by Dana Arama
I parked the car in a corner behind some orange rosebushes, in sight of the back balcony. The battle was unfolding on the other side of the estate, so this side was clear. I climbed onto the hood of the car and from there jumped into the balcony. The glass door was locked, so I shot through the lock. I preferred a dismantled lock than broken glass smashing everywhere, but, with a deafening sound, the glass shattered in big shards. I stupidly mused that the glass didn’t break the way it seems to in the movies. Even though the break-in wasn’t quiet, I ran in and immediately made my way to the top floor. I had envisioned Gail tied to a bed, or maybe not tied, but too stoned to call for help. Maybe she was in the basement. There is a basement here… There must be a basement.
They came at me from three different directions. I shot at the one on my right who had his gun aimed at me. He fell. Immediately I turned my gun on the man to my left and he lifted his hands in surrender. I should have known it was a trap, but I wasn’t quick enough. The man on the left smiled. I felt a blow to my head. All went dark.
Guy Niava,
El Desconocido’s office, November 14, 2015, 11:00 a.m.
Another shot sounded outside. The guards turned to look at the door and Zorro immediately grabbed El Desconocido’s gun and quickly moved away to the far corner of the room. Her gun pointed at El Desconocido and together we covered the whole room.
“Lower your weapons. Slowly. Put them on the floor and kick them towards me.”
The men looked at El Desconocido and waited for his confirmation. He nodded and they did as they were told.
There was a knock on the door.
I collected the weapons from the floor. “Tell him to ask them what they want,” I ordered Zorro in Hebrew and she did as I requested.
“What’s up?” asked El Desconocido.
An answer came from the other side of the door and Zorro translated for me. “They said they caught someone else who had infiltrated the estate. Do you think it is our wounded girl?”
“Most probably.” I thought for a moment, and then asked Zorro to tell them to let Laura in.
El Desconocido ordered the guard to open the door and an unconscious Laura was carried in, feet first. Another armed guard held her from the arms.
“We have an unpleasant situation on our hands,” announced El Desconocido, in quiet English. He seemed almost amused. “Your partner will die if you don’t put down your weapons.”
“Raphael, I am asking you. We have not come here to kill you.”
“So, who have you come to kill then?” He looked at Zorro with the same amused look.
“I have come to kill the American girl, the one you left me for. Is she still with you?”
“She is here, and I don’t see any reason to let the two of you meet,” he answered, and smiled at Zorro in a way that left no doubt that this man was a mercenary flirt and knew how to handle himself around women. “I don’t think jealousy becomes you, cariña. But if you get rid of her, you are welcome to stay here. The organization could always use someone like you.”
A hidden side-door opened, and a beautiful, long-legged brunette walked in holding a gold-plated gun. “She won’t stay here. And about the American -- I am still here,” she answered Zorro. “Alive and kicking and I won’t hesitate to shoot.”
“Zorro meet Gail. She is responsible for the new formula of the drug now flooding the market.”
I looked at her and knew now that it was no coincidence that Laura was here.
Murat Lenika,
New York City, November 14, 2015,
12:00 p.m. local time
We sat in the car and drove back to the city. Aldo drove and Alex sat next to him, trying to solve a new Sudoku puzzle. I knew that once he failed to complete it, he would start complaining that there must be a mistake and throw it aside in anger.
Usually, it would be me sitting next to him, helping him solve it in minutes, but today I sat at the back because I wanted to be alone. Instead of feeling pleased with myself about how the business was going, I felt down. Once again I’d been drawn to places, I didn’t want to be, with people who are good for business but bad for the soul. Of late, my business had brought me in contact with terrorism, and it was an alley I had never planned on going down. I felt better about my interactions with the drug world. Whoever wanted them came to me and purchased them, winning an hour of happiness. What could I say about terror except the latest pictures from the old continent showed that things didn’t look too good there. Actually, they looked terrible. That wasn’t the only bad thing. I looked blankly out at the changing scenery. Something about the look on the kidnapped boy’s face reminded me of Bobby and it made me feel ill. What was I supposed to do with him now? Save him? Remove him from the situation? Take a chance for his benefit and bring the guns before I got the okay from the Red Mafia?
I must have been about five when it first happened. Bobby was my first English friend that I had brought home. We went to play in the men’s lounge. In any other home, the mothers watch over the kids but with us, the Albanians, the women don’t mix with the men. It was important that the boys in the family were trained to act and feel manly from a startlingly early age. My father was there, smoking and drinking, watching TV and reading the paper. Two of my uncles were also there, whom I realized at a later stage weren’t blood relatives, but my father’s bodyguards.
There were more ‘cousins’ outside the room, as usual. Sometimes I would see them and other times not. On rare occasions they carried guns, but most of the time they just stood there. Either way, they always treated me nicely and called me ‘prince’.
“Where are we driving to, boss?” Aldo’s voice broke through my memories.
“Manhattan,” I answered briefly. He probably expected a specific address, but I wasn’t in the mood to cooperate.
