Rattling Snakes Cage 2 Ch. 08

Love means gambling your freedom against the need to rescue the one you love. Patrick goes to liberate Rachel from Snake, whilst Tony, John and their friends storm down to the lab to set free the redheaded girl from the basement.

Will they succeed?

*

Davy banged his fist on the wall that was between the inside of the van and the driver's cab where Danny sat driving it slowly in the heavy traffic. He glanced behind him at Jerry and Patrick who sat balanced on the overturned motorbikes staring back at him, Patrick wearing the blood soaked prison blues and Jerry still wearing the workman overalls just like he was. Banging his fist again he felt the van move slowly to the side and stop, and then heard the slamming of the cab door as Danny climbed out.

"Shit this is taking the piss Patrick......" he hissed at the two men sitting quietly in the van with him.

The back door of the van opened and Danny climbed in and shut the door. "What's wrong?"

"Just these two piss artists wanting to get us killed."

Danny looked from Patrick to Jerry and then to Davy. "What?......"

"Patrick's woman has been taken by Snake.....he wants to go and rescue her.....now.....before going down to Brighton...."

"WHAT?.....ARE YOU FUCKING OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND......"

Patrick stood up and said, "Look, you guys don't have to come with me.....I'll get out here on one of the bikes and go down by myself......you go onto Brighton and I'll take my chances by myself.....I don't expect you to fight my battle for me."

"Fight your fucking battle for you!....we've just pulled you out the nick....we just put our arses on the line Patrick for you......."

"And I appreciate it....you guys are the best....I'll never be able to thank you enough....but Snake has Rachel and I'm not going anywhere without going down and getting her, and doing that bastard...."

Jerry stood up and looking Davy in the eye told him, "I'm with Patrick......that Tosser has it coming.....neither Patrick, nor Megan and myself will ever be safe until he's finished. Davy if it was your Shirley he had you would do the same....."

"If it was my Shirley I'd pay him to take her......and thank him."

Patrick bent down to straighten up the bike from where it lay on the floor of the van, "Just go on down to Brighton and get away safe.....once Jerry and I are safe we'll get your share of the money over to you......"

"Money! What money?"

"The million or so that's in Snakes safe, and that I'm the only other person who knows the combination apart from him to get hold of it."

Grabbing Patrick's arm Danny growled, "A Million......?"

"Plus.....a million plus....."

Turning around on the spot Danny muttered, "A million.....let me think on this."

Davy just stood there shaking his head and then asked, "And how do you propose to get at Snake, surrounded as he is by those heavies with guns....he's not just going to take one look at the four of us, raise his hands above his head and say 'I give up...take her...kill me'"

Patrick laughed, the first laugh since he had seen that vile video on the mobile of Rachel being forced to give Snake a blow job. "Firstly I don't intend killing him, I'm not a murderer, just hurt him very badly and burn down the lab. If you're both going to be in on it Jerry and I thought we would do it like this....." and he proceeded to tell the two astounded men the plan.

*

In the pub a group of sixteen young men, slightly pissed, were working themselves up to go and take Snake down. Each one was either tooled up with a gun that they had bought over the past few days from dodgy dealers at the back of pubs in the area or lethal looking knives. Each man was pumped up with adrenaline, a feeling of being part of a gang with a purpose, of going on the rampage at the lab and grabbing as much of the drugs there for themselves and then selling them to make some money.

Only two of them really had a focus and purpose. Tony and John. Their focus was to get Maria out of the basement and get revenge for all Snake had done to John's family.

The debasement of Maria and the death of his father on Snakes orders.

*

Snake leaned into Rachel as he pushed her up against the wall, his hand tunnelling inside her bra under her top, his groin grinding into her parted thighs that his knee had pushed apart, his cock hard behind his flies. "Tonight I'm going to finish what I started all those months ago with you bitch....I'm going to take your arse....I'm going to use you like you've never been used before......"

The look of horror on her face made him laugh. Licking a long wet lick up the side of her neck he continued, "I've got plans for you.....ways I'm going to screw you that you've never experienced before.....I'm going to make you aware of every part of your body....and wish you weren't."

Closing her eyes Rachel prayed for escape from this monster.

*

As Danny prepared to climb out the back of the van and get into the front to drive it on down to Biggin Hill and the lab he looked back at the three men behind him, "You know we're all barking mad for even thinking of doing this."

"If you're not one hundred percent up for this......."

"Nah.....I'm up for it.....I'd better give Alan a call on the boat.....we might be a little later than we planned getting there."

"Tell him about his slice of the money....that will keep him happy to sit it out a little while longer."

*

The van moved slowly down towards the South East and Biggin Hill where the lab was situated in the thick wooded area away from prying eyes. Inside the van Patrick, Jerry and Davy divvied out the knives that Jerry had bought and prepared the pieces of steak with the poison for the dogs. Davy showed the gun that he had concealed in his pocket and that he had in there all along during the prison break.

"Just in case."

"In case of what?"

Looking at Jerry he shrugged, "Jerry we were breaking Patrick out of Wandsworth, you didn't really think I would go and do it totally unarmed."

