Chapter 18
Free from the panic-inducing grip of his own mind, Vin found himself completely revitalized. He and Sean worked together, watching each other’s backs like in the old days. Every step Vin took through the flaming camp felt surefooted and confident. He knew Sean was likely feeling the same.
That was how it was with them, how it had always been. In their personal lives, there may have been some animosity, some jealousy and hard feelings over their shared love for the same woman. But on the battlefield, Sean and Vin knew each other better than brothers, more intimately than lovers.
They were two halves of a deadly whole, and they worked with one another to cut a swath through the enemy lines.
Chainz and his soldiers were, of course, still with them, but that no longer seemed to matter.
The two of them were together now and on the same page.
The backup was appreciated and made their jobs easier, but at the end of the day, the two of them were racking up bodies far faster than Chainz and the rest of his men combined.
The only words exchanged between the two of them were call-outs. These were secret coded commands they had developed long ago to communicate on the battlefield in a way that no enemy would be able to decipher.
They hadn’t needed to use these codes in many years, but the two of them remembered each and every one.
“Daybreak,” Sean cried out, and Vin instantly ducked as Sean rained fire over his head.
Vin spun as he crouched, shooting out the knees of an advancing soldier. Sean followed this up by peppering the man’s torso with bullets from his assault rifle.
It went on like this for quite a while. The battle was becoming more and more one-sided. Sean, Vin, Chainz, and the criminal element that followed them into the fray were pushing the enemy back into the center of camp, near to where the command tent had been identified on their map.
“Boys,” Chainz called out, sliding into cover behind a row of supply crates where Vin and Sean were already crouching. “Well, ain’t the two of you something?”
“Glad you approve,” Vin growled, keeping his ear trained to the sound of gunfire.
“Oh, I do,” Chainz replied, looking the two of them up and down and noting that they were relatively unscathed.
Chainz, on the other hand, seemed to be sporting a wealth of wounds, with scrapes and gashes, many of which had received battlefield patches.
Chainz was tough, but he wasn’t a soldier.
“The two of you are a damn wrecking crew,” he continued.
“I shoulda brought you into my organization sooner.”
Vin was about to respond, to tell Chainz that they were by no means a part of his organization. But Sean, seemingly aware of how Vin was about to respond, cut him off with a response of his own.
“Well, they keep coming, and we keep putting them down,” Sean said, giving the massive man a curt nod of his head.
“They ain’t gonna be coming for long,” Chainz said, shouting to be heard over the sound of exploding grenades. He gestured with his head. “Just over there is the command tent, and that’s where the remnant leader got himself holed up.”
“So, you wanna take out the leader,” Vin said, nodding. “That’s not gonna stop the fighting.”
“Nah,” Chainz replied with a shake of his head. “But it’s gonna help.”
There was logic to that, Vin realized. The general’s orders were likely still being conveyed to the enemy soldiers through runners. While the general’s death wouldn’t immediately cause the soldiers to stand down, it would disrupt their operations and could become a turning point in this conflict.
Vin smiled to himself, realizing they were about to get one step closer to Deb and Jimmy. “Let’s take him,” Vin said, and Chainz grinned in response.
“That’s the spirit,” he said, showing his teeth in what could be either a smile or a feral snarl.
The three of them burst from cover, moving as one, firing into the night as they advanced.
The command tent was within reach, and as the last sentry fell, Vin could feel a sense of accomplishment and relief flood through him.
Vin was the first through the tent flap, Sean immediately following close behind.
Inside there were a number of lockers and chests, a cot to sleep on, and a large table at the rear of the space. An older man in a beard stood stoically behind the desk, flanked by four young and able-bodied soldiers. Vin could tell by the markings on the man’s jacket that he was a general.
“Stand down,” the man said to his soldiers, holding up a hand as they lowered their weapons. “We surrender.”
“You what?” Sean cried out in surprise.
Vin was taken aback as well. He had entered this tent expecting a battle-hardened military leader who was ready to fight until the bitter end.
“We surrender,” the general repeated, slowly showing the palms of his hands.
“A good leader knows when to throw in the towel. You have us beaten. You’ve taken the center of camp.
