Wrong Step (Urban Fiction): A Sinister Syndicate Thriller

by Kyle Robertson

  Moira smiled at Sheddi.

  “I think you better get the Mamba thing done, because that toe curling is a perk in my book.”

  Sheddi kissed her on the cheek.

  “You’re a tough Irish fire bitch still being promiscuous in traction. I guess we better get ready. According to Tyler, it’s going down tonight.”

  As they both began to leave Moira’s room, Moira spoke once more.

  “Thanks for the visit, and it’s nice to meet you, Tyler. I know I push things, but you’re going against an international drug syndicate with soup jockeys; be careful.”

  Sheddi smiled, and assured her.

  “I’ll be careful. Remember, I’m bulletproof.”

  This was the time Moira wanted that claim to be true.

  ~~~

  They rang Reggie’s doorbell when they returned. Osei let them in, because Reggie was at work.

  “How is your friend?” Osei asked.

  “Feisty as ever. That bullet never fazed her attitude.”

  “She’s Irish,” Tyler said. “Bullets won’t have the audacity to break her spirit.”

  Marnu walked over.

  “As long as Salom doesn’t hit me again, I can pull this off.”

  “Sorry, Marnu. That hit was a delayed reflex,” Salom said. I know you don’t mean it, but that hit wasn’t malicious, it was female prerogative. I’ll control it from now on.”

  “Let’s test it,” Tyler said. “Call her a skank ho, Marnu.”

  Marnu was apprehensive about the name calling.

  Tyler looked at his hesitation, and spoke.

  “This is an act, and you’ll be on stage with your co-star who promises not to hit you.” He looked at Salom. “Right, no bodily harm?”

  Salom walked over to Marnu.

  “No bodily harm. Call me a skank ho.”

  “That’s not the point. You hit like a bunyoro. My maame told me to never call a woman out of her name, and you proved it las night.”

  Salom pinched his arm hard.

  “I may hit like a rabbit, but I pinch like a scorpion. Your mother won’t care, we’re acting. Call me a skank ho!”

  Salom could pinch, so he blurted.

  “Stop pinching me, skank ho!”

  She released him, and looked at Tyler.

  “I think we have it.”

  As Marnu rubbed his arm, Tyler went to him, and said.

  “At least she didn’t hit you.”

  Sheddi grinned at them, but she had to check all her low lux filters. She wouldn’t take pictures with the lights on. This mission was definitely not going to be child’s play.

  Tyler saw her check her equipment, and began to map out the plan to the key participants. They had until seven to practice their infiltration opus.

  ~~~

  “Actor, it’s the director. Where are you?” Tyler called to Marnu.

  “Across the street. I’m sending Bunyoro in.”

  “You’re getting away with calling her rabbit?”

  “We’re acting, right? When have you ever seen a hooker go by her real name?”

  “Point taken, but if she hits you afterwards, I won’t protect you.”

  “I can take a bunny punch, but that scorpion pinch is another thing.”

  “Just stay sharp. The police will be there at seven forty, so start at seven fifteen. Nine one one is a real joke in Queens, so put on a show. We’ll be in when the cops divert the snipers. This will work.” Tyler was assuring Marnu, but secretly, he was assuring himself.

  It was showtime. Marnu sent Salom across the street to set up, and waited behind a building.

  As Salom got to the front of Round Rasta, another prostitute greeted her.

  “Hey, you new. Whas yo name, boo?”

  “I’m Bunyoro. Is this block good?”

  “Bunyoro, I ain’t neva heard that name before. Where you from?”

  “Africa. A bunyoro is an African rabbit.”

  “Bein’ African, and not a bush bitch will get you hoppin’ on a buncha johns.” She put out her hand. “My name’s Swizzle Stick because I can swizzle a stick. Where’s yo pimp?”

  “He let me out by myself tonight. He was just here to protect me. I love my pimp.”

  “Yeah, I bet he promised you a car, or some acting career. Trust me, girl. Pimps are dogs. I’m just doin’ this to pay off my student loans. Strippin’ is good, but this is faster.”

