Imminent Revenge

His last breath.

My daughter is the most precious thing I have, so this pain won't stop me. That's why I take out the switch from my pocket, which luckily didn't break, and aim it at the truck. When I was next to the van, I managed to attach a small adhesive bomb to its chassis, and that's what I'm going to activate. Here I go, you have to hold on, Luci. Trust me, this won't hurt you much, but I need to stop them.

I press the button, and the van, which was already a bit further away, receives the explosion from my bomb. It's not strong enough to send the car flying, but at least I destroy one side, causing them to collide with another vehicle. The explosion wasn't too loud.

I know my daughter is safe, so I start walking towards her. I limp a little, but I have to walk quickly. I fear the van might explode. When I'm close enough, I see the rear door opening. A wounded, armed man emerges from there. His anger makes him look forward, and the first person he sees will be the target of his hatred, and that person is me.

I hide behind an abandoned car to protect myself and start hearing gunshots coming in my direction. This car is serving as my cover, so I have to counteract. I draw my gun and grip it firmly. I can't waste bullets, so I wait for the right moment. My breathing is calm, and I'm alert for the perfect timing. There it is. I come out from the side of the car and fire three shots.

The last one hits the man, causing him to fall. It's a bit dark, but I believe I hit him in the chest. The important thing is that he's not moving, so I hasten to reach the van and find my daughter. With this, I feel calm. There's no way they can escape now. I won't let them go at any cost, so it's only a matter of time until I have my daughter back.

That doesn't mean I let my guard down. I approach stealthily and with my eyes wide open. I still don't know how many people might be there, so I must react quickly. Once I'm close to the van, I try to open the door to see my daughter. Don't worry, sweetheart, this is something that won't happen again. I just need to get you to safety. I have the door handle in my hand, and I just need to open it.

Ahh! They shot my damn hand. I react quickly and take cover again. I don't know how I managed to dodge the other bullets, but they're still coming. At least I'm in cover now. It seems this van wasn't alone; it had company, and they're very angry. But I'm angrier.

Now that I have a damn hole in my hand, I feel like I need to get revenge on each one of them, although I already had enough reasons to do so. The person shooting is on the other side of the road. This can't be! They're covering the people in the van so they can escape with the girls.

I won't let that happen! I start shooting indiscriminately, but it doesn't take long for another man to start shooting at me with a machine gun.

Damn it! I can't leave my daughter alone, so I won't risk my life. I feel so useless right now, but I won't give up. I try to shoot, but I'm out of luck. By the time I realize it, they're already in another car, and the guys shooting at me get in too, speeding off in the opposite direction.

This is a damn lie. I can't let my daughter go, but I already feel so weak. I could keep trying, but they're too far away, and I'm slowly bleeding out. I see the police approaching, so I need to find a car and get out of here as soon as possible. In the face of the impossibility of saving my daughter, my actions are so futile that I can't even find a car. But in a disappointing sight, a motorcycle approaches at high speed, reaching where I am. I aim my gun at the rider with the intention to shoot, but before I do anything, this person removes their helmet and looks directly at me.

"John, is that you?" says the girl who was on the motorcycle.

It's Luna, a good friend I didn't expect to see here. I'm surprised.

"Come on, get on. We need to go!" Luna exclaims. I get on her motorcycle with difficulty, telling her that we have to go after them, but she ignores me. The police are already there, and if we go, we'll probably get arrested, which is not good for me at all. Now they have the advantage, but not for long.

Nothing will happen to my daughter because I will make sure to save her. I tell Luna to take me to Nixon's facilities. I need her help with something while I try to find answers that will lead me to my daughter. Luna does me the favor, and in less than half an hour, we're already there.

"John, you need to tend to those wounds," Luna says as she takes out some medical bandages from her fanny pack. We're in an elevator heading to Nixon's offices. "Don't worry, I need to get stitched up, so the medical team will take care of that. Why were you there?" I ask, doubting her actions. "Paul sent me a distress signal.

When I receive that, I know there are problems, so I followed it, and when I arrived, there you were with all that chaos around. Can you tell me what's going on? Where is Paul?" Luna says with concern. "They kidnapped my daughter.

Paul was looking after her, and it's likely that he's also been kidnapped," I say, and there's a somewhat long silence. "What the hell does that mean? I bet it's your fault. It can't be. My Paul is in danger, and I'm here wasting time," Luna says with some worry. "Don't worry, I'll take care of rescuing them, so I need you to cooperate and not get in my way. This is personal," I say, and the elevator door opens. "How can I help you?" Luna says.

"We need to see if Nixon is still on duty so he can lend us his equipment. We'll start from there, and hey, I appreciate this. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shown up," I tell Luna with some kindness. "Don't worry. You owe that to Paul, so you have to find him and save his life. I'll help you find him and, clearly, your daughter," Luna says.

"Yes, it seems we owe a lot to Paul." We headed towards where Nixon was, luckily still on his working hours. He was looking at some screens in his typical high-ranking officer pose, sipping coffee with his arms crossed. When he saw me, he was a bit surprised, but after explaining what had happened, he understood that there was no time to waste. "So, it was you who caused all of this.

I have to give a notice to stop them from searching for you. Meanwhile, Luna, you can start working on monitoring the van. Thanks to the information John provided about it, we can track it as soon as possible. What will you do, John?" Nixon says after I explained what happened.

"I have to go to the penitentiary. Can you give me permission to enter?" I say, being direct. "I could give it to you, but it takes between ten and fifteen days." "I need it in less than fifteen minutes. Send it to me via cellphone," I say this and then head to the facility's infirmary to get my wounds stitched up. Luna stayed watching the monitors, doing fieldwork. Nixon grumbled a bit, but I didn't hear what he said. However, I know I can trust him. It's been an hour since my daughter was kidnapped, so I have no time to lose. As soon as my wounds are stitched up, I'll go visit a bastard.