BerettaNut92
Member
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2002
- Messages
- 9,723
You don't listen to much country music, do you?
Welcome Back, Mr. Nightcrawler
- Thread starter Nightcrawler
- Start date
- Status
You don't listen to much country music, do you?
Working Man
Member
Ok guys..... its 1:48 pm CST.... I'm at work.... there gunna make me work
soon
... I need something good to read so it looks like I'm concentrating on
work while I look at my computer.
.... oh no, here they come.
soon
... I need something good to read so it looks like I'm concentrating on work while I look at my computer.
.... oh no, here they come.
usp_fan
Member
:banghead: Hurry up and move with this story. Don't you know that standing still too long is a tactical mistake?
Honestly, i'm hooked and need to read more...Please...begging here... The Cussler book I'm reading isn't holding a candle.
--usp_fan
Honestly, i'm hooked and need to read more...Please...begging here... The Cussler book I'm reading isn't holding a candle.
--usp_fan
Nightcrawler
Member
I will too. Sorry, been busy. Work stuff. *sigh*
10 Ring Tao
Member
No way, after her roles in Leon/Professional and V for Vendetta, Natalie Portman would make a way better Jill.
Dionysusigma
Member
I just assumed she was East Asian in ethnicity.
Natalie's attractive, but she's West Asian (Israeli?). Besides, Lucy's a better actress
James Castilla
Member
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2003
- Messages
- 22
what about clarie forlani? she'd make a good jill
Working Man
Member
Must find a way to employ the women from Firefly.
Edit: and Jane.
Edit: and Jane.
larry_minn
Member
Big storm phone line unprotected (opps) and computer fails to connect. spend half hour getting it running JUST TO CHECK ON THIS and no updates.
I have avoided posting to keep length down. I NEED MORE INFO>
I have avoided posting to keep length down. I NEED MORE INFO>
qlajlu
Member
This is really sad. All of these grown men BEGGING! (Well, me included)
NC, Correia, have mercy!
NC, Correia, have mercy!
I've tried to through in a post here and there just to show my support for their story's. It's amazing, the first thing I do when I log on is check for a new update. Some NBC executive needs to read this stuff, make a pilot, and air after 24. Maybe Nightcrawler will treat us all to some free ammo after he makes it big
Nightcrawler
Member
Square One
I had a lot of work to do. I'd told Jeff what amounted to my three goals in life, the only things that kept me going: finding Sarah's mother, exposing Project Heartbreaker, and finding Gordon. After that...
Well, after that it didn't really matter.
Yet...I didn't really know where to start. Finding Sarah's mother would be easiest. I knew for a fact that she lived in Wyoming, so that would be my next stop.
Before that happened, though, I had to go shopping. My operation from before, from my former life, wasn't there anymore. A lot of my contacts were still around, but I didn't know who I could count on anymore.
"I shouldn't have come here," I told Jeff.
"What do you mean? Hey man, you're welcome. I..."
"You don't understand. I may have put you in a lot of danger."
"What?"
"They...Gordon and his ilk...tried to kill all of us. Right now I'm pretty sure they think I'm dead. But if they find out I'm still alive, if my 'Parker Hale' ID has been tagged...well, I might be in trouble. They could be tracking me down right now. I can't stay here much longer."
"Where are you going to go?"
"Wyoming, first. But I have to get some things together," I said. "I appreciate you lending me the Beretta. But I'll need new ID and a car."
"Well...we can get you that," he said. "But...you've got money, right?"
"Money won't be an issue, bro. Where do we start?"
"Well...I need to call someone, my contact, I guess you'd call it. Me, I got out of all that **** a long time ago. But I know someone who's got connections to...what the hell did you used to call it? Oh yeah. The underground economy. Heh."
"Good," I said. "Let's do this." Jeff left the room and made a phone call. I could only barely hear what he was saying, but I couldn't really understand it. It sounded like Mandarin, maybe.
Honestly, I didn't know much about Jeff's contacts or any of that. Me, I'd grown up making my money the hard way, by being something of a trigger puller. How I got into it is an incredibly long story, but my career had sort of peaked with the elimination of Anatoly Ivanovich Fedorov, a notorious Russian crime boss. Certain concerns in Europe had paid me a king's ransom in Euros to get rid of him, and that had been my last job. I decided to go legit and live a normal, quiet life.
