Premonition

Chapter #19: Casino Capture - Part 3

As predicted, upon entering the hallway, no one was present. The hallway was dimly lit with one flickering light near the base of the staircase. Keiji decided to speak up to Ricky.

“Remember, only at the base of the staircase will the guard show up. In about 20 seconds..” Keiji said.

“Ok,” Ricky said. Ricky then rushed down the hallway with Keiji at his heels. They stopped at the corner of the wall that turned into the staircase.

“5 seconds until he comes,” Keiji said. Ricky crouched and so did Keiji. 5 seconds later a guard came up and walked past them, not noticing their presence. Ricky quickly rushed the guard and put him to sleep with a full-nelson. During this moment, Keiji decided to use his powers again just to check if everything was fine. As he did so, he knew they needed to take a different course of action. In black and white, he saw himself and Ricky reach the top of the stairs. They tried opening the door to no avail, until someone on the other side began talking to them – likely through an intercom. A few moments later an alarm sounded and Keiji’s vision ended. Realizing they needed a different method of entering the security room which held Jin Woo, Keiji thought of a suggestion.

“We need his key card Ricky,” Keiji instructed. “Otherwise, they’ll be all over us within seconds.”

“Ok Keiji, just give me a sec,” Ricky said as he began searching the limp body of the guard. A few moments later he retrieved a card key on his belt which he ripped off. “Like this?”

“Exactly,” Keiji said.

“Ok let’s head upstairs and into the room holding Jin Woo,” Ricky said. Climbing up two flights of stairs the two of them, Keiji and Ricky, arrived at a security door. There was a camera in front of it and looked like it was actively recording them. “Best to use your powers now and see what’s on the other side of the door..”

“Ok,” Keiji said. Activating his powers, he saw a gruesome scene. As soon as they opened the door, bullets were rained down upon them and they were shot down. Keiji decided to keep watching purely because he needed to analyze the situation. Just a few moments before the vision ended, Keiji had finished counting how many guards were in the room with guns and where their position was.

“So, what’s the deal Keiji?” Ricky asked.

“….it doesn’t turn out so well for us when we open the door…” Keiji said. “We need to find an alternate way in, or somehow mask our entrance. Because they are already waiting with guns on the other side.”

“In that case, I have this baby,” Ricky said pulling out a small circular object from his belt. It looked like a small grenade of sorts. “It’s a smoke grenade from our armory, I’ll toss this inside and mask our entrance.”

“Nice….ok well in that case, I should tell you where the guard are positioned,” Keiji said as he took out a small pen and paper from his belt. He started drawing a rectangular room and placed dots on the paper representing the guards. In total there were 3 guards at the directional vectors of 9’oclock, 12’oclock, and 3’oclock. Ricky observed it for a quick second and nodded.

“Ok I’m ready to go,” Ricky said as he primed the smoke grenade. “What will you do?”

“I’ll stay out here and keep a lookout, just in case anyone comes up the stairs,” Keiji said.

“Can you handle that?” Ricky asked.

“I should be able too,” Keiji said.

“You’ve been very accurate so far Keiji, no need to doubt yourself. You’ll see them coming,” Ricky said as he patted him on the back. Keiji smiled briefly and then stepped down the staircase, to give Ricky some space. Keiji handed Ricky the key card and crouched low.

“Here goes nothing!” Ricky yelled excitedly. Swiping the key card, the door unlocked and Ricky opened it very slowly – but not before tossing in the smoke grenade. Keiji heard it roll on the ground and a few moments later a loud bang rang in the air. At this, Ricky slipped his way inside silently, and Keiji waited. Nothing could be heard for a few moments, then some rustling and clearly some struggling of people in hand-to-hand combat. Keiji decided not to wait and leave Ricky alone, so he activated his powers for the final time tonight, as he knew he was getting tired. Even though black and white, he still could not discern the shapes and people amidst the smoke in the room. The only thing of note was he saw a tall person with a handgun, pointing and yelling at the middle of the room. A few seconds later, he fired his gun, and Ricky’s body could be seen on the floor. Exiting the vision, Keiji almost panicked but pushed the feeling down and replaced it with courage. If he did not do something, in the next 30 seconds, Ricky would die. Deciding to rush the tall gunman, even though he was only lightly trained in hand-to-hand combat; was a risk he would have to take. Quickly recalling how to put someone in an arm-lock, Keiji pumped himself up. After a few moments, he swung the ajar door wide open and sprinted to the tall gunman. As he sprinted, a blur of sounds and sights passed him, all slightly masked by the smoke in the room. Keiji concentrated on his target, who was about 5 meters away from him. As Keiji, came up to the gunman, he was surprised to see Keiji. All Keiji could think of doing was tackle him with his full body weight; and tackle him he did. The gunman toppled to the floor, with Keiji in an advantageous position. Keiji then quickly shuffled his weight, and put the man into an arm-lock and squeezed as hard as his strength would allow. After 4 strenuous seconds, Keiji heard a large pop, and the man yelled in pain; signaling to Keiji he had broken the man’s arm. As Keiji, got up, he finally was able to discern the contents of the room.

There were guards on the ground that looked unconscious. Ricky was in the midst of struggling against the third guard, however was slowly putting him to sleep in another full nelson. As the guard’s eyes slowly closed, Ricky released his grip, and the guard simply fell to the side.

“Thanks for that,” Ricky grunted as he approached Keiji and observed his handy work. “If you hadn’t charged Jin Woo, I would have been dead by now.”

“I know….I wasn’t about to leave you here to die and not help you,” Keiji said who slumped into an ajar chair.

“Take a breath Keiji, were almost done,” Ricky said as he began to grab the now unconscious Jin Woo, and sling him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “Radio, Hella. And Duke. Tell them we have the package.”