Blood Money

by Matt Rogers

  She watched him with reserved satisfaction.

  He had tried to kill her, after all.

  He made it to the radio, his face coated in perspiration, and reached down for it.

  ‘Careful,’ she said, keeping the Glock on him.

  He picked it up.

  Didn’t touch the buttons.

  She’d know if he did.

  She said, ‘I want you to say these words. “Boss, I found something. Get up here now. It’s urgent.” If you deviate a single word off the script, I’ll shoot you.’

  He stared at her. ‘And if I don’t?’

  ‘You’re dead either way,’ Ruby said. ‘Your only hope is that I show mercy, which means cooperation. If you try anything funny I’ll just go downstairs and kill the five of them anyway. You know it won’t be hard.’

  Roy knew.

  He also had enough common sense to know Ruby wouldn’t be merciful.

  Not anymore.

  But the survival instinct is embedded deep in the human psyche. At the basest level, we want to live. And Roy saw only one possibility of that with a loaded gun trained at his face.

  Cooperation.

  He thumbed a button on the side of the two-way radio and said, ‘Boss, I found something. Get up here now. It’s urgent.’

  He let go of the button.

  Not a word out of place.

  She said, ‘Thank you.’

  25

  Aaron Wayne materialised at the top of the stairwell less than a minute later, having excused himself from the meeting with a profuse apology.

  He was cautious and irritated at the same time, wary of his bodyguard’s tone but immensely frustrated that proceedings had been disrupted. He reached the top deck and stared out across the space, noting its emptiness.

  There was Romano — the chef and bartender — behind the bar, his face pale.

  And Roy a dozen feet away, standing on one foot, his face creased in pain and guilt.

  Wayne hesitated. ‘What the fuck is going on?’

  Roy didn’t answer.

  Wayne said, ‘Where are the girls? Where’s Vincent?’

  Roy didn’t answer.

  Wayne said, ‘A response would be appreciated.’

  A blade materialised over Roy’s shoulder. The kitchen knife, with its swirling shiny steel and wooden handle. Wayne recognised it. He knew it well. It hovered in the air, a thin tanned hand wrapped around the handle, and the next thing he knew it flashed and Roy’s throat opened up.

  A long, neat horizontal line.

  Blood fountained.

  Roy’s eyes boggled.

  He fell forward.

  Ruby stood poised, a grimace on her face. Her left eye was swollen shut, and another inflamed lump had seized hold of her jaw. Streaks of blood matted her face and hair. She’d suffered serious injuries since he’d last seen her. But her right eye was wide and focused, and the amber glare pierced deep. Vincent’s Glock 17 was in her other hand. It came up and aimed square between his eyes.

  He said, ‘Wait.’

  She cocked her head. He studied her. She wasn’t what he thought she was. He’d always suspected there was something hidden under her persona, ever since he’d laid eyes on her in Sapphire. He hadn’t realised it was this.

  Something untamed.

  Something devastating.

  Wayne said, ‘Don’t kill me yet.’

  Ruby smiled.

  It wasn’t a happy smile.

  It was full of mockery, and derision, and control.

  She had a tight grip on the situation.

  Total power.

  For the first time in as long as he could remember, Aaron Wayne was vulnerable. Open and exposed. No defences.

  Except, maybe…

  He looked around, but he couldn’t see who he was searching for. He smiled in turn. His smile was full of mockery, and derision, and control, just like Ruby’s. She noticed.

  She said, ‘What?’

  ‘You assume I don’t have a backup plan.’

  ‘What might that be?’

  ‘You’ll see soon enough.’

  Ruby raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you talking about your Israeli girlfriend?’

  Wayne’s heartbeat stopped.

  His insides shrank.

  He tried to stop his face falling, but he couldn’t.

  Ruby shrugged sheepishly. ‘That’s a shame. Were you two close?’

  ‘Where is she?’

