“Do you ever get that feeling, like a tickle in the back of your throat, that a thing is about to go down, but you don’t know who to call?”
“Yeah, like you showing up on my doorstep, but I’m with you,” Mann said, “so where do we start?”
Mann poured two fingers of dark brandy in a snifter, and handed one glass to Mr. Exit. Mann too had questions and a few concerns and could sense a thing in the air, but wasn’t sure how to approach it. Exhaling a deep, brandy laced breath, he waited. There was no way he was going to show his hand before the dealer finished parceling out the cards.
“Funny, you weren’t worried about me showing up. Most people know if I’m coming their way, they get a bit nervous,” Exit said.
“Usually, if you’re coming to kill a mutherfucker, you don’t call prior to your arrival. Besides, why would Beauty send you for me?”
Mr. Exit took a seat across from The Mann. “I don’t work for Beauty. I’m a member of the Southeast Construction Crew, but I don’t report to her. My orders come directly from the top.”
Mann gave a wry smile, volunteering a modicum of information to see if Exit could piece together the rest, “Beauty is my aunt, by marriage.”
“Meaning, the big man is your father.”
“The big man is my biological, but a fellow called Sheriff Mann, raised me and gave me his name. Kurtzwilde’s brother, Oscar, who was married to Beauty, but met an untimely death on my front porch, put me into service,” he said. “I had to do it to protect my mother from the voice you speak to on the phone.”
“Okay, information received and doing a quick pivot—how do you know the Archangel?”
“How does anybody know that dude?” Mann said, leaning forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
“The mailbox next door said Neary. Any relation to Josiah?”
Mann took a sip of the dark liquor, meeting Exit’s eyes. “Joe used to own the place. His eldest Zeke lives there now.”
“Zeke Neary. He was the one to bring Wrong Way to Louisville and into the technician, Slow’s neck of the woods,” Exit offered. “I’m concerned since the Glitter Man took her out of play. She was the one thread that kept us all connected, whether we want to admit it or not. In a way, she kind of made us family.”
“This is a shitty ass family,” Mann replied. “And how do you figure into that equation?”
“Before, after, and sometimes during a job, she is always on hand,” Exit said. “I had one job about five years back. Sick bastard. Caught him in the act of doing the thing I got sent to make him stop doing. It left me shook to witness such a horrible transgression on a child. I made a mess of that man; I couldn’t stop killing him. She had to bring me down, calm me, make me chill the fuck out.”
“And your concern now?”
Exit sipped at the brown lip loosener, coughed, sputtered, and set it on the table. He enjoyed the occasional cold beer, but was more of a wine drinker; dark liquors weren’t his thing. However, he wasn’t about to show any weakness in front of the Mann by pussying out and not drinking the hooch.
“The Glitter Man is an issue for all of us,” Exit said. “He’s found a sense of power and purpose in taking away Wrong Way’s eyesight. That would be the equivalent of taking both yours and my index fingers.”
“I can kill with any finger, it doesn’t necessarily need to be my pointing one,” Mann informed him.
“And I can kill a man with a pencil John Wick style, but he doesn’t know that. He doesn’t know a lot of things, but I think if he starts to pick at the scab, the sore is going to bleed,” Exit said.
“So, you’re here to find out what’s under the sore?”
“No, under the sore is another fricking sore, but we need to make sure we all know how deep the wound is before it starts to get fingered,” Exit said. “For instance, now that Wrong Way is in Kentucky, that puts two of 10, in one state, versus before, both you on Wrong Way lived in Georgia.”
“She lived in Georgia?” Mann asked, arching his brows.
“Athens, down in Clarke County. She’s home now with her husband and son recovering,” Exit said, “I’m in Hilton Head. Stop is in Wentzville, Missouri, and Merge is in Monroe, Arkansas.”
“Wrong Way is a mother? Wait, she’s married? I didn’t know that either,” Mann said trying to shake it off. He too did a pivot, bringing the subject back around, saying, “Yield is in Pennsylvania, Falling Rocks is in North Carolina, One Way, that crazy sociopath, is somewhere in the Smoky Mountains.”
