"Nicolas! How was vacation?" Mister Tullis greeted me when I entered his office.
I gave him a courteous smile. "Fine boss, it was fine."
He guffawed. "Fine? That's it? I give you two weeks of sun, fun and strange twat and it was just fine?" He shook his head a bit. "I would have expected 'fucking fabulous' not 'fine' for two weeks of that."
I laughed implying a provocative thought. "It was fucking fabulous boss, fucking, heavy on the fucking, fabulous."
He laughed in return. "Now that's more like it. So, how many twats did you stuff?" He asked. "Or was it too many to count?"
I held my evil fun smile. "Ah, yeah, I never kept count. What can I say, once you fuck one, you want to fuck 'em all." I gave an appropriate laugh for the situation. "And there was a lot of hot young ass around, a lot!"
"Yeah, I bet there was." The boss answered, his expression and tone changed completely, almost accusing. His eyes became cold, well, colder than usual. This gave me an odd feeling. I felt uncomfortable now.
There were two Scotsman standing behind me, one to each side. Giving the boss's change in attitude, this made me nervous and even more uncomfortable. I didn't think he'd have one of them blow my brains out in his nicely decorated office and wreck the carpet. But that didn't mean I couldn't get my neck snapped. Brandon, the large Scot on my left side, large was an understatement, he could snap someone's neck with one ham sized hand.
I held a hand out towards one of the easy chairs in front of his desk. "Alright if I sit?"
"Yeah, sure, why the fuck not. Sit down Nick." Mister Tullis answered.
I had intended to find out more about what was happening in the Felcrest girl's murder, what else Tullis had up his sleeve. I thought better of it and went to the prime topic as to why he'd brought me here.
"So what's this meet you want me to handle?" I began with.
Tullis looked to one of the boys who were behind me, still in the same spots, and gave a short quick nod. My asshole clenched. When I heard the door latch snap closed behind me I turned my head and looked back. Tullis and I were alone. I knew he kept a .45 hidden under his desk. Though I couldn't see what he did, I could tell by his body movements above the desk line he fondled the gun. Making sure of its position and status just incase he needed it.
Truth be told, had I wanted to kill him right now, I would do just that, gun or no gun, I'd take him out. The boys had frisked me to make sure I didn't have a gun on me, and I hadn't, but that was as far as they went. Knives, or other quiet small weapons would've been easy to smuggle in. Of course they weren't expecting trouble from me, a loyal servant of the family for decades.
Tullis looked me over without saying a word.
My little voice was far from silent. Now it was somewhat loud and very nagging. There was something in Tullis' eyes that wasn't... 'normal' as he looked me over; and it wasn't because of the vacation. Maybe he'd tried to have me followed; find out where I really was going on vacation. I left on vacation and he had no idea where I went, whom I was with or what I did. That would really chap his ass. Maybe tried to follow me, right, I know he did. I lost the tail very fast. But that was a necessity in my life. It bothered him that I lost his tail, but it wasn't something he should be pissed about or hold against me; it showed how good I was at avoiding a tail.
Still, there was something amiss. I'd known Tullis long before he became the syndicate's head Paw. Before his father retired, Tullis and I had worked together; his father had wanted him to learn from me. I was the best, the best at everything I did. During that time we'd became rather close. Once he became Paw, that facet of our relationship was removed instantly. But I still knew him well. Tullis was hiding something from me, but what, was the question.
"This meet, new gang in town, been making a name for themselves; they're looking to move up, get connected. I need you to feel them out, see if they're worth my investment." Tullis said as he continued to look me over.
Some fresh talent. Yeah, figures. When some new talent caught the boss's eye or wanted to become part of the bigger picture of the criminal family, either myself or Pyrite did the initial contact for Tullis. If they got a favorable review from us, the boss would farm them out to one of the lesser Paws to use and try out a couple times. If they did well, Tullis might let them get connected.
This is where I came in. I'd size them up, read their people running the show and decide if they had the stuff we wanted in a syndicate gang. If things went well, they'd get things like equipment (guns), money and other stuff useful to them. If things didn't go well, we might let them be with a message to stay off our turf or wipe them out to spare us any troubles in the future.
