by Mike Gomes
Ring, ring.
"And if it isn't my favorite green-eyed agent," Tyler answered, keeping his tone light and jovial. "What do I owe this pleasure? Is it an emergency?"
"No emergency here, boss." Gabriella slightly rolled her eyes at the idea that Tyler may think she was ill-equipped to handle the mission at hand. "I was just looking for a little more information."
"Gabriella, you know this is extremely risky. I assume you've done your due diligence as far as anybody tracking us."
"You bet, Tyler. I would never risk your life or mine," Gabriella tried to keep her tone light and airy. "I was just wondering if you had any more information on this guy, Patel. Something that's up beyond the records."
"Did you try to access the data bank to see if anybody updated it?" Tyler asked sounding more official and direct with his comments.
"Yes, that was the first thing I did. Now it's just me giving you a call trying to get around all the red tape." Gabriella gave a small laugh that she hoped Tyler would hear, knowing that her call was not one out of frustration, but rather one to make the mission go more smoothly.
"I can tell you that I haven't heard anything new about Patel since you left for the case. We have people on the ground there, but I'd rather not have them get mixed up with it until you're done with your work."
"Are any of those people available if I need more than one on the job?" Gabriella asked, expecting the affirmative answer from the man that she had known for many, many years.
"No, Gabriella, I'm sorry. These people have been entrenched for many, many years, and they're the eyes that we have there. If they blow their cover, we can never use them again for anything," Tyler said, keeping his voice in its official tone. "If they get exposed, we'll have no use for them at all. But as informants, they do a fantastic job. They let us know everything that's happening and when it's happening."
"Tyler, what if I need more help? What if executing this man takes a little bit more than me just hiding on a rooftop and taking a shot at him?" Gabriella could now feel the frustration rising up inside her. "You give me these kinda missions and you want me to take care of them, but if you want them done right, I can't just be picking people off and letting them die in the streets. It needs to be done with more finesse so people don't realize."
"I understand that, Gabriella. But you're not the only one that's out there working." Tyler cut her off before she could continue. "You have to understand that there're a lot of other people out there, and they're working just as hard as you are. But the difference is, many of them tell me they can't do these missions alone, and you tell me that you can."
"And I've never let you down, right?"
"That's right, Gabriella. You never have let me down," said Tyler with exasperation filling his voice. "This isn't a matter about whether I think you need the help or don't think you need the help. I'm assuming that if you are saying you do, then it's true. But again, the problem is these people are not agents. They don't work in the field, they're informants. If I send one of them out there with you, they're liable to get you killed."
"Any chance of someone coming from somewhere else?"
"That's a tough one too. I'd need to get someone with the racial makeup, have them brought in from wherever else they are, cutting short the mission they're doing. I can't exactly have a whole bunch more White people running around there, sticking out like sore thumbs, and then having a dead doctor."
"I thought you would like me being honest about this." Gabriella was getting angry. "This is really bullshit, Tyler. This guy has people around him all the time. And I know that I'm an assassin, but I really don't love the idea of shooting this guy in front of his kids, or having him die in front of the people at his work. He walks the streets and everybody says hello to him, they love him. What I have to do with him has to be done very quietly or it'll never work. You might wind up with the doctor dead, but there'll be so much investigation, we'll all be splattered all over the news as soon as they break one of your informants."
"I have faith in my informants," Tyler stated, not accepting the premise of her argument. "You don't even know these people, how can you make a comment like that?"
"Because they're not agents. You said it yourself, they're not trained for these sorts of things. And do you think if the district police bring them in, that all of a sudden they're gonna be able to handle an interrogation?"
"Maybe not, but I've put enough distance between them and us that it should never be a problem," Tyler explained, trying to ease Gabriella’s mind. "You've never asked for help before, and having people around this guy seems a little bit too loose to have you asking for help."
"It's just that this one's weighing on me a little bit," Gabriella admitted. "This is my first mission since Antonio passed."
Her eyes sunk down as she felt her heart bottom out. The image of her husband, the man she had loved for so many years, working on their old homestead entered into her brain. His muscular back and arms lifting bales of hay and tossing them over made her husband look as inviting as the country boys that were in the jean commercials with flexed and rippled bodies and beautiful smiles upon their faces.
"I'm sorry that's becoming difficult for you," Tyler said softly. "Antonio was one of the greats. I don't know if he ever told you, but he and I worked two or three missions together. I've never seen a guy that so comfortably worked his way in and out of situations, and did it all with the calmest look on his face."
"He was quite a man," Gabriella agreed, as the longing deepened in her heart and the pit became even larger. "This guy, Patel, he's got kids, he's got a wife. Don't get me wrong, he's a piece of shit. He hit on me, and it seems like he's probably had a steady string of girlfriends. Fidelity is not his thing."
"That doesn't really matter though, does it, because you know what it's like to be a widow," Tyler said with understanding, his voice become more sympathetic with each word. "And you know what his wife is gonna feel like, the trauma and the pain that she's going to have."
