Levelling the Playing Field (HD&D Sequel)

Chapter 2 - Matched Perfectly

It was Sunday night, and three of the four Musketeers were lurking in the shadows.

"That's the building right there," Jordan said, double-checking his phone. He looked up and motioned to an old abandoned warehouse on the other side of the street.

"I don't get why we have to do this now. We have school in the morning. I have a test I haven't studied for. I could be doing that right now," Declan grumbled, annoyed by the late-night rendezvous.

"We can't really show up after they've had their meeting, now can we?" Bennett informed. "Jae said one of his boys heard this meeting was going down with Nicotine himself. We can't afford to let this opportunity pass."

"Then he should be here too, providing the manpower," Declan huffed.

"It's rumoured only Nicotine and one of the twins will be here. The other side doesn't trust them enough to have the whole gang," Bennett explained.

"And what about this other side,"

"Only one person. It seems like they're a lone wolf type. Anyway, that would mean only three people meeting," Bennett continued.

"Which means we'll be matched perfectly fine," Jordan chimed in. "Right, we're all set. I've disabled all the nearby working cameras."

"Good, put your masks on,"

The three boys pulled their hoodies over their hair and covered the lower half of their faces with black fabric masks. With this eerie combination, they were unrecognisable.

"Okay, everyone got their stuff?"

The boys cocked their guns in response.

"Good, let's go!"

They got to the door, and Bennett motioned to Declan. He moved forward and kicked the door down.

There were two figures in the middle of the room. A third was coming down the stairs but legged it up as soon as the yells and gunshots rang out.

"I'm going up!" Bennett yelled at the others before running up the stairs. He saw two opposing rooms getting to the top, but he knew one of them was a windowless board room. No where to run in there. He opted for the other room.

Slowly opening the door, he entered an almost pitch-black room. He carefully crept around, letting his eyes adjust to the lack of light. The shouts and shots from downstairs made it difficult to hear if anyone was left in the room with him. The good thing was it sounded like Declan and Jordan had the upper hand in the fight.

His senses caught sudden movement before his body felt the impact of a filing cabinet being hit against him, knocking him off balance. He lost his grip on the gun and let it fall. He only managed to look up and see a shadowy figure run for the window. Not thinking much, he kicked out at the table in front of him, which hit the figure's side. The sound of bone coming into contact with wood reverberated around the room.

"Oh, you asshole," a voice groaned out.

It was quiet and muffled, but Bennett was sure he heard it correctly. Before he could pick up his gun, the figure had lept out of the window. Bennett crouched for a moment before finding his footing and running to the window. Only to find the ghost had disappeared.

Even if he did have his gun on him, he knew he wouldn't have shot at the figure. The voice he heard was low, it was stifled, but it was a girl's voice. That much was clear.

Coming back down, he found the fight had ended with Declan and Jordan victorious. Thankfully no one was injured. Declan was tying up the newly surrendered gang members whilst Jordan was on a phone call, most likely with the Inked Blade Syndicates.