Until, of course, I got caught up in some bad business involving a Chinese syndicate. And that is more or less how I ended up going to the Middle East. So if nothing else, it'd been an interesting ride.
But Jeff...I knew Jeff well, but I didn't pry. I didn't think he was a player, but I knew that he knew people. So I waited to see if he could help me. He returned a few minutes later.
"Okay, man, we're good to go. My friend is on her way over here right now. She'll take us to places we need to go to get you new ID and a sanitized car. How much cash you have on you?"
"Few thousand. I can get more in a couple days, though. I've got to access my offshore account."
"Can you do that without getting found?"
"I hope so. The transactions are all blind and very secure, but I can't be sure. I don't have a choice, though. It's not like I have a storage shed full of money someplace. Hey, can you get me a holster for this weapon, bro?"
"You can't carry a pistol. This is California, it's against the law." He said it with a straight face, too. A moment later, we both started to crack up.
"No, seriously," he said, wiping a tear from his eye, "I've got one. Generic ambidextrious IWB holster. Will that work?"
"It'll have to do," I said, and he got me situated. The holster was indeed ambidextrious and was in fact very generic. But I needed to be able to conceal the big Berreta he'd lent me, as I wasn't about to go around unarmed.
Especially not in Southern California. The last thing I needed on top of everything else was to get mugged by a drug addict or something.
There was a knock on the door. I quickly moved across the room, drawing the Beretta and positioning myself behind the door. My back up against the wall, I held the pistol, muzzle up, in my left hand and waited.
Jeff, realizing that I'd been serious when I said he might be in danger, cautiously walked to the door and looked through the peephole.
"It's cool," he said, and opened it. The door opened inward and blocked my view of the new arrival. I knew it was going to be a woman, his contact in the underground.
When the door closed, she turned around and froze, seeing the gun in my hand. Seeing her face, I slowly lowered the pistol, eyes wide and mouth agape.
"Ling?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
I had a lot of work to do. I'd told Jeff what amounted to my three goals in life, the only things that kept me going: finding Sarah's mother, exposing Project Heartbreaker, and finding Gordon. After that...
Well, after that it didn't really matter.
Yet...I didn't really know where to start. Finding Sarah's mother would be easiest. I knew for a fact that she lived in Wyoming, so that would be my next stop.
Before that happened, though, I had to go shopping. My operation from before, from my former life, wasn't there anymore. A lot of my contacts were still around, but I didn't know who I could count on anymore.
"I shouldn't have come here," I told Jeff.
"What do you mean? Hey man, you're welcome. I..."
"You don't understand. I may have put you in a lot of danger."
"What?"
"They...Gordon and his ilk...tried to kill all of us. Right now I'm pretty sure they think I'm dead. But if they find out I'm still alive, if my 'Parker Hale' ID has been tagged...well, I might be in trouble. They could be tracking me down right now. I can't stay here much longer."
"Where are you going to go?"
"Wyoming, first. But I have to get some things together," I said. "I appreciate you lending me the Beretta. But I'll need new ID and a car."
"Well...we can get you that," he said. "But...you've got money, right?"
"Money won't be an issue, bro. Where do we start?"
"Well...I need to call someone, my contact, I guess you'd call it. Me, I got out of all that **** a long time ago. But I know someone who's got connections to...what the hell did you used to call it? Oh yeah. The underground economy. Heh."
"Good," I said. "Let's do this." Jeff left the room and made a phone call. I could only barely hear what he was saying, but I couldn't really understand it. It sounded like Mandarin, maybe.
Honestly, I didn't know much about Jeff's contacts or any of that. Me, I'd grown up making my money the hard way, by being something of a trigger puller. How I got into it is an incredibly long story, but my career had sort of peaked with the elimination of Anatoly Ivanovich Fedorov, a notorious Russian crime boss. Certain concerns in Europe had paid me a king's ransom in Euros to get rid of him, and that had been my last job. I decided to go legit and live a normal, quiet life.
