Dying For LA by Ian Jones (top fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

There was occasional traffic, but the area was quiet. They were parked in front of the closed down restaurant right next to the tyre shop. Through the gap between the two low buildings they could see another large open area, where there were haphazard stacks of rusting shipping containers.

‘Must have been busy here, once,’ John commented looking all around.

Reed nodded, joining in with viewing the area with a critical eye.

‘Yeah, I guess so. Lots of trucks and all sorts of industry. Must have killed it when they shut the yard, but that’s progress I guess. We don’t get this shit in the army, it’s getting smaller for sure but nothing ever really changes.’

John smiled, it was a long time ago for him but he suspected it was the same in every country.

They sat there for a while, and then Reed got a call to say the LAPD were on their way, so John dug out the card and called Brady, who told him that he had to wait to get the all clear from the SWAT team leader before he would be at the scene. He suggested that John make himself known, everyone was fully briefed.

The SWAT team leader was a Lieutenant Oakes, and in Brady’s own apologetic terms ‘a bit of a jerk.’

As he was talking Reed punched him on the shoulder, pointing out the windscreen.

Five men were walking along the road toward the yard. Immediately Reed’s radio crackled and Louisa called in.

‘Sir, we got movement. Five men just came out the hotel.’

‘I got it Louisa, sit tight.’

John had hung up and was staring forward. The men were strung out in a line, two side by side at the back, the other three single file in front. The man in the middle of the three was who they were looking for.

‘That is Leonid Pinsky. It’s him.’

Reed got on the radio to alert Louisa.

‘Do you know any of the others?’ he asked John.

‘Yeah, there was intel on a couple of guys, associates of the men I shot at the Metro station. One of them was arrested at the bar fight Keane mentioned. Perez, Ascola, or something like that. I think that’s him at the back.’

He called Brady back to tell him this development, and they watched the men unlock the gates, walk through and repeat the action again at a second set inside where they walked into the yard and disappeared after making sure both sets of gates were secured.

A couple of minutes later and Louisa pulled up fast. They got out the cars and stood looking over at the yard.

‘They went into a building opposite the yard from those warehouses, looks like maybe offices or something,’ the corporal said.

‘Ok,’ John replied. ‘I’m just gonna wander down the hill, and then come back on that side of the road, see if I can see anything.’

‘John …’ Reed warned him.

‘It’s ok, don’t panic. I’m not going to do anything. I’m not armed anyway, none of us are. I just want to see from the other side for myself, the LAPD will be here any minute anyway.’

Without waiting for an answer John jogged down between the two buildings and ran right across behind the restaurant and keeping well out of sight came out on the other side of the warehouses. He walked across the road and strolled casually right past the gates, head straight in front but his eyes scanning the yard. He carried on until he was obscured by the buildings on the corner, then ran back to where the others were waiting.

‘Right. I saw the building. It’s kind of on its own, there isn’t much else on that side, just some sheds.’

‘Did you see anyone?’ Reed asked.

‘No, it’s impossible from outside. But the corporal saw them go in, and from where he was watching there’s nowhere else they could have gone. There is a massive crane which looks like it’s in the middle of being disassembled and I think part of it is a bridge from the offices to the warehouse. If it is, that means they could move out that way but I reckon if they did we would spot them.’

‘Are we ok just standing here?’ asked Louisa, leaning back against her car.

‘We’re fine, there is no line of sight from where they are to here, but that also means that we aren’t going to see them either.’

The stood watching the yard, all unsure what to do next when an LAPD black and white followed by a SWAT van came down the road toward them. Reed waved and pointed to a space further along from where they had parked but was ignored. Both vehicles stopped in the middle of the road.

A squat, heavyset officer all in black with a flak jacket bristling with apparatus climbed out the passenger side of the cruiser and then stood, looking at them from across the bonnet.

John sighed and then set off across the road with Reed following.

As they got closer the officer held his hand up.

‘Hold it there. Don’t come any closer. I got to speak to a Major Reed?’

‘There’s no Major Reed. Not here anyways. It’s Captain Reed. And that’s me,’ Reed told him.

The officer looked annoyed and then reached into the car snapping his fingers, without taking his eyes off them. The driver, a young black officer ferreted around on the back seat and then handed over a piece of paper, which the officer took and started scanning it.

‘Jesus Christ,’ John murmured as he and Reed stood there in the road.

‘Ok,’ the officer said eventually. ‘Major Reed, walk to me.’

He looked over at both men. Reed started to walk over.

‘Yeah, like I said, it’s Captain Reed.’

‘Who’s this guy?’ the officer asked nodding at John once Reed reached the car and leaned on the bonnet opposite.

‘That’s John Smith. I think you’ll find he’s kind of important in all this. I imagine it’s on those notes somewhere.’

The officer started reading again, lips moving slowly.

He stared