Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 8
With a flinch, Maximus Savage snapped back to reality, leaving the mountains of Afghanistan behind and seeing Joseph Rando before him again. The battered police chief stared at his captor, squinting, as if trying to make sense of the gang leader's brief reverie.
Savage grinned and laughed his deep, rumbling laugh, before turning, motioning for his two men to follow, and marching from the cell. Once outside, he slammed the door shut and addressed his men.
“Wait here. Give me fifteen minutes and then come on up.”
After the men nodded, Savage marched through a wide area with balconies above him, before stepping into a tunnel and proceeding down a maze of dank and dark corridors. The gang leader walked on cracked and crumbling concrete as he passed several cells, where the pale eyes of hopeless prisoners stared out at him through rusted bars. He reached a massive iron door, ignored the keypad next to it, and pounded on the surface.
A moment later the door creaked open on corroded hinges, inch by inch. Once it had swung wide enough to allow his muscular frame to pass, Savage stalked through the doorway toward a metal spiral staircase. As he climbed the rickety structure, his feet clanged on the surface and his weight sent tremors through its old frame. After a minute of ascending, Savage rose into a small square room, made of white walls and a tile floor. Two men in the charcoal gray attire of the Federal Bureau of Prisons stood at attention on either side of a metal door, wielding shotguns.
Savage ignored the guards and exited through the door, stepping into the middle of a short hallway extending to his left and right. The door swung shut behind him, and he turned, confirming it was no longer visible, hidden by a checkerboard pattern painted on the wall, and with no visible handle or hinges. With a satisfied smirk, he turned to the right, walking through bright halls before coming to another doorway. This was a normal-sized door, like in any office building. He swung it open and stepped into another bland room, brightly lit by three rectangular ceiling fixtures, and adorned with two folding chairs separated by a black rectangular table, and with a single padded chair in the corner.
A man, mostly bald but with a few unkempt wisps of grey hair floating atop the edges of his head, sat in the corner chair. He held his hands folded on his lap and gave Savage a clinical stare with tired eyes. The man, Augustus Bell, wore an outdated three-piece suit with a hideous plaid pattern, and his vest buttons strained to contain his exaggerated stomach. He had the look of a man who, if he had ever exuded charisma during his fifty years on the planet, had lost it long ago.
Savage returned the stare, seeing more in this bland individual than others perceived. Where others saw Augustus Bell as a spiritless government bureaucrat, Savage saw a man he could trust, and a man who had a sense of justice. This man, years ago, had demonstrated what he was worth.
"You look like shit, Auggie," Savage growled, his brow furrowing with a rare show of concern.
Bell shifted in his seat, biting his lower lip.
"The doctors say it's nothing of immediate concern, Max. And the medication helps. It looks worse than it is."
Savage nodded. "If you need anything, let me know."
"I don't need anything, but this place does, if you want to keep the Dungeon running."
"Didn't I just give you a bunch of money for that dump?"
"You did, but I spent it on the secret entrance, making it harder to stumble upon. If the wrong people ever found it during one of their inspections, not only would I be the ex-warden, but I'd be looking at prison time myself."
"What do you need?"
"The ventilation system down there is held together with bubble gum and duct tape. If you want to keep your special guests alive, it needs a ton of work. I have a guy who will do it and keep his mouth shut, but not without getting paid."
"Consider it done," Savage said with a nod. "Talk to Benjamin and tell him how much you need. I'll make sure he understands you're to get it. Anything else?"
"Yes," Bell replied. "It concerns a gang you ousted when your gang moved into Los Angeles. The Cobras. After you brought some of them to rot in the Dungeon, they didn't create trouble, because they were aware of my relationship with you. But they have been getting bolder, because of a rumor floating around the Dungeon."
"What rumor?"
"They say you're taking your top prisoners somewhere else, and we're just getting the leftovers here. That might not be true, but the Cobras have seen a decline with their own eyes. It's caused them to question my standing with you and your gang. And that makes it harder for me to control them down there."