Until, of course, I got caught up in some bad business involving a Chinese syndicate. And that is more or less how I ended up going to the Middle East. So if nothing else, it'd been an interesting ride.
But Jeff...I knew Jeff well, but I didn't pry. I didn't think he was a player, but I knew that he knew people. So I waited to see if he could help me. He returned a few minutes later.
"Okay, man, we're good to go. My friend is on her way over here right now. She'll take us to places we need to go to get you new ID and a sanitized car. How much cash you have on you?"
"Few thousand. I can get more in a couple days, though. I've got to access my offshore account."
"Can you do that without getting found?"
"I hope so. The transactions are all blind and very secure, but I can't be sure. I don't have a choice, though. It's not like I have a storage shed full of money someplace. Hey, can you get me a holster for this weapon, bro?"
"You can't carry a pistol. This is California, it's against the law." He said it with a straight face, too. A moment later, we both started to crack up.
"No, seriously," he said, wiping a tear from his eye, "I've got one. Generic ambidextrious IWB holster. Will that work?"
"It'll have to do," I said, and he got me situated. The holster was indeed ambidextrious and was in fact very generic. But I needed to be able to conceal the big Berreta he'd lent me, as I wasn't about to go around unarmed.
Especially not in Southern California. The last thing I needed on top of everything else was to get mugged by a drug addict or something.
There was a knock on the door. I quickly moved across the room, drawing the Beretta and positioning myself behind the door. My back up against the wall, I held the pistol, muzzle up, in my left hand and waited.
Jeff, realizing that I'd been serious when I said he might be in danger, cautiously walked to the door and looked through the peephole.
"It's cool," he said, and opened it. The door opened inward and blocked my view of the new arrival. I knew it was going to be a woman, his contact in the underground.
When the door closed, she turned around and froze, seeing the gun in my hand. Seeing her face, I slowly lowered the pistol, eyes wide and mouth agape.
"Ling?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Chupacabra
Member
I love this story.
Nightcrawler
Member
Unfortunately, "Tales from the Road" has been abandoned and is non-canon; it doesn't fit into the current timeline.
However, stay tuned for....perhaps an homage or two?
That is the best thing a writer could hear. Thank you.
Though...I wish I'd developed Sarah's character more deeply. However, since the context of the story is NC relaying what happened to his friend, it makes sense that most of it would be glossed over. The romance is more implied than stated, and that's how I wanted it.
Last edited:
BluesBear
member
[voice=William Conrad]
A cool blast from the past has blown across our intrepid hero!
Will this be a pleasant repeat or a hasty retreat?
Will this be a warm welcome or a hot potato?
Will our hero save his bacon with a cool tomato?
Don't miss our next tasty episode:
Chinese Checkout!
Or
With 9mm You Get Eggroll!
[/voice]
A cool blast from the past has blown across our intrepid hero!
Will this be a pleasant repeat or a hasty retreat?
Will this be a warm welcome or a hot potato?
Will our hero save his bacon with a cool tomato?
Don't miss our next tasty episode:
Chinese Checkout!
Or
With 9mm You Get Eggroll!
[/voice]
Last edited:
fiVe
Member
Nightcrawler said:
Yes! Yes! YES! I've always wondered what happened to Ling and I was hoping you would bring her back.
It keeps getting better, NC & Correia.
Please proceed post-haste!!
ilcylic
Member
MOOOOOOOOOORE!
*ahem*
I like it.
*ahem*
I like it.
sm
member
Oh phooey! That last scene just way to easy.
"Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress" - The Hollies.
Stayed tuned folks we may get to hear "Wake Up Little Suzy" by Buddy Holly next.
"Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress" - The Hollies.
Stayed tuned folks we may get to hear "Wake Up Little Suzy" by Buddy Holly next.
She was actually taking it pretty well.
“Why the ******* ***** is there a dead body in the freezer?” Jill shouted. “******, that scared me! The top of his ******* head is gone!”
Taking it well... relatively speaking.
“Hey, it worked for Walt Disney.” I opened the freezer door wider. Carl and Reaper were leaning on the van, enjoying the show. “Jill, allow me to introduce you to Ali bin Ahmed Al-Falah, terrorist financier, evil genius, slave trader, gun runner, and huge Streisand fan. Seriously.”
