Animal 4.5

by K'wan

  Using her thumb, she gently pried open Nicodemus’s dried and cracked lips. The stench of his breath was equal to, if not greater than, the smell in the room. She tilted the cylinder, pouring the thick red liquid into his mouth. She saw his tongue move as if he could taste it and became hopeful, until he went still again. It must not have been enough! Her shoulders sagged in defeat. The contents of her pendent had been her best and last hope. Now that it hadn’t worked, she had to figure out what to do next. Her thoughts were disturbed by a loud shriek coming from the hall.

  *

  Kahllah had only been gone for five minutes, but to Anwar it felt like an hour. He tried to engage the guards in small talk, but they were more concerned with their posts than anything Anwar had to say. In an attempt to keep his mind busy, he started counting the cracks in the floor.

  From down the hall he could hear footsteps drawing nearer. Someone was coming. He looked back at the door nervously, wondering what the hell was taking Kahllah so long. When Anwar saw who was coming, his heart dropped from his chest and landed in his stomach.

  Bastille’s huge form came into view. His big sword slapped against his back as he moved. On one side of his face he sported bandages, no doubt as a result of Anwar trying to set him on fire. When Bastille spotted the third man with the two guards he’d posted outside Nicodemus’ room, his face soured. “What is he doing here? I gave strict orders that no one was allowed anywhere near this room without clearing it with Khan or myself,” he addressed the masked men.

  “Just chatting it up with my fellow brothers.” Anwar smirked.

  “Shut your mouth, worm. I wasn’t talking to you,” Bastille snapped. He turned his attention back to the guards. “Well?”

  “He said Khan sent him to escort the new healer to Nicodemus,” Red Mask told him.

  “And now that I’ve done my job, I’ll be leaving.” Anwar started backing away.

  “You’re going nowhere,” Bastille grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him like a rag doll. “Who did you send into that room?”

  “Your mother,” Anwar replied before digging his nail into the bandage on Bastille’s face, re-opening the wound. Once he was free of the big man’s grip, he took off running down the hall. Anwar felt bad about leaving Kahllah, but he could not avenge her pending death if he died too. He’d made it halfway down the hall when pain exploded in his thigh and he collapsed. He recoiled in horror when he saw the spear Red mask had thrown jutting from his thigh.

  Bastille stalked towards the downed Anwar, blood running from the wound on his face, and his sword in hand. He pressed his heavy boot onto the wound, causing Anwar to yell out in pain. “Who is in that room with Nicodemus?”

  Anwar remained silent, staring up at Bastille hatefully.

  Bastille pulled Anwar to his feet and propped him against the wall, placing the sharp end of his sword to his throat. “You will talk or you will die.”

  “Fuck you,” Anwar snarled. He would be defiant to the end. “No!” A feminine voice cried from the doorway of the room.

  Bastille was shocked to see Kahllah standing there. Kahn had said she would try for the Mountain, but Bastille never expected her to be able to breach it. He turned his empty eyes back to Anwar. “I was wondering who helped the traitor and did this to my face,” he turned his head to one side so Anwar could get a good look at the damage. “I’m trying to figure out whose death with be sweetest, yours or that cunt’s.”

  “Better to die as a free man than to die in bondage,” Anwar spat in his face.

  Bastille wiped the spit from his face with the back of his hand. “You’ve got heart…I like that. I wonder how it’ll taste sautéed with peppers and onions,” he swung his blade around and impaled Anwar on the end of it. Bastille pulled his sword from Anwar’s chest and licked the blood off the edge. “Sweet indeed.”

  Seeing her pupil and friend laying at the feet of the executioner reduced Kahllah to tears. Anwar had been the second death in less than forty-eight hours that she had failed to prevent. Now his blood was on her hands along with Gucci’s. At that moment, something inside her snapped and she charged.

  Red Mask and Blue Mask moved to stop her, which was a mistake. Without breaking her stride, she drew two of her hidden blades and buried one in each of their chests. She didn’t even look back to see the bodies drop. With sadness in her heart and rage in her eyes, she drew her final two blades and attacked Bastille.

