Short Stories and Story Excerpts

Well, I’m going to jump onto the fan-boat here with the posting of my short-story on my blog. I know- I’m sheeping!

 

Underworld

An excerpt for a short story by Andrew “Self” Kipp

 

            January 19^th, 2007

            The sounds of midday traffic seemed to mingle with the sounds of hundreds of people talking as they briskly walked down the street, wrapping their coats around themselves tightly to escape the frosty air. Music shops had speakers outside blaring music to attract attention, local stores had bright neon lights blazing in an attempt to attract attention, and there were even groups of suspicious looking teenagers loafing about street corners, making rude comments to ladies as they walked by.

            However, within the safe and warm confines of his car, Officer Riley Smelt did the same thing he did every day of his life. Drive around downtown Kitchener and scold crazy people for trying to steal, hand out parking tickets or perhaps simply waving at other passing officers. Life was pretty bland, it seemed.

            “I said how are things around the house?” Riley’s partner, Harry Renold, asked. The bright blue eyed, blonde haired young man leaned forward a bit, Tim Horton’s coffee still in hand, as he looked past Riley at a passing girl.

            “The wife and kids are fine. Molly got a new puppy,” Riley answered.

            Harry cringed, “House broken?”

            “Not in the slightest,” answered the scruffy, dark haired middle-aged man, watching the steering wheel. He twiddled a cigarette in-between his fingers, contemplating giving Harry lung cancer from second-hand smoke.

            “Sounds like fun. That’s one thing I’d never do to Hilda. A puppy into the apartment that isn’t house-broken.”

            “How’s the fiancée doing, anyhow? Pretty-young Hilda Hans; ya-ya!” Riley smirked, in a very poor German accent. He started to cross the intersection.

            “Pretty-young Hilda Renold-to-be is doing fine,” Harry replied stoutly, “and for the record, I’m proposing to her tomorrow night. I’m taking her to the- look out!-” Harry shouted, pointing ahead of him.

            Harry looked and saw that some idiot had tried to turn ahead of him. Riley slammed on the breaks as did the other driver, in an old, grey convertible. The other driver rolled down the passenger side window, glared out at Riley and shouted at him, waving a fist at him.

            “Nice one,” Harry laughed, taking a drink out of the coffee.

            While Harry drank, though, Riley noticed something extremely odd. Under the other driver’s coat was a strange medal. As Riley peered closer, he reeled back in a slight bit of confusion as he realized what it was, a brass swastika pinned to his sweater.

            The other driver, finally finished venting, drove off, going slightly over the speed limit. A good enough excuse, Riley mused as he followed the convertible in his black convertible. Harry finally finished chugging his extra large double-double and looked ahead of him, “So, you going to give him a ticket for cutting you off?”

            “No, he’s speeding. I’ll just follow him until he stops,” was the last thing Harry got out of Riley until they parked outside a hotel, where the other driver stopped. First he parked in front of the hotel, then ran inside, and after about five minutes, returned to his car and threw a large box in the trunk. The driver then got back into his car and drove into the underground parking beneath the hotel.

            Riley followed, leaving a bit of space between himself and the suspicious driver, who went down to the second basement of the parking garage. This was where Riley lost him; for the driver rounded the corner at an unbelievable speed and zipped down the ramp, whereas Riley approached it a little more slowly. When he drove his car to the bottom of the ramp, Riley discovered the car was nowhere to be found. Sure, there were other cars here, but the grey convertible had simply vanished.

            “Well, that’s certainly weird. We followed Houdini!” Harry laughed. Riley barely grinned as he backed out of the garage.

 

            January 20^th, 2008

            Riley continued to stare at the hotel parking garage entrance from his police cruiser. Harry was in the other seat again, though now he had reclined back and was playing with his finger nails.

            “We’ve been here for an hour already. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

            Riley didn’t look away from the garage entrance, but answered, “Not yet.”

            Harry groaned as he flicked a piece of pocket lint at the car ceiling. Riley ignored this, and thanks to his ignorance of his partner’s boredom, saw what he was waiting for. The grey convertible pulled up again to the front of the building. It was the exact same time as it was yesterday. Again, the same driver hopped out of his car and jogged into the hotel.

