8- Duality

8

Duality

How Leonard retells this part of the story…

Leonard had made his way back to the hotel fast.  He placed the small sub-machine gun under a newspaper he had found discarded in the street in order to not draw attention to himself.  Slipping in the front door, he made his way to the front desk.  The teller was a perky little twenty-something girl with blonde hair.

“Can I help you with something, sir?”  She looked up and saw the spattering of blood on his face from the van crash.  “My God!  Are you bleeding?”

Leonard shook his head and placed his free hand on her shoulder.  “Calm down, it’s not my blood.  I need you to call the police and get them here now.  Russian assassins have taken my wife hostage and are holding her against her will in Penthouse 1.  Do you understand?”

The girl nodded and picked up the phone.  Leonard began to move toward the elevators with purpose in his stride.  The girl at the desk cried out to him.  “Sir, where are you going?”

“Can’t wait for the cops, I’m going to have to do this myself.”  Leonard said, without turning back.

“Your wife is a lucky woman!”  The desk clerk called out to him as he stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor.

“She knows.”  Leo said coolly as the door shut.

The lift began to pull him toward the top and he checked his gear.  Pulling the clip out, he saw he had half of it, sixteen bullets left. That should be enough to do what he had to do.  He jammed the clip back into the handle of the gun, then racked the slide before thumbing the safety off.

The elevator hit the top floor and dinged before opening.  Leonard stepped to the side, just in case something was waiting for him in the hallway.  When no shouts or gunfire came, he began to move through the hall, gun at the ready.

He made it to the door without a problem, then decided to knock.  “Housekeeping.”

He heard the movement inside and then the door began to open.  It was go time.

“Don’t move!” He yelled as the Russian opened the door and came face to face with the rage of a determined husband.

Leonard watched the man’s eyes go to his own machine gun hanging at his side, then back to Leo as if sizing up whether or not he could get to it before Leonard let loose with a burst.

“Go ahead.  Make my day.” Leonard said with a smile.

The Russian snapped his hand to his gun but he wasn’t nearly fast enough.  Leonard put pressure on the hair trigger of the Oozie and the gun barked, sending a stream of bullets into the target.  The Russian’s body twitched as the bullets entered it making him dance like some kind of deranged marionette.  He then fell to the floor, his blood pooling into the carpet.

“There goes my deposit” Leo quipped.

Stepping from the dining room was the biggest Russian Leonard had ever seen.

Scratch that, the biggest person Leonard hard ever seen.  A towering Goliath with short blonde hair and a hard, angled face.

Leonard pulled the Oozie open and tried to shoot him but the gun clicked in his hand.  The thing had jammed.  The gun was old and cheap and it was only a matter of time before it crapped out on him.

The big man pulled a .45 caliber pistol, pointing it and firing at the stylishly dressed American who had thrown a wrench in his plans.  Leonard tossed the useless gun away and dove into the kitchen just in time as the bullets slammed into the woodwork and carpentry around him.

The Russian followed Leo into the kitchen but Leo was already grabbing a frying pan and with one swing knocking the gun out of the Russian’s hand.  He then brought it back into the Russians face.

The monster staggered before kicking his meaty leg into Leo’s chest, staggering him back against the wall making him drop the pan.  The monster advanced, catching Leo’s throat and lifting him by it with one hand.

Leonard kept his cool knowing he would have to outsmart his opponent.  He quickly knife-hand-chopped the Russian’s throat.  The beast choked and dropped Leonard back to his feet.  Leonard leapt into the air and dropkicked the Russian with both his legs to the man’s chest, sending the beast backward through the door to the dining room.

The Russian crashed through the door breaking it off its hinges.  He hit the floor and began to bring himself to his feet.  Leonard dropped into a classic Bruce Lee pose, snapping his thumb to his nose twice to pay homage to the great warrior before charging.

Leonard’s blows were fast and many, raining down on the big Russian.  His punches seemed to strike him everywhere and all at once, stumbling him backward in to the living area in front of Josephine.

“Leonard!  I knew you’d come!”  She yelled, ecstatically.

Leo smiled, finishing his combo with a leaping karate-style jump kick.  The Russian went backward through the glass patio door and over the edge of the railing, toppling to the pavement five floors below.

A single white dove landed on the railing then flew away.

“Damn you are so good, and attractive!  What would I do without you?!” Josephine said as Leonard untied her.

“I don’t know, babe.  I am pretty awesome, aren’t I?” Leonard responded with a smile.

The ropes came lose and the two embraced, happy to be together again…

 

How Josephine retells this part of the story (how it really happened)…

Leonard burst through the front door of the hotel panicked out of his mind.  So much so, he had not thought to hide the machine gun that he was carrying while running around the city.  He turned and saw the perky woman at the counter who had yet to notice him.