  The two daggers striking his big sword sent sparks flying in the hallway. Bastille had expected her to be slow and distracted as she had been in D.C., but who he faced was the Black Lotus of old. She moved as swiftly as the wind launching a series of attacks with the long daggers, opening gashes. Bastille managed to catch her with an uppercut, snapping her head back and busting open her lip. He tried to press her, but she was far quicker than he remembered and she managed to land several cuts on his arms and shoulders. He tried an overhand strike, which she dodged and stabbed him in the side. She made a sharp motion and broke the tip of one of the daggers off while it was still inside him. Bastille staggered backward, fighting to catch his breath. The two combatants circled each other in the narrow hallway, both bloodied and breathing heavily.

  Kahllah broke the dance first, launching a roundhouse kick at his head. Bastille caught her by the ankle in mid-air and swung her into the wall, knocking the wind out of her. He struck again with his blade, but connected only with the stone floor. Kahllah was back on her feet and moving on him again with the dagger. She faked high then went low, plunging her remaining dagger into his broad chest.

  “This is for the blood of all the innocent souls you’ve spilled in the name of the order,” Kahllah told him, driving the dagger deeper into his chest.

  Pain shot through Bastille’s body causing him to drop his sword. He was disarmed, but still had another trick up his sleeve.

  Kahllah heard the crackling sound just before electricity shot through her body. She dropped to one knee and Bastille kicked her in the face hard enough to snap her head back. He kicked her over and over again until she ceased to move. As Kahllah lay on the floor, fighting to stay conscious, she couldn’t help but to wonder how he had managed to beat her. When she saw the small stun gun in his hand she had her answer. He had won the duel by cheating.

  Bastille retrieved his sword and limped in Kahllah’s direction, dragging the blade behind him and dripping blood. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to have you at my feet like this. The mighty Black Lotus, crushed. It’s over now. The old ways of the Brotherhood are dead and a new foundation will be built on top of the rotting corpses of people like you,” he hoisted his sword.

  “Before you kill me, I just need to know one thing,” Kahllah rasped. Her ribs felt broken and she was having trouble breathing. “What really happened to Nicodemus?”

  Bastille paused. “If you must know, Khan poisoned him. It was just shit luck that he had built up such a tolerance to where the poison didn’t kill him, only put him in a coma. But if it’ll make you feel better, I plan on putting him out of his misery as soon as I’m done with you.”

  “Thank you for the warning,” a voice called from somewhere around Bastille.

  Kahllah heard a sharp crack right before Bastille’s body went stiff. His thick fingers clutched at something around his neck as he gasped for air. There was what sounded like a slicing sound before blood squired onto Kahllah’s face. The last thing she remembered was seeing Bastille’s lifeless eyes when his severed head rolled to a stop next to her. Then everything went dark.

  CHAPTER 19

  The port of Newark was relatively quiet that night, which suited Customs officer Tony Jones just fine considering he hadn’t wanted to work that night anyhow. He’d gotten a call from his co-worker Mike, who usually worked the night shift, saying that he wouldn’t be able to make it in that day, but needed someone he could trust to do him a solid. If Tony agreed, Mike promised to split the under the table payment he was due to receive with T
ony. Tony was hard up for cash so it was a no brainer.

  Most of the boats that were scheduled to pull into port that night had already arrived and were accounted for, but the one that had pulled in less than an hour ago wasn’t on the schedule. In fact, everyone working the port that night was presented with a thick envelope full of cash to pretend they didn’t even see it. It was a medium sized cargo ship with the words La Viuda Roja painted on the hull. The sight of the thing gave Tony the creeps and he wished the men dressed in black would hurry and finish unloading it so he didn’t have to look at it anymore.

  Tony decided to take a walk around the docks while he snuck off to smoke the joint he had tucked in his pocket. The men in black had it under control so no one would miss him if he took a short break. He had just stepped behind one of the tall containers to fire up his weed, when he spotted a man sleeping on a sheet of cardboard. Tony let out a heavy sigh. He was constantly having to chase off vagrants who would slip into the port looking for somewhere to sleep for the night.

