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GUNSLINGER

There was severe pain all over the body. Benjamin could hardly feel a head up there. He tried to sit up on his bed, but an excruciating pain in the lower abdomen threw him back to the surprisingly soft pillows. He rummaged through the bedside drawer and found a half-empty bottle of painkillers. He had been using these a lot lately. One of the perks of being a rugged cop was that he didn’t always need a prescription to buy the pills. Probably the only perk in this whole God forsaken business. All this seemed like déjà vu to him, as if he had lived this moment several times before. The pain, the bloody clothes, the loss of memory of what happened last night seemed all too familiar. The painkiller kicked in just in time as the chief called up.

“Where are you? You were supposed to be here at the precinct an hour ago. You haven’t been drinking again, have you?”.

“I’ll be there in 20 Mark”. That was more than he was in a mood to say. It took Ben 15 more minutes to tidy himself up and the neighbours knew he was gone as the thundering roar of the 1968 Shelby GT 500KR disappeared around the grove.

“Where have you been for Heaven’s sake! Colosimo’s trail is hot and the DA is berating down on my neck. If we don’t have anything by tonight, you can kiss your sorry backside goodbye I tell you. I’ve had your back through out this duck hunt and have got you the bloody warrant. Now gimme something”. Ben could barely hear what Mark was rambling on about over the sounds of the .45 in the shooting range.

“Yeah yeah. I got it. Where’s the lowlife’s last known location?”

“37th and North, Pelican Drive. He’s holed up inside a Chinese joint as per the intel. We have snipers set up over Rashford & Maine and South Street if anything goes wrong. A patrol in on standby on 6th.”

“I don’t need the rookies Mark. I work alone, you know it.”

“You used to work alone, not anymore. You’ve messed up big time with your show at the Franklin and the attorneys are still cleaning up behind you. I am answerable to the mayor Ben. He doesn’t want a rogue cop on a killing spree over a personal vendetta.”

It had been 7 months. Ben’s stomach churned inside out. It was a perfect evening. He had just got his big promotion after putting Frank Colosimo’s right hand man behind bars, busting the operation in the city. Detective Benjamin Ross had a much-awaited evening of solace with Nicole at a fancy restaurant whose owner owed Ben his life from a case few years back. Everything seemed perfect, too perfect! Their house at the end of the street seemed a bit off with all the lights off. The babysitter was strictly told not to turn the lights off as 3months old Nancy threw tantrums in the dark. The headlights of the Mustang flashed inside the glass panes as everything seems eerily quiet. Ben’s hands moved to his holster as he told Nicole to stay inside the car. The front door was locked. Ben called the babysitter a couple of times, but to no avail. His heart started thumping, there are times that a cop hopes for his instincts to be wrong. He crept inside and turned the lights on; they didn’t work. His fingers were sweating. He called up the babysitter a few more times as he dragged his feet towards the staircase. The lights were turned off upstairs as well. There was a terrible vibe of breathlessness all around and the air started getting heavier. There was not a sound to be heard as Ben stood outside Nancy’s door. Surely, they must be asleep. Ben put his thumb on the hammer and pulled it back as he entered the room. The room was dark and the only sound was of the cradle moving slightly on the floorboard.

Nicole was getting anxious. What was Ben up to! Her throat swelled up, she wanted to get inside the house. But Ben told her to stay in the car and she knew better than to not listen to him. She could hear Ben shout the babysitter’s name a couple of times. What was she up to! It was then, when she heard the heart-wrenching cry from Ben, “NANCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and she threw herself out of the car and rushed towards the door.

Ben was holding the curled up cold body of the 3month old in his arms and the babysitter lay on the floor motionless in her own blood. He was in a shock to almost miss the gunshot outside; but he didn’t. “NICOLE!!” Ben shouted and rushed down the stairs only in time to catch a glimpse of a motorbike disappearing into the darkness of the night. Nicole was dragging herself across the pavement towards him and Ben flung himself at her to hold up her head on to his thighs. “It’ll be alright honey, put pressure over there.” Nicole saw Nancy’s body in Ben’s arms and maybe at that point itself, any effort she was putting into staying alive, seemed to be futile to her. Ben struggled to pull out the phone from his pocket as loud crack of a baseball bat hitting his skull could be heard a few houses away.

Ben put the gun down and faced Mark as he took a few paces back.

“I’m going in. Alone. Tell the mayor to go…..”

“You are going in with Dawkins. It’s straight from the mayor. If you want to take it up to him, then be my guest, go to his office, wait for an hour and talk him out of it. Or you could go where you need to be right now Ben. Your call.”

“Dawkins? Seriously, you very well might have sent in your wife in with me on this, still better than Dawkins.”

