Part two

Part Two: Orientation

 

After the meeting with Rachel she calls for Frank and has him take me back home. On the way back Frank gives me a semi formal welcome to the syndicate and also tells me that even though we might be working together he still doesn’t trust me and will shoot my head off if the opportunity arises. I tell him that he won’t have a chance to get the first shot and leave it at that. I head back into my apartment and go straight to the fridge. I grab a cold beer, sit in my recliner, and turn on the TV. The eight o’clock news is on and talking about the brutal murder I over heard earlier. Some new evidence was found at the crime scene. Half of the ID of the victim was found torn; only the picture and a few letters of the name, address, etc… remains, the rest is missing. They identify the picture as one Mr. Chris Vanderburgh, nobody particularly important or famous. It seems just some poor smuck was at the wrong place at the wrong time. They also found a tooth of the assailant and the DNA matched Hyena’s gang member Sharky. Sharky is Hyena’s right hand man so to speak. He has filed his teeth to a sharp point thus the nickname. I turn off the TV and head to bed. A few hours later I wake up to someone banging on my door. I grab my 454 and creak the door open ready for anything. Frank barges in and I lower my gun. He glares at me and says, “It’s time for your orientation John.” I look back at him and reply, “Let me at least take a shower.” He nods and motions his hand towards the bathroom. I head to the bathroom, take a quick shower, brush my teeth and put on some clean clothes. I follow Frank to his Lexus and we head back to Rachels. On the way I notice Frank holding his right wrist while extending and contracting his fingers into a fist and back to a palm. I ask what’s wrong with his hand and he tells me arthritis. We finally arrive back to the mansion and head to the door. The butler greets us and led us to the library. Rachel is sitting in a leather lounge chair reading Sun Zhu’s book of war. She looks up, lowers her reading glasses and gives a warm, friendly smile. “Welcome Jonathan, I hope you slept well.” She says. She closes the book and walks towards us and continues, “Today I will teach you how we operate around here and the proper way to conduct business, but first we must test your skills.” She motions us to follow her and we head to a large room that set up as a target range. “Please go to bay three.” She instructs. I head towards the bay marked three and see a human silhouette target 20 yards away. “Now Jonathan, I want you to hit three times at the chest and twice in the head, you have ten seconds.” I hear a buzzer and react by pulling my gun from the holster and fire my rounds. I made a nice grouping at the chest and one bullet hit square on the forehead, the last bullet only grazed the ear. Rachel claps calmly and says, “Not bad for a beginner, but you need practice if you want total efficiency.” She walks over and extends her hand asking for the Casull, I reload it and hand it over. She pushes a button on the ledge and a new target drops in front of the old one. She places the pistol on the ledge and waits for the buzzer. The buzzer goes and with speed and grace Rachel picks up the revolver and fires her shots. When the smoke clears Frank pushes a button on the wall and both targets come towards us. Comparing the two targets I see that she hit all five rounds perfectly. The chest shots are more closely grouped than mine were and the head shots were side by side, one overlapping my shot. She gives a small smile of satisfaction and looks at my stunned face. “All it takes is control; you visualize the target getting hit before pulling the trigger.” She says with a sly tone. She hands the Casull back to me. I reload it again and place it back inside its holster. We walk to the garden in the back and into another building. Inside the building is empty except a few mats on the ground. “Now Mr. McGrath, lets see how you fare in hand to hand.” I look at her and retort, “Sorry but I don’t hit women.” She giggles and replies, “I’m not your opponent, you will be facing Frank.” Frank looks at me and give a small smile, “Don’t worry, I will only break a few of your bones.” He says coolly. We head to the center mats and Frank gives a bow, first to Rachel then to me. I follow the custom and Frank charges towards me and connect a jab to my face. I stagger back a little and barely see the other fist coming. He’s quick for a big guy but I’m quicker and block the second attack. I punch him in his chest