narrator
10-28-2002, 02:42 AM
Saturday 8:02
Across from the Coleman residence
Cold shards of glass exploded from the window, outward, as the bullets pierced its slick surface. Three bullets to be exact. One stopped its run in an old pickup truck across the street lodging itself in the engine compartment. The second went into the house passing through two walls and stopping at the refrigerator door. And the last flew true. It passed through the window then Sean Coleman's head and finally stopping itself at the Coleman front door, which was much stronger than the Coleman walls.
Rod pulled the gun apart quickly. Placing each part inside the green backpack he had brought for just this purpose. The dark metal of the gun fit almost perfectly, almost. The barrel was too much. Rod said screw it, he put in his pants pocket and turned to the back yard leave.
"Three shots,” said the tall man that stood in front of the sliding glass window that led to the yard, the exit. "Two too many wouldn’t you say," said the man. He stood covered in darkness but the moonlight gave enough for Rod to know who it was.
"Dorian, what brings you here," he said slowly glancing behind him where a kid stood looking down at the body of Sean Coleman.
"The op is now mine but it seems I'm too late. Doesn't matter, I'll take care of the rest." Rod glared at him through hate filled slits of eyes. "Get out." Dorian had a gun in his hand. Rod didn't know if it had been there all along but it wouldn't surprise him. Dorian was that kind of guy. Rod guessed, there wasn't really a kind like him, he was a unique asshole.
"I don't know if I do believe you but I really gotta get out so I will." Dorian nodded and stepped out of the way.
Rod glanced behind him again the kid was gone and in his place was a young man and an older woman. They just stood looking down at the body with eyes without tears but wide in disbelief. Rod guessed the kid was the one calling 911 and the grown-ups would just stare until the ambulance came. It was odd that way.
Rod then walked out of the back door sliding it open. It was quiet and smooth. He felt the cool of night hit him like he had jumped into a pool. He left, leaving the house behind him and Dorian who stood still in the dark but the light from his cigarette stood out like a beacon.
8:34
The Payphone at Farce and Grim
He switched cars twice. It was better safe than sorry. He first had to cut across three back yards to get to his car. It had accumulated two parking tickets in its six-hour stay. He switched at a parking lot seven blocks down the road. He found a non descript Taurus that would fit in more than the BMW Io had given him The houses slid past the windows and he slowed and stopped in front of a house with its trash cans out to be picked up and tossed his green back pack inside one making sure they weren't empty first then drove on. He had to talk to Io.
He drove to the payphone at Farce and Grim. It was ringing. He looked at his watch. 8:39, he was nine minutes late. He picked it up and waited.
“You’re late.” Io said his voice quick and low.
“Yeah, well, can you tell me why Dorian White says it’s his op now.” Said Rod.
Io paused. “No hard feelings, but I don’t make the call you know. They just think that Dorian can handle it better.”
“Better, did they hear about his job on Ray Franks? It was a fuckin’ mess.”
“Listen, Rod its not about that. The high ups have heard that you’ve been squealing. And I’m not saying its true but I say get the fuck out of Dodge.”
Rod clenched his fists and breathed deep.
“Rod . . . you there?” Io asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Look you’re right, I gotta get outta town. But it’s not gonna be easy so I want you to throw ‘em off. You get me.
“Yeah, I’ll say you told me you’re going to Upside.”
“Thanks.”
9:14
Two Suits
Get outta Dodge. Io hadn’t been kidding. He was being tailed now. Two suits in a Cadillac were following him and not very well either. They were practically on his bumper. He pulled off the highway and pulled around to the back of a Vons grocery store. It was empty. That was good.
He grabbed a gun out of his glove compartment and jumped out of the car. He ran and quickly hid in between two large dumpsters and waited. It would be about a ten-minute wait. So he waited.
They pulled up to his car ten minutes later. They got out and started looking inside his car. Rod stood up and slid out from in between the dumpster’s gun in hand. He hit the one leaning into the open driver side door in the back of the head. He jerked for a moment then slide to the ground. The other one jumped behind the car the shot piercing their cars hood. Rod wasted no time he ran right to the car and jumped on top of the cars hood and pointed the gun down at the smarter suit but not too smart. He was still getting the gun out of his pants. Rod fired two shots hitting him in the right arm and chest. He started to move still pulling the gun out of his pants. Rod fired again hitting him in almost the same spot on the chest basically enlarging his wound. The man still moved Rod had almost put his gun away when the gun still resting in his bloody arm rose up and clicked. Rod pulled his arm up and shot the guy in the head. Sometime before the man must have emptied his gun and forgotten to reload it. Rod laughed.
He stole a car in the parking lot and rode it to Upside. Io was always a weasel and it was a much better bet not to trust him. But maybe? No, he still remember the Rincead op it wasn’t yesterday but the past was always a good thing to have with you. Io had tried to appear changed, at least to Rod but Rod knew better.
At least Dorian was cool. He was probably supposed to kill him. Rod would be in his debt but if push came to shove he would kill him. But first he was gonna find Allen Sodd.
10:06
Sodd
He was eating a late dinner at a small restaurant with three bodyguards. One was Dire Maker. One the stupid pricks that liked to give themselves stupid aliases. It was a Led Zeppelin song that he had named himself after. Rod had no problem with him; he was a sloth notorious for his slow movement. Rod smiled. Probably why they gave him to Allen. Rod reloaded his gun still thinking about the stupid fuck who was being brought to the morgue.
Allen finished his dinner at 10:13. Rod watched him from five tables away drinking a cup of coffee. Rod followed not behind him but the last bodyguard to leave. He was wearing a large green coat that was obviously hiding guns. Rod followed into the parking lot behind the restaurant. Thankfully, it was empty. Rod hit the trailing bodyguard hard in the back of the head felling him immediately. He then shot the other in the back and Dire Maker in the head. The one on the ground grabbed for his gun but
Rod shot him two more times. Allen still hadn’t turned around he stood still three feet away from his car very tense. Rod put the gun to the back of his head.
“Let’s go.”
“So friend, tell me, why is it that two suits were tailing me today and Io tells me that I’m a squealer.” Rod held the gun on his lap on the other side of the car. Allen was still tense.
“Wha, I . . . I dunno what you’re talking about. I had nobody following you, swear.” Allen was chewing on his tongue.
“What about Io. You think I’m some dumbfuck who just got into the biz. I could kill you now.”
Allen chewed harder and faster. “Io? He hasn’t worked for me for two years. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Rod leaned forward and held the gun to the mans face. Allen chewed faster. “What the fuck, are you talking about?”
Allen’s leg started to twitch and he kept on chewing. “Io, I uh, fired him two years ago.”
Rod pulled back a bit. “What about Dorian?” Allen leg twitched rapidly in succession then stopped.
“Dorian? Never heard of him.” He said.
Rod sat back down in his seat and rolled his head upward and closed his eyes. “Get the fuck out of the car.”
Allen opened his door slowly. Blood was on his teeth most likely coming from his smashed tongue. He got out and stood straight waiting. Rod drove away with his car door open. What the hell?
He got on the freeway and started to drive to where he had met Io for the deal.
Sunday 4:22
The Warehouse
The warehouse was the same as before. The cold and colorless walls seemed to be absorbing all the life around them. Not that there was much life to begin with. Rod didn’t believe that he’d find anything but he had no other leads. He pulled up and slipped out of the car. He couldn’t believe it. Why would Io even bother to lie? It didn’t make any sense. And what the hell was Dorian doing?
Rod pulled into an alley between two warehouses, the same spot he had been only three days ago. The gray-rising sun seemed to shed a bitter light on the area—It seemed to make it dead or at lest dying anyway.
He got out of the car and shut the door. He walked around the warehouse he had met Io inside, no cars, that was good. He opened a dull green door adjacent to a huge metal sliding door. He stepped inside but it was useless, the lights were gone or the windows boarded up. Either way he didn’t want to go in there to search for a switch. He reached into his jacket pocket and snatched out a blank shiny metal lighter. He lit it.
Very little light but enough to see what he had come to apparently. There was a small piece of paper that looked like it was torn off of a larger piece. Rod didn’t know how much there was, he could only see in about a five-foot radius. He stood on his toes and grabbed the scrap of paper.
234efDgg 4FGDFdd erdfsghSs DG35q SDFs FSD#e3qd
DDFssssd 3341dFSDf hhfdDAS 4733dfsdSDF
SDFsddghs 43432 WGdsfg44wwe DFGfdr4 Sfttw3aD
It read, over and over. He looked but there was nothing else just dust collecting on the ground. He got back in the car and drove off in the direction of Upside, in which Allen Sodd was conducting a very secret and very vigorous manhunt for the man code named ROD.
7:13
Wisk
“It doesn’t make sense,” Wisk said looking down at he sheet of paper Rod had brought to him with quizzical eyes. He put his glasses back on that he had placed on the table in front of him. “If you ask me I’d say you’re being fucked with.”
Rod ran a hand through his hair and gritted his teeth. “I know I’m being fucked with but this is all I’ve got to go on.” He paused and pulled a neatly stacked pile of thirty hundreds, Io’s prepayment, and tossed it on the table in front of Wisk. “Just try. If you don’t its okay I already owe you.”
Wisk nodded then paused and shivered. “I think you ought a go. Sodd’s been tearing Downside apart looking for you. It’s probably a good thing you came back to Upside.” Wisk nodded again then turned his head back down to the sheet. “Even if I do crack this mother I ain’t gonna be done for probably a week to two and that’s if I’m lucky.”
Rod sighed. “Just do it. I’ll check back on Friday.”
Wisk sat back in his chair a long time staring at the piece of paper. There was no pattern it was nothing, just someone fucking with ROD.
ROD. He wasn’t like the others. They were . . .(Liars, cheats, scum, crooks) normal. He seemed to do what he said and stay true. Wisk didn’t trust his brother but ROD was a whole different deal. ROD. He wondered what it stood for. Red Orange Diode, Real Odd Duck, Roof Over Door, Ray Of Daylight, Ricochet Of Darts. It was one of those things that just kinda got to you. ROD. ROD?
Wisk took his glasses off and looked for sense in the unintelligible.
8:49
Tim
Tim watched the man walk up the steps. He had a gun but that was the least of his worries at this point. It wasn’t the gun but the man. It was D, in the flesh. Tim stood gaping and worked his jaw through gum that seemed unchewable. He reached in and touched the gun under his jacket then let his arm drop.
D walked with the grace of a cat. Tim couldn’t bring himself to move his limbs. His care seemed to fade away with everything else he just stared feeling his blood flow through his body. It began to ache. It began to burn his muscles. He had to move.