"This is the only place I'm bringing any dumb bastard who crosses me, Auggie. People are getting smarter, though, or spineless. The police are becoming bigger cowards in every city we move into, so they’re causing less trouble for us. Chief Rando was the first in a while."
"I know, I know," Bell answered with a quick nod. "It's not a problem yet, but I could see it becoming one."
"It sounds to me like it is a problem already, Auggie. Didn't the Cobras auction off the last police chief, before Rando? I heard they sold him back out to a gang in his own city, right out from under your nose."
"Yes, yes, they did," Bell answered as he squirmed. "But that was an isolated incident."
Savage frowned. With anyone else, he would scream or inflict bodily injury. But not with Augustus Bell.
"Have you ever figured out how the Cobras pulled it off?" Savage asked.
Bell gave an embarrassed shrug but said nothing. He looked down, averting Savage's eyes. The gang leader rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck as he wrinkled his brow in thought.
"We can't have the Cobras getting bolder, and I can't be here to babysit them. They need to see that I'm in your corner. Don't worry — it's only a matter of time before some foolish bastard stands up to us. When that happens, I'll have somebody new to march down there on display."
As Beth and Conner relaxed in the padded theater seats, waiting for the music to begin, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and thumbed through the program. Her mind had moved from the troubles with Conner to the man on in the alley and the figure in the window. Perhaps it was nothing, but her instincts told her otherwise.
She flipped through the pages of the program, not seeing the words. What if her instincts were right? What might the strangers be plotting? Perhaps they intended to rob concertgoers as they left the show.
Her eyes stumbled over some text in the program. She almost missed it, so she backed up and read it again.
For her third act, Ms. Erb will play a Stradivarius, one of the rarest violins in the world. There are only a few hundred in existence, and this violin is one of the oldest, having been crafted in the 17th century.
Beth put a finger to her lips, paused, and dug her iPhone out of her hand purse.
"Is that really proper here?" Conner whispered, leaning close.
She put a finger to her lips, gesturing for him to be quiet, and launched the web browser on her phone. She typed the words "Stradivarius value" in the search box. Beth nearly whistled aloud when the results filled the page. The violin was worth anywhere from several hundred thousand dollars to many millions of dollars. Her intuition screamed at her now.
Leaning over to Conner, she whispered, "I need to check my hair. I'll be right back."
Conner cocked his head and gave her an odd look. "Your hair looks great."
"You're not a girl," she said with a teasing smile.
"Why don't I come with you?" Conner asked with a sigh.
"Just wait here. I'll be right back," she said and hopped up from her seat.
Their seats were at the end of the aisle, so within a few seconds she was at an exit leading to the lobby. After speaking with an attendant to confirm she could reenter with her ticket stub, she rushed from the building, moving as fast as she could without calling attention to herself. It was time for Sapphire Angel to make an appearance. This was her city, and if those men meant trouble, she would teach them a lesson.
Less than five minutes later, Sapphire Angel crept up to the glass walkway she and Conner had used a short while ago, as she sought a vantage point to look down upon the alley. The walkway was quiet, with everyone inside the Thompson Center, waiting for the concert to begin.
Sapphire Angel crouched low, moving just far enough onto the walkway to peer through the glass onto the street below. She didn't see the suspicious man, but the guards were still present. Three of them stood on the loading dock, scanning their surroundings, as the fourth guard unlocked the back of the truck.
The man opened the rear door of the truck, before pulling out a small wooden crate and tucking it under his arm. The other guards formed a protective circle around him, and moved across the loading dock toward a large door in the side of the building. There was only one explanation for the security around this small crate — it contained the Stradivarius violin.
When they reached the door, the man carrying the box entered the Thompson Center, along with two of the guards. The fourth guard remained at the door, arms ready at his side as he surveyed his surroundings. Now Sapphire Angel faced a dilemma. She couldn't get inside the building without being seen, but she couldn't monitor the violin from her current spot. She needed to find a vantage point closer to the entrance.
