The Soulless VIII (380 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.75 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Anthony Locascio (View user info) at 2005-05-25 23:30:21 EDT
"You're not going to do a damn thing, and I'll tell you why. You can't kill me."
"You're wrong, cabron, I can kill anybody. I do it all the time."
John took a deep breath, drew it in and filled his lungs. He'd stopped caring about dying a long time ago. Now there was just the anxiety of wondering if this would be that moment, or maybe the next. Let's just see if we can get this over with he thought. Then he lowered his pistol. Jose glanced back twice to the pistol, then back to John each time.
"What the hell are you doing?" Luis snapped, a panicked note in his voice as he tried to cover both the armed men. Tough luck John thought. Nobody ever said it was all sunshine and happy endings. When things are over, they're over. All we're doing is waiting until then. John dropped his gun on the floor. Catlike, Padilla darted to the pallet and snatched the gun up, grinning in the anticipation of the upper hand. He faltered somewhat when he saw that the overweight detective hadn't moved. Behind him, he heard the click of a pistol's action and put his hand up to stop the shooting before it started.
"You can't kill me because your gun isn't pointed at me. It's pointed at you. When you pull the trigger, you'll kill yourself." Padilla laughed, but he hesitated a moment more when he saw no reaction. John paced very slowly back and forth, not coming any closer and not moving any farther away.
"How many times have I saved your ass in the past year? How many times did I tip you off when the heat was coming down, when everybody else got nailed but you and your boys? How many times have I covered for you and kept you out of county? I protected you all those times, maybe just because you made us all a lot of money, but I protected you anyway. And I'm trying to protect you right now, because you're endangered. That shipment you hit was secret. So secret that whoever sent it was positive that nobody knew about it and didn't bother to guard it heavily. When they find out its gone, they're going to go insane with worry, because their secret will be out. Their only hope to keep everything under wraps will be to find their equipment. They'll pull out all the stops to do so, and they won't leave any witnesses. They'll kill you, your crew, and anybody who might possibly know about the shipment.
Padilla sneered. "We killed their boys once, we can do it more."
"Look at the guns they have," John countered. "You think there isn't more where that came from? Only this time, there will be men in that body armor. Men with shotguns loaded with those armor piercing shells. But more likely, you'll just disappear. Poof, gone without a trace, like a fart into a whirlwind. I won't be able to do a damn thing to stop them, even if you don't shoot me."
The detective lazily glanced over his shoulder to the alarmed Luis, who was quickly shifting his aim from one of the Cubans to the other every few seconds, then turned back to Padilla.
"This is a hell of a score, but we can't hold onto it. You pull that trigger and I'll see you real soon."
Padilla hesitated somewhat, not saying anything.
"How's Lucinda by the way? And the baby?"
Padilla's eyes narrowed. "They ain't got nothing to do with this,"
"Oh no, no, I think they do. You see, this stuff doesn't end here. When this goes sky high, the owners are going to have a lot of cleaning to do. They're going to wonder who you told about your marvelous score. They're going to wonder who they told. They're going to clean and scrub until it shines like a new penny. How's your cousin, Padilla? He still doing fifteen in the federal pen? How's your mother? She's down in Hiahleah, right? She'll get a visit soon."
"Juan, c'mon," one of the other Cubans said nervously. He might have been dumb, but he likely had family to think about as well. Slowly, Juan's thumb moved up and eased the hammer on the pistol forward. Then his arm dropped. The other two Cubans cooled off, even though Luis kept his gun at the ready. John made a great show of deliberately bending down to get his own gun and tucking it back into his holster. He put an arm around the Cuban gang leader and walked him, almost patronizingly, back to the truck.
"Do me a favor, guy. Get Allen on the phone. He's got to get rid of all of it, every bit of it. Don't leave a freaking speck of rubber from the tires in here. Comprende?"
Juan said nothing, simply nodded and exhaled in exasperation. Luis' cell phone began to chime softly, and he finally let his pistol drop and tucked it back inside his shoulder holster to answer it. "Last thing, the guys were carrying some manifests, or paperwork?"