  He saw Ruby look all around, exaggerating her gestures. Her gaze fell on something hidden behind one of the broad armchairs. She stepped over to it and pushed against one arm with the sole of her foot. It grated against the deck. The noise pierced the serenity. Wayne winced. Then he saw what lay behind it, and his face fell further.

  There she was.

  A jagged knife wound in the side of her head.

  Face down on the deck.

  Dead.

  ‘Were you two close?’ Ruby repeated.

  Wayne didn’t answer.

  He couldn’t.

  Ruby said, ‘She wasn’t just your head of security, was she?’

  He still couldn’t say a word.

  But he could shake his head.

  Ruby nodded. ‘Thought as much.’

  ‘You bitch.’

  ‘She tried to kill me first. Surely, if anything, you can understand that.’

  Silence.

  Ruby said, ‘Or maybe you can’t. Maybe you always go first. Maybe you’re too ruthless to know the basic principles of self-defence.’

  Quiet.

  Ruby looked around. ‘What was I thinking? Playing defence doesn’t get you a boat like this.’

  Wayne said, ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I want to go downstairs.’

  26

  She didn’t give him a chance to try something, but even if she had, it wouldn’t have mattered.

  Roy and Vincent and Nadia were problems. Trained combatants, compared to Wayne’s show muscle. There was eons of difference between the two. A trained combatant is like a forged sword. Take a piece of crude metal, heat it until it’s pliable, beat the shit out of it over and over again, and voilà — something capable of taking punishment and dishing it out. To Ruby, pain was nothing. A swollen eye and a mangled jaw were superficial annoyances. Skin heals. Swelling dissipates. Bruises vanish. She’d been introduced to the pain threshold in training, and all weaknesses had been ripped from her body long ago.

  Wayne surely had a similar story about the boardroom.

  He was forged in the fire of business, so making plays and doing deals were as easy as breathing.

  But this was no longer the boardroom.

  Ruby kept the Glock burrowed into the small of his back. Maybe he could try and spin and knock it from her hands, but it would take her half a second to pull the trigger. He wouldn’t come close. Even if he was pinpoint accurate — which he wouldn’t be — she’d paralyse him with the first shot before he’d rotated halfway.

  He led her to the same conference room where she’d faced her interrogation.

  They paused outside the closed double doors.

  Neither made a sound.

  Within, Ruby heard quiet murmuring. And slow footsteps, padding around aimlessly. The footsteps of a big, heavy man. Zafir. Restless, annoyed his meeting was so rudely interrupted. He’d probably been ready to do the deal, too, despite his hangover.

  Wayne muttered, ‘How do you want to play this? Two of them are armed.’

  Ruby breathed in his ear, ‘Nadia. Who was she? Before she met you.’

  ‘You already know.’

  ‘I want you to tell me.’

  ‘She was Mossad.’

  ‘Exactly. I handled her. You think I can’t handle these savages?’

  ‘I—’ he started.

  She didn’t let him finish.

  She took a half-step back, opening up enough space between them to launch a stabbing front kick. She was far lighter than he was, but she had crisp technique, and perfect weig
ht distribution, and a snap to her strikes that could only come from years and years of drilling on heavy bags in underground gyms.

  It wasn’t the movies — she didn’t send him flying.

  But he stumbled forward, way off balance, and crashed clean through the swinging doors. He splayed against the edge of the conference table, hands slapping the polished wood, drawing the attention of everyone within.

  Zafir and his three guards stared wide-eyed, taken aback by the dramatic entrance.

  They didn’t even see Ruby.

  She stepped through the doors, raised the Glock, found four skulls, and pulled the trigger four times.

  Four shots.

  Quickly followed by four thumps.

  It wasn’t clean. Heads bounced off furniture as the four bodies dropped. Zafir took two chairs out as he went down, folding them under his giant mass. Wayne was halfway back to his feet when Zafir’s deadweight hit the ground, and the noise of the impact almost startled him off his feet for a second time.

  But he peeled himself upright, and observed the devastation all around.

