The Mercy of the Mako Shark

by Nicole Castle

  Toby insisted that Nasir stay there to recover until he was well enough to fly to London, and Miko drove him back to his hotel to get his things. And Miko's things, that Nasir had basically stolen when he left him stranded at Toby's apartment the day before. Both of their phones had taken turns ringing since the news broke, and both were equally ignored.

  “You did not get much sleep last night,” Nasir remarked. If Nasir had slept much, his room certainly didn't look it. Everything was already packed. Nasir was always ready to leave at a moment's notice. He had very few belongings.

  “No. But it was worth it.” Miko picked up his rifle. He never would've dreamed of bringing a murder weapon into Toby's home, apart from himself, but there was nothing else he could really do with it.

  Nasir sighed and sat on the bed as his phone rang again. “I suppose I had better get this over with.” He held his finger to his lips for Miko to be quiet and answered it. “Yes, I've seen the news, Simon.” He glanced at the clock, the muffled sound of Simon's voice on the other end of the phone. Miko smiled, overly amused with Simon's vexation. “There isn't anything that can be done about it. She doesn't know his name, she never saw his face...” Miko smiled wider. “No, you cannot speak with him. Because he's upset, Simon. He'll be taking time off. We'll discuss it later. I will see you in a few days. Goodbye, Simon.” Nasir hung up and shook his head. “Needless to say, he is not pleased.”

  Miko sat on the bed beside him. “He has never been pleased with me.”

  “That isn't true.” Nasir roughed up Miko's already roughed up hair. “You two are just frequently at odds with each other.” Miko shrugged. He had no intention of telling Nasir what transpired between the two of them. Nasir had once stated that Simon would do right by Miko or answer to him, and Miko didn't want to even consider what effect it would have on Nasir to hold Simon responsible for truly upsetting Miko. “Do you want me to leave you alone while you call Russell?”

  “It is fine.” Miko dialed the number, a number he'd dialed in desperation only days ago when he thought Nasir was going to die. And just like before, Joe Russell answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, kid,” Russell sighed wearily. “I'm assuming you've seen the news?”

  “Yes. I know you cannot look into for me now.”

  “Yeah. I'm sorry. There's going to be a lot of people poking around, but I'll keep an eye on that website, see if anything pops up that could be useful. Maybe once things die down a bit I can look into it further.”

  Frank trusted Joe Russell enough to work for him. Frank didn't trust anyone. “Okay.”

  “Listen...Simon told me about that job. I was glad to hear that it wasn't you. We were worried.”

  “We?”

  “Me, and the gang.”

  Miko practically squeaked with excitement. Frank and Bella and Blondie were all worried about him. Nasir was wrong for once. They were Miko's friends. “Thank you, Joe.”

  “Sure thing. I'll be in touch. Take care of yourself, kid.”

  He hung up, grinning in anticipation of finally being able to gloat. “He was worried for me.”

  “Yes, he asked after you. I called to speak with him last night when Simon told me about that job.”

  “They were worried,” Miko said with unrestrained glee. “They are my friends.”

  Nasir shook his head again. “Perhaps Toby was not as successful at talking sense into you after all.” He smiled before Miko had the chance to pout. “Maybe you can convince your friend to give me my ears back.”

  Miko didn't think anyone but Silva could convince Bella to do something she didn't want to do, but Nasir's acknowledgment of their friendship, no matter how sarcastic, made Miko feel capable of accomplishing miracles. “I will ask when I see her again.”

  “You will not be seeing Bella or any of them soon. You have to be careful, Miko. Whoever is responsible for Ophelia's death is still out there, and now they know you're looking for them. They could very well go after her mother for information.”

  Shrugging nonchalantly, Miko said, “I tortured her already. She did not give.”

  “She didn't have information to give. Now she has your name, and making the connection between Miko and Mako will not be difficult.”

  Miko smirked. He wanted them to know the Mako Shark was after them. He would not be sad if Ophelia's mother was punished for her theatrics in the process.

  “I am supposed to be recovering and you are making my head ache. Let's go back to Toby's. You can give him one too.”

