Paradise Burns (14 page)

TWENTY-NINE

He’s lucky I’d
just finished my cheeseburger. Nothing pisses me off more than someone
interrupting me while I’m eating.

‘That’s a little forward, don’t you
think?’ I replied.

The driver’s door opened. I looked over
to see my old friend, Stan, get out. He pulled his jacket apart, showing me the
gun he had holstered at his side. I looked back at Jimmy, who was smiling.

‘Get in,’ he said again.

He opened the door and gestured to the
seat in front of him. I took a quick look around before climbing inside.

I didn’t like that I had my back to the
driver’s seat, but figured if anything was going to happen to me, it’d be Manhattan
who attempted it.

‘I think we have some things to discuss,
don’t you?’ he said as the car pulled away and drove off.

He produced a gun from inside his jacket
and aimed it at me. I said nothing. I just stared at him, smiling.

‘Under the circumstances, I don’t see
how you have much to be happy about,’ he said.

I was smiling, because just before I got
in the car I saw a black, leather-clad figure on a blue and white motorcycle
parked on the other side of the road. I couldn’t tell for sure that they were
looking at me, because of the helmet, but I recognized Natalia Salikov
immediately. I also heard her bike start up as we set off.

I know she’s not on my side, but it’ll
be really funny when she catches up to us.

‘Jimmy,’ I said, my smile fading. ‘I
told you to leave this alone. In fact, I explicitly told you I’d kill you if I
saw you again.’

He said nothing, but reached into the
other side of his jacket and produced some papers, which I recognized instantly
as the deeds to the land from my hotel room.

‘Let’s start with you explaining why you
lied to me,’ he said, nodding to the papers.

I stared at them for a moment, not saying
anything. So it was the mob who raided my room and shot Clara. I needed a
minute to let my anger subside. If I wasn’t in a moving vehicle, Jimmy would
already be dead. As it was, now wasn’t the time or the place to rip his throat
out.

‘Like I told you and your boss last
night,’ I said. ‘You’re in way over your head here. The best thing you can do
is walk away. Whatever money you believe you’ve lost as a result of all this,
you can easily recoup elsewhere.’

He said nothing.

‘Now let me ask you a question,’ I said.
‘Was it you personally who broke into my room?’

Manhattan smiled.

‘You’re wondering if I pulled the
trigger and shot your girlfriend?’ he said. It was more of a statement than a
question. ‘How touching.’

‘You’re on thin fucking ice, Jimmy. I
suggest you tread carefully.’

‘We don’t intimidate easily, Mr. Hell,
as I’m sure you can understand. Besides, you’re hardly in any kind of position
right now to be threatening anyone.’

I looked behind him out of the back
window and saw the single headlight of a motorcycle slowly gaining on us.

‘How do you figure that?’ I asked.

‘I have the deeds to the land for Mr.
Pellaggio, which I managed to obtain without having to pay you a cent. Your
girlfriend has been shot and is currently lying in a hospital bed somewhere.
After seeing what was left of that bar earlier, I can only assume you’ve
managed to get on the bad side of a few other people along the way.’ He paused,
seemingly for effect. ‘Stop me if I’ve missed anything.’

‘Actually, yeah, you’ve forgotten one
thing.’

‘Which is?’

‘Those other people I pissed off? Right
now, they’re more pissed at you than me.’

His eyes narrowed slightly with a
mixture of concern and doubt. I continued.

‘And I’m the only one who can tell you
why. Do you wanna know?’

‘Enlighten me,’ he said.

I figured now was as good a time as any
to introduce him to the rest of the players on the pitch.

‘You ever heard of Dark Rain?’ I asked.

‘Should I have?’ he replied.

I shrugged.

‘I guess not. They’re an independent
military outfit based somewhere in Heaven’s Valley. Ted Jackson’s company is
funding them. He was going to sell that land to you on the side to make some
money for himself. But then, by pure chance, GlobaTech ordered him to broker a
deal to sell the land to Dark Rain. That’s why he screwed you over.’

