Paradise Burns (6 page)

TWELVE

She looked like
she wanted to protest, but I could see her assessing the situation and realizing
that right there and then, I was right. She dropped to one knee and put her
hand to her head where I’d hit her.

‘You’re in way over your head,’ she
said.

‘I don’t know about that,’ I replied. ‘But
there are a few questions I need answers to. And you’re going to give them to
me.’

I’d stuck the cable ties from my
briefcase in my pocket before coming up here dressed as a bellboy, so I used
these to secure the woman and Ted to two of the chairs in the suite. I was sat
on the couch in front of them, leaning back with my feet on the table in front
of me, waiting for them to come round. I’d even been nice enough to wrap a
towel around Ted’s bleeding foot. After all, I didn’t want him passing out or
moaning too much before I had a chance to speak to him.

I slapped Ted’s face to bring him round.
Up close, he didn’t look as high and mighty as he did when he was walking
around chatting into his phone and swinging a briefcase around. He groaned as
consciousness washed over him once again.

‘Hey, Ted,’ I said.

‘What’s happening?’ He groaned, still a
little confused from being shot and kicked in the head.

‘Right now, you’re tied to a chair in
your suite at The Four Seasons. You have a hole in your foot, which I put there
to stop you running off.’

He frowned, as if in deep concentration.
He turned his head and saw his female bodyguard sat next to him, in much the
same position. Except she hadn’t been shot.

‘Don’t worry, your lady friend is here next
to you. We’ll get to her in due course, but first I really must get the
formalities out of the way.’

‘Wh-what formalities?’ he asked. ‘I don’t
understand.’

Fear was starting to creep into his
voice, replacing the confusion.

‘Sure you do, Teddy. You were meant to
be selling some land to a mob boss named Roberto Pellaggio. But you pulled out
of the deal with no notice or explanation, and kept his money. He hired me to
ask you really nicely to reconsider your position on this matter and to let him
have the deeds to the land, as per your original agreement.’

I leant forward, gesturing with the gun.

‘Which reminds me. Say, Ted, don’t
suppose you fancy selling my employer the land you just screwed him out of, do
you?’

‘What? Is that what this is about? Jesus
Christ!’ He shook his head in a gesture to clear it, then looked at me.

‘Tell that Marlon Brando wannabe that he
can go screw himself. I can’t believe the ballsy prick would go this far. Didn’t
think he had it in him.’

‘Ted Jackson!’ I exclaimed. ‘Way to grow
a pair! But seriously, he’s a very powerful mob boss, and he will do absolutely
whatever it takes to get that land back. If you didn’t learn that about him
when you were dealing with him, you’re dumber than you look.’

‘He has no idea who he’s dealing with!’

I sighed.

‘I know he doesn’t, the guy’s a fucking
idiot,’ I agreed, which seemed to take Jackson by surprise a little. ‘But I don’t
really care.
I
know who I’m dealing with, and that’s what matters.
Pellaggio is going to pay me a hundred grand to kill you if you don’t sell him
the land. He’d rather I didn’t have to, but he understands it’ll probably be
necessary.’

Ted laughed. Which I thought was a
little strange, given the circumstances.

‘I’ll give you quarter of a million
dollars to let me go right now, and I’ll pretend this never happened.’

‘While I have no doubt you can afford
such a generous offer, I don’t get why you’re saying it like you’re doing me a favor?

He leant forward as much as he could,
which wasn’t much.

‘You say you know who you’re dealing
with, but you really don’t. You’re nothing but a low-life hired gun who’s in
way over his head, and you’re going to die whatever happens here.’

While I knew he was completely wrong, and
could forgive his cavalier attitude given he clearly had no clue who I was, I believed
that
he
believed what he said. However, his unjustified bravado was
starting to annoy me.

I sighed.

‘Ted, tell me why GlobaTech Industries have
such an interest in a plot of land in the middle of the Nevada desert?’

‘Screw you,’ he said, pausing after each
word for added effect.

He was starting to gain confidence,
which is quite strange, given his current predicament. Normally, you’d make
sure any hostage had zero confidence at all times, to minimize any risk. But
there was no risk here, and I was curious about his reaction, so I thought I’d
let it play out a bit longer.

‘Okay, let’s try something else,’ I
gestured to the woman next to him. ‘Who’s she?’

‘She’s my personal bodyguard.’

I looked at her. She was observing the
situation with a curious detachment. She remained silent.

‘You’re being protected by a girl?
Jesus, Teddy, is that not emasculating at all to you?’

The woman huffed in disgust at me, which
I didn’t acknowledge. I simply smiled back at her, causing her to roll her eyes
and look away. Jackson said nothing, although he clearly wanted to. I was
trying to goad him into giving me information, and he probably knew it. Not the
oldest trick in the book, but it’s certainly in the first few chapters.

‘Not your standard security detail, I’m
sure you’d agree,’ I continued, turning back to Jackson. ‘So who is she?’

He looked at me with impatient, defiant
eyes, maintaining his silence. Okay, time to take his confidence away again.

In one swift movement, I stood up and
used my free hand to throw the table in front of me across the room. This
spontaneous, violent act took Jackson by surprise. As he gasped in shock, I
shot him in his other foot. This caused him to scream and black out.

‘Oh, Teddy,’ I said. ‘That’s just
embarrassing.’

THIRTEEN

Despite the
commotion, our mystery woman remained silent. I turned my attention to her now.
Shooting Jackson in his other foot had taken her by surprise as well, and
prompted her to start thinking of her own well-being. I watched as she assessed
her situation, tried her restraints, had a quick look around the room and came
to the realization that right now, she had no move. She looked at me and
relaxed again in her chair.

‘I can’t believe you hit a woman,’ she
said. She wasn’t annoyed - well, not any more than anyone else would be after
they’d been elbowed in the face. I think she was just toying with me.

‘Yeah, sorry about that,’ I said. ‘Actually,
I’m not - you had a gun on me, so you deserved everything you got.’

‘I only had a gun you because you were
going to try and kill the guy I’m supposed to protect.’

‘Well, I was only going to kill him
because he screwed a gangster out of millions of dollars.’

‘Oh, well, that’s alright then!’

She pulled a face, and I realized we
were arguing like siblings.

‘Why
are
you protecting him anyway?
What makes that guy so special?’

‘I’m just following orders, like you.’

‘I don’t follow orders, I don’t answer
to anyone. A benefit of being self-employed.’

‘Are you always this argumentative?’

‘Are you always this much of a bitch?’

‘Oh, your words cut me like a knife.’

‘There’s no need for sarcasm.’

‘There’s no need to tie me to a chair!’

‘You had a gun on me!’

‘What,
that
again? Get over it,
you pussy.’

I sighed. What is it with this woman? I
didn’t particularly want to shoot her, but she was testing the restraint of my
trigger finger while pitching her tent on my last nerve.

‘Enough,’ I said. ‘You’re going to
answer my questions, or I’m going to shoot you in the face. Understood?’

She said nothing, but raised a quizzical
eyebrow - either to show she understood, or to silently call my bluff. I
assumed it was the former, not the latter, seeing as I don’t bluff.

‘What’s your name?’ I began.

‘Does it matter?’ she replied.

‘Yes.’

‘Fine, my name is Clara Fox.’

‘Thank you. Okay, Clara, who do you work
for?’

‘Right now? Him.’

She motioned with her head to Ted
Jackson, who was slumped next to her.

‘So, what, are you freelance?’ I asked.

‘I go where I’m told to. I don’t ask
questions.’

‘That’s a weird answer to a perfectly
straightforward question.’

‘Take it or leave it, I don’t care.’

‘Do you know why you’re protecting him?’

‘Yes.’

‘Elaborate.’

She sighed. I don’t think she was losing
patience as such, I think she was just unhappy because she’s not used to not
being the one asking the questions. I don’t know what it is about her, but I
like her. Not like that. She’s more of a kindred spirit, I think.

‘My assignment was to protect Jackson while
he closed a business deal between our respective employers for the sale of a
plot of land in Heaven’s Valley. We knew that the local mafia had been approached
to buy up the land as well, but we also knew that deal had been cancelled. It
was assumed there would be some comeback, so I was assigned to make sure
Jackson remained safe while he closed the deal with my employer.’

‘But you don’t know why the original
deal had been cancelled?’

‘Don’t know and don’t care. I do what is
asked of me. If I need to know something, I will be told.’

‘You’re the consummate Army brat, aren’t
you? Tell me, where are you from? Your accent’s very... multicultural.’

She smiled.

