by Won, Mark
I felt otherwise. With my reclaimed rifle pointed at Alan’s head, I said, “Confess or I’ll kill you here and now. If you tell the truth I’ll let you leave with food and supplies, otherwise you die.”
Alan, his face writ large with guilt, said, “What are you talking about?” Gideon laughed at such a feeble lie.
I moved closer, pointing my rifle directly at his face and tried again, “Normally I’d just shoot you, you murdering trash, but I’m hoping you can clear up our misunderstanding, here. Before you answer, consider carefully. I don’t know you. The people you murdered are people I didn’t know. Letting you go would piss off Jay here, if he knew the truth, and that sounds good to me, because he’s a thieving ass. So talk or die, it’s just that simple.”
Alan looked me in the eyes and saw what truth resided there, glanced nervously at his friends, and spoke, “I killed that asshole, Herman, and the bitch, Veronica. I stole the badge when I searched the van, and I planted it in her hand. She was mine, the cunt! Herman thought he could dis me like that, well fuck him!” He even smiled when he said it. So did Gideon.
Jay looked at me with scorn, “What do you think your trying to do here? Alan would say anything with that gun pointed at him.”
I fired a shot that nicked Alan’s ear, “You got to do better, Alan, or you’ll be pushing daisies by nightfall. Think guilty knowledge.”
He looked over to Jay and declared, “I killed them in their place and dragged the bodies off so they wouldn’t be discovered until later, after these assholes had left. That’s why I chose that bathroom nobody uses. Nobody had told me we were going to rip them off, I thought that they would be on their way and that would be that. No confrontation, no firefight. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt! I wiped up the blood trail with a sponge and threw it in the trash in the bathroom. You can check! Now let me go, like you said.”
“First things first, you worm. Jay, did you leave that shortwave behind or bring it with you?” I asked.
“I left it behind, why?” he answered. Gideon laughed again.
I used the shortwave in the security room to contact Pine Woods. Then I put Jay on the line. After he confirmed the location of the bloody sponge in the trash I cut the connection.
Jay still looked angry, “What did you do with the people I’d sent?”
Gideon just had to open his mouth, “Oh, you mean the people you sent to steal from us? they’re all dead, of course.”
I hastened to add, “But we did not kill them. They broke into a room with a ghoul in it and it ripped them up. You know how it goes. For everyone that a ghoul kills there’s usually one more of the enemy, depending. And with you thieving types usually the bodies do Change.”
Jay asked if he could have his dead. I let his men get their people loaded onto their trucks before returning their various disassembled weapons to them. I made it plain that they could handle the chore of reassembly once they were well on their way.
Jay asked, “What about him?” pointing to Alan.
“He goes free, just like I said,” I replied.
“He deserves to die,” came the angry reply. I punched him in the face.
“You moron! So do you! I keep my word, that means he goes free. No lies, no tricks, no nothing! Now get out and don’t come back! If I ever see you again I’m going to assume the worst and aim for the heart! This is your only warning.”
Then I addressed all the people he’d brought with him, “I want you all to know that I could have killed you all, it would have been easier. You’re all alive because that’s the way I want it. All your friends who died here, died because your boss made it so. Grieve for your dead, but if any of you are pissed at us it’s because you’re being stupid. Now leave.” Naturally, Luke was back a bit, keeping an eye on things, while Gideon was right there with me, guns drawn.
So we finished fixing the place up while waiting for our relief. While we waited, I took Alan out to let him go. Gideon went with me.
The kid asked, “What happens when this guy comes across some innocent person? How do you think that will go? Why didn’t you just let Jay kill him? Can I kill him?”
I adopted a stern parenting voice, the kind I sometimes used on my own daughters, “No, you can’t kill him. I said that I’d let him live so that’s what I’m going to do. It’s a question of honor. Look at it this way: now you can be absolutely sure that I’m as good as my word.”
“Oh. Okay,” was Gideon’s reply. Then I set Alan free. The last I saw of him he was making good time walking away from us while trying to pretend that he hadn’t a care in the world.
The next day I overheard Gideon talking to someone while he was watching the cameras in the security station. The elevator doors had just opened and all I could see was the kid’s back. At first I had just assumed that he was talking to his mutt, but when I glanced past him I saw he had a severed head wrapped up in a plastic bag on the shelf next to him. Apparently, it was the subject of his monologue.
Alan had seen better days.
-
Help showed up in less than a week and we took our time heading home. Mission accomplished. I made sure that Gideon had disposed of his new toy before anyone caught him talking to it. Luke was reunited with his wife. He made us promise to not tell Sue about him getting shot. Gideon was reunited with Andrea. She seemed happy but had the odd habit of only being able to speak to him. And, of course, I was reunited with Felicia and the kids, which made my joy complete.
Fin
