It started out as just another normal day, paper work and moving money around. The things he could do in his sleep, untraceable transactions, his usual financial wizardry. That was the reason he was so valued by his employers. He thought it strange when the call came for him to make a drop that afternoon, usually such things had more warning, more planning. Yet it was not the first time such a thing had happened. Arrangements were quickly made and before long he was being driven to the drop location.
On arrival the scene appeared like any other, a quiet ally, at the end sat a slightly rusted, brown Granada housing the recipient of his delivery. The overflowing dumpsters stuck him as rather cliché, he imagined that if the warehouse doors either side were to open, empty boxes would overflow and a cop show car chase could be reenacted.
He instructed his friend and driver Dago to keep the car running, there was no reason for this to take any length of time. He exited the car and strode purposely toward the old Ford. When he was about halfway there the driver’s side door opened and a burly man in a black duster stepped out, his eyes hidden by mirrored aviators. They met in the middle and each paused about eight feet apart.
“Did you complete your assignment?” He asked
“What do you mean?” The burly man responded
“Well if I am to pay you, you have to prove that the assignment is complete”.
“Well, it’s complicated, I’m not sure you’d understand”
“My understanding is irrelevant, either you have earned your money or you have not”
“Unfortunately my friend”, he said, at the same time removing a silenced 9mm from under his coat, “you are the assignment”. He raised the gun directly at his head.
“Now hold on a minute, there had to be some mistake”.
“No mistake, I do appreciate you being prompt, I have other things to do today. I don’t know or care what you did to get on the wrong side of them. If you want turn around and I’ll do you in the back, a last favor of sorts.”
His heart was pounding now, he was desperately trying to ignore the confusion of the situation and come up with a plan, quickly. He tightened his grasp on the handle of the steel briefcase that he still held. Using the untraceable hundreds in there as a bribe seemed pointless with this gun pointed at his face. There was only one option that he could think of.
He swung the briefcase in the direction of the gun and let go, yelling loudly “you want the money? here’s your freaking money”.
The case landed right on target, there was just enough weight in it to knock the gun loose. Pure Animal instinct kicked in, he ran towards him and launched a brutal flurry of punches. Like a prize fighter sensing an knockout in the late rounds lefts and rights rained down. Before long the assassins face was a stolen bloody mess, a final gut shot followed by a full blooded uppercut to the jaw sent him flying backwards towards his car. He lay in a heap on the floor unconscious.
He grabbed the gun and the briefcase and headed back to the car and Dago. “What the heck was that?” Dago exclaimed with genuine concern.
“I have no idea, apparently I was the target, get me to the hotel, quickly, I need to talk to Johnny and figure this out. They sped off, he didn’t know what to think or who to trust, what had just happened and why?
When they arrived at the hotel he left Dago and went to meet Johnny, as usual two rooms down from the number they gave on the phone. It was safer that way, they were the only two that knew about that arrangement. When he reached the room Johnny was rattled “dude you’re in deep trouble” he exclaimed “the bosses son is making a move for the family business, he knows how loyal you are to the old man and how you control damn near all the money so he’s going to whack you one way or another”.
“What the heck? That’s insane” he retorted.
“That dumb kid can barely run a pizza parlor never mind the company. The old man will feed him to the fishes before he’s done”.
Just as he said that he heard the voices of maybe three men, familiar voices, walking down the hall way. He got up & checked through the peephole and saw the three of them dressed in coats too heavy for the season walking past their room, he had been half expecting this. A few seconds later they heard a crash as the door two rooms down was kicked in. A few minutes later they walked back down the hall way.
“I figured they would have eyes on this place. I’ve got to get out of here” he said
“Take the back stairs, Dago should have some wheels for you by the time you get to the lobby. Be careful, they know you’re here, they’ll be waiting. Get out of town and then make contact with the old man, the old way. We have no way of knowing how many people the kid has sucked into this. Don’t trust anyone who hasn’t been here as long as we have”
“Thanks Johnny, I owe you owe you one” he said softly as he grabbed the keys.
“Don’t even think about it, I could never repay you for what you did…”
He left the room and headed the opposite direction on the walkway than the men had gone.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw Dago waiting for him
“I suspected you would come this way” he said with his thick accent. “I have a ride for you but getting through the lobby to it will be sticky, they are all over the place, at least 9 of them”.
“Is there another way?”
“There is a back exit, but you can only get to it through the office. “
“Well, I guess I’ll have to be careful then, where’s the car?”
“Right out front, a police car, trust me, you’ll know it when you see it, it’s just my taste”
He smiled & received a coy wink from Dago prior to opening the door to the rear of the lobby. Cautiously he made his way down the narrow hall way to the main lobby, it was thankfully quite busy but he knew he had to be careful. He grabbed a newspaper off the stand at the end of the hallway & smoothly sat on a bench to the side of the lobby. He held the paper up to cover his face while contemplating his escape. Just at that moment the fire alarm went off, he smiled, confident that Dago or Johnny had been involved. This was his opportunity, he stood up & walked quickly towards the front door, head down, but not so fast as to draw attention to him. Just as he crossed the plane of the door, he heard a voice yell “there he is, get him.”
There was no time to delay, where was the car? It was now or never, then, as if announced by a chorus of angels he saw it, a silver Porsche 911 with blue lights on the roof and a green hood with the word Polizei written in white. He ran to it & got in the driver’s seat, fumbling the keys slightly he got them in the ignition just as five of them came out of the hotel. He fired up the turbo charged flat six & caught the attention of every one of them, initially they had a look of bemusement but they had their weapons drawn as he floored it in reverse. He made a J-turn and with screeching wheels & he accelerated through a cloud of tire smoke.
Gun shots rang out in the air, a couple grazed the car but caused no serious damage. He hit the lights & siren, he had no intention of stopping for anything, or being stopped. All he knew was that he had to get out of the country, fast & then make contact with the old man. The force of the acceleration pushed him back into his seat, the car twitched, as if the torque was almost too much for it, it felt like it could almost twist the chassis. He struggled to keep the back end from swinging out wildly, the adrenaline coursing through his veins making it unusually difficult to drive, even for an expert like him. The engine growled as the revs rose rapidly & before they knew it he was gone.
As the smoke cleared at hotel and it became clear that they had not lethally hit him, the tall man in the middle of the five let out a scream “Bentley, I’m gonna hunt you down like the dog that you are, you’re a dead man”……………….
unhiddenlight 
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