"The leader of the pack is a kid by the name of Zackeriah, calls himself 'the big Z' and has about 20 people in his gang. They operate in the Bellary part of town." Tullis said giving me their short story.
The Bellary part of town, made sense the boss would want to control this gang. That was an area we had a strong hold on. Any gang there would have to pay the boss homage or find themselves in a car grinder getting 'recycled'.
"What's their bit?" I asked.
The boss gave a snort. "The usual. Drugs, stealing, protection. The big Z has gotten into loan sharking and bookmaking. They've done okay, want into the big leagues now." Tullis said.
I nodded. If they'd been sharking and working as bookies, they were definitely on our turf.
"We could use some fresh talent in those lines there." Tullis stated.
"When and where? Who else is with me? Pyrite?" I asked the standard questions.
Tullis was still looking me over, I didn't like that. "You're it Nick, it's just a meet." He told me then picked up an envelope off the top of his desk and held it out to me. It was a plain white business sized envelope, I took it from him. "Details are in there. Read it, destroy it, you know the drill." Tullis was finished with me now. I had my assignment, time to leave.
Standing up I put the envelope in my coat pocket, gave a head nod to the boss acknowledging his order then walked to the door. My hand was on the knob.
"Come back here as soon as you're finished. Got it?" He ordered. Turning just my head and shoulders I looked back and nodded again. "Go." Tullis said after I nodded at him. I opened the door and strode out.
I left the skyscraper Tullis called his office. Tullis and Company held the top eight floors of the 44 story structure. Tullis' father had built it and it was a legitimate business with some 120 corporations renting space from Tullis. Some were companies that Tullis had an interest in, they moved here after the syndicate had forced them to play ball with them. Tullis determined their rent, and the company paid it, no argument.
Making sure I had no tails, I went to a non syndicate flat I rented; there I opened the envelope and looked the contents over. My bonus was in there, in the form of a generic prepaid credit card. I would take the card to my bank and deposit the money to an account the syndicate knew about. The cards were 'untraceable' on the 'who' end, but the 'where' funds were used would be available information. I'd transfer the funds manually later.
Also inside was a paper with the time and location of the meet. It would happen in a warehouse district in NewBrittanCity. Nothing out of place in that. These type of meetings weren't held in a conference room at the hotel Ritz. The time was after dark would set. Again, normal, but my voice wouldn't shut up.
-_-_-_-_-_
The rental car I was in was rented from an agency mister Tullis owned and rented on a BlueSky account. This made a discernable disconnect from mister Tullis himself even though he owned both companies.
As I approached the area the meet was to happen, my voice said, 'look around first, don't drive straight to the meet destination. Cruise around, look from a different angle.' I drove past where I should've turned to head to the warehouse the meet was supposed to happen at. Once I was down a couple blocks from the turn, I turned right and went down several blocks then turned right again. On the opposite side where I would have entered where the street dead ended, there was a building a good five stories higher than the one I was supposed to be at. I pulled into the parking area across from it and made my way to the roof of the building.
From here I had a perfect vantage point to observe the building the meet was set for. I was early, my voice had prompted me to leave early, so I had.
Looking through my field glass, I gave the front of the building a good once over. There were several young boys patrolling in front of the building with one standing by the door. The ones patrolling were armed with some decent hardware; fully automatic. The boy by the door didn't carry a rifle like the others, however, he'd be armed as well. Seemed a bit much for a meet, not out of the question, lookouts were always needed, still, it seemed a bit much.
This put my senses in high gear. I looked the young boys over, making a mental note of the gang emblem they wore. I didn't associate it with anything, though I thought I'd seen it before. I decided to take a look through the heat vision and see how many were in the building and who I'd missed outside.
Inside the building the meet was supposed to be at, there were only two other people, and they were positioned in tactical locations, not like I'd have expected if they were there for a meet.