“What about Mrs. Hump, I thought she was on the West Coast?”
Mann said, “She does some work for a women’s advocacy group out of San Francisco, but her home is in West Virginia. I think she grew up in Tybee Island.”
“Women’s advocacy?” Raphael asked, unclear on what all that header entailed. It was a broad subject.
“The Archangel is a dyed in the wool minister or rather a theologian. Not the kind who stands behind a pulpit, but the kind who works in advocating for the safety of women and children, which is how Mrs. Hump became a Technician, through him,” Mann said, watching Exit’s face for signs of understanding before he said any more.
“Since we are in a state of allocutions, I’m aware of the Archangel’s workings,” Exit said, picking up the drink. He needed to take a hard swallow before he said what he needed to say to another soul. “The Archangel rescued my sister and niece from a cult group in Ohio. They used her up pretty bad and he had to carry her out on his back. He told my niece to keep pace as he ran, which she did and is now a track star at Idaho State.”
“You sound very proud,” Mann answered, watching his face. “Finish the rest.”
“The drink or what I came to share with you?”
“Both.”
“My sister, well, she was pretty spoiled. My mother was a homemaker and our father an orthopedic surgeon,” Exit said. “I went into the military and didn’t keep up much with what happened on the home front, you know, being in the SEALs. The next thing I knew she’d married this nerdy guy named Abraham Slanecki.”
“Why do I know that name?”
“He’s the Glitter Man,” Exit said.
“Shup up! Your sister was married to the Glitter Man?”
Exit exhaled, feeling the effects of the brandy. “For a while, then she ran off to Kentucky to become a vampire. I know. I know. She was into those bleeping Anne Rice books.”
“Just as long as you know how crazy that shit sounds,” Mann chuckled.
“The vamps were no longer there, so she found another group of flower power people, but didn’t like the way the men in the compound looked at my niece and she ended up in Ohio, gangbanged by a bunch of right winged militia bastards that I’m still trying to hunt down,” Exit said.
“There’s more to this,” Mann said, getting up to pour more liquor in his glass.
“Yeah, well, I had the Glitter Man committed to a mental institution for insanity,” Exit said, chuckling. “He was acting crazy, talking about a group of mercenaries that worked out of a warehouse in Chicago, called the Technicians. He planned to sell the house to hire one or two to find his wife and daughter.”
“You had him committed, so now he also hates you,” Mann said.
“Hate may be one thing, but he’s not crazy enough to tangle with me,” Exit said, looking down. “I was sent to assess Wrong Way. I spotted him watching me.”
“Please explain why you didn’t put a bullet in him when you had the chance, Mr. Exit,” the frustration showing around the edges of Mann’s mouth.
“He’s my nieces’ father,” he said, softly. “At one point, my sister loved him enough to create a life with the man. I have no right to be judge and executioner. One bad wrong I did to him was enough. He spent five years trying to get out of that asylum. He’s only been out for a year or so.”
“Your failure to act in a time of decisiveness may prove to be the death of us all,” Mann said. “Do Kurtzwilde and Beauty know you’re related to h
im?”
“They do, but they don’t know it was the Archangel who moved my sister. I don’t have any contact with her in person, just to keep Rami off her scent,” he said.
“How long do you think it’s going to take him to find out Archangel is the one who hid his family?” Mann said.
“The Archangel doesn’t know anything about him and my sister. The only reason I know is, like I said, I went into that place where she was assaulted by those men, and I was about to burn the bitch of an encampment to the ground, and Archangel stopped me,” Exit said. “That’s how we met. However, he is deeply connected to the Technicians, and I wanted to know how and more about what I’m dealing with in him. He’s placed three souls in my care. I’m waiting to hear what he wants me to do with Willow and my girls.”
“He’s testing you,” Mann said, sipping slowly while looking over the rim of the glass.
“What? What kind of test?”
