by Kyle West
Vivian starts to feel a panic attack coming on. She is still in the sentry box on upper level, sitting on the stone floor, nervously rocking back and forth.
Novak yells out, "Vivian, none of this is your fault! I wish you no harm! Just come on out and give me the flash-drives and stuff, and I'll just be on my way! Cross my heart, hope to God!"
Vivian feverishly digs in her purse and takes out the flash-drives and CDs, clutching them in her hand. She wants to give Novak everything, and be done with the situation, but she knows Novak will kill her the instant she gives him the flash-drives and CDs. Vivian is very scared and confused. She remains in her hiding place.
Having searched most of the parade (main level), Novak heads to the stone rampart that leads to the upper level. He notices the fresh mud on the stone steps.
Novak focuses up the flight of stairs, pulls out his gun, and checks the clip to make sure it is fully loaded.
Novak then starts his way up the rampart and says, "Vivian, my offer still stands! Come on out and let’s talk!" Vivian, sitting on the ground in the sentry box, and doesn't move.
Novak is now one third of the way up the earth and stone walkway when he is struck in the left thigh with a hatchet! Novak falls to one knee on the stone stairs, dropping his gun in the commotion. Suddenly, again, Novak is struck in the leg with the hatchet, so deep that it gets stuck in his thigh! The attacker then, with one hand, grabs Novak and pulls him off the side of steps, rolling down the dirt rampart, to the ground eight to ten feet below!
It is Keith who has attacked Novak with a combination axe/hammer. Keith's left shoulder and arm, are practically useless from the gunshot wounds he's suffered from Novak in the park. Keith and Novak fight and roll around on the muddy ground, with the axe still in Novak's leg. Keith is on top of Novak. Keith doesn't know where Vivian is, he yells out for to her to run out of the fort. Vivian emerges from the sentry box above and runs to the top of the rampart/staircase. She looks down and sees Keith and Novak fighting next to the stairway, but not at the foot of the stairs! Vivian decides to run along the edge of the walkway of the upper level to get to the stone stairway on the other side of the fort, away from the fighting men. The chenin-de-ronde walkway is only about three or four feet wide, so Vivian is running very carefully, so as not to fall off the edge, twenty feet down to the main level of the fort. Police sirens now can be heard inside the nearby children's park.
Keith and Novak are still fighting on the muddy ground. Novak, lying on his back with Keith on top of him, reaches down and pulls the axe out of his leg. He screams in agonizing pain as he swings the hatchet around, hitting Keith in the upper back. Keith falls on top of Novak, who swings the axe again, hitting Keith in the middle of his back! Keith screams in pain and rolls off of Novak, onto his side. Novak sits up, inspects his leg wound, and looks around the muddy ground for his gun. The fort is very dark near the earth and stone rampart stairway, Novak doesn't find his gun. He is sitting up, next to Keith, who is still conscious, lying on his side. An angry Novak swings the axe and chops Keith's fingers off of his left hand! Keith lets out a horrific scream! Vivian stops running along the upper walkway of the fort, and looks down to see Keith in excruciating pain! Keith rolls over onto his stomach, face down in the mud. Novak still hasn't located Vivian. He turns back to the Keith lying close by to his left. Novak raises the axe high above his head to deliver Keith the 'fatal blow', he suddenly stops mid-swing.
Novak then yells out for Vivian to hear, "I want you to see this! This is what I do when I don't get what I want Vivian! I know you can hear me! Where the fuck are you?!"
Vivian, still on the upper walkway of the fort, quickly steps behind a stone perch wall so Novak cannot see her. Novak struggles to his feet and continues his rant and rage towards Vivian. He walks about the main parade of the muddy and eerie fort. Still hiding behind the perch wall, Vivian puts her hands over her face and starts to cry. Keith regains consciousness, and tries to roll back onto his stomach.
Keith tries to speak. His incoherent statement lets Vivian and Novak know he is still alive. Vivian takes her hand from her face to see Novak doubling back towards Keith. He bends downs and violently grabs him by Keith head, and twists his neck so to hear what he is trying to say.
