His lungs were on fire, as he desperately tried to hang on to gasping equilibrium. His Belstaff jacket was soaking wet, from the relentless Golgothan rain outside. The clinging freshness hung in the air about him, as Tao flew headlong down the mountainously steep escalator that descended into the bowels of the Haragei station of the Subway.
Sosa’s men were close behind. He could hear them shouting obscenities in Mexican Spanish behind him. Instinctually checking the uni-strap of his laptop bag, his usually cold calculating mind reeled in his sweating skull from panic. He nearly lost his footing several times as his boots clattered noisily down the moving steel stairs, roughly shoving afternoon commuters out of the way, like his life depended on it. How the fuck they’d found him, he had no idea. The twin modified Glock 17’s under both arms were very much on his mind. Using them on Sosa’s pursuing goons was totally out of the question. Too many civilians.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t…
The freezing platform was jammed with evening commuters, same as it ever was. Tao had no time to think and even less to react. He threw himself headlong into the densely packed crowd, forcing his way through the human tide. He was desperately trying to make the end of the platform before the next train. there was no way he was going to make it. Then two shots rang out, echoing harshly around the cylindrical underground. The panicked screaming drew across the cold air like wake after a wave. Tao glanced over his shoulder to see one of Sosa’s men, right arm aloft clutching the pistol he’d fired. It had the desired effect. Several hundred Golgothans fleeing for their lives. In the hustle the Korean Ghost got knocked to his face on the platform by the rapidly evaporating mob.
Tao rolled onto his back, jerking one of his own weapons from underarm, as the tide parted around him, giving the shooter another clearer shot directly at him. Tao took aim, thumbed the safety off and fired. Several more blasts thundered around the station. Sosa’s first man dropped like a stone, dead before he hit the laminated concrete. The pistol he’d used to clear the platform dropped into the SUB tracks from his lifeless hand.
Darkgingerbread 