and he just looks at me, doesn’t even flinch. He follows with a punch to the stomach and the wind is knocked out of me. As I grasp for air I see Frank going in to finish me. I react and turn and face his back. I remember that he has arthritis in his right hand and reach for it. He gives a small yelp as I twist his wrist and he’s kneeling on the ground. As soon as I think I have the upper hand I see his left fist going towards my face. I feel the impact for only a moment and then get knocked out cold. I wake to the smell of salts and ammonia and the small hint of jasmine. When my vision return I see Rachel above me with a look of joy. “Congratulations, nobody has ever lasted that long with frank. You saw his weakness and attacked it without hesitation. You are worthy of our cause.” She tells me. Frank helps me up and hands me a towel to wipe the sweat from my face and to clean the blood from my nose. After cleaning up in the bathroom I look at the mirror and notice a big bruise on my left eye. I grab an aspirin from the container in my jacket and hope that I can get to some ice to bring down the swelling. I as soon as I exit the bathroom there’s the butler with a cold pack, as if he read my mind. I place the pack on my eye and he leaves to attend to some other duties. I head back to the library to meet up with Rachel and Frank. They are sitting at a table and leave a chair for me to sit in. I sit down and light a cigarette to calm the nerves. Rachel looks at me and hands me a banana colored envelope. I open it and see some papers inside, and some photos of Hyena, Sharky plus three other people I don’t recognize but figure them as other members of the gang. “This mischievous lot runs the streets on the industrious side.” She tells me, “After some research I found out that you went to school with one of them.” I look at her and reply, “Yeah, I knew Hyena, we wasn’t friends exactly more so acquaintances.” “The industrious side of this city is a prime area to have in my syndicate, I want you to go down there and either have them join us or they will suffer my wrath.” She says with a tone of slight malice at the end. I close the envelope and finish my cigarette and ask, “When do I start?” She smiles and answers, “Somebody will pick you up tomorrow at noon. Now let us have a drink to celebrate our own alliance.” The butler comes in with a bottle of brandy and some glasses. He pours for the three of us. Rachel raises her glass and toasts, “To our alliance, and to the future.” Frank raises his and I raise mine and return with a sly smile, “Cheers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frank drops my off at my apartment and I head straight to bed. I wake up at nine o’clock in the morning and clean myself up. The bruise is almost gone from my face which is a good sign. I open the envelope that Rachel gave me last night and read the details. It appears that Rachel has done her homework on gathering information on these people. Each page contains names, last known address, associates, living kin, police record, even what their favorite foods and hobbies are. Sharky has the largest rap sheet between the five of them. Not much is on Hyena but that’s to be expected. The three other turn out to be small fry, possibly easy targets when it comes to intimidation or persuasion. While placing the papers back inside the envelope I hear a knock on the door. I answer and a slim young man in a suit stands in the doorway. He looks like he’s in his twenties. His hair is neatly combed to one side and he has a thin mustache. With a quiet voice he asks, “Jonathan McGrath, my name is Leonard Jones, it’s a pleasure to be working with you.” He shy fully extends his hand in greeting. I give a quick shake and say, “Likewise.” We head towards his car, an old town car with new coat of paint. He opens the passenger door for me and I enter. He sits in the driver seat and starts the vehicle and asks, “So, where to first?” I give it a thought and reply, “First we’ll head to a shop in Main Street, a old acquaintance of mine can get us some supplies, then some lunch and finally we’ll take of business.” We nods and we drive off towards Main Street. I look at the kid and can tell he’s nervous, his hands are sweating and he tries his best to keep from shaking. I give small talk in attempt to calm him down and ask, “So how long have you’ve been working with Rachel?” He answers, “I met her about five years ago, my parents died in a car accident and I ended up on the street. She found me stealing food out of the trash and took me under her wing. Ever since then