To his credit, he didn’t go down, at least not all the way. The remote control car fell to the floor and started to bounce down the stairs, but he had only dropped down to one knee and was already recovering and starting to get back to his feet.
I moved in and hit him hard, putting the full weight of my body behind the strike, and landing it right beneath his chin, driving his head back into the concrete wall again.
Still he managed to stay on his feet, shaking his head as he tried to clear the blackness that must’ve been threatening to overcome him. I moved to hit him again, but he tilted his body slightly to the side just as I threw the strike, and my hand went flying harmlessly past his head, missing him by mere fractions of an inch.
Before I could land the follow-up with my left, he kneed me hard in the side, pulling back for a follow-up punch to the head. I grunted from the pain of his knee hitting my side, and turned with the movement of his fist coming at my head, watching out of the corner of my eye while it went by.
This guy was good. Most people wouldn’t have still been on their feet after the collision with the wall, let alone my follow-up shot that put his head back into it. He turned and a wicked grin broke out across his face as he pivoted to launch a dropkick, already seeing me go flying down the stairs in his mind’s eye, no doubt imagining me breaking my neck in the process.
I turned into the kick, blocking it easily, while bringing myself into him so that we were practically face to face. He smiled again, obviously thinking he had me now, his hands reaching for my neck. I made no move to block him, so the look of shock that wiped the smile from his face was sudden as his body started to convulse, the current from the stun gun I had jammed into his side causing havoc with his nervous system before he finally slumped back against the wall and slid to the floor.
I held the trigger down on the stun gun for another few seconds, wanting to make sure his circuits were good and scrambled before before pulling it back. A second later, I had my arms locked around his neck, and he was out cold not long after that. While I was sure I could have finished him off without the help of the stun gun, I had no desire to prolong things, wanting to end it and get this bastard back up the stairs and inside Francis’ apartment before attracting any unwanted attention.
I called Eddie from my cell, and a few moments later I could hear footsteps on the stairs above me followed by Eddie’s voice calling out to let me know it was him. As he arrived on the landing, I could see his eyes taking it all in, then giving me a once over.
“You ok?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. He was one tough son of a bitch though. Put up a good fight.”
Eddie smiled. “Gave you a go, did he?”
“Not really, but I was surprised how much it took to put him down. Give me a hand, and we’ll get him back up the stairs to Francis’ apartment.”
Eddie looked at the guy slumped on the floor, then looked up towards the stairs, as if he was figuring how long it was going to take to haul him all the way back up to the nineteenth floor.
“I got a better idea. Give me a minute, and I’ll go retrieve our luxurious cardboard box accommodations for our friend here from the van. We can box him up right here, and then wheel him down the hall to the elevator. It’ll be a hell of a lot faster than trying to haul him up thirteen flights of stairs.”
I thought about it for moment and decided Eddie was right. Not only would it be faster, it was probably less likely to attract attention since it would take us longer to get him up the stairs than doing it Eddie’s way.
“Ok,” I agreed. “I’ll wait here with him.”
Eddie disappeared out the stairwell door, and I turned to look at our new friend. He was still out cold, and I wouldn’t have expected any less. I’d released the choke hold seconds before killing him, and he wasn’t going to be waking up anytime soon. I would’ve held it longer and finished him off, but I had a few questions for him before I said goodbye permanently.
The remote control car was lying on the landing below the one my new friend and I were waiting on, so I went down and grabbed it quickly to have a look. Nice car, probably fairly expensive, but it wasn’t so much the car itself as it was the small camera that was mounted to it that got my attention. Picking up the remote control from beside my sleeping friend, I saw it had a small lcd screen attached, presumably to view the feed from the camera on the car. Searching sleeping beauty at my feet, I found another lcd screen in his pocket, similar to the one on the remote.
Pretty slick.
Sleeping beauty here must’ve been using the video feed from the car to confirm that Francis was home and that the coast was clear for him to make his move. Paying the kid to run it up and down the hall while he presumably watched the feed from the stairwell was a pretty smart move too, keeping him out of sight while still telling him everything he needed to know before making his move on Francis.
The door to the stairwell opened again, and Eddie held it open with his foot while he turned to wheel in the freezer box on the push cart. Once he was in the landing and the door had closed again, he shrugged off the backpack that held the delivery outfits we’d brought, and the two of us proceeded to stuff our sleeping friend into the box.
Once we had him in, I pulled out a scarf from the backpack and gagged him tightly, just in case he woke up while we were on our way out to the van. Unlikely, but better safe than sorry. The last thing we needed was people staring at us while we pushed a screaming freezer box through the building.
Done with the gag, I pulled some zip ties out of the backpack and proceeded to secure both his hands, and then his feet, and then his hands to his feet. We didn’t need our freezer moving around on the cart either.
Moments later we exited the stairwell again, for all appearances looking like a pair of delivery people pushing a freezer. The elevator seemed to take forever, but then we were inside and heading down to the garage. A couple minutes later, the van was loaded, and we were driving out of the building at a nice leisurely pace, just a couple of underpaid, blue collar delivery people on their way to their next stop. Of course, our next stop was going to be a special delivery, the kind you really don’t want to get.