“His pictures are all over the living room,” she said suspiciously. “What kind of sick game is this?”
“Mr. Falah here was a very bad man. I’ve got pictures of him hanging with Osama. Phase one of this job consisted of me following him, watching him, learning his habits, how he talked, how he sounded. I took on the persona of a man name Khalid. I actually bought Falah’s social club so I could get into his circle of friends.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to be able to impersonate him so well, that people who’ve known him for years wouldn’t be able to tell. Al-Falah has a standing appointment for a party that I need to crash. Plus we needed his cash to fund phase three. This James Bond crap is expensive.”
“I do like my toys,” Reaper explained. “It is hard to hack half of the Qatari government with sucky equipment.”
“Did you really need the big speakers though?” Carl asked him.
“Helps me get in the mood.”
“Anyway, I arranged a meeting between Falah and some imaginary Russian’s arms dealers to take place at my club. The plan was to get him inside with the cash and make him disappear. We get the money, and I replace him. Nice and simple.”
The idea didn’t seem to shock her. “And that got screwed up when Dead Six assassinated him?”
“Exactly.” Dead Six had been the bane of my existence in more ways than one. “When they blew his brains out, we had to improvise. I grabbed the cash and ran. Luckily, all of his guards got killed also, so though there were witnesses to the shooting, none of them were real chummy with Al-Falah.”
“The next part was my idea,” Reaper said proudly.
“So, that night, we broke into the hospital morgue and stole the body,” I gestured at the dead fat man wrapped in plastic. “I had planned on making him go away, nice and quiet. So the ground work was already laid, now it was just messier. I made some calls as if I was Al-Falah, telling his associates that I had faked my own death to go into hiding.” I left off the fact that I had even sent hand forged letters to his children and wives. That seemed a bit grim. “Reaper had already taken command of all of his e-mail addresses, and as far as the terrorist world knows, Al-Falah is alive and well and living incognito in Saudi Arabia, hiding from US SOCOM.”
“So, you need to pretend to be Al-Falah for phase three? Do you really need to keep him in the freezer though?” She looked ill. “That is just gross.”
I nodded. “All part of the plan. Mr. Falah here still has one last job to do.” I patted him fondly on his frozen shoulder.
“Man, close the fridge. That’s freaking me out,” Carl said.
###########################
After briefing Jill on the entire, utterly insane, and possibly suicidal plan, we took a little drive in the van the next morning. I did not tell her where we were going, and once again made her wear the blindfold so that she would not be able to lead anyone back to our hideout. She was quiet as we drove through the streets of Doha, probably thinking about what I had told her. I didn’t speak either, mostly because my face still really hurt from last night. Carl was a decent medic, but having a mercenary smash your nose back into place and pull a broken tooth with a pair of pliers didn’t exactly qualify as quality medical care.
Once I was sure that we had taken enough turns, I told Jill she could take her blindfold off. She rubbed her eyes as she adjusted to the light. The ocean was a brilliant blue out her window.
“So, where are we going?”
I didn’t answer. “So, now you know about the job, and you know how dangerous it is going to be, I’m giving you an option.” She waited, watching seagulls spiral over the passing beach. “This next part is going to get complicated, and I don’t normally recruit from the Department of Agriculture. This is a job for professionals, and I’m going to need a professional, not an amateur.”
“I never claimed to be anything I’m not.”
“True.” I parked the van at the end of a long wooden pier. There was a fifty foot boat moored at the end. “Look, I promised that if you helped us, I would get you out of the country safely. And you’ve held up your part of the bargain, it was almost like you were part of the crew over the last few weeks. So now it is time for me to hold up mine.”
She looked at the boat, and then back at me. “Are you saying... but I thought you needed help for phase three?”
“Yes. But if you want out, now is your chance. That boat is headed for Bahrain. I know the captain. He is a decent man, and will take you to another friend of mine. From there, you will board a plane, and take a circuitous route home. Tickets are in the bag.”
“I can’t go back to the states. Gordon’s people will kill me.”
