Friends and Anger – 14

Posted by Pointman on August 23, 2019 · 2 Comments 

He hit the door of his apartment so hard with his shoulder, it swung through 180 degrees nearly instantly, smashed against the interior wall, and on the rebound started back to close itself, but he was in the room. In combat situations, the adrenaline amped up his senses and the world went into slow motion around him while he was seeing it and evaluating it at what felt like light speed.

The result was an almost instantaneous situational awareness. To the left of the door was some goon who’d just begun to turn his head and react with his mouth dropping open in surprise. Laying on his back on the floor was another goon who looked to have lost an eye. A third goon was astraddle Julia on the floor with both his hands around her neck trying to strangle her and she was fighting back by going for his eyes.

He pirouetted in the air to his left to take out the goon by the door, while simultaneously preparing for a landing on his left foot. A sideswipe from the keys cut straight through the carotid artery on the left hand side of the goon’s neck at several places. There’d be no stopping that gusher. The shock, the spurting blood and the loss of blood feed to the brain meant he was now harmless. The tip, just the tip, of each key had been carefully sharpened by him, and he’d cut him with just the tip of the keys.

He landed on his left foot and took a long pace forward with his right, which put him in range of the goon on the floor with his next pace by his left foot. The side of the left foot came down hard on the goon’s windpipe and that was him gone, but that purchase against the body enabled a push off for a dive toward the final goon atop Julia strangling her. He too was just turning to look at what had come through the door which presented the perfect target he was aiming for – the Medulla Oblongata at the back of the head, which he drove the keys all the way into.

It’s not an instant kill, but it immediately turns off all motor functions, so the goon’s hands instantly relaxed about her throat. Manno put his foot on the side of his head and pulled the embedded keys out of his skull, which both freed up his improvised keys weapon and pushed him off Julia.

He’d just killed three people in as many seconds.

That left only two rooms to clear; their bedroom and the bathroom. He side kicked the bedroom door so hard, it flew off its hinges, but the room was clear. Without pause, he hit the bathroom, and it was clear as well. That was it, no more enemies in the apartment. He stood with his back to her and seemed to glare at the final threat zone. She slid off the floor and dragged herelf up onto the sofa, and looked at him over the back of it. If ever a human being could vibrate, it was the back of that person she was looking at.

Bring it down Manno, she said, bring it down.

She watched as his shoulders relaxed and he took his time, visibly coming back from the killing zone. When he’d got some way out of that zone, he looked over his shoulder and came back to her and sat on the sofa beside her, but he wasn’t quite back to being her Manno, the tender lover.

Are you alright, he asked.

I’m good, but please put your arm around me.

He did and although she needed that, it was her instinctive move to get him all the way back. The fury and rage in him slowly subsided, which was also her intention but he wasn’t quite back and she knew what his worry was, so she talked to him.

I’ve no reservations at what you did. Those three bastards came to beat information out of me and I’ve no doubt that having done that, they’d have killed me. It was necessary.

She felt that final tension leave that arm around her and she knew he was home. He turned to look at her and after a pause, ran his fingertips down her cheek. They kissed briefly.

He stared at the body at his feet, and she could see him thinking about what he’d do next, but that was old silent Manno, no more castle keeps.

We said there’s no more of just you or me, we’re a team from now on. It’s Us. Tell me what you’re thinking.

He turned to her and nodded.

The first problem we’ve got is handling the immediate situation. There was nobody coming up or down the stairs when I came through that door, and it slammed closed pretty quickly. There was not much noise, so the odds of anyone having called the police are pretty slim. We have a window to manage the immediate. Which one of them was asking all the questions?

She pointed at one eye on the floor, at the same time pleased at his use of “we’ve”.

What was he asking about?

You.

Did he have an accent?

Yes, Eastern European.

Manno reached down and ripped one-eyes shirt open to reveal a myriad of tattoos on his chest.

What does that mean?

He’s Russian Mafia, they do that to display prison time and other stuff they’ve done. Each one of those tats has a specific meaning for them. It’s their résumé. Look at the suits they’re wearing, expensive. These guys had nothing to do with Vince, nor any interest in his death. They’re way above his pay grade. They’re from somewhere back in my past. What did they call me?