“He has a strict code when it comes to women and kids, especially young girls. He doesn’t like men taking advantage of any, so if you touch Willow and fornicate with her while she is in your protective care, she’s going to be yours permanently,” Mann said.
“Shut the hell up! You’re saying, if I have sex with Willow, the big bad Archangel is going force me to make an honest woman out of her?” Exit said, laughing.
“Pretty much. He placed them in your care and under your watchful eye, probably quoted some Bible verse or old Negro hymnal and made you respond as if you were in the pews on the fifth Sunday,” he said, watching Exit’s face. “Yeah, you did, didn’t cha? If you have sex with her, you’d better make it good because she’s going to be your wife. He will marry you.”
“He’s ordained to marry people too?”
“He married me and Sharon,” he said, “and he also married Zeke next door over a tablet or an internet app. Archangel actually flew to Vegas to marry Mr. Stop.”
“What about Mr. Yield? Did he marry him as well?”
“Yes, but Yield and the Archangel are lifelong friends,” Mann provided, “Yield knew better than to touch the woman before taking her to the Archangel and he didn’t. He brought Millicent to the Archangel to place her in his relocation and fresh start program, but the weather was bad and the woman had taken a liking to Yield. Why, I have no earthly idea. The man has the personality of a raging bull who knows the genus and species of animals above and below the equator.”
“He’s a scientist?”
“A doctor of letters. I think he has a couple of doctorate degrees in anthropology, archeology, and some other ology that stars with an A,” Mann said.
“Probably Archaeozoology, which is the study of relationships between humans and animals over time. That would be the only other ology that starts with an A that would fit those same parameters,” Exit said.
“How the hell do you know that?”
“I’m a highly educated man,” Exit offered behind a lopsided smile.
“And you kill for a hobby to keep from being bored?” Mann asked, turning up his upper lip.
“No, I do it because it’s what I know how to do best, and there are just some motherfuckers in this world who need to die,” Exit said. “I’m trying to put some coins in the Karma jar, but today I killed a man while he was taking a shit. I left him there, his cock and balls out, waiting to evacuate his bowels for the last time. Tell me, Mr. Mann, why do you do this?”
“No choice really,” Mann said. “When my Dad died, he owed a lot of debt to bad men who came calling. They were trying to get what he owed out of my mother. We had nothing, barely any food to eat in this place, which was just two bedrooms at the time. At 15 I learned to hunt, skin, and process a deer. I grew vegetables on the side of a mountain, and me and my Mamma learned to can foods so we would have winter stores. I booby trapped this place and took down every bastard Kurtzwilde sent this way. After a while, I was getting tired of the men coming at us during all times of the night, so I paid him a visit. I left a nice note in the arm of his favorite chair and another in the nightstand by his bed. He cut me a check to take care of me and Mamma, and asked if I wanted more work. Oscar, his thug of a brother, showed up and put me in the field.”
“You work a lot?’
“Six jobs a year, no women, no kids,” he said, looking into the other room. Exit followed his eyes, arching a brow in askance of the situation. “Yeah, she was a job, but Beauty didn’t know about the kid. I asked for confirmation and the bastard wanted the kid gone too. So, I became husband and father and went back and took care of him.”
“Sociopath,” Exit mumbled.
“Pot,” he said, pointing to himself then at Exit. “Kettle.”
A quiet fell between them as Exit looked about the office, a clean, neat space, devoid of any semblance of what the man did for a living. The same as his house. He’d finished the two fingers of liquor, which made his forehead warm and belly hot.
“So, how do I get to bring my kids on this waterpark shit next week?” Exit said.
“Your kids, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m going to have to marry that woman, because when I get home, I’m going to ruin her,” Exit said, chuckling, “when the Archangel arrives and ask if I fornicated with Willow, I want to make sure I gave it my best. I’m not serving a life sentence for stealing a single cookie. I’m going to eat and gorge myself on every sweet morsel in the jar. I’m going to have chocolate all in my damned teeth, grinning, saying, yes sir, sure did. Fornicated her real good, too.”
“Dude, it’s been a while for you, huh?”
“Can you tell?” Exit asked, lowering his head and laughing at himself.
