Agent Benjamin Ripley

Chapter 2

I blinked several times, the world coming to a stop as my mouth opened in shock. "Glad to see me, Ben?" Murray asked, his smirk widening. "Well, uh, Murray. We all thought you were dead... We had a funeral and everything. No one really showed up." I rubbed my neck awkwardly. "So, uh, how ya been?" I heard Erica mutter something inaudible beside me. I could picture her rubbing her forehead in frustration, groaning at my stupid attempt to distract him.

"You're lucky." Murray chuckled. "I was just about to use that one as a hostage." As he said that one, he gestured to Erica. I could feel the hatred rolling off her in waves. "Let's go." I muttered. "We don't have time for this." Just as we turned around, I heard a click and felt the barrel of a gun pressed up against my skull. "Going somewhere?" Murray taunted. "Listen, Murray. We don't want to hurt you." I cautioned.

"You sure about that? You're the 'good guys,' remember? You 'save people' by putting them down. I'm a businessman." Murray replied, leering at us. One single finger movement and I was a dead man. While I was giving off a semblance of calm, but I'm still not entirely sure I didn't actually pee my pants. I looked at Erica and nodded slightly, mouthing 5...4...3...2...1 Then we attacked. Murray's bullet hit the wall, two feet above my head. I grabbed his gun arm, pulling it behind him and twisting, and as he cried out in pain, I took his gun. A cacophony of gunfire opened in the other room. Erica was a blur, disarming men and handcuffing them. I was distracted for a moment, watching her. During that, Murray took advantage of that distraction and grabbed his gun from my left hand. I went with the sneaky cobra attack, grabbing his hand, dodging bullets, and then knocking the gun out of his hand. I then attacked Murray with a flurry of punches, hitting him in specific places that I know as a guy hurt. He dropped to the floor, panting, weakly calling "stop... please stop..." By that time, Erica was beside me, not even out of breath from taking on 6 heavily armed men on her own. Murray was obviously out of breath, and had the posture of a question mark. Without a word, Erica cuffed him, leading him out the back.

"Did you bring a car, Ben?" She looked at me questioningly. I looked around the parking lot awkwardly, remembering I ubered here. "No, Erica, I took an uber here." I sighed, waiting for the lecture. "How could you not bring a car?! What if we had to make a quick getaway?! What if, I don't know, we caught someone and had to bring them back?! Why didn't you think, Ben?!" At this point, she was yelling, her arms in the air. "Uhhh. Erica?" I said, uneasy when I noticed who was missing. Erica paid no heed and continued yelling at me for being careless. "Erica!!" I shouted "You let Murray get away because you yelled at me!" She stopped and looked around, cursing when she noticed the footprints in the fresh snow lead off into the night. I was already on it, tracking them from his spot to the corner, where they disappeared. I looked up, spotting a form huffing on the fire escape. I grabbed my gun from the back of my pants, aiming it toward the sky.

"Come down, Murray or I'll shoot!" I yelled upward, my eyes stinging as snow fell. I heard small, wheezing chuckles. "No. You won't, Ben. You're the good guy, remember?" Murray mocked. I shook the snow out of my face, preparing the gun. I heard Erica step up silently beside me, her gun trained on Murray's form, 14 feet above us. I heard sirens in the distance as well as Erica cursing. The sirens got closer, and then stopped right behind us. Erica cursed again. The sound of the police coming out of the cars reached my ears.

"Ma'am?" A tentative police officer's voice said "Can you put the gun down please? You too, sir." I lowered my gun, my eyes still watching Murray. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Erica do the same thing. "Erica, go talk to them. You're more convincing." I muttered out of the corner of my mouth. She nodded and headed over to the police officers.

"Ma'am, how did you get a gun?" I heard one police officer ask. I didn't hear Erica's answer, but I assume it was something along the lines of 'I'm a federal agent' because I could hear whispers and laughter until she showed them her badge.

"This man here has been a fugitive as of 6 years ago. His name is Murray Hill. My... partner and I caught up to him just an hour ago." Erica explained. I smiled sadly, remembering the first time she called me that. It was the day that Warren died. I had taken a bullet to the stomach. Erica had been sitting above me sobbing and yelling that I couldn't let her down, I couldn't leave her, that I was her partner, that she loved me. I kept repeating that I wouldn't, crying too, before passing out from blood loss.

"And who's he?" The detective wasn't giving up. Erica sighed in frustration "He's my partner and boyfriend. He was sent to retrieve me." The detectives looked at each other. "Let me just check with my superior." He answered finally. "Tell the lump on the fire escape to come down." I yelled up to Murray, receiving no response. I started to climb the fire escape, making it to Murray's level.

"Murray?" I asked, unsure whether or not it was a trap. He looked like he was on death's door. He raised his head weakly and looked at me. "Good luck with what's coming, Ben." He grabbed a metal container from a pocket in his jacket. I watched him warily, not positive that he was doing what I think he was doing. Before I could stop him, he popped open the canister, and dropped a tiny cyanide pill into his mouth, killing himself. Foam gurgled out of his lips, while his eyes rolled back to only show the whites. I screamed myself hoarse for someone to help, but it was too late. Murray had been just at our grasp, but now he was gone.

"Erica?" I collapsed onto my knees, whispering to myself. This wasn't the first time I had seen death or faced it and lived. I was in shock. "Erica?" I repeated, louder this time, hearing people racing up the fire escape. They found me on my knees, hanging my head over Murray Hill's corpse.