"ALIVE Ivan, we need him alive." Archer sounds nervous. Like I wouldn't be going for the Senator next. Like I wouldn't use Starling to gain the information I need to fuck him up so me and my Kat can find our peace and start making babies.
"He's alive. He's just never going to hold a gun again."
Ace is right beside me. Starling is on his knees, a place he will be for a long time I suspect. I go back for my gun and maybe to kick the body of the bastard that was talking about my Kitten. The men, all hard-eyed and lethal, are in a circle around Starling. The big one with the dark scowl on his face that could be Russian, I haven't heard him speak but he has the same give no fucks air that a Russian would have, stands with his hand on Starling's shoulder to make sure he understands not to try to move.
Jim comes at the guy out of nowhere. His men parting like the Red Sea. He greets Starling with a punch to the face breaking his nose. He yells and screams about us trying to kill him but he isn't going to find any sympathy here.
"We're not cops, asshole. No one cares how brutal we are with you. So my suggestion to you is start talking and do it quickly or I am going to leave you with the Russian." He looks up at me and we silently communicate the next part of our plan. I step forward and tap him with the butt of my gun causing him to spit out a tooth.
In our earpieces, someone tells us the cops are en route and should be here in twenty minutes. Another voice cuts in with a solution to lengthen that time. This voice belongs to the person on the roof. Archer steps away to okay it and I take his place, working the guy over a little bit until Jim taps back in.
"You have exactly fifteen minutes to tell us what we want to hear or I have one of my boys take you apart piece by piece until you start talking - or die. I'm easy. Make your choice."
"What do you want to know?" the guy sounds panicked, as he should be. You wouldn't want one of us to come after you but seven plus who the hell ever is outside being our eyes and ears up high...you're toast and you know it.
"Everything you do. I want names. Who is the Senator working with that has access to the names of agents and operatives who work in the dark?"
Starling shakes his head and his eyebrows bunch up even further than they already were. "I don't know. You don't understand how this works."
Jim draws back to hit him again but at the last minute changes his mind and pulls out a small knife. Ahh, we've come to the interesting part of the night where the creative energy takes over. I drop back giving Jim some room to work.
Beside me, I nudge Ace with my elbow, "Is he wearing contacts?" Ace just raises an eyebrow and shrugs. "Where the hell are his glasses?"
"We got bets on if he even needs them or not. I say he doesn't and they're just props but that big scary guy over there, that's Thorn - he's been with Jim the longest - he's got money on him needing them. We've really just taken sides, it's very polarizing -the group almost broke up over it."
"If the two of you are done discussing my lack of eyewear can we please move along." Damn, he has hearing like a bat. "Talk, Starling."
"I don't know who the guy is, all I know is I met the Senator through our military connection. We go way back - to all that trouble in Africa when we went in and cleaned up other people's shit. Brad was...apart from everyone even then. Everyone wrote home and talked about hating the killing and the fighting but Brad was first in line to do sweeps and take out potential threats. I swear the guy got off on it."
Starling blinks repeatedly. Blood is running down his forehead. Getting blood in your eyes sucks. He better be glad he's singing so pretty, I have a feeling Jim is a very creative guy.
"That's when it started. Back in Africa. Someone caught onto the fact Brad was so thirsty for it and asked him to take a bunch of kids off the street."
"Back up, 'he took kids off the street' - he kidnapped them?" The youngest guy in the group by appearance alone speaks up and when Starling nods he crinkles his nose like he's smelling shit, "Bastard."
"What he do with the kids?"
"That's just it, man. No fucking body knows. He could have killed them, he could have sold them, he could have made suits out of them and sold them back to their people. All anyone can be sure of is we started seeing fewer and fewer civilians hanging around. Mostly girls, he focused mostly on the females hanging around. He had a real hard-on for women whoring. Said the only good whore was a dead whore or some shit like that. He also said every woman's a whore for the right price."
"How do you fit in?"
"Brad got into some deep shit with a local - he was a peacemaker or some shit and he said he had proof Brad was doing bad things and he didn't mind going public with it. Brad told me about it and ordered me to clean it up. And I did. I set the whole village on fire just to kill the guy. After that Brad said I had done good and he could use a man like me if I wanted to stay close."
"Still doesn't really tell us how he knew to come to you. How did he realize you weren't going to turn his ass in?" Thorn spoke again in his rough growl. Not Russian. He really missed his calling; he would've made a great spy because he could pull it off if he wanted to.
"I don't have any idea how he knew."
"Same way he found out about the list of names he sold to the highest bidder. The third man."
"Look I would tell you if I knew but I don't. I only ever went to Brad for jobs." Jim runs his eyes over Starling like he's trying to decide if he's telling the truth or not. It must show because Starling keeps talking. "I swear on my mother's grave, I don't know the guy. I do know Brad isn’t in charge like he likes people to think he is to soothe his ego. I'm not sure who but every now and then whoever it is will yank his string and he comes to me with jobs that need to be done in my special way."
"By killing everybody. Like at the café." I start to slip back into the red haze and try to crack my neck to calm down. "You killed everyone in the café to get rid of the asshole lawyer just like you burned that village to off the peacemaker. You're a real piece of shit."
Ace holds me back when I move closer to him. I would love nothing more than to end this guy but Jim has other plans for him. And that's fine with me. I want the real person who is responsible for shooting my café and scaring my Kitten - the Senator. Starling was just a wind-up doll that was used when it was convenient to be taken out. The Senator is the real target now. One look at Jim and I don't think I'm alone in wanting the Senator to answer for his sins.
Lights and sound finally reach us, the blue and red of police hit the broken windows and when I look around the only person in the building is Starling. All the bodies have been disposed of by the other members of Jim's team. I could tell they were cleaning up but damn. On the com, the voice from the roof speaks, "Now we are even, Archer."