

  “Just what the hell is going on, Mr. Mercer?” Dr. Burke said.

  Deke sighed.

  “Utter and complete insanity,”

  When the chaos started, Deke had been able to grab a meat cleaver from behind a serving counter. He held it behind his back and shielded it from sight. Against six armed men, the cleaver might as well be a toothpick.

  He suddenly remembered that Alexa was on her way to meet him for lunch, and he said a silent prayer that she’d been delayed.

  ***

  Tanner parked the jeep in such a way as to conceal it from the building, but also leave it pointed back towards the road.

  Alexa looked worried. She assumed that there was a gang of some sort taking over the building. She wasn’t thrilled that Tanner was heading into their midst.

  Tanner kissed her before getting out of the jeep, and removed the small gun from his pocket.

  “Stay here, Alexa, but if you see trouble coming, drive away. I’ll meet you later back at the lake.”

  “Please be careful, Tanner.”

  “I will, and I’ll be back. Count on it.”

  Tanner ran towards the building and headed for the rear doors at an angle. His destination was the office of Conrad Burke.

  Deke Mercer was in the building, and Tanner knew from Alexa that Deke was deadly in his own right. Also, in the armory was a man named Garber. Garber was a Brit, and a former member of the SAS, the British Special Forces.

  Garber had trained Tanner in the use of a Seabob and had been instrumental in Tanner’s hit on Julien Adams months earlier.

  Those two men wouldn’t lay down and do nothing, they would fight back as well as they were able to. Meanwhile, the main target of the raid, Conrad Burke would likely be assaulted by an overwhelming force.

  Once his security team fell, Burke would be defenseless inside his office.

  That would also be the location of the leader of the assault. Tanner planned to kill that man, and anyone that was with him.

  He smiled. It was good to be back in action.

  ***

  Granite had assigned ten men to herd people into the cafeteria.

  Four of those men had plans of their own. From the intel gathered, they knew that there was an armory in the basement of the main building. Jake Vincento had told them that it was where Burke’s security force sent their weapons to be serviced. He also told them that there were always a load of new guns in inventory.

  That was true. The four neo-Nazis were headed to the armory, with the idea of taking as many guns as they could to sell on the black market. Their greed left only six men guarding the crowd inside the cafeteria, but they assumed that six were enough. They also assumed that the men in the armory would be no match for them because their weapons were powerful and they wore vests.

  However, as Tanner knew, the armory was run by a man named Garber.

  Garber was deadlier than the four well-armed Nazis put together.

  ***

  When the power went off and the building switched to emergency lighting, Garber had tried to call upstairs and discovered that the landlines and the cell service were inoperative.

  One of his men had been up to the cafeteria and was heading back down to the armory just as the chaos broke out.

  He returned to the armory and informed Garber about what was happening.

  “Nazis?” Garber said.

  The man nodded and told him about the swastikas they all wore.

  Garber gathered his three assistants around him and saw three sets of nervous eyes looking back at him.

  “Listen mates; I know that you aren’t soldiers but we have to defend the armory. Here’s what I want you to do.”

  ***

  The four neo-Nazis entered the hallway that led to the armory, and found that, apparently, even the emergency lights were off on the lower level.

  However, the hallway was sufficiently lit by a pair of lanterns hanging on hooks behind the counter. The lead man tried a door on the right, but found it locked. He was thinking of blasting it open when he saw what was ahead.

  The service counter’s wooden surface was empty, but behind it was a rack of Glock 19’s. The guns gleamed in the light of the lanterns. There was a metal gate that could be slid in front of the counter and locked, but it had been left wide open.

  One of the Nazis laughed.

  “Shit man, they didn’t even lock up, they just ran away.”

  “Ran away? I bet they’re hiding back there in the men’s room.”

  When the Nazis reached the halfway point in the hallway, the locked door behind them opened, causing all four men to turn around.

  As they did so, the hall was plunged into darkness, even as Garber’s assistants popped up from behind the counter. The three men fired modified Glocks on full auto down the center of the hallway, and then dived to the floor behind the metal gate.

  Their blind shots had missed for the most part, but a few rounds had struck two of the men in the chest.

  The attack caused all four men to turn back around and fire at the counter. They shredded the wood with round after round, and not one of them realized that they were no longer alone in the hallway.

  Garber, wearing night-vison goggles, left the room behind them and began firing at the back of their heads. Two of the men were dead before the other two realized it, and one of the men had just emptied his weapon into the counter and was struggling to reload it in the dark.

  Garber dropped down to the floor and fired shots at each of the men at an upward angle, catching them both beneath the chin.

  One of the dead men fell atop him and he had to roll him off his legs before he could stand.

  “Lights!” Garber shouted.

  The lanterns came back on. Garber grinned when he saw that all three of his men were unharmed.

  They climbed over the counter and gathered around him, as they stared down at the corpses.

  One of Garber’s men was Black, while a second man was Jewish. They both looked down at the swastika insignias the dead wore. A look of revulsion showed on their faces.

