Autograph Not Included

[127 Kincaid Street | 1220 Central Time, Day 2]

"The Hail Caesar guy himself?" asked Becks as Mendez rushed back to pack more weapons and munitions into the duffel bags. "How'd you even know?"

Mendez tossed a binocular at Becks. "You see the five SUVs, right? Check the one in the middle."

Becks went against the window and scoped the Chevrolet Suburbans. Mendez was right; Cezaro was riding shotgun in the dead-center SUV, the glint of his burgundy aviators shooting through his vehicle's lightly-tinted windows. Still does not explain how Mendez was able to spot him from further away without binoculars. Maybe it's an aviators-rivalry thing, thought Becks.

"How the hell did he even know we're here?" prodded a worried Sui.

"Well, I gave us a good chance of Cezaro sniffing us out when we decided to take this joint. Matter o'fact, I'm kinda surprised it took him this long," explained Mendez as he loaded an M4 into a brand-new, empty duffel bag. "I thought he's gonna cut in when we were busy shooting up the place earlier."

"Maybe he wanted you to have some downtime, speak with you?" suggested Foy. "To be honest, the timing is impeccable."

And with that statement, Mendez' phone rang. An unknown number. Mendez gestured for the crew to continue packing as he tapped the answer prompt.

"Yeah?"

"How's it going, Lucio?"

Cezaro. Mendez recognized that New York accent from anywhere.

"Eh, not too bad. How's it going for you, Caesarino?"

Mendez' namedrop attracted alarmed looks from the entire room. Mendez only reacted to Foy though, mouthing the words "holy shit, you're right" at him.

"Wasn't too bad until the last couple of days. Setbacks here and there, you know how it is. Probability of a profitable week was 75 percent when I calculated last week. Today? 35 percent."

"Hey, it happens. How's the rest of the guys? Mikey? Gabe? Loathsome Adam?"

"Alive, all of 'em, if that's what you wanna know about. Even Adam. He's not too bad actually, you should've given him more time."

"It's been, what, five years? We both know I'm way past giving him time," answered Mendez as he sat on the living room sofa, noticing the rest of the gang almost finishing their work. "Should've figured he's gonna win you guys over. And besides, already got my own crew. You met them yet?"

"Yeah, did my homework on them. Don't seem like much, but I can see Mikey getting them into shape. I mean, look at you. Impressive numbers you've shelled out back in the day thanks to his tutoring--unbeaten to this day. Fascinating to see what Mikey can pull off with these guys. Shame it had to be you, though."

"What can I say? Had to find some new friends, my old ones tried to bury me. Come to think of it, they succeeded."

"And guess what, you might have to bury them too. Why drag this on, Lucio? Why not just turn yourself in and end the suffering you caused to people close to you? Look what happened to that fine cafe. Look what happened to that Cassidy lady. Shame what happened to her, I'll tell you that much."

Mendez smiled at that statement. They haven't found out about Morgan yet.

"This might sound like a playground insult, but you should know you started it."

"It does sound like one, to be honest."

"It all started when you guys shot me and left for dead. But guess what? I didn't come for revenge. I could have, but instead, I chose to live. Not a single peep to you guys for five years, more if it weren't for those guys you hired to take me out. Things would have been easier for all of us if you guys just let me be."

"Long as you're alive, you'll always be a threat to us. An awful lot of things in this world are based on probability, even when we've done our best math. But you, my friend, are binary. There's an absolute certainty of disaster as long as you're still breathing."

"Ouch. Evans told you that? Or is it the old man?"

No answer.

"I thought as much. Long as you, Mikey, Gabe, hell, the entire BP's still in the picture, I'll never be safe. My cafe won't be safe. My friends won't be safe. Guess the feeling's mutual."

"So I take it you won't turn yourself in? You won't get a second chance."

Mendez let out a long breath. "I might consider if you guys don't sell people. Truth is I've always wanted to burn BP to the ground, but you guys are unreachable. Then the hit attempts happened. So thanks for that."

"A no, then. We done?"

"Yeah. Talk to you again when this is all over?"

"Sounds good."

Mendez hung up. "Eh, always good to catch up." He then turned to the rest of the crew, who had finished packing up, now bunched in the living room. "Now, get down."

"Wha--?" asked Becks.

"Get down!" exclaimed Mendez, diving to the floor--

--as an RPG missile flew through the front window!

Explosion rocked the entire house.

Mendez' ear rang as he lied on the floor following the blast. Dust and debris covered the entire kitchen area. The rest of the crew was nowhere to be seen.

"Everyone alive?" coughed Mendez into his earpiece.

"Shit, yeah," answered Becks.

"Wish I wasn't," followed by Sui.

"Still here," concluded Foy.

Mendez can hear bullets whizzing and ricocheting against the house's interior. Looks like Cezaro has ordered his squad to pour down lead on their position.

"We gotta get the gun wagon outta here," instructed Mendez. "Foy, on me. Becks, load the ride up. Sui, cover fire from upstairs."

Moments later, both Mendez and Foy are stacked behind the house. Mendez has a semi-automatic M1A rifle with him, while Foy wields a HK21E light machine gun, complete with its own bipod.

