ASCENSION: THE SYSTEMIC SERIES

by Callahan, K. W.

Even worse, Ava had been behind much, if not all of the takeover plans, and while others might not have known it, Jake did, and this left him feeling less than a man. Not only this, but it worried him. Ava was taking more and more control, and in doing so, she was away for much of the day, leaving Jake lonely and stewing over his less than satisfying life. He’d been sorely disappointed to find that even his mistress and her fantastically awesome body just couldn’t give him what Ava could physically or emotionally; but for the time being, she was better than nothing.

  And while he would stop in at their operation’s main bank branch downtown each afternoon for a general report on how their impact upon the local economy was being felt, and he met regularly with those controlling the area markets in the surrounding neighborhoods, Ava was far more in tune with the bigger picture of how Miami was controlled and the overall future plan for the organization and development of the area.

  Thinking about it left Jake with a feeling in his stomach that he wasn’t accustomed to, it was a sort of nervous churning that informed him that even if his brain wasn’t good enough to fully realize and understand the impact of Ava’s role, his gut was. And lately, this instinctual awareness that something wasn’t quite right had left him feeling paranoid, and for one of the first times in Jake’s life, afraid.

  The anger that he felt owing to the fact that this fear was because of a woman made his blood boil, and he was determined to do something about it. Ava might be smart, beautiful, and all the rest, but he had balls, and he was going to use them. He was done letting her call all the shots, even if it was from behind the scenes. And he also didn’t like the fact that he had to share power, even if in a minimal fashion, with Little Havana. While it might not have been a big deal to Ava, it was to him. It was just another thorn in his side, and leaving the door open to competitors, even just slightly, was a risk he didn’t feel necessary.

  But first things first. Jake recognized that he needed to get a more personalized bodyguard in place. Many of the men who now filled the ranks of his organization had been hired by Ava. This meant that he couldn’t be sure about where their loyalty lay. Therefore, he decided to make a visit – without Ava – to the downtown market in hopes of turning up some new hired guns who would fall solely under his control. And so, he called up the generals he was still reasonably confident were loyal to him – Steel Will, Johnny Switchblade, and the Kill King – and had them accompany him on his evening recruiting trip.

  * * *

  Will and I walked over to where Jake stood, almost angrily, waiting for us.

  He watched us the whole way, a scowl on his face.

  “Yes?” I said as we stopped a few feet from him.

  He glanced down at the goods we had purchased, then back at us. “You two shopping Marys want some real work or are you too busy prancing around here at the market?” he asked.

  Jake seemed about as amicable as he looked, which didn’t really come as a shock after following him around for the past week.

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” I said as pleasantly as I could.

  “You’ll be paid good,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “Good food, good booze, women if you want ‘em, and ain’t nobody gonna give you any shit when you work for me.”

  “Thanks,” I nodded. “But we’re good.”

  “You don’t look too good, doing women’s work here at the market. You two girls got something better to do?”

  “Actually, we do,” I said. “But again, thanks anyway.”

  We started to turn, but Jake wasn’t about to drop the matter.

  He pushed me hard in the shoulder as I turned. “Hey, you fuckin’ pussy,” he growled, obviously trying to illicit a response. “Don’t you turn your fucking back on me. You want to scavenge and grovel your way through life, then so fucking be it, but you don’t ever turn your fucking back on me, not until I’m done with you.”

  I turned back around, my teeth clamped together so that I wouldn’t say something I’d regret. I paused just long enough to calm myself and swallow my pride, and then said, “I apologize.” I kept reminding myself that we’d be out of all this soon, hopefully never to see Jake or his scumbag underlings again. “That was rude of me,” I went on. “Please, continue.”

  My politeness seemed to catch Jake off guard, and now he looked unsure of what to say next.

  Suddenly, Myron the trader who I hadn’t noticed moving his way up to where we stood, stepped up close and whispered something in Jake’s ear.

  Jake took a minute to digest whatever Myron had said and then looked with distaste at me and then to Will and then back to me. He shoved me hard again in the shoulder. “Get the fuck out of here, you fucking homos,” he swore, kicking some sand and gravel at us as we departed. “We don’t have room for your kind anyway.”

  We were quickly on our way.

  “Should have kicked his ass,” Will said, once we were out of earshot.

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “We’d be dead if we tried. Did you see the guys around him.”

  “So what?” Will said. “We could have taken them.”

  “Yeah well, I’m not so sure about that; but even if we did, did you notice the other ones?”

  “What other ones?” Will said, frowning.

  “The ones hanging back around the periphery of the market. There were at least three that I saw watching us…maybe more. There was one with an eye patch over by Myron’s stand, there was one to our right playing with a switchblade, and there was the black dude wearing the sunglasses behind the group of men Jake was talking to. Notice any of them?”

  Will was silent.

  “I didn’t think so,” I said. “It’s better just to tuck tail and get the hell out of here. We don’t want any more to do with those guys than we’ve already had.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Will said. “Wonder what Myron said to Jake,” he said after a minute.

  “I think he told him we were lovers,” I said.

  “Ewwww,” Will grimaced. “That’s disgusting!”

