24 Hours

Gregor looked at his phone in disbelief. The voice was real. He listened to it again, covering his opposite ear with his hand. There it was, like a slap in the face with a brick. He immediately turned the phone off and with a shaky arm waved at an orange taxi. The Crown Victoria cut off two other vehicles to run up to the curb, pausing to allow any paying customer to get in. He opened the rear door and slipped inside, he was developing a more insistent headache.

Help me.

"Where to?" The driver's accent was thick, Gregor imagined himself wading through it to find the real words. He shut the door and allowed his eyes to close, Gregor's head lolled back against the head rest.

"Tucker and Fourth."

"Tucker and Fourth." the driver repeated it and whipped out into traffic again, it was a 15 minute drive at least. Gregor took the opportunity to let his mind wander, to get rid of the voice in his mind. The drone of the car took him to another place entirely.

Gregor set the plans of the apartment building on the table. It was on Lexington drive, the more unsavory stretch of the road. It sad on the border of the revitalization project the city had started two years ago. Taxes had apparently been a key factor for the entire deal grinding to a halt. The apartment was an important building; though, not because some group or another was trying to save it. That wasn't the case at all, everyone was all too eager to see those buildings come crashing down. In that particular building, a two story four family flat, an ambassador's wife and children were being held. He didn't care about the politics involved, that was for someone else to worry over. He was a gun hand, and that meant when they said shoot, that's what happened.

He'd gotten the formal background, a diplomat from South America with large stakes in the oil industry brought his family up for a conference. It had all been very hush hush, and before the media jumped on any leaks he needed his family back. It would look excellent in the eyes of the governments if everyone were non the wiser. And that is where this building came in. It was rumored paramilitary forces were at work, but to Gregor it didn't matter one bit. He had simply decided it was a very nasty situation all around.

"We've verified the upper northern apartment right?" he looked at Johansen across the table.

He glanced at the photographs strewn about the table and nodded. "Yeah. Upper north. Five men. Have to assume they are armed. No one's come or gone from the place and there is no phone work going on. Other three apartments are vacant."

Gregor furrowed his brow and after a moment of nibbling on his own lower lip, "Why?" he leaned back in his seat as Johansen shot back a response.

"What?"

"Why are they vacant?"

"Oh, not sure. The super said something about the project buying out the place later in the year."

Gregor didn't think further than that, and went back to his assessment of the raid. "We have a bird to sit on our shoulder?"

Johansen motioned to and then laid an index atop a building perpendicular to the main site. "Casey is going to be right here. It's completely empty. Cited it condemned with an agent couple of days ago. So no big deal there, sweeping field of fire."

"Adams?"

"Going through the basement with two and coming up the back stairwell. We think the steps are wood though, so we're going to be slow on that side. Same with the front."

"Great, so we're okay then. Piece of cake right?"

Johansen smiled and picked up his pack of cigarettes, "Piece of cake."

The taxi must have hit a bump.

"They're coming out hot!" Gregor heard Casey's voice over the ear piece, he had just taken the last stair when the door opened. Automatic fire ate through the wall just to his left. With no where to run in the small hallway, he returned fire. The others began moving back and sprayed the doorway. The AK-108 that the target held in his hands deafened everyone and sent Gregor colliding with the door to his left. He thanked God that the hinges gave way. He scrambled back and to the side, trying to find shelter inside the empty apartment he'd just fallen into.

Casey's voice acknowledged the man had gone down. "He's down, hit him in the neck. The others are taking cover."

Gregor's heart was beating hard in his chest, he'd nearly had his brains painted across the wall of the hallway. Shouting started and over his ear piece he thought he heard 'grenade'. An explosion shook the walls and Gregor found himself up on his feet again, moving forward. He was going through that door. Rifles sounded off and the door that had been flung open only moments ago was ripped apart by flying metal. He pressed forward coming in low.

"Flash bang!" the room he was in was nearly instantly turned into a glowing sun. He managed to turn his face and close his eyes, the noise distracted him for a moment as he felt someone brush by him.

"Get down, friendly!" there was erratic fire and glass began to shatter from deeper within the apartment.

Gregor willed himself forward, ears ringing and sight haloed. Two had gathered at the last bastion of the targets, Johansen was kicking the door open. Thunder erupted from the room, blowing the door into a thousand different pieces. Johansen vanished in the cloud of smoke, everyone else was taken to the floor. The entire apartment was filled with dust and still shaking.

"What the fuck was that?" Gregor took the lead this time, as he came forward the room was nothing more than a husk. He expected to see the remains of everyone scattered about the floor in some grotesque menagerie of self sacrifice; instead, he saw movement from beneath him.

"Help me!" it was a small voice at least in his half deaf state it was. He looked her right in the eye, she couldn't have been more than 16. Her face was that of an angel in fear. Gregor ducked back from the gaping mouth within the floor narrowly escaping having his foot separated from the rest of his body.

"They're down below! Casey, check the street!" There were a few people from his team covering the exits, but no one had expected a wall to blown all to hell. Two of his men had been wounded and unable to give chase. Gregor lined up a shot on one of the four remaining men and fired. The shot was wide and struck something unseen. The return fire littered the apartment building, making him duck away from the opening in the wall.

"$15.75." Gregor opened his eyes.

"Wha-?"

"15.75."