  They stopped at the convenience store on the way to Toby's to pick up some aspirin for Nasir's affliction, and some candy for Miko's, only to run into Toby doing the same thing. “Hey, superstar,” Toby said brightly, handing over a paper bag filled with red cinnamon candies and a variety of pain relievers as they left the store. Nasir had stayed in the car, since a seven foot tall, mean-looking black man with a bandage on his face was bound to draw unwanted attention. Even more attention than Miko had drawn. Miko sneered at the reminder that Ophelia's mother had single-handedly done what Hector spent considerable efforts to avoid. But Toby didn't let him brood over it any more than Nasir would. “I talked to Shannon. She thinks you're a bona fide hero, and may have a teeny little crush on you now.” Toby laughed. “But seriously, they're really impressed with what you're doing.”

  “What about what I did?”

  Toby averted his eyes, as if their conversation had taken a turn for the scandalous. “I, uh, I never told them about Morocco. I just said that you went to be with her after she got hurt.” For as long as Miko had known Toby, he felt like he was just starting to figure him out. Toby's aversion to violence stemmed from his attraction to it; his habit of blabbing about things he shouldn't speak about formed from suppressing things he couldn't mention. Like his mother. Or Morocco. “And then a few months later she was out of the news and I figured it out why you'd done it. By then you'd changed your number.”

  “I kept calling you,” Miko said sheepishly. It had seemed so desperate, and pathetic, that he hadn't even told Ophelia about it.

  “I know.” Toby smiled, raising his eyes to him. “I tried calling you back.”

  Nasir got out of the car so Toby could sit in front for the short drive back to his apartment. Toby took in his surroundings in the passenger seat as if he didn't have the exact same car parked at home. He chewed on his lip, those adorable worry lines on his forehead speaking even before he did. “There was a body in this trunk.”

  “It is not there now,” Miko said helpfully, catching Nasir trying not to smile in the rearview mirror.

  “Bleach,” Nasir added.

  Toby huffed a nervous laugh. “Okay.”

  Miko drove back to the apartment, letting Nasir carry in his pain killers and hauling the rest of their bags himself. Toby eyed the case with Miko's sniper rifle, clearly having little doubt about the contents. “Closet?” Miko asked.

  Toby nodded, about to take it from him when Nasir said, “You may want to look into a safe deposit box, since you'll be staying.”

  “We'll go to the bank.” Toby gave Nasir an appreciative smile, although Miko wasn't sure whether that was because he would be staying or the rifle would be going. “Closet for now.” He took Miko's things to the bedroom, returning with his laptop. “You want to see that website?”

  Nasir said yes while Miko said no. Somehow Miko was overruled and Toby set it up on the kitchen table.

  Pulling up a chair beside Toby, Nasir scrolled through with a sigh. The site was already filled with dedications to her, and to him, thousands of statements of encouragement and not a single word of useful information. “Only you, my friend.” Nasir handed Miko the bag of candies, which were promptly torn into. “This is quite the predicament you've gotten yourself into.”

  Toby comfortingly reached for Miko's hand, where he had remained standing. “Go get 'em.” Toby pointed to a comment from S in Boston, MA. “That's from Shannon.”

  “You've gone international.
Here's some French, and Italian, Korean. To think Hector was worried about you being photographed.”

  “You are angry with me?” Miko pouted. As much as Toby had reassured him that Simon was wrong to call him poison, none of the others had ever wound up in such a position.

  Nasir gave him a stern expression, then burst out laughing. “Oh, Miko. How could I be angry when your misfortunes are so humorous.”

  “I am glad I make you laugh.” Miko rolled his eyes but he really was glad. Nasir laughing made everything better.

  “They are calling you Romeo. They don't even have the right play. Look, a drawing,” Nasir said brightly. “That's Ophelia on the balcony, and you with a mask down below. Still the wrong play. It looks nothing like her.”

  “Or me.” The drawing looked more like Toby than Miko. Straight light brown hair, slim build. Romeo.