  “Hey, if it helped get us the hell outta there, I’ll take it. He probably saved our asses.”

  “I guess,” said Will. “But…ewwww,” he shook his head at the thought.

  I just laughed. I was feeling good now that we were away from Jake, and I was happy to focus on preparing tonight’s dinner and looking forward to our last day of work.

  “Make a note of what happened tonight for tomorrow’s report,” I told Will.

  As we got in the car, Will asked a question that had been bothering me for some time but that I’d never brought up.

  “Does Jake look familiar to you?” he said. “It seems like I’ve seen him somewhere before, but I just can’t put my finger on where or when.”

  “I know,” I said, frowning. “I’ve had that exact same feeling since we first saw him, but I don’t know how or where we might have seen him before.”

  “Guess it doesn’t really matter,” Will said. “It’s just kind of strange, especially since you had the same feeling.”

  “After tomorrow, it won’t matter,” I shrugged as we climbed inside the car and I started the engine.

  CHAPTER 15

  Everyone was excited and appreciative of the meat we’d brought home. They oohed and aahed over the smells during its preparation and moaned and groaned in delight as they ate the sumptuous meal. I even sliced off a few tiny portions for Cashmere, not wanting to waste much of the precious meat on our little kitty but nonetheless wanting her to partake in the group’s savory meal to some degree. She’d gobbled them up and then rolled back and forth on the floor in delight. One by one, we let her greedily lick the plates of what little juices were left as we finished our meals.

  We woke up the next morning not feeling hungry but instead still full from the evening’s delicious dinner for the first time since we’d arrived to Miami. While the dried fish, fresh fruits, and vegetables we’d been eating were healthy, they weren’t exactly what one might consider satisfyi
ng. They’d often fill us up in the short term only to leave us feeling hungry an hour or so later, having to sleep through the night with our bellies rumbling.

  Will and I were up bright and early and feeling upbeat about the prospects of our final day on the job. We were downstairs and waiting for Bushy when he pulled with our new ride.

  “Well you guys certainly look ready to go,” he said as he got out of the car.

  “We are,” I said. “Not to be too pushy, but when should we expect payment for our work?”

  “I’ll be by Monday morning,” he said, handing me another vial of insulin. “You keep your final report to us as collateral until we deliver on our end. I’ll take you down to Miami Beach Marina then to check out the boat.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I agreed. “We’ve got some good stuff for yesterday’s report,” I told him.

  He just nodded, “Good,” he said, not seeming to care in the least.

  After Bushy left, I ran the insulin upstairs to Claire, feeling freed from a small portion of the immense weight upon my shoulders with each vial I delivered.

  Then we were on our way downtown where we picked up Jake leaving the condo building at his usual time – right about noon.

  “Gosh, wonder where he’s heading?” Will mumbled sarcastically. “Guy is about as predictable as the sun in the sky.”

  “No shit,” I snorted.

  We watched as Jake was escorted to his SUV by his driver who opened the door for him to climb inside and then walked around and got inside the SUV himself. Moments later, they pulled away from the curb heading west.

  It was the usual routine, and Will and I prepared to settle in for yet another uneventful day of watching a whole lot of nothing.

  As we trailed a safe distance behind Jake’s SUV, Will said, “It’s Friday, maybe his mistress will surprise him and run outside naked to greet him.”

  “It’s our only hope of livening things up,” I yawned.

  With this as the highpoint of our expectations for the day, we were both surprised when about halfway between Jake’s building and his mistress’s condo, several SUVs and a large armored vehicle joined Jake’s own SUV.

  The two SUVs took the lead while the armored vehicle followed behind, sandwiching Jake’s personal SUV in between them.

  “Well that’s something new to add to our notes,” Will scribbled in his notepad. “Guess the guy’s not quite as predictable as we thought.”

  About five blocks from his mistress’s condo, one of the SUVs and the armored vehicle peeled off down a side street. The other SUV stuck with Jake all the way to his lover’s home and parked behind him on the street out front.

  Jake and his driver got out and went up to the house, the driver going inside with Jake and then coming back out several minutes later as he typically did in what we assumed was his security check of the condo.

  It appeared that Jake was wising up a bit.

  No one exited the other SUV, its tinted window concealing the occupants inside.

  Jake was inside maybe 15 minutes when we heard the sound of other vehicles approaching.

  I glanced in the rearview mirror to see several SUVs closing rapidly down the street from behind where we sat parked.

  “Oh shit,” I said, sliding down in my seat and pulling Will down with me.

  “What is it?” he asked, not having had a chance to look.

  “SUVs,” I said as they blew past us.

  We counted three go by and then heard the sound of screeching of tires.

  We moved so that we could peer over our dashboard. Ahead of us, we could see the three SUVs stopped askew, blocking the entire street. Just past them, we saw two more such vehicles stopped in the street facing us from the other direction. Men with automatic rifles were emptying from the vehicles and into the street.

  I quickly started the car. As soon as I did so, we heard the first sounds of gunfire. I wanted to leave, but I was curious too, and I wanted to see what happened. I know it was probably one of the dumbest things I could have done, but instead of hightailing it out of there at the first signs of trouble, I stayed, and waited, and watched.

