Twisted City (18 page)

The
moment he hears someone call out he knows it is over with. He’s caught and there’s
no way out of it. His whole body freezes up and he swears his heart stops
beating. But then he realizes what the person said, “Hey Lathan!” so they
believe that
he
is Lathan in the vehicle. And they also said “we”,
implying there was more than one. He watched as Nick and Kent left separately
from Loak and his son and he recognizes this voice as Loak’s so he assumes it
is him and his son who have returned. He hopes so anyway. He just opened the
secret compartment and took out the briefcase. His heart kick-starts itself and
begins thumping rapidly as he breaks out in a sudden sweat. A hundred ideas of
what he should do race through his head all at once before he decides which one
to follow through with. He had grabbed a big wrench before entering the vehicle
thinking that he may need it. He didn’t need it at all inside the vehicle but
now he definitely needs it outside the vehicle.

From
the sound of it he thinks he may have broken Loak’s jaw or at least knocked out
some teeth. He’s pleased at how well it worked out. Loak is on the floor,
looking dazed. He will need to finish him off of course. He doesn’t like the
idea of smashing his head in with a mechanics wrench, Loak’s very own mechanics
wrench at that, but he isn’t about to take the time to go searching for
something better to use.

He
puts the briefcase down and stands ominously over Loak. Loak’s eyes droop and
his mouth hangs limp. He clutches the wrench with both hands and carries it
above his head.

Nighty night, Loak Bosman.

Mathew
isn’t exactly sure when he last saw his knife or where he was when he last had
it in hand. He likes tinkering with tools, their mechanics fascinates him, so
he goes to the tool table thinking he may have put his knife down while messing
with a tool, and sure enough his knife lay right inside the tray of a big red
tool box.

That’s
when he hears his dad yell out. He turns to see his dad on the
floor,
a sickening moan comes from him as he tries to pick
himself up on his elbows. Then he sees someone coming out of the vehicle and it
is not Lathan. This man is very mean looking with a beak nose, pale skin, and
long greasy black hair slicked back over his head. He puts a briefcase down on
the floor and then carries a big wrench up over his head. Matthew knows what he
is about to do, he is about to hurt his dad. He can’t let that happen. He has
to do something!

Instantly
sober, he searches through the tools and grabs the most ideal tool, a one and
one half inch socket wrench. He knows better than to yell, that will give the
man warning, but with no time to lose he throws the socket wrench with all his
might. It whirls through the air, making a swooshing sound as it goes, and
although it does not connect where he intended it does whack him smack dab on
the elbow, stunning him and momentarily deadening his arm in the process.

Matthew
then allows himself the release of a yell at the top of his lungs. “Leave my
dad alone!”

With
one lifeless arm hanging at his side, yet still gripping the wrench tight with
the other hand, and disbelieving what just happened, the man turns to the boy
and gives him a venomous glare as he says, “You will pay for that you little
bastard.”

He
steps in the boy’s direction, but Loak gets hold of his bearings and hooks his
legs between the man’s and crashes him down onto the concrete floor; the wrench
is thrown from his grasp and clangs away to rest underneath the SUV. Loak
pushes himself up and flings himself onto the man before he’s able to get back
up. Summoning every ounce of strength he can muster Loak throws a punch to his
face. The man’s ugly face
squinches
up when he is
hit. Loak throws another punch but the man puts out an arm, blocking it, and
then delivers his own punch to Loak’s jaw. The pain overwhelms Loak and he
falls on his side.

The
man flies on top of him, drilling him with a series of reckless punches until
deciding to wrap his hands around Loak’s neck and squeezes.

“Die
you son of a bitch,” the man growls, spittle flying out of his mouth, his eyes
bulging with madness as he pushes all of his weight down into Loak’s neck.

Loak’s
windpipe is being crushed. He can’t draw a single breath. He is going to die.

But
something happens.

The
man’s head jerks oddly and his face goes blank. Then his head jerks twice more
and the grip on Loak’s neck loosens.

The
man collapses on Loak.

