by Sarah Monte
He looked around for a great deal of time but his efforts were completely and utterly fruitless. No matter how hard he tried he could not, for the life of him, figure out where the phone was.
After a few more minutes of fruitless searching he called Jennifer.
“Hey!” she said, picking up as soon as the call started to go through. “What happened? Did you find David? You have been at the location for some time now but you’ve been moving around. Can’t you see him?”
“Actually,” said Mike, “I can’t. I am in an empty parking lot, it looks like it hasn’t been used in years. It’s a strange place, to be honest. Such an odd place for a parking lot. That’s not the point, though, the point is that I can’t see anyone here, nor have I been able to find David’s phone. This is what is bothering me. His phone’s signal is coming from here but no matter where I look it’s like it’s coming out of nowhere.”
“Do you want me to tell you where you are in relation to the phone?” asked Jennifer. “I can see both your location as well as the phones. The phone is slightly to your right. Move a little in that direction.”
Mike took a couple steps to his right and Jennifer said, “Okay, now take a couple more steps right. A couple of steps forward. Okay a little more to your right… there! You are standing right on top of it. Or you should be standing right on top of it, I honestly don’t know why you can’t see anything there.”
All of a sudden it hit Mike. “They’re not here,” he said. “Or rather… they are here but they’re not as well. They are underground.”
“How could they be underground?” asked Jennifer. “Wouldn’t that block the cellphone signal?”
‘Not quite,” said Mike. “You see, if they are in an underground lair the ceiling would not be all that thick. They would not be able to dig far enough to have a thick ceiling. This means that if there is a storm drain somewhere here, the cell phone signal would be able to come through easily. Wait, let me look around a little.”
Mike looked around and found a storm drain large enough for a man to climb through. “This is it!” he said. “I found the entrance to their underground lair.”
“Okay,” said Jennifer, “I am calling the SWAT team.”
“Yes,” said Mike, “Yes tell them to leave right now. I am going to wait on the road for them. It should take them about forty five minutes to get here, right?”
“Right,” said Jennifer. “I am going to tell Ted to dispatch them right away. You stay safe okay?”
“Yeah, I-“
Mike was abruptly stopped in the middle of his sentence by a sharp blow to his head. He crumpled to the ground in a heap and after a few seconds of hazy vision, everything went black.
*****
“What the fuck are we going to do with him?” asked a reedy voice.
“Why the fuck did you hit him across the head?” said a thicker, more brutish voice. “Who the hell told you to do that?”
“He was talking about a dispatch,” said the reedy voice. “I think he’s a cop or something.”
“What the fuck would a cop be doing here?” asked the brutish voice. “Who is this guy anyway? I thought he was just some idiot that the boss wanted gone. Now the police are getting involved?”
“Yeah,” said the reedy voice, “I thought so… wait I think he’s getting up!”
Mike awoke, his head aching terribly, to find that he was bound and gagged. He opened one eye and after a few seconds was able to focus on three figures. One was David, propped up against the wall, bound and gagged in a similar fashion. He was unconscious and there was a streak of blood on his head.
“Who are you?” asked the man with the reedy voice. “You better fucking talk, or else!”
“Or else what?” asked Mike. “What are you going to do? You said yourself that you heard me talking about a dispatch. You saw me snooping around here and you hit me across the head. You said yourself that you think I might be a cop. What do you think is going to happen to you when my buddies get here?”
“Oh fuck,” said the bigger fellow, the one who was the source of the brutish voice. “He’s right! If the cops find out that we attacked one of their own they are going to tear us apart.”
“What should we do?” asked the slighter man, the one with the reedy voice. “Should we just… handle it and leave? Maybe that would be the best thing to do right now.”
“Are you crazy?” said the bigger man, striking the smaller man across the face. “First of all, the boss wants this guy alive. He wants to have some fun with him before he does him in himself. As for the cop, do you really think that killing him is a good idea? Killing a fucking cop? We would have so much heat on us we might as well move to the sun!”
“Well then what the fuck are we supposed to do about this?” asked the smaller man.
“Shut up and let me think,” said the bigger man.
Mike’s mind was racing and soon he realized that he needed to play this from a different angle.
“Please,” he said, “please don’t hurt me. Just let me go, I won’t say a thing.”
The two thugs exchanged glances. “That doesn’t sound like a cop talking to me,” said the smaller man.
“That’s what I’m thinking,” said the bigger man. He looked Mike up and down and said, “This guy doesn’t look like a cop either. Look at his tattoos, look at his piercings. He looks like some rich cunt that was snooping where he shouldn’t have been.”
“Maybe he’s this guy’s friend,” said the smaller guy, nudging the unconscious David with his foot.
“Do you really think this loser would have friends as rich as this?” said the bigger man. “No, this guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The very wrong place at the very wrong time.”
“So does that mean we kill him?” asked the smaller man.
“Yeah,” said the bigger man. “I think we might as well. No use letting him go so that he can blab everything to the coppers. Better to end this here and now.”