            “Watch the car,” Riley said, opening the door and getting out.

            “I’ll just-” was all Harry could get out as Riley slammed the door in his face. “I’ll just keep the car warm, then.”

            Riley walked into the hotel, through the doors and saw the driver heading into an elevator. Riley followed, and just as the elevator door was about to close, stuck his hand in, “Excuse me, may I come in?”

            The driver looked down from the ceiling at Riley, nodded and muttered something as he pushed the open door button. Riley scooted in, glanced at the elevators buttons, noticed that the basement button had been pushed, then pressed floor two.

            Again, as the doors closed, he heard the driver mutter something to himself, but it sounded like something along the lines of ‘Lazy cops’.

            When they arrived at the second floor, Riley got out and said good-bye to the driver, who just watched him as the elevator doors closed. Then Riley ran towards the stairs, down to the first floor and was astonished to see that there were no stairs heading down to the basement.

            Inquiring with the hotel desk clerk, he explained that the only way to the basement was through the elevator, though the basement was out of service and has been for some time.

            Riley crunched this information in his head as he meandered back to the cruiser. Harry was still there, although he was absent-mindedly listening to the officer’s radio. When Riley got back in, he said, “I think we missed a call for a robbery.”

            “We have more important business,” Riley explained, starting the car.

 

            A couple hours later, Riley and Harry closed the doors of the cruiser in the basement of the hotel. Harry had been briefed on the plan while they had headed back to the Police Bureau to obtain a search warrant, though Riley had a feeling that he’d need more than simply that for what he was getting into.

            Giving the warrant to the desk clerk to see, then to the hotel manager to see, it took a few minutes for Riley and Harry to actually get into the elevator. Once inside, Riley pushed the button to the basement floor, and the elevator descended for an alarmingly long period of time. It took a little over a minute for the elevator to go down a single floor…

            Once they reached the basement floor, the elevator stopped, and nothing more happened. Riley pushed the basement button again, but still nothing happened. Then a thought struck Harry, as he reached over to the control panel and press 4-2-0.

            “Four-twenty?” Riley asked.

            “We’re dealing with Nazis, right? It’s a stupidly simple code; I’ve seen the movie,” Harry smiled, shugging.

            Then, the elevator bell chimed as the door opened. Before them was a short hall made of concrete, a steel door at the other end, and a man. The man, clad in an earth-grey tunic, had a red band around his arm that bore the swastika, and in his hands, an assault rifle.

            “Eindringling! Polizei!” the man shouted, raising his gun and firing at both Riley and Harry. They threw themselves away from the open door and grabbed their guns from their holsters. When there was a pause, Riley leaned around the corner and fired a shot, punching through the man’s knee. He dropped down, but continued to fire. Again, another pause as Harry leaned around the corner and fired as well, clipping the man’s hand. But he still fired. “Zeig Hail!” he screamed, “Zeig Hail!”

            At the next pause, Riley rounded the corner and put a bullet into the man’s chest. That was enough to stop him. When the man had hit the floor, Riley and Harry moved towards the door. From beyond it, a siren wailing could be heard, as well as from above the sounds of a fire alarm.

            When they were both ready, Harry kicked in the door and they both found themselves in an unbelievable place. They were standing at the top of a large complex, easily three stories high, under the streets of Kitchener. At the very bottom was what seemed to be a factory, where what looked like a tank was being assembled. The story below them had a path leading around the perimeter of the walls, which were made of glass and looked as if they headed to office buildings. On this floor; another path-like ring that lead to steel doors around the perimeter. And, something that probably shouldn’t have surprised them, but did: a large swastika painted to the metal roof.

            “This is going to be one hell of a day,” Riley grimaced, checking the ammo in his gun.

            Harry laughed to himself, “See, just like the movies. We’ll go down stairs, kick some butt, take names, make some arrests and be heroes for stopping a conspiracy. What more do you want?”

            “Another smoke,” Riley answered, starting to head around the path.

 

To be continued…