The man who took the call pointed at a building and appeared to be ordering the men to spread out around it. Mdivani moved in closer with one thought on his mind: keep Akil alive.
Chapter 45
Akil stood in disbelief as he listened to Yanick relay his whereabouts to the gang. Initially he didn’t think Yanick had the guts to go through with his plan, that it was nothing more than a weak threat. He believed all Yanick wanted to do was to frighten him and extort a few dollars—not actually hand him over to die. He’d even thought Yanick might be faking the phone conversation, but he heard the voice on the other end and recognized it. Akil had wildly overestimated their friendship.
“You made a big mistake,” Akil said.
Yanick sneered. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“You don’t realize the trouble you have invited upon yourself. You think they will pay you a fee for turning me over? They won’t pay. They don’t care about people like us.”
“I didn’t kill that girl. I have nothing to worry about.”
“But you’re not one of them,” Akil argued. “They only take care of their own. You’re a foreigner. For all they know, you probably helped to keep me hidden.”
“I’ll tell them the truth.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Akil shook his head as he bit down on his lower lip. “If you go through with this, it can only end badly for both of us.”
He took a step forward, and Yanick jabbed the knife. “Don’t test me.”
“What about Sei? What do you intend to do with her?” Akil asked, briefly glancing at her.
“Nothing. I couldn’t make the call with her awake.”
“I’m telling you, she will kill you.”
“Then I will tell the gang they can do with her as they wish. It will make up for her killing some of their men. Akil, this is the end for you. Accept that.”
Akil took another step forward, and Yanick again jabbed the knife at him. “Stay away. I’m not afraid of you.”
“And I’m not afraid of you!”
Akil charged straight ahead, and as he expected, Yanick did nothing but cringe. Akil grabbed hold of the hand holding the knife, and the two wrestled for control. Both men were of similar strength resulting in a dance of pushing and pulling.
“Let go!” Akil shouted.
“No, you let go.”
Akil pulled forward and spun Yanick around him, but he remained on his feet and used the momentum to swing Akil around and into one of the chairs.
Akil grunted as his thigh made contact with the wooden armrest, causing him to lose his balance. He fell into the chair, but he was still able to maintain a grip on Yanick’s hand.
Yanick jerked his arm, desperately trying to free it, but Akil was relentless in the battle. “The gang will be here any minute. Don’t make it any worse than it already is, Akil.”
“It’s you who needs to worry.”
The next time Yanick yanked his hand back, Akil used the momentum to explode out of the chair and drive a shoulder into Yanick. They fell to the floor hard, and Yanick let out a groan.
“Give up, Yanick. You can’t win this fight.”
Yanick said nothing, and only stared back, wide-eyed. Akil felt Yanick’s grip lessen and then watched his hands fall to his side. Akil looked down to find that the knife had been driven deep into Yanick’s ribcage.
“Yanick! I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry.” Akil moved off of him. Only the wooden handle could be seen protruding from Yanick’s torso; it rose up and down with each breath. His shirt was already soaked red.
“Everything is going to be okay.” Akil used a dishcloth to stem the blood flow, causing Yanick to wince in pain.
Akil wasn’t sure what to do for his friend. He couldn’t call the police or an ambulance. He looked into Yanick’s eyes. The fear that held them open had begun to fade. He moved his mouth.
“What is it?” Akil got down on one knee and placed his ear near Yanick’s lips. “Tell me what to do.”
“Help me.”
Chapter 46
Yanick lay on the floor, his watery eyes begging for help, while Akil searched his pockets for the key to his car. Nothing could be done for his friend, and with the gang en route, it was simply too dangerous to remain in the flat.
“You’ll be okay. I’ll send for help. I promise.” Akil had always excelled at giving people empty hope. It cost him nothing, rolled easily off his tongue, and made him feel better about himself.
Yanick shook his head. “Don’t leave.” His words were barely louder than a breath.
Akil avoided his gaze and walked over to Sei. She was still lying on the couch, unaware of the fight that had just taken place. He grabbed her by both arms and pulled her to her feet, threw her left arm around his neck, and grabbed her around the waist with his right arm. “Come on, Sei. We have to get out of here.”
Her head remained flopped over to one side, and she could barely stand.
He could hear Yanick calling his name as he pulled open the front door. He refused to look back, too lazy to give Yanick yet another look of hope. A smile and the middle finger crossed his mind.
The two pushed forward through a small hallway toward an entranceway near the rear of the building—the same way Yanick had brought them to his apartment. Akil kicked the door open, and sunlight flooded the hallway. He squeezed them both through the narrow doorway and took no more than two steps before realizing he had just walked out of the furnace and into hell.
Standing in front of Akil were four members of the KK gang.
“Akil!” Ponleak shouted.
Akil instantly remembered his last phone conversation with Ponleak. Don’t worry, I’ll be right there. Empty words were all they had been.
“You have balls showing your face in Phnom Penh.”
“You don’t know the whole story.” Akil adjusted Sei’s arm around his neck. “I didn’t kill Chivy. She was alive when I dropped her off.”
“Why run if you are innocent?”
“You never would have believed me. You made up your mind the minute you found out she was missing.”