  Garber grabbed up a machine gun dropped by one of the corpses, and fed in a fresh magazine he’d taken off an ammo belt. Afterwards, he headed for the stairs. To his surprise, his men did the same.

  “We might be outnumbered up there, guys. You might want to think twice before you follow me.”

  “We’re wasting time, Garber,” the Jewish man said, and the other two nodded in agreement.

  Garber laughed.

  “This will reflect well during your next evaluation. Now, let’s go kill some more Nazis.”

  CHAPTER 26 – Runner’s high

  Jeff Rivers ran along in bliss as he finished up the first lap of an eight mile run, while his iPod blasted music into his ears

  A year earlier, it would have felt like an ordeal to simply walk eight miles, and now he was training for his first marathon.

  There had been a fire in Jeff’s apartment building on the same day that the elevators decided to stop working. His apartment was on the ninth floor and so was the fire. Although the blaze had begun in an apartment on the other side of the building, the entire ninth floor was filling with smoke when Jeff arrived home.

  Jeff lived alone, but he did have a pet, a golden retriever named Murray. Jeff was not about to let Murray die from smoke inhalation, and so he ran up the back stairwell to save him.

  It took Jeff over twenty minutes to reach his floor, and he had to rest on the third, fifth, and eighth floor landings.

  He was in horrible shape, and by the time he made it to his apartment, the firemen had put out the small blaze that had started in a neighbor’s oven.

  That
was a wake-up call for Jeff. He started jogging during his lunch break the very next day and never looked back. He was fifty pounds lighter, felt years younger, and was running straight towards the chaos going on at the Burke building. That was an activity that could significantly shorten his life.

  ***

  Outside the building, Darlene had just finished lowering one of the ATV’s off the stolen box truck by using the lift gate attached to the vehicle’s tail.

  She had a submachine gun hanging from her shoulder by a strap, and had already executed an unfortunate Burke employee. It was a woman who had returned to the building after coming back from a quick trip to a nearby deli. It had been just her bad luck to have entered the lot before the cell phone tower fell and blocked the way in.

  Movement to her left caught Darlene’s eye and she spotted a man running her way. It was Jeff. He was entering his second lap around the Burke campus and was oblivious to the nightmare scenario playing out inside.

  Darlene squinted at him, saw the iPod strapped to his arm and realized that he couldn’t hear anything but his own music. The jogging track that circumnavigated the main building curved and took Jeff closer to the side doors. As Jeff grew nearer, Darlene brought up her weapon and took aim through the aperture sights. Just as she placed her finger on the trigger, Jeff saw her and came to a stumbling halt.

  ***

  One second Jeff was grooving along to one of his favorite Springsteen songs and the next thing he knew there was a blonde pointing a wicked looking rifle at him.

  He halted his stride and raised up his hands in a futile reflexive move to stop the bullets.

  That was when an arrow struck the blonde in the head.

  The gun flew from the woman’s hands as she collapsed to the ground while writhing in agony. Jeff pulled the buds from his ears and heard the keening sound the wounded woman made. He was about to walk over to her when he spotted the second woman.

  She was beautiful, had a quiver of arrows across her back, and carried a bow.

  “I think you just saved my life. Who are you?”

  The woman looked over at him, then bent down to pick up the other woman’s fallen weapon. When she spoke, Jeff detected the Spanish accent.

  “Are you a runner?”

  Jeff nodded his head as if he were in a trance.

  “Yes, I am a runner.”

  “Then run, run and hide, and don’t come back until you see the flashing lights of a police car.”

  Jeff stared at her for a second, then down at the blonde with the arrow in her head. When a burst of gunfire erupted up on the top floor of the building, Jeff took flight.

  He had never run faster.

  ***

  Alexa watched the man in the jogging shorts run off towards the trees where she and Tanner had left the jeep hidden from sight.

  Ironically, Tanner had spent the morning honing his shooting skills with a variety of weapons, but now he only had the pocket pistol he often carried.

  The guns and rifles he used to practice with were back at the shack on Burke’s lakeside property in a gun safe. Alexa had her bow stowed away in the jeep to take back home.

  Tanner had asked her to stay in the jeep and to be ready to drive away if anyone approached her. Alexa had agreed, since she was unarmed, but when she remembered the bow in the rear of the jeep, she decided to help.

  Darlene moaned loudly and Alexa stared down at her without pity, but with sadness for herself. She was sick of killing, tired of watching people die, and eager to return to her peaceful home in Killburry.

  More gunfire sounded off from the top floor, and not just the MP5’s, but also a large handgun. It caused Alexa to wonder if Tanner had arrived in time to save Conrad Burke.

  After removing several magazines of ammunition from Darlene, Alexa shot her once in the head, again, this time with the MP5.

  With Darlene dead, Alexa headed through the side doors, cautiously. Two men lay dead near a stairwell. Both wore T-shirts over bulletproof vests, and the black shirts were silkscreened with white swastikas.

  A man peeked out at her from around the end of the corridor. Alexa readied her weapon, but did not fire, or intend to, because the man was a Black man.