  He turned to face her, his hands involuntarily trembling.

  She’d never seen him display weakness.

  She’d thought he was incapable of it.

  He said, ‘What are you, exactly?’

  ‘That’s the elephant in the room, isn’t it?’

  ‘Where are the girls?’

  ‘I sent them away.’

  ‘Vincent’s dead?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Wayne stared at her, trying to see right through her.

  Failing miserably.

  He said, ‘What did I do to you? To your family? Have I hurt you?’

  ‘If I were a man, you’d be asking who I worked for. You still don’t see me as a threat, do you?’

  He paused, scrutinising her.

  She said, ‘You won’t see it. Never will. That’s how I did all this. You were so careful. But you think the girls that come aboard are as disposable as the champagne.’

  He said, ‘You’re U.S. military?’

  ‘Close.’

  ‘Off the books?’

  ‘Closer.’

  ‘What sort of division grants this sort of flexibility?’ he said, looking around. ‘How black are you?’

  ‘Blacker than black.’

  ‘So that’s what did me in.’

  She nodded.

  He looked past her, out the open side of the boat, to the twinkling harbour beyond. She flashed a glance over her shoulder to follow his gaze, then brought it right back to him. But she needn’t have been paranoid. He wasn’t putting up a fight.

  He said, ‘You’d better run.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘You just massacred half this boat with no conclusive proof of anything. Good thing you’re blacker than black. Your soul is, too.’

  ‘That’s rich.’

  ‘Coming from me? I’m an opportunist.’

  ‘Are you?’

  ‘Where do you think that money would have gone if I hadn’t taken it? It’s just oil money. So what if they’re all corrupt over there? It’s an imperfect world.’

  ‘Are you trying to make me feel bad about what I did?’

  ‘You should. I’d say your reaction was a little excessive.’

  ‘Oil money, huh?’

  He paused.

  He was a bad actor.

  He said, ‘That’s what I was told from the get-go.’

  ‘Really?’

  He didn’t immediately answer. Her sureness froze him up, and he thought hard about it, but there was nowhere else to turn. He said, ‘Yes. I swear. That’s all I knew.’

  She took a step toward him.

  He’d prepared for that eventuality.

  He didn’t flinch, and kept his dignity.

  Not for much longer.

  She reached under the lapel of his suit jacket and fingered out a small flat dot, roughly the size of a pea. She let it stick to her fingertip and then waved it in front of his face.

  Then she turned her head and exposed her ear canal to him, revealing the hidden earpiece within.

  ‘Oh,’ he said.

  Now he would be remembering when she’d placed both hands on his shoulders before she’d left this room.

  She nodded.

  ‘I heard everything,’ she said. ‘The whole meeting.’

  27

  His nose twitched.

  A subtle tell.

  It said everything.

  ‘What was it you said to Zafir?’ she said. ‘Just ten minutes ago in this very room.’

  He clammed up.

  The look on his face was that of a husband caught in bed with another woman.

  She said, ‘Oh, that’s right. I remember now. He asked you what you thought about the allegations made against him. All the human rights abuses. The alleged atrocities. You said, “What do I think? I think fuck those kids. Go kill more of them. Enough to buy another quarter of the tower.” He laughed. He promised he would. He asked to stay in the penthouse when it was finished. You said, “Of course. I’ll bring Vincent, and you bring the young girls. You know what he likes.” That’s why I killed Vincent first, upstairs. Figured he deserved it the most.’

  ‘I didn’t say any of that.’

  ‘I heard it. And my memory is excellent. That was word for word.’

  ‘You have no proof.’

  ‘I know what I heard.’

  ‘Is it recorded? Do you have an audio file?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘There needs to be something to show for your—’

  ‘Maybe in your world. But not in Zafir’s world. And not in my world.’

  ‘Then you’re no better than him.’

  ‘Oh, darling, I know you don’t believe that.’

  She stepped closer to him. Looked up at his handsome face, his smooth jawline.