Looking the building itself over, I didn't see any area like a conference room or a large break room where we'd sit down and discuss association with the boss. I could make out a forklift in the main area of the warehouse, some offices that were small, nothing that made the place suitable for a meet unless we were all going to stand in the middle of the loading area by the forklift.
Moving my view to outside of the building, I found other heat signatures from people I hadn't seen on the ground. The patterns of heat told me they were packing heat, not like what the guards were carrying, these boys were positioned behind sniper rifles. At least that was what I was guessing from reading the heat patterns.
Now I wanted to be able to listen in to the conversation between the boys. I hadn't brought my ears up with me so I went back down to my rental and retrieved the parabolic microphone and headset; then I checked my time and returned to the roof.
"Any sign of him yet?" I heard a boy say while I moved the microphone into position.
"Nada, still 10 minutes before the shits supposed to be here." Boy two answered.
The microphone was in place, I started the digital recorder on it then pulled up my heat vision and started recording. I panned the camera around getting the full lay of the land and where each person was, then I pulled the field of view back and got the high resolution video camera set up to record in low light.
Once that was positioned I pulled my field glass, sat down by the screen that showed the heat signatures and watched and listened to what was going on down on the ground. There was a slim chance I'd be noticed, but I was going with the assumption that they wouldn't look up in my direction.
The view through the field glass was dark, night was fully in and the only light was from the sodium light by the door of the warehouse. I kept one eye through the field glass, and the other on the screen of the spectroscope.
"Killer K, anything?" A voice from down on the ground asked as he spoke into a radio.
I looked over at the display of the scanner on my parabolic microphone set up, it found their signal. However, when I locked onto it and tried to hear, all I got was digital noise.
"Damn it! That figures." I said out loud to myself in a muffled voice.
So much for hearing the other end of the conversation; I was hoping they'd be using cheap store bought walkie-talkies. Scrambled digital radios, these kids had some brains.
"Fuck, let me know if anything so much as wiggles, got it?" The voice from the ground responded to whatever Killer K had said.
Street names. I wondered if they would scatter if they knew they were having their meet with 'The Arrow.'
This was clearly a setup. Bat-shit crazy is what it was. Taking out a syndicate boy when you're moving in on syndicate turf; good way to get your entire gang dead fast.
"Got a live one, make ready." The voice from the ground said, one of the others must have reported movement of some kind; I gave a look around.
Headlights on the road I'd passed by on. A car was approaching. If these kids were jittery and green, which I suspected they were, the driver might get blasted.
"Pork rind, everyone make small!" The voice on the ground ordered.
Imperial police, everyone knew what pork rind, pigs, and oinks meant. A New Brittan Imperial Police squad car turned down the drive that led to the parking lot in front of the warehouse the meet was supposed to happen at. Would they lose it and punch his clock from nerves? The car stopped right across from the doorway of the warehouse, fully in the line of fire from the snipers.
The emergency lights on the top of the squad car and in the grill lit the night up when they came on. No gunfire yet but the kids had to be shitting themselves. The squad backed up fast and turned so the car was facing back towards the direction it had come from. The siren blasted to life extinguishing the silence of the night then the cop roared off towards the call he'd received. No one shot at him. They showed a bit of seasoning and restraint.
"Fuck, what the hell!" The voice from the ground said, I assumed he was just talking to himself and not on the radio.
"We gonna stay Frankie? We should bug out dude, that shit was too close yah know, too close. What if that dude had shown up when that piece of pork was here Frankie?" A different voice said from the ground.
"Shudd-up. I know you shit-head. Everyone cool?" The leader of the pack said, I assumed the question part of what he said was across the radio.
"He ain't showing Frankie; that spooked him, he saw that Frankie, he spooked out, we should go too Frankie." The different voice from the ground said in practically a whine.
"Shut the fuck up yah fucking puppy-pisser. We'll leave when we're told to leave, got it." The leader of the pack replied to the fidgety boy beside him that wanted to leave. "I swear Laurence, if you weren't my brother I'd..."