  Salom realized this job wasn’t made for a nymphomaniac. It was a business, and the whores were the grunts in the chain. She felt for Swizzle.

  Marnu checked his imitation Rolex, and knew it was time. He came from behind the building, and yelled at Salom.

  “You short, bitch! You missin’ some bills from last night!”

  “What you do, Rabbit?! Yo man is pissed,” Swizzle whispered frantically.

  “I sent my money home. He told my father I was going to do that.”

  “Damn, girl. He just said that to get you over here. You ain’t got Daddy over here. You about to see ‘crazy pimp’.”

  Marnu came across the street and played his part.

  “You think you can get over on me, Skank ho?! What did you buy with my money?!”

  “I’m sorry, Daddy! I sent some money home to my father!”

  “You right in one of those two things! I am yo daddy, but I never gave you permission to send MY money anywhere!”

  Tyler listened to the commotion, and knew Marnu was pulling off an unhinge pimp. He was about a block away with Sheddi, and saw the other girls move away.

  “Marnu may be a pacifist, but he’s pulling this off well,” Tyler said.

  “He does improv with his old troupe back home. He’s been a pirate, a Zulu warrior, a meerkat, and even a mailbox. I think after watching The Mack, he can pull off pimp.”

  “The world’s oldest profession doesn’t change with time,” Tyler said. “Just the clothing. I had to tell him the hats with that large feather in them were out of time stock.”

  They got heated for a while. Well. Marnu got heated. Salom acted as if she was scared.

  “Bitch, don’t you ever play with my money!”

  “But, Daddy, my real father was getting suspicious! He was gonna call the cops, and mess up your whole stable!”

  Marnu knew what his role required, but he still felt terrible for doing it. He had to make this look real.

  He saw it in a movie, so he pimp slapped her!

  “Ya lucky I’m left handed, because my rings on my right would leave a mark!”

  “She knew they practiced this all day, but Marnu didn’t have to slap her that hard to sell it. She thought it was payback from that pinch.

  The other street walkers heard the sirens, and decided this wasn’t the right block at the right time.

  “Come on, girls. Let’s hit one twenty five. Rasta just got poison,” Swizzle said, and they began to walk away.

  Salom kept up her role as an abused hooker, but her look told Marnu of the hell he would pay later.

  “We have to leave, Daddy. Five-o is coming.”

  “If we don’t run they can’t arrest us, ya dumb bitch. Just act normal, and we’ll be fine!” Marnu yelled at her.

  As the police screamed around the corner, the snipers ducked, but they still wanted to hear the altercation.

  “The police are here, and the snipers ducked. We have about fifteen minutes, let’s go.”

  Tyler and Sheddi took an out of the way route to the service entrance. The police screeched to a stop in front of the warehouse, opened their doors, and with their guns drawn, yelled at Salom, and Marnu.

  “Get down! Hands behind your backs!”

  As Marnu, and Salom got on their stomachs, Tyler and Sheddi made it to the service entrance undetected. Tyler pulled out a scanner, and scanned the door.

  “It’s a Titan security system. A single connection. Give me a minute, I have to find the box.”

  “Why are you on the street in a suit when she’s wearing something so small, she coul
d get frostbite?!” An officer called out to Marnu.

  “My dumb daughter was sneaking out to a club in that, so I found her,” Marnu said.

  “Yeah, I think you’re her daddy, but not paternally. Get their I.D.s, Logan. I think we need to run dad, and daughter.”

  Tyler found the box, picked the lock, and bypassed the security by overlapping the signal.

  He shuffled back.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  “We won’t trip the alarm?”

  “Not unless you try to trip it on purpose,” he said. I just have to break the deadbolt.”

  As Tyler took out his lock pick set, Sheddi marveled at his skills.

  “It’s a Tumerak,” he said as he heard the bolt slide. “Tumeraks won’t stop an experienced lock pick specialist.”

  He slowly opened the door, and Sheddi went in with her low lux eye wear. Tyler was fumbling, so she gave him her backups.

  “These are like NVGs.”

  “They share the same properties as night vision goggles, but Europe made them stylish,” she whispered.

