Jeff,
finds himself in Atlanta
wanting to get out of the hotel on a Friday night. In the Atlanta Underground
he meets up with Pick, a sly con man who takes Jeff around the Underground
ending up at the notorious Magic
Town strip club. There’s
only one problem: Jeff is the spitting image of a corrupt congressman! Nancy,
the beautiful FBI agent with the golden eyes takes Jeff on the ride of his
life. With three climax scenes, this story will make you want to get to the
next page!
Chapter 23 of Magic Town ...
YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS
EXCITING CHAPTER!
Monday, Noon: The Trap
This is the
moment they have been waiting for! At noon all the bad guys will assemble in Magic Town
where Jeff will pretend to be the congressman announcing that this enterprise
is dissolved. But before he can make the announcement Joel shows up furious
that the meeting was held without him! Soon guns are drawn as Shonna and Jeff
slowly slowly slowly leave the room, Jeff escaping through the infamous
counting room in the basement, joining Shonna near the front door. Suddenly THE DRAGON ROARS!
If you enjoy this, please take time to LIKE this on Facebook!
Thanks for taking time, and enjoy!
- Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela, chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST
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Magic Town, Chapter 23
Monday,
Noon: The Trap
A few minutes later they walked into the conference room, everyone was
in place plus a couple others Jeff hadn’t seen before. After quick
introductions and handshakes everyone sat down as they all huddled together.
The air was thick with anticipation.
How many meetings does this make? He wondered.
He’d lost count.
They were always so serious.
Now there was serious sewn
through the entire room, an intensely orange thread passing through one person
stringing to the next, binding them together in a focused purpose unlike the
meetings before. They were just three hours from the climax where Jeff’s
Sherlock Holmes plan will come together, all the names on those papers scattered
around the table will suddenly betray their owners in what everyone hoped will
be a surprise to end all surprises. Dozens of arrests to cap two years of
investigation, a long line of handcuffs leading to the Federal prosecutor’s
office.
They spent the next ninety minutes going over the developments, deciding
for sure that Jeff had taken care of the shooter with his five bullets through
that door, congratulating Jeff for his marvelous insight in not voting for Pick
yesterday.
Jeff still had nagging doubts
that Snake Arm was the shooter. The only thing that added up was that Snake Arm
took delivery of the bullets sent express mail through the door of Antonio’s
office. That part made sense, but he just couldn’t see how Snake Arm would be
allowed to get close enough to the victims to shoot them point blank. Everyone else
in the room was way past this, taking it for granted that not only did Jeff
identify the shooter using his skills of intuition, but that Jeff also
dispatched the shooter with his volley of bullets through that door.
One of them told everyone that the warehouse at the top of the stairs
they found in the secret passageway is owned by someone with the same last name
as the mayor, “Brother, uncle maybe? We don’t know, but there’s a definite
connection there.” They pondered what to do now that there was a good chance
that Jeff had been exposed. Try as they might there were no good insights other
than pondering what move Joel might be up to. They decided that until they knew
how deep he was involved that they would keep teasing him that they were buying
into his being Mister Undercover. There was a long discussion about Jeff’s
safety. It was agreed that they just didn’t have enough information to know.
Detailed questions were asked about how the night’s meetings went, they all
laughed at Shonna and Jeff’s recounting of Arnie on the phone at the mayor’s
house.
Everyone was pleased that the Sherlock Holmes Plan still seemed viable.
Arnie gave a big smile, “Tell you what there mister Jeff, we couldn’t
have come up with better bait if we tried.” There were nods all around. “Maybe
you need to write a sequel to the Birdy Edwards story!” There was a moment of
chuckles and grins around the table, “or write a book of your own about all
this when it’s done!” as the room nodded strong affirmation of these words.
Jeff smiled to himself, Wow yes, I could
write a book about this, huh? He shook his head to himself, Nah, nobody would ever believe it!
Finally, about ten-thirty they broke for an early lunch, people either
went into the lunch room or split off somewhere else. Again, no discussion
about the case whatsoever at the table.
At eleven o’clock Jeff was following Shonna to the front door. The same
woman from last night stepped up to Jeff, efficiently anointing his chin with
the mole. He thanked her, turning away when Arnie stepped up cradling the Colt snub nosed pistol laying it into
Jeff’s hand. Arnie smiled as he handed it to Jeff, “Cleaned and reloaded.” He flicked
a button on the gun, the cylinder swung out, he held the gun so Jeff could see
the tips of the bullets, “Hollow points.” Jeff gave a questioning glance. “It’s
to make sure that any misses stay in the building. We were lucky that the two
slugs that made it to the wall from that office hit nice thick wood and stayed
in the wall. I guess the whole building is like that. But the last thing we
need is bullets flying around our little warehouse district down there.” He
flicked the cylinder closed with a quick motion of his right hand, “Plus these
will make sure that whoever you do hit gets really
hit.”
Jeff frowned reluctant to take it, “Hollow points,” he said softly as he
nodded to Arnie. He remembered his earlier days, years and years ago when he
actually kept a gun in his house for personal
protection though now he couldn’t remember exactly what he was protecting
himself from. There was a debate among his gun friends about non-jacketed,
jacketed, hollow point bullets, the guy at the gun store giving him a lecture
about how responsible people always used hollow points telling Jeff, “You don’t
want to miss and have the bullet kill your neighbor, do you?” He was finally
convinced that was the right thing to do. Fortunately he never had to shoot at anyone.