I took the headset off before Frankie finished his sentence. I'd heard enough. This was a setup and when I showed mister Tullis the evidence I had of that fact, I'd be in the clear for not making the meet. After I reported in, I most likely would be seeing Frankie and his gang again; only this time through Alice's scope.
A smile crossed my lips. Hopefully I'd be able to pin a few of these boys to a wall... in mid air even.
-_-_-_-_-_
The look in Tullis' eyes when I entered his office, was pure venom. His gaze, pristine hatred. My little brain voice was screaming, the only problem, I couldn't understand a word it was saying. Only one word made it through, the last word, 'trap'; that was the word. The meet had been just that, a 'trap'.
"It was a setup boss, they didn't want connection; I don't know what their deal was, war?" I said war, war didn't make sense; I had no idea why I said 'war'. It just popped into my head. What kind of war could 20 kids stage against the entire Scottish syndicate? A two minute war? My mind was still wrestling with the reason they'd want to hit a syndicate boy. That was paramount to suicide.
"Setup? What the fuck you mean 'setup'?" Tullis snarled at me.
"Fuck, what do you think I mean, it was a setup. You know what a fucking setup is don't you Tullis? They were laying in wait. If I'd-a gone to that warehouse, they'd have tried to toast my ass!" I answered hard.
I'd slipped, I hadn't called him mister Tullis. In my mind lately I'd been thinking Tullis instead of mister Tullis as I usually did. His eyes burned at me now.
"I have data, proof, stuff I'd know you'd want to see boss." I pulled out the flash drive I'd put the clipped version of the video and sound together on and held it out to him. "These kids wanted to fuck with you mister Tullis." I put a little extra on the words 'boss' and 'mister Tullis' to try and make up for just calling him Tullis.
Tullis... mister Tullis, I had to think his name right or I'd fuckup again, pointed to the top of his desk. I dropped the flash drive on the desk. He picked it up looking at it for a long moment as he held it, then he looked at me. His face was cold, just like his eyes. He was keeping his emotions from his face; fighting to keep anything from showing. This was something new for him.
Turning from me he put the flash drive in the USB slot on his desk then took the controls for the computer in hand and opened the drive. There were only two files on it, a video compile and raw (mostly) audio. He opened the video file, watched and listened to what played. I'd worked the audio in at the appropriate places in the video when I edited it.
Fuck-face's expression never changed as he watched the video. Fuck-face? I was really developing a hatred of my own for my boss, more so than usual; way beyond my normal hate for him. What was going on inside of me? I'd have to be careful, else I would call him Fuck-face. My entire attitude towards him had changed, ever since... ever since Becky Felcrest. But it was more than her and what the boss had tricked me into doing, I just couldn't pinpoint what it was.
"You're right Nicholas, it was a setup." Tullis said before turning his attention to me.
"How you want us to handle this mister Tullis?" Samson asked, he was the other boy in the room with me, kind of a right hand to the boss. He wasn't fully Scottish, as I understood it, he had an eighth German in him.
"You two, out!" The boss ordered pointing to the door.
Without anything else said, Samson and I turned and left the room. I knew what would happen next. So did Samson, we all knew. You could've counted down the seconds, right on time, the door opened and Murdock walked out. He never looked at anyone as he left, he just walked away.
As Murdock walked away from us, I looked at the mark on the back of his neck. He bore the markings of an Imperial slave. His kind were a different breed of slave. Being an Imperial slave meant he was a child born out of wedlock and therefore destined to become a soldier. The imperial government would have taken him from his mother since she wasn't married and raised him to be a fighting boy for his country.
Since he was a slave, that meant he'd excelled in his training and been furthered into Special Services Division; these people typically became bodyguards for the elected King or Queen, Lords of a state, Senators, Dukes and other high ranking government officials either elected or appointed. Any 'surplus' bodyguards were sold to the general public, if they could afford them. Imperial slaves were among the most expensive, and their imperial training assured their master of their loyalty.
The other side of the coin, which was true for all slaves, was that their masters couldn't involve them in any illegal activities. With an Imperial slave, even the knowledge of illegal activity was... unwise. Imperial slaves would report anything illegal to their Charge, which was the Imperial government. They were loyal to their masters, however, their first loyalty was to the King or Queen and the laws of the country. Just have to admire nationalism at this moment, don't you?
