He took a
swig. It burned going down just as much as the last three had. He looked around
the five-by-ten room. Ahead to the left was a small kitchen with plates and
dishes piled up. The grime had turned nearly black. Piled on the countertop were
boxes upon boxes of empty and some not-so empty take-away containers of Chinese
food.
To the
right was a cot, meticulously made, giving off a dichotomy to the other half of
the room. The green fabric of the blanket tucked under the thin mattress was
stained in several places.
Behind him,
he could hear a thumping sound, and the irate sounds of a mother at her wits
end with her child who was pushing the boundaries of what he could get away
with. Each thump followed by a yell pounded like a jackhammer into his head.
“You’re
really taking it to the drink, aren’t ya? The night’s still early.”
He looked
to his right at the small table where he sat. “It’ll kill the pain, Jacobs.”
“I told you
to call me Frank. We’re buds now, right, Kel?”
Kel nodded
and poured more whiskey into the glass in front of him.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
“Aren’t you going to get that?”
“It’s just
SpaceBook.” He replied, turning off his com.
Frank
Jacobs was still wearing his blue-grey suit from work. His tie was undone,
revealing a red neck significant of a man who had already drunk too much
himself. “What pain? Aniko turn you down again? Man, she ain’t worth it. All
those Marketing slags got a stick up their arse. You can do better.”
Out of the
corner of Kel’s eye, he swore he saw a cockroach skitter from one container to
another. It had to have been three inches long, and the thought took all of his
will to keep his lunch down.
“Not the
pain now, the pain to come.” Kel said as he took one last drink.
The drunken
stupor on Jacobs’ face became quizzical as Kel pushed back his chair and stood
up. From under the table, a briefcase was pulled out and placed on the table,
knocking the glass off the table to shatter upon the linoleum floor.
“Hey, you’ve
had too much to drink. That’s my good glass.”
Kel ignored
his drinking companion as he opened the briefcase, and accessed a secret
compartment.
Jacobs’
eyes widened when he saw the gun pulled from the briefcase. “Why ya carryin’
around that?”
Kel cocked
a bullet into the chamber before pulling a white rose from the briefcase and
placed it on the table.
Running
full speed into the door frame, Kel could hear the crack of his nose breaking.
Warm blood flowed down over his lips with the distinctive taste of metal.
“Oi, you’re
gettin’ blood all over my floor. What’s gotten into you Kel?”
Without a
word, Kel turned the gun on his left arm and pulled the trigger. Even with the
whiskey in his system, the pain was still excruciating.
Jacobs
stood up, unsure of what he was going to do. He could make a run for it, but
Kel was blocking the door. The sounds of the child next door crying and his
mother screaming were muffled, like listening to them underwater. When the gun
leveled to him, Jacobs was frozen, unable to move or think. He was an onlooker,
watching someone else. There was little time to react as pieces of drywall
struck his head as Kel fired on either side of him before a third bullet struck
him between the eyes. Jacobs’ body slumped to the floor as his blood splattered
across the white rose on the table.
Kel opened
the door to the hallway before firing off the rest of his gun down the hall.
The last thing he remembered was opening up his com to call the authorities.
***
The tall
black man handed a shorter white man a sandwich wrapped in tin foil. Each were
wearing cowboy hats with black suits and no ties.
“No mayo,
right?”
“Uhh.”
“I told you
no mayo. You know I hate it.”
The black
man traded sandwiches. “Sorry.”
“Don’t
worry about it. Let’s just find out what this guy knows, and be out of here.”
They walked
down the hallway of a hospital, stopping at Room 324. Inside was a man lying on
a bed, his arm in a sling, and a bandage across his nose.
“Mr. Stevens?”
the white man asked.
The man sat
up in his bed. “Yeah, are you guys with the insurance company?”
“No, we’re
with Sunbeam Multistellar Corporation. I’m Mr. Hoyt, this is Mr. Luthren” He
said pointing to the taller man.
“Oh, well I
already explained everything to the cops.”
“We know.