I patted a leather bag on the seat beside me. “There are some new papers in here. Forged passports, driver’s licenses, birth certificates, everything you need, all clean, courtesy of Reaper. You will never be able to go back to where you are from. You will never be able to let anyone know that you are alive. You have to start over.” Pushing the bag over, I continued. “You can’t be Jill DelToro ever again.”
She opened the bag and pulled out some passports. “Destiny LaRue? Delilah B. Sweet?” she said incredulously.
“He has a thing for strippers. Take it as a compliment.” I shrugged. “There is ten thousand dollars in cash in there, another ten grand in traveler’s checks, and a bank card to a Chase Manhattan account with another fifty thousand. That’s from me. Use it to get your new life started. Consider it a going away present.” I nodded at the boat. “All you need to do is get on there, and never look back.”
She glanced at the boat, at the bag, and then back at me. “You said you were giving me an option. What’s behind door number two?”
“I won’t lie. Carl thinks I’m insane to offer you a job, but I’ve got a good feeling about you. I think you are sharp and tough, plus a pretty girl often comes in handy. You help us complete phase three, and after that I make you a full partner. The money is good, and it is more interesting than Saudi dairy farms. You get to live a crazy life, bouncing around the third world, robbing and conning assorted warlords, terrorists, drug kingpins, and lunatics, until eventually one of them catches and tortures us to death, unless we are nabbed by some government first, then they will just torture us then throw us in jail forever.”
“Gee whiz, what’s the downside?”
“You don’t want to be around Carl on casual Friday.”
She studied the contents of the bag. I did not envy her choice. Both options required her to give up her entire life. Jill bit her lip as she studied one of the driver’s licenses. “How long do I have to decide?”
“The boat leaves in five minutes.” I glanced at my watch. “Make that three. I talk too much.”
“I’ve got one question....” She paused, then looked back at me. “Why do you do this, Lorenzo?”
“This job? It’s for my family, and I’m working on a way to make sure Big Eddie won’t ever threaten them again.”
“No, I know about them. Why do you do this?”
I studied the wheeling birds and the sparkling water. Why did I do this? It had all started as some sort of game, a challenge, a competition against the world. I had been the juvenile delinquent, the black sheep, the rebel. The first to fight, the first to cheat, the one that had to win, even though it didn’t matter what I was winning, or what I was losing in the process. One day I had just walked away, fell off the grid, disappeared into the stinking underbelly of the world. I had become a predator of the predators, the ultimate rush, the perfect challenge.
Now I was just tired. And I didn’t want my family, who were just normal, decent people, to pay for my sins. But even once this job was done, and even with Big Eddie either satisfied, or dispatched, I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.
“Hell if I know. It’s what I do.”
She nodded as if that made sense. I couldn’t even really explain why I wanted her on the team, but my gut told me that she would do well. Honestly, I think that over the last few weeks, I had just enjoyed having her around. “Boat’s about to leave.”
“Do you do a lot of bad things?” she asked.
“Depends on your perspective.”
“I know I can do it if I have to, but I don’t like to hurt people,” she stated.
“I don’t either. But most of the things I deal with don’t rank as people.”
Jill kissed me on the cheek. She slung the bag over her shoulder, opened the door, and stepped onto the sand. She had a beautiful smile full of perfect white teeth. “Thank you for saving my life, Lorenzo.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I just don’t think that I could do the kind of things that you do. It’s nothing personal. But I just don’t know if I could live in your world.”
I held out a slip of paper. “That’s a number I check periodically. If you ever change your mind, or if you ever need me for anything, leave a message, don’t use any names. I’ll know who it is.”
She took the paper from my outstretched hand. “Thanks. You know... if things were a little different...”
“Things will never be different.” I smiled. “If you change your mind, and decide to come with me, you don’t have to wear the blindfold back to base.”
“Good bye, Lorenzo,” she said softly. “Good luck. Thank you for everything.” Jill closed the door and walked down the pier.
I watched her climb onto the boat. She never looked back.
#####################
To be continued...
“Why the ******* ***** is there a dead body in the freezer?” Jill shouted. “******, that scared me! The top of his ******* head is gone!”
Taking it well... relatively speaking.
