Taking Down a Drug Lord(Mark Lobdell) How many bullets does it take to kill a major drug lord?


I walk along the gravel sliding with each and every step. The night was cold with a chilly wind. My arm was dragging against the rough red brick, in between the alleyway. The stock of my rifle was making a snap, snap, snap sound with the sway of my body. Coming out of the tight space between a bakery and a church I lit a giant cigar and blew smoke circles in the air. Seeing Jim I walked over to him and we ran through the plan one last time. This was the first time we had a lead on T-Dog Rich. The DEA has been chasing him for at least six months. Jim was to go under cover as Tony James who has some street credit. Jim will make a 2.5 million dollar deal with T-Dog for 8 pounds of 83.3 percent pure cocaine.

As I climbed the ladder to get on top of the church I thought of Gina, my girlfriend. I though about her crystal blue eyes, the curve of her body and her diligent dirty blonde hair. My sniper rifle lay resting on a gargoyle. I had Jim in my sight if anything were to go bad. T-Dog had no record of murder or assault, he was just a weak kid raised on the streets.

A turquoise van with red spray paint all over it pulled up to the alleyway. Three men walked over to Jim, all with guns in their hands. T-Dog jumped out with two more men carrying a tub of tiny packets of cocaine. T-Dog pointed his gun at Jim forcing him to sniff a pouch of the drug. Jim did what he had to with a gun to his face. He started screaming and holding his head. Jim looked up at T-Dog. Who put the gun back to Jim’s forehead. If I were to shoot he could pull the trigger on Jim. Bang! Suddenly there was blood all over the wall and Jim lying on the ground with a dripping hole in his head. I started squeezing the trigger over and over again. All the gunshots looked like flash lights turning off and on. The gargoyle I had been using as cover was blown to pieces. Three of the men ran off as cowards. My sniper rifle was jammed and I couldn’t let them get away. I pulled out my side gun and slid down the ladder. “This is for Jim!” I shouted and shot two of them, but my gun was now empty. T-Dog with no gun sprinted at me. He knocked me over and started to punch my jaw over and over again. I managed to get two good blows to his face and turned us over, me on top and him below me now. I punched him over and over, left, right, left, right. His nose was bleeding and blood ran from his mouth. T-Dog pulled a knife and stabbed me multiple times in the right leg and bashed my head into rough, red brick wall of the bakery. I screamed and cried in pain. Will I never see my parents, my sisters, my Gina ever again? My life flashed in front of me, my first bike, high school events, police academy. This can’t be the end. I put all of my muscle and DEA training behind a wild swing and smashed him in the chin with a rock that was a few feet from my waist. Gina was standing right in front of me now, crystal blue eyes and her blonde hair blowing in her face. As I got up I kissed her, same cherry smelling lipstick. She pushed me away and shot T-Dog in the back, he jerked. Then she shot my left ankle. The world was spinning, then it stopped, I was lying in Jim’s dark pool of blood.

The light blinded me and it hurt. “Jason? Jason are you awake?” I heard a voice with me in the room. My jaw was trembling. Every part of my body hurt but my legs. I looked up and then down at my legs covered in white casts. The doctor in a white trench coat hung over me with a giant grin on his face. “Well I’m happy you're awake, it has been three weeks now.” he said and handed me a mirror. There were stiches across my cheeks. Staples were used to close the gash above my eyebrow. I had grown a light grey beard. My left eye was bruised black and blue. There was a stranger sitting in front of me. It’s like I’ve never seen myself before. I grunted and threw the mirror across the room against the dark wood door.

“Jason I know you’re hurting and that this is very confusing but that’s why we already signed you up for therapy, mental and physical. I mean look on the bright side, the other doctors are almost positive that you will be able to walk again!”

The doctor just didn’t get it. “How would you like me to go kill your best friend and take your flipping legs from you?! Huh yeah I guess you would look on the bright side! Right? Or am I wrong? Because if I am I would love to be told else wise! Come on say something else to my face Mr. doctor! Spit on me when you're talking again and you’ll see I don’t need my legs for everything buddy!”

The doctor gave me a depressing face and walked out of the room. I glanced at the marble tiled floor that was now covered in shards of mirror glass. My head was on the pillow and for the next four hours all I did was look at the light above my head, twisting every now and then. Another doctor had told me all the equipment that was needed for me was at my house and Gina was coming to pick me up. The hours passed by. I felt dead and I should be.

Gina walked into the room fussing about who cares what. She hugged me but I could barley keep my arms up for thirty seconds. Bigger men helped Gina lift me into the car. My mind was drifting... was I going to faint? No, I threw up all over the ground next to the car. Everyone gasped that was outside and I felt disgusted not of the vomit but of myself.

Driving back to our house, I rested my forehead on the cold car window and thought about Jim. Him being high, when he died. The oozing hole in his head. I relived the bloody snap and the screams. I got a massive migraine. The ache was killing but I couldn’t show Gina that I lost my cool. I wrapped my arms around her warm body. Her hair brushed against my face and gave me a tingling sensation. I laughed and she said, “You know I missed that” and she gave me her little smile.

“Y-y-you know when… I you know…on… anyway when it happened… you were there… you saved me. You were so real as if you were there.” I didn’t mention the part where she shot me. A tear ran down her face and she wiped it away as she said “Glad I could help”. In a sarcastic yet sad voice.

