Red and White Knights

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Chapter 4

Dylan

I’m lost.  It’s starting to get dark, and I’m totally, completely, absolutely, can’t-find-my-way-back, L.O.S.T.   I don’t know how the hell I got to wherever it is I am right now, and I have no idea how to get back to my hotel.  One thing I know for sure, this has got to be the worst part of Bay City.  They must use this neighborhood to film those horror movies, the ones where the psycho killer/alien pervert/zombie is stalking hookers and winos.  I’m gonna die here, I know it, on my first day in town.  Instead of starting my new job on Monday, I’ll be in the headlines as “Stupid First Day Bank Teller Slaughtered by PK/AP/Z on Popular Bay City Movie Location.”   In caps.  Yeah, read all about it.

I don’t have change for a pay phone, and I refuse to go into any of these peep shows or strip joints to try and get change.  Before I left home, esteemed grandmother Xiao-Xing told me that just walking into a “den of iniquity” will make me go blind.  Or maybe it was my dick will fall off; I don’t know for sure, since I really don’t speak the language.    Even if it’s not true, I’m not taking any chance.  The curse she lays on me for disobedience will be a whole lot worse than losing my dick.  I love her to pieces, but she scares me more than the weirdoes around here.

Except maybe the big, ugly guy and tall, skinny guy I see every time I turn around.  I think maybe they’re following me, but I’m hoping it’s just coincidence.  Right.  Snowball’s chance in hell.  I’ve got to get out of here.

I hail another cab, but the driver doesn’t stop, just like all the others.  Guess they know about this neighborhood.  Guess they think I might be a psycho killer/alien pervert/zombie.  Well, what are they doing here, if they won’t stop for a fare?  Hey, go spend your money at the mall, perverts!

There, I see them again, Big Ugly Guy and Tall Skinny Guy, reflected in the store-front windows next to me.  This can’t be coincidence, anymore. What do I do?  Do I run?  Run where?  Jesus Christ Almighty, I haven’t seen a single cop this whole time!   Where the hell are they?  There’s got to be a doughnut shop around here somewhere!

Big Ugly and Tall Skinny are getting closer.  I pick up my pace, and they do, too, so now I’m sure they’re following me.  There’s an alley up ahead on the left.  They won’t be expecting me to make a break for it, so maybe I can run through there and lose them on the next street.  I can hear them not far behind me, but I’m in the alley, now, and . . . son of a bitch!!   I can’t fucking believe my eyes!  It’s a dead end!  What goddamned moron put a goddamned fence in this goddamned alley!?

Okay, okay, okay, maybe if I make myself really small and wedge myself into the corner behind these bags of garbage, they won’t see me.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, shrink down here.  Shit, shit, shit, they do see me!  Of course they do, idiot, what kind of cover is garbage?  Good thing I left most of my money in the hotel safe.  Yeah, you won’t even get fifty bucks off this corpse!  Take that, motherfuckers!

“Well, what have we got here?”  Big Ugly says as he kneels down in front of me.  He’s not just Big, he’s Really Big.

He leans in close, and even in the fading light, I get a good look at his face.  He’s got a filthy mess of dark hair, a scraggly beard growing between the scars on his cheeks and chin, and his left eyelid is scarred and half-shut, like it won’t open any farther.  There’s no neck under his black-that-used-to-be-white tee shirt, and he smells like he shit his pants. I gag and shove my face into a bag of garbage so I can breathe.

He pulls my head up by my hair and smiles.  His breath takes mine away, and I have to look away from his what-appears-to-be-green-slime covered teeth, or rather what’s left of them.

“Looks like we get Chinese tonight, after all, Sid.”

They’re going to eat me?!  I feel my lungs trying to crawl out of my chest through my throat.  Holy Christ!  They’re cannibals!!  I piss myself.

Tall Skinny Sid is popping his knuckles over and over, and for about the millionth time, he glances toward the mouth of the alley.  “I don’t know, Jiggy,” he says in a thin, whiny voice.   His long, straggly hair is hanging in his face, but I can still see the snot running from his hawk-nose. “We ain’t never done nothing like this before.”

