Monsters - Chapter 15 – Hidden Monster – Part 2 of 2

Monsters

By Karen Singer

Chapter 15 – Hidden Monster – Part 2 of 2

Thirty minutes later, the two of them headed down in the hotel elevator.  “I was right,” Carol said, “that suit with the red wig looks hot on you!  Even better with the mask.  Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the room for a while?”

“Later, when we’re done,” Brandy replied.

“Later, we have to figure out how to meet Vince…the beast!  Whoopie!”

“I meant after that.”

“Oh.  Oh well.  Just for that, I’m going to go out of my way to find something to shoot at this morning.”

“You’d shoot something…or someone…before tea-time?”

“I don’t believe in waiting for the niceties when it comes to killing someone.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you might have aggression issues?”

“I think the only one who hasn’t, is my mother.”

Downstairs, they found a car waiting for them in front of the hotel.  They climbed into the back seat.  Five minutes later, Brandy alone got out of the car and watched as the Chinese man drove off with Carol in the backseat.  While they were in the car, the man had fitted all three of them with communication devices so they could all hear what was going on.  Once the car was gone, Brandy asked for her motorcycle to be brought out for her.  She pulled the red mask down on her face before she pulled her helmet on.  A minute later, she was carefully driving the powerful bike through downtown Las Vegas, heading for one of the parks near the southern side of the city.

Once she got near her destination, she pulled off into a parking lot to wait a few minutes.  The last thing she wanted was to be early.  Two minutes after stopping, she saw a limo drive past.  She couldn’t help but notice the two expensive black cars surrounding it.  Allingham?  She had no way of knowing.  She waited ten more minutes before she cranked her bike and took off in the same direction that the limo had gone.

She had studied the maps, so she knew where she was going.  Finding the park was easy.  Finding the limo and the two black cars was even easier.  They were all parked in the corner of the parking lot, well inside the park.

“Dee, are you there?” she asked as she pulled over before actually entering the parking area.

“Here Ret,” the voice came back in her ear.  “I see you at the back of the lot.  They’ve got one guy hidden in the bushes on your side.  He’s got a rifle.  They had another one with a handgun on this side.  Since we were coming from behind him, it was all I could do to not just kill him.  He is sleeping though.  I have no doubt he’s going to wake up with a monster headache later.  We’re making our way toward the other one right now, but it’s going to take a few minutes, so be careful.”

“Got it.  Thanks,” Brandy replied.  “If you’re going to be on that side, I’ll park where I should stay out of your way.”

“Good.  I wouldn’t hit you, but my line of sight is going to be obscured as it is.”

“Got it.  Good luck.”

“You too.”

Brandy slowly moved her bike, but instead of going through the parking lot, she went up onto the grass and took the walking path in the direction of the car.  As she drove, she passed a blonde woman who was walking hand in hand with a Chinese man.  Carol and a guy from the restaurant.  She pulled her bike off the path and came to a stop right in front of Allingham’s limo.  She pulled her helmet off her head, exposing her red wig and mask. 

The doors to the cars opened first and four men piled out of each of them.  They all had guns in their hands and were pointing them at her.  She shook her head.  “I’d be careful if I were you,” she announced.  “I didn’t come alone!”

The door to the limo opened.  Two more men got out, one of them opened the rear door of the limo.  She got her first glimpse at Allingham.  He was tall and thin.  His light grey suit looked very expensive.  The Stetson hat he was wearing she thought was a bit much, but overall, he did look the part of a Vegas criminal boss.  “Allingham?” she asked.

“And you must be the famous Retribution that Morrow was talking about,” Allingham replied sarcastically.

“I hope I’m not that famous,” Brandy replied.

“Where’s your friend?”

“Like I told your men, I didn’t come alone.  I also know that you didn’t either.  And I’m not talking about the men right here in front of me.  You had a man in the bushes on each side, one with a rifle, the other with just a handgun.  I know that one of them is down already and the other…”  she listened for a moment.  “Scratch that, they’re both down now.”

Allingham looked angry.  “You killed them?”

“Not me, and unfortunately, they’re not dead, either of them.  “My friend says they’re probably going to wake up with some pretty bad headaches.”

“Where is your friend?”

“Somewhere,” Brandy replied.  “Actually, the way she operates, she could be almost anywhere, even right behind you and you probably wouldn’t even know it.  But just know that she’s watching my back and will kill you and your men if you get any ideas about trying to take me out.”

Allingham stood to his full height and turned his head in all directions trying to find her.  As he was doing it, his hat suddenly flew off his head.