Pushing
the man off Loak gasps for breath. He chokes and coughs and draws welcoming air
back into his burning lungs. Once he is finally able to breathe he glances over
to see his son staring down at the heap that lay beside him, a dead stare, and
the pocket knife Lathan gave him clinched in his hand.

The
man’s mouth twitches open, like he is trying to say something but can’t. His
eyes stare off into nowhere. There are three visible stab wounds in the center
of the back of his neck where Matthew severed the spinal cord, explaining the
man’s sudden paralysis.

Loak
goes to his son, removes the knife from his hand, and holds him tight.

Loak
and Matthew are taken up to James Grant’s personal quarters and Dr. John is
immediately sent for. Gossip tends to spread like wildfire in The Pinnacle;
proving to have grown and maintain a healthy and active social structure, and
it will not take long before the town is abuzz with news that the Grant
building was under attack (maybe by the Maddick’s, depending on who is telling
it) and with what the town went through only a month ago Grant does not want it
to go into another sudden panic. Keeping the incident contained and everyone
under a gag order is enforced; no one is to leave the building and no one but
the doctor and his nurse is allowed in.

Lathan
is notified soon after and he rushes to Loak’s aide. Loak can’t speak well with
a fractured jaw, especially with the sling Dr. John has wrapped around his head
to keep his jaw immobile, but Matthew is a whirlwind of words as he tells
Lathan with great enthusiasm what happened.

Lathan
tossles
the boy’s hair and calls him a little hero,
eliciting a broad smile from Matthew.

James
and Lathan leave to go down to where everything took place. Several guards are
either conferring around the body or admiring the modified SUV, but when James
walks up they step to attention. James is pissed and it shows.

“Who
is he?” James asks the head guard.

“We’re
not positive, but a couple of men say they believe he’s a street sanitation
worker. I’ve got someone looking into it so we should know something soon.”

James
steps in closer to the head guard, boring holes into his eyes. “This is a
breach of security, something that should not have happened. I want to know how
it did and I want whoever is responsible.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lathan
steps around everyone, glancing down at the body but not recognizing him, and
picks up his briefcase. He lays the briefcase on the driver’s side seat, and
even though he is confident the box is still safely intact he rolls the
combination dials to their correct numbers and opens the briefcase anyway and
relief still washes through him to see it there. He closes it and discreetly puts
it back in the not-so-secret compartment. This time he does what he should have
done in the first place; he locks the doors.

James
stands next to Lathan, crosses his arms and looks down at the body. “Seen him
before?”

Lathan
shakes his head. “No.”

They
are silent for a moment and then James says, “Is there something I should know,
Lathan.
Something about that briefcase?”

What
can he say? Tell him what is in it and then watch as he’s thrown into several
different kinds of disbelief and then when the reality of it settles in the
aweness
of it will overwhelm him with such a high degree of
wonder so that even he, the Great James Grant, won’t be able to contain
himself. No, this is something best kept to himself. It will cause too much of
a disturbance. What bothers Lathan the most is the fact that he has a vehicle
here full of goods, weapons, and artillery, yet this stranger went for the
briefcase. Not only that but he somehow knew about the secret compartment.
A stranger.
It couldn’t have been a coincidence that
he’d been rummaging around and happened to discover it. It is covered with its
original interior and no one can tell that there’s something beneath it unless
they know to peel the carpeting away, and he refuses to believe that Nick or
Kent told someone about
it
,either
.
There is no way for them to know about the briefcase anyway or its contents.
But somehow this man had known.
But how?
And as far as what to say?
There isn’t anything to say. He
doesn’t owe anyone an explanation for anything. And he sure as hell doesn’t
need to be questioned about his own personal effects and what his intentions
are. Especially after what he has done for James and his people thus far, even
if it did have an unintentional outcome. He is grateful for the hospitality but
his own benevolence will go only so far. He suppresses the urge to put James in
check and leave right then and there, but out of respect for the man he holds
his tongue and says nothing, which is as close to an answer as James is going
to get.

