Chapter 11 #2
He clamped his mouth shut, breathing hard through his nose as his face scrunched up with pain. “Fuck… just do it,” he gritted out. “End it.”
I cocked my head. “Why would I do that?”
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” he muttered. “The Club found out about the Russians.”
“We know what you’ve been up to, yes. But I’m not here to kill you. I was just sent here to punish you, which I’ve already done,” I said, waving the barrel at his bleeding shoulder. “There doesn’t need to be any more violence as long as you cooperate from here on out.”
He tried to scoff, then winced again. “You’re full of shit,” he said. “I’m one of you, remember? I know exactly how the Club deals with traitors. No mercy.”
“Trust me, man, I want to kill you, and I fucking will if you don’t cooperate,” I said, pressing the barrel into his injured shoulder for emphasis.
“Half the Council wanted to get rid of you as well, but they ultimately decided you’re too valuable to dispense of without giving you a chance to make amends.
So, accept the conditions, and you’ll be allowed to keep breathing.
Don’t accept, and I have the go-ahead to put a bullet in your brain like most of us wanted in the first place. ”
His initial suspicions were correct, of course.
I was full of shit. The Council wanted him dead; I’d known that before Roman even finished speaking.
But if he knew I was going to kill him, he’d almost certainly refuse to give me the code to the safe, and I could really do without all that extra trouble.
Hence, the mercy performance.
“W-what are the conditions?” Maier said in a low voice, easily swallowing the lie I’d offered. Men in his position always did.
“Firstly, you need to open your safe so I can get that thumb drive and destroy it,” I said.
“Secondly, as soon as I leave here, you’ll call the cops and report this as a burglary.
Tell them you got shot while trying to defend yourself and your home.
Any other narrative… you know we’ll find out, and you know what’ll happen. ”
He nodded, gasping for breath.
“Thirdly, from here on out, you’re the Council’s bitch,” I went on. “You live under their supervision. You follow orders, you sever contact with your foreign handlers, and you spend the next decade on a very tight leash. You have five seconds to decide.”
I lifted the barrel, aiming it at his forehead.
He gulped. “I’ll do it! W-whatever you say.”
“Good.” I stepped back. “Safe. Now.”
He hauled himself upright on shaking legs and led me down the hallway to his study, wincing with each step. “It’s a biometric model,” he croaked, pointing with his good arm. “Takes a code and a retinal scan.”
“I know. That’s why I wanted you to open it. Saves me from the mess of doing it without your permission,” I said, pointedly staring at his right eye. “Now open it.”
He fumbled at the keypad, hands trembling as he punched in numbers. Then, pale and shaking, he crouched to align his eye with the scanner. A green light flashed. There was the sound of mechanisms shifting, followed by a soft click, and then the safe door finally eased open.
“Step back,” I said, gun sweeping a line of authority across the room. “And put your hands up.”
His right hand instantly went up, but his useless left arm hung limp by his side. I let it go. He couldn’t do anything with a bullet lodged in that shoulder.
I stepped closer to the safe and reached inside for the thumb drive.
“It’s the only copy,” Maier muttered. “I swear.”
“I know that too,” I said breezily, stashing it in my pocket. “Our guys have been listening to your calls for weeks now.”
There were a couple of files in the safe as well, so I snatched them up just in case. Then I straightened and looked at Maier again, managing a thin, almost casual smile.
“Remember, we need to make this look like a burglary, and the cops probably won’t believe that random burglars only wanted what was in the safe,” I said. “They’ll need other stolen valuables to believe the story. So what’s worth taking?”
He pointed feebly down the hall. “Walk-in closet… there’s a drawer with watches. Rolexes, Pateks… all registered. Easy for me to report as stolen.”
“Good idea.” I cocked my head. “Anything else?”
“On the mantel, there’s a bronze statuette. Doesn’t look like much, but it’s worth a lot.”
“Perfect.” I smiled. “Thanks for making this so easy for me.”
With that, I lifted the gun and shot him right between the eyes.
His body crumpled to the floor, and I stepped over him to head down the hall.
I raided the watch collection in his closet and shoved them all in my coat, followed by the bronze statuette from the mantel.
Then I messed up another few drawers throughout the apartment, as if I’d rifled through them looking for more shit to steal.
Once I was satisfied that everything looked right, I let myself out of the Arlington through the service entrance.
When I reached my car, I slid behind the wheel, exhaling slowly. Another job done.
Roman would call it a success. The Dionysus Council would call it loyalty. But for me? It was really just noise. A distraction. Because now that the blood was off my hands and the work was finished, I could finally get back to doing what I actually wanted.
Watching Violet Calloway.