Minutes later, Sy opened the trunk of the Mustang parked in the underground parking lot. “Take a look,” said Sy, as he smiled and pointed to a duffle bag.

Jack opened the bag and saw four handguns, four sawed-off shotguns, and an AK47 automatic machine gun. “Hell of an arsenal.”

Sy nodded and kept the AK47 for himself, along with one of the shotguns for Jack, before passing the duffle bag over to his gang members, who were parked beside the Mustang in a van. Seconds later, Sy ordered two of his people to ride in the back seat of the stolen Mustang while the others went in the van with Brewski.

“Let’s roll!” ordered Sy.

Jack spent an hour driving around in circles before an exasperated Sy told him enough was enough. Jack drove as directed to a residential area in Maple Ridge. When they arrived, Sy indicated a house halfway down the block. “Pull over,” said Sy. “I see his blue Honda parked out front now.”

Jack pulled over to the curb and Brewski pulled in behind him. At the opposite end of the block a set of car headlights came on and the driver sped away. “One of your guys?” Jack asked.

“No,” replied Sy. “I didn’t want Neighbourhood Watch or someone reporting anything suspicious. That’s probably a neighbour. Don’t worry about it.”

“It pays to worry sometimes. Tell the guys in the van to drive around the area and check things out. It’s not good for both of us to be parked together. While Brewski is doing that, I’m going to park on the next block and you and I will walk back. Let’s see if anyone is sitting in parked cars.”

“Fuck, man, you’re paranoid.”

“You stay alive that way … and out of jail.”

“Yeah, okay,” muttered Sy, before giving the order for Brewski to circle the area.

Jack parked the car in the next block and said, “Let’s leave our artillery in the car. I don’t want to be seen walking down the street carrying these cannons. If it is the cops they’re liable to see it and grab us.”

Sy agreed and left the AK47 in the car and told his two associates to wait while he and Jack checked things out.

As Jack and Sy arrived at the end of the block from Weasel’s house, Jack pointed to the ground and said, “Damn it, I knew it.” He pointed to the empty parking space at the end of the block where the car had driven away when they first arrived.

“What?” replied Sy. “I don’t see nothin’.”

“Cop droppings,” said Jack, pointing to the sidewalk and road.

“Cop droppings?” replied Sy with a snicker. “What the fuck are you talking about? Looks like sunflower seeds.”

“A buddy of mine got busted once,” replied Jack. “They had his house under surveillance first. He told me later he knew where they had been parked by all the sunflower seeds they ate and the husks they spit out while watching his place.”

“You shittin’ me?”

“No. We should get the hell out of here. Tell the boys in the van to scram.”

“Over some seeds? You gotta be kiddin’. Hang on.”

Jack listened as Sy ordered the van to cruise through the area and check.

“That could draw heat,” cautioned Jack.

“You’re fuckin’ paranoid,” replied Sy with a chuckle. “Come on, we’ll head back to the car. If the boys haven’t spotted anything suspicious by then, we’re goin’ in.”

“Let’s walk down the back alley first and check it out,” suggested Jack.

“Yeah, okay, but if the alley is clear, we’re gonna do this fucker.”

“Sounds good,” replied Jack.

They had barely made it into the alley when Sy received a call.

“The cops got us pinned!” screamed Brewski. His warning wasn’t necessary as the sharp, piercing sound of sirens cut the night air from several different locations.

Two police cars with lights flashing entered each end of the alley simultaneously and zoomed toward Jack and Sy.

“Come on,” yelled Jack. “Over the fence!”

Jack and Sy both clamoured over a wooden fence and raced through someone’s backyard, out through the front and crossed the street to another yard and kept going. Three blocks away they were in another yard and about to run out a gate into a rear alley, but the sound of another car speeding up the alley caused them to crouch down behind some bushes while peering through the back fence.

Jack glanced at Sy and saw he was holding a pistol at the ready.

“Jesus, Sy,” whispered Jack. “I thought we left the artillery in the car in case the cops searched us.”

“After last night I started carrying an ankle holster,” Sy whispered.

Both men froze as a flashlight beam cut through the darkness behind them. Jack looked over his shoulder and saw the distinct yellow stripe on the uniform trousers of a policeman who walked toward them. His beam was still probing the bushes when Jack saw Sy raise his pistol and take aim.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Laura sat in the back of a surveillance van with Connie and the commander of the Emergency Response Team. The Organized Crime Task Force gave them an address in Maple Ridge for who they thought were the parents of Weasel’s girlfriend, but had added a disclaimer that their information was a month old. Did Weasel still have the same girlfriend?

With the address being in Maple Ridge, Laura felt relatively confident that it was the same, but when she saw Jack arrive in the Mustang, followed by Brewski in the van, she breathed a sigh of relief.

The surveillance van was parked across the street one block down from where Weasel was living and offered a relatively good view of the front street and one entrance to the alley.

The ERT commander groaned when Jack parked the Mustang and the van started to circle the neighbourhood. “Wished we had more time to set up and organize,” he said.

“What do you mean?” asked Laura. “Jack made them drive around for an hour before they even left the city. I thought you guys were good? How much more time did you need?”

The commander ignored her comment as their earplugs crackled a message from another member of the ERT.

“T-1 and T-2 out of the car and walking back toward the house.”

Laura used binoculars to watch through the one-way glass in the surveillance van and soon saw Jack and Sy come into view as they walked along the sidewalk. She smiled when Jack stopped and pointed at the sunflower husks while talking to Sy.

“These two are the guys we let escape, right?” crackled their earphones.

“Affirmative,” replied the commander.

Laura continued to watch as she relayed what was happening to Connie and the commander. “They’re heading back down the street,” she whispered. “If they follow the plan they should be going down the alley.” Seconds later, Laura confirmed that Jack and Sy were entering the alley.

“Teams one and two, are you in a position to take out the vehicles?” radioed the commander.

“Team one, ten-four.”

“Team two, ten-four.”

“Team three, ready for the alley?” asked the commander.

“Team three is ready.”

“All teams go!” radioed the commander. “Team three, make it look good but let them run.”

“Copy that,” replied several voices barely heard over the eruption of sirens.

Seconds later, Laura smiled when they received the first report.

“This is team one. We have five targets secured and kissing asphalt.”

Moments later, the second team also reported that the arrests of two more targets had gone without incident.

The radio crackled again and Laura heard, amongst laughter, a voice say, “Team three here. We got two rabbits leaping fences and backyarding it northbound from the alley.”

“Copy that,” replied the commander. “Stay in the alley and make some noise.”

Laura heard the sound of a garbage can being kicked over and saw lights come on in several houses as people awoke to the sound of the clamour taking place.