After a bit of a drive, I pulled the van into a deserted lot in a more run down area of town where we weren’t likely to be disturbed. I parked at the back of the lot where we were almost entirely concealed from view by the over-growth of shrubs, long grass, and small trees that were slowly beginning to reclaim the area.
Eddie and I got out and opened the back doors. Our freezer box was silent, presumably our sleeping friend was still out for the count. I’d been thinking about what I wanted to know from this creep on the drive over, and I had it pretty much distilled down to the essentials. Now it was time to get to them.
We shoved the box out of the van, letting it hit the ground and tip over. Fear is a great motivator, and waking up bound and gagged in a confined, dark space is a little scary. Having your world suddenly drop out from under you and go crashing to the ground, well that’s just got to dial things up even more.
I hopped out of the van and kicked the side of the box. Eddie took a seat on the bumper and watched. No sound came from the box. Not a peep. I strolled around it and put a few more kicks into the sides as I went, wondering if maybe I hadn’t just put him to sleep. Maybe I’d misjudged and held the sleeper hold a little too long?
Still nothing, so I figured it was time to open it up, see how our little friend was doing. Turns out he wasn’t dead after all. He was wide awake, his eyes blinking furiously as they tried to adjust to the bright sunlight after being in the darkness of the freezer box.
“So, you’re still with us,” I said as I looked down at our friend in the now opened box. His eyes followed me as I circled around him, cold hatred resonating from them, like waves of cold coming off dry ice.
“That’s good,” I continued, “because I’ve got a few questions for you.” His eyes continued to follow me as I spoke.
“I’m going to remove your gag now, but just for the record, screaming won’t do you any good. First off, we’re in the middle of nowhere and nobody could hear you anyways, and secondly, it’ll just piss me off, and trust me, you don’t want to piss me off. Nod your head once if you understand.”
The hatred in his eyes flashed brighter for a moment, but he did what I asked and slowly nodded his head.
“Good, that’s good,” I said as I moved in closer to him and removed his gag.
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
“Oh my,” I replied. “I think we need to establish a few more rules. First and foremost, I’ll be the one asking questions here, not you. You’ll speak only when I tell you to, and only to answer my questions. Understand.”
“Fuck you, you little bitch!” His eyes burned brighter now, almost as if he could burn me with the hate pouring out of them.
My fist crashed into the side of his head, and both he and the box rocked backwards, threatening to tip over before they righted themselves. He shook his head and blinked furiously as if to clear the stars that were flying around in there, and then his eyes locked back on mine.
I waited a minute, staring at him silently, and then broke his nose in one quick snap of my arm, the sound of my fist shattering the cartilage echoing around us like a gunshot.
He shook his head again, eyes frantically trying to blink away the tears that were starting to flow involuntarily from his eyes. A lot of people find it’s hard to stop the waterworks when you’re nose has been broken, especially when it’s been broken as violently as I just broke his.
His eyes narrowed now, following me closely like a wounded animal caught in a trap that sees the hunter coming towards him. I lunged at him, and he flinched his head back, trying to avoid the next blow, but none came. I didn’t throw one. I just laughed.
“That’s better,” I said. “I think we understand each other a little better now. Am I right? Don’t say anything, just nod your head if you agree.”
He nodded his head slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.
“Let’s start with your name. Who are you?”
“Patrick. Patrick Demont.” He spat out the words, as if they were venom that might somehow infect me.
“Ok, Patrick, that’s a good start. Now, why have you been going after Francis.”
Patrick didn’t say anything for a moment, just watched me, like he was thinking hard on what to say. I waited a few moments, not wanting to push things too hard now that he’d started talking, but also not willing to let the momentum slide.
“Don’t make me ask you again Patrick.”
He let out a heavy sigh and then smiled. “He had it coming.”
“And what is that supposed to mean,” I replied, the look on my face probably a little perplexed at the not so forthcoming answer.
Patrick shook his head slightly, tilted his head as if preparing himself for something, and then he just smiled at me, like a feral animal bearing it’s teeth, as if to say he’d said all he was going to say.
I hit him in the mouth as hard as I could. His face flew to the side, blood and spit arcing through the air away from him. He shook his head slightly again, blinked a couple of times, and smiled, that same smile, his eyes locked on mine.
I hit him again. And again. And again. Three quick shots in rapid succession, the first in the mouth, the second in the nose, and the third in the nose again. Blood flowed from his nose and mouth and ran down his chin like little rivers. His eyes blinked furiously, and I could see tears forming again at the corners of his eyes, although I could also see they were just an involuntary response that he had no control over. This guy wasn’t anywhere close to breaking.
I worked on him for the next ten minutes or so, switching to an ASP telescoping baton so as not to overwork my hands. I didn’t see any point in joining him in the hurt department, and besides, an ASP is a psychologically intimidating weapon. Most people get a little jumpy when they see someone extend one, and I figured it might improve Patrick’s attitude when he saw what was coming.
