Monsters
By
Karen Singer
Chapter 10 – Mexican Hat Dance – Part 2 of 2
They followed the man back into the
restaurant, back to the table where Lozano and the other men were sitting. They stopped right where they had
before. “We were almost gone,” Brandy
told him. “If we had been able to find a
cab, we would have been.”
“But you weren’t,” Lozano pointed
out. “You were right outside still. Waiting for me to call you back.”
“Uh, boss,” the man who had brought
them back in said. “They were halfway
down the block, walking away.”
Lozano stared at the women for a
moment, then laughed. “You don’t even
have your own car, and you expect to be able to help us?”
“Our transportation is still on the
way,” Carol told him. “It won’t be here
until tomorrow.”
“Stupid women!” Lozano swore. “Why did I even think you could help?”
“Why did you bother bringing us
back?” Brandy said back to him. “We
could have found a cab by now and headed back to our hotel!”
“Throw them out!” Lozano
ordered. “Throw both those bitches out
of here!”
Four men got up from the table and
approached the women. Brandy and Carol
stood still and just waited. One of the
men reached for Brandy, and she moved.
So did Carol. Brandy yanked on
the man’s arm while her leg kicked out and caught the other man under the
chin. She spun the first man around,
flipping in over onto his back and landed a vicious punch to his chin as he
landed on the floor, knocking him out like her foot had done to the other
man. While she was doing that, Carol
moved like greased lightning between the two on her side and hooked each of
them under their armpits. She pulled
them off their feet and banged their heads so hard together that they both
dropped unconscious to the floor.
Brandy and Carol resumed their places
standing next to each other. “You only
did that because you were testing us,” Carol said to him. “You didn’t believe what anyone else told you
about us. Now you’ve got a decision to
make, and I suggest you make it very fast.
You can either work with us, or take a chance that by pissing us off we
won’t wipe you off the map right now…or maybe that Ret here will come up with
one of her famous pieces of retribution against you, and you’ll wish we had
killed you instead.”
Lozano stared at the two of them,
his face still in shock from the speed the two had displayed when they had
taken down his men. Finally, he
spoke. “I have seen assassins before. I have hired a few of them. But I have never seen anyone move as
fast as either of you. It is positively
uncanny.” His eyes glanced toward the
floor. “Are they dead?”
“Good question,” Carol
replied. “They may be. I wasn’t trying to kill them.”
“I wasn’t either,” Brandy
replied. “But I’m not going to bend down
to check on them when there’s a possibility that someone else may come at me.”
“Check for yourself,” Carol told
him.
Lozano nodded toward two of his
men. They got up from the table and
checked on their fallen comrades. “These
two are both out cold,” the first man said.
“They’re alive though.”
“Same over here,” the other man
replied.
They both stood up from where they
had been bending over their friends and headed for their seats.
Lozano waited until his men were
seated. “It seems that at least some of
what I heard about each of you may be justified. I don’t like asking for help. I especially don’t like asking women
for help. But if you think you can do
something about whoever is trying to wipe me out, then I’ll at least
listen. Anything more, I cannot be
guarantee.”
“We’re not going to guarantee
anything either,” Brandy told him.
“We’re still trying to find out what’s been going on. So for now, we just want to know what
happened to the men in your organization who were killed. Asking questions right now is the only way
for us to find out who’s behind it and stop them.”
Lozano’s eyes glanced at the empty
seats at the end of the table.
“Sit. Both of you.” He turned his head toward someone further
behind them. “Wine. Tequila.
And appetizers for the ladies.”
He turned to Carol and Brandy.
“Anything for lunch?”
“We ate Chinese,” Carol told him.
Lozano made a face that told her he
didn’t approve of Chinese food.
“Lozano,” Brandy said. “How many men have you lost already? The last report we saw said it was eight.”
“Nine now. We lost another one last night.”
“What happened?”
“What happened? We found Alonzo dead this morning.”
“Was he shot or was his throat
cut?” Carol asked.
“Throat cut? He was shot.
Just like all the rest of them.”
“Where did it happen?” Brandy
asked.
“One of our warehouses. He went out last night to grab some stuff for
a delivery, and he never got there.”
“What kind of stuff?” Brandy asked.
Lozano shook his head. “Unlike all the others in this city, we only
have a few small casinos. We deal
in…other things instead.”
“And nobody saw anything?” Carol
asked.
“We didn’t even know he was dead
until this morning.”
“Do you have any video cameras
around where any of your people were murdered?
Or even any in the general vicinity?” Brandy asked.
“Do you think that the places where
these men work, would have video cameras?”
That told Brandy lot. “How about any of the other murders. Did anybody see anything at all?”
“Two,” Lozano said. “Two of my men saw…almost nothing. And in each case, it was too little to know
much at all.”
“Can we talk to them?”
“You can talk to Daniel here. You can talk with Juan too…if he ever wakes
up. He’s on the floor behind you.”
Brandy looked over to the man he
had called Daniel. “What happened?”