  “Move it along, buddy. You can’t sleep back here,” Tony called to the man, but he didn’t reply. Now irritated, he slipped on his black leather gloves and prepared to move the man physically. “I said, get the fuck up,” he rolled the man over and recoiled when he saw the milky white eye staring up at him from behind a horribly burned face.

  Cain grabbed Tony by the neck and pulled him down, sliding a blade up through his chin and into his mouth. He laid Tony down as gently as if he were putting a child to bed, before stepping from behind the canister and signaled his friends.

  *

  “That’s the signal,” Abel said looking through the scope of the sniper rifle he had mounted on the top of a car just outside the fence of the port. Cain waved his arm back and forth letting him know that it was all clear.

  “We’re up,” Animal said, snatching the knapsack he was carrying from the floor and putting it on his back.

  “You might want to be a little more careful with that thing,” Ashanti warned, taking a cautionary step back. He knew exactly what was in the bag and what it could do.

  Animal ignored him and went about the task of checking the clips of the two he had on him. In addition to the care package he planned to leave Lilith with, they had also scored some guns from One-Eyed Jack. The two Rugers weren’t his Pretty Bitches, but they would do. “Everybody clear on what they’re supposed to be doing?”

  “Yep,” Zo said spinning the cylinder on one revolver then the other. One-Eyed Jack had offered him an automatic, but Zo felt more comfortable going in with guns he was already familiar with. “Seems almost a sin to sink all that coke to the bottom of the ocean. Do you know how much money we could’ve made on the streets from this shit?”

  “We ain’t drug dealers tonight, Zo. We’re saboteurs,” Animal told him.

  “Animal, I still don’t see why you don’t let me go in with y’all. You know I know how to handle myself,” Sonja pouted.

  “I’ve already told you why, Sonja. I’ve already lost one child’s mother so God forbid if something goes wrong and we don’t make it out I don’t want both my kids growing up orphans. Someone has to be here to tell Celeste and T.J. who their father was and why he died,” Animal said sincerely.

  Ashanti made a face and shook his head. After all Sonja had put Animal through, he was still trying to look out for her. Some people never learned. “Ain’t nobody else dying tonight. That’s on the set,” Ashanti declared and started walking towards the fence. He still hadn’t gotten over what happened to Brasco and couldn’t stand to lose another one of his brothers.

  “We’d better catch up with this crazy little nigga before he sets it off before we get there.” Zo-Pound followed Ashanti.

  Animal was about to join them when Sonja called after him. “Animal, before you go in there, there’s something I need to tell you,” there was a nervous edge to her voice.

  “You can tell me when I come back.” Animal smiled and went to join his crew.

  *

  The plan was for Abel to take out the customs officer who had been patrolling the dock and clear the way for Ashanti, Zo, and Animal, while Sonja and Abel stood back as their back up. Abel would be tracking them through the scope on the gun and watching their backs. Cain would linger just outside the boat and watch for signs of trouble on the ground floor. He wasn’t too pleased about not being able to board the boat and join in the murder, but Animal wouldn’t let him. Cain was too unpredictable and the last thing he wanted to deal with was a raving killer complicating their plans. Once they had boarded the boat it would be up to Ashanti and Zo to neutralize any threats while Animal went into the bowels of the ship to set the charges. Once the bomb was placed, they’d have roughly two minutes to get the hell out of dodge.

  Animal, Zo, and Ashanti huddled behind a container just outside the gangplank that led to the deck of the Red Widow. Ashanti, being the shortest, was elected to peek out and see how many guards there were blocking their entrance. He looked back towards where he knew Abel was hiding and held up two fingers, then pointed to the boat. A few seconds later, there were two chirping sounds, followed by the splash of something hitting the water. With the way now clear, the three of them boarded the boat.

  Once they were on the Red Widow, they split up. Ashanti and Zo would cover the upper decks, while Animal ventured into the bowels of the ship. He was making his way below deck when he smelled it. It was the same pungent odor he’d picked up on when he busted into Momo and Luther’s room, only this time it was different…it was pure and didn’t have the burned taint to it. Animal covered his nose and continued on his way.