Novak says to him, "You have something you want to say?! Here, say this! Tell that bitch to give me my goddamn money! Tell her now!"
Keith struggles to yell to her, "Vivian, stay where you are! He's gonna kill you when you give him the money! The police are coming Vivian! Just stay where you are!"
Vivian peeks down at Keith and Novak from behind the stone wall. She sees Novak angrily force Keith's head to the ground, and raise the axe to decapitate Keith's head. Vivian then breaks the eerie silence and shouts, "Here! Here! Just take it!" She walks out of the darkness to the edge of the upper walkway. Both Novak and Keith freeze…they look up and Vivian is standing on the upper walkway ledge, surrounded by the natural moonlight, with the flash-drives and CDs in her hand. All three of them are frozen in the moment. After a few brief seconds, Vivian softly tosses everything down to the main parade. Novak, still with his arm raised and axe in hand, looks as the flash-drives and CDs land in the soft mud of the main level, about a hundred feet from him.
Novak looks down at the motionless, and defenseless Keith, who is lying in a pool of his own blood. Novak simply drops the axe hammer, and limps through the mud to pick up the flash-drives and CDs.
The package laying in the mud, is illuminated by a sole beam of moonlight, like the proverbial ‘pot of gold’ at the end of a rainbow.
10:26 pm
There are now more police sirens in the distance at the children's park.
The police don't know to come further down the Riverfront walkway to Fort Dupre to investigate the killing of the two police officers. Inside the fort, Vivian is now sitting on the ledge of the wall walk, and softly speaks down to Novak, on the lower level, "You got what you wanted…now leave me the hell alone."
Novak doesn't respond, as he picks up the flash-drives and CDs, wiping the mud from the bottom of them. He carefully inspects the flash-drive, and softly says to himself, "Incredible. Three hundred million dollars, on a twenty dollar drive you can attach to your key ring. Absolutely amazing."
Vivian is emotionally exhausted. Her arms and hands cannot stop quivering.
Novak listens as now more police and ambulance sirens flood the children's park nearby.
With the police being so close by, Novak strangely shows no urgency to flee. Vivian is in a solemn mood, she is not afraid of Novak anymore since he now has the money. Novak looks up at Vivian on the ledge, and with the warmth of a big brother says, "Thank you Vivian, you did the right thing, the fair thing. Everything's going to be just fine now. God Bless." He puts the flash-drives and CDs safely in his jacket pocket.
Novak sincerely continues, "Come on down from there before you fall and hurt yourself. C'mon." He starts to walk to the stone stairs, heading up the rampart to the upper wall walk of the fort.
Vivian uncharacteristically snaps, "Don't you come near me! I swear I will rip your heart out of your soulless body! Just go!"
Novak stops, looks up at Vivian insincerely, "I just want to apologize to you for everything. You seem to be a very nice person, I'm truly sorry." He turns and walks back down the stone steps. At the bottom of the stairs, Novak stops to rest his seriously wounded leg.
Novak casually sits on a fifty-gallon steel drum at the foot of the stone stairs. He starts sharing his personal stories of Jesse, with Vivian. He tells how he and the other M.I.C.O. soldiers were close, like family, "Jesse was alright though. He was a selfish bastard, but most of the time he was a real friend. That's why I don't understand why they did what they did to me."
Vivian doesn’t want to say, or do anything that will make Novak angry or set him off in any way. She is waiting for help to arrive.
Novak now tells Vivian how he escaped from a torture camp in Ecuador, into Guatemala on
the back of a truck, then into Mexico where he had personal friends. He says, "From there my buddy found an old Mexican family that we paid to smuggle me into Texas in the trunk of their thirty year old Buick. I was back on home soil, and felt less safe than I ever did in South America. Go figure."
As Novak casually continues his rambling on about his ordeal, Vivian is again careful not to anger him. She safely keeps her distance, up on the ledge of the upper wall walk in the fort. Then a cell phone rings, Vivian is surprised, she knows her cell phone has no battery charge. She remembers Barbara Jean at ‘A Tisket A Tasket’ from the French Quarter souvenir shop, gave her a phone to use. Vivian hesitantly answers the phone which angers Novak.