Yuri.

He nodded. I’m going to make some calls.

With that he went to a cupboard and fished out a mobile phone still in its wrapping and a strange device which he attached to it.

What’s that do?

It bounces signals all around the world avoiding all local cell towers and leaves no trace of the start or end points. It’s a real burner.

With that, he dialled a number from memory and put it on speaker phone so she could hear. She was glad, he was operating in us mode. Someone answered and he spoke to them in cryptic terms.

This is Mr. Henderson. I need three packages picked up.

When would you like that sir?

This afternoon would be good. I’ll send you the pickup address to your usual email account.

That will be fine Mr. Henderson. We’ll be there today after receipt of the address.

Manno ended the call and rang another number. The people on the call picked up but said nothing.

This is Mr. Butler. I’ve three devices I’d like you to examine.

Are we secure?

Totally. I want a full call log analysis from them for the last two weeks. Who called who and who called them. Texts, voice mail. I want the works.

When can I pick them up?

Five O’clock this afternoon, and I need your results via secure email from you, and I need them by tomorrow morning. You’ll get the pickup address via your usual email address.

That’s a bit quick.

I’ll pay double your usual fee if you can deliver to me by then. Also, I need you to scrub everything on their logs for the last two weeks at the comms company of the three mobiles.

You’ve got it.

Manno broke the connection.

He dialled a third number and no names were exchanged on either end of the conversation.

Hello, it’s me.

What followed was a very cryptic conversation concerning what had just happened, but Julia got the gist of it before it ended – he was hiding her away.

I thought we’d agreed we’d do whatever it is together?

We will, but they came after you to get to me, because they knew I valued you. They’ll try it again. I won’t allow you to be put in danger because of me. You did a great job taking down one-eye, but against three thugs, you didn’t stand a chance, and believe me, whoever sent these guys have a lot more thugs in Savile Row suits to send. I need to get you to safety straight away and that’s got nothing to do with us being a pair, it’s just if they get their hands on you a second time, I have to give myself up to them, and after that you won’t be left alive either.

She looked at him and saw the downside of asking him to be honest with her and nodded.

He searched the bodies, taking phones, wallets and keys. He then did some darknet emails before he put the burner in the microwave and fried its interior.

Various parties appeared throughout the afternoon, bodies were disappeared and various parts of the room thoroughly bleached. Manno asked for the right hand of one eye to be kept on ice.

I also need you to come back and do a thorough fingerprint and DNA cleanup here – full crew job. What you can’t clear, take away and destroy.

The IDs, phones and the keys were handed over to the hacker with an instruction to find the car they’d arrived in and make it disappear. Also, he wanted them to retrieve the call logs of an Inspector Pritchet and his bagman Gerald, last name unknown. Cross correlate the numbers, find any links direct or indirect. This phone is the leader’s phone. Find a number he called regularly which the other goons never called – there will one. Find out as much as you can about that number, but be very careful – these people kill.

The hacker nodded.

Suddenly they were left alone. Julia, who’d stayed silent watching the afternoon’s proceedings looked at him.

I’ve a few questions, why keep the hand and why specifically the right hand?

Being able to leave someone else’s prints and DNA behind might prove to be useful. Right hand, because he wore his wristwatch on his left wrist.

And the two weeks scan of their phones?

That was when we had our visit from Pitchet. Someone had to have tipped them off about this address. That’s our first problem – find out who pointed them at us. The second is finding out who it was sent the goons that resulted from that tipoff.

She left her darkest question to last.

Why did you kill all of them? Why not leave one alive, so you could find out who they worked for?

The Russian Mafia have a code of silence that makes Omerta look like an after dinner speaker’s guild. In the unlikely event I’d make one of them talk, it’d all have been lies anyway. Killing them all contained the immediate situation.

When everything pressing that needed to be done was done, Manno told her they were leaving and to grab whatever she needed from the apartment – they’d never be going back to it.

She collected the essentials and as they were leaving, and with a certain sadness, she took one last look back into the apartment before the door closed on it forever – it had been their first nest together. She arrived there in a very dark place and had fought her way out of it to find a joy in her life she thought had gone forever. She’d never forget it.

Manno noticed, and gave her a moment.

©Pointman

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