“Ma’am you have to call the police there is-“ Leonard was abruptly cut off as she noticed the man in a blood covered novelty shirt waving a machine gun.

“He’s got a gun!” She screamed at the top of her lungs and dropped behind the desk.

“No, no I-“ Leonard tried to explain but was drown out by the bar patrons, continental breakfast eaters, and loungers waiting for a room, collectively screaming and panicking at the thought of being mowed down by a lunatic with an Oozie.

“Oh, come on!” Leonard yelled.  “Just call the police when I’m gone!”

Leonard ran onto the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.  He would have to find a way to do this himself.  He had a short minute to check the gun and try to figure out how it worked or how much ammo was in it or even how to turn the safety off.

Realizing he had no idea, he would just have to rely on the threat of violence instead of violence itself.

The elevator dinged and Leonard jumped, having forgotten for a second where he was.  The doors slid open and he moved toward the room.  He knocked.  “Housekeeping!”

He heard the footsteps inside as someone came to the door, it began to open and Leonard yelled.  “Don’t move!”

Caught up in the excitement of the rescue attempt, Leonard, a man who had never held a gun much less a machine gun with a hair trigger, tensed slightly.  This was all it took and the gun began to unload.  Bullets ripped through the door and into the unknown person on the other side.  Leonard had also failed to prepare for the recoil.  The continued recoil pushed the barrel up at the ceiling and carved out a chunk of plaster which fell on Leonard who staggered before the, now empty, gun clicked.

“Jesus…” Leonard said in the sudden silence afterwards.

He pushed the bullet riddled door open and saw the dead Russian on the other side.  “I’m really sorry about that.”

“You have got to be kidding me.”  The booming Russian voice came from the inside of the hotel room and Leonard looked to see the biggest man he had ever seen shaking his head in confusion.

“All the wars and missions we have been on together and one idiot who doesn’t understand how machine guns work brings him down.” The Russian said as he lumbered toward Leonard.

Leonard tried to stay strong.  “I… I… I just want my wife.”

The big man gave him a mocking surprised look.  “Oh, is that right?  You think you are in a position to order me around?”

The big man pulled a pistol and put it to Leonard’s head.  “He deserved a better death than you.  Now I will punish you.”

The Russian tossed the gun away and grabbed Leonard by the throat hurling him sideways into the kitchen.  Leonard staggered into the stove, grabbing for anything that he could to try to get himself out of this.  He snatched a frying pan and brought it toward the beast’s head.

The Russian caught it.

He smiled and punched Leonard in the face.  The experience was unlike any other Leonard had in his life. At first when the punch connected it was like a second of nothing, as if the force of the blow had momentarily stopped his brain.  Then it came back online just in time to tell him he was falling.

Then, the waves of pain shot through his head.  He could see his noise leaking blood onto the tile floor.

The giant grasped his throat with his hand, lifting him into the air.  This cut off his air supply. Desperately, he tried to punch the hand that gripped him.  The blows had no effect other than to make the Russian grin.

The beast then hurled Leo upside down into the door to the dining room.  The top hinges gave way and Leo crashed into the floor awkwardly.  The big Russian began to kick through the rest of the door to get to his prey.

Leonard was convinced now that comic book characters were real and he was fighting an evil Hulk.  He began to crawl away.  Moving in the opposite direction of the Siberian death machine behind him was the best idea he could come up with.

He crawled because he couldn’t remember how to tell his legs how to walk.

“Leonard?” The confused voice of Josephine was to his left.  He had crawled into the living area in front of where she was taped to a chair.

“Oh.  Hey babe.  I’m here to rescue you.”  Leonard sputtered out through the blood leaking into his mouth.

“You’re going to get yourself killed!” Josephine’s concern for her husband was obvious.

“That is a distinct possibility.”  Leonard said.  He would have giggled but the giant, size fourteen boot kicked him across the face.

The Russian had caught up.

“Leave him alone!  I’ll tell you where it is!” Josephine pleaded for her husband’s life but the plea fell on deaf ears.

“Too late for that, my team must be avenged!”  The Russian dragged Leonard upright and punched him again sending him backwards through the glass patio door.  Only the railing kept Leonard from falling five stories down to the concrete pavement.

The glass had torn his shirt and cut his body in hundreds of small places.  It was over.  Leonard had failed.  He and his wife were going to be killed.

The Russian began to advance but Josephine, who had been working hard to get free, had managed to get her left leg loose.  She stuck it out and caught the Russian’s ankle.  He tripped and went forward, face-first into the remnants of the broken glass door.  A large shard driving directly through the man’s eye and into his brain.

He twitched twice and then stopped moving.

Leonard sat there breathing hard.  “Leonard to the rescue.”

“You idiot.”  Josephine spoke with tears of joy in her eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED…