A Vicious Circle: Chapter 11 / 13

To Arms!

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Chapter 11

To Arms!

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The sun filled the apartment with its warm yet ephemeral rays, covering each dusty object in the room with a thin gilded veil. The sun, Adam thought. The moon, the sun. Night and day. Dash... freedom?

Max, Raphael, and their guest sat at the living-room table, debating how best to approach the delicate business of getting rid of Dash and his crew. They were sure that a man as powerful and influential as Roman Dash would never come alone. Adam had seen, firsthand, how many people worked for him and had no doubt he would bring at least a dozen of them to hunt him down.

Max finished his coffee and asked, ‘So the question is, how will he know that we – or you – are here, in this exact city?’

‘Hard to say,’ Adam said, scratching his bald temple. He still had to get used to the new haircut. ‘Maybe Bobby told him where he’d dropped me off. But I can’t really be sure about that.’

‘So how do you wanna find out?’

Adam hummed for a moment and tapped his index finger against his pursed lips. ‘I guess I’d have to call him.’

Raphael’s next question went off like a bundle of dynamite in the cramped, airless room. ‘And what are you gonna tell him? “Hey, Mr. Dash! Can Bobby come get me? I’m at my friends’ place, not far from where your lapdog left me tied up. What friends? You should know them. They used to push for Malagassi. Oh, and by the way, I’m gonna have to take you out for what you and your clowns did to me in that shack!”’

‘I don’t know what I’ll tell him! Not yet… But right now, we don’t have any other options. You’ve got a phone here?’

‘Catch,’ Max called as he tossed Adam his phone.

Adam was about to dial the number when he suddenly stopped, as if he lost control of his body for a brief instant.

‘What’s going on?’ Max asked, his eyes moving back and forth between Adam and the phone he was holding.

‘I gotta call my mom and her old man before I take care of this. I know I gotta deal with Dash, but I don’t know if I’ll make it... or see my folks again.’

Max nodded. ‘Just make it quick.’

Adam called his grandfather first, but no one picked up.

Styles suspected the worst. He felt overpowered by a sudden heat, to the point where he was uncomfortable in his own body – shaking, hot and cold all at once. Bobby – and Dash by extension – knew about his grandfather, Ward McGale, and how much he meant to him. Would they really be that cold-blooded as to kill an innocent member of his family? And at his age?

He decided to call his mother next. Someone picked up after a few rings.

‘Yeah?’

‘Who is this?’ Adam snapped. The voice was rough, male, and completely unfamiliar. ‘Who am I talking to?’

‘Your worst nightmare, dickhead,’ the man on the other end growled.

The words hit him like a ten-ton hammer. It was the very same voice he had heard just before being struck in Rector’s shack. And yet he knew he’d heard it somewhere else, too – he just couldn’t place it.

‘What the fuck… Where’s my mother?’ Adam shouted at the device. ‘What have you done to her?’

‘That bitch made a big mistake reporting you missing.’

‘You’re fuckin’ dead! Whoever you are! Dead!’

Max and Raphael froze. They stared at Adam, trying to make sense of his rambling.

‘You will pay me for this, you fucking-’

‘Now, now… do not hang up just yet, Adam.’

Another voice. This one he knew for certain. He struggled to draw a single breath. Beads of sweat ran down his forehead, and he had to use both hands to steady the phone.

‘Why did you do this?’ Adam asked, his lips trembling – not because of fear, but because something deep inside him broke when he heard his former employer.

‘Me?’ Dash let out a throaty, amused laugh. ‘My dear Adam, I assure you, I have never laid a hand on anyone in my life. Not once!’

‘Right. You just give the orders.’

‘Adam, I am utterly shattered to admit that I do not recognize you at all. Have you been well? Or are you resigning from my employ?’

‘Effective immediately. We’re done.’

‘In any event, I would rather not see our association conclude in such an impersonal fashion. Let us meet one final time, shall we? I could enlighten you as to who truly bore responsibility for the death of your mother, your grandfather… and your friend, Peter. In fact, I may even bring the feisty fellow with me. And as for your absence, I know exactly who was keeping you confined under that snug little cabin in the woods.’

‘I think I have a good idea who threw me down there,’ Adam said. ‘You wanna see me? Tell me where and I’ll be there ‘cause I’m done with your shit!’

He could hear Dash breathing. Slowly, measured.

‘Let us meet somewhere familiar to you. The street where you were discarded, perhaps. I am confident that your memory of it remains quite vivid.’

‘When?’

‘Tomorrow. One in the morning. I trust that will suffice.’

After a brief silence, Adam asked, ‘Is Bobby there?’

‘Bobby?’ Dash laughed again. ‘Bobby had never learned to follow my orders, after all. He is not… around, one might say.’

Adam hung up. Even the outside traffic seemed to quiet down.

‘And?’ Raphael said. ‘What did you find out?’

‘It was them, all right.’ Styles sighed. ‘They locked me up. They killed my mom. Grampa. Bobby. Peter too.’

Raphael turned to Max and to Adam again. He asked quietly, ‘Bobby and Peter? You’re sure?’

‘Sure as shit. Dash knows the guy who killed Peter. Fucker told me he could introduce us.’

‘But how?’ Max asked. ‘He’s gotta be in jail by now.’

‘Maybe Dash bailed him out?’ Raphael suggested.

Adam threw his head back, squinting. ‘Bailed him out?’

‘Yeah.’ Raphael shrugged. ‘He’s got the money for it. Besides, enemy of my enemy, right?’

‘That would make sense,’ Adam said. ‘Dash needed a new hitman after me and Bobby.’

He stood and went to the window, where the sun was slowly swallowed by the plump clouds. Looking at the rails, the parked cars, the overthrown trash cans, he asked himself how could he have let things go this far? He should have known better, but who had he been then to know anything? From what great wisdom was he to draw inspiration? Could a blind man advise a painter? A deaf man a composer? He had been entirely unfit to counsel himself, and yet it was he who now had to undo the mess he was in. Adam shook his head. There was no point in scolding himself now.

‘And what else did Dash say?’ Max asked.

‘They’ll be here. Waiting for me. Right where Bobby dumped me.’

‘Dash knew. So it was Bobby,’ Raphael said. ‘He was the one who dragged you out of that hole.’

‘And that’s what got him killed.’ Adam wiped his palms down his face. ‘Dash is pissed. And he’s gonna bring a shitload of ’em, all armed to the teeth, no doubt about it. But I have to be there; I have to get rid of that son of a bitch once and for all. For my friends. For my family.’

‘Good luck,’ Max said, already halfway to the kitchen.

‘Max!’ Raphael called after him. ‘What are you… he can get us the stuff!’

‘What’s the matter?’ Adam asked, looking alternately at Max and Raphael from under a heavy frown. ‘I thought you were gonna help me.’

Max shook his head, smiling as though he’d just been told a bad joke. ‘Listen, man. I’m not gonna put my ass on the line for spare change, you know. No way. Have a blast. But I’m out.’

‘The stash I told you about last night?’ Adam said. ‘If we pull this off, it’s yours. All of it. And I wasn’t bullshitting. I know exactly where it is – and it’s big.’

Max folded his arms. ‘How big?’

‘Last I heard? Six hundred pounds.’

‘Fuck me!’ Raphael shouted. ‘That’s like stumbling onto the eternal snow city of El Nevado!’

Adam tilted his head. ‘Worth a shot?’

‘Shit, now you got my attention,’ Max said and sat back down.

‘So, what’s the play here?’ Raphael asked, rubbing his palms against each other.

‘I need to see your city,’ Adam said. ‘And I need something I can draw on.’

Max unlocked his phone and opened a navigation app, the screen blooming with streets and pale blocks. Raphael returned from the next room with a pen and an empty sheet of paper.

‘All right,’ Adam said while pinching the screen. ‘This neighborhood’s still the same? Anything changed around here?’

‘Don’t think so,’ Max replied.

‘Actually,’ Raphael said and pointed at the map, ‘the city did some roadwork around here. Far from us, though. Nothing to worry about.’

‘Good. Now show me where we are,’ Styles commanded. Max bent over the phone and pointed to their street on the screen. From there, vaguely recalling the route, Adam traced an invisible line between the payphone and the spot where Bobby had left him. ‘This is where Dash wants to meet me.’

‘That’s a good spot,’ Max said. ‘See this line here? That’s a blind alley. There are probably some dumpsters at the end, doors along the sides: good cover, easy escape. You were probably… here. That’s why nobody noticed you.’

Adam nodded. ‘You sure know a lot about this town.’

‘You learn pretty fast with the police on your ass.’

‘That’s what she said. Anyway, that’s good news. Good news…’ Adam thought of Dash as he beheld the neighborhood’s layout. The idea of killing him for what he’d done to him and his family filled him with dread and a reinvigorating energy at the same time. He began sketching the streets onto the page. ‘All right, I’ll stand on the corner, near the pile of trash, and wait for them there. You guys stay sharp in the alley.’

Max and Raphael nodded.

Adam frowned. ‘You said you had some guns, right?’

‘Yeah, we’ve got a few,’ Max said.

Adam didn’t hesitate to ask, ‘What are we talking about, and how much?’

Raphael leaned forward. ‘Let’s see. Battering rams. Encrypted walkie-talkies. Secure comms. Nines, rifles, AKs, grenades.’ He shook his head without trying to conceal his smile. ‘What are you, some kinda gun nerd? We got guns. Nothing fancy – one squeeze, one answer. They shoot, and they kill. That’s it.’

‘Cool,’ Adam said. ‘If they kill us, that’s on you. Not like anyone’s gonna give a shit by then.’

‘Each of us gets ten bullets,’ Max put in.

Adam gave him a sharp look and smiled dryly. ‘Let’s just hope there’ll be less than thirty of ‘em.’

After having examined the guns, Adam, Max, and Raphael left the apartment and set out for the place where they were to meet Dash, walking all the way with the quiet urgency of men who knew what awaited them. The unexpected but light rain falling from the low, sorrowful sky did not hinder them from reconnoitering the site of their ominous rendezvous, and looking for a way that would serve as a fallback escape.

The cloudy sky was bright for now. The evening still remained an unfulfilled promise. But it would not be long before a cold and sleepless night settled over Adam’s world, and the moment of truth would at long last arrive.

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END OF CHAPTER 11