An Ill Wind Blows by Charlie Cottrell

Author:Charlie Cottrell [Cottrell, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-28T22:00:00+00:00

XI.

The blast came from outside, a small shaped charge designed to create maximum mess with minimum structural damage. Through the smoke, I could see Vinny standing there, confused, glass and dust covering his fine suit. He turned to face the front of the store, a low growl building in the back of his throat. I went to check on Maya, who was lying on the floor covered in shards of broken glass. She sat up, pieces of the window cascading off of her, as a half dozen men in mottled tactical outfits, submachine guns held at the ready, stormed up to the front of the store.

Ollie’s head came into view over the edge of the counter, a pale orb clearing the horizon of the glass case. “Looks like some folks have decided to take the first clue from you by force,” he said shakily.

I took my hat off and brushed some glass off of it, then looked out over the mess and the men with their guns. “Gentlemen,” I said calmly.

“Give us the clue, Hazzard,” one of the men said.

“I’m afraid you’ve got me at a loss here, guys,” I replied. “I don’t know anything about any clue, and I’m 99% certain I’m not carrying anything that could even kind of be considered a clue.”

“We’ll decide on that,” the same assailant called back. He gestured with the barrel of his gun at me. “Kill him. We can find the clue on his corpse.”

“Aren’t you afraid of damaging it?” I asked.

“Not terribly,” the man replied.

That was the point when Vinny decided to remind the world he still existed.

The gorilla leapt across the shop, flipping shelves and spilling the contents of tables across the floor, destroying the breakables left standing after the hit squad’s explosion. In less time than it took to blink, he was across the shop floor, out the window, and grabbing the first assailant by the neck. Assailant #1 was flung unceremoniously into the two men to his right, knocking all three of them to the ground with a muffled thud. Vinny turned to the three men on his left, all of whom had suddenly reconsidered the plan. The guy closest to Vinny swung his gun up to aim at Vinny, a classic rookie mistake. Vinny grabbed the guy’s gun and hand in one massive paw, crushing the two things into one mangled collection of bone, flesh, and metal. The guy screamed, though the sound was cut off when Vinny whipped him around by the arm and swatted the next two men aside like a big league slugger at batting practice.

The whole incident took less than ten seconds.

Vinny dropped the goon, whose arm was bent at a rather unnatural angle, determined that there were no more goons to attack, and seemed to switch off. I helped Maya up and strolled out through the shattered front door, maintaining a certain level of decorum and protocol as I picked my way across the destruction, and ambled up to the leader, who was lying in a groaning heap on the sidewalk.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.