Time slowed to a crawl as every man drew their weapon. Including Dan.

Asher drew first. He aimed his pistol at Frank and fired.

The shot entered Frank’s cheek and exited his skull.

Frank?

Frank Ross reeled backward with a shout, then hit the warehouse floor, dead. The boss no more.

Holy shit!

On pure reflex, Dan aimed his pistol at Asher, just as Asher aimed at Rica.

No.

Dan threw himself in front of Rica.

Rica!

She looked at Dan with cruel eyes and smiled. And Dan pulled the trigger of his Glock, firing two shots into Asher’s chest.
“Gaah!” Asher yelped and fell forward on his face.

“Rica!” Dan shouted, pushing his student behind the forklift. Everything moved so slow, yet so fast. Rica ducked behind the forklift, spun around the other side of the vehicle, then ran straight toward Nikolai.

What? Rica what are you-

The portly Nikolai, shooting at Tommy and Rocco, saw her coming. He turned and fired his pistol at her.

No! Dan raised his Glock toward Nikolai, Please!

At that point Dan’s mind blanked. Not believing what he saw. Unable to comprehend who Rica truly was.

What Dan Saw

Nikolai fired at three feet, point-blank at Rica. He could not have missed her. But he did. For Rica sidestepped his shot by a millimetre, spun, and with a downward motion, she sliced Nikolai’s gun hand with a long blade pulled from a holster attached to her garter belt. Nikolai's gun dropped to the ground as blood spewed from his wrist.

Did she cut him, how?

Dan watched Rica spin again, and in one motion she thrust the blade into Nikolai’s heart.

“Graaaah!”

Nikolai gasped as Rica impaled him, holding him up by the strength of the blade. Her face, demonic.

When Dan grasped the scene before him, he could only think two words: So fast.
But they were still in danger. As Dan snapped himself back, the big bodyguard Baba hit the ground. Shot in the face by David.

After shooting Baba, and trying to gain cover behind a shipping container, David aimed his pistol at Dan. Then David fell under a hail of bullets fired by Tommy and Rocco, killing him.

Dan turned back to Rica, who spoke to Nikolai as she knifed him.

“Do you know how I found you, Nikolai? Hmm? It was easy once you know the truth.” She twisted the blade in his heart and smiled.

“Ahh!” Nikolai’s mouth opened as he stared into the face of the Devil herself. And she spoke.

“Hm hm hm hm! Men lie, Nikolai. Women lie, but numbers, they don’t lie.” She ripped the blade from his chest and kicked him back to the ground to bleed out.

Three more men from the back ran out into the warehouse, firing handguns. The first of the men charged at Rica. She scowled at him with her blade in hand.

The man ran full speed, raising his gun at her, but that was as far as he went before Dan Capra cut him down with four shots, one to the head.

“Rica!” Dan shouted, charging toward his student. There’s two more!

The last two men reacted to Dan’s scream and fired at both him and Rica. Dan leaped forward, tackling Rica to the floor.

A bullet struck Dan, “Ahh!”

As he fell on top of Rica a searing heat burned the back of his left shoulder. Fuck, I’m hit!

But Dan had no time to think. For as soon as he dove automatic machine gunfire erupted in the warehouse.

What the hell? Before he could raise his head, Nikolai's last two goons collapsed on the warehouse floor. Ripped to shreds by Bling and Ian firing their MAC-tens, on full automatic.

When the shooting stopped the echo of machine pistol fire lingered in the warehouse, along with the gun smoke.

Boss

“Little Boss!” Ian shouted.

The two brutes ran toward Dan, “Ian, he’s hit!” said Bling. With their weapons still in hand, they bent down to help Dan.

“Dan, you’re bleeding!” said Ian.

“Ahh! I know, I’m ok, I think.”

When Dan tried to lift himself, he held the weight of two people. For underneath him, Rica wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

“Rica?” asked Dan. The brutes hovering over them.

“Ya~” she answered, her face in his chest.

“Are you ok?” he asked, softly.

“Yes,” she glanced up and stared in his eyes, smiling, “I’m ok because of you, Mr. Capra.”

Rica?

Right then time skipped and distorted for Dan. He tried to stand up but dropped back to his knees, dizzy, and hearing voices.

“Take it easy Dan, we got you, and you did good! You did real fuckin good!”

“How bad is he hit?”

“Just a graze, but it’s deep, that’s why it’s bleeding like that. Who’s alive?”

“We are, Tommy and Rocco!”

“You guys hurt?”

“No!”

“Ok, Rocco, drive little boss and Dan to that quack, Dr. Ola. We gotta get Dan stitched!”

“What about me, Bling?”

“You stay with us, Tommy! We're gonna burn this place to the ground. And then we’re gonna tell you what’s what from now on. You hear me?”

“Yeah Bling, I hear you. No problem.”

Dan

“Dan!” Rica slapped him.

“Ow? I’m here!” he grunted.

“I’m sorry, but hold that rag on your shoulder, you’re bleeding pretty bad,” said Rica. Her face full of sorrow, “Rocco, help him up!”

“Right, boss!”

Boss?

Rocco helped Dan out of the warehouse and into the back of the limousine. Rica followed shortly carrying a first aid kit from the warehouse. She immediately went to work peeling his shirt off and dousing his wound with scalding disinfectant.

Dan grit his teeth, “Grrrrr!” Man, that burns, but that means it’s working.

“Rocco, let’s go!” Rica shouted.

As the vehicle rolled out of the harbor, Dan’s mind cleared.

He remembered what went down. Moment to moment. Even how many shots he fired, six. He lay on his stomach in the back, with Rica holding pressure on his wound with bloody gauze. And he remembered.

She killed that man in two moves like he was nothing. Is she even human?

...Am I dead? No… Then for the love of God...What have I done?

…