by Mike Ryan
Recker took out his phone and called Mia. Mia’s phone was in her pocket, but heard the ringer going off.
“I really should get that,” Mia said.
“Leave it,” the fake doctor replied.
“If I don’t answer it, they’ll know something’s wrong.”
“Fine. Answer it. But if you say one wrong word, I’ll kill you before you can finish the conversation.”
Mia nodded, then slowly took the phone out of her pocket. She saw it was Recker and hoped she would get an opportunity to say something that would let him know she was in trouble. She answered the phone, but Recker immediately started talking, not letting her get a word in.
“Hey, I need you to just listen to me and not say anything. Don’t do anything sudden and don’t say anything that’ll give me away. I know there’s a guy sitting across from you at your table.”
Mia started to turn her head as if she were going to look for her boyfriend, then quickly stopped.
“I told you, no sudden moves. Just listen.”
“Yeah, yeah, they just needed one more shot.”
“I’m already here so you don’t have to worry. Is that guy across from you a real doctor.”
“Uh, no, I don’t think I know that patient. What’s the deal with him?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds like a dangerous situation. Maybe if you sedate the patient first, that’ll help.”
“Does he have a gun?”
“The doctor said he did, but I don’t know if he knew what he was talking about.”
The man across from Mia put his finger in the air and started twirling it around, wanting her to wrap it up.
“OK, I’ve, uh, someone wants to talk to me about something so I have to go.”
“We’re coming.”
Mia looked at the man and smiled, holding the phone up, feeling a lot more confident about her situation. “Thanks for letting me take that. It was really important.”
Recker stood up. “He’s our guy. Let’s go.”
Malloy also immediately got up and walked over to Mia’s table. Mia saw Recker approaching and made sure not to give his position away by looking at him too long. She happened to look to her left and did a double take when she saw Malloy coming too. She put her eyes back on the man in front of her and coughed, making sure she gave them enough time to get to her before they got up.
“So are you gonna tell me what this is about?”
The man shrugged. “Someone wants me to bring you to them. That’s all I know.”
“This person have a name? Do I know them?”
“I dunno. And names are unimportant. All you gotta do is follow directions. If you do, maybe you’ll actually come back in one piece.”
“I doubt it.”
Before the man knew what was happening, and before they had a chance to get up, Recker and Malloy sat down on opposite sides of him, surprising him.
“If you’re thinking about using a gun, I’d strongly advise against it,” Recker said with a smile.
“You don’t look like a doctor,” Malloy said. He put his hands inside the man’s coat pockets and removed a gun, putting it inside his belt. Malloy then quickly patted the man down to see if he had anything else on him, which he didn’t.
“What is this about?” the man asked. “I’m just a doctor having dinner with one of my nurses.”
Malloy put his hand on the gun he just took off the man. “Oh yeah? This says otherwise.”
“Just use it for protection.”
“Really? This hospital in a bad neighborhood, is it?”
“I was about to go off shift, saw one of my nurses sitting here, decided to talk to her about something.”
Malloy smiled. “You don’t know who you’re sitting with, do you?”
The man looked at Malloy, confused, knowing there was something he was missing. Malloy then pointed at Recker.
“See the guy on the other side of you?” Malloy leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. “That’s her boyfriend.”
The man’s shoulders slumped and hung his head, knowing that he was the one now in a jam.
“We know you don’t work here.”
“So how ’bout you tell us what you’re doing here?” Recker asked.
“I’m not telling you guys nothin’.”
“Now that is not the right attitude to have.”
“Screw off.”
“Sadko send you?”
The man looked at Recker and sighed, not even giving him the time of day. “C’mon, I’m not gonna tell you guys anything. If you wanna call the cops, then call them and let’s go.”
Malloy grinned. “Oh, you ain’t getting off that easy. You know who I work for?” The man didn’t seem to care. “I work for a man named Vincent.” The man quickly spun his head to the side, obviously hearing the name before. “Oh yeah. That’s right.” Malloy leaned over again to whisper. “And I think he’s gonna wanna talk to you.”
“I’ll still have nothing to say.”
“I can be quite persuasive, you know.”
“I’m not saying anything.”
Malloy smiled, almost like he was going to enjoy the challenge. “We’ll see.” Malloy looked back at the doors and saw six of his men standing there, along with Haley. Malloy grabbed the man by the back of the shirt and pulled him off his chair and onto his feet. “C’mon, you’re coming with us.”
Before he was able to get more than a few steps away from the table, Recker grabbed Malloy’s arm. “Wait a minute. Where are you taking him?”
Malloy motioned for his men to come forward, while he gave his prisoner a small push in the back to propel him onward. “Vincent’s gonna want to talk to him.”
“Where?”
Malloy shrugged. “I dunno. One of the usual spots, I guess.”
“This is my deal.”
“This is on everyone. They’re after you now. But it’s likely Sadko intends to make a run at Vincent too.”