And it is for this reason, Murdock was ordered away by his master, Tullis. The boss called us back into the room. Now discussion of how we would handle this matter with this deceptive gang would continue, which would most likely, assuredly, include punching their clocks.
-_-_-_-_-_
Tullis had finished his spewing rant. At some point of his fuming spiel Boomer entered the room and stood with Samson and I. Boomer was his nickname because of what his specialty was, explosives, naturally. His real name was Marvin Blake. Whenever the boss blew anyone up, it was Boomer's work that accomplished the task.
"You!" The boss yelled, pointing at me. "Get your ass to your room and stay there, until I call for you, got it?"
"Yes mister Tullis." I answered, nodding my head as I did.
"And you two's, you know what the fuck to do, get on it." He said to Samson on my right, and Boomer on my left.
My brain voice was a chatterbox now; rattling on warnings, telling me to get my head out of my ass. Only it wasn't my usual voice, it'd become the voice of my adoptive father, my mentor, mister Gagucci. And that voice was accurate as it told me things dear old adoptive 'father' mister Gagucci used to tell me; things he said would keep me alive.
As the three of us shifted our bodies to turn and leave the room, Tullis looked at Boomer. It was mostly with my peripheral vision that I saw the small nod he gave to Boomer.
Samson and Boomer went off in their directions and I made my way to the elevators.
That nod, like one would give someone asking if everything was set for some covert mission you'd assigned to them. Boomer had responded in kind, confirming 'all's ready boss'. This thought ran through my mind as the elevator doors closed.
What 'mission' would the boss have Boomer on that he'd keep so secret from Samson and myself? Boomer was the boss's bomb maker, placer, and detonator. Who was the boss killing that he didn't want the rest of us to know about, especially his assassin? Usually I did the recon work for Boomer. I had been gone for just over two weeks. Something wasn't sitting right with me.
The elevator started its downward travel. "Yeah, sure thing Nick, tomorrow." That's what Samson had said after I said "Samson, you want to do lunch tomorrow at Benny's Loft?" Benny's was an up class joint, Benny's Loft was the upstairs seating area outside with the view. "I got stuff to do Nick." Samson had said just before he turned and went towards where his office was.
My mind cleared, thoughts focused like they hadn't for a long time. I'd been distracted, had my head in twat; my thoughts had kept returning to Sheila, she'd been on my mind constantly the past... year, two years? That's why I hadn't been thinking clearly, seeing what I needed to see. It wasn't her fault. I allowed myself to be distracted and become complacent. I was a damn fool.
Samson's words carried a tone like someone saying goodbye to a dying friend or loved one. In all the years Samson and I had known each other, he'd always answered affirmatively, 'yes, tomorrow, how's 11:30 for you' something like that or 'no, I can't make it tomorrow, Friday?'. "Yeah, sure thing Nick, tomorrow" was out of character for him. Samson knew something, and that something directly affected me.
Then there was the ever-so-slight, you really had to be paying attention to see them, nods between Tullis and Marvin. It was late, Boomer wouldn't have been at the office if he'd been out doing his dirty deed. He'd have reported in via a text, like I usually did. But the boss, Fuck-face had ordered me in. I hadn't done the meet, it was a setup. Fuck-face didn't ask for proof as normal, having it put in the cloud, rather he told me to bring it to him at the office, where Boomer was.
He'd also sent Murdock away, and punching the punks clocks wasn't in the discussion. True, there were other things mentioned that weren't exactly 'legal' but nothing that warranted sending his bodyguard away. Well, maybe, it was a vastly gray area at best and sending Murdock away was the smart thing considering Fuck-face didn't know what we might say. From his secret hiding spot, Murdock would hear everything.
Okay, so Murdock was a non-issue. Why would the boss want to punch my clock? The slave girl? He'd resolved that issue, unless for some reason Ziffel survived the surgery, highly unlikely though. Or was there something that made The Arrow still a suspect. He'd want to punch my clock before I was arrested.
