Fear City: Axel Blaze Thriller Book 7 by Bill Runner

Author:Bill Runner [Runner, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard.

“Escaped? Damn! Where did they go? Which way?” I asked.

“They headed up the stairs. Must have gotten out the front by now. I was torn between rushing upstairs and holding the fort here. But I had to secure the perimeter,” Walker explained regretfully, almost like he was apologizing to me.

“You did right. How badly is Vasquez hit?”

“I think he’ll pull through. The knife missed the vitals. Weird knife, though. Not like anything I’ve seen before. Jess is inside, holding the stairwell. Go check it out. Backup’s on the way.”

“What about your prisoner? Is he secure?”

“Yes. He’s in there.”

I nodded and dashed inside. Jess had taken her stance on the steps, gun drawn, wearing a fierce expression. Vasquez lay flat on the floor, conscious but in considerable pain. A knife was lodged in the fleshy part of his chest, just below the right shoulder. A woman from the stall outside was by his side, applying light pressure with a towel above and below the knife to staunch the bleeding.

That knife would have to stay put until Vasquez was in surgery. Contrary to popular belief and the natural instinct to pull out any external object from your body, yanking out a knife embedded in the body of a stabbing victim is a bad idea. When a knife enters the body, it causes significant damage, slicing through skin, muscle, tendons, blood vessels, and organs. But while it’s in, it acts as a plug, reducing some bleeding from the severed vessels. Pulling it out not only worsens the bleeding but can cause further damage on its way out.

I kneeled beside Vasquez and examined the wound closely. One glance at the knife confirmed what Walker had told me—it was indeed a strange looking knife, with a hollow cylindrical metallic tube behind the blade, instead of a regular haft. The fact that he hadn’t seen anything like it before was simply because such knives are illegal. The blade, coupled with its attached tube, constituted the projectile component of a ballistic knife.

A ballistic knife is essentially a blade attached to a hollow tube designed to fit within an outer casing containing either a coiled spring mechanism or a compressed air system. This hollow cylinder acts as the launching mechanism, enabling the blade to be forcefully ejected. A trigger on the outer casing releases the knife, propelling the blade forward like a bullet.

These specialized weapons are commonly associated with the Spetsnaz, the elite Russian special forces. Once more, Logan’s suspicions were validated—at least some members of the Russian crew were Spetsnaz operatives.

“I’m not sure what happened,” Vasquez spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. “I had my gun drawn and ready. This man comes down the stairs from the second floor, fiddling with this metallic tube thing. I didn’t see any imminent threat. I warned him to back off, use the other stairs. Next thing I feel is this searing pain as that knife slams into me like a bullet.

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