He finally reached and grabbed the gun under his coat. In a clumsy and slow motion he pulled it out of the holster and pointed it down at the now shadowy figure with a cigarette burning in its lips.
Dorian watched the small man stand frozen. It was laughable that a man could be killed by such stupidity. Dorian took risks he figured that sooner or later he’d pay the price but as long as there were people as hopelessly idiotic as this fellow, he’d live to be one hundred.
Dorian walked right up to the man who he realized was nothing more than a kid. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it even though he was in his way. Dorian brought the butt of the pistol down on top of the kid as his gun fell from his holster and hit the ground. The kid followed his gun to the ground and lie motionless. Dorian guessed the kid could be faking but it didn’t really matter cause he doubted he had the balls to grab his gun and stop him.
Dorian looked back over his shoulder then continued up the stairs. It was time. Things were just beginning.
8:49
Jewel
Rod slipped out of his car in front of Jewel Gray’s gun shop. The light was on already. He walked up to the glass doors and knocked. The glass seemed to deny sound or absorb it in some way. Rod guessed it was soundproof. He hit the call button next to the sign that read, Julia Gray licensed therapist. He waited.
A tired and low voice answered, “What? Who is it?”
“Didn’t think I’d hear that sweet voice again,” Rod said.
She coughed, Rod thought that she could’ve not given him that but it was just her style. “ROD . . . hmmm” She stopped and let go of the button for a moment. “Think I should let you in. Sodd is hunting you down.”
Rod smiled to himself, “I know, just let me in.”
“Well I always did love your charm.” The door stood still. “Sorry. I’m such a dumbass it’s broken. I’ll come down.” The little metal box went silent. And Rod waited.
Rod was sitting with his back to the wall when Jewel opened the double glass doors. She looked down at him and smiled. She looked as if she had just woken up. Rod looked at the sweats she was wearing and smiled.
“Tell anyone and I’ll castrate you myself.” She said.
“Just looking,” Rod said.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on.” He followed her into her up a staircase and into her little shop.
“Hello,” D said.
Jewel stared at him with razor-thin eyes. A gun appeared in her hand it was up at D but his was on her just as fast.
“Look I just came for business.”
She backed up and almost bumped into ROD who had his gun set on D also. “That’s what the front door is for.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to get caught in the little eyes that are looking there.” He said, shifting the weight on his feet.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jewel asked, her eyes flicking behind her. “Whose eyes?”
D smiled and shook his head. “Sodd’s. I expect that there’ll be a group of party crashers here in about one more minute so maybe we could continue this conversation elsewhere.”
ROD cocked his head to his left. “Too late.”
8:52
Shifud
Tim sat up. His head hurt, bad. The top of it felt thicker and more delicate. The cool wind from the west that should have felt good made his head feels like a jackhammer of pain. He lifted his head up feeling like it weighed about one hundred pounds. His gun was lying on the ground in front of him taunting him. He grabbed it and put it back in his holster.
He spun his head faster than he thought was possible and the pain was incredible. Shots were coming from Jewel’s shop. He hung his head and clenched his fists. “Fuck.” He screamed.
He got up. At least he could take care of D. He took his gun out and checked the clip. Full. Maybe he could make it in time. Maybe.
He started to walk but felt a something hard and cold stick to the back of his head. “I think you shoulda just kept playin’ dead kiddo.”
Tim clenched both of his fists so hard his arms began to shake.
“Just toss that little shooter ya got over your shoulder.” Said the gun still sticking to his head. Tim grit his teeth. He thought about it and thought about it. He’s probably dead either way. So fuck it.
He swung his head far to his right with his body. The gun erupted in fire slamming two bullets into the building. Tim spun and fell to one knee and brought his gun up to the gun’s suit and fired. The gun groaned and said something like, “Shifud.” And the he fell to the ground in front of Tim.
Tim stared at the man who had just tried to kill him. He was wearing a black suit and still held the small pistol that had been planted on Tim’s head in his right hand. Tim sighed.
Then the corpse moved. He slowly brought his arm up and started to fire blindly upward at Tim. Two bullets sailed wide to his left but the third caught his in his left shoulder blade. That bullet probably saved his life. Tim gave way to its force and fell down on his back watching four more bullets fly into the building behind them.
Tim’s ears ached and the world seemed to whine through a barrier of air that seemed to be stuck in his ears. It started to subside and Tim could hear a hollow clicking. Tim brought his right arm up to the railing and pulled himself up his shoulder a blaze of heat. He looked down and saw the gun pointed up at him. It was clicking endlessly from the finger on it. Tim closed his eyes and fired three shots into the man’s stomach. The gun fell from the hand and clattered on the metal staircase.
Tim still heard gunfire. He started to climb the staircase. Maybe he wasn’t too late. If he hurried, just maybe he could catch it.
8:51
In a room
Rod slid down to a squat to the right of the door. Dorian had disappeared behind a desk and Jewel was on the other side of the door. Holding her gun to her forehead and talking to herself. Praying probably, thought Rod.
The door exploded. Bullets flew through piercing the wooden door making quite a mess too. Pieces of wood flew in a half sphere around the holes and settled on the floor. The bullets traveled without much aim sailing into a bookcase and making the corner of it a small crater of wood. Jewel’s desk had three such explosions and two more in the wall above it revealing the brown wood under the white paint. Then it was silent.
Rod shook his head. They were waiting for noise. He motioned to Jewel, “Down on your stomach. Now,” He said quietly. He fell to his stomach trying to get as low to the ground as possible. Jewel followed his example. Then the walls exploded.
This time it was a machine gun. It started from the far left wall ripping through it with ease. The wall was like shooting through paper. The wood just let the bullets through, there was no mess; it was clean. They slammed into the far wall hitting the building structure and stopping. The gun continued across the room going back through the door and stopping when it reached the end of the wall. Then it too went silent.
They waited. Jewel was now backing up squatting and Rod followed her example. They waited. The door and walls stood up still holding through the ravages. Then the back door opened behind them.
Rod fired a shot that missed the kid that burst through the door by about an inch. “Oh, shit,” the kid said. The kid pulled back but lost his footing from moving so fast and fell onto his butt.
“Tim, get the fuck out of here,” Jewel said try to keep a low voice but failing. Then the door burst open.
The door opened inward to the left and it hit Jewel just as she finished her sentence. Rod stood. A suit came in holding a small machine gun firing in the direction of Tim but every shot sailed high since he had fallen. Rod put his gun to the mans head and fired twice. Then his side of the wall exploded once again almost right after the suit had toppled to the floor. He felt one fly by his leg and another dig fire into his side and pass through to the other side narrowly missing any organs. He fell down on instinct letting three more shots fly over his head. He lay on the ground watching the kid, Tim, fumbling under his coat for his gun.
Then Dorian rose from behind the wooden desk and unloaded his guns into someone that sounded like they had been caught reloading their weapon. Dorian tossed his gun down and grabbed another in his waistband. Rod watched his gun hit the desk then clatter onto the ground about two feet from the suit lying with a bloody head in front of him.
Dorian jumped over the desk planting one hand on it. He landed on his feet and walked out of the room stepping over the dead man. Jewel was standing behind him with her gun pointing over his shoulder. Dorian walked around outside the room the returned. Rod pushed himself up feeling his side tighten and burn. He got to his feet and looked at the mess. Tim was standing in the backdoor way with a pistol in his hand. Rod smiled. Tim did not. He turned to look at Jewel. She had lowered her gun and was looking down at Rod’s side.
“It’s nothing,” he said, “Really.”
Dorian walked back inside brushing right in front of Jewel stepping widely over the dead man behind in the doorway. He let his clip fall to the floor. He grabbed another out of his pocket and stuck it back in the gun. “Who the fuck is this kid?” He put the gun his waistband.
Jewel spat a mouthful of blood to the white carpet. Her face was bruised where the door had slammed into it. Rod couldn’t help but laugh. How could she not know it opened inward?
“Somethin’ funny? ROD.” Jewel said through squinting eyes.
“No. Nothing.” He said the humor dying with a trickle of blood that ran down her chin.
“Good,” She said. She started looking around her office then kicked Rod in the shin. “Ya, bastard! My office!” She continued kicking until he backed up out of her reach.
Dorian was still looking at Tim who was holding his gun toward him. “You gonna shoot me?” Dorian asked. “Suppose you could. But I did let you go little man.”
Tim looked over to Jewel still holding the gun on Dorian. “Put the gun away.” She said wiping a line of blood off her chin with her hand still holding a gun. Tim lowered the gun but kept it in his hand.
“Let me ask you again,” Dorian said, “Who the fuck is this kid?”
Jewel made her gun disappear then grit her teeth. “Timothy Worth who in my opinion is, worthless.” Tim was staring at his feet. “He is Allen Sodd’s little cousin. It would have been ironic if he had been killed but unfortunately we’re not that lucky.” She sighed and shook her head.
Rod looked at Tim and saw that the shoulder of the coat he wore was dark with blood. “Tell me, how does the cousin of Sodd not work for him?” Rod asked Tim who seemed to be stung by his words.
“He killed my brother.” Tim said.
Rod nodded. “Let’s leave.”
Jewel snapped her head to his direction; she had been examining a small crater shaped recess on her desk. “I gotta get some things,” she said and disappeared behind the tattered remnants of her door.
Rod turned to Dorian who was standing in the corner watching. He felt his side twinge in pain. Dorian nodded at him. “I suppose you’d want to know some things.”
Rod looked at Dorian with cautious eyes. “Yes.”
“There is so much to learn, for you. I think that it would be best for you to see, it would be easier.” Dorian rubbed his eyes after he finished speaking.
“Just tell me where Io is,” Rod said.
“Io . . . That is a name I’ve not heard in years.”
“What the hell are talking about?”
Tim watched the two men from the doorway. His head hurt bad and his shoulder too but not as bad it just burned mostly. He still wanted to move but couldn’t.
“You took over his op. You were there.”
Dorian raised his eyebrows. “Now there ya got me.”
“You weren’t there?”
“If I was I don’t remember it, sorry.”
Rod closed his eyes and shook his head. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Dorian. “But you said I would want to know some things.”
“Yes. About this.”
“But I already know everything there is to know about this.”
Dorian turned to the sound of Jewel walking back into the room. She had a bag filled with guns. “Do you?” Dorian asked.
9:50
Outside a Room
“God it’s freezing,” Allen Sodd said with no hint of the frightened, tongue-mashing, man that he had been almost a day ago. His tongue now had a large scab that seemed to coat the entire left side of his tongue driving him slowly but surely mad.