"Yes, hello?"
On the other end of the phone is a drunken man, it is Barbara Jean’s husband, Parker. He isn't aware that Vivian has his wife's phone.
He yells, "My truck is stuck in a ditch in Slidell! You need to come get me darlin’! It's dark out here!" Vivian tries to tell Parker that she is not his wife, but Parker is so drunk, he continues ranting at Vivian. Vivian kindly dismisses herself from the phone conversation, and ends the call.
Novak’s eyes quickly became annoyed by the interruption of the phone call. Vivian is desperately trying to figure out a way to alert the police to come down from the children's park, to Fort Dupre. Novak then continues on, “Believe it or not Vivian, out of all the guys, I knew Jesse was the most trustworthy. When I got into Texas, the first person I called was Jesse. He got me here to New Orleans and took care of me. That’s when he told me about the money, and that that was the reason we were ‘hit’. I was blown away, three hundred million dollars! We both decided not to tell the guys (commando soldiers) I was alive because communication between one less of us would better our chances to not be sought out by the Agency. Jesse put me up in the Radisson (hotel) downtown instead of taking me to your house, he didn’t want to scare you any. He even took me to the doctor, he really did take care of me until I was able to get back up to Boston." Vivian seems to now take in Novak's stories with sympathy and warmth.
"So anyway, Jesse tells me all of us guys were going to meet, to split the money, then go our separate ways, forever. But I never heard from him again. After a few days I got hold of a car and followed him to the airport that night.
Vivian now stands up from the ledge of the upper wall walk to listen more closely.
"I catch up to him, we talk right at the terminal. I ask him about my share of the money? He tells me he doesn’t have it. Then tells me he didn’t trust any of us anymore. After all we been through together, our families, our kids and he’s gonna tell me something like that? Then he reaches in his pocket and hands me a few hundred dollars, and tells me not to call him anymore! I was shocked! I honestly didn't fucking know who this guy talking to me was!"
Novak, now staring into space, continues, “Jesse didn't give a fuck! He showed me no honor, as a friend. As a man. As a soldier…He never saw it coming."
Vivian emotionally reacts to Novak's last statement about Jesse's murder. She steps back to look out the fort window, to see why the police haven’t come down from the children’s park to search the fort yet, and to help her. They are about a hundred feet from Fort Dupre.
Novak mumbles to Vivian, "After what I went through and now Jesse was shitting on me! I needed for those guys to hurt. To bleed. To feel pain like I did!” Novak stands up from sitting on the steel drum and says to Vivian, "I told you before, I think you are a sweet lady, a beautiful lady. I am sorry Jesse got you mixed up in this Vivian! But there's nothing I can do to help you, and I'm truly sorry about that!"
Novak bends down and raises his pants leg and says, "I have to be Insp. Clark one last time. I have to tell the cops out there how I killed the two suspects that shot those cops out there." Vivian stands at attention on the upper wall walk as Novak pulls out a nine-inch Bowie knife from his left leg holster. He then starts his way over to the stone stairway, the rampart to the wall walk to kill Vivian. In the most relaxed and soothing manner, "I promise, you won't feel a thing." He starts up the stairs.
Vivian hurries over to the window and starts yelling to get the attention of the police. With so many emergency vehicles in the area and with sirens still blaring, Vivian's screams go unheard. A cool Novak, with knife in hand, struggles to the top of the staircase. Now standing on the wall walk, a panicking Vivian shouts, “You have your money. You have everything now! Please don’t!”
Novak slowly proceeds towards Vivian and says, "I have no choice. The situation has changed. I'm sorry things worked out this way." He wipes the blade of the knife on his jacket sleeve, and gives Vivian a fatal stare.