Before she moved, she took one last glance at the guard standing by the door. He had pulled his two-way radio from its holster and was tapping it and shaking it, as if it weren't working. Sapphire Angel tensed. It was time to get down there.
As she turned away from the walkway, movement from caught her eye. She looked above the guard, to see three men, clad in black military fatigues, rappelling down the side of the Thompson Center. They were descending fast and headed directly for the guard. She wanted to cry out and warn the man, but he would never hear her. A split second later, one rappeler dropped onto the guard, driving him to the concrete surface of the loading dock, before rolling off his prone body. The other two men landed on the loading dock, just a few feet away. One of them, still attached to his line, seized the unmoving guard by the back of his neck.
Sapphire Angel sprinted for the stairwell, watching through its glass walls as she descended. The intruders' backs were to her, but their immense size was evident. The man lifted the guard as if he were a toy, and drove his face into the wall of the building. He repeated the brutal maneuver three times in rapid succession, sending blood spewing through the air with each crushing impact. The man dropped the guard, who flopped onto the loading dock and didn't move.
The whole offensive had taken only a few seconds. Sapphire Angel neared the bottom of the stairs as a white van flew into view, hurtling down the alley and lurching to a stop in front of the truck. Another man, clad like the three attackers, hopped out of the driver's door and jumped onto the dock. As the attackers darted into the building through the door at the loading dock, he stopped at the door, turning to face the street.
When he turned, Sapphire Angel got a good look at him. She gritted her teeth and felt a chill of dread for the people of her city. The man wore the unmistakable half mask of the Savage Gang.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
Well you said action was coming soon, I guess Thursday will be the first encounter with Sapphire Angel and the Savage gang. We shall see how she fares. Something tells me her "friend" from the marital arts school will come up during one of the fights Sapphire Angel will surely be in. I just wonder if she will turn out to be a friend or foe?
Looking forward to Chapter 9!
Ahhhh, dang it. Over the course of four novels, you’d think I’d grow to absolutely love Sapphire Angel and all of her exploits and adventures. But the more her relationship with Conner persists, I’ve gone from absolutely cheering for her when she springs into action.......to almost cringing; at least when Conner’s involved. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mean that in a bad way at all; it’s just that it bothers me when she doesn’t tell Conner exactly what’s going on. If I had a partner like that, who frequently left me sporadically and on an irregular basis without giving me proper explanations.....let’s just say I wouldn’t have handled it the same way Conner did. Conner KNOWS Beth’s secret, so I guess he already has some idea of what it’s about, but I still really feel bad for the guy. Part of me wishes that Beth would’ve told him so that the Savage Gang would have to deal with two people (one of them being an enhanced individual) instead of just one, but we don’t know how Conner would react to that; he’s already been quite on-edge with Beth’s superheroine career recently.
Good to meet Augustus Bell at last; we’ve heard of him in the character bios, but here, I feel like we’ve gotten to know him a bit more. I don’t really have a good impression of people who are at the heads of prison systems thanks to media representation, but for this, it’s definitely been turned up to eleven. At least for this chapter, he certainly took more of a “leader” role than Savage himself, but I guess he’s more of a confidant/assistant/“secretary” character. I hope he can get some definitive treatment for whatever his medical condition is......even though he’s in league with the Savage Gang, having to put up with that kind of thing can’t be good for him, even if he insists that it’s not that bad. Maybe that’ll be what kills him. Would continue the theme of bad guys taking care of themselves. Still tabling the hypothesis that T.L. “Tip” Grim dies via gunshot. I’m also keeping in mind that this is only the first part in a two-part saga, so it might take a little longer than usual for them to bite the dust.
Looks like Sapphire’s about to have her first real fight with someone from the Savage Gang! Hope those martial arts skills pay off.....let’s get it on! There’s only one, right? The others already made it past her, into the building? They could come back to assist him, though.