“Wait!” said Mike, thrilled that his plan was working. If he had spooked the thugs too much they would have run off and he would have lost them for good, but now that they no longer thought he was a threat they would be willing to stay a little while. He just needed to buy a little more time…
“Wait,” he said again, pressing himself up against the wall of the dank room he was in. “Look, don’t kill me like this. Please, I swear I won’t talk. You guys look so dangerous, so scary, I wouldn’t have the nerve to talk to anyone at all!”
“Hey, would you look at that!” said the smaller guy, giving his bigger comrade a toothy grin. “He thinks we’re scary looking! He’s scared of us!”
The bigger guy slapped his diminutive partner’s head again and said, “Of course he’s scared of us you fucking idiot! We’re gangsters and he’s just some rich guy who strayed too far from his part of town.”
“Rich folk ought to stay where they are safe,” said the smaller guy, rubbing his head where his partner had struck him and looking at Mike with bloodshot eyes. “Coming to this part of town… one can’t really be sure that they are safe in places like this, you know?”
“Oh I know!” said Mike, wailing as he spoke in a most histrionic fashion. “I know that now. With people as scary as you around here, how could anyone feel safe? I was such a fool to come here, and now I am doomed. Doomed I say! I wish I had never left my part of town. And to think I left my Ferrari out there, unattended. It’s a good thing you fellows are in here, otherwise I would be sure that professional criminals such as yourselves would have stolen it by now!”
“A Ferrari?” said the larger thug, his eyes widening greedily. “Where?”
“Oh who cares!” said Mike, “What’s the point? My life is over anyway.”
“Tell us where your fucking car is you punk,” said the smaller man, kicking Mike in the stomach. Mike grunted and decided that when these guys were apprehended he was going to give them a very hard time indeed. They were going to rue the day
they laid a finger on Michael Sinclair.
“If I take you to the car, will you let me live?” asked Mike.
“How about this,” said the big man, his face breaking in a smile that revealed several rotten teeth. “If you tell us where your car is we will make it quick. But if you don’t tell us, we’ll kill you slow until you tell us anyway. It’s your call.”
All of a sudden there was the sound of boots thundering overhead. The two thugs looked up, fear in their eyes.
“What’s that?” said the smaller one with the reedy voice.
“That my friends,” said Mike, a cocky smile on his face, “would be the SWAT team that I called the moment I realized that you had a secret space underground.”
Chapter Twelve
Jennifer was at her wit’s end. The last thing she had heard had sounded like a blunt object hitting Mike, him grunting and then falling. She had screamed into the receiver of her phone but the next thing she knew, Mike’s cell signal was gone. She had rushed into the other room and shouted at Ted to dispatch the SWAT team, and he had done so with remarkable efficiency.
After this, the only thing she could do was sit and wait. She knew that she could not actually go with the SWAT team, that would be inappropriate and she would only end up getting in the way. No, she was going to have to sit this one out and hope for the best, and that was exactly what she did.
The next hour was the longest of her life. She had never thought that she could be this anxious, she had never thought that a single hour could last this long, but the minutes seemed to stretch on for days and she was starting fear that it might be too late.
Then, when she got that fateful call, she felt like she might burst into tears. Her phone rang; she was getting a call from an unknown number. Her hands were shaking as she put the phone to her ear and said, “H-hello?”
“Hey you,” said Mike. “I told you I was going to be just fine.”
“Fuck you!” said Jennifer, her whole body shaking now, tears leaking out of her eyes. “You got attacked, I lost your GPS signal. You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t killed,” said Mike. “Nothing bad happened to me, I swear. I am going to be just fine and I will be with you before you know it. I just need to handle a few things over here.”
“What did you find?” asked Jennifer, her voice starting to steady a little now that she knew that Mike was okay.
“I found David,” said Mike, “and I think I found a lot more too. He was being held by two thugs. They kept talking about their boss. It sounds like whoever they are working for has some kind of score to settle with David. I can’t imagine what it might be. David might be a fuck up but he’s not the type of person that would pick a fight with someone in the mafia.”
“Okay,” said Jennifer, “that is pretty weird. Are you going to be back soon? Or are you going to stay and ask those guys a few questions?”
“I am going to stay for a little while,” said Mike. “Don’t you worry about a thing, I am going to be just fine. I am surrounded by police now. We are just going to get these guys to a secure location where we can question them, then I will come straight to you.”
“Okay,” said Jennifer. “Please be safe. Please keep texting me.”
“I will,” said Mike. “I promise.”
*****
Mike gave the phone back to Ted and looked at the two thugs that were seated opposite him in the armored van they were in. He looked them up and down, sizing them up, trying to get a measure of them. Part of the reason he was doing this was that it would put him in charge, it would show them who was the boss here. This, more than anything else, would help make sure that everything else went as smoothly as possible.
“So,” said Mike, “something tells me that the two of you aren’t the smartest thugs in the business. You look like straight muscle. If your boss left someone he wants brought to him alive and well with a couple of brainless thugs like you, that means one of two things. It either means that he is not all that powerful or he’s not all that smart. My money is actually on him being both of these things.”
