by Hawk, Nate
Now his mind could travel freely, without the cumbersome baggage that was his past. He began a journey to a slightly different and more enjoyable dimension. He’d already paid for the drinks, so after downing the third one, he continued walking. His dark eyes looked shrewdly up and down the street. His mind was fully focused on the animalistic desire that he was soon to satisfy. Niko cut through two more alleys and arrived under the neon glow and dull hum of Herbertstrasse. Each building he passed was painted a different pastel color, generally highlighted by white or black trim. There were large windows in the buildings’ facades that spotlighted all types of women. Most of the ladies were on the street level but Niko noticed yet a few more, higher up. Never one to rush, Niko carefully eyed the women.
He attempted to take his time, considering carefully which woman would be best able to relieve his special variety of pent up sexual tension. She had to be the one. Nevertheless, he was always surprised at the quality of the whores. The women were all better than attractive. They were fabulous and best of all: filthy. They walked out of the buildings, attempting to seduce him. None of the women seemed picky, which irritated Niko. Wouldn’t they prefer a man like him? Wouldn’t they prefer someone who could free them from their sins of this world?
The women of allurement beckoned Niko into their own personal sanctuaries by employing their best techniques. Each one had a different look and gave off a slightly different aura as they worked the crowd. Unlike some of the other drunken men who were walking the neon lit street, Niko didn’t need any convincing. He only needed to find what he was looking for.
Eventually, he spotted a woman who created just the right sensation. She was sitting inside a gently sagging brick building, painted dark purple and trimmed with white shutters. She appeared to be of Persian decent. She was perfect and she needed a lesson.
She angered him and he would punish her for that. Niko was pleased to see her motion him to come nearer so he cast a gentle smile. She moved from the black-lit window and stepped into the street. She verbally welcomed him to her sanctuary from all things bad in life. The problem for her was that he was all things bad in life. She just didn’t know it yet.
He was hard then and she could see the swelling in his expensive slacks. The more he thought about what he was going to do, the harder he got. She thought that he had a friendly face and a comfortable smile. His clothing looks expensive too, which is always a plus, she thought. Maybe his hair is too long but that isn’t a crime. As he walked into the building, she put both hands on his shirt, pushing gently on his chest. It was just a tease; a glimpse of what was to come if he wanted to pay to be her man. She explained the cost to him in a manner that left him feeling as if she really wanted him. It was presented as if the cost was just a minor detail. Just a tradition. One that, in the circumstances, wouldn’t be right to break with. Secretly, he knew that she wanted punished for her own sins. At the same time, he would purify the woman, satisfying Allah.
Niko was sure that she could satisfy his unique spectrum of desire. So, after receiving the payment, she tucked the money away in a small bag and led him further into her building. As she walked, she was loosening his tie and sliding her hands sensually around his body. He pinned her down and screwed her hard.
It was harder than maybe she had ever been screwed before; a notable point in her walk of life. She was surprised to see such rage in a man that had seemed so composed only moments before. How had he hidden this side of him from her? Where had it come from? His unsuspecting demeanor had enticed her to initially lower her guard. Now she found herself taking it from behind, no way to pretend that she even liked it. What the hell is wrong with this man? she was asking herself.
The pain was too much to bear. She had tried to slow him down. She had tried to persuade him into a different position that was more tolerable. When she had done so she was punched from behind so hard that she felt herself fading in and out of consciousness. This seemed to excite the man. There was a throbbing pain coming from the back of her head where she had been struck. She was light-headed enough that perhaps it was dulling the pain. She felt like she was starring in the first half of a snuff film. Is that how my life will end? she wondered.
She became even more terrified thinking of that eventuality and she began to fight him more. To her surprise, it seemed to turn the man on further. Where was her pimp? Her protector? After seeing the well-dressed customer, had he lowered his guard too? She thought about giving out a loud wail but evenhandedly considered that a yell could make the situation entirely worse. As she tried to pull forward and roll over, Niko leaned forward, never quite breaking his penetration. He shoved her up next to the wooden headboard and hit her again; harder this time.
Niko had been unable to find this level of satisfaction for a long time. The dumb whore was trying to get away and it felt so good to punish her. He hit her face two more times with left hooks. He could feel it raging now. Oh, the excitement. The intensity. “Yes!” he yelled.
One of the punches caused a laceration towards the back of the woman’s cheek. As she looked in terror, she could see him smiling. He pushed harder and faster. His breathing changed and she could feel the man’s sweat dripping on her. What he did next wasn’t really a surprise and wasn’t the first time she had experienced it. It may have been the worst, though. He moved back towards the foot of the bed, grabbed her ankles and pulled her down with him. He climbed back up on her and clamped both hands around her neck in a perceived attempt to squeeze the life out of her.
No hesitation. No promise of dinner and a movie. No Mr. Nice Guy. Her eyes began to roll around somewhere in the back of her head. There was calculated satisfaction all over Niko’s conscience as he knew he was almost there. Surely, this would please Allah. Sweet, Allah, Yes! Complete domination was now his. Oh, how he loved submission. Almost there! Just a couple more minutes.