"Yes." Gabriella stared into space, not focusing on anything, but feeling the sorrow within her ripple and vibrate throughout her body. "I just keep wondering what it will be like if she finds his body the way I found Antonio's."
"Isn't there a way to make sure that doesn't happen?" Tyler asked. "Maybe an abduction where he gets moved further away. And I know you've been creative in the past, where you've made things look like accidents."
"It really doesn't matter how it happens." Gabriella sighed deeply. "At some point, a man is gonna walk up to her, more than likely from the police, and tell her that her husband is dead. Whether she finds him or doesn't find him, she'll still have to live with that, and so will his kids."
"Gabriella, do you want out of this mission?" Tyler asked, cutting through the words that needed to be said. "There's absolutely no shame from retiring from this kind of work. It happens to everybody, they hit a point where they just can't do it anymore. It's too taxing and it's too much of a strain, and emotionally, it just gets too hard to do."
"It's all I know how to do. Don't forget, I was trained for this from birth. Every movement, every thought I have comes from that training. All the rest of my behaviors with Antonio and you are all learned, I have to think about them before I do them, it's not instinctual, the only instincts I have are to complete missions."
"You'll adjust, it'll get better for you," Tyler said softly, giving her the opportunity to get out of the mission, as well as the life of a spy. "I can promise you, Gabriella, that if you walk away from this, you won't hear from any of us anymore. I can make it look like you were killed. We'll give the credit of the kill to some nobody halfway across the world that'll love to brag that he got The Mantis. You can then use your skills to just drift away and not deal with any of this anymore."
"I appreciate the offer, Tyler, but I need to finish this mission, and then I can look at what my priorities are for the future." Gabriella looked out the front window of the car, seeing no
activity whatsoever, but wishing there had been some. "This guy, Patel, he's a complete monster in every way. I don't think I'll feel any remorse for what I have to do to him, it's just his family. They don't deserve any of this."
"That's where you're wrong, Gabriella." Tyler explained, he knew the answers that she did not. "His wife's been complicit with all of this. She's well aware of what he does, and she's helped him do it. She directs people to him, knowing what could happen to them. The only ones that don't know what's happening are the children. As far as I'm concerned, his wife is in just as deep as him."
"I guess that makes it easier in some way. If she's a criminal, she should have to pay for it just the way he does. There's a lot of people over here that have died just based on his greed, and the limited follow-through he has to make sure that the people that are giving out the blood for him are doing it right." Said Gabriella, "From what I've learned, this guy just hires people off of the street and has them start putting blood into people with little knowledge of what to do or how to do it."
"Do you feel like you can go on, Gabriella, do you really wanna do it?" Tyler asked, waiting for an answer from the other end of the phone.
Fourteen
"I couldn't get it." Jay paced back and forth in the small bedroom as his wife sat on the bed. "I went there, I asked them the information, and they give me this sheet of paper that has more directions than I know what to do with. It's paperwork, more paperwork. Anything to keep the guns out of people's hands."
"They must be worried that someone might use it to kill someone," said Priya, knowing that the words would cut into her husband and his plans. "You don't need to avenge our son."
"What are you talking about?" Jay asked, stopping and placing his hands to the side of his head in frustration. "You say these things like it doesn't matter. You make me feel like I'm acting out of control. But our boy is gone."
"Jay, you've never even considered that it was a mistake. You're torturing yourself. Isn't it better to just say that this was a horrible mistake and move on?"
"A mistake? You're trying to tell me that this was a mistake?" Jay walked out of the bedroom door, flailing his arm behind him in frustration.
"Why are you walking away from me?" Priya called to him, still sitting on the bed. "We still have a lot more to discuss."
"I'm getting a drink, just leave me alone." Jay opened the refrigerator and removed a bottle of water he had been drinking throughout the day. Raising the liquid up to his lips, he felt the cool water enter his mouth, giving his body a moment to relax and take in the nourishment on the warm day. "It's not like I'm leaving the argument, I'm just getting a drink."
"I don't even see why this is an argument, Jay." Said the woman. "You're just being a jackass with this."
"So now I'm the bad guy? Suddenly I'm the one who's wrong, because I don't wanna let my son's death go by without at least a fight." Jay slammed the refrigerator door and walked back toward the bedroom. "But you, you're happy just to let it go, you don't wanna make any waves or have any trouble."
"How dare you say that to me?" Priya snapped. "Do you think you've cornered the market on pain? Do you really think that you're the only one that's suffering here? No, but I know our son doesn't want us to suffer for the rest of our lives, and the only way we can start to mourn and heal is to try to let it go."
"You're asking me to let my son go?" Jay asked. "That's something I can never do."
"Sweetheart, I'm not asking you to let go of Hani I'm asking you to let go of his death. I want you to hold him in your heart and I want you to remember everything that was so wonderful about him. I just don't want you to torture yourself."
"Priya, don't you remember?" Jay asked, feeling a catch in his throat stopping him from saying any more words.
"What, Jay? What are you asking if I remembered?"