After his daughter was born he had serious second thoughts about having a gun
in the house at all, so he sold all his guns.
“You know, Arnie, thanks, but I’ve really had enough of guns. After what
happened yesterday, I don’t know.”
Shonna nodded at Jeff, encouraging him. “You never know, you really
should take it.” She touched his arm, he felt a zing like she touched him with
a small cattle prod, he turned to her with a jerk, “You’ve already seen how
things can get out of hand so quickly.” She smiled at him gently, “I would feel
so much better if you were carrying this.”
“Besides,” Arnie smiled at Jeff, “insurance!”
“Yes!” Shonna smiled, “We can never have too much insurance!” they all
had a short laugh, though Jeff noticed his laugh had a definite nervous tone.
He put it into the stinky coat right outside pocket standing for a second
patting the heavy weight at his side with a sudden flash of regret that he was
here at this moment. This whole adventure had been, how do they say it in the
CIA movies? Oh, yeah, above his pay grade.
He thought about what had happened that morning in the shower, that long
soulful talk he had with Shonna, how he was getting a just little crazy about
her. More than a just a little crazy.
How he felt the little shock when she touched him just now. He remembered his
promise to think about being a different person. He had to do a compartmentalize
thing, at this moment be a different person. He just wasn’t quite sure what
person he was supposed to be.
Turning to thank Arnie smiling at Jeff she made a motion with her hands
to push on.
Soon Jeff found himself climbing into the Mustang, a few moments later back
on the familiar I-85 passing downtown Atlanta heading for Magic Town.
“Just remember, be calm. If anything happens, drop to your knees and
crawl the hell out of there,” Shonna said as they drove.
“What do you expect to happen?”
“Well, you’ve done a really good job planting seeds. Distrust,
confusion. We just need one more element. If we played our cards right, just
maybe we’ll get it.”
He looked at her as she drove, “What?”
“Chaos.”
“Chaos? That’s a scary word in this context.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve figured out that Joel’s name comes up so much that he
must have a more important role than we thought before. Good chance he’s
running the entire operation. One thing that is so consistent in all this is
how well it’s organized. I’ve been thinking about it, ledgers––my ledgers––neatly
stacked piles of money with those little name tags, the little henchmen so well
organized. But you know, the victims list gave it away. It was sophisticated, detailed.
It takes someone with an education to do that, it could not have been done by
Antonio. No way. I’ve got to give it to whoever is running this show with so
many people involved, this gang runs like a well oiled machine. Everything is
in order. Everything.”
“So you think a little disruption is the best strategy.” He looked
forward at the road nodding slowly in approval. “Create disorder in this
well-oiled machine, yeah, a little chaos so we can get people out of their
comfort zone, really smoke them out.”
He turned to her with a quizzed expression.
“But didn’t the press conference do that? And the meetings last night? So
you want even more chaos? What else can you do to stir this up any more?”
“We need to do anything we can, absolutely everything we can. We don’t just want confusion, we need panic.
We’ve got to get everyone running for cover. If we weren’t going to arrest
everyone today my guess is that half these guys would be citizens of Brazil
by this time next week.”
“Yeah, but what more can we possibly do to create chaos?”
“Well for starters, we made a real point to try to make sure Joel didn’t
find out about the big meeting until,” she glanced at the clock, “about twelve
minutes ago.”
“How did you do that? I’d think these guys would be ringing the phone
off the hook all night!”
“We blocked his phone. Anyone trying to call him got a fake answering
machine, anyone he tried to call he got the same. Everybody was trying to call
everybody all night, but wouldn’t you know it, nobody was home! We put a watch
on his house to make sure he didn’t leave. Yep, Joel definitely didn’t hear a
peep about anything that happened last night.”
“I know you can do that so I won’t ask.”
“I called Joel just before we left. He was shocked about the meeting, sounded
really pissed off.”
“Oh, god, he’s not going to show up shooting is he?”
“No, but knowing him, he sure as hell is going to show up mad!”
“What’s that going to do?”
She looked into her right mirror, signaling to change lanes, not
answering Jeff.
“So what seed is this going to sew?” he persisted.
“Something this gang hasn’t seen in ten years,” she smiled confidently.
“Chaos.”
He gave a confused look, “But where in the meetings back there did this
get talked about?”
“We didn’t talk about this, it occurred to me after the meeting when I
realized that nobody got around to notifying Joel about our little party. We
know that nobody got through to nobody last night.” She gave a big smile, “And that is good.”
She glanced a smile at Jeff, “That means we are in control!”
Jeff laughed, “So much for all the collaborating and planning, huh?”
She glanced at him, looked forward again, “Those meetings really are to
sort things out, to get to the bigger picture, other inputs and ideas. But it’s
almost always too complex to figure a case out completely like that. Almost
never can be done.” She laughed again, “Look how much we’ve gotten wrong, even
voting didn’t help. You’re the only one that got Snake Arm right as the
shooter!”
“It was just a lucky guess. I just couldn’t see Pick at the trigger man.”
“No, it wasn’t a lucky guess, it was intuition, you did a good job. You
really showed courage when you said you couldn’t go along. You keep surprising
me at the courage you have, your ability to not be intimidated, especially your
quick reflexes when things twist suddenly.”
“I’ve always thought I was brave, but I’ve never had situations like
this to see how brave I can be.”
“But your objecting in that meeting made people think things through again.