He didn’t want to slow down then. He moved with everything that he had. As her body’s rigidness increased, so did his level of pleasure. He finished in a sprint to the line, exploding inside her as forcefully as he ever had at exactly the time her body went completely limp. He climbed off of her near lifeless body and left her lying there in pain and shock and embarrassment.
“You whore,” he spat. “Let this be a lesson!”
He felt like he should give some verbal praise to Allah but he was too caught up in the moment. She lay motionless in her blood and bruises, hardly conscious. It wasn’t just the sex that Niko had wanted. In fact, he was surprised that he was able to finish without actually killing her. Regardless, he knew if the woman came around that she was sure to be animated and problematic. He didn’t plan on being around to witness that. Niko washed himself off at the sink and took a piss. He put his expensive clothing back on.
With satisfaction on his face, he knew he had finally caught the dragon that had eluded him for so long. How great it felt! Niko was relieved and unrestrained, as if he could finally focus on something else. It was exactly what he had wanted. He took her purse and added the newly acquired cash to his own wad. Then he secured it back in his pants’ pocket.
He hadn’t had it that good, since well… well, since that woman he’d abducted and kept as his sex slave. Now that was fun, he thought, as he looked back on the torture he had put her through. What had it been, about seven, eight years? In that time, his sexual desires had intensified profoundly. Kidnapping and rape just wasn’t enough. No, now instead of just ruining lives, he had to take them.
After looking in the mirror and pulling his hair up in the back, he walked over to the woman who was laying on the bed. He grabbed her by the hair and looked her deep in the eyes, enjoying the power that he had over her. He exhaled deeply and thought about how good the control felt. Perhaps Allah felt the same level of satisfaction for the punishment that Niko had bestowed upon this woman.
“You tell anybody about this, or give a description of me, and I will come back here and we’ll do this again. Then I’ll finish
what I started. Do you understand me?” he asked.
She fought to avoid eye contact, refusing to answer through the dull haziness that her world had become. He twisted her hair pulling on a large grasp of it that he held in his hand.
“Do you understand me?” he asked again, wishing he had a knife with him so he could display his handiness and coordination with a blade.
Yet, even with the further coaxing, he was still unable to elicit the response he wanted from her. Niko realized he had hit her hard. Had he hit her hard enough to deafen her? Not likely and the defiance in her eyes told him that she understood what he was saying. Convinced that he had no real reason to worry, he smashed her head into the dense headboard. Then he did it one more time, with all of his strength, just because he enjoyed it. The sound of the broken bones made him smile.
The movement had rendered her thoroughly unconscious and he was confident that he had cracked her skull. Just for good measure he twisted her head around past the grinding stage until he felt the distinctive pop. Niko figured both of them would prefer that ending better. She would never be forced through the mental anguish and the nightmares. She wouldn’t have to think of him, the torture or this night, ever again. Niko didn’t expect a pat on the back. He was getting used to putting his victims out of their misery. He casually walked out of the room and down the hallway to the front door. In thirty seconds he had disappeared into the crowd of oblivious revelers on the street.
***
Chapter 38
The murder in the alley had helped Rick Quinn argue his case that Niko was a terrorist and a significant danger to innocent noncombatants. Fortunately, Quinn’s concerns had finally been recognized by Langley. After Niko killed the woman in the streets of Hamburg, the Agency officially categorized him as a terrorist threat to western interests. The Director had made the decision with Rick Quinn doing a very delicate two-step on the topic. After all, Quinn had initially been told to leave Plotnikov alone.
What the director would never know was that the Romanian woman had been one of Rick Quinn’s assets. She had tried to pick Quinn’s wallet near the airport a few months prior, at which point he had caught her. He had threatened her with arrest and a trial but she eventually agreed to trade a favor at a later date if he were to overlook her minor moment of indiscretion.
That day, the future favor had been called in. He had told her to watch for Niko on a particular flight. He’d provided a description of the man and a time. Quinn had said that he needed to know who the man was and all she needed to do was snatch Niko’s wallet so Quinn would know the man’s true identity. He’d added that if she got any additional money out of the deal, it was hers to keep.
Of course Quinn didn’t need any information from the gypsy, he needed to lead a lamb to the slaughter so he could stop the upcoming terror plot. The death of an innocent was just what Rick Quinn had needed. The woman had tried to get the information that he had surreptitiously requested but she’d been killed just as Quinn suspected she would be. It gave him the perfect ‘in’ to bend the Director’s ear and get the green light on Niko.
Quinn had a fleeting moment of remorse before he forgot about the woman forever.
***
A large man with suspenders and a comb-over stumbled down Herbertstrasse, doing his best to stay balanced as he did not want to spill his beverage. He eyed his drink before thinking to himself, where can I get another one of these? He wasn’t ready to walk empty handed yet so he slowed down the consumption of his Coke. So far, his cover seemed to be working. He pretended an inebriated scratch to the side of his head as he talked into his sleeve mic.
“How the hell did I pull the short straw for this operation, Angelo?”
