by P A Duncan
“Not fuck with her, but fuck her? That’s a given. Is her cunt tight and slick, or did you fuck her in the ass like the Russian pig you are?”
Alexei drained his beer, never breaking eye contact with Elijah. “Ukrainian. At least I put it in her and didn’t settle for a blow job. She liked what I gave her more.”
“Oh, she’ll know me before she dies. Maybe as she dies.”
“You talk a good game. Patriot City is gone. Lewis is gone. Boizhe moi, that felt good. When I squeezed the life from that worthless piece of Nazi shit, it was better than any sex I’ve ever had. He begged for his life, like the coward he was.”
“You liar!”
“I was there. You were knocking off a piece when I killed your Nazi pig.”
Elijah’s whole body jerked with the effort to control himself. “How did you know I was here?”
“Like I said, I didn’t. I took a chance.” Alexei peered at him, another smile on his lips. “I know about John Carroll.”
“Who?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Elijah. You know Carroll. I saw him at Patriot City. I’ll stop or kill him before he can do your dirty work.”
Elijah smiled. “And what would that be?”
“I know he has the means, I know he has the knowledge, and I know when and why.”
Elijah’s smile broadened, and Alexei toasted with his empty bottle.
“You don’t know where,” Elijah said. “I’m in a forgiving mood, so I’ll give you something. I’m not sure where yet, but it will be perfect.”
“I wouldn’t trust what you told me anyway. I have time.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Sergei. Your time is up.”
“Heard that before, and I’m still standing. I’m not a woman you can beat.”
Elijah frowned but maintained the bluster. “You’re on my turf.”
“I’m armed.”
“I’m unarmed.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Elijah’s eyes cut to the two men at the bar. “You’re outnumbered.”
“I could drop them both before you draw a breath. Want to test me?”
Elijah slid from his stool. Sweat shone on his face. “If you shoot me in front of witnesses, you’ll never get to jail alive. Some of the cops here are in my network.”
Alexei shrugged to show his lack of concern. “Why John Carroll?”
“J.T. is loyal, unlike you.”
“Does he know when it comes down to it, the loyalty only goes one way?”
“J.T. knows what to do. He made his choice.”
“You and I both know if he’s caught, he’ll be a good soldier and keep his mouth shut because you’ve promised him something you’ll never deliver. That’s the way it works when you use people. He’ll pay the price for your crime, and you’ll be free to work your shit on some other unsuspecting kid.”
“Every worthwhile cause requires sacrifice.”
“Jay doesn’t know he’s the sacrifice, but he’s a smart guy. He’ll figure out you’re a fucking coward. What happens then?”
“He’s but one of many. Is this what we’re going to do? Talk?”
“That’s the bitch of it, Elijah. I’m not a cop. Not much I can do. I could shoot you, but like I said, Carroll’s smart. If he thinks you’ve been compromised, he’ll go ahead with the plan. I’ll take satisfaction from the fact you now know I’m looking over your shoulder. You should lose sleep over that. I’ve cut the throats of sleeping men.”
“Even the devil has audacity. What’s next?”
“Settling a score.”
“You betrayed my trust, Russian. I should be settling that score.”
“Carroll told me you beat a woman here not long ago.”
Elijah frowned. “He wouldn’t have…”
“You think you’re the only one he trusts? I’ve been recruiting him for months.”
“You can’t—”
“Go ahead and ask him. He’ll claim ignorance, like I told him to. Now, let’s settle that score.”
“Why does a sack of worthless female flesh matter to you?”
“Because she matters to Carroll. Outside in the parking lot. No guns, no knives. You and me. I suppose you’ll say you have God on your side, so a fair fight, right? More than you gave Jay’s girlfriend or Bertrand Boudreaux.”
“I should never have forgiven your disobedience then.” Elijah squared his shoulders and looked Alexei over. “I’m half your age.”
“Not quite.”
“You think you can take me?”
“Yes.”
At least I sound confident, Alexei thought.
Elijah laughed and turned to the other three men in the bar. “Stay here. I’ll take care of this. Decide which of you will haul this asshole’s body away.”
The three men laughed.
Alexei followed Elijah outside, focusing on the back of Elijah’s head. As soon as the door to the bar closed, Elijah spun, a fist headed for Alexei’s face. Alexei stepped aside, grabbed Elijah’s arm and twisted it until Elijah’s hand was between his shoulders. Alexei’s other hand closed on Elijah’s throat.
“Wasn’t so easy as it was with a woman, was it?” Alexei asked. He pulled Elijah’s arm higher.
Elijah tried to kick, but Alexei released Elijah and stepped back, snaring Elijah by his collar. Alexei slammed Elijah’s face onto the Suburban’s fender, heard cartilage pop, and avoided the blood that spurted onto the tire and dirt. He tossed Elijah aside, walked to him, and kicked him twice, one over each kidney. Alexei stepped back again, let Elijah gain his feet. Alexei dropped to the ground, a leg sweep knocking Elijah down again. Alexei levered himself upright and kicked Elijah in the belly. Elijah curled into a ball and whimpered.