I do odd jobs for her, mostly gopher work. This is my first big assignment to see if I can move up in this city.” We get to Jose’s pawnshop and we enter through the door. Jose is behind the counter and recognizes me instantly. “Johnny! How the hell are you?” He says with enthusiasm. Jose and me go way back, used to get black market items from him years ago when he worked with the cartel, now he’s retired to a pawnshop but old habits die hard. He comes forward and gives me a hefty hug. “It’s been what, three maybe four years since I’ve seen you?” he asks. “Too long it seems, how’s the wife and kids?” I return with a pat on his shoulder. “They’re fine but expensive as usual. I tell Rita you say hello, she has been wondering what happened to you. Now what can I do for my friend?” “I need some materials to take care of business.” I tell him. “Of course, of course, anything for you. Lets head to the back room shall we?” he says as he walks to a bolted door. We follow him inside and he opens a cabinet full of guns, knives, bats and other weapons. I take a look at Leonard who has a look of awe at all the merchandise in the back room. “Do you have a gun on you?” I ask him. “No, I never have fired one before.” I grin and turn to Jose and say, “Jose, do you have some firepower for a newbie?” Jose returns the grin, looks at Leonard and says, “I have just the thing.” He goes to the end of the room and comes back carrying a small case. He puts the case on the table and opens it. Inside is a double barrel sawed off shotgun pistol. “This, my skinny friend, is a twelve gauge double barrel modified to a pistol. All you need to do is point and fire.” He loads in two shells and hands it to Leonard. “Here,” He points at some mannequin at the end of the room and continues, “Aim at the doll and fire, be careful not to stiffen the arm too much, it has a nasty kick.” Leonard lifts up the pistol and pulls the trigger. The gun fires and kicks his arm back pretty hard. We look at the dummy and the head is half off. Leonard gives a nervous smile and says, “Wow, I need to get used to this.” Jose hands him a box of shells and a holster for the gun. Leonard take off his suit jacket and puts on the holster. He reloads the gun and places it in the holster. He then took the shells and places them in a pocket of the jacket and puts the jacket back on. Jose looks at me “Now old friend, what do you need?” he asks. “Bullets for my Casull, one boot knife, one switchblade, a pack of clove cigarettes, a pack of camel cigarettes, mace, and a flare gun.” I reply. After a few minutes of rushing around Jose hands me the items. I check each item; double blade boot knife made of surgical stainless steel, switch blade made in Italy, pack of black clove cigarettes, magnum bullets inside 3 quick loaders, military grade mace used for riot control, flare gun with two red flare shots, and my camel cigarettes. I put the boot knife sheath on my right leg, the switchblade in my right jacket pocket with the mace, the bullets in my left pocket, my smokes in the breast pocket, and the rest in a paper bag. ”That will be two hundred fifty dollars for the merchandise Johnny” Jose says. Leonard pulls out a roll of cash and hands it to him says, “Here’s four hundred for your services” Jose takes the roll and pats Leonard on the back “you’re all right kid, I will remember this when you return.” He replies and then looks at me, “you take care Johnny, I see you soon.” I smile; thank him and we head out. Leonard takes us towards the warehouse where Hyena and the others reside. About a block to our destination I tell Leonard to pull to the curb. He nods and we park the car. I take the flare gun out of the bag and put it between the seats. “Leonard, you stay here and keep watch while I talk to Hyena.” I tell him. “But you might need help with those loons, I can back you up.” He says. I look at him, smile and reply, “I know you can kid, but its best if I go alone, they get paranoid easy and they are not friendly towards people in suits. If you see more come to the warehouse or you are in trouble I want you to shoot the flare gun towards my direction. Don’t fire the shotgun unless it’s a last resort.”  