"Do you remember the night he died?" he said, knowing that his wife sat by holding her son's hand as he slowly passed away. "I can't get the image out of my head. Just what his body looked like without life. The expressions on his face as he suffered. That's never gonna get erased from my mind, I'll never forget those things."
"You don't have to forget them, Jay, you just have to learn to live with them, and know that no matter what kind of revenge you want to get, it will never bring him back, it'll never calm your soul."
"I don't think that's true. I think if I can make Patel suffer the way our boy did, then that will let me know that he'll never do it to anybody else. We're not alone, Priya, you know it. There's a lot of us who have had this happen," Jay tried to appeal to his wife. "Look around us. Right in our area there's been three people who have had members of their family damaged by this man. Whether it's one of their cousins or relatives far away, his little job of giving people blood has turned to be murderous. But what does he care, because once one is down, there's always another one to follow, and another one after that. The people don't get the help in the hospitals, because anybody who gives blood gives it to the animals like Patel, and they don't give it to the hospitals."
"It's greed, Jay. We've seen it all our lives. You grew up a poor boy, you know what it's like to hustle, and you know that there's a lot of people that look for a shortcut. Do you mean to tell me when you were a young boy, that if someone had offered you money to give some blood, that you wouldn't have done it wholeheartedly and run home with the money for your family?"
Jay's mind quickly flashed to an image of his parents in the dirt floored home that they lived in. More of a shock than anything else, the four walls were held together with nails that had been found on vacant lots, creating a structure just good enough to keep away the day's sun, and keeping the wind from hitting them. For sixteen years, Jay lived in the home and watched each of his parents pass away to disease, as well as three of his siblings. He was the lone member of the family to survive the treacherous conditions. The move into middle-class life held the pride and the security that he felt was never going to lead to the death of another family member.
"I do remember those days, and I'm proud of the man that I am and what I had to do to get here. But none of that erases what Patel has done to me, you, and all the others," Jay said. "Patel doesn't just hand out the blood and make people better, the way maybe he did at one time. The man that he sent here wasn't trained medically, he was just a guy that came in, stuck a needle in our son's arm, and drained some blood into him. That's it. He didn't even stay around and remove the port from his arm. He just walked out, didn't say goodbye. He had another needle to go in another person's arm, giving them the blood and probably not checking with that person either what they were getting."
"Don't you think Patel would get rid of men like that?" Priya asked, trying to find some reasoning within her husband. "Why would he kill off customers? This is the way he makes his money, to get rid of us is foolhardy."
"Priya, when you have a clientele a mile long and a waiting list even further, you could do whatever the hell you want," Jay barked at her, not willing to bend on his feelings or emotions. Priya pulled back in the bed, sliding herself firmly against the headboard as her feet lay on top of the sheets and blankets. "If I can't convince you to do it for me, maybe you can do it for your children."
"My children will know that I avenged their brother," said Jay. "They know that their father will fight to the death for them and will not allow anybody to harm them in any way."
"That all sounds good, Jay, but what are you gonna say to them if you spend the rest of your life in prison? But that will be for me to tell them, right? You won't be there to have to face them, to look into their eyes as they learn that their father is never to return. Their father will never hold them again, he'll never kiss them goodnight, he'll never read them another story. He won't be there for the milestones, the weddings, the funerals, and every other occasion that there is. You'll become a memory rather than the man that they need to help them through their lives."
"I understand what you're saying, Priya,
and I love my children with all my heart, but what kind of a father am I if the kids think I won't be there to protect them, that I won't be the one to fight for them when they've been unjustly harmed?" Jay placed his hand on his forehead, rubbing gently trying to ease the headache that was building inside of him. "At least beyond anything else, they'll look at their father as someone who would never betray them, someone that would be there for them every step of the way, fighting and not letting anybody do anything to them in any way."
"Except, Jay, you'll be the one doing it. It won't be some outside man or woman that harms your children. It won't be some nefarious person hiding in the bushes that snatches them away. Instead, it's gonna be you, their father that lets them down." Priya could see the anger build inside Jay's eyes as he turned and gave a scouring glaze at her with frustration. "That's right, Jay. You're hearing me correctly. If you kill this man, you're a bad father."
"What gives you the right?" Jay moved quickly over to the bed and pulled his hand across his body, ready in a motion to hit his wife in the face with the back of his hand. "I should..."
Holding his body frozen, still coiled up, ready to strike, Jay's eyes fell on the woman he had never raised his hands to. The fear that enveloped her eyes and the tears that now ran down her face were of a woman who was terrified of the man she loved, a woman simply trying to help him, who now needed to cower and escape to have safety in her own home.
"Oh God. Priya, I'm so sorry." Jay dropped his hands down, and sat on the bed facing the woman who flinched and pulled away. "I would never strike you, I just don't know how to handle this."
"You're tearing us apart," Priya cried. "Our marriage will never last and you'll never be a good father unless you get through this. It's not just about you anymore, Jay, it's not just about our son. This is about all of us. This can end our family, this can end who we are. Please don't let that happen."