‘I don’t care about any militia outfit.
Roberto Pellaggio runs this entire city, and owns half of it. They’re of no
concern to us.’

‘Yet again, you underestimate the game
you’re playing, Jimmy.’

Before Manhattan could speak, Stan came
over the intercom to announce we’d arrived wherever we were heading to.

‘Get out, nice and slow,’ he said when
the car came to a stop.

I opened the door and stepped out. As I
stood up, Stan appeared at the side of me and hit me flush on the side of the
head with a big straight left. It took me by surprise more than anything, but
given the beating I’ve taken over the last twenty-four hours, it was enough to
drop me to one knee. He reached behind me and took my guns away. Then he
grabbed me by the neck and dragged me back to my feet.

I looked around. I didn’t recognize
where I was. We had to have been close to the city limits. There were no
buildings to be seen, just desert and the silhouette of the mountains in the
distance. In front of us was a large area, with the beginnings of a
construction site forming on it. There was a digger parked over to the left,
and straight ahead was one of those portable cabins that they use as an office.
Far back on the right was a large billboard that had yet to have a picture placed
on it.

I quickly glanced around, but saw no
signs of the motorcycle. It was definitely Salikov. It worried me that she’d
disappeared.

Manhattan got out of the other side of
the limo and walked round. He still had his gun in his right hand and the deeds
in his left.

‘Here we are,’ he said as stood next to
me. ‘This is what you were seemingly so desperate to keep from us.’

He waved the deeds at me and walked on
ahead. Stan’s hand was still on my neck and he forced me forward, following
Manhattan in the direction of the cabin.

My headache had returned with
reinforcements thanks to that punch from Stan. But it still clicked where we
were.

I was walking on a uranium mine.

THIRTY

They sat me
down in front of the desk in the portable cabin and tied my hands behind me.
This was nowhere near as much fun when you’re the one sat in the chair.

I looked around. The cabin was almost
empty, save for the desk I was sat at and a notice board on the left hand wall.
There was a window in the right hand wall.

Stan was stood to my left and Manhattan
sat on the corner of the desk in front of me. He had a gun in his hand,
although he wasn’t aiming it at me. He must have been trying to intimidate me.

When will these people learn?

‘I’m almost offended that you’ve only
brought Donkey Kong over here with you for backup,’ I said to him, gesturing toward
Stan with my head. ‘Especially given I’ve already handed his ass to him once
this week.’

I turned to Stan and smiled.

He unleashed a big right hand that
caught be square on my left cheek.

Man, that hurt!

My head was in a spin, and my brain was
shouting at me to stop getting hit.

I laughed.

‘Come on, asshole,’ I said, goading him.
‘This isn’t a tickling competition. Give me a shot that doesn’t feel like it
came from a girl scout.’

He wound up his right hand again, and I
was fairly sure it would take my head off if it connected.

‘Enough,’ Manhattan said. ‘We want him
alive long enough to get what we need. Then he’s all yours.’

Stan smiled at me. I threw him a dismissive
look with my eyebrows that clearly said w
hatever, dickhead
.

I looked back at Manhattan.

‘So, what now? You going to threaten me
some more?’

‘Not at all,’ he said.

He reached over the desk and opened the
top drawer. He pulled out what looked like a medical kit. It was a small, green
bag with a zipper going all the way round. He placed it on the desk in front of
me and opened it up. Inside was an array of stainless steel surgical equipment
- all of which looked very sharp.

‘I’m going to ask you, very nicely, to
explain to me everything that’s happened since we first spoke a couple of days
ago. You’re going to leave nothing out, and you’re going to take particular
care when telling me why you kept the deeds for this land to yourself.’

I eyed the surgical blades on the table.
This probably wasn’t going to go too well for me. There’s no way Jimmy
Manhattan was a qualified surgeon, which means he won’t have the dexterity to
handle those blades with care and precision. This was going to be ugly, and it
was going to hurt.

But that’s okay. I can take it. I reckon
I’ve been through worse.

And there’s no way I’m telling the mafia
that we’re currently sat on top of the only natural uranium deposit in North
America!