“Hey, it worked for Walt Disney.” I opened the freezer door wider. Carl and Reaper were leaning on the van, enjoying the show. “Jill, allow me to introduce you to Ali bin Ahmed Al-Falah, terrorist financier, evil genius, slave trader, gun runner, and huge Streisand fan. Seriously.”
“His pictures are all over the living room,” she said suspiciously. “What kind of sick game is this?”
“Mr. Falah here was a very bad man. I’ve got pictures of him hanging with Osama. Phase one of this job consisted of me following him, watching him, learning his habits, how he talked, how he sounded. I took on the persona of a man name Khalid. I actually bought Falah’s social club so I could get into his circle of friends.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to be able to impersonate him so well, that people who’ve known him for years wouldn’t be able to tell. Al-Falah has a standing appointment for a party that I need to crash. Plus we needed his cash to fund phase three. This James Bond crap is expensive.”
“I do like my toys,” Reaper explained. “It is hard to hack half of the Qatari government with sucky equipment.”
“Did you really need the big speakers though?” Carl asked him.
“Helps me get in the mood.”
“Anyway, I arranged a meeting between Falah and some imaginary Russian’s arms dealers to take place at my club. The plan was to get him inside with the cash and make him disappear. We get the money, and I replace him. Nice and simple.”
The idea didn’t seem to shock her. “And that got screwed up when Dead Six assassinated him?”
“Exactly.” Dead Six had been the bane of my existence in more ways than one. “When they blew his brains out, we had to improvise. I grabbed the cash and ran. Luckily, all of his guards got killed also, so though there were witnesses to the shooting, none of them were real chummy with Al-Falah.”
“The next part was my idea,” Reaper said proudly.
“So, that night, we broke into the hospital morgue and stole the body,” I gestured at the dead fat man wrapped in plastic. “I had planned on making him go away, nice and quiet. So the ground work was already laid, now it was just messier. I made some calls as if I was Al-Falah, telling his associates that I had faked my own death to go into hiding.” I left off the fact that I had even sent hand forged letters to his children and wives. That seemed a bit grim. “Reaper had already taken command of all of his e-mail addresses, and as far as the terrorist world knows, Al-Falah is alive and well and living incognito in Saudi Arabia, hiding from US SOCOM.”
“So, you need to pretend to be Al-Falah for phase three? Do you really need to keep him in the freezer though?” She looked ill. “That is just gross.”
I nodded. “All part of the plan. Mr. Falah here still has one last job to do.” I patted him fondly on his frozen shoulder.
“Man, close the fridge. That’s freaking me out,” Carl said.
###########################
After briefing Jill on the entire, utterly insane, and possibly suicidal plan, we took a little drive in the van the next morning. I did not tell her where we were going, and once again made her wear the blindfold so that she would not be able to lead anyone back to our hideout. She was quiet as we drove through the streets of Doha, probably thinking about what I had told her. I didn’t speak either, mostly because my face still really hurt from last night. Carl was a decent medic, but having a mercenary smash your nose back into place and pull a broken tooth with a pair of pliers didn’t exactly qualify as quality medical care.
Once I was sure that we had taken enough turns, I told Jill she could take her blindfold off. She rubbed her eyes as she adjusted to the light. The ocean was a brilliant blue out her window.
“So, where are we going?”
I didn’t answer. “So, now you know about the job, and you know how dangerous it is going to be, I’m giving you an option.” She waited, watching seagulls spiral over the passing beach. “This next part is going to get complicated, and I don’t normally recruit from the Department of Agriculture. This is a job for professionals, and I’m going to need a professional, not an amateur.”
“I never claimed to be anything I’m not.”
“True.” I parked the van at the end of a long wooden pier. There was a fifty foot boat moored at the end. “Look, I promised that if you helped us, I would get you out of the country safely. And you’ve held up your part of the bargain, it was almost like you were part of the crew over the last few weeks. So now it is time for me to hold up mine.”
She looked at the boat, and then back at me. “Are you saying... but I thought you needed help for phase three?”
“Yes. But if you want out, now is your chance. That boat is headed for Bahrain. I know the captain. He is a decent man, and will take you to another friend of mine. From there, you will board a plane, and take a circuitous route home. Tickets are in the bag.”
“I can’t go back to the states. Gordon’s people will kill me.”