Leonard nods and sits in the car. I walk towards the warehouse smoking a camel. Halfway there I notice a few stragglers peeking from the alley and chatting to each other quietly. I pretend to ignore them and continue walking. I reach the warehouse and see two punks lounging at the door. I go towards the door and the stand in front of me. The one to the left of me speaks “Where do you think you’re going?” I look at him and reply, “I’m here to see Hyena, so be a good lap dog and let me through.” He gets ready to punch me but I give him a swift kick to the nuts. He drops to the ground whimpering and the other guy steps aside. I open the door and he follows behind me. I keep my hands in my pockets holding the knife for assurance. Inside the warehouse is about fifty or so people lounging around; watching TV, reading books, playing games. Those who see me start gathering around out of curiosity. Hyena is in the far end sitting on a ragged recliner reading a book. I walk towards him. The punk from outside hurries past me and whispers to Hyena who looks up and grins. He puts the book down and gets up, “My, my, my, look what the dog drags in, fresh meat for my flock to feast on.” He says out loud. The crowd giggles and laughs. I continue forward saying, “I have business with you and nothing else.” Hyena comes closer and retorts, “You say you have nothing but business yet you come armed, do you fear us? Will you trust me if I say that no harm will come to you as long as you keep your armaments sheathed and bear no ill will?” I look at him grinning at me and reply, “I have no fear for your type and I never trusted someone who has a tendency to change his mind on a whim.” “If you don’t fear his type how about mine?” I hear a raspy voice behind me. I turn around and see Sharky entering from the shadows, giving a toothy grin. He comes to my face faster than I can react and continues, “How about I bite your face off outsider?” I smile, “Only if I can castrate your nuts first.” As I place a now open switchblade to his pants. Sharky growls and opens his mouth but Hyena interrupts, “Now, now Sharky, we must be hospitable to our guest. Surely he’s come a long way to see me and we have much to discuss.” Sharky nips close to my nose and walks away; I close my knife and put it back in my pocket. I turn to Hyena and he motions his hand to follow. We head back to the old recliner and he sits down. I take a plastic chair and sit next to him. “Now Jonathan,” he says, “it’s been years since we seen each other in high school, what brings you to my humble home.” “I have a proposition for you, but first a gift.” I reply. I pull out the clove cigarettes from my jacket and give it to him. “I’ll be damned, after all these years you remember what I like. I thought they banned these a long time ago.” He says with a look of joy on his face and excitement in his voice. He eagerly opens the packs and pulls out a clove. I give him a light and he puffs slowly, savoring the taste. “Now what business do you have for me?” He asks. “Do you know a woman by the name of Rachel?” I ask first. “I know a lot of Rachels, you have to be more specific.” he replies. “Surely you’ve heard of a woman with mismatched eyes starting a syndicate recently?” I inquire. Hyena puts the clove down “My people have kept tabs on that one ever since she arrived to this city two and a half years ago. I’ve enjoyed watching her lackeys gathering information on others and me. She thinks she’s clever but it is I that made sure she has all the info she wanted.” He says with a small grin. “Well I’m here to make a deal with you; Rachel wants access to your territory.” I tell him, “You will still run the show here and even get a profit from her dealings in this area; all you have to do is make sure anything that happens on her behalf doesn’t get interfered.” Hyena picks up his clove and takes a few puffs, “and what if I refuse?” He asks. “I don’t know the details,” I answer, “But it won’t be pretty.” Hyena leans forward in his chair and has a look of deep thought. A few minutes of silence pass and Hyena breaks from his thoughts. He looks at me and smiles, “I think I will decline your offer for now, but please stay awhile and enjoy the show.”  A red flash erupts in the sky followed by two loud bangs. I get up realizing Leonard is in trouble but Hyena puts a gun to my head. “Please sit down Johnny, the night is young and we are restless.” He says with a macabre grin. “B*****d” I say gritting my teeth and I sit back down. The door opens up and some loons are dragging Leonard by the feet. They grab a chair and toss his unconscious body onto it. Sharky comes towards him and slaps him awake. Leonard starts coughing up blood and looks at me. “I’m sorry John,” He says with a painful voice, “I tried to get away before they got to me.”  