Made me think things through again. It turned out you were not only right about
Snake Arm, you killed him, too! And now your Sherlock Holmes Plan. Yes, mister
Jeff, I am mighty impressed!”
Jeff felt a sudden twist in his gut. He was not feeling any
congratulations for having done what he did yesterday. He was still a little
angry about having been put in that situation. He was just not sure who to be
angry about. Maybe it should be Shonna that deserves his anger, after all she
was the one that put him in that chair with his gun facing that door. He glanced
at her as she was driving, felt that flush through his chest again realizing he
could not be angry at her if he tried.
She glanced at him with a consoling look, “I’m sorry, I made too light
of Snake Arm. Please,” she reached out with her right arm, touched his leg, “I
didn’t mean to make light of it.”
She drove on smiling confidently, “But as for chaos,” the car started to
exit from the freeway, “with this bunch, god only knows. I liked your words
‘smoke them out’ but we need better than that, a little chaos is definitely the
way to get this thing to split wide open.”
Soon Jeff found himself standing back in the bar at Magic Town.
It was all lit up with eight-foot tables arranged in a large square with a
one-table length break on the left, white table cloths draped over each table
with a pitcher of water surrounded by glasses on each. The dancers’ runway
stood to the right of the arrangement, bar tables and chairs all stacked on the
other side of the runway. Jeff turned back to the white-covered tables smiling
at this formal setup compared to what he had seen here just three nights ago. Jeff
counted the chairs, thirty two, remembering the number of names on the roster
they created with Antonio.
He looked inquisitively at the arrangement of the tables when Shonna
noticed his expression as she studied around the room, “Nobody will want to sit
with someone at their back, that’s for sure. I am sure you did an excellent job
fomenting distrust last night, so this is deliberately arranged to give
everyone a clear view of everyone else, to have nobody at anybody’s back. We
want people feeling as comfortable as possible, feeling like they have a little
control.” She looked around the room. “Do you see the back door over there?”
Jeff looked nodding. “That door goes to another set of stairs that lead down to
the dressing room. It’s usually locked. I unlocked it and the door at the
bottom of the stairs. If anything goes haywire, you head for that door down the
stairs to the door on the left. Don’t use the front door,” she pointed to the black-draped
door they had just come through, “way too much uncertainty.”
“Is this the right number of chairs?”
She smiled, “That’s our best count from Antonio’s roster. I think this
is right. Don’t worry, there should only be just the one empty chair.” Jeff
looked to the ceiling trying to think who it might be. Shonna saw his
expression, “Antonio!” He nodded his head, she laughed, “But, hell with our
bait we may have standing room only!” they both laughed, Jeff wasn’t sure if
that would happen. The whole gang seemed so damned organized, just like Shonna said
in the car. Whoever was leading this had to be a very disciplined person to
lead such a disciplined organization. That was the only way that with so many
members that this hadn’t blown up before.
He looked to Shonna, “What makes you think these guys are going to show
up?”
She laughed, “Wherever you find a lot of money you find the evil twins fear and greed. You’ve heard that with
the Wall Street types, right? Well in this case the fear part is even heavier,
because remember you are meeting the Feds this afternoon right?” He nodded. “So
these cats need to know what’s going on to figure out how fast they’ve got to
pack to get their asses down to the Bahamas.” She laughed, “Oh, yes,
fear and greed! And of course they want to be here to make sure they don’t get
cut out!” She laughed again, “In some ways you have to feel sorry for these
bastards because they are so stupid!”
He smiled at the thought of the airport suddenly filled with fleeing bad
guys as he wandered around the tables slowly, “Did they have the club open last
night?”
Shonna grinned, “Money, what do you think?”
“But who ran it, who opened it up and managed it?”
“Probably Perkins, he has all the keys, knows where everything is. He
could handle it all by himself.” She straightened one of the table cloths. “Perkins
is a good man.” She smiled as she turned to the black curtain at the front of
the big room, “Speaking of Perkins!”
Jeff turned to see Perkins pushing through the curtain, so tall that he
had to bend his neck as he passed through the door. He gave a silent little
wave smiling to Shonna, ignoring Jeff.
Shonna pointed to the table near the door, “That’s where I want their
guns, there are little tags and a pen to label them so people can get them
back.” Jeff looked curious as she answered his question without his asking, “We
don’t want weapons in this meeting. If tempers flair it could get really ugly.”
Jeff sat down at a table as Shonna looked to him shooshing him to a
stand. “No, you need to be standing the whole time near that back door.” She
glanced around the room with a satisfied expression. “And remember your speech!”
“What,” he frowned, “nine words? Yeah I think I can remember.” He
thought about all the speeches he did in high school, the public speaking class
he took in college, the few times he’d addressed large groups of business
people. He’d always had those little three-by-five cards with little notes, he
got pretty good at putting as few words as possible onto them so that he
wouldn’t feel like he was reading a script. He already practiced his little
speech he will be giving when the room fills in a few minutes beginning to wish
that even with only nine words that he had one of those little cards handy
right now.
She walked up to him leaning over speaking softly, “And if things go
wrong, don’t go out the front door, go around the outer hallway down through
the passageway to the warehouse.”
Without thinking Jeff said out loud, “The warehouse?”
She looked over at Perkins who didn’t seem to be paying attention to
them as he stood stoically at the door just like he did when the bar was filled
with screaming men with flying tits. “Shhhhhhh!” she scolded with her finger to
her lips leaning forward to Jeff in a whisper, “Yes! Go around to the front,
then around to the tunnel, the warehouse!”
