The Fuse

Lin An put down his phone and shifted his gaze away from the text message.

When the gunfire suddenly erupted outside the window, crackling like someone setting off a string of damp firecrackers, Darnell sprang up from the floor, moving as fast as if he'd been electrocuted.

He rushed toward the front door with practiced ease, immediately locking the steel security door, then turned and dashed to the street-facing window, crouching down to lift a corner of the curtain while his mouth began an automatic broadcast.

"Motherfucker, it's a bunch of Ni Ge shooting at each other... let me see, the Rainstorm Gang are wearing blue bandanas, the ones opposite are the Crips... they're using cars as cover, that gray Ford, yeah, that's Old Jensen's, he's going to cry when he wakes up tomorrow morning...

Oh, some moron just shot the rearview mirror, mirror shards are flying everywhere, Old Jensen is going to be even sadder... I remember his insurance expired, this is bad, he's going to be bankrupt."

"Darnell."

"What?"

He turned back and froze.

Because two guns had appeared in Lin An's hands.

Two Glock 19s, and Lin An was holding one of them out toward him.

"Take it."

"Whoa!"

Darnell took the gun; his hands were large, making the Glock 19 look like a small toy in his grip.

"Bro, I'm truly touched, you're actually willing to share a gun with me, just like back at the abandoned factory..."

His voice was very low.

"But, let me ask you one question... just one."

Lin An tilted his head.

"Are you planning on rushing down there?"

Lin An didn't speak, he only smiled.

Darnell let out a loud sigh.

"I knew it... bro, why are you so combative?"

"Because it's interesting, it's fun."

"What's fun?"

"Shooting is fun."

"I really don't understand how your mind works."

Darnell said this while checking the gun in his hand.

Ejecting the magazine, checking the rounds, reloading, and racking the slide. His movements were so practiced he didn't even realize it himself.

"You can just stay here and guard the house, I'll handle everything downstairs by myself."

"Uh-huh."

Darnell grunted, not taking his bro's words to heart.

Lin An walked to the window and lifted the curtain.

Bullet Screen flowed along the edge of his vision.

[Seven people, three from the Rainstorm Gang, four from the Crips]

[The Rainstorm Gang is flanking from the alley next to the convenience store]

[That big guy from the Crips is using a Tec-9, a submachine gun that skirts the rules by being sold as a semi-auto pistol, that thing is a piece of junk, couldn't hit a cow from ten meters away]

[Streetlights are all out, ambient light is terrible, if the streamer goes down there it'll be a one-sided slaughter]

[Streamer: Darkness is my home turf]

[Boxes have been marked, seven red boxes, three blue and four red, blue is the Rainstorm Gang, red is the Crips]

The gunfire was intense. Lin An walked to the window and tilted his head to look down through the gap in the curtains. He was observing the situation; although the Bullet Screen had already marked the positions for him, he still wanted to see the battle with his own eyes so he would have a clear idea of what to do when he went down later.

Lin An tilted his head, his eyes pressed against the gap in the curtains. The muzzle flashes downstairs flickered in the darkness like several fluorescent light tubes that had all broken at once.

The Bullet Screen used red and blue boxes to clearly mark the positions of the seven gunmen on the street.

"Darnell."

"Uh-huh."

"Come to think of it, why are there shootouts in Jamaica every single day lately?"

Darnell, crouching on the other side of the window, perked up immediately upon hearing this.

"You haven't heard? The Crips have gone crazy."

"I've been running to the police station, I don't know the situation... how crazy are we talking?"

"They say their leader and some underlings went missing in the Jamaica Community."

Darnell spoke at high speed, broadcasting a piece of gossip that excited him.

"This area of Jamaica, you know, has always been Rainstorm Gang territory, for ten years, the rules have been set in stone... the Rainstorm Gang collects their protection money on Jamaica Avenue, the Crips handle their wholesale drugs on the north side, both sides separated by an abandoned auto repair shop, neither side crossing the line."

He paused, glancing out the window.

The gunfire stopped briefly; clearly, they were reloading.

The Bullet Screen was mocking the lack of professionalism on both sides.

"And then?"

"Then the Rainstorm Gang refused to admit it, saying they hadn't seen any Crips, and asked what the Crips were doing in South Jamaica, which is Rainstorm territory."

[I get it, the Japanese soldier disappearance incident, right?]

[Casus belli.]

"And then."