Sharky slaps him again and tells him tell silence himself. I look at Hyena and he looks back at me saying, “It was very naughty for you to try to keep your little secrets from me. Now you will pay the price with his blood.” He wave his hand and a big guy in a gimp outfit come forward with a large briefcase. “Ah,” Hyena says, “Professor Stubbs, I thank you for showing. We have a young man who requires your talent.” The gimp moans in pleasure and walks over to Leonard. He opens the briefcase and removes the items one by one; A small baton, handcuffs, ball gag, cat o’ nine tails, and a large d***o with bumps.” He takes the handcuffs and restrains Leonard’s arms behind the chair, followed by the ball gag. Next he takes the baton and whacks Leonard’s knees. Leonard gives a whine followed by a small whimper. “Stop this Hyena, the kid has done nothing wrong.” I say with anger. Hyena still has the gun to my head and replies, “He entered my territory without permission, which is crime enough.” The gimp continues batting away at Leonard’s body and removes the hand cuffs only to turn him around. He removes the pants and goes for the cat o’ nine tails. He gives Leonard a hearty whip and He whelps in pain. I can’t take anymore and turn to Hyena, “Stop this now or I’ll make it stop.” I tell him in a loud tone. Hyena smiles and pushes the gun harder on my head. I grab the gun, pull it away from him, and punch Hyena hard. He goes down and everyone one looks at me. The gimp stops before ramming the d***o up Leonard’s a*s. I pick up Hyena and use him as a shield, pointing the gun at his head. “First thing first,” I say with rage in my voice. “Drop the goddamn d***o Professor Stubbs” The gimp drops the d***o, uncuffs Leonard and walks away slowly. Leonard stumbles up, puts his pants back on and removes the gag. Sharky starts walking towards me and says with a sneer, “you’ll never leave here alive.” “That may be true but not before you drop first.” I retort. Sharky goes towards Leonard and picks him up. “I got your whipping boy Johnny boy, what will you do now?” He growls. I point the gun and fire at Sharky hitting him between the eyes. He drops and Leonard follows due to the dead weight. “Nobody calls me Johnny boy.” I say as I walk over to Leonard. The rest of the group is now too scared to act as Leonard, Hyena and me exit the warehouse. We head over to Leonard’s car and toss Hyena’s unconscious body in the back seat. Leonard takes the passenger seat and I drive. I look at Leonard and see that he’s a mess. “I’m sorry you had to go through that kid, We’ll get you fixed up after we take care of Hyena.” I tell him while handing him a smoke. He lights up and replies, “That sick b*****d will pay for what he done to me.” We drive over to Rachel’s house and honk the horn at the gate. A guard notices Leonard and me and opens the gate. We drive to the front and Frank is there waiting for us. “Johnny, what’s going on?” He asks in frustration. I give him the basic details and he nods. He opens the back door, drags Hyena out and hefts him over his left shoulder. I help Leonard out and we walk to the door. The butler opens the door and leads us in. We go to the main hall where Rachel is sitting in a night gown. She looks at Leonard, then Frank holding Hyena, then me and gives a smile. “At first I was angry that my sleep was interrupted but I see that it has been worth my while.” She says with a voice of amusement. “Frank, take the riff raff to the guest room, make sure he’s treated well. Leonard, you’ve done well tonight and I’ll hear your briefing tomorrow, get some rest and I’ll send someone to your wounds.” She commands. Frank nods and takes Hyena with him; Leonard nods as well and stumbles down the hall. She looks at me and motions me to sit down. I sit in a chair next to her and she pours me some brandy. “It seems that Hyena didn’t accept our offer.” She says as she sips her brandy, “No matter, he’ll see things my way, I can be very persuasive. So tell me what happened tonight.” I give her the details of the deal, Leonard’s torture and Sharky’s death. “Poor Leonard, I hope he will recover soon. He is like a son to me you know, I thank you for saving his life and virginity.” She says with sincerity in her voice. I finish the brandy and she pours another glass. “As for Sharky, his death will help me in controlling that area. With him gone and Hyena out of the picture for now, the rest won’t know what to do.” She continues “You’ve done better than I expected for your first assignment, please stay here and rest for the night, I’ll have a room ready for you.” I finish the brandy and reply, “Sure, it’s been a long night and I expect it to be a longer day.” She smiles and returns, “Jonathan, you don’t know half of it.”