Really Big Ugly Jiggy scowls at his partner.  “So you wanna keep eating rotten egg foo young outta dumpsters, is that it?  I bet this guy’s got enough scratch on him, we can prob’ly eat good for a week.  Besides, nobody’s gonna miss him for awhile.  Garbage pickup ain’t ‘til Friday; by then, we’ll be long gone.”

He shoves his face into mine and smiles again.  It isn’t just his breath that chokes me this time; it’s the fact that his low, raspy voice almost sounds kind of excited.  I know I’m going to die now.  Please let honored Grandmother be wrong about the ten courts of hell!

He laughs as he sticks the biggest knife ever made in my face.  His grin turns into a sneer, and he hisses at me like the snake that he is.  “Hope before you left home, you told your momma you love her.”

“My Grandmother!”  I more or less shriek at him, finally growing a pair.  At least I won’t go out like a total pussy.  “She’s my esteemed Grandmother, dipshit!”

His eyes narrow down to slits, and he almost begins to foam at the mouth like a rabid dog.  I know he’s going to gut me like a fish, and I sure as hell don’t want to watch, but, God help me, I can’t seem to close my eyes.

I hear the siren an instant before I see the headlights and flashing red light in the mouth of the alley.  It looks like a scene from that movie last week on HBO:  Really Big drops the knife, jumps up, and makes his getaway, steamrolling a guy trying to get out of the passenger side by shoving the open door into him and pushing him back into the car.  Tall Skinny makes a break for it around the driver’s side of the car, vaulting over the car door as it swings open. The driver jumps out and takes off running after them both like a bat out of hell.  Yeah, it looks like a scene from a movie, but in real life, it totally sucks canal water.

The guy from the passenger side gets out of the car and comes up to me.  These are cops, right, I mean, with the mars light and all?  So why’s he wearing a generic varsity jacket?He hunches down in front of me, and I see that he’s holding a cannon disguised as a gun in his right hand.  Oh, shit, maybe he’s a psycho killer/alien pervert/zombie pretending to be a cop!

“Hey, kid, you okay?” He sounds awful concerned, for a psycho killer.  He leans forward, and the headlights behind him make his blond hair look kind of like a halo. “Are you hurt?”

I babble something that sounds like “Please don’t kill my grandmother”, and he pulls a wallet out of his pocket and flips it open.  It’s a badge and an ID.   I can feel hot tears begin to roll down my cheeks, and I’m sobbing, and I know he thinks I’m an idiot, but I’m so fucking relieved, I don’t care.

“I’m Detective Sergeant Hutchinson.” He smiles as he tucks the cannon into a shoulder holster under his jacket and helps me to my feet.  He’s tall. Very tall.  “A black and white will be here in a couple of minutes.  You’re safe, now, so just take a deep breath, and relax.  What’s your name?”

There must be a mouse around here somewhere, because I hear it squeak, “Dylan.  Dylan Chan.”  So much for growing a pair.

Very Tall Detective Sergeant Hutchinson takes my arm and leads me toward the car. I’m not big on automotive stuff, but it looks like something I saw at a car show once, except it’s red and has a big white stripe running across the roof and up to both headlights.  The mars light is still flashing, and the driver’s door is open.  I look around and think it’s kind of weird that a crowd hasn’t gathered to watch.  Guess everyone around this neighborhood is cop-shy.  Duh.

“Dylan.”  He dips his head to look me in the face. “Look at me, Dylan.  I need to know if you can identify the men who attacked you.”

By now, I’ve lost the urge to scream like a little girl, so I clear my throat, and my voice sounds normal.  Wish it was a little deeper.  “You mean like in a line-up, or something?”

“Yes, and in court, if it comes to that.  You think you’ll be able to do that?”  His gaze is really intense.  I think his eyes are blue, and they’re kind of hypnotic. “Dylan?”

I nod finally.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I’ll never forget their faces.  Never.”

He grins big and puts a hand on my shoulder.  “That’s exactly what I needed to hear.”

I have to grin, too, because suddenly I feel like I just saved the universe or something.

Behind the headlights, I suddenly see someone running into the alley.  I jump, and my heart starts to pound, but Very Tall steadies me with that hand on my shoulder.  “It’s okay, Dylan.  That’s my partner, Detective Starsky.”

I can’t see Detective Starsky’s face very well, but I see the flashing red light reflecting off his curly, dark hair.  He starts to climb into the car’s driver’s seat. “Come on, Hutch, I know where they went.  Let’s get these turkeys!”

