Recovery Undercover

Cisco was already moving. Larry saw him spin around like an expert kick-boxer and knock a gun from Bruno’s hand. As the gun clanked to the hardwood floor, Larry was pulling Vickie and Tina down out of the line of fire.

"Crawl into the kitchen and try to escape out the back door. Go now!" He told them as he pulled the Glock and chambered a round. A crystal goblet exploded above his head. Larry peaked over the table in time to see a plate glass window shatter from Pedro’s bullets, then Al Bennette took a round in the shoulder. The force of the impact knocked him backwards over his chair. The other two guests were down out of sight, but the servant and the other two women were running past Bruno towards Pedro and the staircase door.

Larry saw Cisco trying to make his way across the great room on his hands and knees. He assumed that the kid was trying to help Pedro, but Cisco had other plans. Just as Cisco reached the sitting room doorway, two men came from the room on the opposite side of the front door. Larry had started across the south end of the great room and he dove for cover as the men raised their weapons. When he looked up again, the man closest to him was falling, blood and brain matter spilling from the back of his head. Then he saw the other one get hit in the chest. It looked like a clean shot through the heart. Watching him fall, Larry started to analyze what was happening, but it was too much information and the questions had no answers. A voice in his head said, "take action or die." And so he did.

The secret door was on the far side of the room about thirty feet away. The women had pushed Pedro back through the opening and the door was closing. As Larry crossed the room towards the door, he reached down to grab a shotgun from one of the recently deceased Mafioso’s. Just then another bad guy burst in from the kitchen entrance to the great room. He fired and Larry felt the bullet pass the side of his chest. It must have gone through his jacket but missed his flesh. He should have worn his bulletproof vest. Too late now. He dropped instinctively between the two bodies and another man opened up with what sounded like a MAC-10 machine pistol from the piano alcove at the north end of the room. The bullets went wild, but Larry was in a crossfire with almost no cover. The secret door closed and disappeared into the wall. Not even a seem. Those old world craftsmen were good.

Larry pointed the shotgun at the piano and fired. He worked the slide as he rolled the other direction and fire again, but he was too late. Cisco had shot the man in the leg and he was falling. The man took cover behind a large chair. The shotgun made a ragged hole in the door. Larry cocked the shotgun and fire again at the piano, but could not see a target. He needed better cover, so he scrambled to a table next to where the secret door had been. He turned it over just as a trail of bullets reached him from the MAC-10, shattering the wood of a heavy table leg.

"Cisco, Let’s go!"

"No! I’m going to get us the plates. Keep them busy for a minute, that’s all I need. Can you get to the front door?"

"We don’t have a choice do we?"

"I’ll go out the window and meet you on the road. Quit playing around and shoot to kill. These ass-holes deserve to die." Cisco disappeared through the door to the sitting room.

The man behind the piano had loaded another clip and started shooting up the table in front of Larry. A bullet penetrated the oak and scraped by Larry’s left shoulder. It was only a minor flesh wound but it hurt like hell and pissed Larry off. He kicked the table away and stood aiming the shotgun at the piano. He pumped and fired until the gun was empty then he pulled the Glock and fired another three rounds into the alcove. The gunman died of multiple wounds. The man on the end of the room had been nursing his leg wound when he saw Larry stand. As he turned, Larry heard the man slam a new clip into his 9mm. He walked toward the goon and fired into the man until he quit moving.

A man appeared on the landing at the top of the stairs. Larry fired and ran for the front door. The new threat would be coming down the stairs, although he was out of sight for now. At the door Larry glanced back to the dining room. All he could see was Bruno shooting at the south end of the table. Larry went through the heavy door.