“Whatever actually happened,”
Daniel replied, “happened before I had a chance to know there was something
going on. I came out of one of our
buildings downtown, out into the parking lot behind the building, and I heard a
shot. I saw Sebastian fall to the
pavement. I ducked for cover and by the
time I looked out, all I saw was someone’s back as they ran away.”
“Interesting,” Carol said. “Tell me Daniel, could you tell if whoever it
was had his face hidden?”
Daniel seemed surprised. “I don’t know. I did see that he had some kind of black cloth
wrapped around his head.”
Carol glanced over at Brandy, then
continued. “How about the way he was
holding his gun. Was it a rifle or a
handgun?”
“I didn’t see a handgun, but the
shot sounded like a rifle. Something
powerful.”
Carol nodded. “So you couldn’t see how he carried his
rifle?”
“No. I only saw his back.”
“Okay. How was he dressed?”
“I don’t know. Just like everyone else, I guess. Nothing I really noticed.”
“How about his boots?” Brandy
asked. “Could you tell about them?”
“Not really. I only saw him for that brief moment and then
he was gone.”
“Is it possible,” Brandy asked
next, that there could have been more than one of them there?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, I only saw the one.”
Brandy nodded and looked over to
Carol. “It’s still sounding a lot like
what we heard earlier.”
“Yeah. I noticed that right away. I’m betting the same two guys.”
“Two?” Lozano asked.
“Two in this crew,” Carol
replied. “We think they’re hired
ex-military mercenaries. The way they
move, the way they carry their guns, and at least one of them is a very deadly
shot.”
“So, who is hiring these
mercenaries?”
“That’s what we’re still trying to
figure out.”
“But you’re sure that these
ex-military men are what we’re up against?”
“So far, that’s what it’s looking
like,” Brandy replied.
“What worries me,” Carol added, is
that where there’s one, there’s usually a lot more. “I’m guessing at least eight to ten. Probably working in two-man teams. And as in all such groups, some of them will
be skilled in different areas.”
“Skilled in different areas?”
Lozano asked.
“Explosives, electronics,
knives. You get the picture? We know that at least one of them likes
working with knives.”
Lozano nodded. “So how do we find them?”
“We just started looking. But if they’re as disciplined as they seem to
be so far, they’re going to be good at covering any trace of themselves.”
“So what should we do?” Lozano
asked.
“Whatever you do, don’t let any of
your men go anywhere in groups of less than four or five,” Carol told him. “Everyone needs to stay together. That may cut down on some of the
murders. But what I’m really worried
about is them still picking their targets off from a distance. As I mentioned, we know that at least one of
them is a very good shot.”
“I’m worried about something else,”
Brandy brought up.
“What?” Carol asked.
“In each case we’ve talked about so
far, they knew exactly who to kill and where to find them. That’s not easy knowledge to come by.”
“A mole, in every organization?”
Carol suggested.
“It’s possible. Either that, or they’ve got some really good
surveillance. And I wouldn’t rule that
out either.”
“No. You’re right.
A good group like that would probably have very good surveillance
capabilities. We need to be on the
lookout for that too.”
“Do you want us to wake up Juan so
you can talk to him too?” Lozano asked.
“Did he report anything different
than Daniel?” Brandy asked.
“No. except he never saw anyone at all. He just heard a shot and the man walking
right next to him died. He never saw
anything else.”
“Shit!” Brandy muttered.
“Sniper,” Carol stated.
Brandy looked up at Lozano. “Can you do us a favor?”
“What?”
“Call us a cab so we can get back
to our hotel.”
“I’ll have one of my men drive
you.”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
The two women walked through the
front door of their hotel. Going through
the lobby, Carol suddenly grabbed Brandy’s arm and stopped her. “Looks like we’ve got news.”
“What?”
Carol nodded her head in the
direction of a Chinese man heading towards them. “A messenger.”
“How do you know?”
“He works as one of the waiters for
that Chinese restaurant.”
“Oh.”
The man walked up to Carol and
bowed slightly. “I have been sent with a
message,” he told her. “The Duchess has
arrived and wants to see you tomorrow.”
Carol brightened. “Really?
I can’t wait. Where is she?”
“Same place as last time.”
“Will the bike I sent for be here
by then?”
“Later tonight,” the man replied.
“Perfect.” She turned to Brandy. “We’re going riding tomorrow.” She turned back to the man. “Thank you, your news is very good.”
The man bowed, then walked away.
“The Duchess?”
“My mother.”
“Your mother is a duchess?”
“No. Not really.
Although everyone treats her like a queen. It’s a code name they use for her…a lot!”
“I’m going to finally get to meet
your mother?”
“Tomorrow.”
“And until then?”
Carol smiled. “Let’s see what fun we can find.”
“Got any rope?” Brandy asked.
“You know I do.”
“Good. Because I want to find some dumb Mexican
patsy, and tie him up in such a way that the strain will probably cause him to
rip his own balls off. After that
Mexican hat dance we just went through with Lozano, I’m ready to kill the next
Mexican we see.”
Carol laughed. “I have no doubt that between the two of us
we can find someone to play with.”
“And while we’re doing that,”
Brandy continued, “I need to make sure that poor little Ralphie gets his share
of fun as well.”
“I can’t wait.”