"Right, so we gotta get on that truck," said Mendez as he pointed towards the machine gun-laden technical--the one BP mercs used against him and Sui earlier. "Stay low and quick, use the house as cover."

And with Foy's nod, they took off.

***

Sui scampered up the stairs, his previously-procured M14 in hand.

Here's hoping no one brought a spare rocket, he thought, as he nestled the rifle against the second-story window overlooking the cul-de-sac.

From that vantage point, Sui got a better look at the numbers Cezaro brought to the standoff, which is no less than fifteen men, all wielding different sorts of assault rifles. They have not noticed him yet though, firing away at the virtually empty ground floor. Well, except for Becks, who was going in-and-out of the garage loading the SUV with gun bags.

Which gives him an advantage to lay down suppressing fire. No killing, definitely not.

BANG!

Even with the mercenaries using their SUVs as cover, Sui can still get a clear shot at each of them thanks to his positional advantage. None of the shots hit their vital parts though, just close enough to force them into cover.

BANG!

One of his intended targets flinched at the bullet ricochet. He did not move much from his position, though.

BANG!

Of course, he can only shoot so many bullets...

BANG!

...until they recognize the threat.

All of a sudden, a wave of bullets washed down on his position. Sui flinched as bullets started to fly his way, forcing him to duck undercover!

His heart pounded as he sat below the window. He has not felt this close to certain death since... well, five minutes ago, when that truck with the mounted gun tried to blast him and Mendez to bits.

A bullet ricocheted on the window frame. However, Sui felt the intensity of the rounds coming his way lessening. It was as if the firing squad was redirecting their fire to another target.

This has happened before, thought Sui as he aimed at the cul-de-sac once more.

And through his M14's scope, Sui can see Mendez and Foy firing at the SUV barricade from the righthand-side house. Not from inside the house, but from beside the house.

Sui redirected the scope to the barricade again. That's when he saw it in the scope's lenses.

One of the mercs aiming an RPG launcher straight at his face.

For a moment, Sui can see the merc's gloved finger squeezing the RPG trigger. Too late for a shot.

"But of-fucking-course," he cursed as he scrambled out of the room.

He can hear the missile discharging from the launcher. He can hear the missile cruising to the air.

He can hear the rocket exploding in the room he was in mere seconds ago.

But not much else beyond that.

***

Mendez saw it, Foy saw it.

The entire second floor of the house was decimated by an RPG blast.

And last time he recalled, Sui was supposed to be there.

"Hijo de puta!" cursed Mendez the instant he saw the explosion.

"Sui, come in!" keyed Foy into his earpiece as Mendez turned to shoot the BP squad, hitting a couple of them while he is at it.

Static on Sui's end.

"We gotta speed this up. Cover me!" said Mendez as he rushed towards the parked technical.

Mendez veered right as he sprinted towards the technical with bullets whizzing past him to his left from Foy's suppressing fire.

Sliding towards the technical, Mendez heard his earpiece buzzing with noise.

"Fucking hell!" coughed Sui.

He's alive alright, thought Mendez in relief.

Mendez then leaned against the technical's flatbed and fired at some more BP mercenaries, allowing for Foy to take position beside him.

"Get your gun on the hood, and I'll get on THIS gun, alright?" said Mendez to Foy while gesturing to the mounted gun looming over him. "That box mag still got enough?"

"I believe so," answered Foy, briefly glancing at his gun. He did not get to fire his gun as much as Mendez got to fire his, as far as he is concerned.

"Right then, let's go!" barked Mendez as he jumped on the technical's flatbed.

As soon as Mendez' sneakers got on the flatbed, Foy pulled the trigger on the BP squad ahead of the duo, forcing most of the BP mercs--including Cezaro--into cover.

Mendez leveled the mounted gun at the convoy and squeezed the triggers.

The thunderous machine gun claimed numerable victims, including the merc that shot the rocket launcher at Sui's position earlier, not to mention ripping through the SUV convoy/barricade. Cezaro was nowhere to be seen though, Mendez assumed he was smart enough to stay in cover.

While the combined fire of Mendez and Foy was hammering down on the BP convoy, Mendez' earpiece faintly fizzled with noise--almost inaudible due to the deafening sounds of the mounted machine gun fire.

"We're all set! Bustin' outta here!" yelled Becks from the other side.

And from the corner of his vision, Mendez saw a dark figure zooming through the cul-de-sac from the armory house; it was the SUV Becks drove earlier.

As if on cue, Mendez' heavy gunfire caused one of the BP SUVs to explode--

--throwing the charred chassis into the air, creating an opening for Becks' SUV to pass through the barricade!

Still firing the machine gun, Mendez barked some orders to Foy. "Let's get outta here, come on! Keep a close tail on Becks!"

Before long, Mendez felt Foy entering the driver's cockpit, starting the engine and driving the technical around the cul-de-sac before punching through Cezaro's barricade.

Spinning the mounted gun around, Mendez can see the BP squad scrambling to their remaining battered SUV to give chase to Mendez' own convoy.

Turning away from their immediate pursures, Mendez saw another addition to the party just in front of him and Foy. Big, menacing, and most importantly, flying over one of the houses as they zoomed through Kincaid Street.

A Black Hawk attack helicopter.