Juan nodded and waved his hand irritably at the truck's cab. Inside was a leather binder full of papers that Adam snatched up. "Might be useful, cover our tracks to know who was the owner of this little surprise.
"Boss," Luis pointed at the phone and gestured towards the car. "We got a call."
"Now?" Adam said, more irritated than ever. He threw the binder through the open window. "Can't these idiots get killed after lunch? Let's get out of here. And Juan, remember what I said."
The two got into the car and cruised slowly out of the warehouse. Adam dialed a number on his cell phone, spoke briefly, then hung up. "That solves that,"
Luis nodded. "You might as well have shot him,"
The corpulent detective shrugged. "The Haitians have been looking for some payback for a long time. By the time Padilla disposes of that nasty business, they'll be all over him. The hand that pulls the trigger won't be ours, we'll be clean. Can't have someone shaking him down and giving him our names, now can we?"
Luis only nodded. Adam realized that was the reason that he liked him - he understood without explanation. He was mostly just talking to hear his own voice and congratulate himself. He barely acknowledged the fear that was brushing against the lowest tiers of his consciousness - whoever had owned that shipment would have killed everyone connected to it. Sometimes, he had discovered, a death unseen is far more terrifying than a gun pointed in your face.
He changed the subject, as much to take his mind off his nervousness as to dispel the silence of the drive. "Who made the call?"
"It was Kirosawa. Some pusher over in Ybor, probably happened less than an hour ago according to him."
"Don't believe any of that crap. He's Japanese. You know that Japanese doesn't have any 'be' verbs? There are no tenses in Japanese, you can't tell if something has happened, is happening, or will happen. That's why they have such a poor sense of time."
Luis snickered to himself.
"What?"
"Nothing,"
"What the fuck are you laughing at, asshole?"
"What you were talking about. If I'm right, that's not mistaken, that little tidbit was mentioned on the Star Trek marathon yesterday. The language they were talking about was Klingon, not Japanese."
"Whatever. Quit riding the fucking brake. Where are we going? Ybor city? Thank God we're on duty. We'd never get a parking spot."
Luis shrugged. "Look at it this way, there's one less guy trying to park."
User Reviews
Submitted by BlazinBull (user info) at 2008-01-31 10:16:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Viper_04 (user info) at 2005-11-11 08:28:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Whoah....total character confusion
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-11-09 11:21:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-07-06 20:01:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"Look at the guns they have," John countered.
...
"Now?" Adam said, more irritated than ever.
Yeah, there you go. Just decided on a different name?
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-07-06 20:00:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
'"It's too damn early for this, Juan," John snapped, coming toward the shorter Cuban gang leader. Jose shrugged his heavily tattooed shoulders.'
Right there you switch from Juan to John -- that was one or two posts ago, the one where they're testing out the body armor -- and in this post John goes back to calling him Juan.
I think also in this one you start referring to John as 'Adam.'
Submitted by domenad (user info) at 2005-07-06 19:23:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No, you're right, I did fuck up. I started him out as Jose, but then I realized that Jose Padilla was the guy they nailed for terrorism, that dirty bomb thing. I didn't realize I had done it a second time. When?
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-07-06 19:08:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Twice now I've noticed you've changed the names of your characters in mid-story. Am I right in saying that you changed Juan to Jose and back to Juan and you changed John to Adam? What's that all about?
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-07-06 19:07:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Four reviews? Come ON, people! This is a great story.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-05-26 15:11:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-05-26 13:39:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fucking cunts in this place.
Some jackjob writes a half page vignette that goes nowhere and people have to wipe streamers of jizz off of their monitors.
This dude crafts a really good continuing story and the 30 second attention spans here can't handle it.
Don't bitch to me about the lack of quality writing on this site, you fucks.
Plus fucking two!
And thanks for a little break from a shitty week, man.
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-05-26 08:43:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by YELLOW-MAN (user info) at 2005-05-26 00:20:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment