Fire codes demand that when the power goes out in a commercial building, emergency lights powered by battery automatically go on. I knew this from the paperwork I’d had to go through when buying the property.
These lights did not kick in. The interior of the building was the black of a night sky without stars. Given time for my eyes to adjust, I might have been able to find an outline, but whatever light seeped into this part of the building from the windows at the front was, at this point, useless.
“Nobody move,” growled one of the two thugs in the dark.
Too late.
I’d already reached over my shoulder with my gloveless right hand to grab the end of the pole. I yanked it from Victor’s grasp. Immediately the noose slackened around my neck. He yelped. I ignored that.
I stood. I pulled the noose over my head and dropped the pole. I ripped the Velcro from my other glove and popped it off.
This might have taken three or four seconds.
Then I heard a sound I’d been expecting.
A scream.
In the total darkness it was as eerie as if this were a horror movie. Especially when the second—and equally high-pitched—scream followed a heartbeat later.
It wasn’t from Victor or Jennie. They were behind me.
It came from the guys with the baseball bats. Those bats clattered on the floor as each of the screams died. Then a second set of screams.
I knew what was happening to them, but they didn’t.
Cattle prods. Set at medium voltage. Long handheld sticks with two points, powered by battery. Not deadly, but on contact enough to jolt a thousand-pound animal into a spasm of movement. Before buying the cattle prods, I’d watched a couple of YouTube videos where idiots tried them on each other.
Another set of screams.
I could picture each of the two large men flailing in the darkness. How long would it take for them to realize their best option was to try to run?
I didn’t get a chance to find out.
From behind me came bright light, all the more piercing because of the contrast to the sheer black.
The first result was to illuminate what had been happening. It caught Raven and Jo, dressed in black and each holding a cattle prod, about to strike again.
But both of them had stumbled, disoriented.
That was because of the second result.
Raven and Jo each wore a pair of helmet-mounted night-vision goggles, NVGs, standard military issue, retail price well over four thousand dollars. They were able to produce images in near total darkness, converting minimal light and near infrared into green images for the viewer.
I knew the price because I’d purchased them the day before. I knew they worked and how they worked because Raven and Jo and I had tested them in the gym with all the lights out. It was weird, seeing a person’s body displayed all in green, but effective.
The plan had been perfect. Set myself up alone in the gym late at night with the door open, like a tethered goat placed in the jungle to attract a tiger. Call out for help with our code word. Plunge the gym into darkness. And let Jo and Raven attack at their leisure.
The key word was had. As in, the plan had been perfect. Until Jennie turned on her phone’s flashlight.
The NVGs had been set to maximum intensity. Which meant Jennie’s light had blinded Raven and Jo with such impact that it might be minutes before they could see normally again.
I would have turned to snatch the device from Jennie, but the two large men recovered as quickly as cats landing on their feet.
One punched Raven in the gut. The other clouted Jo across the helmet. They’d already been disoriented, and this attack was enough to knock them both to the floor.
One of the men reached for a bat. The other lifted a foot to kick.
Grabbing the device from Jennie was no longer an option. I leapt forward, twisting and turning as I threw my right elbow into the jaw of the one about to kick Jo. He grunted and staggered.
The other grabbed at my arm. I spun loose and threw a punch into his gut.
Snap and flow.
It was like hitting the heavy bag, and he staggered back from the impact.
This was not good.
The elbow to the jaw should have knocked the first guy onto the floor. The punch to the gut should have doubled over the second guy to his knees.
These guys could take some serious punishment. I needed to keep moving and extend the fight until they exhausted themselves. My only chance to was use my better fitness and mobility to my advantage. If either of them managed to latch on to me, I was dead. Metaphorically for sure and maybe literally if they started landing big punches or picked up the baseball bats.
Snap and flow.
What made this surreal was the single light source that seemed to etch everything into black and white.
“Guys,” I told them between gulping deep breaths. “We’ve got two minutes to finish this. My friends here triggered a 9-1-1 call when they shut down the lights. We’re expecting the cops at any time. That was the plan.”
I danced in close to the guy I’d popped on the jaw. I ducked and faked a punch with my right hand, and I snapped a punch into his gut with the left. I didn’t want to hit any part of his skull. Not with an unprotected fist.
I danced back as he grunted.
Again, I was impressed by his ability to take punishment.
I caught some movement at my left. I weaved out of the way of a roundhouse from the second guy. He was fast.
Snap and flow.
I was trying to find my rhythm, trying to buy time for Raven and Jo, who were still on the floor.
That’s when a noose settled over my head again.
“Gotcha!” Victor said.
Really? I thought. Really?
My final conscious thought ended a heartbeat later as another roundhouse found its target.
Side of my skull.
I didn’t even see the floor on my way down.