“And I know that. But I’m talking to him first.”
“OK.” Malloy motioned to his men to take the man out. “Take care of your girl and I’ll see you out in the parking lot in a few minutes.”
Recker thought he agreed to everything too easily, but then looked at Mia and didn’t have time to worry about it.
“You OK?”
Mia sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Unfortunately I’ve had too much practice at this sort of thing.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“What was the story this time?”
“I don’t know yet. I think he might work for the guy that took the shot at me.”
“What was he gonna do with me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well how did you know he’d be here?”
“Luck, really. Well, I guess it wasn’t luck. Got a tip. Someone who knew Tyrell. The guy just happened to overhear their plans here.”
“Well, that is kind of lucky. If he never heard, who knows what might have happened?”
“I dunno. I have a feeling you would have been protected, anyway.”
“What, you mean Malloy?”
“There're more eyes here than I thought.”
“Vincent put more men here?”
“Vincent’s already got people here. Even before this?”
“What? He’s got people working here all the time? How?”
Recker shrugged. “It’s Vincent. That’s really all that needs to be said.”
“I guess so.”
“I should be heading out. We’ll still be leaving some people here so you don’t have to worry.”
“I’m fine.”
“OK.” Recker gave her a hug and a kiss, then found Haley by the doors and headed out of the hospital.
As Recker and Haley left the hospital entrance and walked through the parking lot, they heard tires squealing. Within seconds, they saw a few familiar vehicles zoom by. Malloy was in one of the cars. He rolled the window down and stuck his thumb out to give his friends a p
layful greeting as they drove away.
“Go after them?” Haley asked.
Recker took a deep breath and shook his head. “No, I doubt they’re going to any of the usual places that we know. If they think we’re just gonna show up anyway, I doubt they’d go through this.”
“What’s the point of ditching us?”
“I have a feeling Vincent’s got something special in mind.”
“Hope he clues us in.”
“Somehow I doubt it.”
9
Malloy, with the help of a couple of others, brought the man into a small ten by ten foot room. There was a wooden chair in the middle of the room, but nothing else except for the light fixture hanging overhead that didn’t have a cover for it, exposing the dimly lit bulb. It was straight out of one of those old movie scenes where the cops are questioning the bad guys, using bad lighting to try to intimidate some key piece of information out of someone. Only this was no movie. There wasn’t a single other thing in the room. Nothing on the walls, the floors were some kind of tile, though with the bad lighting, and the floor being dirty, it was hard to tell exactly what kind it was.
Malloy shoved the man onto the chair, then walked out of the room as the others held the man in place. He came back in less than a minute later, holding some zip ties in his hands. He walked behind the man and brought his hands in back of the chair and tied them together. The man immediately tried to free himself, but the ties were locked on tight, and he couldn’t do so.
“What are you guys doing?!”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Malloy said.
Then, he and the two others walked back out of the room, leaving the man alone for a few minutes to dream up some fears about what might be happening. Malloy and the others stood outside the door, waiting for Vincent to show up. He did five minutes later.
“What’s the situation?” Vincent asked.
“Like I told you, we got him in the cafeteria, brought him right here,” Malloy answered.
“Our friends?”
“Left them behind. Felt kind of bad ditching them like that, but…”
Vincent put his hand up. “I’ll make it good with Mike. It had to be done this way. They most likely wouldn’t approve of what we’re about to do. We’ll have more freedom to operate without them in the picture.” Malloy nodded. “Ask him any questions yet?”
Malloy shrugged. “Asked him a few on the way over here. Didn’t get anything. He’s clamming up.”
“Well we’ll just have to do something about that, won’t we? Jimmy in with me, you other guys stay out here.”
Vincent walked into the room, Malloy right behind him, who then closed the door. The man in the hot seat was already sweating bullets. Ten minutes in a dark room with nothing but your own scary thoughts to keep you busy was enough for anyone to stomach.
“You know who I am?” Vincent asked. The man nodded. “Well that puts me at a disadvantage because I don’t know who you are. Let’s start with that.”
The man looked at him, then Malloy, then figured he should get off on the right foot. “Jace.”
Vincent grinned. “That’s a good start. How about you now start by telling me what Sadko’s intentions were with the girl at the hospital?”
Jace immediately started shaking his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Malloy instantly stepped in and delivered a powerful right hand that rocked Jace’s head back, almost tipping his chair over.
“You see, in interrogations such as this one, ambivalent answers are not the way to go,” Vincent said. “I don’t want to hear, I don’t know. Or maybe. Or I’m not sure. Or anything else that signifies a weak response. You understand?”
Jace was squeezing his face to try to block out the pain from the right hand he just took. He spit on the floor to see if he was bleeding, which he wasn’t. He was breathing heavier.