Confirmation
arrives that the man’s name is Daniel Cray, a street sanitation worker. No
known relatives or close friends. Quiet but friendly, reclusive yet ready and
willing to work whenever and wherever work is to be done. A thorough sweep of
the garage finds what appears to be an explosive device attached to the
undercarriage of the SUV right above where the wrench that busted Loak’s jaw
landed. Orders are given that Daniel Cray’s quarters are to be shaken down and
any suspicious materials and documents are to be confiscated and brought to the
buildings headquarters for examination. A full investigation is now underway.
One of the buildings security guards asks to volunteer for the search, the back
entrance security guard to be exact. He is rejected. A special team will do the
search. All those who were on post at the time the incident occurred are
escorted upstairs and placed in separate rooms for questioning.

A
wave of anxiety ripples through the back entrance security guard.

63

The
sex is long and most enjoyable, if not a little desperate, as if both are
trying to exercise demons through their pelvis’s,
 
knowing
it will be their last night together. Taya hopes that maybe it
will be enough for him to change his mind and stay. She’s never felt this way
before.
Happy.
Although she’s had her fair share of
lovers, it was always only about the sex.
Never about love or
anything close to it.
Not on her part, anyway. But he is different.
She’s asked herself if the old world still existed and if they had met under
different circumstances would she still feel the same way about
him?
But those are only what-if’s that do not matter,
fantasies more or less, because tomorrow he will be gone, and maybe gone
forever. Funny, considering that’s the main reason why she was so dead-set
against love in the first place; they love you today and leave you tomorrow.
She’s always left them first, never giving them the chance to.

She
dozes, her head on his chest, listening to his lungs pull in breaths of air and
the deep thump of his heart, wondering if he will be here when she awakes in
the morning.

Lathan
is awake, staring up at the high ceiling, trying to clear his mind of all
thoughts so he can get to sleep but there is too much going on in his head for
it to simply all wash away.

The
sex is definitely something he will miss and remember well. The memories of it
will surely get him through what is likely to be hard times ahead of him. What
are the chances of it being as simple as taking a cross country drive?
50/50?
  Something tells him that that is being very
optimistic. With the way things look here he can only imagine what the open
country is like.

He
peeps down at the long dark nest of hair on his chest and the soft naked body
that lies across his own. She asked once if she can go with him, but she will
only be a distraction, like now, and distractions get people dead. Tough as she
may be, she is not made for the stuff he may likely be up against. He will
remember her, always.
If for anything, just by how she
reminds him of the other one.
Geneveve.
But
there will never be another Geneveve.

Finally
he finds the lure that lulls him to sleep, thinking of her, and that leads him
into a good dream.

And
then early morning he awakes into a nightmare.

Mongoose
is unable to get to sleep. He is up all night thinking about what he should do.
He sifts through ideas, trying to find an out, but none of them have happy
endings. The scenario is simple: If he doesn’t do what he is sent here to do
then the woman he loves and the old man are killed, but if he does do it then
these people are doomed. He’s never cared for anyone before in his life but now
he finds himself at a crossroads in caring too much for both ends. How the hell
did that happen? It’s unlike him to feel this way. Sure, he’s known to throw
someone a bone every now and then if they are in need but whether or not they
survive to see the next day, or the next hour even, is never a big concern for
him. As long as he and his trusty dog are okay then everything is okay. He
stole, he robbed, he killed if necessary,
some
may
even say that he isn’t much different than a Maddick but no one will dare say
it to his face. And when he really thinks about it he has done before what the
Maddick’s are trying to do now, except his marauding is on a much smaller scale
and done only to those who are Maddick’s or close likenesses.

But
all of the innocent people who will be hurt and killed during the takeover,
men, women, children, all of those inevitable deaths will be stained on his
soul. The Maddick’s will not discriminate against who will be slaughtered. Most
of them will be in it only for the thrill of the kill regardless of the spoils
to be reaped.

But
Jizell, his precious Jizell, has given him so much more than he’s ever had in
his short but violent filled, troubled life. She’s given him new meaning,
purpose, and what will he be if he lost her?

He’s
sick about it. All of this is such a heavy burden. A mental overload full of
emotional self-disgust. He’s even thought about going to James Grant personally
about it but quickly rejected that idea. James may not even see him and even if
he did and he believed him it still won’t save Jizell and Tank.

It’s
now or never.