“Told you I’d find something to shoot at,” the voice came in Brandy’s ear.

Allingham realized that he hadn’t heard a shot.  The gun had been silenced.  His eyes searched angrily around, but the only thing he saw was the blonde woman and her boyfriend out on the walking path towards the other side of the parking lot.  It was obvious that the shot couldn’t have come from them since the two of them were standing there kissing.

One of Allingham’s men picked the hat up and handed it to him.  Allingham noted the bullet hole in the top of it.  “Your friend likes to take chances,” he said angrily as he carefully placed the hat back on his head.

“That she does.  But that doesn’t mean she isn’t very good at her job.  They don’t call her Death for nothing.”

“Death and Retribution.  The two words I’ve heard way too much about in the last few days.  Silly stupidity!”

His hat suddenly went flying again.  Allingham and all his men ducked for cover.

“The last thing you want to do is call Death stupid,” Brandy told him.  “Now can we get down to business, or would you like to see more of how well she can shoot?”

Allingham slowly stood up in front of his car again.  He looked around.  The man and woman were still kissing.  He turned his attention back to Brandy.  “What is it you want?”

“We’ve been trying to find men that were around when the murders took place.  Trying to ask what any of them saw.  We’ve been doing our best to piece things together from what little they’ve been able to tell us.  From what we’ve been able to gather, next to Lozano, you’ve lost the most men.  But the way they’ve been picking off Lozano’s people, we’re pretty sure they just want to wipe him off his map first to get him out of the way.  There is his drug pipeline though which I have no doubt would be very lucrative to someone if they knew how to gain access to it.”

Allingham stared at her.  The angry set of his face told her that something she had just said had touched a raw nerve with him.

“Let me guess,” she said.  “Lozano is your supplier.”

“One of them,” he admitted.  “Actually, our biggest.”

“Which means that he’s probably supplying to everyone else in Vegas too.”

“I wouldn’t know, but it’s possible.  He seems to have the least problem getting the drugs through.”

“Which also makes him that much more of a prime target.  Someone has this very well planned.”

“You’re just now figuring that out?  Morrow didn’t need to send for you to tell us that!”

“No.  But did any of you figure out that whoever is behind it has hired some ex-military mercenaries to carry out the killings?”

“Mercenaries!  Are you sure?”

“That’s what it’s looking like.  And the more we look, the more it seems to confirm that.  I’m guessing that because of your business, you’re probably better informed than most of the others.  Is there anyone you know that might have that kind of ties to the military?”

Allingham seemed to consider that.  He finally shook his head.  “No.  Believe it or not, I don’t see any of the major players in the city having anything at all to do with the military.  Which to me, points to someone new.  Someone outside of the city.”

“That’s certainly a possibility,” Brandy had to admit.  “But at the same time, one of the things that concerns us the most, is their intelligence.  They seem to know too much about not only who to kill, but where they’re going to be when they do take them out.”

Allingham considered that.  “That’s…true,” he admitted.  “It sounds like I need to take a closer look at some of my own men.”

“I would if I were you.  Just like every other boss in the city.”

Allingham nodded.  “All of us.”

Brandy decided it was time to move into what she really wanted to know.  “Did Morrow pass on that I wanted to talk with some of your men who were around when the others were killed?”

Allingham nodded.  “Gary!  Sully!  Butch!”  With a motion of his head, three of the men moved forward.  None of them were pointing their guns at her, but none of them put their guns away either.

Brandy simply chose the one on her left.  “Tell me about what happened,” she said to him.

The man looked to Allingham, who nodded his okay.  Then he spoke.  “It was like a nightmare.  Four of us were heading from the back of one of our buildings out to the car.  Two shots came from two different directions at almost the same time.  Wilson pitched forward and Murphy was blown backwards with half his head missing.  We ran for cover, but when we looked around, we didn’t see anyone or anything.  The closest we could figure was that they were shooting from two different rooftops.  Then the moment they got their shots off, they got the hell out of there.”

Brandy heard Carol swear in her ear.  “Coordinated attacks,” Carols said.  “Someone is using communications to orchestrate it.”

“Troubling,” Brandy muttered in reply.  She looked to the guy she had been talking with.  “When did this happen?”

“Last night!”

“Shit!” Carol said.  “It almost sounds like they’re evolving.  Improving their plan of attack.

Brandy said nothing.  She turned to the man in the middle.  “What did you see?”

“I followed Mikey Thomas out the front door of one of our casinos.  There was a gunshot and he got blown off his feet.”

“What did you do?”

