His partner, who Leon was now a 100% sure was at the bottom of the totem-pole, nervously nodded his head. He then took another gun from around the back of his waist and stood up directly in between Leon and Jay, about 5ft away. He held his arms out at full length with his weapons cocked, aimed and ready to fire. The two, Sig Sauer P22’s hung in the air poised and steady. No tremors, no flinches.
‘He might have been at the bottom of the pile but he was still good at handling a gun.’
Smiling, Jay said ‘Damn! They left you all by yourself?’
The guy didn’t answer just raised his right arm, causing his aim to move up from Jay’s chest to the space between his eyes. Jay was pushing their luck. So after telling him to be quiet, Leon slowly raised his hands above head and said, ‘Look man, we don’t want any trouble. I get it. You’re just following orders, doing what your brother told you.’
He paused and watched the gun in the guy’s left hand start to twitch. Leon new he had touched a nerve, so he continued, ‘The guy that just left is your brother right?’
A few seconds passed before the guy finally nodded his head in reply. So Leon continued, ‘See I thought so. When we were in the Range, I sat there and thought to myself, Self, - why would you allow someone to talk to you like that?’
Both of the guy’s hands started to twitch, followed by him ordering them to shut up.
‘If you say another word I’ll kill you.’ He said.
‘No you won’t…’ Leon replied. ‘You got another five minutes before you can do anything and besides, your big brother told you to watch us. Nothing else.’
Jay chuckled. ‘They taking the piss outa you dawg.’ He said. ‘Your boy Jafar dips out, then your brother leaves you. Yo! That ain’t cool man.’
‘Shut up… !’ He interjected. ‘. . . I mean it. I’ll kill you both, right now.’
‘Really?’ Leon responded.
‘Yes. Really.’ replied the young man.
‘Well do it!’ Jay shouted.
The guy was going to reply but paused when he heard the front door of the suite open. He was not about to take his eyes off of Leon and Jay, so without turning around he called out ‘What’s going on with Jafar? Is everything ok?’
The reply came back with a smile. ‘Yeah, Jafar is fine. He’s taking a nap.’
Not recognising the voice, he instinctively turned around to see who it was however by the time he could react to the woman standing in the doorway, two full metal jackets had already travelled three quarters the length of the room, at a speed of 340 meters per second. There was only enough time for Leon to blink before the guy was hit twice in the heart. His eyes closed and the two Sig Sauer’s hit the floor with a clatter, shortly followed by the muffled thud of his body. Jay looked down at the lifeless driver, lying in a heap on the floor before jerking himself up from the couch to check his clothes for any blood spatter that may have caught him.
‘Damn girl! Didn’t you see us sitting right behind the mother-fucker? You lucky I ain’t got anything on me!’
Na’talia pulled a face before saying ‘How about, thank you for saving my sorry life, Na’talia.’
‘Whatever… !’ Jay replied.
Removing a small transparent plaster from behind his left ear, Jay looked down at the tiny micro-chip stuck in the middle. It was one of the CIA’s latest creations - The ‘BT-411’. The plaster itself was less than a centimetre in size and the micro-chip - despite its minuscule dimensions; it had a dual frequency transmitter, with a reception of up to 30 miles.
Jay crumpled it up between his fingers, flicked it away and said ‘I thought these things were supposed to help you keep track of our movements?’
‘They are…’ Na’talia replied. ‘. . . I’m here aren’t I?’
Jay kissed his teeth. ‘You and your boy Carter are made for each other. If you were any later we may not have been here.’ He said.
‘Unlucky me.’ Na’talia replied.
Knowing their back and forth was not going to end for now Leon decided to cut into the conversation.
‘Hey Na’talia, do you have a fix on the bags?’
‘Yes. The last time I checked, it looked like they were all still on route.’
‘On route to where?’ Jay said out loud.
With a sigh, Na’talia pulled out a phone from her back pocket, touched the screen a few times and started to smile. The phones bright LED screen displayed a street map with seven pulsating red dots, all clustered together at the top right hand corner.
‘Please tell me they’re not far from here?’ enquired Leon.
‘No. Not that far.’ replied Na’talia. ‘But we really need to get out of here NOW, before the hotel staff or someone else finds the bodies.’
‘The bodies!’ Jay repeated.
‘Yeah, bodies.’ replied Na’talia factually. ‘. . . The first well-dressed guy in the elevator. Then the one I met in the corridor outside and now this guy.’
Jay smiled. He would never admit it but he was actually starting to like Na’talia. Clapping his hands together Leon said, ‘Well, we’re with you, so let’s get out of here.’
Despite the urgency, it still took them over ten minutes to exit the building. Seven minutes to collect the two dead bodies and dump them back into the penthouse and another five minutes for them to get outside and for Na’talia to relay her story of how she saved their lives.
Leon and Jay followed Na’talia to a Black GMC Yukon, parked in the reserved section behind the same white Range Rover they arrived in. Na’talia got into the driver’s seat, Leon took the front passenger and Jay sat in the back. Pulling away from the curb Na’talia placed her phone into the hands-free holster on the dash and tapped the screen twice to bring up the map with the flashing lights. She was about to ask Leon a question but Jay cut in with ‘I do like your style girl. Your little rescue mission worked out. But I do have a question though. How did we just manage to walk out of a hotel with three dead guys and not have to deal with any hotel security personnel or neutralize any alarm system?’
