Easternport Vol. 1, First Edition

Mikkel Causes Trouble - Part 1

Mikkel

My visit to Poldi's factory stirred up a lot more than Miles. I had anticipated that the Jaggars would be looking for an opportunity to retaliate for everything Cory and I had done. I also counted on some kind of response from the SBS, though I had no idea what that would be. The Jaggars couldn't do a too much harm without sparking a war before they were ready. Even they knew they were too disorganized to fight a war just yet. But there were bound to be the hotheads of the bunch that wanted to cause trouble. And as much as I didn't want to deal with it, I knew it was best if they targeted me. Steven would surely cut ties and run from me if I caused any more trouble in his part of town.

So, I came prepared when I went to visit the factory at the end of the day shift. I hadn't yet pawned the handgun that I had taken off of the Jaggars, even though I really did need the money. I couldn't give up the convenience of the ten round clip before I used it for all it's worth.

I saw them leaning against the empty brick structures on the east side of the bridge as I walked into the South End. The four lookouts weren't anything to worry about just yet, but I knew that there'd be more of them by the time I came out of the factory. Miles held me up a little longer than I wanted and by the time I reached the bridge on my way back home, there were ten of them waiting for me.

They surround me at the intersection before the bridge. Ten bullets for ten men seemed to be stretching things. Not to mention, they had anywhere up to a hundred bullets on their side. I couldn't let it turn into a duel, or I wouldn't stand a chance. There were three possible exits from this standoff: the bridge heading North, a gap between buildings on the far side of the intersection, and a hole in the wall of the building to my right.

I weighed my options and decided to let them come to me for the time being. Any sudden movements on my part and I would have ten guns pointed at me, but if I played my cards right, I'd have ten more guns to pawn by the time I left the South End. And I always played my cards right.

They closed in, forming a tight circle, their guns drawn, but not yet pointed at me. I didn't want to pull mine too soon, as it would escalate things before I was ready.

"You're the one that killed our guys across the bridge," one of them said. It wasn't a question. "Nice shiner."

I didn't answer the man. I kept my focus on what they were doing. One of them looked to be particularly twitchy and I didn't want to miss his sudden decision to shoot before the rest. The good news was these guys had set themselves up for the same mistake that I had seen the other day. If one of them took a shot at me and I was fast enough to dodge it, he'd be shooting his own man. I just had to be sharp enough to see it coming. The best way to do that was to make it come.

I examined the twitcher in what little light I had from the streetlight on the bridge, looking for whether he exhibited signs of the nervous kind of twitchy or the angry kind. I couldn't see his eyes, but his body was tense and standing strong—the angry kind. I looked straight at his face and said, "What's wrong? Afraid you'll do something you'll regret?" His only response was a tightened grip on the gun, so I topped it off with a snubbing laugh. If the lighting had been better, I would have settled for a sarcastic smile.

The laugh did the trick, and the twitcher took a shot at me so fast that he couldn't even be bothered to aim. I was glad for that, too, because I didn't have any time to move. The bullet hit a Jaggar behind me. As he cried out in pain, I pulled my gun and shot the man closest to me on my right, nailing him in the head and jumping over his crumpling body to head for the hole in the wall I had seen earlier. The chaos of what had just happened gave me a moment to get inside before the Jaggars could collect themselves. A few of them fired shots at me, but I was already in the building, positioning myself in the shadows next to a window where I could take my shots.