  They went deeper in the warehouse, and saw crates of contraband. Tyler pried one open, and saw bags of heroine, OxyContin, Molly, Methamphetamine, Zanex, Ritalin, and cocaine.

  “We found the mother-lode. Take your pictures.”

  As Sheddi clicked away, the snipers were listening to the racist police berate Marnu, and Salom,

  “Hey Mitch, these are real jungle bunnies. They’re from Africa.”

  Mitchell said, “They probably don’t have work visas hooking that way. Sorry, you two. I have to check your passport, and work visa status. I hope the sidewalk’s warm because you’re gonna be there for a while.”

  That was good for the diversion. Checking those papers at night would take a while.

  Sheddi took out her smartphone, and began to record some video.

  “Knocks told me they can’t convict without indisputable proof. The Mamba lawyers would tear my pictures apart if I didn’t show real video of the location.”

  Tyler knew Sheddi knew what she was doing, but seeing her execute her tasks professionally made her sexier to him.

  “You’ve been doing this for a while. A text book won’t teach you real world situations. Your experience does.”

  “Did you learn to bring your lock pick set on every mission from a book?” she asked rhetorically. “We’re both brown, not green bananas, Tyler.”

  She finished, and Tyler said.

  “Time to exfiltrate… uh, leave quietly.”

  They silently walked out of the warehouse, and Tyler relocked the door.

  “If it looks like we were never here, they’ll never expect anything in court.”

  Tyler was a deft soldier, but New York disrupted their sound plan. He went to reset the box.

  New York had a devastating rat infestation, and one of those scavengers ran across Tyler’s hand.

  Tyler reflexively pulled away, and sadly touched wires that tripped the alarm!

  Brahmowichz heard the alarm, and knew he had to defuse the situation before the snipers looked.

  “Logan, Check out the back!”

  Sheddi ran to Tyler.

  “What happened?!”

  “New York happened,” he said. “Run to the dumpsters in the alley, hurry!”

  They ran across the field to the back alleyway while Logan came around the corner to see them. Brahmowichz followed behind.

  “Great. Another homeless crack head trying to stay warm tripped the alarm.”

  Logan knew the snipers were listening, so he played along.

  “Yes sir. At least he didn’t break in. I hate paperwork.”

  “They know we patrol this place, and there might be another call. Put those darkies in the wagon, and I’ll let the desk jockeys find out who they really are. Let’s return to the station.”

  ~~~

  “What the hell does New York have to do with you triggering the alarm?!” Sheddi asked Tyler while hiding behind a dumpster.

  “A New York rat the size of a rottweiler ran across my disconnecting hand when I was taking off the bypass. I jumped, and voila, I tripped the alarm.”

  Sheddi was very intimate with New York rats. Her leg reminded her of them. She calmed down.

  “At least we’re not compromised.”

  “They’re going to know something went down. Since we had to run, I didn’t grab the bypass. The Mambas will put two and two together.”

  “They still won’t know it was us,” Sheddi said.

  “You’re their primary target. They’ll assume it was you.”

  Tyler was right. Sheddi just hoped they couldn’t add.

  Chapter Seven: Mamma’s a Coming

  As they returned to Reggie’s apartment, Nana came up to them.

  “”Is everything okay?”

  “I got my pictures, they’re secured, but Tyler accidentally tripped the alarm,” Sheddi said.

  Nana looked at Tyler.

  “This just got deadly, didn’t it?”

  Osei said, “This was always deadly. Nothing has changed just because Tyler accidentally tripped the alarm. They don’t even know us.”

  “He’s right,” Sheddi said. “They’ve always wanted me dead. They can’t kill me, dig me back up, and kill me again. Tyler is training you Ranger style, trust him.”

  “I never said he was perfect, Nana. He’s a Ranger, but a human Ranger,” Abena said.

  Tyler’s phone rang. It was Tanaka. He answered.

  “Tell me you didn’t voluntarily expose yourself to make this more challenging.”

  “I take it Brahmowichz called you.”

  “Why would you set off an alarm with snipers wanting to kill Sheddi?!”

  “Gimme a break. I’ve been out of the sand for two years. I can get rusty playing touch football with orphans!”

  Tanaka didn’t mean to explode, but he was so close to nabbing the Mambas, and everything else fell apart. He calmed down.

  “You’re a well-oiled soldier, so tell me what really happened.”

  “As I was disconnecting the alarm bypass, and a New York rat ran across my hand. With the situation being so tense I jumped, and touched some wires.”

  “I know you dealt with rats in Afghanistan, but they were tunnel, not New York. I’d jump too. Tunnel rats carry water, New York rats carry pizza.”

  Tyler grinned because he remembered the meme.

  “We have your pictures secured, and Sheddi also did a vid recording of the warehouse. How is Marnu and Salom doing?”

  “You can pick them up in the morning when you bring me my evidence, Dedzo listened.”

  “She knows her stuff. You teach well.”

  “See ya tomorrow, kid.”

  “Over and out, Detective.” Tyler clicked off the phone, and got prepared for the morning.