  In front of us, a scene of chaos erupted. The attacking SUVs had blocked the street and pinned in the two vehicles that had delivered Jake to his mistress’s condo. The two SUVs furthest from us spilled at least ten heavily-armed men from inside. They concentrated their fire upon Jake’s SUV. His driver made a vane attempt to defend himself and his vehicle with nothing more than a handgun, and then he dashed across the tiny front law towards the condo, at which point he was promptly gunned down.

  Four men exited the other SUV that had accompanied Jake and had parked behind his personal ride. These men were better equipped for such a conflict, armed with assault rifles. Two directed their fire at the men who had poured from the furthest two SUVs, half of whom were heading towards the condo. The other two fired at the three SUVs that had approached from our rear. A multitude of heavily-armed men from two of these SUVs, returned fire, dropping one of Jake’s guards, and forcing the other three guards back inside the SUV. The third attacking SUV pulled up onto and across the condo lawn and drove around behind the structure.

  It looked bad for Jake. I could only imagine what was going on inside. One moment he’d been in the throws of passion, the next, all hell was breaking loose and it was almost certain that he was going to die in a matter of minutes.

  Suddenly someone started firing with a heavy machinegun from the second floor of the condo. Big flashes of fire poured from one of the front windows.

  It appeared that Jake was making his presence known.

  Several of the attackers on the lawn dropped; others retreated back to the relative safety of their SUVs that were now also being riddled with bullets as Jake raked his fire back and forth across the lawn and street haphazardly. I figured he saw himself as a Scarface sort of character, making his last wild stand. I had to give him credit for having the foresight to stash some heavy weaponry inside the home though. But I realized he’d only be able to hold out for so long. The attackers had numbers and the element of surprise on their side, and the men circling around to the rear of the home didn’t bode well for Jake’s chances. I guessed that they would be inside and upstairs momentarily, and once that happened, it’d likely be all over for Jake.

  Suddenly the front door to the condo burst open and Jake’s naked mistress ran out across the lawn.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Will cried. “Fucking idiot!”

  He hadn’t even finished the words before her body jolted violently as it was riddled with bullets. We couldn’t tell if the bullets were coming from the attackers’ guns or Jake’s wild spray of fire, but whoever provided them, the effects were instantaneous and deadly.

  She dropped to the ground motionless.

  “What a waste,” Will said, shaking his head sadly.

  We both had our binoculars out now and were peaking our heads over the dashboard just enough to watch the ongoing assault.

  “I give Jake about one…maybe two more minutes,” I said.

  “Meh…he might make it three,” Will said.

  A couple stray bullets suddenly pinged into our car.

  “Shit!” I hissed. “We’d better get out of here. Not worth dying to watch the end.”

  Just as I sat up to put the car into drive and beat it back home, one of the SUVs blocking the far side of the street exploded in a ball of flames, sending several of the men sheltering around it flying and the rest running for better cover. From an adjoining side street rolled the monstrous armored vehicle and SUV we’d seen driving with Jake on the way to the townhouse and that had peeled off before we arrived.

  The armored vehicle came to a stop, angling across the road. The SUV pulled up behind it. Men piled out from inside both vehicles, some of them headed around the back of the condo. Meanwhile, the armored vehicle sent another projectile into one of the SUVs near us, sending it up in a ball of flames as well.

  This ev
ent sent the attackers nearest us scurrying back into their remaining vehicles which allowed Jake’s men who had been taking cover in the SUV parked in front of the condo to extract themselves from their precarious position. Two of the guards headed for the front door of the condo and one remained to continue firing at the SUV nearest us. The armored vehicle began moving again, ramming its way past the first flaming SUV and smashing into the SUV that still blocked the road, shoving it out of the way and sending its men scurrying while guards atop the armor sprayed them with machinegun fire.

  The attackers nearest us saw the armor approaching and decided enough was enough.

  Heavy machinegun fire continued from Jake’s position on the second floor, and it looked as though the tide had turned quickly and violently in his favor.

  Will and I decided not to stick around to find out for sure.

  The armored vehicle was heading our way and I figured it was going to pursue the retreating SUV. I wanted to be out of there ahead of them to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. I threw our little car into reverse, punched the gas, and headed in reverse down the street to the intersection where I hit the brakes hard, swung the car around – its tires squealing – while I ground the transmission into drive and punched the gas. The acceleration seemed to be at a snail’s pace, and the car was pulling to one side from what I guessed was a flat tire that had probably been punctured by a stray bullet.

  I think I did more watching in the rearview mirrors than ahead of us as the death and destruction faded in to a cloud of distant smoke. We kept up our rearview monitoring all the way home to ensure we weren’t followed, but it appeared that Jake’s men were content to focus on the rats they’d obviously caught in their trap, not us.

  Once we were a safe distance away, I slowed our progress, not wanting to destroy the vehicle completely with our flat tire. Pieces of rubber were flying off and smacking against the car’s bodywork.

  “Apparently Jake’s a bit more savvy than we’d given him credit for,” I said after we’d made it out of downtown and we’d slowed enough to be heard over the din of the flapping tire pieces.