Voices rose behind the curtain. Soon mostly men started trickling in, a
few women in their mix. Perkins greeted them, some reached into their jackets and
pockets removing weapons, laying them on the table near the door, leaning over
to fill out a tag to stick to their gun. Each person pushed through the curtain
looking anxiously around the room. The chairs in the back of the room facing
the door filled first, the other chairs soon found reluctant
bodies. Jeff watched people filing in noticing some of them handing Perkins
money that disappeared into his pocket; Jeff didn’t give it a second thought because
of the way money just seemed to flow every which way in this circle. He grinned
to himself at how he had given Perkins money that night he first came into this
room, how quickly it disappeared. He almost admired Perkins’s motions that were
so practiced, so smooth watching bills appear for barely a split second before
they disappeared into his pocket. Jeff thought how nice it was that people were
tipping him like they were trying to get the best table on a Saturday night.
Jeff glanced at his watch, eleven-fifty. There was very little talking, barely
a murmur. He noticed people showing up in groups, the city council people were
first with faces he recognized from last night, the police were just coming in.
One of the mayor’s aids pushed through the curtain with the others following
him, the mayor trailing behind. Jeff didn’t see a single greeting exchanged
between anyone except for Perkins’s terse instructions.
Jeff stood there remembering last year when he got to do his first
conference keynote address. Okay, maybe not the keynote of the whole
conference, but the room still had about five hundred people. He got to make
his little welcome speech––thank you little note cards––then do the
introductions. He had made a few quips while he was making introductions for
the four speakers that came up to give little presentations on specialized
topics. He’d had a couple people come up later to tell him what a nice job he
did. As he glanced around the room slowly filling up he thought heck, with this
group unarmed this should be a piece of cake!
Soon every chair was full, except for one as they expected for the
missing Antonio, the room perfectly quiet. Apprehension and tension filled the
room, an enormous ball of fear weighing down every soul in the room, that
enormous pulsing sphere pressing against the walls until they bulged out to
near bursting with anxiety.
Eye contact between people in the room was rare, everyone sitting in
stoic silence, breaths held in anxious hush.
Jeff was surprised to see only eight, maybe nine guns on the table. He figured
that Perkins did his job, so that must be it. He couldn’t imagine that this
group would come to such a meeting unarmed, maybe this whole highly-organized
thing made them civil somehow. He was too concerned about the rest of the
meeting to give it much thought.
Shonna signaled to Jeff. He walked around one row of tables into the gap
they had left between the tables on the left side of the room. He stood nervously
looking around the room, remembered he needed to get into character. He could feel
himself pumping up as he considered what was about to happen, though deep down
he was terrified to be looking at this circle of faces watching him so
intently.
He glanced at his watch: noon.
He took a half-step forward.
Clearing his throat, “Thank all you sons-a-bitches for coming here today
on such short notice.” He knew those weren’t his nine words, but he thought at
the last minute that he needed an ice breaker.
Ice breaker! Like I could possibly
break the ice with this crowd!
He took another half-step forward, raised his hands like some cheap sidewalk
preacher pronouncing, “Gentleman and ladies, this enterprise is––”
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!” all heads jerked to the black curtain
as Joel burst into the room, black curtain flying as he stormed in with big
deliberate steps. He stopped for a half-second glaring around the room panting,
strutting to the opening in the tables as Jeff stepped away toward the back of
the room. Joel shouted, “I SAID, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!”
Stunned silence.
Shonna was standing near the curtain as he flew past her. She stepped
toward the table in front of her, the people sitting just before her turning
around feeling her presence behind them as she put her hands up in a consoling
gesture, “Joel, this is a meeting that was called––”
“CALLED! Meeting that was called! By who! You?” He flashed a terrible grimace,
hateful, utter loathing to Shonna, glancing off Jeff, circling around the room.
“I call the meetings! Everyone knows this is my show! Who called this
meeting!”
Without thinking, Jeff said in a soft voice, “I did.”
Joel spun around to Jeff, “You did! Who are you, Mister Nobody!” He turned looking at the faces behind the tables,
looking directly at the mayor. “Do you even know who this man is?”
The room sat silent.
Jeff could see Joel struggling––what to do! What to say! Jeff watched
Joel’s face bubbling even redder, veins in his forehead popping out, his arms
raised above his head.
Suddenly he put his hands down, it was like a whole different person had
suddenly stepped into the room. Jeff watched Joel’s expression soften, he
suddenly made up his mind to try a different tack! “Why, he’s our good
congressman, of course!” Joel paused waving almost warmly toward Jeff, “But why
is he all the sudden calling a general meeting? Without me knowing?” Jeff saw a
plan formulating in Joel’s head, he watched the transition of expression, gears
spinning in Joel’s brain calculating his next words, his next action.
As though on queue, the room rose to a din of voices as Jeff looked
helplessly at Shonna. She signaled to him to keep going, do it!
Do what?
Jeff edged around the table toward the back door, moving slowly as all
eyes were on Joel.
Joel walked slowly around the inside of the great square of table
cloths, table-to-table looking down at each face, most staring vacantly
forward, a few nervously looking up at him or turning to others trying to find
any expression of support. There were only hopelessly confused silent faces to
be found.
Finally composure returned to Joel as he stepped back to the gap between
the tables. “There have been some very bad things that have happened lately.” There
was a low hum of voices. “What we do know is that we have this man here.” The room rose to a dull murmur,
Jeff starting to sense that Joel wasn’t going to expose him or say that the
congressman had been murdered. He could see that Joel was working through this
situation in his head, how he could gain absolute
control of the moment.
What was his strategy?
How could Joel turn this around to his advantage?
Jeff keyed on Joel’s dissertation being confused.
Joel wasn’t in control!
He didn’t know what to do!
He couldn’t grab the handles he needed to gain control of this room!
Joel frowned, “The congressman, of course, is right. We need to make
some changes.” The murmur increased with angry tone. Jeff realized that Shonna
had somehow managed to plant this seed while she stood aside with Joel at the
house in Roswell.
Joel raised his hands for quiet. Jeff was impressed at how this guy had
succeeded in gaining such control of this meeting then start conducting it like
he had called it! It was masterful! My god, Jeff thought, this is clearly the
man who is running this whole show! Only someone as skilled as Joel could
possibly pull this off! He started mulling the meetings in Roswell, how they got to the vote on who was
the mastermind when they voted nobody but everybody. He turned to Shonna who
was fixed on Joel.
She knew!
She knew all along that it was Joel! Why didn’t she tell him?
Joel continued, now in a more consoling tone, “I know some of you have
heard rumors that we are going to cut some of you out.”
A voice came out, “So are they right? Cut us out?”
Voices raised as the muttering got louder, Jeff heard angry voices, people
turning to each other shaking their heads. Jeff glanced at the back door. The
people seated in front of him didn’t bother to turn to look at him.
Joel raised his arms higher, “Cut anyone out? Of course not, once a
member always a member, right?” Nods around the room. Jeff suddenly had a
feeling that there wasn’t going to be any chaos.
This guy was just too good!
“Then why did you bring us here?” came a voice from the other side of
the room.
Joel put his hands up as though the explanation was coming, he paused a
long moment to consider his response, “We do need to make some changes to the
distribution.” The voices emerged into a roar, louder, Jeff could pick out all
sorts of angry words.
Joel raised his hands again, “Please, hear me out!” The room quieted.
A man at one end jumped up, “You son of a bitch! If you take one dime,
one penny out of my share I’ll––” Joel whipped out a pistol from his jacket
pointing it at the man, “You’ll do what, George, shoot me?” The man hesitated, looked
around him for support seeing none, sitting down slowly, angrily.
Shonna standing near the curtained entry stepped forward, “Joel, please
put the gun down!” She turned looking around the room slowly. Jeff watched her
expression the whole time, could see that she wasn’t getting all the chaos she
had hoped for. “Gentleman, ladies, you all know me, at least most of you know
me, Shonna. I’m the bookkeeper. All I can say is that this business is getting
more complicated every day with all the new enterprises. It’s becoming a mess.”
She turned to Jeff, “The congressman has something he would like to say.”
Jeff felt his stomach drop, his mouth suddenly dry. He looked at Shonna
as she signaled him, good ahead, say it!
He raised his hands, “I have only a few words to say,” he glanced at Shonna, back
to the room shouting, “GENTLEMEN AND LADIES THIS ENTERPRISE IS DISSOLVED!”
The room roared as though a fierce beast jumped up on its hind legs
about to take a lethal swat at whatever was in its reach, everyone jumped to
their feet howling. Joel stepped forward a couple steps raising his hands
yelling for silence. “QUIET! QUIET! LISTEN TO ME I SAID Q-U-I-E-T!!!” The room fell silent.
Joel scanned Jeff up and down, standing fifteen feet away with utter disdain,
“What did this man say? Who cares! He’s not the congressman! He’s an imposter!”
Instantly the room rose again. Well, that
cat’s out of the bag! crossed Jeff’s mind as he suddenly felt the tightness
of fear in his stomach, like someone had just punched him in the gut, landed
squarely on his solar plexus, the wind knocked out of him as he panicked looking
around the room, but except for a couple glances all faces were turned to Joel.
He watched as the noise went on echoing from the ceiling, smashing back into
the racket rising from thirty one mouths opened in confused anger.
Jeff realized they weren’t looking at him!
Everyone was standing, yelling at the tops of their lungs––Joel raised
his gun toward the ceiling pulling the trigger PAP! ceiling pieces fell into the room. Absolute silence except for
the sound of plaster falling to the floor in a small puff of white dust.
Joel looked Jeff up and down. “That’s right, the congressman was killed
on Saturday, at least I think.” He turned to Shonna, “Well, was he?” She didn’t
answer. The room exchanged baffled glances, eyes bouncing back and forth
between Joel and Shonna as though an answer would magically pop out. Joel made
a step toward Jeff as he could see in Joel’s eyes that he was panicked, trying
to search for words.
Joel’s cool was leaving him!
Chaos was coming!
Chaos!
How could Jeff make sure it came?
Jeff scanned the circle of faces around him as his mouth moved, out of
thin air words flowed from his mouth into the room, “Lots of people were
murdered yesterday!” he found himself scanning the room intently. “I lost
count!” The room shuttered in complete silence. “This whole thing has turned
upside down BECAUSE OF THIS MAN!” He pointed accusingly at Joel, “And yes, the
congressman is dead. MURDERED!”
There wasn’t the faintest response.
The dragon held its breath. Jeff suddenly saw the dragon before him,
marveled that he had complained he was going into the dragon’s mouth.
And now the dragon was before him.
