Chapter 6

Well, now they knew where to find the two missing thugs from the first encounter. They must have been in the men's room when Nemesis and Nightmare searched the parking garage. Whatever had happened, they important point was that they were now the targets of hostile men with guns. Nemesis thought, This is like something out of the Wild West!, and Nightmare thought, I'm back in Iraq, dammit!

Nemesis dove to the right and Nightmare dove to the left behind some Jersey barriers. The two thugs were only partially visible as they hid behind their own set of Jersey barriers.

"Nightmare, you spray and pray at those two to force their heads down. I'll get into position and be ready to fire as soon as they show themselves after you run out of bullets. I'll shoot while you reload."

"OK, here I go!" Nightmare was not so foolish as to expose anything but her gun hand as she emptied her Glock in the general direction of the assailants. As any sensible person would do, the thugs ducked behind their concrete breast works and waited for the shooting to stop.

Nemesis got into position and braced herself to have a steady firing position. Very soon after Nightmare stopped shooting, one of the thugs showed himself. BANG! Scratch one thug. The other thug did not seem to learn anything from his companion's experience. He raised himself to try to shoot, and Nemesis picked him off as easily as she had the first one.

They turned back to the men that they had been questioning, and Nemesis asked, "Where is the third team?"

"The last time I saw them, they were headed toward the Old Italy restaurant. They should be there by now."

"You have been so helpful, that I will call 911 for you. But, if I ever see you again, you won't be so lucky!" Nemesis made the call and dropped business cards before they left to try to find the last team of four thugs.

Nightmare led the way across the rooftops. They found no muggers at the Old Italy, so they started scanning the neighborhood for possibilities. It only took a few minutes to find four suspicious characters loitering in an alley. These four were simply standing around talking and smoking cigarettes. They were doing nothing which even hinted of illegality, so the heroines could do nothing against them. However, they did seem to be the only likely candidates for muggers, so the two kept an eye on them.

They didn't have long to wait. Four men, who seemed to be a salesman and three clients, walked up to the restaurant entrance. Before they could enter, the four men rushed out of the alley and ordered the four victims to return to the alley with them. Not being especially stupid, the four victims went along with their captors.

The eight men walked fairly deep into the alley, and one of the thugs demanded their wallets, watches, and rings. Nemesis and Nightmare saw all this from the roof of the adjacent building. They scooted down the fire escape and quietly moved in on the robbery in progress.

The thugs had surrounded their victims, and they did not appear to be holding guns or knives in their hands. The victims were so intimidated by the shock and surprise when they thugs showed up to ruin their happy venture out to dinner, that they followed orders without trying to escape.

Nemesis and Nightmare stayed in the shadows as they sneaked up on the robbery; thus, they were not seen by any of the eight men who were intent on the business at hand. Nemesis and Nightmare had no trouble closing to arm's length of the crooks. Each one used her baton to break a knee.

This both eliminated two of the crooks and so startled everybody else that they had plenty of time to strike the two remaining crooks. The victims of the crooks were still having problems comprehending what was going on, but they had no trouble in accepting the stolen goods as they were returned. Cards were handed to the four victims and a couple were dropped beside the prone crooks. Nightmare told the men that they were free to go, and they could call 911 if they wanted to. Otherwise, the crooks would be found the next morning.

Based on the information they had, this seemed to eliminate the current danger to the restaurant goers. Therefore, Nightmare and Nemesis figured that it was time to visit Spoiler Banes. They retrieved their vehicle and drove to the South Side Neighborhood.

It was nearly midnight by then, so they had no qualms about parking in a convenient drive way. The women made their way through the shadows the short distance to the abandoned theater that Spoiler Banes was using as his headquarters.

There were no obvious guards about, and this was very surprising. Surely, Spoiler Banes was not so foolish as to assume that he was safe from attack just because it was nighttime. Nightmare and Nemesis were sure that there had to be guards around somewhere, it was just up to them to find where they were stationed.

The building had several entrances, one at the front, one at the back, and two on each side opening into the alley on the left and the side street on the right. It seemed logical that the front and rear entrances would be most heavily guarded, and either entrance from the alley would have only one guard at most. Therefore, they decided to go in from the alley, selecting the entrance near the back alley.

The first step was to extinguish the light over the door. Nightmare installed the suppressor on her Glock and shot out the light bulb. They waited for more than 20 minutes for someone to check on the light bulb, but nobody showed up. They were surprised at that development, but steeled themselves against overconfidence.

They hugged the shadows along the wall as they approached the door. As expected, it was locked, and Nemesis had to pick it to get the door open. She eased the door open in an effort to eliminate any squeaks. The two slipped in through the barely opened door and closed it behind them. They almost gave themselves away with laughter when they spotted the guard sound asleep in a chair he had leaned against the wall. No wonder they had had such an easy entrance to the building!

They permanently silenced the guard by crushing his windpipe and staying with him until he died. Nemesis and Nightmare found themselves in a long corridor which stretched the width of the building. A door leading to the street was at the end of the corridor. There were six doors, all closed, leading from the corridor, and there were two corridors running at right angles to the one they were in. There were two more stories in the building, but there was no sign of an elevator or stairs leading up, so they were confined to the ground floor at the moment.

They could barely make out in the dim light another guard at the far end of this corridor. He, too, looked like he was sleeping in the same way as the guard they had first encountered. They decided to dispose of this guard in the same manner as they had the first one. They slipped on their night-vision glasses and crept toward the second guard, staying as much in the shadows as possible.

They were not so lucky this time. Nightmare hit the guard in the windpipe with her baton, but he woke up just in time to slap a button fastened to the wall that he was leaning against. He fell to the floor, dying, as a very loud alarm blasted through the building. So much for surprise!

Several men with guns at the ready ran from two of the rooms and started shooting as soon as they saw the strangers in the corridor. The heroines snapped off a few shots in reply, but it was obvious that their prime need at the moment was escape. Nemesis kicked the emergency door release open, and the two ran into the street.

A few moments later, three men ran out of the same doorway and began shooting at them as they ran down the sidewalk. Nightmare was hit once in the back and Nemesis was hit twice by 9 mm bullets fired by the men. Fortunately, their body armor was easily up to the task of blocking the bullets, and the women felt nothing beyond the initial impact. The women ran well past where their car was parked, figuring to come back for it when the situation cooled down a bit.