Was I jumping to conclusions? It may have just been normal business between Boomer and Tullis, Samson looked tired, maybe I was making too much of his response. No, I was a 'mark' for some reason. Had he found out about Sheila? If he had, he'd execute her right in front of me, after he'd forced her to talk. If he'd done that, he'd know about my intentions to leave the syndicate. That would explain the setup and his ill reception of me on my return. I wasn't supposed to come back.
If that were the case, Sheila would already be dead; currently in some holding cell Tullis had hidden somewhere with the shit kicked out of her; waiting until she was thrown down onto the floor in front of me, then shot in the forehead. Even if she were alive right this moment, she was still dead; wait for it. Unless he'd arranged it somehow that we both die at the same time, so I'd see her in some distressed situation before... Boomer's work finished us off.
The elevator was getting close to the parking level. There could be a greeting waiting for me on the outside of the elevator. I punched a button hoping I'd hit it soon enough to stop above the floor of the parking garage I'd originally selected.
The elevator started slowing then stopped. I'd hit the button in time. Still, I tucked into a corner as the doors opened and kept a keen eye out as I exited. All was clear. I headed to the stairs and used them to access the parking level. I looked around the garage, no one. I got down on the ground and looked under all the cars. Nothing. I'd be on camera now, I was sure Fuck-face was watching.
My progress towards my rental car was slowed by my observing everything. This might tip the boss into action, he might send guns to end this, he was an impatient son-of-a bitch. But rushing things could be detrimental to my health also. And he'd had Boomer in the office...
Giving the car a careful look as I approached my voice started saying 'Danger Will Robinson, danger Will Robinson!" in a robotic voice that was a kickback to some old television show, in black and white? Or was it color and my memory was black and white? I pulled the keys to the rental from my pocket, looking at the key to the car and the buttons on it, my mind worked the scenarios.
Would Fuck-face have me blown up in a parking garage in his building? The car was in a reserved spot; the sign said BlueSky with the company's logo above my BlueSky alias. BlueSky, like every other airline, had been targeted by radical groups and had terrorist attacks made against them. Several people from various airlines had been blown up in car bombs. BlueSky had their corporate offices in this building. Thus, an executive from the company getting bombed, especially an international executive, wouldn't raise the wrong type of questions.
I thought about looking under the car, bad idea, that would bring in the guns. Most people used the remote to unlock their cars. They also usually approached from the drivers side or rear. If Boomer had rigged his bomb to the remote, only range would work against him. No, he wouldn't have rigged it that way, even with a time delay. Tullis would want a guaranteed kill, therefore, he'd want me inside of the vehicle.
I moved to the back of the car and used the key to open the trunk instead of the remote. Still alive. I removed my bags from the trunk, wiped off the key then dropped it in the trunk. After I closed the trunk carefully, I grabbed my bags and hotfooted it out of the garage. Fuck-face would've been watching, the guns were on their way now.
I went up the parking garage ramp to the main street and hailed a cab. It was a New Brittan Cab Company cab, owned by Tullis, as expected. I had the cabbie drive me to where my 'room' was that Tullis had sent me to. I knew he'd be having the cabbie asked where he dropped me. I stuffed the cellular phone I'd been using behind the seat before I got out. The cabbie opened the trunk and took my bags out for me. He drove away slowly while I stepped up onto the sidewalk and started towards the entry. I looked over and watched him, not hiding that I was watching him at all.
Once the cab was out of sight, I changed directions and went to a blind side of the apartment building out of camera view and slipped in between the manicured trees and the brick wall of the building and made my way to the end of the building and out of sight of the cameras. Now clear of all eyes, I worked my way to a safer location, changing clothes at one point as I evaded any tails.
I made a point of passing by one place where I knew there was easy outside access to an incinerator. Assuming Tullis had had me bugged so he could track me, I pitched the clothes I'd changed out of, shoes and all, into the incinerator then turned it on and made my way to one of the many locations I had stuff stashed around the big city.