Men… #3
The newscaster was animated as she described a YouTube video sent in by Xander Kostinos.
Simo watched the anchor segue to a YouTube clip showing Xander in the ocean swimming like mad, dragging a man through the sea behind him.
He could hear Halo, off-screen, screaming at him to get out of the water.
Next, Xander heaved the injured man onto the aircraft’s wing, where another man and a flight attendant pulled the bleeding, unconscious man onto the wing.
Then he saw Xander roll up onto the wing, heaving in great gasps of air.
From out of frame, he heard Halo sighing heavily with relief.
Then the video panned to Joel, who was frantically paddling away from them all.
The scene panned back to the injured man, and Xander was rapidly wrapping the unconscious man’s leg.
Then he pointed at a man and called him David.
Quickly, they retrieved and opened another raft.
They all helped the flight attendant in, then the injured man was next, with David following.
Next, Xan was ordering another man named Pete to ride in the raft that he and Halo would be in, as the other raft was too small for them all.
The man named Pete balked, but Xan persisted.
Next, Xander was coming up to Halo in the doorway of the plane.
“You better put that in a Ziploc before it gets ruined,” he said, then the scene went black, and the newscaster said that more videos would be coming after the commercial break.
“Fucking hero…” Simo muttered under his breath.
“Like his father, nea?” Theo replied hopefully.
“NO. His father would have followed orders today.”
“Simo…”
“Stop! That malaka almost got people killed…”
“Simo, come on… fine. If that is what you really think…” Theo said, then turned his back on Simo.
Simo was about to argue his point with Theo when he felt his phone vibrate with an incoming text: Simo, sorry about taking your car.
Joel is at the bottom of the ravine where your car is at along with the remains of Elara Swan.
Bring some rope, Joel sounds hurt so you better hurry.
I will be gone when you get here. I need to get my head straight and figure things out, hopefully someplace warm. Tell Halo that I am sorry.
“Fucking malaka…” Simo sighed. “Joel is alive where my car is. Theo, we need some rope. Get some from the van, then let’s go!”
Theo nodded. “Is Xan there?”
“No. He’s running away again or something,” Simo grumbled.
Simo, Ari, Gunnar, and Theo stood together, peering into the darkness of the ravine below. They could hear Joel’s feeble cries of “help” emanating up from the inky blackness.
“I can go down,” Theo offered.
Simo shook his head. “I’ll go.” Simo flicked his flashlight on and illuminated the ravine below. “Looks like seventy feet down. Not too steep.”
Ari nodded. “Agreed. Simo, I’d like to speak with Joel before the authorities arrive…”
Simo nodded. Theo and Gunnar secured a long stretch of climbing rope to the guardrail, then sent the coil of rope down the slope.
Simo took off his jacket, exposing his webbing of weapons.
Putting on a pair of gloves, he grabbed the rope, stepped over the guardrail, and began a quick rappel down as Theo and Gunnar held high-powered flashlights illuminating Simo’s way.
Simo saw Joel’s crumpled body at the bottom. He could see that Joel’s arm was injured, possibly broken, as the man gripped it in agony. Simo shined his light in Joel’s tear-streaked face.
“Simo? Oh… fuck me,” Joel whimpered.
“Hello, Joelly.” Simo chuckled. “What a fucking mess you caused…”
“P—please don’t kill…”
“I’m not here to kill you. What happened?”
“Th—that fucker, Xander, shot me…”
“What?” Simo yelled.
“They were blanks or something… then he kicked me off the guardrail… he—he cut my fucking finger off!”
“Is Elara Swan’s body here?”
Joel sighed heavily and pointed with his cuffed hands behind Simo.
Simo turned and pointed his flashlight. A dirty brown blanket, covered with debris, was illuminated by the bright beam.
Simo walked over, squatted down, and immediately saw the top of a skull with dirty and matted dark hair.
Around the body of Elara Swan were numerous spent bullet casings—the shells from one of Harding’s men’s guns.
Simo sighed and turned his attention back to Joel.
“Joelly… it is a good thing your father wanted you alive.”
“Wha? What d—do you mean?”
“Your father paid me a million dollars to not kill you.”
“What? You worked for him?”
“Yep. Get ready… Ari Ascher wants to speak with you. He is up top waiting.”
“N—no! Not Ari!” Joel groaned.
“Man the fuck up already,” Simo ordered. He wasn’t gentle as he secured the rope around Joel, then jerked on the rope hard as a signal to Theo and Gunnar.
Joel screamed out in pain as they slowly began dragging him up the rocky incline.
Eventually, the rope came back down, and Simo quickly got back up to the top.
He saw that Joel was propped up against the side of the Challenger, and Ari was in his face, angrily shouting at him.
Joel’s face looked like he wished that Xander had killed him; he was cringing and desperately trying to shut his eyes against Ari’s verbal attack.
“Ari, police,” Simo interrupted.
Ari stood, kept his hands out, and approached the police.
He began explaining the situation to the two police officers and suggested contacting their captain.
Soon, the police escorted Ari back to the Challenger and immediately took Joel into custody.
One officer came over to the guardrail and asked Simo about the body.
Simo told them what he saw and how far down it was to Elara’s remains.
Together, they all waited somberly for the rescue crew to arrive and retrieve her.
As they labored to bring Elara’s body up, Ari waited and met Elara’s body as they maneuvered the body bag onto the coroner’s gurney.
Ari walked alongside Elara’s body to the coroner’s van and waited until they had secured her and shut the doors.
Simo joined Ari, who stood staring at the van as it drove away into the night.
“It is done, nea?”
Ari wiped his eye and nodded. It took him a moment to reply, “Yes, my friend, it is done. I best contact Annabeth so she may inform Elara’s mother.”
“Of course, Ari. Good night.”
“Good night, Simo.”
Simo left Ari to place his call. He told Theo and Gunnar to head out, and he would drive his car back home.
Simo opened his car with his spare key and was immediately met with the intense smell of ammonia.
It was urine. “Fucking Xander made Joel piss himself all over my seat,” Simo angrily muttered as he started the Challenger with a roar and had to roll down the windows.