trudged silently behind.
After several steps, Danny spun around and said, “So what do you have in mind?”
chapter thirteen
On Saturday at noon, Jack and Danny followed Silent Sam and watched him rent a large storage unit that was three-quarters of the way down a row of similar units. When he left, Jack rented the unit next to it. Moments later, Jack and Danny went inside their unit to look at it more thoroughly.
The storage unit was made to accommodate a truck and had a garage door at the entrance, along with a normal-sized door beside it. The inside walls were constructed of cement blocks that went from the floor to the ceiling. There were no windows but there was an overhead light.
“Perfect,” said Jack. “They have an electrical outlet.”
“Now what?” grumbled Danny.
“To the Spy Store. Now you get a lesson on video and audio installation and recording. We’ll also need bolt-cutters, a couple of short-range walkie-talkies, a drill, and a masonry bit.”
“And balaclavas,” said Danny.
“Right.”
“Shotguns too.”
“Of course. I’ll also pick up a couple of industrialsize plastic pails, some springs, and duct tape. That should be it.”
“One more thing you forgot.”
“What’s that?” asked Jack.
“Extra life insurance.”
It was nine o’clock on Tuesday night when Silent Sam opened the overhead door to the storage locker. Jack and Danny watched and recorded the event through their camera set up in the adjacent unit. Silent Sam held something inside his jacket. When he stepped inside, they saw that it was a Mac-10 machine pistol.
Dragon then backed an Econoline van into the unit. Silent Sam closed the overhead door before Dragon stepped out, along with another biker nicknamed Pan-Head. All three men carried Mac-10s. They walked to the back of the truck and opened the door, out of sight of the surveillance camera.
Jack and Danny looked at each other.
“This won’t work if they stay in the truck,” whispered Danny.
Danny was right. They needed the element of surprise. The Brushmaster shotguns with the folding stocks that they carried were deadly weapons in a close situation, but the spray of bullets from three Mac-10s would easily outgun the pump-action of the shotguns.
They both breathed a sigh of relief when the bikers brought out a folding card table with chairs and set them up in front of the truck. Luck was on their side.
Jack waited until after the storage locker was closed for the night, then crept out and used bolt-cutters to take the padlock off the front gate to the facility. Minutes later, he rejoined Danny and quietly said, “It’s time. Grab the balaclavas.”
Jack and Danny crept up to the door leading into the biker’s unit. They held their shotguns at the ready.
“On the count of three,” whispered Jack.
The noise and sight of two masked men bursting through the door with shotguns panicked everyone.
“Move and you’re dead!” yelled Jack.
Silent Sam lurched backwards, toppling his chair over as he crashed to the floor, while Dragon remained where he was, with his mouth and eyes opened wide. Pan-Head paused, then scooped his weapon from beside the table and tried to bring the barrel around to fire.
He was too late. Jack leaped forward and with a quick reverse thrust of the shotgun slammed the stock against the side of Pan-Head’s face, breaking his jaw and cheekbone while sending him crashing to the floor. He then stepped on the Mac-10, pinning it to the floor. He needn’t have bothered. It was almost a minute before Pan-Head regained consciousness. When he did, his two friends were lying sprawled face-down on the floor beside him.
While Danny provided cover, Jack plastered strips of duct tape tightly across Dragon’s and Pan-Head’s noses and the tender skin around their eyes. He then bound their hands behind their backs.
Jack pointed at Silent Sam and said in a loud voice, “Okay, I’m gonna tape you up real good, and then you’re gonna be goin’ for a ride.”
Jack peeled off a strip of pre-cut tape from the roll. All but the ends of the strip had been taped face to face with another strip of tape. The end result was a cover over Silent Sam’s eyes that was twice as thick but not sticky. He then bound Silent Sam’s arms behind his back, wrapping the tape around the shirtsleeves covering his wrists.
With the three bikers trundled up on the floor, Jack turned to Danny and said, “Okay, check out the truck.”
Danny did so, noting that the keys were still in the ignition. He went to the rear of the truck and returned with two kilos of cocaine and set them down at Jack’s feet.
“Good,” said Jack. “Now go get the device. Be fuckin’ careful you don’t drop it!”
“You’re tellin’ me!” replied Danny, disappearing out the door.
Moments later Danny returned and set two plastic pails upside down a short distance from each other on the floor. On the outside bottom of each plastic pail was a bed spring. A short section of the spring protruded inside the pail through a small hole that had been drilled in the bottom. Holes cut in the sides of the pails allowed a short stick to be used as a cross-bar to provide a base for the springs to maintain pressure.
Danny then placed a kilo of cocaine under each pail.
Jack set a walkie-talkie on the floor halfway between the two pails, then carefully helped Pan-Head to his feet and guided him over to a pail. He taped his ankles together and then sat him down on the spring.
Pan-Head tried to speak but his broken jaw told him that wasn’t such a good idea. His question was answered seconds later, when Dragon’s ankles were bound and he was placed sitting on the other pail.
“What the fuck is that under my ass?” asked Dragon. “What are you guys doin’ to us? What am I sittin’ on?”
Both Pan-Head and Dragon quit squirming when they heard Jack’s voice from the other side of the room.
“I suggest you sit still. The bombs have been activated. They have both a spring and mercury switch. I strongly suggest that neither of you move — in fact, I wouldn’t even fart.”
Pan-Head was the first to break out into a sweat. Then again, he was in a lot of pain.
Jack trundled Silent Sam into the front of the truck and made him squat on the floor under the dash before taking off his balaclava.
Danny closed the door after Jack pulled out and then crept back into their own unit to monitor Pan-Head and Dragon.
“They’re fuckin’ gone,” said Dragon. “They took Silent Sam with ’em. Jesus