Alexei backed away toward the Suburban but paused in the open door, one foot on the running board. The Prophet of Patriot City rolled in the dirt and bled from his nose. An equivalent beating wasn’t enough. Alexei went back to Elijah, picked him up by the front of his shirt, and slammed his fist into the man’s face with each syllable—“And I’m Ukrainian, asshole.”
He dropped Elijah back in the dirt, climbed into the Suburban, and drove away.
A trip to a self-service car wash cleared the blood from the Suburban. In the motel room, Alexei nursed his right hand in a bucket of ice. His long ago military training had kicked in; he hadn’t damaged his shooting hand.
He’d planted a seed of doubt about John Carroll, knowing it might get Carroll killed. More important, he’d vindicated Mai’s violation, and Elijah’s followers would see he didn’t have divine protection.
All in all, a good day.
12
Caveman Fantasy
After the Duvals, Mai cruised Kingman looking for Carroll’s vehicle, even though she understood the futility. At a grocery store, she made a large salad she and Alexei could share. At a nearby package store, she bought a bottle of red wine and a fifth of Jack Daniels. They didn’t have Jameson. She entered the motel room to find Alexei on the bed, his right hand buried in an ice bucket.
“Oh,” he said, giving her his charming smile, “I was hoping the swelling would be gone by the time you got here.”
“What did you do?”
“Got into a fight. You should see the other guy.”
“You got into a fight?”
“A nose smashed on the Suburban, well-administered kicks. Fisticuffs.” He pulled his hand from the ice to show her the scraped and swollen knuckles. “I should have left well enough alone.”
“Why did you get into a fight?”
The smile appeared again. “I didn’t like his looks.”
Mai put the groceries and the liquor on the small table.
“Alexei, I’m not in a mood for charm or jokes. What happened?”
“I went to the bar where Elijah beat you, dropped his name, and beat the crap out of him when he showed.”
“What?”
“I went to the bar—”
“It was rhetorical. Alexei,
the wanted poster… Why did you expose yourself?”
“I never unzipped my pants.”
“That would be a first. How could you risk that?”
“Little risk to me.”
“How can you say that? Elijah put your face on a wanted poster. Men came to our house to kill you.”
“Additional reasons for what I did. Who has skinned knuckles and who has the broken nose, bruised kidneys, and missing teeth?”
“I will never understand men.”
“I’m old school. I get pissed when someone disrespects my woman.” Another sexy smile.
“I know you think if you joke, I’ll not be mad. Think again.”
He set the ice bucket aside and stood. “It was a perfect opportunity to teach Elijah a lesson in reality. I could have killed him.”
“I was going to mention that.”
“No surprise. I could have killed him, but I showed him something he has none of—mercy.”
He’d resented her for showing John Carroll mercy but could dispense it to Elijah with aplomb. “I think that probably went over his head,” Mai said.
“But it made me feel better.”
“What if he followed you here?”
“He was in no shape to follow anyone. Best of all, he’ll remember me every time he pisses.”
“I honestly don’t know whether to kiss you or make you get another room.”
“Definitely kiss me.” He moved to do that, and she stopped him with a stiff arm at his chest.
“I thought you understood I let Elijah beat me to make a point with Carroll.”
“A point he missed, much as Elijah did mine, but nobody—”
“Say nobody messes with my woman, and there’ll be no fucking for a year.”
He made a zipping motion over his lips.
“Besides,” Mai said, “I could have taken care of this myself.”
“No bastard beats my partner and walks away. Notice the precision of my phrasing.”
“You are a Neanderthal.”
The smile again as he stepped into her personal space. Her arm relented and let him come close. “Oh, I can do the caveman fantasy,” he said.
“You’re too bloody gleeful about this.”
“I found beating Elijah diverting…no, satisfying,” he said. “Did you have any luck?”
“None. I went to the Duvals to pump Sharon, and Carroll called.”
“You talked to him?”
“He’s strung out on meth and… You know the subcutaneous transponders our R&D has experimented with?”
“Yes.”
“Does the U.S. military put something similar in its soldiers?”
“Military pilots get locator beacons. I’m sure a spearhead tank corps would get them, too.”
“Those are external, have a limited range, a short battery life, and are the size of a handheld radio. I’m talking about what our R&D are so gung ho about.”
“I’m not aware the military is working on that. Why?”
She told him about Jay mentioning an embedded chip.
“Our R&D folks might know, but they seem to think we’re ahead of everyone in that area. He believes this?”
“Apparently.”
“He’s gone around the bend, and if you believe him, you’re headed there yourself.”
“I didn’t say I believed him. Please tell me you got something worthwhile from Prophet before you went at it like two rams.”
Alexei’s grin came back. “That’s quite the image. I won, making me the alpha. I get the alpha female.” He winked at her.
“Again, you’re making jokes.”
“No way Elijah would talk, but I planted seeds of doubt.”
He related what she suspected was an edited version of the conversation. Her anger eased. In his own way, Alexei was trying to save Carroll, for her sake or Carroll’s she didn’t know. She did know what it cost Alexei to admit Carroll mattered to her.
