Complete Novel

The Black Knight Squash Fiction League Match #3

The Loose Strings  The Racketeers
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Chapter 19

Who’s In Charge Here?
by Al Tommervik

Ted casually aimed the pistol at Jack. “We’ve met often, but this is the first time that you’ve come carrying arms. I think you owe me an explanation ... and it better be good.”

Jack shrugged. With a smile, he said, “Ah, jeez, Ted. We’re all family here. Put the gun away.”

“That wasn’t the song you were singing when you barged in here,” Ted said through gritted teeth. “Then it was ‘Hayden will figure out to come here and I need her. As long as her answers are right, everything’ll be fine.’ So what were you planning if you didn’t like her answers?”

Hayden watched the exchange with a mixture of awe and familiarity. Jack was just like he’d always been ... with an easy-going attitude of supreme self-confidence. Ted was still doing her thing, bringing Jack back to reality. They’d been “dead” for over a decade and nothing had changed.

Hayden was interested in Ted’s explanation, but a different question was nagging at her. “Mom, was that you at the St. Exodus Inn?”

Ted frowned as her concentration on Jack was interrupted. “I haven’t been there since you were in school. What makes you ask that?”

Hayden started on the explanation and Ted abruptly stopped her. “There’s obviously too much I don’t know, so start over and give me all the details so I can put this in some kind of context.”

Hayden began with the approach to Ollie and took the story forward. At times where the story included Jean-Luc, Ted nodded as if Hayden’s version matched her understanding. When the story reached the happenings at the Inn, Hayden said, “And this women claimed that she’d had an affair with Jean-Luc and that he was really my father.”

At that, Ted chuckled. “Nope. That bastard sitting in the easy chair is your father.” She turned to Jack. “So what was your part in that nonsense at St. Exodus?”

Jack held up his hands, palms out. “Hey, I was just working the deal. We needed Hayden on our side and after she tried to blow me up, we knew we had to try something else. So when she tried to email you, we intercepted it and set up the sting.”

“You sonovabitch!” Hayden screamed. “You messed with my cell phone?”

“Hey, it wasn’t like international intrigue. You don’t want anybody messing with your cell, keep it on your person. We found it on the bed stand, on the kitchen table and on the dashboard of your car. It was like you’d broadcast a message, ‘Hey, here’s my cell. Have fun.’ We loaded it with covert software three different times.”

“Anyway,” Jack continued, “we thought if the faux Ted disparaged me she could form a bond with Hayden.” Turning to Hayden, he said, “We were surprised when you actually got attached to that nebbish Ollie. But we thought you might act out that attachment by coming to the rescue of a women Ollie helped -- Dr. Karwah. instead, you ran like hell.”

Jack started to rise out of the chair. “C’mon, Hayden. We can finish this business up in no time.”

Ted motioned with the pistol for Jack to sit back down. “We’ve got lots more to discuss here and you seem to have forgotten who has the pistol.”

“Ahh,” Jack smirked, “you wouldn’t shoot me after all these years. It would be really awkward explaining how you’d gunned down a dead man.”

“Don’t push your luck,” Ted snapped. “Since you’re already dead. nobody will miss you.”

“Good point.” Jack sat down.

“Mom?” Hayden asked. “How did you get away with staging your own deaths?”

Ted snorted. “Actually, we didn’t, thanks to that cocky prick Jack. It was a good plan. We’d obtained two bodies that were the right size, sex, and age. We staged the car accident and scattered belongs with our DNA and blood on them and then set the car on fire. The corpses were unidentifiable, but the items pointed to the bodies being us.

“We read about our deaths and clipped our obits from various papers. Then Jack got cocky. ‘Let’s go to Vancouver. Nobody knows us there. We can start our separate lives there.’

“Well, we were in Vancouver for less than a week when a voice behind us announced, ‘I never believed in the zombie apocalypse until now.’ It was Jean-Luc, who had worked with us many times before. We thought he was buried in a desk job in Quebec, but there he was, spotting us on a street in Vancouver.

“Quebec Intelligence wanted me to work for them. They offered us a chance to ‘stay dead’ and I felt I had little choice.” Ted scowled at Jack. “If we’d just left the country, we’d never have been found.”

“So,” Hayden asked, “Jean-Luc and Steve worked for Quebec Intelligence?”

“Jean-Luc did for a time, then he went free-lance. Steve has always ...”

“I can answer that,” said a voice from the kitchen door. Standing there was Steve, with his left arm trussed up in a sling and his right hand holding a deadly Sig Sauer. Nodding to Hayden, he continued, “I have assisted Jean-Luc on many operations, as I was doing on this one.”

He turned to Ted. “Madame Ted, I must ask you to drop that pistol. At this point, you should know that Jean-Luc and I had arranged for a wealthier client for this operation. We no longer were representing your interests. But I do appreciate the airlift from the U.S. I have no wish to harm you. Please place the pistol gently on the floor.”

He turned to Jack. “I have a great desire to hurt you, but business is pressing. We’ll meet another day. Come, Hayden, we should go.”

Hayden pulled her gun from her jacket pocket and pointed it at Steve. “I don’t think I’m going anywhere with anybody right now.” She motioned to Ted. “Pick that gun back up. I’m leaving.”

Jack pulled his left hand from his coat pocket to show another pistol. “I’m going with you. It’s getting crowded in here.”

Steve, who hadn’t lowered his pistol, sneered. “No one is going anywhere. I have men surrounding this place. Theoretically, they are Ted’s men, but tonight, they’re mine.”

Jack chortled. “What a freakin’ dumb-ass amateur. Do you think you’re the only one who thought to bring some men along? By now, your men are neutralized.”

At that, sounds of gunfire erupted from outside and the lights in the house went out.






Al Tommervik is a journalist, tech writer, and pseudo-techie.