  “I won’t hurt you,” Alexa called out, but there was no answer, and so she walked towards him. When she was halfway there, another face peeked out, a White face, and Alexa’s finger found the trigger of the MP5.

  CHAPTER 27 – Not the most PC of individuals

  Granite, Chris, Albert, and three other men came across two guards in the stairwell and killed them right outside the corridor of the top floor. The two men had been Burke’s personal bodyguards.

  One of Granite’s men used a short crowbar to pry open the door and was shot in the head as it opened. Chris had been standing beside the man and he cursed as a barrage of gunfire came at him and three rounds struck his vest.

  As he was recovering from the impact of the rounds, Granite, Albert, and the other remaining two men fired back at the security guards. There were six of them, and their Glocks were no match for the modified MP5’s.

  With the guards dead, Granite and his men marched down the hall to the ornate glass reception area that led to the office of Conrad Burke. A burst from Granite’s gun shattered the doors and the five neo-Nazis crunched over the broken glass and straight into the office.

  Granite stared at the distinguished man sitting behind the desk and thought he looked frightened enough to wet himself. After taking a closer look, he pulled a printed photo of Burke from a pocket and studied it.

  “You’re not Conrad Burke. Who are you?”

  “Sl...Sloane Lennox. My name is Sloane Lennox.”

  Granite cocked his head.

  “Vincento mentioned you, you were part of the reason he was there and killed my son.”

  Lennox’s lips moved, but no sound came out.

  “Before I kill you, Sloane Lennox, I want you to tell me where Conrad Burke is.”

  “I’m right here,” Burke said.

  He stepped out of the bathroom and aimed a gun at Granite while walking over to stand beside the desk. It was an old revolver that he kept in his office safe, but it would kill if Burke scored a head shot.

  “Nobody fire!” Granite said. He leaned over the desk towards Lennox and placed the tip of his gun against Lennox’s nose. “Drop the weapon, Burke, or Lennox dies.”

  Frightened sounds came from behind Burke, and Granite saw that he had hidden his own and Lennox’s executive assistants in the bathroom. The older of the two women, Burke’s executive assistant, Ella, was comforting Lennox’s assistant, who was crying.

  Granite smiled.

  “After I waste Lennox I’ll kill the women.”

  Burke held out his empty hand in a stop gesture and then placed the revolver atop the desk. He never had a hope of defeating the men. He had been attempting to buy some time, believing that Sara or Tanner had called the police when the line went dead during their conversation.

  “Good,” Granite said, “But I’m still going to waste Lennox.” He moved his finger towards the trigger, but stopped when he heard the sound of crunching glass. As he jerked his head around, he saw Tanner rushing into the room while firing.

  ***

  “Alexa, don’t fire!” Garber hissed loudly.

  Alexa smiled as she realized who he was, and she rushed over to Garber and his men. She noticed, that like herself, they were holding MP5’s.

  They were right outside the cafeteria, behind the kitchen area and there were two more dead Nazis nearby. One of Garber’s men was bent down and listening, as he kept an ear pressed against the gap between the swinging doors.

  “Garber, have you seen Tanner?”

  “No, but that explains all the dead Nazis we’ve come across.”

  “He was headed to Mr. Burke’s office.”

  “Fine, but there’s a bigger problem in the cafeteria. They have hostages in there, including Deke.”

  Alexa looked alarme
d and stepped towards the cafeteria, but Garber held her back.

  “Whoa, luv. I want to save Deke as much as you do, but we can’t just go rushing in there.”

  The man who’d been listening at the door ran over to them and shook his head.

  “There’s no more time to wait. They’re about to massacre all the Blacks.”

  Garber whispered a vehement curse and then gave instructions to his men.

  “Will that work?” Alexa asked.

  “It’s all I can think of,” Garber said. He handed Alexa his gun, pushed through the doors, and began whistling loudly.

  ***

  The man who had given the order to execute all the Blacks was named Gunther Klein. He was Granite’s cousin and the craziest of an insane group.

  Gunther was the blond man with the swastika tattooed on his forehead. Swastikas were tattooed on several other body parts, including his penis, and his tongue.

  “Get these jungle bunnies over into the corner there. It’s time for a little target practice,” Gunther said.

  Two of the younger men, friends of the late Max, began herding anyone with dark skin into a corner near the south end of the room.

  As a young Black man in a suit was shoved past him, something caught Gunther’s eye. Gunther reached out and grabbed the man by the collar and yanked him backwards. The young man looked ready to fight and mad enough to kill, but he was wise enough not to go up against Gunther’s machine gun with just his fists.

  Gunther read the button on his lapel, the words barely visible in the dim glow of the emergency lights.

  “Black Lives Matter, hah! It’s gonna be more like Black Lives Splatter, now get your monkey ass in the corner before I make you eat that button.”

  One of the other neo-Nazis had a question.

  “Didn’t Granite say to keep everyone in the cafeteria alive in case we needed hostages?”

  “Yeah,” Gunther said. “But look around. We’ll still have plenty left. Hell there’s enough Indians in here to make a Bollywood movie.”