“Just a bit, but marriage, are you ready for that?” Mann asked. “You can’t put a bullet in her when you get tired of looking at the lady every day.”
“That’s the thing, I don’t get tired of looking at her, and she can cook. I mean, melt in your mouth omelets, and they are soooo good,” he said. “She wants me, but I was worried and still am. Now that I know she’s damned near 40, Willow can handle being in bed with a grown ass man.”
“A grown man...”
“Yes, I’m not some punk who wants to bounce up and down on her all night until her pocket is puckered. I’m going to go slow and deep, showing her how that thing works,” he said, lifting his glass, blinking several times, and realizing the glass was empty. “You know, I don’t really drink dark liquor.”
“Let me get you settled for the night. I think you’re a bit buzzed,” Mann said to Exit, whose eyes were drooping.
The adrenalin had worn off, and he was coming down. Exit had taken all morning to prepare for a job, then the getaway, followed by the drive to meet a counterpart that he was uncertain about had taken its toll on his body. Mr. Exit was crashing hard.
“Mann, we need more,” Exit said, getting to his feet.
“More of what?”
“Resources among the Crew,” Exit mumbled. “The Boss Man hooked me up with a shrink after a bad job, but we need to be able to meet once every six months. Maybe have a vacation spot for our families to go on big holidays, you know one of those houses that sleeps 20.”
“I’m not cool with that,” Mann said. “All of us in one place makes us easy targets. Plus, some of those guys on the Crew are actually quite frightening. I say this with all honesty after helping Stop and Yield rescue a young Colombian dude who was truly scary. I put a coin or two in the Karma jar as you say with that young man, but still, he kind of freaked me out.”
“You scared of some kid and a handful of assassins?”
“Once you meet One Way, you’ll see what I mean. Him and Falling Rocks, I don’t want at my dinner table with sharp knives,” Mann said, adding, “and the kid, he’s the son of the Drug Czar of the Americas.”
“You met Delgado’s son...whoa, what was that like?”
“You know Delgado?”
“We had a few missions in Central America, and came close to entering his territory, but he sent us a warnin
g ahead of time to stay the hell away from his shoreline. We didn’t listen. The next time we got close, he came in person and dropped a bunch of snakes on us that looked poisonous but weren’t. He said if we got close again, the next ones would kill us with one bite. That fucker was scary as hell. Tell me, is his son mean and ornery like the father?” Exit asked, his eyes shimmering.
“No, the kid is scary, like I said. He’s seen a lot for someone so young, and he killed men with ninja stars. That little bastard plucked the stars out of the dead bodies, wiped them off, and stuck them back in the slotted pockets of his pants custom made to hold his flying blades of death,” Mann said, shivering. “One Way and Falling Rocks are the older adult versions of that kid. Nope. Don’t want to be in a room with them.”
“Good to know,” Exit replied, leaning against the door jamb and waiting for Mann’s next question.
“Mr. Exit, may I ask how many jobs do you do a year, since you asked me earlier,” Mann inquired.
“Sometimes two or three a month, depends,” he said.
“Wow, with the tailor made shirt and $3,000 suit, plus the $400 bottle of wine you brought me, I can easily surmise that you’re pretty rich,” Mann replied.
“No, Mr. Mann. I’m very wealthy. Rich is a temporary state of hustling and grinding to hold on to what you earn, but wealthy is long term, generational planning,” Exit answered with a mock salute.
“Well, maybe we can get together and talk financial planning kind of stuff. I want to do some investing, get a few Blue Chips in the portfolio, and dabble in emerging markets kind of thing. Can you help me with that?” Mann asked. “I want to leave my family in good standing with estate planning, taxes and the like also. I think we could all use some of that since we have no retirement plan.”
“Can my family come to the water park next week with you guys?”
“Sure, we’re going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina on Tuesday and staying through Friday,” he said.
“Then I shall help you with the portfolio,” Exit nodded, pointing towards the hallway. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Blind Copy (The Technicians Series Book 5) Page 12