  Animal was just reaching the first landing when he spotted a man in black fatigues and wearing some kind of gas mask coming up the stairs. Luckily, Animal saw the man before he saw Animal and he put him down before he even realized that he wasn’t alone. Above him, he heard the shuffling of feet, before something fell over the side of the boat and hit the water. He smiled, knowing that Ashanti and Zo-Pound were on their jobs.

  When Animal reached the lower level, the smell became so pungent that he had to use one hand to cover his mouth to keep from gagging. His eyes began to sting and he knew he wouldn’t be able to take it down there for much longer. It was like the whole ship was made of the stuff. As he rounded the corner, he literally bumped into another one of the black clad soldiers carrying a rifle. Animal tried to bring his gun into play, but this soldier was quicker than the last one. He slammed the butt of the rifle into Animal’s wrist, dislodging the gun. Animal recovered quickly, and was on him before he could lift his rifle. They struggled and the rifle went off, riddling the floor was bullets. Animal managed to get behind him and grab him in a reverse choke-hold. With a quick turn of his bicep, he snapped the soldier’s neck.

  On the deck above him, Animal heard the sounds of shouting and heavy footfalls. The sound of gunfire had stolen the element of surprise from them and the clock was officially ticking. He had to move quickly. He darted into the cargo hull and found himself in a room full of round canisters. There were at least fifty of them, all standing four feet tall. That’s where he would set the charges.

  As Animal made his way to the center of the canisters, he noticed the smell was strongest there, almost overpowering. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Animal popped one of the canisters open. He’d expected to find cocaine, but instead it was full of the the same blue crystals Momo and Luther had been smoking. Animal opened three more of the cans with the same results. Now he knew what Sonja wanted to tell him. There was never any coke on the boat to begin with. It had always been about the crystals.

  “That rotten bitch!” Animal cursed. He felt like a total fool for letting Sonja dupe him again. He would settle up with her later, but right then, he had a job to do. Cocaine or not, he was going to sink Lilith’s cargo. He scooped a handful of the blue crystals and put them in his pocket before placing the bomb on the floor. Animal had just set the timer on the bomb when he heard ru
shed footsteps behind him. He turned just in time to see another black clad soldier, wearing a gas mask, and charging him wielding a fire axe. Just as Animal ducked, the axe cut through the air nearly missing his head. He slammed his fist into the black clad soldier’s face as hard as he could, but it didn’t even seem to faze him. He could see his eyes through the visor of the gas mask and he had the same crazed look in his eyes as Momo.

  Animal rolled across the floor, drawing his remaining gun at the same time. He fired blindly, hitting the soldier in the shoulder and it didn’t even slow him down. Animal scampered out of the way just as the axe came down again. His eyes went to the digital timer on the bomb and saw that he had just over a minute to escape. He hated running from a fight, but he hated dying in a fireball even more, so he bolted. He had just cleared the door, when the crazed soldier grabbed him by the ankle, tripping him up. Animal pitched forward, face first, hitting his head on the rail and losing the gun over the side.

  Animal had regained his senses in time to see the axe speeding towards his face. He rolled out of the way and kicked the man in his knee hard enough to make it buckle. When he had him down, Animal took off, but the soldier was right behind him. He had made it as far as the first landing, where he’d left the first soldier he’d killed, when the mad man caught up with him. He tried to swing the axe, but it ended up getting stuck between the rails of the cramped stairwell. Animal kicked him in the face, cracking the gas mask and sending glass shards into the soldier’s eyes. When the soldier removed the gas mask, Animal saw the tiger slashes crisscrossing his face and knew it had to be the same man Sonja claimed had given his life to help her escape. “Ethan?”

  Hearing his name seemed to give the mad man pause, but the moment of sanity only lasted for a second before he was back to trying to kill Animal. They were struggling on the stairs when there was an explosion that rocked the ship with enough force to send them both spilling down the stairs. The ocean rushed into the stairwell and within seconds, Animal found himself knee deep in salt water. The ship was sinking, but much faster than he had anticipated. If he had any hope of surviving, he had to get above deck.