Rike glanced at Allen with eyes that tried hard to mask the utter contempt they held for the large, emotion-driven, dumbass that had been stupid enough to actually try to hunt ROD down. Sodd should be a very happy man just to be alive. But Sodd was not that kind of man.
Rike walked silently ahead of Sodd trying to dodge his endless cursing from what he said ROD had done to his tongue. His green eyes glinted briefly in a passing streetlight. His small and drawn featured made him appear a very sad and maybe downtrodden man. Rike was not sad, not at all really. But maybe a little mad or maybe more.
“Are you getting’ this Rikki?” Allen said in a voice that intoned its superiority to anything it spoke to. Rikki was what Allen lovingly or rather loathingly, from Rike’s point of view, called Rike from time to time to time. Rike’s eyes seemed to explode open in the darkness. Maybe a littler madder than we thought.
“Rikki?” Allen said his voice faltering a bit. Rike smiled but no one could see in the dark night. Rike grinned but only the darkness was there to see it. Rike positively beamed but all Allen saw was a dark figure in front of him spin without a sound.
Rike held the gun with his left hand. His right hand was bandaged heavily from a gunshot wound. He smiled no one saw it but the darkness welcomed it like a friend. He grinned and maybe Allen Sodd caught a flash of sharp white teeth before the first shot came tearing a hole in the side of his face.
Rike smiled. Rike started to laugh. Rike was happy. But no one was there to see it. No one would be there. He disappeared ten seconds later off in search of his second mark.
10:26
Demise
It moved swiftly. The streets passed by without Dorian really noticing. His mind wavered in reality. He found himself wondering where he had left his car three years ago. He shook it off. The drug was wearing thin. As was his mind. He could never tell ROD that though. He ran his tongue over his large teeth and waited.
ROD was staring at him expectantly from the driver seat. Dorian rubbed his throbbing head. Was now the time? He wondered. Would Io have thought it this way? Should have brought some of those pills, he thought.
“Me. I don’t quite understand this myself.” Dorian was trying but the truth just wouldn’t come. Lies were easier not messy the way truth is they were always clean-cut.
ROD turned his head back to the road. “Turn left here,” Dorian instructed in an offhanded almost distinctively different voice.
“Io is not dead.” There it was. It came out in a stupid cumbersome voice. Dorian rubbed his head it was burning now. He wondered how much time he had left without the pills. Not much was a good enough answer but really nothing was, not to a dying man.
ROD looked at him eyebrows furrowed. “Why the hell would he be dead?” ROD said looking more confused then ever.
Dorian clenched and unclenched his fists rapidly, then stopped before reaching five pairs of clenches. “Oh, yes, that would be a rather useless piece of information,” Dorian said his mouth and his mind finally connecting for the first time since he had been in this car. “Let me tell you before I can’t.” Dorian continued.
Tim, from the backseat, looked like he was about to ask a question but Jewel, from the seat next to his, silenced him with a look. ROD only nodded.
“That may have been me. I really can’t tell if I was there or not. Seems that Io’s got some sort of . . . I don’t know what to call it. I guess maybe it should be called an organization.” Dorian stopped his face going blank for about two seconds then he blinked twice and continued. “I am not the real Dorian or what you know as Dorian White. I don’t know what I am. But I am him and I’m not. My name memories are all there but it is fading. I don’t know. But I can tell you this. You, ROD, were going to be like me but for some reason Io just called it off.”
ROD didn’t look confused but maybe a little amused, at Dorian’s clumsy and nonsensical story. Tim appeared to be lost or maybe that was just Tim. Jewel didn’t even appear to have heard. She was just staring out the window at the approaching cube of buildings known as Timewise.
“Turn left at the next street.” Dorian said, in his other almost inhuman voice. “You ever heard of the brain-jack?” He asked knowing no one would have. He waited and no one replied, so he continued. “Well Io said he invented it but I rather think he’s lying but it doesn’t matter. It’s a computer. Implanted in the central nervous system for increased muscle response etcetera. Well I got it installed by him and it isn’t just that I’ll tell you. It’s—,” Dorian stopped.
ROD finished his left turn then looked over at him. Dorian seemed to be mouthing something but no words were coming. ROD pulled the car over and turned to Dorian. Tim was half out of his seat staring at him. Jewel was loading a gun on her lap.
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Dorian said, his voice almost rising above his own whispers. “I got you this far. Now it’s over.”
Tim was watching the man’s mouth. It was moving in fast chattering motions. Jewel wasn’t looking at the man at all but noticing a small hangnail on her left pinky finger. And ROD was staring at the man’s eyes, which were fixed on the back window.
ROD looked over then yelled. “Get down.”
All of this was lost on Dorian who was too far-gone to tell the voices from the hum of the car. All he could feel was the almost gentle throbbing of his head. All he could smell was the odorless carbon monoxide clouding around the still car. All he could hear was the small click of his throat swallowing dryly. And all he could see was Rike staring at the car with a grin on his face and a gun in his hand. Dorian closed his eyes. He didn’t want to die watching that.
10:54
Rike
Rike fired several shots at the stopped vehicle then noticed that they had got down. He smiled. Tricky fucks, eh. He started firing wildly at the lower end of the car. It was useless. He stopped and tossed his gun in a trashcan to his right.
That’s when Jewel rolled out of the car holding a somewhat large semi-automatic weapon. She fired a short burst Rike’s way. He danced out of the way feeling the wind of the bullets wave past him. He pulled two more pistols out of his waistband while doing this. Then he kissed the one in his right hand. “Come on.” He said.
She fired another burst that missed him completely by luck smashing into the car he had driven there obscuring the car’s logo on the trunk. Rike started walking her way. She fired another longer burst the seemed to pass right through him. Rike smiled pointing both guns at her. She was there to see. But it was dark. He would make her see.
Tim sat up in his seat. This time he didn’t fumble with his gun. He drew it out and fired four almost simultaneous shots at the man who seemed to be insane. The shots smashed wide. But diverted Rike’s attention enough for him to pause before he fired at Jewel. The shots hit the cracked pavement where she had just occupied only seconds before. Rike cursed and turned his guns to Tim. He pointed them at him and Tim stared with a slack expression on his face. Tim fired wildly the bullets sailing out of view. Rike smiled. But it died. Both guns produced dry clicks. Tim raised his gun and shot. But it was only a click. Rike screeched and through his guns on the ground. He started to turn back to his car when ROD’s fist landed a direct hit on Rike’s extremely surprised face.
The first punch just fazed him. Rike’s nose had exploded and blood was dripping in large quantities from it. It ran down around his upper lip then down his face giving him a bloody mustache. Rike dodged the second punch, which was aimed at his exposed stomach. Rike spat in ROD’s face then he ran at him with all the speed of a cornered lunatic. ROD pulled back and landed a kick right in the anger-contorted face of Rike.
Rike’s face exploded again, this time where you couldn’t see. He could feel his rows of front teeth move backward in an excruciating amount of pain. Then he toppled to the ground. He would have been thankful because he fell right onto his face smashing and cracking his already mangled teeth.
“Who are you?” Said a voice coming from the darkness. It was a cool voice, filled with tension and anger—anger at the world—anger for the world. Rike felt the words pass over him but his ears seemed to catch them out of the air just before they faded away.
“Me,” Rike said cracking a smile at the faceless voice. “I’m nobody. Who’re you?”
Pain flooded his sensors working there way from the right side of his head to his brain, which took the pain rather lightly. Rike smiled, his teeth felt wrong, all wrong. But it was still funny.
The world seemed to wash back into his eyes. Colors became colors again. He felt his face more now. It felt like it had been used as a punching bag. He was in a room. It was dark. Two people were standing in front of him. One was a woman in her mid-thirties by the look and the other was the mark, ROD. He bit down crashing his teeth onto each other at all the wrong angles. Blood ran out of his mouth and down his chin.
ROD looked down at Rike. Rike seemed to be strapped into a chair. He rolled his head from left to right. It cracked on two occasions. Rike waited.
“Who are you?” ROD said with a hopeless tone.
“Name’s,” Said Rike in voice that sounded like it was all teeth and no tongue. “I don’t care for ‘em. Not one bit. Not a one. No.” Rike turned his face upward waiting for ROD to strike him.
ROD shook his head. The woman turned and whispered something to him. ROD shrugged and bent over in the corner. Rike couldn’t see what he was doing. His head seemed not to follow the basic commands of movement, it just lulled waiting. ROD stood back up with some large scissors and tossed them to the woman who looked Rike up and down, then approached him.
“Look,” said the woman in a low voice, no doubt cigarette induced, Rike thought. “ I’m going to ask you your name. You will answer me or I will cut one of your balls off, right.” She waved the scissors in front of him.
Rike knew it would kill him anyway but the thought of being without his most needed appendage troubled him. “Rike’s what they call me.” The woman smiled and nodded
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” she said.
12:45 Monday
Back in a Room
Rod motioned to Jewel to back up. He approached Rike with a certain caution that he reserved for the truly mad. He looked into his eyes, green and gleaming. A blood vessel had popped in his right eye and it was almost completely red.
“Io,” Rod said.
Rike stared at him expecting more. His face looked like a mess. Rod was almost sick looking at it. His teeth were bent back on the top and bottom row making his teeth meet inward. Rike waited. Rod waited. “Yeah, what about him?” Rike said.
“Where is he?” Rod asked.
“Trimms,” Rike said, his voice rasping from lack of hydration.
“Where in Trimms?” Rod asked.
“At the corner of Red and Farm.”
Rod turned and started walking to the door. Rike started laughing insanely, blood dripping off his chin and onto his chest. Rod turned around and looked at him. “What?”
Rike ceased his laughter. “Well that’s the cemetery. Io’s planted in the earth. James Chester Treemont’s his name, yeah. I shot that little weas—,” Rike coughed up a mouthful of blood which he spat on the ground in front of him. The he continued. “In the goddamned head. James Chester Treemont. Gotta give him that Io was better.”
Rod pulled a gun out from behind him and walked up to Rike and pointed the gun at his crotch. “Who the fuck do you work for?”
Rike smiled thinking of the little fuck shooting at him from behind the window. Rike didn’t give a shit about squealing on him. “Tim Worth,” Rike said smiling through his cracked and bleeding lips. “How do you like that?” Rike closed his mouth and looked like he was chewing. Then he spat a bloodstained tooth at Rod, hitting him in the chest and falling to the ground. “My beautiful smile!” Rike croaked, his voice becoming little more than a garble of blood and teeth.
