Snippet #14

[gilascave]

Bosco (Maurice Boscorelli)

There were two dozen ways to get out.

Bosco sat behind the overturned pile of crates, in the dark corner of the warehouse, and counted. Two dozen.

None of them involved anyone other than himself surviving, so he kept counting.

Yokas was twenty feet away behind another pile of something -- slightly closer to the wide-open doors and slightly further away from the gunmen. He knew she wasn't going anywhere -- even if she hadn't told him so. Even if the gunmen didn't have a perfect view of the doorway and all paths towards it. She was staying put, and therefore so was he.

He could take out two of the gunmen no problem. He knew exactly where they were -- second level, practically hanging over the railing. But to get them he'd have to expose himself, and taking a bullet to the chest was no big deal when you were wearing kevlar. But taking several bullets to the head, arm, and chest -- well, he was still sitting there, trying to think of something else.

Besides which, there were four other gunmen. And if he stood up to shoot the two he could see, Faith would do something stupid like try to shoot some of them, too. The only two she could reach from her position were the exact same two he could get -- so he'd just get both of them shot and only reduce the odds by two.

There were a dozen ways which involved sneaking back, towards the warehouse wall, and leaving the warehouse entirely. The gunmen would see him, but not be able to reach him before he made it out -- but again, there was the whole thing about leaving Yokas to get shot.

Half a dozen ways involving doing things he wasn't really certain would work, and would leave all the gunmen dead as well as himself as Yokas and possibly the hostages as well. Two ways that involved everybody falling over from sudden heart attacks or fits of conscience -- which he wasn't counting on, but you had to account for everything when you made plans.

That pretty much left one way out. It would involve neither he nor Faith getting killed, although it didn't rule out being shot. It was the most annoying option, but so far it was the only one that was going to work.

Waiting for back-up.

Bosco wondered if there was any way to get three of the gunmen, first. Without getting himself killed.