‘Jimmy,’ I said. ‘I say this with all
the love and respect I can: you’re a dick. You have absolutely no idea of the
trouble you’re in. And that’s in addition to how pissed off
I
am at you.
If you go down this road, you will cross people who can turn your entire organization
to ashes in minutes.’

With a speed not becoming of someone his
age, Manhattan reached over and grabbed one of the steel blades and lashed out toward
me. The blade stopped about a quarter inch below my left eye. The tip was
touching my skin. Not enough pressure to draw blood, but enough that you knew
it was there.

I stayed calm and still, despite my
shock at how quickly that had happened.

‘I could turn you into a memory with a
flick of my wrist,’ said Manhattan. ‘So keep your advice and your idle threats
to yourself.’

I looked down at the blade, then back at
Manhattan. His old eyes were cold and unblinking. I’d pushed him as far as he
was willing to be pushed.

‘As I’ve said,’ I began. ‘Dark Rain has
a working relationship with GlobaTech Industries. Ted Jackson was in town selling
this land to them because of that relationship. I fully appreciate
your
view on things, but I’m the only one who does. Dark Rain doesn’t care about
you, or Pellaggio. They just want their land back. They feel they have just as
a valid a claim on it as you do.’

Without a word, Manhattan pressed the
blade further into my skin and slowly sliced down, opening up a cut on my face
running from my eye to my jaw.

I couldn’t help it. I screamed through
gritted teeth as the pain flashed through me. My face felt cold and numb,
countered by the warmth of my blood pulsing from the wound and running down my
face.

‘Answer my goddamn question!’ he yelled.
‘What is it about this land that they want? What are they planning?’

He placed the blade against me once
again, but this time it was my throat. He wasn’t quite piercing my skin, but he
was as close as he could be without drawing blood. I instinctively tilted my
head back and began breathing shallow, in an attempt to alleviate the pressure
of the blade on my throat.

I couldn’t tell him the real reason, but
right now, I couldn’t think of a good enough lie.

I closed my eyes. I don’t know if I did
it to try and think clearer for a lie to give him, or whether, in that moment,
I accepted my fate and simply didn’t want to see the final flick of his wrist.
Either way, it didn’t matter. Before anyone could say or do anything else, we
heard tires on the gravel outside. Lots of them. Manhattan stood up and looked
through the blinds at the window on my right.

‘Who the hell are these guys?’ he said
to me, moving over to the window. ‘Friends of yours?’

I smiled. About time.

‘Black Humvees?’ I asked, relieved to no
longer have a blade at my throat.

‘Four of them,’ he replied.

I laughed out loud, prompting both
Manhattan and Stan to look at each other quizzically, then at me.

Party time.

THIRTY-ONE

I looked at
Stan, who had drawn both of my Berettas and was currently holding them, ready
for action.

‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Use your own guns.’

He ignored me, seemingly too bothered by
how concerned his boss was getting. I found it all highly amusing.

‘Jimmy, you remember what Dark Rain did
to the bar I was sat in when they came after me, right?’

He looked at me, the concern giving way
to something more potent. Fear.

‘All the crime families in the world can’t
protect you now,’ I said. ‘But I can.’

‘How?’ he asked, his jaw muscles
clenched in frustration.

‘Untie me and give me my guns. You guys
don’t even register on their radar. All they’re concerned about is this land.
And killing me, seeing as I made Clara betray them.’

We heard car doors opening, and the
crunch of boot on gravel. Then we heard the unmistakable double crunch sound of
weapons being cocked.

I turned to Stan.

‘Untie me now, or we’re all going to die,’
I said, with more urgency.

Stan looked at Manhattan, who nodded. He
bent down to untie me. I stood up, rubbing each of my wrists in turn to get
some feeling back in them.

‘Now give me my guns,’ I said.

He hesitated, but one look from Jimmy
and he handed them over.

‘Now what?’ asked Manhattan.

‘Now you keep quiet and let me handle
this. They’re after me, not you.’

‘Why are you helping me, after what I’ve
just done to you?’