1:43
Little Timmy with a Gun
Little Timmy with a gun, he thought and laughed. He was almost rid of all of them. ROD was proving to be a thorn in his side but he could be taken care of easily enough now that fat-ass prick of an Uncle he had was now somewhere with half of his head gone, left somewhere in Upside park and picked up with a plastic bag.
Little Timmy’s gonna have some fun, he thought and laughed. Rike should be telling them now. He couldn’t expect less; he had tried to kill the little psycho. It was unfortunate that Rike had gotten there so soon but it still changed nothing. He was coming back with all the men he needed while they’d be listening to Rike with wide eyes.
Little Timmy who’s lost to none, he thought. Io thought he could run it all. Tim wasn’t that stupid. You can never have it all. He would settle for the Plane. Tim thought about Io offering him anything before Rike had done what he had done to Allen. It wasn’t about the brain-jack. Io was an idiot for tying it, Dorian showed. No the brain-jack was just a useless little invention that looked like it could control the world but would end up killing it. ROD was the exception to the rule. Every other subject had died; even Dorian who had shown extreme resilience to it eventually succumbed without the medication. No, Tim didn’t care about that. He just wanted to kill ROD before someone else found him.
Should little Timmy happen to fall, he wondered over this. Why? Really. He could die and all to just prove Io wrong. He brushed the thought out of his head and checked his gun. Loaded. He thought of Rike sitting in that chair. He’d put a bullet between his eyes. He thought of Jewel, who he had had to pretend to work for, for two weeks. He was definitely putting a bullet between her eyes. And he thought of ROD. He was going to put a bullet between his eyes. But he did wonder at his name, as all do.
Cuz if little Timmy falls, I won’t count it at all.
1:47
Little Timmy?
Rod pulled his gun up and placed it in his waistband. He looked thoughtfully at Rike who was rocking his head from right to left. He had a beard of blood covering almost the entire lower half of his face. He was smiling. Rod turned away.
“How long’s time been gone?” Rod asked Jewel.
“An hour. Hour and a half.” She said.
Rike spat a mouthful of phlegm and blood to the ground in front of him. “You think you got time. Not time. Not in Timewise. No not here.” Rike said rocking his head back and fourth.
“What?” Rod asked staring intently at the half glazed over eyes of Rike.
“Timewise. This is his. He owns it. He’s got the whole Plane wired and ready for service. You got maybe five minutes until twenty guys are here.” Rike smiled but in just looked like a grimace to Rod and Jewel.
“Shit.” Rod kicked the cement wall. His foot just bounced off.
Jewel was down on her knees looking through the bag she had brought along. “Here,” she said as she tossed a large gun to Rod who caught it in the air by the muzzle. She motioned her head to Rike. “Get him out of the chair.”
Rod nodded and turned to Rike who was squirming to be free. “You are with us now. Or I’ll kill you now.”
Rike seemed to bounce up and down in the chair like a dog. “Come on let me loose. I’ll kill with ya. Just let me loose.” Rod tensed his hands and began to untie the knots. They came loose and Rike stood and started rubbing at his mouth with both hands, wiping the blood onto his hands.
Jewel was still going through the bag and brought out a small machine gun and tossed it to Rike who caught it and kissed it almost immediately. Rod had his hand on his gun, waiting. Jewel obviously had more trust in this psycho then he did. Rike looked at Rod and frowned. “You don’t trust me, partner.” He tried to smile through his teeth but failed. “Let the past be the past man. It’s all the same to me.” Rod didn’t doubt that as he looked at the caked blood in Rike’s nose.
Rod looked across the small room and something small started to form in his head that began to grow as he was thinking about. He started to tell Rike who had pulled out a tooth and was staring at it, enchanted.
2:07
Killing
Killing was good. He didn’t know why. Just like he didn’t know why lying was bad. But Rike knew that he didn’t like Tim Worth. Rike didn’t know why. But he could feel it in his bones. Just like the stinging ache he felt in his mouth. The girl had given him some downers but it still hurt.
Tim was standing next to the car.
Tim looked around outside the car but didn’t see anything. He had sent men around the entire building. Their car was still here maybe the little fuck had lasted longer than he had hoped. Maybe.
Tim leaned inside the driver side door of the car and said something to the man in the driver seat. The man got out of the car and looked at the small warehouse building. He nodded to Tim and started to walk toward it.
That’s when the first gunshots rang out from the left side of the building.
The gunshots started. Jewel nodded to Rod who left out the backdoor and she got behind a stack of barrels next to the entrance. She had her bag, which only had three more guns in it but a shitload of ammo for them. She put her gun to her head and prayed.
The door opened and the shots got louder.
The shots got louder when he stepped outside. Rod turned the corner watching the door out of the corner of his eye making sure it closed so no one could get in the back way.
A small man was running straight at him as soon as he turned the corner. The small man was so surprised that he tried to stop and did right in front of Rod who put three bullets in the man’s stomach. The man leaned against the wall of the building then slid to the ground. Rod started to walk to the front of the building.
Rike started to walk to the front of the building. Three dead men lie on the ground behind him in a mess of blood. He reloaded one of his small machine guns as he was walking with another small machine gun under his arm.
He turned the corner and started firing.
He turned the corner and started firing. Rod saw the scene and was confused at which person to fire at. There were about ten men standing back in the parking lot. Three men next to the front entrance and Tim leaning up against a car looking completely changed from the fool he had met just hours before.
He fired into the group of men. At the same instant Rike on the opposite side of building started firing. Three dropped without a fight. Tim quickly got into the car he was leaning against.
Tim slipped into the car. What the hell was going on? How many people were out there? He grabbed his gun and held it watching his men take up positions behind the cars. Then Rike started walking at them. His eyes were little green fires. And his face looked like a monster’s. Tim started firing at him.
They all started firing at him. Rike kept both guns at the cars feeling them wanting to kick up into the air. The cars were being torn apart before his eyes. He felt the bullets brush by him. He felt one smash into his stomach like fire. The guns stopped jumping. He dropped them and let them clatter on the ground. He pulled two more pistols from his jacket and started firing again.
One man stood up and Rike hit him in the mouth with bullet. The men were starting to get scared as Rike started to scream laughter.
Eat lead, he thought and laughed some more.
Rike was laughing and he was halfway to the cars even with them all firing at him. Rod emerged from his side of the building and followed after. He was clear. They all were watching Rike scream as he was firing. Rod jogged forward and got two who had turned completely and were facing Rike.
Then a bullet sliced past his face cutting through the air.
A bullet went straight through the barrels and right past Jewel’s face and hit the ground. She couldn’t here that. The bullets behind her were hitting the barrels and pushing them fast. She stuck her gun through a small whole and fired.
A scream was the response.
Rike kept on screaming. He wasn’t even laughing anymore. Another bullet lodged itself in his shoulder almost knocking him over but succeeded in only knocking the gun loose from his hand. He could now see most of the men’s faces. He started firing hitting someone with almost every shot.
He watched one man turn and try to run but was cut short by one of ROD’s bullets.
Rod watched a man get up and start to run. He caught him in the chest. The man toppled backward with a strange look of fright on his face. Rod continued forward and got two more men. There were only two more left. A man who was firing wildly at Rike and wondering how he missed.
And Tim who just realized that he had sent his man into the building with the keys to the car.
Tim kicked the wheel and it honked. He picked up his gun and started firing at the figure of Rike who now sounded like siren. He turned. No it was a siren. The back window lit up with blue and red lights. He started firing out the back window, at the lights. One of the cars pulled off to the side and stopped. Tim reloaded.
He’d rather be dead than in jail.
Rike would rather be dead than in jail. He stopped firing at the man behind the car who was now hopelessly out of ammo and turned to the police cars, which only about one hundred feet away now. One car spun off to the right and stopped.
Rike grinned and continued firing.
Rod looked at Rike who had left the man behind the car. The man was now motionless. Rod looked at the police cars and then at the warehouse. He turned and ran to the warehouse.
He kicked the door open and started firing.
Jewel stood up and started firing. She hit one man in the head and another in the leg. That was all of them. She looked down at ROD on the ground holding his shin. “Shit,” was all she said. She walked over to him and helped him up.
He looked at her and said, “What a load of luck I’ve got.”
Just my luck, Tim thought. The police cars were all stopped and Rike was still firing at them. The last one stopped only ten feet from them when the driver got hit in the stomach. Rike’s guns started to click.
Tim smiled and got up in the car and pointed his guns at Rike who was still clicking his guns.
Rike saw Tim in the car next to him pointing his guns. He smiled threw his guns down and dropped just as Tim started to fire. Rike stood up and drew another gun he had in his jacket and fired it hitting Tim in the side of his stomach.
Tim screamed and fired.
Tim screamed at Rike and fired. Rike was amazed at his unskilled use of the gun. Missing him consecutively six times. Rike smiled and shot Tim eight more times.
2:27
Aftermath
Rod stood as best he could on one foot. He hobbled down to the nest of cars to where Rike was standing. Jewel had gone behind the warehouse to get the other car. Rike was panting heavily and his stomach and arm were wet and dark with blood. Rod nodded to him, he only nodded back.
“You comin’?” Rod asked.
Rike smiled, this time with his lips sealed. “No. I wouldn’t get along well. Alone is how I am. I think I’ll go back to bein’ nobody. Maybe then I can get along.” Rod looked a man who looked sane for once. “And maybe I can get some reconstructive surgery.” Rike laughed. Rod watched him get into a car and leave, wordless.
Jewel came around the side of the warehouse with a car. Rod got in and they drove. She turned to him as he was looking down at his leg with some interest. “So what does it stand for? ROD I mean.”
He smiled. “I save that for people who haven’t shot me in the leg.”
An email sent from Wisk to ROD
That code. I got it figured I think. I don’t get it but it might mean something to you.
Here it is:
DATA SIGNAL 3- BRAIN-JACK TEST SUBJECTS
NAMES:
JAMES CHESTER TREEMONT (DECEASED)
HAROLD TIMOTHY JOHNSON (DECEASED)
ERIK ??? TOMMS (DECEASED)
DORIAN COLE WHITE (UNKNOWN)
FREDRICK AARON SIMMS (DECEASED)
RYAN ORLANDO DOLAN (UNKNOWN)
PI TREY DIAMOND (UNKNOWN)
Maybe I do know a little something.
Rod stared at the computer screen for a long time. He closed the window that the Email was contained in. It was gone with click. Rod snapped the laptop shut and stared out the window. Who the hell was Pi Diamond?
Across from the Coleman residence
Cold shards of glass exploded from the window, outward, as the bullets pierced its slick surface. Three bullets to be exact. One stopped its run in an old pickup truck across the street lodging itself in the engine compartment. The second went into the house passing through two walls and stopping at the refrigerator door. And the last flew true. It passed through the window then Sean Coleman's head and finally stopping itself at the Coleman front door, which was much stronger than the Coleman walls.
Rod pulled the gun apart quickly. Placing each part inside the green backpack he had brought for just this purpose. The dark metal of the gun fit almost perfectly, almost. The barrel was too much. Rod said screw it, he put in his pants pocket and turned to the back yard leave.
"Three shots,” said the tall man that stood in front of the sliding glass window that led to the yard, the exit. "Two too many wouldn’t you say," said the man. He stood covered in darkness but the moonlight gave enough for Rod to know who it was.
"Dorian, what brings you here," he said slowly glancing behind him where a kid stood looking down at the body of Sean Coleman.
"The op is now mine but it seems I'm too late. Doesn't matter, I'll take care of the rest." Rod glared at him through hate filled slits of eyes. "Get out." Dorian had a gun in his hand. Rod didn't know if it had been there all along but it wouldn't surprise him. Dorian was that kind of guy. Rod guessed, there wasn't really a kind like him, he was a unique asshole.
"I don't know if I do believe you but I really gotta get out so I will." Dorian nodded and stepped out of the way.
Rod glanced behind him again the kid was gone and in his place was a young man and an older woman. They just stood looking down at the body with eyes without tears but wide in disbelief. Rod guessed the kid was the one calling 911 and the grown-ups would just stare until the ambulance came. It was odd that way.
Rod then walked out of the back door sliding it open. It was quiet and smooth. He felt the cool of night hit him like he had jumped into a pool. He left, leaving the house behind him and Dorian who stood still in the dark but the light from his cigarette stood out like a beacon.
8:34
The Payphone at Farce and Grim
He switched cars twice. It was better safe than sorry. He first had to cut across three back yards to get to his car. It had accumulated two parking tickets in its six-hour stay. He switched at a parking lot seven blocks down the road. He found a non descript Taurus that would fit in more than the BMW Io had given him The houses slid past the windows and he slowed and stopped in front of a house with its trash cans out to be picked up and tossed his green back pack inside one making sure they weren't empty first then drove on. He had to talk to Io.
He drove to the payphone at Farce and Grim. It was ringing. He looked at his watch. 8:39, he was nine minutes late. He picked it up and waited.
“You’re late.” Io said his voice quick and low.
“Yeah, well, can you tell me why Dorian White says it’s his op now.” Said Rod.
Io paused. “No hard feelings, but I don’t make the call you know. They just think that Dorian can handle it better.”
“Better, did they hear about his job on Ray Franks? It was a fuckin’ mess.”
“Listen, Rod its not about that. The high ups have heard that you’ve been squealing. And I’m not saying its true but I say get the fuck out of Dodge.”
Rod clenched his fists and breathed deep.
“Rod . . . you there?” Io asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Look you’re right, I gotta get outta town. But it’s not gonna be easy so I want you to throw ‘em off. You get me.
“Yeah, I’ll say you told me you’re going to Upside.”
“Thanks.”
9:14
Two Suits
Get outta Dodge. Io hadn’t been kidding. He was being tailed now. Two suits in a Cadillac were following him and not very well either. They were practically on his bumper. He pulled off the highway and pulled around to the back of a Vons grocery store. It was empty. That was good.
He grabbed a gun out of his glove compartment and jumped out of the car. He ran and quickly hid in between two large dumpsters and waited. It would be about a ten-minute wait. So he waited.
They pulled up to his car ten minutes later. They got out and started looking inside his car. Rod stood up and slid out from in between the dumpster’s gun in hand. He hit the one leaning into the open driver side door in the back of the head. He jerked for a moment then slide to the ground. The other one jumped behind the car the shot piercing their cars hood. Rod wasted no time he ran right to the car and jumped on top of the cars hood and pointed the gun down at the smarter suit but not too smart. He was still getting the gun out of his pants. Rod fired two shots hitting him in the right arm and chest. He started to move still pulling the gun out of his pants. Rod fired again hitting him in almost the same spot on the chest basically enlarging his wound. The man still moved Rod had almost put his gun away when the gun still resting in his bloody arm rose up and clicked. Rod pulled his arm up and shot the guy in the head. Sometime before the man must have emptied his gun and forgotten to reload it. Rod laughed.
He stole a car in the parking lot and rode it to Upside. Io was always a weasel and it was a much better bet not to trust him. But maybe? No, he still remember the Rincead op it wasn’t yesterday but the past was always a good thing to have with you. Io had tried to appear changed, at least to Rod but Rod knew better.
At least Dorian was cool. He was probably supposed to kill him. Rod would be in his debt but if push came to shove he would kill him. But first he was gonna find Allen Sodd.
10:06
Sodd
He was eating a late dinner at a small restaurant with three bodyguards. One was Dire Maker. One the stupid pricks that liked to give themselves stupid aliases. It was a Led Zeppelin song that he had named himself after. Rod had no problem with him; he was a sloth notorious for his slow movement. Rod smiled. Probably why they gave him to Allen. Rod reloaded his gun still thinking about the stupid fuck who was being brought to the morgue.
Allen finished his dinner at 10:13. Rod watched him from five tables away drinking a cup of coffee. Rod followed not behind him but the last bodyguard to leave. He was wearing a large green coat that was obviously hiding guns. Rod followed into the parking lot behind the restaurant. Thankfully, it was empty. Rod hit the trailing bodyguard hard in the back of the head felling him immediately. He then shot the other in the back and Dire Maker in the head. The one on the ground grabbed for his gun but
Rod shot him two more times. Allen still hadn’t turned around he stood still three feet away from his car very tense. Rod put the gun to the back of his head.
“Let’s go.”
“So friend, tell me, why is it that two suits were tailing me today and Io tells me that I’m a squealer.” Rod held the gun on his lap on the other side of the car. Allen was still tense.
“Wha, I . . . I dunno what you’re talking about. I had nobody following you, swear.” Allen was chewing on his tongue.
“What about Io. You think I’m some dumbfuck who just got into the biz. I could kill you now.”
Allen chewed harder and faster. “Io? He hasn’t worked for me for two years. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Rod leaned forward and held the gun to the mans face. Allen chewed faster. “What the fuck, are you talking about?”
Allen’s leg started to twitch and he kept on chewing. “Io, I uh, fired him two years ago.”
Rod pulled back a bit. “What about Dorian?” Allen leg twitched rapidly in succession then stopped.
“Dorian? Never heard of him.” He said.
Rod sat back down in his seat and rolled his head upward and closed his eyes. “Get the fuck out of the car.”
Allen opened his door slowly. Blood was on his teeth most likely coming from his smashed tongue. He got out and stood straight waiting. Rod drove away with his car door open. What the hell?
He got on the freeway and started to drive to where he had met Io for the deal.
Sunday 4:22
The Warehouse
The warehouse was the same as before. The cold and colorless walls seemed to be absorbing all the life around them. Not that there was much life to begin with. Rod didn’t believe that he’d find anything but he had no other leads. He pulled up and slipped out of the car. He couldn’t believe it. Why would Io even bother to lie? It didn’t make any sense. And what the hell was Dorian doing?
Rod pulled into an alley between two warehouses, the same spot he had been only three days ago. The gray-rising sun seemed to shed a bitter light on the area—It seemed to make it dead or at lest dying anyway.
He got out of the car and shut the door. He walked around the warehouse he had met Io inside, no cars, that was good. He opened a dull green door adjacent to a huge metal sliding door. He stepped inside but it was useless, the lights were gone or the windows boarded up. Either way he didn’t want to go in there to search for a switch. He reached into his jacket pocket and snatched out a blank shiny metal lighter. He lit it.
Very little light but enough to see what he had come to apparently. There was a small piece of paper that looked like it was torn off of a larger piece. Rod didn’t know how much there was, he could only see in about a five-foot radius. He stood on his toes and grabbed the scrap of paper.
234efDgg 4FGDFdd erdfsghSs DG35q SDFs FSD#e3qd
DDFssssd 3341dFSDf hhfdDAS 4733dfsdSDF
SDFsddghs 43432 WGdsfg44wwe DFGfdr4 Sfttw3aD
It read, over and over. He looked but there was nothing else just dust collecting on the ground. He got back in the car and drove off in the direction of Upside, in which Allen Sodd was conducting a very secret and very vigorous manhunt for the man code named ROD.
7:13
Wisk
“It doesn’t make sense,” Wisk said looking down at he sheet of paper Rod had brought to him with quizzical eyes. He put his glasses back on that he had placed on the table in front of him. “If you ask me I’d say you’re being fucked with.”
Rod ran a hand through his hair and gritted his teeth. “I know I’m being fucked with but this is all I’ve got to go on.” He paused and pulled a neatly stacked pile of thirty hundreds, Io’s prepayment, and tossed it on the table in front of Wisk. “Just try. If you don’t its okay I already owe you.”
Wisk nodded then paused and shivered. “I think you ought a go. Sodd’s been tearing Downside apart looking for you. It’s probably a good thing you came back to Upside.” Wisk nodded again then turned his head back down to the sheet. “Even if I do crack this mother I ain’t gonna be done for probably a week to two and that’s if I’m lucky.”
Rod sighed. “Just do it. I’ll check back on Friday.”
Wisk sat back in his chair a long time staring at the piece of paper. There was no pattern it was nothing, just someone fucking with ROD.
ROD. He wasn’t like the others. They were . . .(Liars, cheats, scum, crooks) normal. He seemed to do what he said and stay true. Wisk didn’t trust his brother but ROD was a whole different deal. ROD. He wondered what it stood for. Red Orange Diode, Real Odd Duck, Roof Over Door, Ray Of Daylight, Ricochet Of Darts. It was one of those things that just kinda got to you. ROD. ROD?
Wisk took his glasses off and looked for sense in the unintelligible.
8:49
Tim
Tim watched the man walk up the steps. He had a gun but that was the least of his worries at this point. It wasn’t the gun but the man. It was D, in the flesh. Tim stood gaping and worked his jaw through gum that seemed unchewable. He reached in and touched the gun under his jacket then let his arm drop.
D walked with the grace of a cat. Tim couldn’t bring himself to move his limbs. His care seemed to fade away with everything else he just stared feeling his blood flow through his body. It began to ache. It began to burn his muscles. He had to move.
He finally reached and grabbed the gun under his coat. In a clumsy and slow motion he pulled it out of the holster and pointed it down at the now shadowy figure with a cigarette burning in its lips.
Dorian watched the small man stand frozen. It was laughable that a man could be killed by such stupidity. Dorian took risks he figured that sooner or later he’d pay the price but as long as there were people as hopelessly idiotic as this fellow, he’d live to be one hundred.
Dorian walked right up to the man who he realized was nothing more than a kid. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it even though he was in his way. Dorian brought the butt of the pistol down on top of the kid as his gun fell from his holster and hit the ground. The kid followed his gun to the ground and lie motionless. Dorian guessed the kid could be faking but it didn’t really matter cause he doubted he had the balls to grab his gun and stop him.
Dorian looked back over his shoulder then continued up the stairs. It was time. Things were just beginning.
8:49
Jewel
Rod slipped out of his car in front of Jewel Gray’s gun shop. The light was on already. He walked up to the glass doors and knocked. The glass seemed to deny sound or absorb it in some way. Rod guessed it was soundproof. He hit the call button next to the sign that read, Julia Gray licensed therapist. He waited.
A tired and low voice answered, “What? Who is it?”
“Didn’t think I’d hear that sweet voice again,” Rod said.
She coughed, Rod thought that she could’ve not given him that but it was just her style. “ROD . . . hmmm” She stopped and let go of the button for a moment. “Think I should let you in. Sodd is hunting you down.”
Rod smiled to himself, “I know, just let me in.”
“Well I always did love your charm.” The door stood still. “Sorry. I’m such a dumbass it’s broken. I’ll come down.” The little metal box went silent. And Rod waited.
Rod was sitting with his back to the wall when Jewel opened the double glass doors. She looked down at him and smiled. She looked as if she had just woken up. Rod looked at the sweats she was wearing and smiled.
“Tell anyone and I’ll castrate you myself.” She said.
“Just looking,” Rod said.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on.” He followed her into her up a staircase and into her little shop.
“Hello,” D said.
Jewel stared at him with razor-thin eyes. A gun appeared in her hand it was up at D but his was on her just as fast.
“Look I just came for business.”
She backed up and almost bumped into ROD who had his gun set on D also. “That’s what the front door is for.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to get caught in the little eyes that are looking there.” He said, shifting the weight on his feet.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jewel asked, her eyes flicking behind her. “Whose eyes?”
D smiled and shook his head. “Sodd’s. I expect that there’ll be a group of party crashers here in about one more minute so maybe we could continue this conversation elsewhere.”
ROD cocked his head to his left. “Too late.”
8:52
Shifud
Tim sat up. His head hurt, bad. The top of it felt thicker and more delicate. The cool wind from the west that should have felt good made his head feels like a jackhammer of pain. He lifted his head up feeling like it weighed about one hundred pounds. His gun was lying on the ground in front of him taunting him. He grabbed it and put it back in his holster.
He spun his head faster than he thought was possible and the pain was incredible. Shots were coming from Jewel’s shop. He hung his head and clenched his fists. “Fuck.” He screamed.
He got up. At least he could take care of D. He took his gun out and checked the clip. Full. Maybe he could make it in time. Maybe.
He started to walk but felt a something hard and cold stick to the back of his head. “I think you shoulda just kept playin’ dead kiddo.”
Tim clenched both of his fists so hard his arms began to shake.
“Just toss that little shooter ya got over your shoulder.” Said the gun still sticking to his head. Tim grit his teeth. He thought about it and thought about it. He’s probably dead either way. So fuck it.
He swung his head far to his right with his body. The gun erupted in fire slamming two bullets into the building. Tim spun and fell to one knee and brought his gun up to the gun’s suit and fired. The gun groaned and said something like, “Shifud.” And the he fell to the ground in front of Tim.
Tim stared at the man who had just tried to kill him. He was wearing a black suit and still held the small pistol that had been planted on Tim’s head in his right hand. Tim sighed.
Then the corpse moved. He slowly brought his arm up and started to fire blindly upward at Tim. Two bullets sailed wide to his left but the third caught his in his left shoulder blade. That bullet probably saved his life. Tim gave way to its force and fell down on his back watching four more bullets fly into the building behind them.
Tim’s ears ached and the world seemed to whine through a barrier of air that seemed to be stuck in his ears. It started to subside and Tim could hear a hollow clicking. Tim brought his right arm up to the railing and pulled himself up his shoulder a blaze of heat. He looked down and saw the gun pointed up at him. It was clicking endlessly from the finger on it. Tim closed his eyes and fired three shots into the man’s stomach. The gun fell from the hand and clattered on the metal staircase.
Tim still heard gunfire. He started to climb the staircase. Maybe he wasn’t too late. If he hurried, just maybe he could catch it.
8:51
In a room
Rod slid down to a squat to the right of the door. Dorian had disappeared behind a desk and Jewel was on the other side of the door. Holding her gun to her forehead and talking to herself. Praying probably, thought Rod.
The door exploded. Bullets flew through piercing the wooden door making quite a mess too. Pieces of wood flew in a half sphere around the holes and settled on the floor. The bullets traveled without much aim sailing into a bookcase and making the corner of it a small crater of wood. Jewel’s desk had three such explosions and two more in the wall above it revealing the brown wood under the white paint. Then it was silent.
Rod shook his head. They were waiting for noise. He motioned to Jewel, “Down on your stomach. Now,” He said quietly. He fell to his stomach trying to get as low to the ground as possible. Jewel followed his example. Then the walls exploded.
This time it was a machine gun. It started from the far left wall ripping through it with ease. The wall was like shooting through paper. The wood just let the bullets through, there was no mess; it was clean. They slammed into the far wall hitting the building structure and stopping. The gun continued across the room going back through the door and stopping when it reached the end of the wall. Then it too went silent.
They waited. Jewel was now backing up squatting and Rod followed her example. They waited. The door and walls stood up still holding through the ravages. Then the back door opened behind them.
Rod fired a shot that missed the kid that burst through the door by about an inch. “Oh, shit,” the kid said. The kid pulled back but lost his footing from moving so fast and fell onto his butt.
“Tim, get the fuck out of here,” Jewel said try to keep a low voice but failing. Then the door burst open.
The door opened inward to the left and it hit Jewel just as she finished her sentence. Rod stood. A suit came in holding a small machine gun firing in the direction of Tim but every shot sailed high since he had fallen. Rod put his gun to the mans head and fired twice. Then his side of the wall exploded once again almost right after the suit had toppled to the floor. He felt one fly by his leg and another dig fire into his side and pass through to the other side narrowly missing any organs. He fell down on instinct letting three more shots fly over his head. He lay on the ground watching the kid, Tim, fumbling under his coat for his gun.
Then Dorian rose from behind the wooden desk and unloaded his guns into someone that sounded like they had been caught reloading their weapon. Dorian tossed his gun down and grabbed another in his waistband. Rod watched his gun hit the desk then clatter onto the ground about two feet from the suit lying with a bloody head in front of him.
Dorian jumped over the desk planting one hand on it. He landed on his feet and walked out of the room stepping over the dead man. Jewel was standing behind him with her gun pointing over his shoulder. Dorian walked around outside the room the returned. Rod pushed himself up feeling his side tighten and burn. He got to his feet and looked at the mess. Tim was standing in the backdoor way with a pistol in his hand. Rod smiled. Tim did not. He turned to look at Jewel. She had lowered her gun and was looking down at Rod’s side.
“It’s nothing,” he said, “Really.”
Dorian walked back inside brushing right in front of Jewel stepping widely over the dead man behind in the doorway. He let his clip fall to the floor. He grabbed another out of his pocket and stuck it back in the gun. “Who the fuck is this kid?” He put the gun his waistband.
Jewel spat a mouthful of blood to the white carpet. Her face was bruised where the door had slammed into it. Rod couldn’t help but laugh. How could she not know it opened inward?
“Somethin’ funny? ROD.” Jewel said through squinting eyes.
“No. Nothing.” He said the humor dying with a trickle of blood that ran down her chin.
“Good,” She said. She started looking around her office then kicked Rod in the shin. “Ya, bastard! My office!” She continued kicking until he backed up out of her reach.
Dorian was still looking at Tim who was holding his gun toward him. “You gonna shoot me?” Dorian asked. “Suppose you could. But I did let you go little man.”
Tim looked over to Jewel still holding the gun on Dorian. “Put the gun away.” She said wiping a line of blood off her chin with her hand still holding a gun. Tim lowered the gun but kept it in his hand.
“Let me ask you again,” Dorian said, “Who the fuck is this kid?”
Jewel made her gun disappear then grit her teeth. “Timothy Worth who in my opinion is, worthless.” Tim was staring at his feet. “He is Allen Sodd’s little cousin. It would have been ironic if he had been killed but unfortunately we’re not that lucky.” She sighed and shook her head.
Rod looked at Tim and saw that the shoulder of the coat he wore was dark with blood. “Tell me, how does the cousin of Sodd not work for him?” Rod asked Tim who seemed to be stung by his words.
“He killed my brother.” Tim said.
Rod nodded. “Let’s leave.”
Jewel snapped her head to his direction; she had been examining a small crater shaped recess on her desk. “I gotta get some things,” she said and disappeared behind the tattered remnants of her door.
Rod turned to Dorian who was standing in the corner watching. He felt his side twinge in pain. Dorian nodded at him. “I suppose you’d want to know some things.”
Rod looked at Dorian with cautious eyes. “Yes.”
“There is so much to learn, for you. I think that it would be best for you to see, it would be easier.” Dorian rubbed his eyes after he finished speaking.
“Just tell me where Io is,” Rod said.
“Io . . . That is a name I’ve not heard in years.”
“What the hell are talking about?”
Tim watched the two men from the doorway. His head hurt bad and his shoulder too but not as bad it just burned mostly. He still wanted to move but couldn’t.
“You took over his op. You were there.”
Dorian raised his eyebrows. “Now there ya got me.”
“You weren’t there?”
“If I was I don’t remember it, sorry.”
Rod closed his eyes and shook his head. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Dorian. “But you said I would want to know some things.”
“Yes. About this.”
“But I already know everything there is to know about this.”
Dorian turned to the sound of Jewel walking back into the room. She had a bag filled with guns. “Do you?” Dorian asked.
9:50
Outside a Room
“God it’s freezing,” Allen Sodd said with no hint of the frightened, tongue-mashing, man that he had been almost a day ago. His tongue now had a large scab that seemed to coat the entire left side of his tongue driving him slowly but surely mad.
Rike glanced at Allen with eyes that tried hard to mask the utter contempt they held for the large, emotion-driven, dumbass that had been stupid enough to actually try to hunt ROD down. Sodd should be a very happy man just to be alive. But Sodd was not that kind of man.
Rike walked silently ahead of Sodd trying to dodge his endless cursing from what he said ROD had done to his tongue. His green eyes glinted briefly in a passing streetlight. His small and drawn featured made him appear a very sad and maybe downtrodden man. Rike was not sad, not at all really. But maybe a little mad or maybe more.
“Are you getting’ this Rikki?” Allen said in a voice that intoned its superiority to anything it spoke to. Rikki was what Allen lovingly or rather loathingly, from Rike’s point of view, called Rike from time to time to time. Rike’s eyes seemed to explode open in the darkness. Maybe a littler madder than we thought.
“Rikki?” Allen said his voice faltering a bit. Rike smiled but no one could see in the dark night. Rike grinned but only the darkness was there to see it. Rike positively beamed but all Allen saw was a dark figure in front of him spin without a sound.
Rike held the gun with his left hand. His right hand was bandaged heavily from a gunshot wound. He smiled no one saw it but the darkness welcomed it like a friend. He grinned and maybe Allen Sodd caught a flash of sharp white teeth before the first shot came tearing a hole in the side of his face.
Rike smiled. Rike started to laugh. Rike was happy. But no one was there to see it. No one would be there. He disappeared ten seconds later off in search of his second mark.
10:26
Demise
It moved swiftly. The streets passed by without Dorian really noticing. His mind wavered in reality. He found himself wondering where he had left his car three years ago. He shook it off. The drug was wearing thin. As was his mind. He could never tell ROD that though. He ran his tongue over his large teeth and waited.
ROD was staring at him expectantly from the driver seat. Dorian rubbed his throbbing head. Was now the time? He wondered. Would Io have thought it this way? Should have brought some of those pills, he thought.
“Me. I don’t quite understand this myself.” Dorian was trying but the truth just wouldn’t come. Lies were easier not messy the way truth is they were always clean-cut.
ROD turned his head back to the road. “Turn left here,” Dorian instructed in an offhanded almost distinctively different voice.
“Io is not dead.” There it was. It came out in a stupid cumbersome voice. Dorian rubbed his head it was burning now. He wondered how much time he had left without the pills. Not much was a good enough answer but really nothing was, not to a dying man.
ROD looked at him eyebrows furrowed. “Why the hell would he be dead?” ROD said looking more confused then ever.
Dorian clenched and unclenched his fists rapidly, then stopped before reaching five pairs of clenches. “Oh, yes, that would be a rather useless piece of information,” Dorian said his mouth and his mind finally connecting for the first time since he had been in this car. “Let me tell you before I can’t.” Dorian continued.
Tim, from the backseat, looked like he was about to ask a question but Jewel, from the seat next to his, silenced him with a look. ROD only nodded.
“That may have been me. I really can’t tell if I was there or not. Seems that Io’s got some sort of . . . I don’t know what to call it. I guess maybe it should be called an organization.” Dorian stopped his face going blank for about two seconds then he blinked twice and continued. “I am not the real Dorian or what you know as Dorian White. I don’t know what I am. But I am him and I’m not. My name memories are all there but it is fading. I don’t know. But I can tell you this. You, ROD, were going to be like me but for some reason Io just called it off.”
ROD didn’t look confused but maybe a little amused, at Dorian’s clumsy and nonsensical story. Tim appeared to be lost or maybe that was just Tim. Jewel didn’t even appear to have heard. She was just staring out the window at the approaching cube of buildings known as Timewise.
“Turn left at the next street.” Dorian said, in his other almost inhuman voice. “You ever heard of the brain-jack?” He asked knowing no one would have. He waited and no one replied, so he continued. “Well Io said he invented it but I rather think he’s lying but it doesn’t matter. It’s a computer. Implanted in the central nervous system for increased muscle response etcetera. Well I got it installed by him and it isn’t just that I’ll tell you. It’s—,” Dorian stopped.
ROD finished his left turn then looked over at him. Dorian seemed to be mouthing something but no words were coming. ROD pulled the car over and turned to Dorian. Tim was half out of his seat staring at him. Jewel was loading a gun on her lap.
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Dorian said, his voice almost rising above his own whispers. “I got you this far. Now it’s over.”
Tim was watching the man’s mouth. It was moving in fast chattering motions. Jewel wasn’t looking at the man at all but noticing a small hangnail on her left pinky finger. And ROD was staring at the man’s eyes, which were fixed on the back window.
ROD looked over then yelled. “Get down.”
All of this was lost on Dorian who was too far-gone to tell the voices from the hum of the car. All he could feel was the almost gentle throbbing of his head. All he could smell was the odorless carbon monoxide clouding around the still car. All he could hear was the small click of his throat swallowing dryly. And all he could see was Rike staring at the car with a grin on his face and a gun in his hand. Dorian closed his eyes. He didn’t want to die watching that.
10:54
Rike
Rike fired several shots at the stopped vehicle then noticed that they had got down. He smiled. Tricky fucks, eh. He started firing wildly at the lower end of the car. It was useless. He stopped and tossed his gun in a trashcan to his right.
That’s when Jewel rolled out of the car holding a somewhat large semi-automatic weapon. She fired a short burst Rike’s way. He danced out of the way feeling the wind of the bullets wave past him. He pulled two more pistols out of his waistband while doing this. Then he kissed the one in his right hand. “Come on.” He said.
She fired another burst that missed him completely by luck smashing into the car he had driven there obscuring the car’s logo on the trunk. Rike started walking her way. She fired another longer burst the seemed to pass right through him. Rike smiled pointing both guns at her. She was there to see. But it was dark. He would make her see.
Tim sat up in his seat. This time he didn’t fumble with his gun. He drew it out and fired four almost simultaneous shots at the man who seemed to be insane. The shots smashed wide. But diverted Rike’s attention enough for him to pause before he fired at Jewel. The shots hit the cracked pavement where she had just occupied only seconds before. Rike cursed and turned his guns to Tim. He pointed them at him and Tim stared with a slack expression on his face. Tim fired wildly the bullets sailing out of view. Rike smiled. But it died. Both guns produced dry clicks. Tim raised his gun and shot. But it was only a click. Rike screeched and through his guns on the ground. He started to turn back to his car when ROD’s fist landed a direct hit on Rike’s extremely surprised face.
The first punch just fazed him. Rike’s nose had exploded and blood was dripping in large quantities from it. It ran down around his upper lip then down his face giving him a bloody mustache. Rike dodged the second punch, which was aimed at his exposed stomach. Rike spat in ROD’s face then he ran at him with all the speed of a cornered lunatic. ROD pulled back and landed a kick right in the anger-contorted face of Rike.
Rike’s face exploded again, this time where you couldn’t see. He could feel his rows of front teeth move backward in an excruciating amount of pain. Then he toppled to the ground. He would have been thankful because he fell right onto his face smashing and cracking his already mangled teeth.
“Who are you?” Said a voice coming from the darkness. It was a cool voice, filled with tension and anger—anger at the world—anger for the world. Rike felt the words pass over him but his ears seemed to catch them out of the air just before they faded away.
“Me,” Rike said cracking a smile at the faceless voice. “I’m nobody. Who’re you?”
Pain flooded his sensors working there way from the right side of his head to his brain, which took the pain rather lightly. Rike smiled, his teeth felt wrong, all wrong. But it was still funny.
The world seemed to wash back into his eyes. Colors became colors again. He felt his face more now. It felt like it had been used as a punching bag. He was in a room. It was dark. Two people were standing in front of him. One was a woman in her mid-thirties by the look and the other was the mark, ROD. He bit down crashing his teeth onto each other at all the wrong angles. Blood ran out of his mouth and down his chin.
ROD looked down at Rike. Rike seemed to be strapped into a chair. He rolled his head from left to right. It cracked on two occasions. Rike waited.
“Who are you?” ROD said with a hopeless tone.
“Name’s,” Said Rike in voice that sounded like it was all teeth and no tongue. “I don’t care for ‘em. Not one bit. Not a one. No.” Rike turned his face upward waiting for ROD to strike him.
ROD shook his head. The woman turned and whispered something to him. ROD shrugged and bent over in the corner. Rike couldn’t see what he was doing. His head seemed not to follow the basic commands of movement, it just lulled waiting. ROD stood back up with some large scissors and tossed them to the woman who looked Rike up and down, then approached him.
“Look,” said the woman in a low voice, no doubt cigarette induced, Rike thought. “ I’m going to ask you your name. You will answer me or I will cut one of your balls off, right.” She waved the scissors in front of him.
Rike knew it would kill him anyway but the thought of being without his most needed appendage troubled him. “Rike’s what they call me.” The woman smiled and nodded
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” she said.
12:45 Monday
Back in a Room
Rod motioned to Jewel to back up. He approached Rike with a certain caution that he reserved for the truly mad. He looked into his eyes, green and gleaming. A blood vessel had popped in his right eye and it was almost completely red.
“Io,” Rod said.
Rike stared at him expecting more. His face looked like a mess. Rod was almost sick looking at it. His teeth were bent back on the top and bottom row making his teeth meet inward. Rike waited. Rod waited. “Yeah, what about him?” Rike said.
“Where is he?” Rod asked.
“Trimms,” Rike said, his voice rasping from lack of hydration.
“Where in Trimms?” Rod asked.
“At the corner of Red and Farm.”
Rod turned and started walking to the door. Rike started laughing insanely, blood dripping off his chin and onto his chest. Rod turned around and looked at him. “What?”
Rike ceased his laughter. “Well that’s the cemetery. Io’s planted in the earth. James Chester Treemont’s his name, yeah. I shot that little weas—,” Rike coughed up a mouthful of blood which he spat on the ground in front of him. The he continued. “In the goddamned head. James Chester Treemont. Gotta give him that Io was better.”
Rod pulled a gun out from behind him and walked up to Rike and pointed the gun at his crotch. “Who the fuck do you work for?”
Rike smiled thinking of the little fuck shooting at him from behind the window. Rike didn’t give a shit about squealing on him. “Tim Worth,” Rike said smiling through his cracked and bleeding lips. “How do you like that?” Rike closed his mouth and looked like he was chewing. Then he spat a bloodstained tooth at Rod, hitting him in the chest and falling to the ground. “My beautiful smile!” Rike croaked, his voice becoming little more than a garble of blood and teeth.
1:43
Little Timmy with a Gun
Little Timmy with a gun, he thought and laughed. He was almost rid of all of them. ROD was proving to be a thorn in his side but he could be taken care of easily enough now that fat-ass prick of an Uncle he had was now somewhere with half of his head gone, left somewhere in Upside park and picked up with a plastic bag.
Little Timmy’s gonna have some fun, he thought and laughed. Rike should be telling them now. He couldn’t expect less; he had tried to kill the little psycho. It was unfortunate that Rike had gotten there so soon but it still changed nothing. He was coming back with all the men he needed while they’d be listening to Rike with wide eyes.
Little Timmy who’s lost to none, he thought. Io thought he could run it all. Tim wasn’t that stupid. You can never have it all. He would settle for the Plane. Tim thought about Io offering him anything before Rike had done what he had done to Allen. It wasn’t about the brain-jack. Io was an idiot for tying it, Dorian showed. No the brain-jack was just a useless little invention that looked like it could control the world but would end up killing it. ROD was the exception to the rule. Every other subject had died; even Dorian who had shown extreme resilience to it eventually succumbed without the medication. No, Tim didn’t care about that. He just wanted to kill ROD before someone else found him.
Should little Timmy happen to fall, he wondered over this. Why? Really. He could die and all to just prove Io wrong. He brushed the thought out of his head and checked his gun. Loaded. He thought of Rike sitting in that chair. He’d put a bullet between his eyes. He thought of Jewel, who he had had to pretend to work for, for two weeks. He was definitely putting a bullet between her eyes. And he thought of ROD. He was going to put a bullet between his eyes. But he did wonder at his name, as all do.
Cuz if little Timmy falls, I won’t count it at all.
1:47
Little Timmy?
Rod pulled his gun up and placed it in his waistband. He looked thoughtfully at Rike who was rocking his head from right to left. He had a beard of blood covering almost the entire lower half of his face. He was smiling. Rod turned away.
“How long’s time been gone?” Rod asked Jewel.
“An hour. Hour and a half.” She said.
Rike spat a mouthful of phlegm and blood to the ground in front of him. “You think you got time. Not time. Not in Timewise. No not here.” Rike said rocking his head back and fourth.
“What?” Rod asked staring intently at the half glazed over eyes of Rike.
“Timewise. This is his. He owns it. He’s got the whole Plane wired and ready for service. You got maybe five minutes until twenty guys are here.” Rike smiled but in just looked like a grimace to Rod and Jewel.
“Shit.” Rod kicked the cement wall. His foot just bounced off.
Jewel was down on her knees looking through the bag she had brought along. “Here,” she said as she tossed a large gun to Rod who caught it in the air by the muzzle. She motioned her head to Rike. “Get him out of the chair.”
Rod nodded and turned to Rike who was squirming to be free. “You are with us now. Or I’ll kill you now.”
Rike seemed to bounce up and down in the chair like a dog. “Come on let me loose. I’ll kill with ya. Just let me loose.” Rod tensed his hands and began to untie the knots. They came loose and Rike stood and started rubbing at his mouth with both hands, wiping the blood onto his hands.
Jewel was still going through the bag and brought out a small machine gun and tossed it to Rike who caught it and kissed it almost immediately. Rod had his hand on his gun, waiting. Jewel obviously had more trust in this psycho then he did. Rike looked at Rod and frowned. “You don’t trust me, partner.” He tried to smile through his teeth but failed. “Let the past be the past man. It’s all the same to me.” Rod didn’t doubt that as he looked at the caked blood in Rike’s nose.
Rod looked across the small room and something small started to form in his head that began to grow as he was thinking about. He started to tell Rike who had pulled out a tooth and was staring at it, enchanted.
2:07
Killing
Killing was good. He didn’t know why. Just like he didn’t know why lying was bad. But Rike knew that he didn’t like Tim Worth. Rike didn’t know why. But he could feel it in his bones. Just like the stinging ache he felt in his mouth. The girl had given him some downers but it still hurt.
Tim was standing next to the car.
Tim looked around outside the car but didn’t see anything. He had sent men around the entire building. Their car was still here maybe the little fuck had lasted longer than he had hoped. Maybe.
Tim leaned inside the driver side door of the car and said something to the man in the driver seat. The man got out of the car and looked at the small warehouse building. He nodded to Tim and started to walk toward it.
That’s when the first gunshots rang out from the left side of the building.
The gunshots started. Jewel nodded to Rod who left out the backdoor and she got behind a stack of barrels next to the entrance. She had her bag, which only had three more guns in it but a shitload of ammo for them. She put her gun to her head and prayed.
The door opened and the shots got louder.
The shots got louder when he stepped outside. Rod turned the corner watching the door out of the corner of his eye making sure it closed so no one could get in the back way.
A small man was running straight at him as soon as he turned the corner. The small man was so surprised that he tried to stop and did right in front of Rod who put three bullets in the man’s stomach. The man leaned against the wall of the building then slid to the ground. Rod started to walk to the front of the building.
Rike started to walk to the front of the building. Three dead men lie on the ground behind him in a mess of blood. He reloaded one of his small machine guns as he was walking with another small machine gun under his arm.
He turned the corner and started firing.
He turned the corner and started firing. Rod saw the scene and was confused at which person to fire at. There were about ten men standing back in the parking lot. Three men next to the front entrance and Tim leaning up against a car looking completely changed from the fool he had met just hours before.
He fired into the group of men. At the same instant Rike on the opposite side of building started firing. Three dropped without a fight. Tim quickly got into the car he was leaning against.
Tim slipped into the car. What the hell was going on? How many people were out there? He grabbed his gun and held it watching his men take up positions behind the cars. Then Rike started walking at them. His eyes were little green fires. And his face looked like a monster’s. Tim started firing at him.
They all started firing at him. Rike kept both guns at the cars feeling them wanting to kick up into the air. The cars were being torn apart before his eyes. He felt the bullets brush by him. He felt one smash into his stomach like fire. The guns stopped jumping. He dropped them and let them clatter on the ground. He pulled two more pistols from his jacket and started firing again.
One man stood up and Rike hit him in the mouth with bullet. The men were starting to get scared as Rike started to scream laughter.
Eat lead, he thought and laughed some more.
Rike was laughing and he was halfway to the cars even with them all firing at him. Rod emerged from his side of the building and followed after. He was clear. They all were watching Rike scream as he was firing. Rod jogged forward and got two who had turned completely and were facing Rike.
Then a bullet sliced past his face cutting through the air.
A bullet went straight through the barrels and right past Jewel’s face and hit the ground. She couldn’t here that. The bullets behind her were hitting the barrels and pushing them fast. She stuck her gun through a small whole and fired.
A scream was the response.
Rike kept on screaming. He wasn’t even laughing anymore. Another bullet lodged itself in his shoulder almost knocking him over but succeeded in only knocking the gun loose from his hand. He could now see most of the men’s faces. He started firing hitting someone with almost every shot.
He watched one man turn and try to run but was cut short by one of ROD’s bullets.
Rod watched a man get up and start to run. He caught him in the chest. The man toppled backward with a strange look of fright on his face. Rod continued forward and got two more men. There were only two more left. A man who was firing wildly at Rike and wondering how he missed.
And Tim who just realized that he had sent his man into the building with the keys to the car.
Tim kicked the wheel and it honked. He picked up his gun and started firing at the figure of Rike who now sounded like siren. He turned. No it was a siren. The back window lit up with blue and red lights. He started firing out the back window, at the lights. One of the cars pulled off to the side and stopped. Tim reloaded.
He’d rather be dead than in jail.
Rike would rather be dead than in jail. He stopped firing at the man behind the car who was now hopelessly out of ammo and turned to the police cars, which only about one hundred feet away now. One car spun off to the right and stopped.
Rike grinned and continued firing.
Rod looked at Rike who had left the man behind the car. The man was now motionless. Rod looked at the police cars and then at the warehouse. He turned and ran to the warehouse.
He kicked the door open and started firing.
Jewel stood up and started firing. She hit one man in the head and another in the leg. That was all of them. She looked down at ROD on the ground holding his shin. “Shit,” was all she said. She walked over to him and helped him up.
He looked at her and said, “What a load of luck I’ve got.”
Just my luck, Tim thought. The police cars were all stopped and Rike was still firing at them. The last one stopped only ten feet from them when the driver got hit in the stomach. Rike’s guns started to click.
Tim smiled and got up in the car and pointed his guns at Rike who was still clicking his guns.
Rike saw Tim in the car next to him pointing his guns. He smiled threw his guns down and dropped just as Tim started to fire. Rike stood up and drew another gun he had in his jacket and fired it hitting Tim in the side of his stomach.
Tim screamed and fired.
Tim screamed at Rike and fired. Rike was amazed at his unskilled use of the gun. Missing him consecutively six times. Rike smiled and shot Tim eight more times.
2:27
Aftermath
Rod stood as best he could on one foot. He hobbled down to the nest of cars to where Rike was standing. Jewel had gone behind the warehouse to get the other car. Rike was panting heavily and his stomach and arm were wet and dark with blood. Rod nodded to him, he only nodded back.
“You comin’?” Rod asked.
Rike smiled, this time with his lips sealed. “No. I wouldn’t get along well. Alone is how I am. I think I’ll go back to bein’ nobody. Maybe then I can get along.” Rod looked a man who looked sane for once. “And maybe I can get some reconstructive surgery.” Rike laughed. Rod watched him get into a car and leave, wordless.
Jewel came around the side of the warehouse with a car. Rod got in and they drove. She turned to him as he was looking down at his leg with some interest. “So what does it stand for? ROD I mean.”
He smiled. “I save that for people who haven’t shot me in the leg.”
An email sent from Wisk to ROD
That code. I got it figured I think. I don’t get it but it might mean something to you.
Here it is:
DATA SIGNAL 3- BRAIN-JACK TEST SUBJECTS
NAMES:
JAMES CHESTER TREEMONT (DECEASED)
HAROLD TIMOTHY JOHNSON (DECEASED)
ERIK ??? TOMMS (DECEASED)
DORIAN COLE WHITE (UNKNOWN)
FREDRICK AARON SIMMS (DECEASED)
RYAN ORLANDO DOLAN (UNKNOWN)
PI TREY DIAMOND (UNKNOWN)
Maybe I do know a little something.
Rod stared at the computer screen for a long time. He closed the window that the Email was contained in. It was gone with click. Rod snapped the laptop shut and stared out the window. Who the hell was Pi Diamond?