“What I want to hear is a legitimate and honest answer to my questions,” Vincent said. “Is that understood?” Jace nodded. “So when I ask a question, you better give me the right answer. The honest answer. Any hesitations, any deceitful answers, anything that makes it look like you’re trying to stall, you’re gonna wind up in a lot of pain. I want to hear you say it.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Because I want to let another thought ruminate in that mind of yours. There’s nobody coming for you. There’s no one coming to save you. The only way you’re leaving here on your own, is if I allow it. So if I don’t feel as if you’re helping me, you’re going to leave here in a box. Nobody knows you’re here.”
“I understand.”
“Good. What was Sadko planning on doing with the girl?”
Jace shook his head briefly. “I don’t know. I really don’t. He just said to get her and bring her to him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me yet. He just said that when I had her, I was to call him, and then he would give me further instructions on where to go.”
“Was he planning on killing her?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. He didn’t say what his plans were.”
“What are his plans overall?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent sighed, already getting tired of hearing that answer. He looked at his underling and nodded. Malloy walked out of the room for a minute. While he waited, Vincent leaned his back up against the wall and looked at their prisoner. Malloy returned, holding a large pair of bolt cutters in his hand. Vincent detached himself from the wall and moved closer to the seated man.
“What are Justin Sadko’s plans?”
“I don’t know,” Jace answered.
Malloy moved in behind the seat and knelt down, placing one of Jace’s fingers in between the bolt cutters. He then started to squeeze them, causing an immense amount of pressure on Jace’s finger. Jace closed his eyes and scrunched his face together and began tapping his foot on the floor to try to block out the pain.
“I’m not going to ask you again,” Vincent said.
“I don’t know! I don’t know!”
Malloy immediately pressed down and twisted on Jace’s index finger, about halfway to the knuckle, ripping part of the finger completely off the bone. Jace let out a terrifying scream as he felt the blood dripping from the part of his flesh where his finger used to be. Vincent looked on, unconcerned about the man’s plight.
“You’re going to need to get to a hospital soon,” Vincent said calmly. “I would suggest working with us so you can get the help you need. Otherwise, we can keep you here for hours upon hours until a doctor is no longer needed. You’ll bleed out, you’ll go into shock, have an infection… I mean, I’m no doctor, so I can only assume that’s what will happen. But I would think you don’t have hours to wait. So I guess the question is now… how much do you value your life?”
Jace was in obvious pain from the expressions on his face. He just wanted to keel over, though it wasn’t possible with the ties holding him up to the chair. Malloy put his hand on his shoulder to also keep him in his current spot and not tip the chair over.
“Let’s try this again,” Vincent said. “Are you one of Sadko’s men?”
“Yes.”
“How many more does he have.”
“I don’t know,” Jace said, breathing heavily.
Malloy took the bolt cutters and placed them on another finger. As soon as Jace felt them, he immediately started getting worried.
“How many digits would you like to lose?” Vincent asked.
“Umm, no, wait, I’ll tell you, wait… uh, ten. No, fifteen. Yeah, fifteen.”
Malloy took the cutters off his finger. Vincent continued his line of questioning.
“What are Sadko’s plans?”
“Umm, he hasn’t told me specifics.”
“OK. Generalities.”
“Uh, he wants to get The Silencer out of the picture.”
“Why?”
Jace shook his head, still
trying to catch his breath. “I don’t know. He just feels that if he’s gonna take over the city, he’s gotta get rid of him first.”
“So he has plans on taking me on as well?”
Jace nodded. “I think so. I think he first wanted to get him out of the way. Then when he did, he was gonna try to start picking up territory from you.”
“How was he going to accomplish that?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t gone over specifics. He just says he knows how you operate and that he knows how he can start picking you apart a little at a time.”
Vincent glanced at Malloy, slightly alarmed at the last statement. “Where is his base of operations?”
“He doesn’t have a regular spot yet. That’s one of the ways he said he can get over on you. If you don’t know where he is all the time, then you can’t mount a counter maneuver on him. He can always have the upper hand.”
“He must have a spot where he gets everyone together.”
“It changes every week.”
“To where?”
“Different places. One week it’s a motel room. The next week is in a park. Then a warehouse. Then an amusement park. Then a restaurant. It’s never the same place twice.”
“How does he communicate with everyone?”
“When he wants to meet, he gives everyone a couple hours of a heads-up, that way it doesn’t leak out to anyone too far in advance.”
“And other than that?”
“He just calls or texts people what he wants them to do.”
“How is he recruiting people?”
“Umm, I don’t know. He doesn’t involve me in that.”
“Well how did he recruit you?”
Jace looked around the room like he was having trouble focusing. “I don’t know, he just found me one day.”
“Where?”
“Umm, at a bar. Just came up to me and started talking. Seemed to know who I was already.”
“How did he get you to get on board with him?”
“Uh, said there was a chance to make a lot of money. Said it wouldn’t be easy and it might take some time. But we would have a lot of it if we could get a few people out of the way first. Asked if I was opposed to getting involved in some dangerous stuff or if I had a problem doing things that weren’t legal.”