She took his right hand in hers. “Let me see that.” After a gentle probe of his phalanges, she said, “You didn’t break anything. There’s something to be said for that.”
“I left something out,” Alexei said.
“Do I want to know?”
“In the process of beating Elijah senseless, I put a tracer on him. He’s bound to meet with Carroll soon, especially since I planted all that doubt and—”
Mai embraced and kissed him. “Thank you,” she said when she stopped for air.
“You might not thank me when we find him.”
“Never mind that now. Let’s get going.”
13
Loose Ends
Fighting for consciousness, Elijah got to his feet. He couldn’t go into the bar. They couldn’t see what had happened to him. He limped to the Dodge Ram and drove away.
When he knocked on the door of a Patriot City graduate’s house far up in the foothills north of Kingman, the man and his wife took Elijah in without question. The man had been a corpsman in the Navy, and the man’s wife, a nurse, was obedient. The two of them tended his wounds. The woman dosed him with enough Oxy he was unaware of his pain.
“Sorry, sir, I can’t straighten your nose better,” the man said. “It needs a plastic surgeon.”
“It’ll remind me I can never be merciful to my enemies.”
The woman fed him a decent meal and made the sofa into a comfortable bed for him. Before the couple went to bed, they read the Bible and prayed together. Elijah sat on his makeshift bed in the dark until he was certain they slept. He used their phone to call the hotel where John Carroll stayed.
“When I see you, I’ll break your fucking neck,” Elijah said when Carroll answered.
“What’s the problem? I’ve done everything you asked.”
“Is that so? I met your friend Sergei today.”
“Who?”
“The traitor who destroyed Patriot City. You saw the poster.”
“Yeah, but I never met him.”
“If you’re lying, I’ll rape your sister to death.”
“What the fuck? I don’t know the guy.”
“He said you’d lie about knowing him because he told you to.”
“I’m telling you, I don’t know him.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me.”
“I’m not! I don’t know the dude. Wait. The woman who left with him, wasn’t her name Charlene?”
“Yes.”
“The first time I came to Patriot City, she was, uh, the welcoming committee. She was a Fed, right? Maybe she told this guy my name.”
That made sense even if Elijah didn’t want it to. “Like Peter, you have denied three times. That rings of Yahweh’s working in you. But… How did he know I beat your cunt?”
“I don’t know. Honest. Oh, God. Maybe he found out about her from INS. She knows nothing about what’s going to happen.”
“That’s a lie. She told me she knew.”
“She figured some of it out, but she doesn’t know the details.”
“You’re lying.”
“No. I wouldn’t tell her because I didn’t want her compromised. I don’t know how this guy knew her, unless INS is watching her.”
“I should have killed the bitch. If they take her in, she’ll rat on you to save her ass.”
“She’d never betray me.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, but if you think I’ve been compromised, I’ll back out. I’ll tell you where all the materiel is, and you’ll have time to find someone else. Strategically, that’s the best thing to do.”
“Swear on your sister’s life you’re not lying.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Leave the motel. Go to the next place on the itinerary. Stay there until you hear from me.”
“I’ll leave right away.”
“Don’t forget, members of my network are near your hometown. You hold your sister’s life in your hands.”
“I get it.”
Elijah hung up. Rage threatened to erupt from him.
Without Lewis, he’d had trouble controlling that. Add in the humiliation from the beating, and someone had to pay.
He took the sheets from the sofa, refolded them, and put them away. From the kitchen, he took the trash bag with the discarded, bloody gauze and stowed it in his duffel. Outside, using only moonlight, he removed the plates from the stolen truck and his hosts’ sedan. Those went in the duffel, too. On the car, he put stolen Wyoming plates and tossed his duffel in the back seat.
He tiptoed through the house to the only bedroom. The sleeping couple had served him well. They deserved their reward in heaven. With a silenced forty-five, Elijah shot them both in the head.
Amid a snowfall, he pulled the Dodge Ram close to the house, stripped, and put his clothes in the cab. He drained gas from the truck into a container he’d found. Back in the house, he poured gas over the bodies and throughout the structure. He drained more gas and laid a trail of it from the house to the truck, inside the cab, and around the propane tank next to the house. After soaking his tee shirt with gas, he jammed it in the pickup’s fuel intake.
His rage was so hot, he was oblivious when he washed with the garden hose. He re-dressed and started the car, positioning it away from the house. He opened the valve on the propane tank for a slight leak and went to the pickup. The only thing of Lewis’s he’d kept was an antique cigarette lighter. With that, he lit the gas-soaked rag.
Despite his ribs, he ran for the car and sped away from the house. He was well away when the fireball bloomed.
Carroll took the receiver from his ear and tried to ease his pounding heart. Think straight, he told himself. Who to call first? MaryAnn or Siobhan?
Siobhan was in Kingman. “Oh, God!” he said aloud.
He dialed Lamar’s trailer and entered his calling card number from memory.
“What?” answered a sleepy Lamar.
“It’s Jay.”
“Do you know what the fuck time it is?”
“L.D., did Sharon tell you my girlfriend was there today?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Did she come back there?”
“No. Look, I’m not your dating service.”