  She shook her head.

  He looked down at her.

  He said, ‘What?’

  ‘I should have killed all of you much sooner. I had the opportunity to. When I left the boardroom. But I didn’t. Because you almost convinced me.’

  ‘Convinced you of what?’

  ‘That you were innocent.’

  Wayne paused.

  ‘That’s your magic,’ she said. ‘You’re charming when the ball’s in your court. You’ve got an aura. Maybe that’s what made you a magnate. It was so natural, the way you said it. Like you’d put no thought into it at all. A Middle Eastern guy with a lot of money. I believed you. Thought, maybe, this whole thing might have been a mistake. Maybe you were oblivious. I figured I’d make sure with the listening device. Boy, did you let me down.’

  Wayne looked away from her.

  He couldn’t handle the scrutiny.

  She said, ‘Roy really didn’t know? That’s what you told Zafir.’

  Wayne returned eye contact again. ‘He’s new. I hadn’t brought him up to speed. But he wouldn’t have cared.’

  Ruby nodded. ‘I made that mistake. Thought he might be a good man. But he wasn’t.’

  Wayne shrugged. ‘At least he was loyal.’

  She didn’t respond to that.

  He took another look at the corpses, and grimaced. ‘How old are you?’

  ‘Twenty.’

  ‘You’re something else, then.’

  ‘I started training young.’

  ‘That’s what they’re doing these days?’ Wayne said, and scoffed. ‘And you think Zafir’s the only one carrying out human rights abuses?’

  Ruby went silent.

  Wayne said, ‘Maybe take a look at your own handlers, too.’

  A remnant of a memory struck her.

  Something faint, buried far below the surface.

  So obscured it was almost invisible.

  A life before this. A normal childhood. A loving family.

  She knew it was reality, but it seemed like fiction.

  A flash of inner turmoil stewed her insides. But she was the best on the planet at hiding
it.

  She kept her face like stone, and said, ‘You don’t have to worry about that.’

  Wayne said, ‘Get it over with.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘What might that be?’

  ‘You’ve killed everyone else. Finish the job.’

  She didn’t answer right away. She tuned her ears to surrounding sounds. They were all familiar now. Water lapping against the hull, distant boat horns, the echo of life in Monaco.

  Serene.

  Then, faintly, sirens.

  She held up a finger. ‘There we are.’

  He said, ‘Cops?’

  ‘I called ahead.’

  ‘You’re not going to want to be here. And you have no proof. That’s a lose-lose for you.’

  She tapped her earpiece. ‘This already uploaded the audio file to a server. My handlers will make sure it’s viral before the end of the day. You can game any social network these days.’

  He started to pale.

  She said, ‘I hear you’re something of a social media celebrity. That audio might not make you look too good with hundreds of thousands of retweets.’

  He went whiter still.

  She said, ‘That’s all that matters to you, isn’t it? How others see you.’

  He didn’t answer.

  She gently placed the knife on the table beside them, and gave it a gentle spin. It twirled a half-revolution, so the handle was facing Wayne.

  ‘You want out?’ she said. ‘Do it yourself.’

  He stared down at the blade.

  28

  Ruby said, ‘Or rot in prison with the knowledge that the whole world despises you.’

  Silence.

  She said, ‘I think you’re too weak to do it. You have no problem with Zafir killing kids. But you’d never do it yourself. You don’t have the resolve.’

  He looked at her, and they both knew it was true.

  She said, ‘You can’t go through life hands-off. You want the rewards and the high life but you leave the soulless work to others. You don’t want to get your hands dirty.’

  She looked down at the knife, and he followed her gaze.

  She said, ‘Now you’ll have to.’

  Literally.

  She walked away from him, out through the double doors. As soon as she knew she’d put enough distance between them to outrun him if he came at her with the knife, she threw the Glock up over the lip. The water on the other side swallowed it whole. It didn’t matter if they retrieved it. She had no fingerprints.