The man pushed his thick glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
“Stan, you know with my good looks I wouldn’t be able to blend in. I don’t need to pay for pussy. But you…,” he began. “Your old mug does fit right in. This district is made for people like you,” he teased.
Stan thought Angelo was probably right so he moved the conversation on.
“Everybody’s a wise ass theses days, huh? Stay alert. I’ll punch our guy’s card the first chance I get. If there are too many onlookers we can send him off to Allah later at his hotel.”
Laura Banks keyed in, hoping to limit the one-sided conversation domination that often was Stan Lubensky.
“Look. We already have one dead woman in an alley,” she said. “We gotta get serious and take this guy out. He’s too much of a liability. You know the Agency is watching now. Any more deaths on our watch and it will be our asses.”
Angelo’s voice broke in, “It’s all good. We know where this guy is right now and where he is staying tonight. We’ll get this piece of shit.”
Just then, a calm and delighted Niko Plotnikov strolled out of a sagging purple building and rejoined a variety of other men who were walking in the street. He was now heading in Stan’s direction.
“I’ve got eyes on our mark. He walked into a crowd but I’ll stay behind him until he gets to the red perimeter gates of Herbertstrasse.”
Stan shifted slightly on the concrete bench where he had sat down. Doing so, the always-observant Niko, caught the motion in the corner of his peripheral. When Stan looked up Niko was making direct eye contact with him. In a flash, the situation changed and Niko knew the game was on. Niko had felt more sets of eyes earlier in the day, so he knew other people were watching him. Niko had just gotten confirmation by the man’s mistake. But what had the mistake been?
Stan was usually better than the performance that he gave that night. At any rate, shit happens; even to veterans of the Agency. Other members of the team occasionally screwed up, too. So getting made wasn’t the worst that could happen. Getting killed was. The agents that survived, had learned from their mistakes and positioned themselves better the next time.
Stan was disappointed and felt like he’d let his team down.
He said, “I may have been spotted. I’m going to back off.”
Owen was not one to clutter up the radio with chitchat.
He said, “I’m a hundred yards from the entrance gate. I’ll pick him up. Angelo and Laura, keep parallel to me and pick him up when he starts to move your way.”
The black man pulled his hat a little lower and leaned against a brick facade, in an effort to make himself appear shorter and less obvious.
Stan reviewed his assessment of the man that he had surveilled.
“Be advised… as he passed it looked like he had some fresh blood on his shirt.”
Laura said, “Roger that.”
Regardless of Stan’s shortcoming, the dragnet had been set. The team settled on sneaking up behind Niko and shooting him there in the streets of Hamburg. A suiting end to the worthless piece-of-shit’s life.
The PAG members waited. Stan remained in position in case Niko made an effort to double back. Since it appeared that his cover was blown it seemed like the thing to do. The team waited four minutes but none of the agents were able to acquire a visual on their man.
Then Owen spoke up, “Stan are you sure you had a confirmed visual on our guy?” he asked.
“C’mon. What is this, Spy 101? Of course it was him!”
Owen had watched the gate with thorough dedication. Niko had not gone through it.
“Then where the hell did he go?” Owen asked. “He’s vanished!”
***
Niko saw the big man with the supported slacks for the second time in two days. What the hell kind of cover was that? he mused to himself. Niko was pretty sure the first day’s suspenders had been swapped out for a different colored pair on the second day. Still, nobody else in Hamburg seemed to be wearing the elastic straps. Niko had never found himself thinking about suspenders but he was always looking for cues that were out of place. So, at the very least, the guy was an out-of-towner. But then the asshole had been eyeballing him too. Niko knew that wasn’t a coincidence because he didn’t believe in the
m. That presumption had allowed Niko to stay alive and out of prison. He knew if he wanted to stay that way he would have to think quick.
Once Niko had established eye contact with the Agency slob who was sitting on the concrete bench, he had realized that they were coming for him. It was written on the man’s face. Niko was confident that there was only one reason to risk getting that close to a mark and it was to silence him forever. Niko thought about the activities of the last few hours. He realized that he had gotten careless. He’d allowed his desire to kill to get in the way of doing so more carefully. It had been stupid. Even Niko could admit that.
If Niko hadn’t lost it and killed the women, then surely this team wouldn’t have moved in on him. On the other hand, if they hadn’t been made, perhaps they would have followed him to his ultimate destination in other parts of the country. As long as he escaped unfollowed, with his life, perhaps it was better this way. He was sure that he was correct regarding the suspenders. Who wears them without lederhosen in Germany? And in the north of the country?
Niko was sweating profusely again, nervous from the takedown that he understood was now underway. After he made eye contact with Stan, Niko crossed the street and walked directly into a building. He was relatively sure the watchful man positioned behind him wouldn’t turn straight around as Niko passed, attempting to conceal his blown cover. Niko had been right. Stan had not immediately turned so Niko had made it into another building without being seen. The fugitive running for his life was not sure which other operatives might be watching so he kept moving quickly. He’d already figured out his best route of escape. In the meantime, Niko had entered a different brothel. He offered one hundred Euros to the man running security inside, to discreetly allow him to go out a backdoor that faced an alley.