  ~~~

  Adan got a call from one of the snipers. He went to a more secured location of the Jerk, and answered.

  “Whatcha want? Did ya shoot’er?”

  “Na, Pop. The cops got here to arrest a hoochie, and her pimp. While we hid, and listened, the alarm went off. Nothin’ looks like it was snatched, but ya bettah get down here.”

  Adan knew change was bad in his line of business, especially when they were hunting a renegade.

  “That was no coincidence. Tha gal might’o messed up. Stay there, and touch nothin’. I’ll be back in twenty.”

  Adan clicked off the phone, went to his Lincoln, and drove to Round Rasta.

  ~~~

  As Tyler and Sheddi lay in bed, Sheddi became concerned.

  “Do you think David will get the evidence there by noon?”

  “You tell me. That was Moira’s courier. You suggested we call him.”

  “He takes papers to certain clients for Moira. He was drunk at the diner last night. He might have forgotten. Why did we need a bike courier when we’re seeing Knocks in the morning anyway?”

  “When you mess up your mission, you cover your mess up
,” Tyler said. “I know we didn’t see anybody, but Ranger training states you always dance in a mission like everybody’s watching.”

  “That’s the reason we went to an out of the way diner. If we met him at the Lightening Bike Couriers office, whoever was watching would know.”

  Tyler smiled,

  “See, you’re getting the hang of it, cover your butt.”

  “You know I’m learning this so I can uncover my butt later, right?”

  Tyler looked at her in those sexy boy shorts, and had to force himself to stay on mission.

  “Get some sleep, Sheddi. We have a big day planned.” He turned off the lamp, however, her uncovered butt twerked in his head lustfully.

  ~~~

  Adan walked into Round Rasta, and his sniper leader was waiting for him.

  “Jasper heard the cops say it was a crack head tryin’ ta get warn and set off tha alarm.”

  “I just got a call from Julius. He’s my best enforcah, and security guy. He’s in an apartment across tha alley, and saw what happened,” Adan revealed. “It wasn’t a crack head. While ya was occupied with Ghetto Stories, that gal, and another guy broke in ta the back.”

  “Pop, I…”

  “Shut up, an listen, Darrian. Julius was bettah than ya whole team—come ’ere.”

  Adan walked into the warehouse, and spotted some newly hammered nails on a prime shipment. He pried open the box with a crowbar, and saw all his contraband in line as if they were posing for a photo shoot.

  “Ya right about them not takin’ anythin’ physical, but I’m pretty sure they have some glossies shot ta give tha cops a warrant ta search here, and any pier warehouse we got.”

  Darrian felt very stupid being duped by the cops. They weren’t this smart in Kingston.

  “We need ta get those pictchas back,” he said.

  “All ya need ta do is shoot straight,” Adan said. “I’ll handle tha pictchas. I’ve seen how ya handle anythin’ more than just shootin’”

  Adan just waited for further instructions from Julius.

  ~~~

  Tyler turned on his car, and Sade rang in the cabin. Sheddi had her gear, and was ready to meet Tanaka, and get her friends.