  “You should be happy about that. Here we go: 'God speed, Hamlet'; 'Bless you, Hamlet'; 'We love you, Hamlet.' And a drawing of you speaking to a skull. I quite like this one. Shall I print it and give it to Simon?”

  Toby smiled but said nothing. He understood Miko's desire to keep Simon's accusations secret from Nasir. Then Nasir started, and promptly stopped reading the next comment. The king of Denmark is rolling in his grave. Toby was no longer smiling.

  Miko had never actually read Hamlet. He only knew of Hamlet at all because of Ophelia's name. But he still knew what the message meant. And who sent it.

  Nasir stood, facing Miko and putting his hands on his shoulders. “Simon can be a...”

  “Prick,” Toby stated.

  “Yes, a prick. I will talk to him.” Nasir gave Miko's shoulders a reassuring squeeze and excused himself outside to make the phone call.

  Toby waited until Nasir was gone to say, “You should tell him.”

  “No.” Miko took Nasir's seat. “Simon has done a lot for Nas. More than I have.”

  “Lie.” Toby smiled and typed I love you Hamlet. “How's that?”

  “True.” Miko kissed his cheek and Toby deleted the message. “Thank you.”

  “How do you say 'thank you' in Polish?”

  “Dziekuje.”

  “What about 'I love you?'”

  Miko looked back to the computer, Ophelia gone forever just like his sister. “I do not remember that one.”

  “If you're going to be staying awhile, maybe you can take classes or something. Pick it up again.”

  “Maybe you take with me. We could go travel once things are settled.”

  Toby beamed at him. “Really? You'd want to?” The familiar self-doubt flashed on Toby's face for just a second, that sadness in his eyes that gripped Miko's heart. “I have my passport now.”

  “I want to see it.”

  “It's an awful picture.”

  Miko nodded towards his so-called likenesses on the computer. “Not as bad as those.”

  “All right.” Toby sighed and led Miko to the bedroom. The sniper rifle's case was on the bed.

  “That is not the closet.”

  Toby blushed. “Will you show it to me? This is all gonna take some getting used to but I figured the more I was exposed to it the less I'd...worry about it.”

  “You worry about everything.” Miko sat down and patted the bed beside himself so Toby would sit too. He set the case across both of their laps before opening it. “Nasir made this gun. This is bolt action so you load here. They are mostly made for right handed but you see this is for me.” Miko pointed out the different parts before removing them from the case and putting the gun together. “You want to hold?”

  Toby vehemently shook his head but the smile on his face betrayed his intrigue. Miko moved the case to the side and scooted over on the bed so he could lay down on his front. After a few seconds of hesitation Toby followed his lead.

  “Like this.” He turned on the laser sight, smiling to himself as he heard the front door open and close and found a target to aim at. “Watch.”

  “Miko,” Toby said sternly, but Nasir didn't come to find them so Miko aimed at the wall instead.

  “Look here.” He moved the gun so Toby could look through the telescope. “See?”

  “It's so simple. Should it really be that simple to take someone's life?”

  “But it is not. It takes very much time to decide to kill a person. You think and think and then maybe you know someone who knows someone, and you arrange to meet.”

  “Handlers?”

  “Yes. And then you give them money and someone you never meet will make your problems go away.”

  Toby was silent for a moment, then looked to him and smiled. “I'm being a terrible host. Poor Nasir is out there all by himself.”

  “Nasir traveled through two continents by himself before he was even a man, I think he can handle your apartment.”

  “Well it is a lot bigger than the last place,” he joked.

  Miko playfully pushed him over onto the bed and sat up to take apart the rifle.

  “That bandage on his face isn't very big.”

  “Sometimes I see blood that is not there,” Miko admitted, fiddling self-consciously with the scope.

  “I suppose it's better than not seeing blood that is there.” Toby playfully pushed him back, then got up and grabbed his passport from a shoebox in the far corner of the closet. “Here.”

  Miko took it from him, but he was more interested in where Toby had kept the passport than the passport itself, especially after finding the box Hector had left in his own closet for Miko to find. “What is in the box?”

  Toby blushed. “I'm surprised you haven't already looked.”

  “I do not snoop.”

  “Except for my bank account information,” he said sternly.

  “I was looking for paper to write Fee a letter.”

  Clearly seeing that Miko was telling the truth, Toby softened and brought the box back out. “It's just stuff I don't need.”

  “A passport is not useful?” Miko ignored the box for the moment now that he knew his curiosity would be sated, and he flipped through Toby's passport from the back, so many blank pages. He couldn't remember the last time he had a blank passport. Then he got to the picture, which wasn't bad at all. “You look sad.”

  “I was sad.” Toby sat beside him on the bed. “It was right after Hector died. I wanted to go to Germany to be with you.”

  Miko kissed his head. “I know.” He set the box on their laps like he had with the rifle, smiling when he found Toby's taser gun at the very top. The batteries were corroded inside so even if Toby would've found some use for it, or the courage to use it, he couldn't now. An old Ohio driver's license, Toby looking younger and even sadder than in his passport photo. A picture of who must've been Isaac, a more muscular build than Toby, an angry face. One of Toby's father. Of Emmett. “You do not have a photograph of your mother?”

  “My dad wouldn't let me have one. He was kinda pissed that I was leaving, like I thought I was too good for Ohio. Isaac was gonna steal one to send me but...” Toby trailed off, more reluctant to discuss his brother's reaction to him coming out than he'd been when Miko first met him. “He didn't.”

  “You are too good for Ohio. I was there.”

  “On a job?” Toby asked, the weight of the word hanging in the air.

  “In a hotel. On the way to California after Christmas.”

  “You stopped in Ohio?”

  “Not on purpose.”

  Toby laughed. “I don't know anyone who stops in Ohio on purpose.”

  Miko took out a high school yearbook, signed by Shannon and Bobby and a few from Mrs. This and Mr. That who were obviously teachers, and no one else. At the very bottom of the box was a luggage tag with Miko's old phone number from when he'd written it down for Toby at the airport.

  “I actually forgot that was in there.” Toby took it out, holding it by the elastic string, and Miko felt his heart breaking for him just like it had when they'd parted at the check in area years before.

  “You put it in the bo
x when I changed my number?”

  “No, I...it was before then. You weren't easy to get a hold of, and you always lied about where you were when you called me back. I figured I was just being stupid to even bother because I'd never see you again.” He smiled suddenly, that bright, allayed smile that chased away the sadness in his eyes. “Then you came back.”

  Miko took the tag from him and placed it at the bottom of the box again. “I have new number. You do not need.”

  Toby kissed him on the cheek. “No. I don't.”

  “But you do need your passport,” Miko scolded.

  “Okay.”

  “Come on, terrible host. We will make sure poor Nasir is not lost.”

  Nasir was not lost, but he was not looking at Ophelia's website any longer either. He was sitting quietly in front of the computer, looking at flight times. “Simon is beside himself,” he said without looking up to acknowledge that Miko and Toby had entered the room. “With that job, and now this...It does not excuse his behavior, but I should go calm him down before it gets worse.” He stood up, giving Miko a grim smile and then turning to Toby. “Thank you for your hospitality, but I must go. You will look after him?”

  Toby nodded, no doubt feeling like he'd failed his duties as a host.

  “I will drive you,” Miko said but Nasir just shook his head.

  “I'll leave the car in storage for you.” He hugged him tightly. “If you need anything you can call me. You know this.”

  “Yes,” Miko said to Nasir's shoulder. He didn't think Nasir should be flying yet, and he didn't want him pandering to Simon. But Nasir had been pandering to Miko for months. “Goodbye, Nas.”

  Nasir was about to pick up his bag when Toby went to hug him goodbye too, and a smile found Miko's face despite his glum mood. “Bye, Nasir,” Toby said, the hint of a smirk on his face showing that he was fully aware of how uncomfortable it would make Nasir to be embraced, and how happy it would make Miko.

  With a polite nod Nasir grabbed his bag and practically rushed from the room.

  “You okay?” Toby asked, gently taking Miko's hand.

  “Let us pick up some parsnips. I feel like shooting.”