I patted a leather bag on the seat beside me. “There are some new papers in here. Forged passports, driver’s licenses, birth certificates, everything you need, all clean, courtesy of Reaper. You will never be able to go back to where you are from. You will never be able to let anyone know that you are alive. You have to start over.” Pushing the bag over, I continued. “You can’t be Jill DelToro ever again.”
She opened the bag and pulled out some passports. “Destiny LaRue? Delilah B. Sweet?” she said incredulously.
“He has a thing for strippers. Take it as a compliment.” I shrugged. “There is ten thousand dollars in cash in there, another ten grand in traveler’s checks, and a bank card to a Chase Manhattan account with another fifty thousand. That’s from me. Use it to get your new life started. Consider it a going away present.” I nodded at the boat. “All you need to do is get on there, and never look back.”
She glanced at the boat, at the bag, and then back at me. “You said you were giving me an option. What’s behind door number two?”
“I won’t lie. Carl thinks I’m insane to offer you a job, but I’ve got a good feeling about you. I think you are sharp and tough, plus a pretty girl often comes in handy. You help us complete phase three, and after that I make you a full partner. The money is good, and it is more interesting than Saudi dairy farms. You get to live a crazy life, bouncing around the third world, robbing and conning assorted warlords, terrorists, drug kingpins, and lunatics, until eventually one of them catches and tortures us to death, unless we are nabbed by some government first, then they will just torture us then throw us in jail forever.”
“Gee whiz, what’s the downside?”
“You don’t want to be around Carl on casual Friday.”
She studied the contents of the bag. I did not envy her choice. Both options required her to give up her entire life. Jill bit her lip as she studied one of the driver’s licenses. “How long do I have to decide?”
“The boat leaves in five minutes.” I glanced at my watch. “Make that three. I talk too much.”
“I’ve got one question....” She paused, then looked back at me. “Why do you do this, Lorenzo?”
“This job? It’s for my family, and I’m working on a way to make sure Big Eddie won’t ever threaten them again.”
“No, I know about them. Why do you do this?”
I studied the wheeling birds and the sparkling water. Why did I do this? It had all started as some sort of game, a challenge, a competition against the world. I had been the juvenile delinquent, the black sheep, the rebel. The first to fight, the first to cheat, the one that had to win, even though it didn’t matter what I was winning, or what I was losing in the process. One day I had just walked away, fell off the grid, disappeared into the stinking underbelly of the world. I had become a predator of the predators, the ultimate rush, the perfect challenge.
Now I was just tired. And I didn’t want my family, who were just normal, decent people, to pay for my sins. But even once this job was done, and even with Big Eddie either satisfied, or dispatched, I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.
“Hell if I know. It’s what I do.”
She nodded as if that made sense. I couldn’t even really explain why I wanted her on the team, but my gut told me that she would do well. Honestly, I think that over the last few weeks, I had just enjoyed having her around. “Boat’s about to leave.”
“Do you do a lot of bad things?” she asked.
“Depends on your perspective.”
“I know I can do it if I have to, but I don’t like to hurt people,” she stated.
“I don’t either. But most of the things I deal with don’t rank as people.”
Jill kissed me on the cheek. She slung the bag over her shoulder, opened the door, and stepped onto the sand. She had a beautiful smile full of perfect white teeth. “Thank you for saving my life, Lorenzo.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I just don’t think that I could do the kind of things that you do. It’s nothing personal. But I just don’t know if I could live in your world.”
I held out a slip of paper. “That’s a number I check periodically. If you ever change your mind, or if you ever need me for anything, leave a message, don’t use any names. I’ll know who it is.”
She took the paper from my outstretched hand. “Thanks. You know... if things were a little different...”
“Things will never be different.” I smiled. “If you change your mind, and decide to come with me, you don’t have to wear the blindfold back to base.”
“Good bye, Lorenzo,” she said softly. “Good luck. Thank you for everything.” Jill closed the door and walked down the pier.
I watched her climb onto the boat. She never looked back.
#####################
To be continued...
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"Against All Odds" - Phil Collins
Aside : Rachel Ward is in this movie : pitter patter heart smilie:
Aside : Rachel Ward is in this movie : pitter patter heart smilie:
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