Off the Port

The sea salt from the waves crashing into the shores blended while the stagnant force of the wind blew past me while standing at the foot of the bay. I waited, and waited for what felt like hours until I could spot the ship, remembering my confrontation with one of the big time mobster was, “You took someone I cared about from me, your bomber made a huge mistake. Now it’s time for me to get even… and believe me, you don’t know who you’re messing with… nor will you see it coming.”

I flinched to the corner of my eye was the abandoned tugboat rocking along with the crashing waves hitting the shores while I waited further. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait much longer while seeing the massive cargo ship pass by the waterfront park radioing my crew to get ready. I was sort of nervous stemming from the thoughts of what my superior would say about this bust but I’m just doing my job. Some rules weren’t meant to be followed all the way through, some were meant to be broken.

I hopped inside of my car trailing behind the ship as it sped up in knots towards the Richmond port a few miles out from where we were. The blood rushed through my veins while I reported “Alright team, ship’s rushing to the port at around 45 knots if I had to guess, get your equipment ready, be prepared.”

Flashbacks of her came to mind while speeding down the boulevard just to get to the port before the ship did. I nearly teared up but I knew I had to refrain my mind from those moments while I held her as she took her last breaths, thinking endlessly into a sea of madness of how I could’ve saved her.

I noticed there was an abnormal amount of S.W.A.T cars meeting me down to the port, apart from a few individual vehicles carrying the S.J.P.D being those I requested for backup, and my blood dropped.

“Sargent, what are you doing here?” I nervously asked, awaiting an unpleasant answer.

“I would say stopping you from making the biggest mistake of your career, detective.” I looked down towards my shoes for a brief moment, bracing for her wrath, “Though it has come to my attention some evidence that proves your hunch may have some merit to it, so I brought back up for ya.”

She smiled. The sweet, blissful feeling of relief overflowed me in a metaphysical shower while I braced for the takeover and arresting the mobster onboard. I facined the bullet vest onto me.

“Do you copy?” I radioed one of our hired associates onboard the ship, “Heads up, these people have a lot of insurance and security on top so you might wanna be careful…” he radioed worryingly.

“Thank you, but don’t worry. We’re prepared.” I responded confidently.

“For your sake, I hope so,” Neville reported. “Thank you,” I reported before ending the conversation.

“Alright team, these people have a lot of security, a lot of coverage so we’re going to need to go a step further.” I announced to the rest of the team. “I’m going to guess from intuition that we’re facing anywhere between 25 to 50 guns onboard ready to take us down so be sure to be as tactical as humanly possible to avoid getting hit. Be sure to take down from the neck down to their knees and lower, places being of lethal vulnerability in their costumes. Let’s roll!”

We charged into the cargo ship parked while taking a portion of the security entourage by surprise. I’ve gotten my hands on a couple of those goons, getting them to drop their machine guns against their will leading to a momentary lock in brawl. Each time I win!

I remember this one big fella who had to be double my stature, if I’m exaggerating, and barring a torch gun came face-to-face with me. Boy, was I scared? “How the fuck am I suppose to take him down?” I hastily repeated in my mind but immediately dropped the forethought as a newer thought began replacing it: “I don’t have to know how, all I know is I will take him down.”

I aggressively grabbed the gun, aiming it away from me, throwing as many punches as I could towards the guy as he began to break concentration, and missing his punches.

It’s as if he was trying to kill a spider that knew Kung Fu. “Stop moving!” he shouted impatiently.

I loaded my anger and frustration into this one punch after making him more dizzy from the repeated blows to the face with his own gun, “This is for Mary!”

Looking back now, I honestly don’t know if my punch would’ve been as lethal nor would I have been able to knock him down if it weren’t for the fact that I wore my military grade gloves I just bought. I’m pretty sure the hardened carbon fiber knuckles helped me knock the big guy down and harder was the sound of him dropping while thinking it would sound different.

I’m just amazed he didn’t break through the creaking floorboards of the dock from how hard that last blow was, but I honestly didn’t have time to dwell on it as I hopped over his seemingly lifeless body to rush into the cargo ship. I held the gun firmly, relying on my heightened senses to guide me to the targets, I covered another detective that was trailing behind me when alarms went off inside my head. Suddenly, we were ambushed as five armed troops came out of thin air to shoot at us. My accompanying detective was shot in the leg, a nonlethal shot to her upper thigh missing an artery by an inch, as she fell to the ground but before they could take more shots at her, I stood in front of her barring most of the blows while I delivered lethal ones to the rest that were pouring in. I hardly was hurt, mainly stemming from my heightened adrenaline rush while taking them down, and I took her into a secluded corner where no one would find us as I took out a spare shirt I had and wrapped it around her injury.