To escape, Vivian hurries to a stone stairway, around to the other side of the fort. She trips and falls over wooden beams that are lying across the wall walk. Novak, slowed by his serious leg injury, struggles to run after Vivian. She gets to the old stone staircase, to find the stairs are total impassable. Vivian turns around and sees the knife wielding Novak closing in on her! She picks up small tools, and loose bricks to throw at Novak as he gets closer to her! Vivian then pushes over a cart filled with bags of quick dry cement in Novak's path, then continues around the perimeter of the wall walk, trying to make her way back to a passable stairway or rampart. There are more construction tools and materials in Vivian's way. The darkness of the fort makes it hard for her to find a clear path to the stairway. Vivian again looks over the edge of the wall walk to see if she could jump down to the ground level. Again, the thirty foot drop is too much, and she decides not to jump. Novak is making his way towards Vivian rather easily considering his serious leg injury. He is about fifty feet behind her.
Vivian looks back and sees Novak pushing a heavy work table out of his way. She finds a gas powered chain saw nearby, which she uses to fend off a nearing Novak. Novak sees that Vivian can hardly hold the heavy power tool. He playfully lunges at her to scare her. Novak laughs, then continues towards her, holding the knife tightly down by his side. Then very clearly over a police loudspeaker an officer says, "Go down and check out the construction site!” The police are headed to search Fort Dupre.
Novak stops for a brief moment, giving Vivian a demented stare! He spins the large knife in his hand for a 'ready for battle grip' and rushes towards Vivian. She miraculously turns the chain saw on…and then immediately drops the heavy power tool! Vivian then turns and runs full speed down the narrow wall walk, heading towards a barricade of various tools and crates that block the entire wall walk! Vivian is trapped! She makes a life and death decision as she runs and leaps off of the wall walk, and lands in a very large fifteen foot high mound of fresh
sand! Novak stops and watches Vivian roll down to the bottom of the mound, scrambling to her feet.
Vivian then tries to find her sense of direction, to run to the front door and out of Fort Dupre to safety. Vivian makes her way around the construction vehicles on the main level, heading towards the front door to make her escape. She looks up and sees Novak swinging down from the wall walk on a crane gurney, like Tarzan swinging from a vine! Novak lands thirty feet in front of Vivian, cutting off her escape path to the front door!
Vivian, screaming for the police outside to come to her aid, quickly turns around and runs back away from the fort front door, deeper back inside! Novak climbs from the crane gurney, limping after her. Novak follows Vivian's screams and footprints in the mud, back towards the lookout cubicles on the outer wall of the fort. He walks along the back corridor, looking into each cubicle for the hiding woman. Novak enters a section of the corridor that is so dark that he cannot see as much as his hand in front of him. Novak continues down the back corridor, and enters an area where the outer wall is completely missing. He can see the landscape outside, as the bright moon shines into the corridor. Novak notices that there are no footprints in the mud in this area of the back corridor. He stops walking. Then, over the deafening noise of the police and ambulance sirens outside, Novak hears Vivian's phone ringing
nearby.
Novak slowly turns around and follows the sound of the ringing cell phone, back to the last dark cubicle on his right. Still standing in a lighted area of the corridor, he grabs a flashlight from a nearby generator. Novak flashes it into the dark cubicle and finds Vivian on the floor huddled in the corner, cell phone still ringing. Novak gives Vivian an evil smile, then turns away for a second. The cell phone stops ringing. Novak juggles the large hunting knife comfortably in his hand, and coolly says to Vivian, "When you see Jesse and the rest of the fellas, tell them all to go fuck themselves for me."
Vivian doesn't say anything or move a muscle. She looks down, then pulls her cross that is on her chain around her neck, out from under her blouse, and kisses it. Vivian puts her head between her legs, closes her eyes, and starts to say her private prayer to God.
Vivian contently sits nestled in the corner awaiting her fate, with the unsteady beam of Novak's flashlight on her face. A split second later, out of the complete darkness, there is a very loud explosion and a sudden blast of bright moonlight radiating into the corridor! Vivian, still with her eyes closed, is now covered in blood! She slowly opens her eyes and wipes the blood from her face, then looks to her right and sees a large section of the corridor completely blown out and razed.