Jerry looked at Patrick who shrugged and looked down at the lethal looking knife he had in his hand. It made him angry. He hated violence. Hated the way it was part of his life. That was the reason in the first place he had been stealing the coke from Snake and running. To get away from the mounting violence that was going on around him. He was a thief at heart and somehow had got caught up over the years in drug dealing and helping Snake running the manor, but he never in his life had hurt anyone deliberately and here he was, a knife in his hand, murder in his heart, ready to fight his best friend and destroy what he had helped to build up. "Davy don't you wish sometimes that you had taken a different path in life. Been straight.....walked a different route...done it all differently?" he asked quietly.

"Nah....I've loved every crooked minute....why?"

Bending his head Patrick just shrugged. He still could picture the scene that he had left behind at the prison, the young man of nineteen whose life should just be beginning standing over the body of Nash, a life sentence now hanging over his head after helping him to escape to his own freedom by getting the big thug off his legs.

"Just that maybe those I've touched in my life I've hurt....."

Clamping his hand on Patrick's shoulder Jerry told him, "Don't go down that road Patrick......everyone has choices, its not all been down to you...."

"Hasn't it been? Look at what's happened to Rachel....if I hadn't kidnapped her and fallen in love with her, Snake wouldn't have grabbed her and be using her to get back at me..."

"Again, stop beating yourself up. Just concentrate on us getting her free of him."

Patrick nodded and resumed turning the handle of the knife around and around in his hand. He had no intention of killing his old friend, just making sure he would wear the scars for the rest of his life to remind him that he couldn't touch his woman and get away with it.

*

The crowd of inebriated men climbed into their cars and started to make their way in the early evening traffic from the pub in Penge across to Biggin Hill and the lab. Climbing into cars their bravado on a high they flowed along in the early evening traffic comparing stories and bragging about fights they had had previously, beating up opposing football fans and the such like.

As they left Penge and moved on towards Beckenham they decided to stop at a small off licence and buy some more lager.

Babes in arms, watching and playing too many computer games, not realising what they were really going to face, but believing they were going to come out victorious the sixteen strong crowd of young men made there way slowly down towards their goal.

*

Patrick asked Davy how long he thought it would take to get down there.

"As long as it takes Patrick! The traffic is bad. Some stupid fuckers blew out the power causing traffic jams throughout London to rescue an old mate. Wonder who?"

"Ok, ok.....Its not like I don't appreciate it.....it's just that I hate to think that Rachel is with him, and every minute seems an hour about now. When we get there leave him to me....."

"You bet....I have no intention of tangling with him, he's a real bastard. You know he's not going to fight fair."

"I know....if he wins and kills me, finish him for me."

*

The long line of cars filled with the drunken men weaved its way from Beckenham over to Hayes. Tony, the only one not inebriated sat dry eyed with fury as they got closer and closer to their journeys end. John sat in the back of one car, the gun he had bought nestling in his lap.

"Put the damn thing away before it gets eyeballed by some copper."

"Ain't no coppers about at the moment!"

"Never one around when you need them, and on your back when you don't."

"After I shoot Snake I'm going to get me a copper."

"Are you two sandwiches short of a picnic? John the police will thank us for getting rid of Snake.....probably give us a bloody medal, but you do a copper and you'll have every plod in England after you out for revenge....."

Picking up the gun from his lap he aimed it at his friend in the front seat and made a 'bang bang' sound with his voice before putting it back in his pocket.

*

Around about West Wickham Danny looked up through the windscreen of the van at the helicopter hovering overhead. He nearly chucked his guts up as the police copter moved away and then seemed to return, hovering a while high up over the top of the common and then took off towards Croydon.

Turning the van left he turned away from that direction and made for the main road towards Keston, keeping one eye on the sky and the other on the road.

*

Rachel stood slightly behind Snake looking for a way to escape from the house in the woods. It was getting on for six thirty and a few of the men were getting up to leave, Snake handing over a wad of notes to each of them, wages she expected for work done.

Outside it was starting to get dark, dusk falling and the wind whipping up. If she was going to make a run for it, now or never was the only option open to her. Surreptitiously moving sideways she started to make her way towards the door that led to the front hall whilst Snakes attention was diverted, only to hear his deep voice say, "Don't even think it Rachel. I've got the dogs' loose outside and you'll get ripped to pieces, and I don't want to have to get the dogs checked out by a vet tonight in case they pick up something nasty from ripping you apart. It would spoil my evening."

Glaring at him she didn't know what to say so she just stuck out her tongue at him and sat down in a huff, fiddling with the heavy brass scales that sat in front of her on the desk, its small weights piled up neatly next to it."

*

Patrick paced back and forth inside the hot stuffy van, kicking the tyre of one of the bikes each time he went past it. The material on his trousers and shirt where Nash's blood had dried was stiff and the metallic smell rose up to him, reminding him of the young lad left behind facing a murder charge and the dead Nash.

Jerry stood leaning in a corner, arms crossed, head facing downwards, thinking of Megan, praying he would see her again, whilst Davy sat going over the plan in his head, "You reckon there should be at least a million then Patrick?"