Continuing to fight would be a pointless waste of lives.
That’s why I’m surrendering the camp in the hopes that my remaining men might be spared. ”
Vin could see the logic in the general’s statement and actually respected the man for valuing the lives of the troops under his command. It was something he wasn’t entirely used to from the men and women in charge. It was a refreshing change of pace and one that he was happy to see.
However, Vin wasn’t sure whether this was some elaborate trick or not, so he kept his weapons trained on the general and his troops.
While the old man appeared to be unarmed, it had not escaped Vin’s notice that the soldiers beside him were still holding their guns.
Those guns weren’t pointed at anyone, but they were still in hand, still ready to be fired at a moment’s notice.
It was a tense situation that Vin wanted to see resolved as quickly and peacefully as possible.
“Please,” the general said. “There’s no need for further bloodshed.”
“My ass,” Chainz said, stepping up between Sean and Vin to glower down at the general. “Since when do you stuffed shirts value any lives other than your own?”
“You have a very pessimistic outlook on military personnel, sir,” the general responded, speaking to Chainz with respect while still admonishing his outlook.
Chainz snorted in response and waved a hand as if clearing the air of the general’s words. “I smelled a lot of bullshit in my life, old man,” Chainz said. “And you’re spewing it outta that mouth of yours.”
“It isn’t, as you so eloquently put it, bullshit,” the general responded, grimacing as he repeated the obscenity, as though it were the first time he had uttered such a word.
“My soldiers are dying out there in service to their duty. I see no sense in them laying down their lives when respectable captivity is an alternative. Perhaps we can even negotiate a ceasefire and come to terms.”
“Terms?” Chainz barked a laugh.
Vin could see that the faces of the soldiers flanking the general were flush with anger; they were practically shaking at the swagger and disrespect of this criminal bottom feeder.
But the general was a man of poise, and he maintained his posture of calm superiority, even in the face of this dire situation.
“Like I’m the goddamn Geneva Convention? ”
“I assumed as an enemy combatant you would find reason in a respectable surrender,” the general responded, still keeping his voice level and calm.
“I ain’t no enemy combatant, fool,” Chainz said, spreading his arms out to either side. “I’m the goddamn king of this city, and you’re trespassing on my turf.”
“And you’ve defeated this regiment,” the general said, acknowledging Chainz’s claim. “You are the victor here.”
“The victor,” Chainz said, still reveling in his own glory, still clearly soaking in the power of the moment.
A general was cow-towing to him now. A general of the government remnant was genuflecting and complimenting a lowlife murdering drug dealing crime lord. It made Vin every bit as sick as it made Chainz gleeful.
“To the victor go the spoils,” Chainz said with maniacal glee. “And by the looks of it, y’all got a lot of spoils around this camp of yours.”
“So, you are willing to negotiate then,” the general said, nodding to Chainz with respect.
“Negotiate,” Chainz said as if trying to word out in his mouth for the first time. “From where I’m standing, there ain’t much to negotiate. Seems like I got you by the short and curlies, old man.”
“You have the advantage, yes,” the general responded. “And in exchange for our lives, I’m prepared to offer you surrender and an immediate ceasefire. You can claim territory, set your own rulings, and operate independently.”
“Territory, he says?” Chainz scoffed, looking back at Sean and Vin.
While he couldn’t see Sean’s expression, Vin visibly grimaced at the crime lord’s showboating.
“My territory is what it always has been, old man. The entire fucking city.”
“That’s unrealistic,” the general said, nearly breaking his composure.
“Oh, is it?” Chainz asked with a laugh. “I’ve been running this entire show for years now.
It was my blood, my sweat that built this empire.
But I ain’t never shed no tears before, and I’m not willing to now.
This city is my house, but I’m not content with that.
See, we’re expending on the coming weeks, Mr. General.
Our enterprise is only growing from here on out. ”
“Growing?” the general asked, a look of alarm overtaking his face.
Vin shared the general’s surprise and disgust.
“Yeah, I’m thinking the whole state is a nice start,” Chainz said with a long slow smile. “And I think these guns y’all are keeping here are gonna come in real handy for that.”
“You can’t possibly think—” the general started to say before Chainz cut him off.