Critical Mass, Chapter 20: A Circle Revealed

"Clear!" Tyr heard in the distance, like it was coming through a tunnel, or in some kind of surreal movie. Sprawled out face down on the floor, he closed his eyes, pretending to be dead. He was shot up pretty bad, but still he drew breath. None of the bullets pierced vital organs, but he would die very soon of blood loss from the many gut and limb shots that sent him reeling. The last thing he remembered seeing before he closed his eyes was Uruz flat on his back, almost unrecognizably charred from the bomb blast, and shot so full of holes that there was a 10' diameter pool of blood under and all around him and a large chunk of skull was missing; brain matter exposed. Tyr was screaming on the inside, but he held it in for all he was worth. There was just one thing he needed to see.

The knob turned slowly on Dagaz's door, and Tyr watched intently through just a bloody slit of an eye as the four heavily armed assailants leveled their weapons at the door and waited. "Hold your fire!" The voice commanded from inside, then a hand emerged, holding a small badge on a chain. It was Dagaz's fake badge he used to boast about using to fool topsider lemmings into doing whatever he pleased. The men diverted their weapons and stood at attention as Dagaz emerged from the room. What the fuck was his play? He's going to get himself killed! Tyr's heart sank as he saw the look in Dagaz's eyes. For the first time he realized he was now seeing the real Dagaz. His nervous, pretentious nature was not just his personality, as they had always believed, but the byproduct of a charade that had fooled them all for years... The badge was real.

"Good job, men." He was now strapped with a standard police issue Glock 9mm, and was wearing his badge around his neck for all to see. He had another one they had never seen before clipped to his waist.

"All the rats in one hole?" the shooter at the top of the stairs spoke up as he hopped off the last run of stairs to join them.

"Not exactly...." He paced the floor, looking dissatisfied. "Krey's not here, I just got word that he's been arrested, so we'll deal with him on our terms, and the welcoming party from Central is late, as usual." He had a strange shakiness to his voice. "Stay vigilant! This is far from over."

"How are they getting in? If they think they are going to hit the Clan on their own ground, they can't be planning on just knocking on the front door...." another one of his men speculated.

"I sold them the code. I programmed the door to accept this new code, but with a three second delay, and an audible warning on our end only. They'll be walking into an ambush. Just stay cocked and locked, when it happens, we'll only have three seconds of warning to be in position. There's no delay on the second door." Dagaz said, matter of factly. "I've been living in this nightmare for years, waiting for the right time to strike at the heart of this monster! We are taking the heads off of three major branches of organized crime in this city, and putting a stop to decades of insurrection. My own mother was killed by a thug from the underground looking for a place to hole up after a failed robbery! This shit has to stop! If they can't play by the rules, then there's no place in society for them to operate! Keep your eyes open, men, we have two out of three... this ends tonight!”

Son of a bitch! He shows up shortly before the same type of shit goes down between Kait's family and their rivals, and then it escalates into a full blown tactical strike that cost her everyone she loved? The only reason they missed her was an anonymous party that Dagaz also went to! It was right after that when he formally introduced his self to her. That son of a bitch set up her clan, too! He set this whole fucking thing into motion years ago!

Tyr's heart went from shock to disappointment, from sadness to pure rage. He only had one play. He and Thor had wired the mead operation and computer desk with explosives when they were both up all night on one of their conspiracy tangents, and told no one. They both carried the means to detonate, but the charges were little more than it would take to destroy all evidence of their operation. They would have to be close....To his good fortune, they assumed he was already dead and not a threat, as neither of them even managed to pick up a gun and fire a shot.

He was able to slowly flip up the cover on his watch, and hit a small switch. From where he lay, he could see the small red light come on beneath the desk. Most of the equipment was obviously destroyed in the blast, so they weren't interested in it just yet, but rather they were busy digging around in various backpacks, closets, drawers, etc. He knew they would come around to it, he just hoped it would be Dagaz who got too close. He held on with all the strength he could muster, finger ready on top of the small button that would let loose their avenger.

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