“Slow down, Starsk.  Dylan, here, says he can identify them.”

Dark Curly Detective Starsky walks up to us and looks at me, all very intense and scary-like.  “Yeah?  You gonna do that, kid?”

I nod dumbly, and sort of whisper, “You bet.”

For a second, he looks like maybe he’s going to bite my head off; then he slaps me on the back and smiles, and his whole face kind of lights up.  “T’rrific!”

Holy shit, I just saved the universe twice in one night!

I hear sirens now, close by.  Dark Curly cocks his head toward the sound, then heads back to the red and white car.  “Back-up’s on the way; let’s wrap this up.  I think I hear a beer at Huggy’s calling me.”

Very Tall pats my shoulder.  “Okay, Dylan.  Just be sure to tell the other officers what you told me, okay?”

“I will.  Absolutely, I will. ”

He waves as he gets into the car. “Calling you what?  ‘Moron’?”

Is he talking to me?

The car backs out of the alley faster than I can follow it, and by the time I reach the sidewalk, it’s nowhere in sight. A black and white squad car, blue and red lights flashing and siren cut,  pulls up to the curb next to me.  A young cop gets out of the passenger side, moves around to the front of the squad and waits as the driver, an older, gray-haired cop, climbs out and stands in front of me.

He looks around, then at me. “We got a call about an assault at this location.”   His left hand is on his hip; his right hand is on the butt of his gun.  “You know anything about that, son?”

“Fuck, yeah!”  I rethink that, since Older Gray-haired Cop has stripes on his sleeves, two up over a star, and no varsity jacket.  “I mean, yes, sir.  Two crazy guys tried to kill me.  The other officers went after them.”

He’s watching me closely.  “Did those officers give you their names?”

“Yeah, Detectives Hutchinson and Starsky.”

He nods and looks over his shoulder at his partner.  “Call in a confirmed Alpha, Danny.  Make sure it’s tach two, this time.”

Officer Danny shakes his head as he gets back in the squad.  “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“Probably not.”  Older Gray-haired Cop looks back to me.  “I need to see your ID, son.  What’s your name?”

“Dylan.  Dylan Chan, sir.  And I forgot my ID at the hotel.  I wouldn’t have been in this mess, but I was in such a hurry, I left without all my stuff.  Oh, and Detective Hutchinson wanted me to tell you that I can identify those fuckers, I mean, those guys.”

“Okay, then, Dylan, we’ll have to take you to the station.”  He glances down at the front of my pants; then says, over his shoulder again, “Danny, cover the back seat.”

Embarrassed, I cough a little and stuff my hands in my pockets.  I feel like I need to say something, anything.  “Um, I’ll get to talk to them again, right?”

Older Gray-Haired Cop is watching Danny retrieve a tarp from the trunk.  He doesn’t look at me, but I see his eyebrow raise.  “Talk to who, exactly?”

“The detectives.  Hutchinson and Starsky.”

He shakes his head.  “I don’t think so, Dylan.”

That’s not the answer I expect, and I do a double-take.  “You mean I don’t get to thank them?  But, they saved my life.”

He looks at me now, and stares at me for a long minute, almost like he’s looking for something.  Finally, he nods.   “But, I really can’t promise anything.”

I start to say something about bullshit, but I’m interrupted by a voice from the mic clipped to his shirt.

“Baker 6, possible Omega to your Red-and-White Alpha, Carlton and Third.”

He thumbs the mic switch. “Baker 6 responding.  Be advised that we are transporting a witness.”

“10-4, Baker 6.  Back-up is rolling.”

“Get in, Dylan,” he says as he pulls open the back door. “We’ve got to roll.”

Hot damn!  I get to see those motherfuckers on ice!  Maybe Very Tall and Dark Curly will be there, too! And maybe, if I suck up to him, Older Gray-haired Cop will stop at the hotel so I can change my pants and get my wallet and cell.

“Look, I want to thank you, too, Officer . . .” I try to see his name tag, but it’s too dark.  “Officer . . .?”

“Springman.”  He smiles a little as he puts his hand on my head and pushes me down and into the back seat.  Force of habit, I guess. “Joe Springman.”