“I was afraid you were going to say Brooklyn. Maybe Brighton Beach. Maybe meet with whoever your father forbade you to meet with.”
I didn’t answer. He was right about all the details except for the location. We were too far from the destination. If he knew, he would most likely stop now and not allow me to continue. The rest of the way was travelled in silence, and I slipped back into my memories.
Bobby and I were playing, and he was chosen to be the king and tell me, his knight, what to do, to order me to perform tasks. My father didn’t like that someone was telling his son what to do. The first time Bobby gave me a command, my father let it pass. I saw the displeasure on his face, and so I asked Bobby if we could switch roles. But Bobby insisted on being king, and yelled that it wasn’t fair -- we had flipped a coin and that he had only been king a few minutes… That was when my father, the ever-threatening presence in my life, involved himself. He pushed my friend back and he fell, a mere five-year-old, on the floor.
“Never let anyone boss you around!” he said leaned over Bobby, gripped his shirt and lifted him off the floor. All the while he spoke to me in that low, threatening tone I always associated with him. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes,” I answered, frightened. A wet stain started to spread on Bobby’s pants, and I knew that Bobby wouldn’t want to be friends with me anymore.
Bobby’s stare. My father’s behavior. Rumor spread quickly between the parents of my English friends and no one wanted to play with me anymore. The Albanian friends weren’t really friends. They knew that they were playing with the prince of crime and behaved accordingly. So from the age of five I faced the world alone. Behind me was a driving force that reminded me of one thing – That I was a lone wolf, forbidden from befriending or accepting orders from anyone. I think that was my first lesson in life. If you don’t belong, at the very least don’t show it. Learn the field, blend in, get to know the routine, and only then go out and do what you want.
What did I want now? I wanted to understand the field, to know its demands and supply them. To be the number one supplier i
n the area and do what I wanted with all the money I earned. At the moment, there was a great need for drugs on the market. The new drug that El Desconocido had promised me was about to arrive. I needed to straighten things out with the Red Mafia before that. The Russians had to understand that this weapons deal was a onetime deal. The deal would create my cash flow to finish the drug deal. As compensation for me taking away a small bit of their business, they would be part of my first shipment. Their agreement would legitimize my weapons deal, and would also reveal their market. It was a game I had to play. I had a full house in my hand. I needed to play hard and mercilessly, so pitying the boy, or anyone for that matter, was something I couldn’t take into account.
“Drive into this parking lot,” I ordered Aldo. “Go down three levels and park in level D.”
“I don’t like this, boss.” Aldo was like my mother and father and big brother, all in one. He smothered me with concern and was determined to protect me every time he thought that my security was at risk.
“What are you afraid of?” Alex asked. Aldo’s concern worried him, and he immediately became alert. He had put his puzzle magazine aside, and now drew his gun.
“We’re going to a meeting with the Red Mafia, aren’t we?” Aldo didn’t wait for confirmation and added, “We are walking right into their trap. I don’t like it.”
By the time the preparations for the meeting ended, Dubroshin had already scoped out the area. He didn’t like the situation either, and neither did I. But as opposed to them, I kept a poker face. I said, “Don’t worry, guys, they want this meeting as much as I do.”
“A deal is a deal and honor is honor…” announced Alex and didn’t add another word.
We all knew that my actions could be interpreted as an insult to the older members of the Red Mafia, those who had an alliance with my father. I had promised I would keep away from the weapons market, but I preferred to look at my actions as honoring them. I had a chance and I was willing to give up a chunk of the money from the weapons and hand it to them, even though they hadn’t lifted a finger to complete any part of this deal. Not lifting a finger meant also not killing me, and for that I was grateful.
“Who else knows we are here?” asked Aldo.
I kept silent. We both knew the answer.
“Boss…” Aldo was insistent. “You know that I am committed to you heart and soul, but if something happens to you, my whole family and I will have to pay the price to your father. So, who else knows we’re here?
“No one,” I admitted.
He stopped the car in the middle of ramp that led to the lower floor. “I can’t go down there.”
“Keep driving Aldo,” I ordered him firmly.
“I’m sorry boss. We need to notify your father.” He looked at me in the rearview mirror. “You know I would put my life on the line for you. But if they are going to finish us off here… At least someone will know about it.”
“If they finish us off here, will our kidnapped boy will become Yassin’s property, or will he pass the boy on to the Russians?” Alex asked abruptly.
Annoyed, I responded, “What’s the kidnapped boy got to do with all of this?” Something about Alex’s fear and his forebodings stuck with me and put a damper on my whole plan.
“No reason, boss. Because we are the only people who know where he is.”
“Why do you bring him up now?” I yelled at Alex. He had inadvertently touched the spot I’d been trying to avoid. Something about the way the boy looked must have aroused his mercy. “Okay, Aldo…” I gave into his fears. “Notify my father about this meeting.” I hated having to reveal the cards in my hand but then added, “Tell him that Dubroshin is covering my ass.”
Aldo smiled. “Dubroshin’s okay. He knows the job.” Then Alex asked, “Who is this Dubroshin guy?”