‘I was born in Russia. My mother was
Swedish and my father was American. I’ve traveled around Eastern Europe since I
was seven.’

‘Well, you sound great. You should work
in a call center.’

‘I’d kill my boss within a matter of
hours.’

I had to smile.

‘I don’t doubt it.’

There was a moment’s silence, which was
interrupted by the groans of a man who was regaining consciousness after being
shot for a second time in the last hour.

Jackson looked groggy, and he gazed
around the room slowly like a man with a hangover. He saw Clara next to him,
staring at him. He then turned his gaze toward me. I was also sat staring at
him. Except I also had a gun pointed at him.

I turned to Clara.

‘Be right with you honey,’ I said. She
rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. I turned back to Jackson.

‘Teddy, good of you to join us. Me and
Clara here were just getting acquainted. She’s lovely, don’t you think?’

He groaned, clearly in pain.

‘What do you want from me?’ he said, all
confidence now having left his voice.

‘I want you to answer a few questions,
completely and honestly.’

‘P-please don’t sh-shoot me again,’ he
begged.

‘I can’t promise anything, Ted, because
you’re an asshole. But, if you do as I ask, you’ll be giving yourself the best
chance you can of avoiding a third bullet.’

He took a moment to weigh up his options
in his head. To figure out his next move and to formulate a plan that would
ultimately save him. I watched as the realization of impending defeat dawned on
him. Quickly followed by resignation.

‘Wh-what do you want to know?’

‘Finally,’ I said. ‘Okay, first
question. Why did you revoke your offer to Pellaggio without telling him?’

He hesitated.

‘Ted, don’t even think of lying to me.’

‘I... I can’t tell you. They’ll kill me.’
As he said that, he glanced at Clara. It was just a quick look, but I spotted
it.

I looked at her.

‘Are you going to kill him if he talks
to me?’

She stared at me blankly, as if I was
stupid. She was really good at looking at me like that, and I didn’t care for
it.

‘I just finished telling you I’m meant
to protect him. Why would I kill him?’

I sighed again. I was going round in
circles. This called for slightly more drastic measures. I got up and walked
over to where my silenced Beretta had been thrown by Clara earlier. I retrieved
it, and checked the magazine out of habit. I walked back over and stood behind
Jackson. I fired my gun at the sofa in front of us where I was just sat. I put
four bullets into it. What most people don’t realize is, when you fire a gun
the barrel heats up from the mini explosion that propels the bullet out. So,
after four bullets, the barrel is really hot.

The shots terrified Jackson. But when I
put the barrel of my gun to the side of his neck and held it there, he
unleashed a scream that could’ve woken the dead. Even Clara looked
uncomfortable.

After a few seconds, I walked round his
chair and crouched down in front of him.

‘Teddy, I swear to God, I’m going to
make you tell me what I need to know. That was nothing compared to what I’m
both capable of and willing to do to you.’

Jackson was crying. His skin has
blistered on his neck, and then burst, leaving him with blood and puss dripping
over his raw, burnt flesh. I put my gun near his neck again.

‘Okay, okay!’ he yelled. ‘I saw that
GlobaTech Industries had this land on their books that they weren’t doing
anything with. I’d read of Pellaggio’s plans for expansion in the area and I
approached him to sell him the land and make some money on the side. I didn’t
think for a second that GlobaTech would miss it.’

‘So you wanted to make a sneaky bit of
cash? Makes sense,’ I said. ‘So why pull out at the last minute?’

‘A few days ago, I was brought in to
work on an ongoing project with a militia organization called Dark Rain. It was
off the books, which was why I’d found no record of the land being used before.
The project was devised by a small division within GlobaTech that worked
outside of the standard protocols and operating guidelines. It was just my luck
that this project required the use of the resources found on that land. I had
no choice but to walk away from Pellaggio’s deal. I knew I was causing myself
problems with the mob, but I knew that I was protected by this deal that
GlobaTech was working on with Dark Rain.’

I looked at Clara, who I could see knew
some of what Jackson was saying, but was either confused or disinterested with
the rest. I looked back at Jackson.

‘What do you mean when you say “the
resources found on that land”?’

He sighed, reluctant to continue, but
knowing he had no choice.

‘That land sits on top of the only
natural uranium deposit in the United States.’

I didn’t expect that. This is big. Like,
military big. At that moment, all but two words had failed me.

‘Holy shit.’