The thugs were silent. Their faces were livid at being humiliated like this but they had the good sense not to open their mouths now that they were in police custody.
“Okay,” said Mike, “we can play it your way. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. Just keep in mind that where we are going, none of your gangster friends are going to be able to save you. You will be entirely at the mercy of the police department. More than that, you are going to be entirely at my mercy. Do you know who I am? I am Michael Sinclair, the hedge fund manager. You know your boss? Well his boss’s boss and I probably do business. In fact, I am almost certain of it. Big time gangsters tend to invest wit people like me so that they can legitimize their income a little bit. This means that with just a few calls I can make it so that both of you have bounties placed on your head and you will never be able to work again. Is that understood?”
The thugs looked at each other then looked back at Mike and nodded.
“That man you had been holding hostage,” said Mike, “he’s my cousin. He’s more than that, actually. I grew up with him. He was like a brother to me, he was my childhood best friend, and he still is in a lot of ways. Do you understand what this means? It means that I am not going to take kindly to the fact that you roughed him up so much. Now, you were caught with someone bound and gagged right next to you, it’s pretty clear that you were the ones that did the kidnapping. Suffice it to say that you are completely fucked. You are going to jail for a very long time, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can make it easier on yourself. You can make it so that you have an easier time of it in court. I know a lot of judges, I can make them go easy on you. All you have to do is tell me who you’re working for.”
The thugs seemed on the verge of speaking but then decided against it.
“You are being loyal,” said Mike, “I respect that. What you need to understand is that your loyalty is not worth shit anymore. You are going to be sent to jail, and all for some guy that dragged you into something you didn’t fully understand. You are probably angry at him right now, right? Well, help me help you. Tell me who he is and I assure you that I will help you get your revenge.”
The smaller thug opened his mouth to speak but the larger one stamped his foot down hard on his partner’s foot. The smaller thug yelped and said, “Motherfucker! You broke my fucking foot!”
“You were going to snitch, you fucking weasel,” said the big thug. “You were gonna snitch on the boss. No one snitches on the boss, no one.
The thug looked at Mike, leaned forward and said, “You think you’re so big? You think you’re so high and mighty? Well, we had you. We could have killed you. It was pure dumb luck that saved you. If you think our boss is so low and meaningless why don’t you find him yourself? Go for it, a big rich guy like you should have no trouble at all getting the information he needs.”
Mike leaned forward as well, so far that his face was barely inches away from the thug’s. The whimpering of the smaller accomplice provided an unnerving soundtrack to the exchange.
“I want you to remember this moment,” said Mike. “I want you to remember the moment you decided to do this the hard way. Hours from now when you are lying bleeding, shaking on a cold floor, I want you to remember that I offered you the easy way out. Months from now when you are getting shanked in prison I want you to fucking remember what you just did and realize that you did all of this to yourself. Remember that you piece of shit, because you have stepped into a hell that there is no escaping from. Mark my fucking words, you cunt.”
Mike leaned back and started to nonchalantly chat with Ted as they drove to the nearest police station. They were going to keep this as quiet as possible. Mike had more than enough money to bribe every police officer here and make them write their reports in a way that would make the injuries these thugs were going to receive their own fault.
*****
&
nbsp; Donovan leaned back in his chair, anger coursing through his veins. “What the fuck do you mean that they’re gone? Mouse and Gunther, both of them were taken by the police?”
Liam nodded nervously. His boss was known to be short of temper, and when he was angry he often took his rage out on anyone that was nearby. He did not want to be on the receiving end of his boss’s temper tantrum.
Donovan got up and Liam quailed. His boss calmly strolled to the front of the desk and casually leaned against it. He ran his fingers along the edge of the fine clock that was placed upon his desk, an elegant mahogany construction that was very expensive and very heavy. With one movement Donovan flung the clock at Liam, who had worked with Donovan for years and new when a violent episode was imminent, thus giving him the prescience to duck just in time.
“How the fuck did this happen?” screamed Donovan, flinging more of the objects of the desk at Liam, who was thankful that none of them were nearly as heavy as the clock that had been thrown.
“I have no idea, boss!” said Liam. “They were just… caught! This guy came to the parking lot and started snooping around, none of us knew who he was. He just looked around and called somebody, and then he found the entrance.”
“This guy?” screeched Donovan, apoplectic with rage. “What the fuck do you mean by ‘this guy’? He was a cop, right? Who the fuck else could do something like this!”
“He didn’t look like a cop, boss,” said Liam, his hands raised in case he had to defend himself from any more makeshift projectiles his boss might throw his way. “He looked kind of… rich. Some rich guy with tattoos and piercings. He had a Harley, too, and he looked kind of rough, I might have thought that he was a member of a biker gang if he didn’t look so rich.”
“Some rich guy came in and got two of my men caught?” said Donovan. “What would some rich guy want with that cunt, David? Who is this guy anyway? I thought he was just some fucking junkie, but he has friends like this?!”