“How in the hell did you do that?” She asked, watching me wrap her leg using the spare.

“Did what?” I asked. “It was like I was watching a superhero kicking some serious ass,” she said.

“Anger is a pretty useful tool when used correctly,” I replied, looking into her eyes continuing, “those bastards already took someone I cared about once. I’m not ready to allow that to happen again.”

“Backup, I need backup. Police officer down,” I hastily radioed while helping her out of the cargo ship towards the door where there were police officers ready to help her.

“You’re gonna be fine,” I gently whispered as the assisting officers took her to a medic. I’ll never forget seeing her in tears from the overwhelming pain, I couldn’t ever picture the amount of pain she must’ve felt. I can only be thankful it wasn’t lethal. I rushed back inside as the chaotic scene mellowed down to a few dwindling bullets aiming at nothing but concrete.

I had assumed there were hardly anybody onboard. I came face-to-face with the force of destruction himself, “detective…” he admitted in a sinister voice.

“You almost got me, but you’re just a few steps away. Go on. I won’t resist,” he taunted while holding his gun in the air. “Drop your weapon!” I responded.

“ I would but… you might have your hands full still,” he continued in his taunting tone.

Additional bodyguards in military outfits popped gently out of nowhere, it seemed that I had lost the battle on the brink of losing my life at the hands of those military mobsters. At the hands at the mobster. There’s one thing: I’m a stubborn detective. And always will be.

In a flashing haze, I took down the mini entourage he had left to defend him as he tried to escape. I saw his face changing from one of “smugness” and “supremacy” to that of terror and fear as I kept my gun pointed at him, “drop it!” I shouted more sternly seeing him waving a grenade.

“This is my only option left,” he omitted. “You’re really willing to end your life over a delivery of medicine illegally counterfeited and that killed thousands of people… in addition to a life of fleeing instead of facing the music?” I asked, inching closer to him locking my focus.

“Does this answer your question?” his sinister, confident voice returned just as he pulled the pin, leaving me with no other choice but to fire at him in a nonlethal blow to the side of his stomach. I tried to save him until I saw the grenade roll to the ground without the pin, “Oh shit…” I spoke under my breath as I booked it towards the exit until the orange haze of a fire ball behind me followed.

Lucky was I to think quickly on my feet while I ducked into an unoccupied corner of the large space. I heard his blood curdling scream reducing him into ashes in addition to the lifeless bodies that used to be the entourage he had left. I honestly sat there in shock while letting out a prayer underneath the breath of my voice, I shed tears wishing I could’ve saved him because deep down, I could see the good in him. Even if he was brought to justice, I could see him turning his life around for the better. I turned to see that potential reduce to nothing but dark ashes in a burning blaze in the concrete space.

“I’m alright, I’m alright!” I held my gun up in the air, exiting the ship to a crowd of suspecting police officers. I was greeted by a wave of joyous relief, as if I was a hero coming out of the port bow, the cheering was immense and overwhelming that I heard someone shout out “You incredible bastard!”

To be truthful, I was just beyond devastated from not being able to save the mobster as I rushed saying “thank you” to the cheers. I went to the ambulance, seeing my accompanying detective sitting inside with her injury covered up in medical treatment and wrapping.

“How are you doing, detective?” I asked in a blend of relief and concern.

“I’m Ok, Mr. Nelson, thank you for saving my life. I’m pretty sure I’d be dead without you there, I don’t even wanna picture what could’ve happened…” I interrupted, “Then don’t. It’s over and thankfully we’re both okay.” I tried to put on a fake smile, she took notice of it.

“Something wrong, Alejandro?” She asked in serious concern, wanting me to open up.

“He’s gone…” I uttered, “He, he… I’ve tried, I tried… I tried to save him at least that little sliver of good I saw in him… now he’s nothing but ashes,” I tried to compose myself while looking back at the crime scene, “just like the rest of ‘em.” I closed my eyes, clenching to my nose for a fleeing second.

“You did your best but sometimes, the bad guys just wanna blow themselves up to escape from the wrath,” she took a breath then continued, “but they can never escape. Not even in death.”

“It’s a hero’s job to bring the bad guys to justice. While he met his end, I feel as if I didn’t do my job right.” I replied in reflection to what just happened, “He had some good in him, now the world will never see it.” Nothing was left to be said as the gust of wind blew in between our spaces.

Author's Note

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