"At least....Friday is a major payment and collection day....staff get paid, protection money is collected in....might be close up to two possibly."

"Jesus Patrick, why the hell didn't you steal that instead of the coke?"

"Easier to steal the coke....Snake is in and out of his office all the time, but the new delivery.....well a bag here a bag there....easy."

"Not so easy you didn't get caught."

Stopping his pacing he looked down at Davy, "When I get my cut of the money after we're finished I'm taking Rachel to the Florida Keys, get a little bar and go straight. Get out of the business...that's it...no more...how about you?"

"Let Shirley spend some, put a little away for a rainy day, have a little fun. How about you Jerry?"

Looking up at Patrick he said, "The Keys sound about right, how about me and Megan joining you...."

"Could always do with someone friendly around...."

*

The cars parked up the road from the lane that led to the lab, and two men got out of one and made their way through the woods to the back of the building where a high wire fence surrounded the property cutting off the access to the large overgrown back yard. Two large Rottweilers prowled, their noses up in the air as they got the scent of the two men. Levelling their guns through the wire mesh at the dogs they took aim. Just as one of the dogs started to growl and move towards where they stood he pulled the trigger. The loud retort rang through the air as the dog yelped and fell.

A second shot rang out and then a silence as they stood watching at the two bodies of the animals lying quiet amongst the long overgrown grass.

Inside the house everything had stopped as Snake and his men heard the gun shots, the two men that were his bodyguards drew their guns and made their way to the window, looking out.

"Can you see anyone?"

"No....can't see anyone...."

"Go out the fucking front and take a look around...."

"What if there are a lot of them?"

Snake pushed one of the men towards the door, "What the fuck do I pay you for......go take a fucking look."

Rachel sat stock still in shock, the rest of the few men left seemed to shrink into themselves as the two thugs, guns drawn, gingerly crept out to the front door and peered out into the dimly lit night.

*

At the sound of the two shots those young men still in the parked cars turned them up towards the house up the lane, and revving the cars drove fast towards the padlocked and guarded gate. The man on security by the gate stood, his gun drawn pointing towards the three cars that were barrelling towards him, but didn't manage to get off a shot as one of the cars made straight for him, hitting him and knocking him down, breaking a leg and some ribs. Another car drove at the gate, banging it and making it bow inwards. Reversing the car back a few yards it then shot forward again, smashing the gate open.

The three cars, full of hyped up young men, drove at speed up to the house, positioning themselves surrounding the front and sides of the old farmhouse that was now a drug lab.

The two thugs behind the front door took aim and starting shooting.

Inside the house men ducked under tables protecting themselves as Snake grabbed Rachel around the neck and pulled her in front of him as a shield.

One of the cars, the one in front of the house, started revving up, the men inside cowering down to avoid the bullets, and then shot forward at speed towards the front door causing the men inside to stumble back out of its way to avoid being mowed down as it hit the front door.

The crowd of young men jumped out the cars and ran towards the house, breaking windows and shooting in, others jumped over the front of the car now crashed into the house and took pot shots through the door into the hallway.

Screams rang out as some bullets connected with bodies and then all was silent.

*

The van pulled up at the end of the lane and Jerry and Patrick got out holding the steaks, and entered the woods to make their way to the back of the property to throw the poisoned steaks to the dogs. Creeping as quietly as they could they suddenly heard the two shots and the sound of the dogs yelping. Standing stock still in the dark tree surrounded space they stayed where they were, holding their breaths, hearts pounding.

"You hear that?" Jerry whispered.

"Yeah it came from the back where we're going."

Suddenly the sound of the crashing gate and squealing tyres came across the night air.

"What the fuck?"

"Jesus H Christ, what was that?"

"Sounded like the gate......lets go take a look."

Walking towards the edge of the wood they saw the security guard lying groaning on the ground and the smashed gate, then heard the exchange of gun fire.

"My God, it looks as if someone beat us to it....."

The sound of the car crashing into the house rang out, and then more shots in the night.

"Who the fuck do you think it is?"

"No idea.....lets go get the others and go see."

Moving back into the cover of the trees they made their way over to where Davy and Danny waited by the van. As they got to where the two men stood, Davy excitedly asked them, "What was all that shooting?"

"Not sure but it looks as if someone else has beaten us to it.......and with our plan."

"Well then lets go....we could make it to Brighton in an hour."

Patrick turned around and climbed up into the drivers' seat of the van, "I'm not going without Rachel.....either climb in or wait here."

Jerry climbed into the seat next to him, and then Davy and Danny climbed into the back. Manoeuvring the vehicle Patrick drove it slowly up the lane, through the now demolished gate past a groaning injured security guard, down the driveway and to the front of the house. There in front of them was the sight of the car crashed into the doorway of the house and the sound of men shouting.

Looking at Jerry, Patrick asked, "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be....." and the two men got out the van, and knives in hand, crept carefully up to the side of the house, followed by Danny and Davy, and looked through the broken window at an extraordinary sight.

"What the hell is going down here?"

"Fuck me......but it looks like most of our work has been done for us."

"Only problem is are they friends or foes."

*