Homecoming | The Punisher

5. Re-calculating

Words: 972 

"No, no, no, no, no," David muttered. Oh, how quickly do plans change, much to David's delight when he read the text Karen received from Detective Madani. "She left. Shit. She's gone." 

"Find her, David," Frank ordered as he sped down New York's streets in a customized 69' Pontiac GTO, fully loaded. There was a hidden warning in his words that promised David hell if he couldn't deliver. 

On the other end of the call, David furiously typed away at his monitors, scanning traffic cameras, security footage of nearby retailers, and even pedestrians' cell phones; anything to point them in Lisa Castle's direction. "Okay, she exited Homeland twenty minutes ago, accompanied by one man."

"Who is he?" 

"Processing facial recognition and," David drawled, "we got a match! Derek Cho. He's a thirty-three-year-old Chinese-American with a criminal record revolving mainly around battery and money laundering. Wait, there's also first-degree murder," David grimaced at the last detail. He studied Lisa's body language in the surveillance footage. "It's weird cuz she doesn't appear to be in distress. She's behaving normally around him."

That meant he was someone whom Lisa trusted. "Most likely he's the Lu she mentioned," Frank stated, remembering back to the video. It was easy for him to pick out the gritty details since the entire video was permanently engraved into his memory. He kept playing the video over and over again in his head to remind him that his little girl was alive. Though his guess may seem far-fetched, he trusted his instincts. "Lu must be an alias." 

"Well, either way, they walked down the street and passed third." David was fast forwarding as quickly as he could without missing a single detail. "Until they reached seventh and a black S class Mercedes pulled up in front of them. It looks like she was forced to get in." 

Frank gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, wanting nothing more than to bash his fists into the Triads, especially the Derek character. "Where to?" 

"To an old, abandoned industrial sector in the Bronx. Near the Hudson."

"I know where that is," Frank growled as he merged effortlessly onto the freeway and punched it, going way over the speeding limit. "Triad territory."

"And you didn't give them a piece of the Punisher yet?" David asked, astound as he watched the Mercedes pull up into an underground garage of one of the buildings in real time. "Building twenty-two on one hundred thirtieth street by the way." 

Frank sneered. "They didn't give me a reason until now." 

"Dumbasses," David muttered. He next attempted to hack into the Triad's security. Their firewalls were pathetic. He had access to all their cameras before they even exited the car. David scanned all four levels of the building while the Triads dragged Lisa out of the Mercedes. "There's twenty-five of them in total."

"I've got enough bullets to kill them three times over." 

"But let's be cost-effective here and hit the mark with one bullet, alright?" 

The only response David got over the speaker was a grunt. He turned his attention back to the screen, watching nervously as the two Triads forcibly knocked Lisa to the ground. Then, two other Triads came and together, all four picked her up by the limbs and began carrying her limp form. David gulped, debating if he should share that particular detail with his murderous friend.

He opted not to. Instead, he observed the Triads. "They have her in the living room. There's five of them not including Lisa. Derek is among them."

"Good. I'm two minutes out," Frank stated. 

David used the time to hack into one of the Triad's phones. He needed access to audio. Luckily, all of them had their phones on them. David chose the one standing the closest to Lisa and in a matter of minutes, he'd be able to hear the Triads. 

During the same time, Frank drove past the building and parked a block over. Grabbing his duffle bag, he walked to a five-story building situated across the one owned by the Triads. The building was abandoned therefore it took little effort for Frank to break in. Once inside, Frank sprinted up the stairs to the rooftop. 

Thanks to his marine training, it took him less than three minutes to set up. The Triads stood no chance. 

"One batch," Frank whispered as he resumed his role as the Punisher and pulled the trigger. The single bullet sliced through the air and window before hitting the guard square in the back of the head. Clean shot. 

"Two batch." The Punisher didn't waste time. He fired again, never missing. 

"Penny and dime," he finished, killing all remaining Triads on the second floor. 

He moved onto the third level and restarted his hunt. 

At the same time, David successfully hacked into the Triad's phone and tweaked the settings so he could properly hear without any background noise. 

Unfortunately, all he could hear was Mandarin. Cursing, David opened a new tab on another monitor and booted up his translation program, running the audio footage through it. While the translation was syncing, David picked up another voice. He didn't hear her right away because she was whispering to herself. 

Stunned by the discovery, David readjusted the settings in order to increase her volume so that Frank could hear her chantings through the phone. 

"One batch. Two batch. Penny and Dime. One batch. Two batch. Penny and Dime..." she repeated the rhyme over and over again mindlessly. 

"You're getting that, Frank?" 

Frank, who had completed his round through the third floor, paused upon hearing those words. They were the final straw; no other evidence was needed. Any traces of doubt he had disintegrated. 

"One batch," he began, syncing in with Lisa as he aimed his machine gun at the fourth and final floor.