Lin An asked casually while observing the movement downstairs.

Darnell licked his lips.

"Then two days ago, Rainstorm gunmen crossed the auto repair shop, charged into Crips territory, attacked a stronghold, and killed everyone inside, claiming it was retaliation for the Crips robbing their armored truck."

He held up two fingers.

"Since that day, they've been fighting every night. Yesterday, in front of the laundromat on 107th Street, two Rainstorm guys fought three Crips. This afternoon in South Jamaica, Rainstorm cornered a Crips lieutenant at a gas station and broke both his legs with baseball bats. Now they're fighting again tonight."

He thought for a moment.

"Soap says this is what happens when gangs redraw their territories.

First they probe, then they retaliate, then they fight every day until one side can't take it anymore and pulls out, or until the police intervene. But the 103rd Precinct isn't likely to step in directly. Based on past experience, they'll wait until both sides are exhausted before they make a move."

Lin An withdrew his gaze from the gap in the curtains and fixed it on Darnell's face.

"I wouldn't know about that."

Darnell spread his hands.

"Isn't gang business just about trying to grab territory and selling Enhancement Serum all day?"

The gunfire outside rang out twice more, then stopped. Someone was shouting something, the sound filtered and blurred by the walls and distance.

Darnell looked down at the Glock in his hand.

Then he looked up at Lin An.

"Wait a minute, Bro."

"That money the Rainstorm Gang had stolen, it wouldn't happen to be that bag you picked up from the Abandoned Industrial Zone, would it?"

"It could be, or it might not be."

Lin An smiled.

"Do you think we should return that money to the Rainstorm guys?"

"How could we possibly..."

Darnell spun the Glock in his hand with a flashy move, nearly dropping it.

"We didn't steal the gun from the Rainstorm Gang; we picked it up from a trash heap, something nobody wanted..."

"Alright, it's about time."

Lin An stepped back from the window and pulled the slide, chambering a round.

"You're staying here to guard the house?"

"I'm going down with you."

He took a deep breath.

"Fine, I'll go down, but not because I want to. It's because if you die, Mom will think I didn't protect my friend, and she'll be very sad. Chen Meiling will blame me too... you know what I mean?"

Lin An didn't speak; he just kept smiling.

"Hey, listen to me, stop smiling..."

Darnell didn't finish his sentence before a new sound came from outside.

It was a siren, sudden and urgent.

Lin An and Darnell froze for a second, then quickly returned to the window, looking out from either side.

"What the f***, how did the police get here so fast?"

As they watched, two police cruisers tore in from the end of the street. The sound of tires screeching against the pavement was sharp and piercing, and the headlights cut two beams of light through the dark street, leaving the combatants nowhere to hide.

Before the cars had even come to a full stop, the doors were kicked open.

The moment the first leg stepped out, the blast of a shotgun rang out. A barrel poked through the open window and fired directly at the street without any warning.

A Rainstorm gunman immediately collapsed in front of a convenience store; the officer's first shot was incredibly accurate.

A second officer stepped out from the other side, pistol raised, and fired two shots. The big guy from the Crips holding a Tec-9 took a bullet to the forehead and collapsed onto the hood of a Ford.

[Holy s***, holy s***, holy s***]

[What kind of police are these, killing on sight?]

[Is the NYPD in 2009 really this intense?]

[No, wait, shouldn't they be shouting warnings first?]

[I recognize these two cops, it's O'Brien and Patrick.]

[What?]

[The boxes are labeled; the one on the left with the shotgun is Patrick, the one on the right with the pistol is O'Brien, and the other two are new faces.]

[How did they get here so fast?]

[Wait, they're coming this way.]

On the street, the remaining gang gunmen were completely stunned. Bro, why are you guys so aggressive?

They had been in a shootout for ages without a single death, but the police arrived and within ten seconds, there were two more corpses on the ground.

"Run! It's Mad Dog and the Cleaner... Damn it, how did they get here so fast!"

Once those who realized what was happening heard this, they started running. The gunmen from the Rainstorm Gang and the Crips fled together, bolting toward the other end of the street, diving into alleys, and running anywhere the police cruiser lights couldn't reach.

The four officers who stepped out of the car did not pursue them.

Patrick and the other new face stood guard, checking the bodies on the ground, while O'Brien and the other officer charged directly toward the apartment building where Dr. Lin An was located.