“This man is getting people murdered! Nobody is safe!” Voices started rising
in the room, he was getting the response he wanted, “None of you is safe. Not
one!” He looked from face to face. “Remember the mayor’s family?” The mayor’s
face turned to Jeff with a jerk of baffled anger, “Do you want those days back
again?”
The beast dared not to take a breath.
“Well watch your backs because he’ll murder you all! One by one, carefully making sure that his greed
will wipe every single one of you from the face of the earth! And when he’s done
he’ll murder your families too! Your wives, your husbands! YOUR CHILDREN!”
The room rose to its feet again with a perfectly silent slow sizzling intensity
as all eyes locked on Joel. Not a sound was heard.
Thirty-one sets of eyes locked on Joel.
As Jeff watched, the flash of fire in those eyes scowled at Joel with evil
hatred, Jeff suddenly realizing he was about to be thrust back into the center
of this, “Congressman! What a joke! This imposter is infinitely smarter than
our famous Mister Frank Schedz. That stupid prick, the only thing that
surprised me was when he managed to tie his shoes and get dressed in the
morning! But this man is an IMPOSTER!”
Joel panted, “So you all thought that stupid gas bag was smart? I’m the
one that keeps this together! You know that! YOU KNOW THAT!” He pointed his gun
at the mayor with a side-to-side flicking, the mayor looking anxiously around,
“Isn’t that right Mister Mayor! It was me!” He pointed his gun at the police
chief almost casually, “How does it feel to be such a business bosom buddy with
the man who murdered your family, Mister Mayor!” All eyes turned to the police
chief who glowered at Joel.
Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Chaos! This crazed man
admitting in public that he was running this whole show, now he’s solving ten
year-old murders! “It was me running this show! And now this clown who just
happens to look like the congressman––an amazing likeness I might add––” giving
an exaggerated curtsey to Jeff, “this man comes along just when all hell is
breaking loose!” He waved his gun loosely at Jeff across the room, “You almost
screwed this all up there Mister Nobody!”
He looked around the room, “That’s right! Mister Nobody!” He looked back
at Jeff, at Shonna. “And Shonna, our beautiful Shonna is a Fed!”
“What about the meeting with the Feds this afternoon you bastard! YOU
SOLD US OUT!” came an angry voice.
Suddenly the room became the beast, the dragon came alive, rearing up
its fierce smile in a single loud click as the room resonated with the sound of
twenty triggers pulled back in unison by anxious thumbs, pistols suddenly
appearing out of nowhere with everyone aiming at everyone else, Joel spinning
around holding his gun out at everybody and nobody, spinning as the gun flailed
in his hand. Three men walked boldly over to the table by the door picking up
two guns off the table at random with each hand, cocking them turning holding
them out pointing blindly at whoever was in front of them. Jeff could see
others suddenly regretting giving Perkins their guns, regretting their
thoughtlessly not putting a hundred-dollar bill into the hands of the towering
door man, now standing helplessly with their hands out as though they were at
the ready to plead for mercy.
The dragon held its breath, the great square jaw of tables encircling
the room became that enormous mouth bristling with teeth made of cold steel
pointing inward, snarling Joel the angry tongue at the mouth, the beast ready
to spit its great hot breath at the tiniest movement. Jeff looked across the
room to see Perkins slowly pulling the curtain aside, pushing out of the room.
To Jeff it felt like minutes were passing as he saw Shonna take a slow
step toward the curtain, he watched all eyes following her.
Not a single pistol was aimed her direction.
Not a single gun turned toward her.
Not a single gun dared to take its aim from its mindless target.
Jeff slowly realized she knew that nobody was willing to take their aim
off of whoever was already in front of their gun, willing to risk turning their
gun toward her from the insane fear that they would be suddenly defenseless
against whatever gun’s direction happened to coincide with their place in the
room. She inched slowly toward the curtain as Joel screamed, “DON’T YOU
ASSHOLES GET IT? Look, we are a team here! She and that congressman, that
faker, THEY ARE THE BAD GUYS!”
Not a single gun changed aim.
Jeff watched what Shonna was doing, saw it was working!
He began to mimic her, slowly making his way toward the back door that
was his escape only ten feet away.
Exactly the same thing happened.
Eyes followed.
Not a single gun changed direction.
Jeff moved so slowly, he felt like a movie in slow motion. Like those
clips you see of a drop of water falling into a pool where you can watch it
falling falling falling, touching the surface, rebounding splashes that take
seconds to witness. A half-second of motion unfolding into a minute. Now a
minute was expanding into what felt like an hour.
The great dragon, its huge vicious maw circling the room was breathing in
desperate deep pants through thirty dozens of mouths, watching Jeff and Shonna
inch to their escapes.
Slowly.
All eyes captivated.
Not a single gun moved.
Joel turned his head suddenly to Jeff but made no other movement as his
gun held steady into its directionless aim.
Jeff continued to slowly, so slowly inch his way to the back door, but
not once did Joel’s aim change from the senseless bearing of the gun straight ahead
of him.
Jeff finally reached the back door seeing Shonna waiting at the curtain,
her right hand reaching behind the black curtain hanging in the front doorway,
ready to push through it.
He could see the faintest signal in her eyes that she wanted him to turn
his door knob now, she was waiting for him before she pushed through the
curtain.
She was not going to leave until he went though the door.