“Me?  I hit the ground, rolled and pulled my gun.  I saw someone pointing a rifle at me over top of one of the cars.  Couldn’t see much else of him though.  I grabbed one of the women trying to run out of there and used her for cover while I backed up into the casino.  By the time I looked out again, whoever it was, was gone.  All that was left was my boss, Mikey, lying on the sidewalk.”

“They did it right in front of all the people,” Carol noted through Brandy’s earpiece.

“It’s not the first time,” Brandy replied.

“No, it’s not.”

“What?” the guy asked, clearly confused.

“Never mind,” Brandy told him.  “I’m just having a bit of a conversation with my friend.”

“She’s listening?”

“What do you think?  Tell me, and this may be important, did you see his face, or did he have his head all wrapped up in a black cloth.”

The man was clearly surprised by the question.  “Come to think of it, he did have his head wrapped, just like that.  It’s one of the reasons we didn’t know who or even where to look for them.”

“But all you saw of them was their wrapped-up head?”

“That’s it.  The guy was crouched down behind the car so just his head was sticking out.  His gun was resting on the hood.”

“His gun.  What kind of rifle was it?”

“I have no idea.  A rifle.  Not a handgun.”

“Could it have been a military type automatic rifle?”

“I wouldn’t have any idea.  It all went down real fast.”

“Did you see a second man?” Brandy asked him.  “We’ve discovered that they usually use two-man teams.”

“If there was a second guy, I didn’t see him.  I only remember the rifle sticking out over top of that car.”

“And when did this happen?” Brandy asked next.

“Almost three weeks ago now.”

“They’ve definitely improved their techniques,” Carol noted.

“Did you ever hear what kind of bullets hit your boss?” Brandy asked next.  “What caliber?”

It was Allingham who answered that question though.  “Big.  High powered.  In every case.”

Brandy nodded.  “No surprise,” she replied.  She looked to the third man.  “When did your bit of fun happen?”

“Just over a week ago,” the man replied.

“So your little experience happened between the others.  Tell me about it.”

“We were getting ready to transfer the nights casino takings into the armored truck.”

“Was the truck already there?”

“Yeah.  The doors were opened, and the guards were waiting on the cash.”

“Okay, go on.”

“We pushed the cart out the door and over to the truck.”

“Who’s we?  How many men?”

“Oh, three.  That’s pretty standard.  And don’t forget there were the two guards from the transfer company too.”

“Right.  Go on.”

“We pushed the cart to the back of the truck and suddenly there was a loud gunshot, and Benny Hertz’s head splattered all over us.  We all ducked for cover and pulled our guns, but there was literally nothing to see.  But the bullet that took out Benny had gone right through his head and it took out Cal as well.  Two with just one shot!  Like Sully said earlier, we’re pretty sure the shooter was on top of the building next to the casino.”

“We found no one!” Allingham added.  “Nobody even remembered seeing anyone that looked like they could have been carrying a gun.”

“Could have been a sniper rifle that breaks down into smaller pieces,” Carol noted.

“Yeah,” Brandy agreed.  “She looked at Allingham.  “My friend thinks it was probably a professional sniper rifle.”

“The shot was professional,” Allingham noted.

Brandy turned back to the man who had been speaking.  “Did you see anything at all that might indicate a second person was there?”

“No.  Since the sound of the shot echoed around off the buildings, we weren’t even sure where the shot came from until we had time to figure out which way the bullet had to have come from by the way it hit both of them.”

“There was a second person,” Carol said positively.  “A sniper usually uses a spotter, someone to help identify the target.”

Brandy looked to Allingham.  “My friend is sure there was a second person with the shooter,” she said.  “The other person was the spotter to help identify the target.”

“So, you still think it was military mercenaries?”

“I do…we do.  Both of us,” Brandy replied.  “The problem is, we still don’t know who hired them.  Dee, you got any questions?”

“Yeah.  Where do we find these mercenaries?”

Brandy looked to Allingham.  “My friend wants to know if you have any idea where a mercenary group like we’re facing here might be hold up?”

Allingham shook his head.  “Not a clue.  If I did, they’d already be dead.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Anything else Dee?” Brandy asked.

“Yeah, but it involves how long before I can get you back to the room.”

Brandy looked back to Allingham.  “Thanks for the chat.  We’ve just confirmed that they’re adjusting their style as time goes on.  They’re evolving their methods to make them more efficient.  That doesn’t help you, but it shows us what we’re up against.  Now all we have to do is find these bastards.”

She stuck her helmet back on her head, cranked the bike, and roared out of there.  On her way out, she saw no sign of Carol at all.