‘Easy.’ Na’talia replied.
Reaching into the inside pocket of her grey jacket, she pulled out a small black box – about the width and length of a standard car alarm and gently threw it over her shoulder into Jay’s lap.
‘What is it?’ enquired Leon.
‘A high frequency signal blocker.’ Jay interrupted. ‘. . . I’ve seen them before.’
‘Not like that one…’ Na’talia said proudly. ‘. . . That in your hand was specifically designed to alter the picture signal of any monitor, TV, or CCTV within a 20 meter radius.’ she paused only long enough to overtake the buss in front of them, then said ‘The best thing is, unlike most blockers it doesn’t distort the picture but sends a freeze frame of the last image displayed. So in most cases, by the time security realise there is a problem the job’s been done.’
‘Cool.’ replied Jay with a smile.
Na’talia looked down at the flashing dots on her phone and noticed the seven pulsating spheres were still in the same location.
‘If I’m right, they shouldn’t be far.’ She said. ‘. . . It looks like they’re over near Central Park, about twelve blocks away.’
Na’talia took the next right at the traffic lights and headed north towards the given location. As they got close to Central Park Leon noticed a few of the red dots start to move. One by one the bags of money were being transferred to another location very close by.
‘They’re changing vehicles.’ Leon said out loud.
‘How do you know?’ asked Jay from the back seat.
Leon did not reply, just kept watching the movement of the red dots on the phone’s screen.
Na’talia finally pulled up on Central Park West and looked over at her phone on the dash. The map showed they were very cl
ose to two of the bags however the other five were all packed together, slowly moving away in the opposite direction. Pointing ahead of them Jay said, ‘Isn’t that the other white Range Rover from earlier?’
Leon looked up and saw the unmistakable white SUV, with 22inch rims and Limo tinted windows parked on the other side of the traffic lights. Its detailed paint job shun in the early midday sun, looking very out of place sitting in front of the Ethical Culture building.
Jay laughed. ‘I guess they didn’t check OUR bags and just through them into the back of the truck.’
‘It looks that way.’ replied Leon with a smirk.
‘So what’s up with the cash?’ asked Jay.
Na’talia responded to Jay’s query by tapping once on the phones screen which instantly brought up a magnified map, showing the five other flashing dots moving at a steady speed down 5th Avenue on the adjacent side of the park.
‘Shit, we missed them by seconds.’ Na’talia retorted.
‘So what we going to do?’ Jay asked.
Leon started to tap his fingers on the dash in front of him.
‘Well?’ Jay said impatiently.
Removing the phone from the hands-free case on the centre console, Na’talia swiped her thumb across the screen revealing a number pad. After dialling several digits she handed the phone over to Leon and said, ‘I think it’s time you speak to him.’
Leon knew exactly who she was talking about.
He tentatively took the phone from her grasp and looked down at the screen.
CHAPTER 16
Putting the phone to his ear he heard it ring three times before a heavier, deeper version of his own voice came through the ear piece.
‘Hello, Na’talia.’
Leon’s mouth remained closed. He could not understand why, but for a split second he was unable to put into action the intentions of his brain.
His father’s voice came down the phone again. ‘Na’talia! Is that you?’
‘No. It’s me. Le… I mean Nathan.’
‘Nathan! Jesus Christ, how are you son?
‘Alive.’
Leon’s father chuckled at his son’s reply and said ‘You should be more than a live Nate. You should be living.’
‘Really… ?’ Leon responded. ‘Is that what you’re doing? Living?’
His father did not reply to that. Instead he asked ‘What is your location son?’
Removing the phone from his ear, Leon looked down at it annoyed.
‘What is it?’ Na’talia asked.
Turning towards her Leon said ‘Nothing, nothing’s wrong. He just wants to know our exact location.’
Na’talia took the phone out of Leon’s hand, changed its settings to speaker phone and said ‘Aaron, where on Central Park West and West 63rd Street, facing north…’
‘And the bags?’
‘. . . Well, the ones holding the money are in transit. However the two with our packages are directly in front of us.’
Leon’s father was silent.
‘Aaron, did you hear me? I said the money is on the move.’
Leon was about to say something but was interrupted by the ringing of one of the cell phones Jay had taken from the dead guys in the hotel.
Aaron’s voice came through the speakers, ‘Whose phone is that?’
Holding the ringing phone in his hand Jay said, ‘I think its Jafar’s phone. They’re probably calling him to find out what’s going on with us.’
The pitch and speed of the phones ring tone got higher and faster. Unsure of if they should answer the phone or not, Na’talia asked ‘What should we do Aaron?’
He immediately replied ‘Forget the phone. Get back on the monies tale and find out where they set up shop. Once you know their location, contact me and I’ll meet you there.’
The phone stopped ringing for only a few seconds before it started up again.
‘Are you sure we shouldn’t answer?’ Jay asked.