The room was pulsing with its great anxious breath, this enormous dragon
barely breathed, panting, slowly, breathe in, holding its collective lungs full,
breathe out. This room had transformed into that great beast ready to swallow every
person in it, waiting with its slow heavy panting, its bright glistening teeth
bared pointing inward to the tongue, Joel, standing at its opening, quivering
in fear, each tooth bearing tiny letters, Smith
and Wesson, Colt, Browning, Glock, each tooth itching to
spit its venom that would cause the entire beast to lurch up consuming every
soul in its reach. Fingers tremored on triggers as the dragon whispered into
each ear with its hot toxic breath, its brutal deep voice.
Be distrustful!
Be wary!
Be ready!
Jeff watched Shonna at the curtain. He suddenly saw that black drape
like some kind of magical barrier. That simple piece of dark cloth didn’t just
separate two rooms, it was the divider
between two worlds. No, it was the
divider between two universes. This
side was an insane place, a gnarly twisted Gulliver Land that always contained
some sort of beast whether is was the volcano of sexual energy of a room full
of lusty men or the dragon reared up before them now with its cruel metal teeth
bared. That black drape was the high wall, rails at the zoo keeping a vicious
creature from bounding out of its keep to devour everything in its path.
Jeff desperately wanted to be in that other world, with his hand he slowly
started turning the knob on that back door as Shonna started to lean toward the
curtain, soon the door in front of Jeff was unlatched. He slowly pulled open
the door as she stood waiting, watching her watching him. She was not going to
leave the room until he was through the door. He pulled the door outward, it
gave a small creak, all eyes darted to Jeff at the door!
Not a single gun changed direction.
“Stop them, you idiots! STOP THEM!” Joel’s face turned red as the
tendons in his neck strained, his throat pulsing with his heartbeat, “STOP
THEM!”
Not a single gun changed direction.
In a second Jeff stepped though the door without pulling the door closed
behind him finding he was in a short corridor leading to stairs, he could see
only darkness going down. Without thinking he put his hands on each wall
stepping down the stairs as quickly, quietly in the dark as possible. He
stumbled when he got to the bottom in the darkness. He looked up, light from
the bar framing the doorway above him barely casting the tiniest glow down the
stairs. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he saw in the faint light two doors
next to him, one on the left, one on the right. He realized that the stairs he
had just descended were exactly like the ones they had gone down yesterday to
the tunnel, on the exact other side of the wall on his right, that the door on
his right was the door he had seen facing the tunnel. The enforcers, the thugs
who sat at the back of the bar the other night came through the tunnel, this
door, then up the stairs to the bar! That this was how they got in and out of
the bar without mixing with the club’s patrons! He smiled to himself
remembering his words to Shonna about how the layout of Magic Town’s
building was so simple. Maybe not so simple.
The door on the left had a faint outline of light, he could see light coming
from under the door. He turned to the door, pressing his ear against it, stood
listening at it. He could hear soft music, like from a radio, some kind of
shuffling noise. He turned the knob opening the door slowly, just slightly to
look in.
The door hinges squeaked.
S-H-R-I-E-K! from women in the room. He pushed the door open to see it
was the counting room that he’d heard so much about with three women sitting in
front of stacks of money, turned to Jeff wide eyed, terrified expressions, he
blinked at the room’s brightness. One woman jumped up in surprise at Jeff’s
sudden entry from the back door, her hands held up, ready to defend herself. None
of them said a word.
“It’s all right,” he said, his hands up in calming, “It’s okay, I just
need to get through.” He’d never been in that room but it was as he had
imagined, “No mistaking this place,” he said out loud.
The women watched him drop-jawed, petrified with tall piles of cash in
front of them. He turned to close the door behind him wondering at this back door,
maybe an escape? It all made sense, for an instant as he tried to remember what
Shonna had shown him about the club’s floor plan. He laughed to himself as he
looked at the four women with rows of stacks of money in front of them with a
little yellow sticky label in front of each with two letters, the initials,
Jeff realized. I guess life goes on, he
thought to himself as he walked through the room noticing a metal secretary’s
desk with a computer on top thinking this must be Shonna’s digs.
He stepped through the room pulling open the second door that he had
seen when he was in front of Shonna’s dressing room. The guard jumped up startled
with a terrified expression on his face, gun drawn pointing at Jeff.
Jeff raised his hands in front of him trying to assure the guard, “It’s
okay, really,” Jeff backed around him. Jeff glanced backward to the door he
just came through, “I’m a good guy, just let me get back up to Shonna, okay? I
mean bad guys go into this door,
right?” He nodded at the door standing open, “Not out of it, right? Make sense?” The guard looked confused, eyes back
and forth between the door and Jeff, watching as Jeff walked so very slowly down
the hall past the door with the big gold star on the right, turning left up the
stairs toward the club’s front door. As he started to take the first step onto
the stairs he gave the guard one last nod, the guard looked back absolutely
dumfounded with his gun still pointed at Jeff.
Jeff bounded up the stairs, trying to be quiet, a desperate need to find
Shonna. As he reached the top he saw Shonna crouching, holding her gun in her
right hand pointing at the curtain that leads to the bar.
“What now?” he whispered.
She pointed to the opened outer hallway door, hanging open on their
right. With a motion like a finger to her mouth with her gun she signaled him
to be quiet as she pointed with her other hand to her ear, she wanted to hear
what was going on in the bar! There was not a single sound coming from the bar,
Jeff could hear the dragon’s heavy panting through the black curtain.