Soon, Dr. Lin An heard heavy footsteps echoing in the stairwell outside, leather shoes thudding against the concrete steps, each stride revealing a sense of urgency.

Thud, thud, thud...

Darnell's steel security door was being pounded on rather impolitely with a fist.

"Dr. Lin An, Dr. Lin An, are you in there!?"

It was O'Brien's voice.

Darnell froze. He looked down at the gun in his hand, looked at Dr. Lin An, then back at the security door, and instinctively handed the pistol over. Dr. Lin An took the Glock 19.

"Go open the door."

"No problem, who else would I do this for if not my good brother?"

Darnell cracked a joke while quickly walking toward the main door, but before opening it, he glanced back at Dr. Lin An.

Dr. Lin An stood in the center of the living room, empty-handed; the two Glock 19s from a moment ago had vanished completely, as if they had never existed.

Darnell opened his mouth, wanting to ask "Where did you hide them?", but ultimately just shook his head.

"Wizard."

He muttered under his breath, then turned and pulled the door open.

"Yo... Officer O'Brien!"

"Is Dr. Lin An here?"

O'Brien didn't even look at Darnell. With his shotgun in hand and the muzzle pointed down, his gaze swept past Darnell's shoulder, locking directly onto Dr. Lin An in the living room.

"He is."

Darnell stepped aside to let them in.

"Please, come in, come in. Don't be shy, make yourself at home..."

Before Darnell could finish his sentence, O'Brien had already stepped inside.

Following behind him was the other officer, a new face, younger, with his pistol in hand, his eyes scanning the room vigilantly.

Darnell recognized him; it was Donovan, a new cop at the 103rd Precinct who had just graduated from the police academy three months ago. He had been visiting the 103rd Precinct every day lately, so he was quite familiar with him.

"Close the door."

O'Brien ordered.

Darnell obediently closed the door.

As he was closing it, he saw through the crack that Patrick was walking up the stairs, his pace steady and unhurried, his right hand resting on the holster at his waist.

Patrick nodded at Darnell.

Darnell nodded back.

Then the door clicked shut.

In the living room, O'Brien stood before Dr. Lin An, his shotgun leaning against the sofa armrest. He looked a bit more energetic than the last time they met.

"Dr. Lin An, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

Dr. Lin An gave the patrol officer a smile.

"Officer O'Brien, you arrived very quickly."

"We were in the neighborhood."

O'Brien said.

"When we received the report of the shooting, our patrol car was just three blocks away."

He paused.

"You... didn't go down there, did you?"

Dr. Lin An raised an eyebrow.

"No, I was watching from the window."

O'Brien nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.

"That's good."

He said.

"We'll handle what's downstairs. You're an intellectual, don't go down there; the bodies are disgusting."

Darnell leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching the scene with a curl of his lip.

"Donovan, check the window."

Donovan walked over to the street-facing window, pulled back the curtain, and took a look outside.

"Clear."

O'Brien grunted in acknowledgment.

He turned to Dr. Lin An and offered a reminder.

"Dr. Lin An, try not to go out at night for the next few days. If you go out during the day, avoid places with few people... Or, when you need to head out, give me a call and I'll come pick you up..."

A knock at the door interrupted him.

"O'Brien."

Patrick's voice came from outside.

"Things downstairs are taken care of."

Donovan went to open the door, and Patrick walked in, his gloves stained with a bit of blood.

He nodded toward Dr. Lin An and exchanged a look with O'Brien.

"I called an ambulance as per protocol."

He said.

"But neither of them survived."

"The gun?"

"Secured."

Patrick patted the evidence bag at his waist.

"Tec-9, serial number filed off, eleven rounds left in the magazine."

O'Brien picked up the shotgun leaning against the sofa.

"Dr. Lin An, we have to go. There's still a report to write about what happened downstairs."

"Thank you for your hard work."

Dr. Lin An said.

O'Brien walked to the door and stopped.

"Dr. Lin An."

"Yes?"

"If you see anything or hear anything, remember to call. Don't dial 911, call my cell. My phone is on twenty-four hours a day."

Patrick followed behind, and as he reached the door, he also paused and glanced back at Dr. Lin An.

"Doctor, if you need a gun for self-defense, you can come to me... buying one at a gun shop isn't exactly convenient, after all."

Dr. Lin An tilted his head.

"Oh, thank you. I'll ask you if I need one."

He said.

Patrick nodded, turned, and left as well.

The door closed.