“I’m tired of your little lies. Everyone here knows what kind of man you are: a filthy, smelly degenerate.”
“You’re a hypocrite. Your gang sells girls to the highest bidder. How many have you sold into slavery so they could please men worse than me? How many were the same age as Chivy or younger?”
“You could have satisfied your sick ways with another girl. You didn’t have to hurt Chivy.”
Akil could see that Ponleak wasn’t buying his argument or his pleading look. He looked for options to run, but there was no way past Ponleak and his men. They blocked the exit from the small, fenced-in lot. It also didn’t help that he still had Sei hanging off of him.
“Your friend. Did you take advantage of her too?”
“You know who she is? She’s a professional. She killed many of your men. I saw it with my own eyes. How about I give her to you and we call it even? She’s your type: petite and pretty. She’s feisty, but those girls tend to be good fucks.”
“You think I need your permission to take her?” Ponleak asked while laughing. “You can’t buy or talk your way out of this, Akil. It’s time for you to suffer.”
Ponleak lifted his shirt to reveal a leather sheath fitted over his shoulder and across his chest. From it, he withdrew a mini-saber, the blade nearly ten inches in length. “You have nowhere to run, Akil. No friends to help you. I’m going to enjoy carving you into pieces.”
Ponleak motioned for his men to close the circle around Akil. One brandished a metal pipe, another a wooden broomstick handle, and the third a large dagger.
Akil’s eyes shifted back and forth as he desperately sought an escape path. Salty streams poured down his face and neck. The collar and armpits of his shirt grew damp with desperation. When the first man moved in to attack, Akil did what came naturally to him. He swung Sei around and used her as a shield.
Cha
pter 47
Mdivani rounded the rear corner of the building and slid to a stop in the gravel, nearly losing his balance, as he took in the scene. Akil had a very dead-looking Sei propped up in his arms, and the gang members had them surrounded.
All four men looked in Mdivani’s direction. The closest one, just a few feet away, waved his knife at him. “Go now before you get hurt,” he said in a thick accent.
Mdivani only smiled as a reply before stepping forward, grabbing the man’s wrist and forcing it down. He followed through with a straight punch to his face, stunning him. He then bent his wrist back, wrestled control of the knife and threw it at the gang member wielding a wooden stick. The knife came to a stop in his chest.
Capitalizing on the confusion of the man he held, Mdivani yanked him forward by his wrist, gripped his arm near the elbow, and slammed it down across his thigh, snapping the bone. The man stared at the unnatural angle of his arm before letting out a blood-curdling cry. Mdivani didn’t let up; he delivered a head butt, knocking the man unconscious.
He then quickly moved to the gang member with the knife stuck in his chest. “I’ll take that back, thank you,” he said as he twisted it out.
With one of their own lying motionless and another bleeding to death, Ponleak and his other man closed in. Mdivani, jumped back and out of the way just as Ponleak swung his blade in a downward motion. He continued slashing to the right and then to left. Mdivani avoided each one of the strikes with ease.
“You’re supposed to hit me with it. That’s how a fight works,” he said, flashing a smile.
Mdivani had already assessed their skills. They were amateurs. His ability far outweighed theirs, and he didn’t even consider hand-to-hand combat to be one of his strengths. In fact, he saw an opportunity to do what he loved doing most: toy with his opponents. He dropped the knife he held and called the man forward.
Ponleak swung with all his strength, backing Mdivani away.
Keeping both hands behind his back, Mdivani moved his body from side to side, avoiding each attempted strike. “Missed me,” he repeated after each swing. This dance continued until Mdivani felt his left heel hit the side of the building.
“Look where your cheap talk has gotten you,” Ponleak said, “No place to go now.”
“You sound out of breath. Do you need a minute in your corner? Maybe some water for you parched throat? I can wait here, like we’ve put the video game on pause.”
Ponleak grunted as he swung the blade horizontally in a wide arc. Mdivani stood still, eyes wide and mocking, until the last possible moment when he dropped to crouching position. The tip of metal blade clanked against the brick building, sending a spray of red debris into the air.
Mdivani leaned over and kicked upward into Ponleak’s gut, causing his opponents eyes to clench shut and a blast of air to explode from his mouth. He then executed a shoulder roll to the side and rose to his feet. Ponleak remained bent at the abdomen, his saber hanging useless by his side.
The remaining gang member raised his metal pipe like a bat and circled around Mdivani, who brought his hands to his mouth and mimed chewing his nails in fear. This didn’t distract the man as he planted his left foot and swung the twenty-four inches of steel at a downward angle.
Mdivani stepped to the outside of the swing, narrowly avoiding it. The man’s entire right side of his body was open to attack as his momentum continued with the pipe. But Mdivani didn’t strike. Instead, he continued his lateral move until he stepped behind the man, who was just recovering from his swing.
The gang member turned to face Mdivani. But Mdivani turned in sync, keeping himself behind the man. With each turn, Mdivani duplicated the move. Left, then right, and left again.
“Argh,” the man yelled in frustration.
No matter which way he spun, he could not face Mdivani. He was too fast.