“Yeah well, can’t disagree there. Now shall we? I’ll be with the patrol and we’ll be half a minute away from you. Please get me Colosimo, Ben. If we lose him this time, don’t know when he’ll surface again.”

10 minutes later, Benjamin Ross and Arthur Dawkins were standing in an alleyway 500 meters from the marked address.

“Have you ever fired at anything except dummies Dawkins?”

“Today will be the first sir.”

“Make sure today ain’t the last jackass.”

“Right sir.”

“Now stick to me and have my six. If I know these scums well, they’ll have a few eyes on the street. See there, 2o’ clock, red beanie, guy with the glasses on.”

“He’s just reading the newspaper sir. Are you sure?”

“Look at his left arm, that’s the mafia insignia.”

“Should I call in the eyes to tranq him?”

“Nah! There’s bound to be another. There, 7’o clock, old guy with the stick. Call in the strike, make sure both drop at the same time.”

5 more minutes and the two law enforcement officers were standing in front of the back-alley door of the Chinese restaurant. This seemed all so familiar to Ben, as if he had lived through this moment so many times before. The two cronies they took out, these conversations, Dawkins’ irritating panting, the dirty green metal door in front of them, it all seemed so uncanny and so familiar, as if he had been here so many times before.

“Shall we go in sir?”

“What are you waiting for, an invitation? Take it down. We’re going in chief. Be on standby.”

Stealth was something that Ben never believed in much and it had done him justice till now. He was a feared cop amongst the underbelly of the city and all of his efforts had boiled down to this moment. Dawkins kicked the door open which seemed a bit too flimsy to be broken down in such a theatrical manner and they jumped inside.

The whole neighbourhood was subject to deafening firing noises for a minute and things cooled down slightly. They had stormed the place which was swarming with Colosimo’s henchmen. One would have never guessed that so many people were crammed up in this old building, let alone, having 3 level of basements. Ben and Dawkins had shot their way through 2 of these floors and only one remained between them and Colosimo.

“What’s the status Ben? Talk to me.”

“I ain’t dead yet if that’s what you’re asking chief and your sugar boy ain’t half bad himself.” Said Ben as he winked across Dawkins who was cover firing for him. A bullet had grazed by Benjamin’s right ankle while he was taking out his 27th crony. He took out another bottle of painkiller from his right jacket pocket and emptied it. He was fine almost instantly. Standing behind the cover of the wall, he was reloading his semi-automatic when he froze. Dawkins was still giving him cover fire and Mark was still shouting into his earpiece. He could hear more of the crooks trying to gang up on them from the basement where Colosimo was fortifying himself. But he couldn’t move a muscle. What was happening to him, it seemed like all this frenzy around him meant nothing and he just stood in cover beside the wall, doing nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Back at a northern city in India, a father was heard shouting at his 14year old son, as his mother stood silently behind.

“Turn this off right now I said. You do no homework, you don’t have any friends, you don’t go outside to play and you don’t even hear when your father has been calling you for the last 5 minutes. All you do is sit in front of this dumb computer and play video games.” Said the father.

“This is all your fault, you said he needed it for school projects. Is this the project? To play all these nonsense violent and abusive things?” He said turning to his wife.

“Why do you do this Rohan? I told you to play half an hour everyday after doing your homework son!” The mother explained to her son, keeping a weary eye at her husband.

“No, not a minute more. I’ll sell this thing off tomorrow, he needs to man up and listen to me. He is getting more adamant by the day and there is nothing you can say that will change my mind I tell you!” Shouted the father and stormed off, banging the door behind him.

The 14year had started wailing by then. He wasn’t sure whether it was because his father had told him that he will take away the computer or because he could see from the corner of his eyes that all his efforts for the last 1 hour was about to wash off as his video game avatar was getting shot at and was about to die; which meant he would have to start this campaign from scratch. He was stuck here for so many attempts now and had tried so many times and the closest he came to the ending was today and it was as good as gone, no wait, it was gone as the screen flashed DECEASED in bold red letters.

“Are you crazy? Don’t you know your father comes home at this time?”

“But ma, he will take the computer”, said the boy with severe hiccups.

“I’ll talk to him. But now, turn it off, wash your face and study and don’t get up before dinner if you know what’s good for you. Go now. I’ll be back in 10 minutes to check up on you.”

The boy was left standing in the middle of his room as his mother left. Only one level was left, his throat swallowed up again, but he knew all to well that he shouldn’t dare sit in front of the computer again today. He pulled up the dangling headphones and kept it on the table to see Benjamin Ross lying on his bed with bloodied clothes. He pressed Enter once to make him try to get up and fall back on the surprisingly soft pillows. He pressed F once to make Ben search for the painkillers by the bedside drawer when he thought he heard a footstep outside his door and hurriedly quit the game.

He was so close today. So very close.

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