“Snake and Blue are here.” Leka’s voice carried through the door panels.
“Tell them to go behind the garage and wait for me. I will be right down.”
Leka’s bare footsteps slapped against the tile floor and back down the stairs toward the foyer. A moment later, Kharzai came out and walked through the hall to the side door of the garage. He entered and retrieved a duffel bag from a shelf on the back wall, then walked out the rear door. Snake and Blue waited for him, smoking cigarettes in the shade behind the garage. The sun had dipped several degrees into the west and now cast an increasingly lengthening shadow to the east.
Snake adjusted his stance, holding his arms in a casual manner that tried to say, “I ain’t scared of nothin’ you got.” The attempt at a tough, ‘gangsta’ look fell way short, due in in large part to the swollen purple bruise from the blow Marcus had laid across his temple. The day after the slap down, it was swollen and framed by a jaundiced-looking yellow tinge, the puffiness reaching to to his mouth making him look like he was pouting and about to cry. Kharzai dropped the bag on the ground as the two men cautiously walked toward him.
“Hello, boys. Welcome to our meeting,” Kharzai said in voice like a spider inviting insect visitors into his web.
“So, what’s this all about?” Snake asked.
“Leka told you, right? I want to pay you. Both for work done, and for what you are about to do. There are some things we need to make sure are sealed in stone, and pre-payment seems the best way to do it.”
Kharzai leaned down and opened the bag. He pulled out a shrink-wrapped bundle of cash. He reached behind himself and felt for his knife, twisting his lips in consternation as he remembered leaving it embedded through the thug’s skull. He stretched his hand toward Snake.
“Hand me a good sharp knife.”
Snake stared down at the package of money. Through the plastic, he saw that the bills were all twenties, at least twelve wrapped stacks in the larger bundle. He did the calculations in his head. Nearly twelve thousand dollars cash. Snake reached into his belt and pulled out a spring-lock folding knife. He flicked the thumb lug, snapping it open and handed it to Kharzai, handle first.
Kharzai took the knife and admired it briefly. The blade was four inches long, the lower third of it serrated with wicked-looking teeth. He put the point into the plastic. Snake took a step forward, greedy anticipation glimmering in his eyes.
“This is payment for your work at the rail yard the other night while watching over Mr. Farrah.”
Kharzai flicked the blade across the plastic wrap, then kept going. His movement was so fast and precise that neither Snake nor Blue noticed what he had done at first. Snake flinched in surprise as a sharp, cramp-like sensation bit into his abdomen. A half second later, a tsunami of pain shot through his body in an unending succession of lightning explosions, severed nerve endings screaming into his brain. He raised his hands to his belly, expecting to grab at something solid and squeeze the pain away. His grasping fingers clamped down on loose entrails that spilled into his hands in a slimy mess of blood and digestive fluids. His intestines squirmed and slithered between his fingers like live snakes as he tried in vain to stuff them back inside his body. The stench of stomach acid and half-digested food drifted up, the steamy odor stinging his nose. His mouth gaped and he dropped to his knees, then fell to his side, his brain slowly processing what had happened. His mouth finally opened and let out a high-pitched scream that made Kharzai wince. Blue stared in horror as his boss writhed in a mess of blood and filth, making horrible noises that failed to form into words.
“Oh, shut up, you dickless wonder.” Kharzai kicked him in the face hard enough to knock several teeth loose, then turned to Blue and pointed to himself with two fingers.
“Hey! Eyes here, on me.”
Blue started for the gun in the back of his pants, but Kharzai poked him in the forehead with the knife handle, then turned the blade back toward him, flicking it between his eyes.
“You don’t want to do that. I will kill you before you can even get it out. Besides, you're being promoted.”
Blue held his hands up in surrender. Kharzai knelt down and wiped the knife on Snake’s pant leg.
“Nice knife. Lost mine earlier today, so I’ll keep this one, thank you very much.”
Snake quit screaming, his face strained against the waves of pain that coursed through him, life visibly draining out of him. Kharzai looked into his bulging eyes.
“In case you are wondering, this was partly because you tried to rape those two women. While I hate rapists with a passion, and think that men like you should have their minuscule little-boy penises shredded with a cheese grater, the main reason I have killed you is because you gave away our position to the other side. You let your tiny pee-pee do your thinking and now have jeopardized our entire mission because of it. I am putting Blue in charge, and am quite certain he will understand the deeper implications of your foolish deeds.”
Kharzai rose to his feet. Blue stared wide-eyed, his mouth half open.
“So, now you know. Blue, you are in charge. Do you feel empowered?”
Blue nodded.
“Good,” Kharzai said as he handed him the package of bills. “Here is twelve thousand dollars. I need you to get a total of four of your most faithful men and bring them to this address.” He reached into his pocket and handed him a small piece of paper. “Tonight at seven. If they do what I ask, each man will get four bundles just like this one. That’s forty-eight thousand dollars each. All for a few hours of work.”
Blue took the package, his attention no longer on the nearly dead Snake.
“Only get men I can trust to be diligent. Or you will end up shedding your life like the Raunchy Reptile here.” Kharzai motioned toward the man who was sucking his final few breaths in short, sharp gasps that kicked tiny plumes of dust up from the ground in front of his face. “Speaking of which, take his body somewhere and dump it. I am sure you have places like that somewhere around here.”
Chapter 21
The emergency room at Providence Hospital was very busy. Summertime activities provided no shortage of sprained ankles, broken bones, and other assorted injuries, many the result of mixing alcohol with activities like mountain biking or riding four-wheelers or jet-skis. Marcus and Mike walked in and found Hilde waiting for them amidst a crowd of people with ailments ranging from broken limbs to invisible sicknesses that could be anything from the imaginary to the deathly contagious. Marcus hated emergency rooms — his body visibly tensed as they walked through the doors. Hilde saw them enter and moved toward them, tears in her eyes. At the sight of Hilde, a lump formed in Marcus throat, preventing him from speaking.
“Is she all right?” Mike asked.
Hilde nodded quickly and wiped the tears from her eyes.
“She’s fine. No physical damage, but she’s been through a lot. It was pretty bad.”
Hilde motioned to the security officer, who buzzed the door open and let them through. They walked down a short hall, their shoes clicking on the tiles like a clock counting down. They turned and went down another hall, passing several small exam rooms until they came to Lonnie. A look of relief rapidly spread across her face as Marcus entered the room. He breathed an audible sigh at the sight of her alive, then sucked a sharp gasp as she turned toward him. A bruise colored the right side of her face, and her lips were swollen on that side. A bandage covered the cut across the side of her neck, and several large Band-Aids covered her forearms and the backs of her hands.