“No one that should worry you,” I answered.
Aldo laughed. “Dubroshin is definitely someone to be afraid of. That is why I am happy he is on our side.” He backed out of the parking garage until he found a spot that had cellular reception.
“You just sit, and I will notify the big boss that we are meeting with the Russians on their terms.” He smiled at me again in the rearview mirror. “When the big boss knows, it is sort of a life insurance.”
I smiled back at him. I didn’t want to upset him and tell him that when the big boss found out about it, it would be a sort of a death insurance for me.
Laura Ashton,
El Desconocido’s office, November 14, 2015, 11:10 a.m.
Through a mist of the pain I struggled to recognize the familiar voice. She’d always carried a hint of amusement in her voice. She was a born cynic. She looked at the world with one eye crying and the other chuckling, maybe because she grew up knowing that she had caused her family’s death. Her crying fit had started her vomiting, which had led to the accident. I never blamed her and I hadn’t left her because I was angry. But I had disappeared, first because of the competitions and then because of the university and in the end because of the cadet course. She’d brought up the subject more than once. She thought I had abandoned her because I was cross she had vomited, or because I didn’t believe her when she told me about his harassment. I believed her the first time she told me, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I knew that he had connections in all the right places and that it was hopeless. He, our uncle, our guardian who took it upon himself to look after us two orphaned girls, was the head of the Anti-Drug Authority. He was a dignified figure in public, sexually abusing a helpless young girl, his niece, in private.
In the beginning I’d run away from him and in the end, because of her, I signed up for the cadet’s course. The only way to stand up to him was to start from the bottom. My long-term plan had forced me to abandon her over and over, leaving her in his hands. When she left the special science program for the exceptionally gifted, she’d hurled at me that she too had the right to run away, to leave… I could have told her that I ran away too and I did it because I didn’t think he would harass such a young girl. I could have told her that even after I left, every night before I went to bed I wanted to vomit. But I didn’t say anything. Instead, I’d tried to persuade her to stay in the program. That was also a long-term investment.
“Gail! You’re alive,” I said, and tried to sit up. The Mexican that held the weapon above me pushed me back down with his very heavy boot. I could have kicked him in the balls or rolled over and dragged him with me and smashed his head on the floor, but it wasn’t worth the risk that he would shoot wildly around the room. Instead I chose to remain still. Any movement in this tense room might bring on a world war. I turned to look at my younger sister and asked, “Do you want to put in a good word for me here?”
“I am more interested in throwing your girlfriend here into a deep pit and burying her” Gail answered.
“This woman is not my friend, but she is here for mutual gain.” I tried to wipe the blood from my head. It had already begun to clot. “We need information on a certain deal. We need to know the origin of the payment.”
“Is that why you are here, Laura?”
“I came because my investigations led me to believe that you were here with a rising star in the Sinaloa.” I smiled, knowing that I looked more pathetic than ever. “Since you disappeared, I haven’t stopped looking for you.”
“That’s touching,” she answered dryly, without taking her eyes off Zorro.
“I am serious, everyone is worried about you.”
“Everyone?” she exaggerated the word ‘everyone’. “Does the ‘everyone’ include our dear uncle?”
I turned to look at all the others in the room. They were all staring at Gail. I said, “Come back home with me, to the United States. Come home with me and together we will stand up to him.”
I was afraid she would say it was too late. Gail gestured around the room with her gun and said, “I,”
she smiled, “am at home. It is you who are not in your place.”
“I understand that there is a family connection,” Guy smiled and put his gun down slowly. “I am prepared to mitigate some of this tension, as I too am here for family business.”
I knew that his calming smile, his slow lowering of his gun and his easygoing voice hid what a warrior could do in a fleeting second. He continued speaking calmly, “We can decide together how we’re going to end this affair.”
With his free hand he pointed to Zorro and announced, “You are not shooting anyone.” A quick smile and a sly movement of the head. He added, “Unless I tell you to shoot.”
El Desconocido noted, “We are at a balance of terror. You have two guns and so do we. But the fact that I don’t want to get hit with a bullet is significant here. I am willing to sit and hear what you have to say.”
“No sitting, and no sudden movements,” Guy said. He had a warning look about him that showed that the relaxed attitude he’d worn mere moments ago was a thin and temporary disguise.
El Desconocido raised his hands in surrender and agreed, “No movements. I would rather pull out a bottle of tequila and not guns, but it doesn’t seem feasible at the moment.”
Gail announced that she would like to have tequila, and Zorro commanded her to be still. For years I had watched Zorro. Our fencing team had shown us footage on her, and together with the coaches we would analyze her movements. This was how I got to know her. I saw something in her countenance I had never seen before. It wasn’t her determination to win. Zorro had competed against me numerous times and I had never seen a look of hatred that was on her face now, so tight-lipped and fiery eyed. It was hatred for my younger sister. Hatred glowing out of a person trained to kill. For all those years I had abandoned Gail, I owed her big time, and I supposed I could start by protecting her from Zorro’s rage.