By then, Ponleak had recovered and shouted for the other man to move out of the way as he advanced. “I got this punk!”
Mdivani ducked and leapt to the side, avoiding Ponleak’s strike. “You got air.” He quickly kicked the man with the pipe square in the chest, sending him flying backward to the ground.
By then Ponleak had wound up for another swing, and Mdivani realized his mistake. With all the fun he was having, he had failed to keep his eye on the ball that mattered the most.
Akil and Sei had disappeared.
Chapter 48
Mdivani knew that with each passing second, Akil and Sei were distancing themselves from him. He quickly disarmed Ponleak, delivered an elbow to his face, and followed with a knife slash to his chest. Ponleak decided then that he’d rather escape with a nasty chest wound than lose his life, and promptly ran.
Mdivani hurried to the front of the building, and surprisingly, the other two members of the gang were still waiting outside the entrance, unaware of what had happened. That also told him Akil and Sei hadn’t passed by. He looped back and through another short passageway that opened into small parking area big enough for maybe three or four cars.
From there he spotted fresh tire tracks in the gravel of a long driveway that led to another street. He followed it and found that the traffic was at a standstill because of a red light. Feeling hopeful, Mdivani walked along the footpath and scanned the cars, but the light turned green shortly after and the spacing between the cars grew. Where are you?
Hope began to fade until his eyes settled on white compact vehicle waiting to make a left turn at the intersection. As the car turned, he recognized Akil in the driver’s seat. I see you. They were too far away for Mdivani to catch up by foot. He needed a vehicle. He hurried back to the parking lot, intent on stealing a car, but his return had him facing something he wasn’t expecting.
Near the other entrance into the car park were a couple of men from local law enforcement talking to a shopkeeper. Looks like they found the bodies. Immediately the shopkeeper pointed at Mdivani. And now they’ve found me.
One of the officers placed a call on his cell phone as they both approached Mdivani with no hint of Cambodian friendliness. Each had a hand resting on the butt of his gun; one officer was a left-hander, and the other a right-hander. Mdivani thought briefly about turning and running, but he knew if he did, he would lose any chance of catching up with Akil and Sei.
Mdivani raised his hands slowly, still unsure of what his plan was, but he knew he couldn’t allow them to apprehend him. One of the officers pointed and shouted at him in Cambodian. It wouldn’t be long before backup appeared, and it didn’t help matters that a small crowd of nosy locals was already forming.
Mdivani bowed in an effort to help diffuse the situation, but really what he needed was a distraction, something that would give the two officers reason to drop their guard, if only for a few seconds. He still had his handgun tucked in his waistband, but he wanted to avoid leaving more bodies, especially those belonging to the local police force.
He glanced back. The driveway was empty, but turning to run left little room for him to dodge a bullet to the back. Mdivani racked his brain for something to draw their attention—the cars, the buildings, the crowd gathering…how could he utilize them?
The police were now a mere fifteen feet away, close enough they could shoot him with their eyes closed. He had allowed them to enter the dead perimeter—an area where a gunshot would be fatal. Being farther out would have given him a chance of sustaining a non-lethal wound, something survivable.
The wheels in his head continued to spin, but the only idea that seemed plausible was utilizing the one weapon he had hoped to avoid. But the longer he stood there, the farther away Akil and Sei would be. Losing their trail when he had just found it again was not an option.
The two officers watched Mdivani touch his wrists together and bow his head. They relaxed their stiff postures a bit. It appeared to them, and to the crowd, that they were seconds away from apprehending him without resistance. Shouts of admiration arose from the crowd. A few clapped their hands. One whistled his app
roval.
The encouragement from the crowd fueled the officers’ confidence. They glanced at each other, slapped a hand on each other’s back. One even turned to the crowd and waved. It was likely their thoughts were more focused on the impending praise and likely promotions than the task at hand.
The lead officer hoisted his utility belt as he ordered the other officer to handcuff Mdivani. A cheeky smile appeared on his face as he removed his cell phone, intent on documenting the arrest. He pointed the phone at Mdivani’s wrists and motioned for the other officer to proceed. However, by doing so, the officers played right into Mdivani’s hands and created the one distraction he couldn’t orchestrate on his own.
Chapter 49
The engine choked as Akil struggled to shift into second gear. After a few forced attempts, the gear slipped into place. He released the clutch while pressing his foot against the gas pedal, and the jerking movements of the vehicle eventually smoothed out.
Sei leaned against the passenger door of the front seat, mumbling nonsense, her eyes opening and shutting periodically. Akil wasn’t sure if she was aware of what had just happened—or if bringing her along with him was such a smart move.
“Sei, we’re driving out of the city.”
She flopped her head in the direction of Akil’s voice and said something unintelligible.
“Never mind. You make no sense.” Only time, sleep, and plenty of fluids would help.
When he felt they were far enough away from the assassin and the gang to be safe for a moment, he pulled the vehicle over and dug inside Sei’s pockets for a few euros to purchase bottled water from a street vendor. Akil opened one bottle and held it to Sei’s mouth. “You must drink. It’ll help.”
Contract: Sicko (Sei Assassin Thriller Book 2) Page 14