‘An outstanding question. Look, I’m no
master strategist. I simply do what I can to survive. I’m a fighter, and right
now my fight isn’t with you - despite the fact you’re trying to pick one with
me. Be grateful and leave me the hell alone. You’re the only person I’ve ever
warned twice. Take heed, as there won’t be a third time. Understand?’

Before he could say anything, a voice boomed
from outside.

‘Adrian Hell!’ The voice had a thick,
Russian accent. It was really deep, and reminded me of the guy from the Flash
Gordon movie in the eighties with the beard and the wings. I loved that movie
as a kid.

It definitely wasn’t Natalia anyway. I’m
guessing it was the leader that Clara told me about: Colonel Ketranovich.

I looked out the window. There were four
Humvees parked with their doors open. Stood in front of them were twelve armed
soldiers, all dressed in black. Stood slightly in front of the soldiers was Natalia
Salikov. She was on the right of three people. The one in the middle had to be
Ketranovich, their Colonel. I’d never seen the guy on the left before, but he
looked familiar. I figured he must be important, or he’d be stood with the rest
of the grunts.

Everyone except for the Colonel had
assault rifles, which were all aimed at the cabin.

I sighed. This has been a really shitty
week.

The Colonel spoke again.

‘Adrian Hell, come out of there, unarmed,
and I promise you we will not shoot.’

Yeah, right.

Still, I didn’t really have a choice.
There was no cover in here, and if they opened fire, this cabin - along with
everyone inside it - would be decimated within seconds.

I turned to Manhattan.

‘You want to get out of here?’ I asked.

‘There’s no reason why I won’t,’ he
replied. ‘You just said yourself, their issue isn’t with me.’

‘You’re right, it’s not. But they had no
issues with anybody in that bar either, but that didn’t stop them killing
everyone.’

He thought about that for a moment. Then
asked:

‘What do you want?’

‘The deeds to this land,’ I said. ‘It’s
the only reason they’re here, and it’s my only bargaining chip.’

‘You can kiss my ass, Adrian. You’re not
having them.’

In response, I raised my gun and put a
bullet right between Stan’s eyes. His head snapped back and has body flew
against the wall and slid to the floor, leaving a deep crimson trail behind it.
The gunshot was loud inside the cabin, and the muzzle flash was bright. I heard
agitation and the movement of weapons from outside. I had to act fast.

I pointed my gun at Manhattan.

‘I have a million reasons to shoot you,
and hardly any not to,’ I said. ‘Give me the deeds.’

He slowly reached into his jacket pocket
and retrieved the papers, which I took off him. I placed them in my back
pocket, then slammed the butt of my pistol into Jimmy’s nose, sending him sprawling
to the floor. He lay there, looking up at me holding his presumably broken nose,
his eyes wide in a mixture of shock and fear. I took aim at his head.

‘We aren’t done, Jimmy. I’ve got big
plans for you, my friend,’ I said. ‘In the meantime, if you wanna get out of
here, you’re gonna have to trust me.’

I aimed just to the right of his head
and put a bullet through the floor.

He held his breath as his eyes rolled in
silent relief. I knelt down beside him.

‘Be seeing you soon,’ I whispered.

Then I slammed the butt of my gun down
hard onto left temple, knocking him out cold.

I put both pistols back in their
holster, wiped the blood from my face as best I could using my sleeve, picked
up my bag - which had been thrown behind the desk – and put it over both
shoulders, then walked to the door.

I touched the cut on my face, which was
bleeding steadily. That’s gonna scar like a bitch.

I took a deep breath to compose myself.
I must admit, I prefer not having much more than a vague outline of a plan. Any
significant amount of detail and you felt compelled to stick to it as best you
can, which means you sometimes lose sight of the big picture. Not seeing
everything clearly in front of you can be a costly, and sometimes deadly,
mistake.

Luckily for me, right now I had no fucking
clue what I was about to do.

When in doubt, improvise.

‘I’m coming out,’ I shouted. ‘I’m
unarmed.’

I opened the door and stepped out to
face the firing squad.