What we’re lookin’ for is why.” Hoyt sat down in a nearby chair while Lutheren
stood imposing to block any exits.
“I mean I
didn’t recognize the guy. He was wearing a mask.”
“And you
managed to grab his gun?”
“Yeah, I took
a bullet for the effort, but I was drunk and shot. Never fired a gun before.
Shame he got away.”
“A shame.”
Lutheren nodded.
“From what
we could find,” Hoyt opened his com. “Mr. Jacobs was heavily in debt for
gambling and other . . . expenses.”
“That’d
explain why he was living in that place for how much Sunbeam pays us.”
“You’ve
been working there for seven months now?”
“Yeah, in
accounting. Look, I don’t know what else I can tell you.”
“We’re just
surprised that someone of your stature and line of work could subdue someone
who was obviously a killer.”
“Fight or
flight? I mean the adrenaline was pumping fast, and once it wore off, I passed
out. And on account of the blood loss.”
“What about
the rose?” Lutheren asked.
“What rose?”
Stevens asked dumbfounded.
“A white
rose was laid on the table with no vase around. Were you two in a relationship?”
“No, I was
just having a drink with him to, you know, relieve the stress. We’ve been super
busy with the merger and all.”
The look on
Hoyt’s face was obviously disbelief, “Okay, well if we have any more questions,
we’ll know where to find you Mr. Stevens.” Hoyt tipped his cowboy hat, and
stood up to leave. “You get better now, ya hear?”
When the
two from Sunbeam had left, Stevens, pressed his fingers against two specific
points in his right palm causing his fingers to light up in a soft blue color.
Removing the bandages on his arm and nose, he pressed his fingers against the
wounds. Slowly the wound healed and closed completely, turning back to a fleshy
white color.
After doing
the same to his nose, he wiped his hand across his face. He grimaced as the nanobots
began to rework the bone structure of his face along with his skin. He walked
over to the closet and removed his clothes stored inside. A small mirror on the
inside of the closet door revealed to him his new face. He looked Asian with
blonde hair. Once more he passed his hand through his hair and the color
changed to black.
He opened
the door to his hospital room, peaking out into the hallway. With no one in sight,
he walked down the hallways until he found a locker room.
Exiting was
a young Asian man wearing green scrubs who made his way to the morgue.
Sliding a
tray out of the wall showed a man with three gunshots to his chest. The man
wearing scrubs activated the points on his hand once again, and passed it over
the dead man’s face, changing it to look like Mr. Stevens. With the hair
changed as well, he ripped off the toe tag, and pushed the tray back into the
wall.
***
Hoyt
climbed into the passenger seat as Lutheren sat behind the driver’s seat of the
company car.
“You don’t
think it could have been them, do you?” Lutheren asked his partner.
“Could have
been who?”
“You know,
the Order of the White Rose.”
“Not that
codswallop.”
“Just
think, a guy is heavily in debt, so his debtors send out someone to take care
of him. They leave behind their signature white rose.”
“Yeah, but
why leave a witness alive?”
“Not really
a witness. Stevens didn’t see anything, and there wasn’t no prints on the gun
from the shooter.”
“Just
Stevens’ prints.” Hoyt countered, lighting up a cigarette.
“Well,
yeah, he stole the gun from the guy.”
“An
accountant manages to wrestle a gun away from a contract killer? If some bean
counter can best a cold blooded killer, that doesn’t say much for your White
Rose Order.”
“Order of
the White Rose.” Lutheren corrected.
“Whatever, just
start the car.”
***
“Terrible
news this evening,” the anchor began the broadcast. “With the recent merger
announced for Ximinez Shipyards and Sunbeam Multistellar Corporation, two of
their employees have been brutally murdered. One at his apartment, and the
other at the hospital where he was recovering from wounds suffered during the
attack. Sources tell us Kel Stevens was killed by the same gun that also killed
his coworker Frank Jacobs. A representative of Sunbeam told Action News 4 that
they are “deeply saddened by the loss to the company.” We’ll have further
developments as they break.
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