‘I’m sure…’ Aaron replied. ‘. . . Just don’t lose sight of that money.’
Before Jay could reply Aaron said, ‘I need to go.’
The call ended and Jay kissed his teeth and tapped the ignore button on the ringing phone in his hand. He then looked over at Leon and said ‘No offence dawg. But what’s up with your pops man?’
Leon knew exactly what Jay was talking about and to be honest it made him feel uneasy, sick even. After several years of having no contact and believing his father was dead, he was hoping their first conversation would have had a lot more meaning. However his thoughts quickly shifted as he watched Na’talia place her phone back on the hands-free console, tap the screen once to bring up the map and then indicate left to re-enter the traffic.
‘Whoa. What you doing?’ Leon said.
‘What you mean, what am I doing? I’m following orders.’
‘Which is what?’ Leon replied.
Keeping close to the money, that’s what.’
Before Leon could respond to that the phone in Jay’s hand started to ring again. Wanting to know what the next action was going to be Jay turned to Leon and said ‘What you thinking dawg?’
‘I’m not,’ Leon replied. Pointing to the White Range Rover up ahead he said ‘I’m watching.’
Confused, Na’talia replied ‘What does that mean?’
‘Wait. You’ll see.’
The phone in Jay’s hand stopped ringing; however its melody was immediately replaced by the high pitch chirping of one of the other mobiles he had taken. Recognising the ringtone he said ‘this one belongs to the guy Na’talia popped in the Penthouse suite.’
No sooner was that said Leon pointed up the road and said ‘And that’s whose calling.’
All three of them looked up through the windshield and saw two men jogging down the road towards the Range Rover. They were dressed very similar to the brothers who had taken Leon and Jay earlier however these two were much bigger and one of them was holding a mobile phone to his ear.
‘None of this matters,’ Na’talia said out loud. ‘You heard what your father said. We need to get on the money.’
‘We will. But not after Jay and I deal with a little business.’
Before Na’talia could reply, Leon had already indicated to Jay to exit the vehicle and within seconds they were both outside making their way across the street through the traffic.
By the time they had got to the other side of the road, the two guys they had seen were already inside the Range Rover. The two friends quick footed it up the side walk and approached the white SUV from the rear. Leon could hear the Range Rovers engine had already come to life and was inching forward, momentarily waiting for a break in the flow of traffic. They were only a few steps away when the phone in Jay’s hand started to ring again.
‘Answer it.’ Leon said.
Jay paused next to the front passenger door of the car parked directly behind the Range Rover, hit the green call button on the phone and said ‘What’s poppin dawg?’
The brake lights of the Range Rover illuminated immediately. Knowing the drivers attention was diverted, Leon quickly walked up to the left rear door of the Range Rover and yanked it open. Before the driver or his partner realised what was happening Leon had entered the vehicle, closed the door behind him and had his gun pressed into the back of the drivers head through the space in the head rest. Leon was in his element, his movements were quick and decisive. The whole process took less than five seconds. By the time the guy in the passenger seat realised he and his partner were about to be car jacked, eight seconds had already passed, leaving Leon a full 3 seconds to spot the 9 millimetre Berretta stashed down the side of the passenger seat and crush any hopes of the guy trying to play hero.
‘Hold it!’ Leon shouted. ‘I wouldn’t do that if I was you.’ M
aking a show of it, Leon pulled the trigger of his gun back and firmly tapped the back of the drivers head with its metal muzzle. ‘. . . You move again and your friend here is dead.’ The coldness in Leon’s voice caused the man in the passenger seat to freeze.
‘Show me your hands!’ Leon commanded.
They both did as they were told. Leon switched the gun he was holding into his left and with his right hand reached down for the Berretta in the space between the passenger seat and the centre console. Once he had both guns comfortably aimed at the two men in the front, Leon turned to the guy sitting in the passenger seat and said ‘Do you remember me?’
The guy nodded.
‘Good. That means you know you have something of mine. I want it back.’
Both of them kept silent.
‘I see.’ Leon said. ‘Well, have it your way.’
Still looking at the guy in the passenger seat Leon said ‘Get in the back.’
Before the guy could respond his door swung open revealing Jay standing a few inches away, with a smile on his face and the phone to his ear. ‘Hey. Remember me?’ He said with a chuckle.
His voice sounded amplified and in surround sound as his voice travelled from his lips and through the speakers of the phone still in the driver’s hand. Displaying the gun in his waist, Jay said ‘Yo, you heard the man. Get your ass in the back.’
Seeing no other option the guy slowly stepped down from his seated position and into the street, then after a discreet search from Jay, entered into the rear of the SUV. Acting like he was the guy’s bodyguard or Chauffeur, Jay waited for the guy to be seated before closing the door behind him.
‘Keep your hands where I can see them.’ Leon said.
The guy looked over at Leon who was holding a black glock-19 in his right and the silver and black Berretta in his left and immediately raised his hands. Thinking he had a chance to escape the driver went to open his door but Jay quickly jumped into the vacant passenger seat, closed the door behind him and with his gun pointed at the driver head, said ‘You open that door and its GOOD BYE for you.’
The Desert Lion's True Colours Page 20