PAP! a single shot sounded
through the curtain from the bar––
R-O-O-A-A-R!
the dragon spit its great fiery breath with the deafening chorus of gun fire.
Two bullets ripped through the curtain passing in front of Jeff’s face smashing
through the front door as wood splinters flew onto them, Jeff seeing the
curtain fluff from bullets ripping through, tiny dots of sunlight bursts into
the little hallway through two small holes suddenly appearing in the front door
to his right, another hole appearing to the right of those as more wood
splinters flew into the room, another dot of sunlight appeared, he reached
around feeling hair missing off the back of his head, “Oh Jesus!” he ducked.
“We gotta go!” Shonna poked him, another hole appearing in the front
door as wood chips flew at them, “But not the front door!” Shonna yanked him by
the arm dragging him ahead to the outer hallway door, flying through the door. She
turned, slammed the door shut behind them quickly testing to make sure it was
locked, they ran down the hall past Antonio’s office when Shonna stopped,
turned back to Antonio’s room. She opened the door, stepped in, scanning the
room gun held out in both hands.
Jeff stood behind her whispering, “What’s wrong?”
She walked around the room looking behind chairs with gun pointed. She
whispered, “Nothing, just wanted to make sure there are no more surprises,”
stepping to the door, turning left down the hallway as Jeff followed, over her
shoulder, “No more surprises for us today!”
Just as Jeff emerged into the hall they heard the sound of voices coming
down the hall from the back of the building.
They stood frozen as Shonna craned forward listening. They heard the
sound of a door slam.
Slowly they crept toward the back of the building. Even with the sound
insulation they could still hear gun shots coming from the bar, now they were single
shots, not the roar that had erupted only a few seconds before, occasionally
the sound of a plunk to their left as a bullet hit the thick wooden walls of
the bar, thank god for old-fashioned
construction crossed Jeff’s mind.
And they are still shooting!
They made their way slowly down the outer hallway, Jeff could see dried
bloody hand prints on the walls from yesterday when he shot through the door. Dead man’s blood, Jeff thought quickly.
Soon they went left, coming to the back door to the parking lot.
Shonna leaned forward to the door, Jeff leaning over her shoulder. She
pulled the door open slowly peering out. The back parking lot was filled with
big black cars, a row of intense faces glaring at the building in wonder at the
noises they were hearing, many with guns drawn. Jeff felt is stomach drop. These are the bad guys’ drivers!
One man, chauffeur hat on his head turned sharply to them, his coat
flying open Jeff seeing the gun holster strapped to his chest his right hand reaching
for the gun, “Hey!” running for the door other men following running after him
sunlight glints off guns.
Shonna yanked the door closed, locked it. Shaking her head looking up to
Jeff intently, “Nope, not going out there!”
A loud THUMP! hit the heavy metal door. THUMP! THUMP! Jeff heard muffled
angry shouts THUMP! THUMP! pounding against the strong metal.
They turned to the left, a few more feet to the door leading to the
tunnel. THUMP! THUMP! muffled shouts.
Shonna tried the knob, locked! Taking a step back rearing up BANG! a hard
kick the door flying open light burst into the hallway blinking eyes from light
Shonna dived through the door Jeff on her heels down the stairs right running
down the long cement tunnel passing more dried bloody hand prints smeared on walls
Jeff watching the bloody handprints fly past them as they ran.
Pounding on the back door stopped.
They came to the other set of stairs they had seen yesterday, Shonna
stopped with her hands on her knees bending over, paused panting. “Wait, catch your
breath, I think we’re safe!” They listened carefully as they tried to contain
their breathing, could hear nothing coming from the club. “Sounds like they’re
all done. They all killed each other.” Jeff tried to imagine the chaos––oh my god, chaos!
They had managed to orchestrate true
chaos!
They stood just getting their breath when they heard the faint sound of
police and ambulance sirens knowing that whatever happened in the bar was done.
Jeff looked at her questioningly, “No, we can’t go back, we don’t know what’s
up there, who’s left.” She paused questioning her own words, “No, too
dangerous, we were lucky to get the hell out of there, we can’t go back.” Jeff
nodded approval. “Let’s wait a minute, I need to think.”
She got down on her right knee like he’d seen her do before in Antonio’s
office, he could hear her whisper. “Stop Nancy,
stop. Stop, think, act. What to do?” Her face gained an almost reverent
expression reserved for people sitting in pews, a tranquil aura arose from her,
like she was meditating.
Jeff felt minutes passing, getting nervously impatient he finally
pointed to the stairs, she jumped up with a loud whisper, “Okay, let’s go!” They
climbed the stairs. “I knew I should have come up here yesterday, what was I
thinking? Now we don’t know what to expect!”
At the top a door was ajar, faint daylight coming from around the right
side. She crept up to the door looking through the opening. “Some kind of
warehouse,” she whispered as she listened at the door looking back at Jeff, creeping
behind her. She pushed open the door, stepped through as Jeff followed. They stepped
into the warehouse that was cavernous with maybe only ten crates piled around
near the door they came out, many of them empty. The front wall had roll-up
doors with barred windows, daylight streaming into the cavernous building.
Shonna walked slowly, her gun pointed ahead. She heard a sound, spun, “SHOW
YOURSELF!”
There was a shuffling sound, a person appeared, the brightness of the
window behind was blinding as they squinted to make out the face.
Jeff peered, squinching his eyes.
He realized who it was.
“Jennifer?”
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