I’d like to say I got the answers I wanted, but I didn’t. The guy was a true psychopath, and I didn’t get another word out of him after his “he had it coming” reply, not that I didn’t try. I guess it might have been partly my fault too. I mean, I could have shot him up with something to make him a little more talkative, but I kinda lost my temper a bit. That damn smile got to me, even though I shouldn’t have let it.
My bad, but hey, we all have our less than perfect moments. Knowing what he’d put Francis through and seeing him sitting there, smiling back at me like he didn’t have a care in the world, I guess I’d just had enough.
I was still hitting him when my arm froze and wouldn’t come back from behind my head, like it was stuck in mid-swing. I turned to see Eddie standing there, grasping my wrist, preventing me from striking again. He didn’t say anything, just looked at me. I turned and looked back at Patrick, his head slumped over on his body, his eyes staring blindly into the distance.
Eddie let my hand go, and I stood there for a minute looking at what I’d done, recentering myself, breathing slowly in and out. A few moments later, Eddie stepped around me and started to close the box back up around the body. I watched him for a minute, and then gave him a hand before we both hoisted the box back up into the back of the van.
I didn’t say anything when Eddie moved to go around the driver’s side of the van. I just walked over to the passenger side and climbed in. I looked over at Eddie and he was handing me a fistful of wet wipes. I took them from him and proceeded to wipe the blood from my face, arms, and hands. When I was finished, I scrubbed at the blood on my delivery uniform until it was as clean as I was going to get it.
Eddie drove to the waste water station where we’d previously decided to dump the body. Nobody was around, and after clipping off a couple of padlocks with a pair of bolt cutters, we had no trouble dumping Patrick into one of the two huge cement holding tanks where we watched him sink below the smelly brown surface.
I doubt many people are aware of it, but human excrement will decompose a body down to nothing in a matter of days. Other than the not so great smell of these places, dumping a body in a sewage tank is a pretty efficient means of disposal, especially when you consider that most sewage treatment plants are fairly secluded for obvious reasons.
I opened a new padlock, shut the steel doors back up over the holding tank, and relocked it with the new lock. Eddie was already back in the van and started pulling away as I got myself seated. We stopped at the front gates, and I hopped out, relooped the chain through them, and locked them back up with another new padlock.
Neither of us said much as we drove away, not that there was much to say anyway. It was finished. Francis was safe, and his would-be killer was dead. I’d ask Francis if the name meant anything to him, but the fact of the matter was that we’d probably never know why he had targeted Francis. We’d probably never know if Patrick Demont was even his real name.
And if Eddie hadn’t been driving, I may never have seen the yellow camaro parked almost out of sight down the next side street.
Teenage Assassin: Episode 4
Written by
M.W.Taylor
© Copyright M.W.Taylor 2013
All rights reserved.
http://www.teenageassassin.com
The author really appreciates you taking the time to read Teenage Assassin. Please take a moment to leave a review wherever you bought the book, tell your friends about it, mention it on Facebook, or tweet about Teenage Assassin on Twitter to help spread the word. Thank YOU for supporting my work.
WIN A FREE iPod Nano or a FREE KINDLE… YOUR CHOICE!!!
Leave a review for
Teenage Assassin: Episodes 1 to 4
on Amazon and email us at
[email protected] to let us know.
Be sure to include your name, your email address, and the nickname or name that you posted the review as on Amazon,
and we’ll enter your name in the draw to win a FREE iPod Nano or a FREE KINDLE! We’ll be drawing the winner as soon as we hit 10 entries so hurry and enter to get your chance at a FREE iPod Nano or a FREE KINDLE… Your Choice!!!
That’s a 1 in 10 Chance of Winning!!!
Even better! We’ll draw again for a new winner every time we hit another 10 reviews! Better yet, leave a review for both Episode 1 and
Episodes 1 to 4, and we’ll enter you twice!
The Camaro came at me like a beast from hell, it’s engine screaming as it ate up the asphalt between us. I forced myself not to look behind me, mentally yelling at my legs to move even faster, although I knew I was already running faster than I’d ever run in my life. I could practically feel the hot metal of the Camaro's front grill, like hot breath breathing down my back as I ran even faster than I thought possible.
And then I knew it was over.
My foot twisted beneath the weight of my body coming down on it, my leg gave out next as if it was the second domino behind the first one that was my twisted foot, and I was crashing to the ground, my head turning to stare in horror at the mass of brilliant yellow that was suddenly filling my entire vision as my world exploded.
I shot upright in bed, almost pulling God knows how many muscles in my back in the process. Sweat poured off my body, and I felt like I was lying in a lake as I looked down at the soaking wet sheets on my bed.
I sat there for a minute, letting reality settle in, waiting for my heart rate to return to normal, almost ecstatic at the fact that I was breathing, that I was alive. It had only been a dream. I wasn’t dead. There was no screaming engine, no hot breath on my back, no brilliant yellow Camaro running me down.
TEENAGE ASSASSIN: Episodes 1 to 4 *** ONLY $0.99 FOR THE HOLIDAYS - REG $3.99!!! *** Page 9
