Edward Graves: Temporal Detective
Chapter 21: Job Security

Vinnie Albertelli kept his gun trained firmly on his targets as they exited the house. There were five of them, all unarmed and two of which were girls. Not women, girls. Vinnie, by contrast had nine armed and fully trained men by his side, plus his boss, Hayden Crawlfield as well as Harbinger - the stranger in the hat and coat.

The last twenty minutes had been crazy. There had been forty armed men spread throughout the house and grounds and now there were only ten. The first indication of trouble that Vinnie had received, had come when he stuck his head inside the security office to say goodbye to Charlie on his way out. He found some girl with a sword in the process of tying him up and within five seconds of pulling his gun out, she had disarmed him with her blade and knocked him out with the hilt.

The next thing that he remembered was being awoken and dragged to his feet by Sal. Apparently that crazy sword chick had a partner; a whack job with a bow, firing arrows Robin Hood style. Between the two of them they’d taken out all bar a handful of guys so, they needed all the reinforcements they could muster. So much for the end of shift.

He and a few others went out to patrol the grounds and managed to get the guy as he was trying to jump the fence, but it took the combined effort of Vinnie, Joey, Sal and Bobby to hold him off. Even then it was only thanks to Harbinger that they subdued him. He showed up and used some kind of funky fighting that Vinnie had never seen before.

They couldn’t get the kid to talk, and boy did they try, but it wasn’t exactly Rocket Science, trying to figure out what was going on.

They had no idea how they’d gotten in, or how many others were still inside, but Crawlfield knew that he was low on men and the enemy had the element of surprise. Luckily for him then, that they’d managed to get hold of a bargaining chip.

He heard a gentle pitter-patter as rain began to his the brim of his hat.

“You’ve got a set of brass ones, I’ll give you that,” said Crawlfield. “But you must be stupid if you honestly believed that you could just waltz into my place, attack my men and get away with it?” He sounded furious.

“To be fair,” yelled Edward, “you invited me.”

Vinnie’s trigger finger was getting sweaty and the rain drops were getting heavier, if it kept up then he might lose his clear line of sight; they all might.

“Tell you what,” called Crawlfield, “Surrender and we’ll let your friend here go.”

“I wouldn’t call him a friend, more of an acquaintance. Not even that really. A colleague? No. Definitely someone I’ve met though. At least I think he looks a bit familiar.”

Vinnie had to admire the guts of this Graves guy, he’d heard that he’d even kept his wit the whole time he was being tortured.

“You have to the count of three,” called Crawlfield.

The rain grew to a steady downpour.

“One...”

Vinnie heard a clap of thunder.

“Two...”

No, that didn’t sound like thunder, did it?

“Thr-.”

A black Jaguar barged through the gates, sending men jumping out of the way, then sliding to a halt outside the front door.

Vinnie stared in shock; they all did.

Even Crawlfield was speechless for moment as he tried to comprehend what was happening. “What are you waiting or you friggin’ idiots?” he screamed after a moment, “shoot them!”