When we got to my house, it looked as if it came straight out of a horror movie. The grass was overgrown, one of the upper windows to the left was broken, with a crack right down the middle that glistened in the sun. We came in and I would have thought it was a flower shop with all the flowers. Picking one up it read “Jason is in our prayers and we hope he wakes up soon – Julie & David.” I was in their prayers. The red and white flowers were almost dead. Shriveled up and dried out, too bad, I would have guessed they were beautiful. Julie and David were stocked in money.
Gina helped me into the living room. Two metal pipes were planted in each wall. “Doctors said you should start as early as today.” She helped me to the poles one under each arm. She tied a rope around my enlarged stomach and under my shoulders; the rope was attached to a sliding pole above me, that I had not seen before. I asked, “Well what do you want me to do?”
“Try to walk,” she responded with. I put my left foot out and stepped down. I grunted. Trying to move my left leg I screamed! Never have I felt this much pain. Using both my arms I pushed my leg in front of my left foot. Losing my balance I slipped and hit my head. I held onto the pole and pulled myself up. Gina looked as if she was about to cry. I walked to the end of the living room and back in two hours, wincing with each and every step. This carried on for three weeks. Now I was on crutches with only my upper left thigh healing, where T dog’s knife entered my flesh multiple times and carried out blood as the knife came out on that horrific night.

“David and Julie invited us out to eat tonight, I would love it if you would come with me.” Gina asked and I nodded. That night I put on my tuxedo, for the Je T’aime, Gina told me it was French, for I love you. Gina walked us over to the bus stop and we waited. When the bus got to the stop, there was only one seat left and Gina forced me to sit down. I felt bad for making my girlfriend stand on an over crowded smelly bus.

When we got to the restaurant the line was wrapped around the quite large building. Luckily David and Julie had already got our seats. Gina and David were having a conversation; I was zoned out looking at a man with a blue tattoo across his face. Now what would a man like that be doing in a restaurant like this. Lavender curtains, silk tablecloths and leather seats. Not to mention the dark mahogany tables. Before I knew it I was sitting down eating clams looking across the table at Julie who had pasta in her mouth.

“It sucks they never caught that T-Dog guy,” David says.

“What!?” I exclaimed as everyone turned around and looked at me.
The manager wearing all black clothes gave me a nasty look. I quickly explained my rude actions. “T-Dog Rich was shot to death in an alleyway by… Me.” Which was a lie, or was it? Why didn’t Gina tell me this? I felt rotten on the inside, at least I know now Gina wasn’t there for sure, but what about my ankle? Our meal went on with awkward glances now and then. Although my delicious meaty clams were good I couldn’t get over the fact that T dog Rich, an underestimated criminal, was still on the streets.

When dinner was over David and Julie insisted on taking us back to the bus stop. Glancing down at my feet, I saw David put the steak knife in his sock under his shoe while bending over on the rose covered carpet. I grabbed my crutches and started to walk. Outside it was pouring, wind slapped our faces. My shoes were all ready soaked from the puddle I was standing in. Walking down the crumbling sidewalk David and Julie Fell behind. No cars were driving by for it was at least 10:30 P.M.

From the corner of my eye I saw David bend over. Using my crutch I hit him hard in the stomach. Julie kicked my left crutch out of my hand. I fell on my left leg that was still healing. Blood soaked the wrap around my leg, the cut must have opened. David climbed on top of me! The knife was pointed in between my eyes as I struggled to push the knife back. At least half of my head was soaked from the puddle I had fallen into. Gina shocked Julie with the taser she always carried in her purse. Julie fell to the ground jerking back and fourth. Walking over to David she buzzed her dangerous weapon. Gina shocked him in the back and he fell face first into the puddle I was in. I pulled out my revolver that was in between my armpit. I carried it with me every since I got out of the hospital, in case any of T dogs men came to finish the job, no loose ends.
When pointing the gun at her I asked, “What in blue moon just happened?”

Gina responded, “Everyone has their breaking points for money.”

“Since when do you know how to harm or even kill someone?” I asked.

“I know you have a lot of questions and I will answer just not here.” She said.

I shot the gun up in the air to motivate her to talk. “Here and now!” I screamed into the sparkling black sky covered in clouds.

“My father mas a mercenary and he skilled me in guns and hand to hand combat before he died, for years I was a for hire assassin. Until my target was you. after meeting you, Jason, I fell in love and forgot my old ways unless you were in some sort of danger.” Tears ran from my eyes. I don’t even know my own fiancé.

“How many people have you murdered in cold blood for money. And what happened to T Dog Rich?”

“T-Dog is decaying in a lake from when I shot him, remember? and I honestly have lost count to how many people I have killed. But I would kill more to be with you!” Gina said in a cold monstrous voice. I was soaked in the rain and the climate matched my mood perfectly. “You know I loved it when you were crazy about me but now I realize just how insane you really are. The type of monsters I was bringing down were living under my own roof, sleeping next to me in my bed. I’m going to do what you once did to me.”

My soul was being ripped from my heart, the woman I loved was never there, just a mirror of a fragment from a lie. I stared down the nose of my gun for minutes passing. BANG!

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