Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

The gunman pulled the trigger again, and I ducked my head and closed my eyes as shards of glass rained down all around me. I could hear more gunshots from inside the bus, and I lifted my head back up just in time to see the Junior knock the suspect to the ground. The gunman had been so focused on me that he hadn’t even noticed Junior racing toward him.

Junior swiftly kicked the gunman’s abandoned gun toward the back of the bus, away from the assailant and toward safety.

“Are you okay?” he called as he looked up at me.

“Fine,” I answered. I hadn’t realized when the bus had come to a stop. I was about to climb through the broken front window when I realized what a dumb idea that would be and slid off the front of the bus and onto the ground instead. I could see that a crowd had already formed around the bus, probably curious onlookers who had noticed a bus driving erratically and completely off its route.

The surrounding buildings were all tall and pressed tightly together, which gave the street the feeling of being inside a tunnel. The buildings were all made of brick and stone, and it seemed odd to have so many buildings without any alleyways or space between them like I was so used to seeing in Las Vegas.

I could hear police sirens in the distance as I ambled around the front of the bus toward the door. It slid open with a mechanical hiss, and I climbed up the ridged metal steps.

“I’ve got him,” Junior alerted me as soon as I was back on the bus. The guy was on the ground in handcuffs, unconscious but clearly alive, judging by the low groaning sound he was making.

“We should get these people off the bus,” I sighed before looking down at the man. “Geez, how hard did you hit him?”

No sooner had I finished speaking, there was a rush of movement behind me as the passengers began to scramble off. The gunman was lying right in front of the door, so Junior stood up to guide the people safely around him and off the bus.

“I didn’t mean to knock him out,” Junior replied. “He just hit his head on the ground as I tackled him. But hey, we didn’t even have to use our guns! So we didn’t break any rules, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” I smirked before turning to the bus driver, who flinched as I spoke to him. “Where are we? I need to call this guy an ambulance.”

“Middle Abbey Street,” he replied shakily. “Near the intersection to William’s Lane.”

I nodded and dialed nine-nine-nine, the emergency number for Ireland, and called for an ambulance for the suspect.

“I heard gunshots,” I remarked as I looked down at the gunman. “Was anyone else hurt?”

“No,” Junior shook his head. “He just got mad and started shooting at me when I asked him to let everyone else off the bus. He said there would be nothing for him to bargain with if he did that.”

“So it was a ransom situation then?” I surmised. “Take a bus full of people hostage and demand money in exchange for their safety?”

“That’s what it looked like,” Junior replied as he rolled his neck and shoulders tensely. “What a way to start our time in Ireland, huh?”

“You got that right,” I huffed. “I guess it’s lucky you were so eager to ride this thing. We wouldn’t have been here to help if we’d just taken a taxi.”

“I guess that’s true,” Junior mused as the last passengers filed off the bus. He turned to look at something behind me, and I realized he was looking at the bus driver.

“Do you want to get off too?” I turned around to speak to him.

“No,” he replied blankly. His eyes were wide, and he was trembling. “I need to talk to the police. Give them a statement and all that.”

“Right,” I grumbled. We would have to stick around and explain things too. “Ugh. We’re going to be here all night.”

“I just wanted to go for a ride on the tram,” Junior muttered bitterly as he continued to massage his arm.

“You okay?” I asked as I watched him flex his shoulder uncomfortably. As soon as I’d gotten back onto the bus, I’d noticed that he seemed to be in pain.

“I’m fine,” he replied and immediately ceased his movements as if he didn’t want me to notice. “Just tired from the long flight, I think. I just want to go to the hotel and get some sleep.”

“Well, it’ll have to wait.” I nodded toward the approaching officers. “I think we’re going to have to stay a while longer.”

Junior sighed defeatedly before squaring himself back up and putting on his most placating smile. I decided to leave most of the talking to him and slipped my phone out of my pocket to call Wallace. Even if it was unrelated to our case, we needed to inform him that we’d been involved in a criminal incident.

18

Miranda

My heart was pounding as Naomi and I jumped out of the car and rushed into the office building. Fiona had called me earlier to tell me that Agent Howard had suddenly gone crazy and attacked her and Nelson. It had felt like a punch to the gut to hear one of our own displaying symptoms of the new drug. I didn’t understand it, though. Agent Howard was our lab technician. He knew better than any of us how deadly that drug was, so I just couldn’t figure out how he, of all people, had fallen victim to it.

I forced the thoughts from my mind as I burst through the stairwell door and raced up the stairs. I was running on pure adrenaline and didn’t have the patience to wait for the elevator. I’d never been in the stairwell before. The plain white walls were yellowing with age, and flecks of paint