It’s a.22, but in my mind that’s exactly what you want for what we’re going to be doing. I don’t want a cannon or any two foot long Dirty Harry pistol. This is close in stuff. So, as far as the gun goes, I’m good with it. I’m real good with it. Patrik has wasted no expense. Let’s face it, the weapon is a big part of this kind of thing.
“One more quick thing. I need to see the money.”
Andros walks to the closet and kneels down. There is one of those little hotel safes in there. He opens it up and stares at me. I walk over and he pulls out a small Nike gym bag. I bend down and pick it up, carrying it to the bed. It only takes a second to figure that I’m looking at two K. It smells real good.
“Thanks. Go ahead and lock it back up, all right?” I watch him put the bag back in and he spins the dial.
“Combination?”
Andros smiles that razor thin grin and digs a piece of paper out of his pocket. He hands it to me and then sweeps a hand toward the safe.
I look at the numbers. “It’s all right. I trust you, crew cut.”
I wave the two over to the bed. Dobry takes his chair and moves it in closer.
“First, you guys got gloves? I have real tight golf gloves I use. Second, are you wearing something to cover your face? I use a thin hunting mask that I pull up from down around my neck.”
“We have masks, the stocking masks kind. There are no gloves,” Dobry says and looks at Andros. His voice is steady but his eyes aren’t. It’s the first words he has spoken.
“Okay, how will the guns be dumped?”
“I will throw them in the Des Plaines river at a park reserve. I have used this location before.” Then Andros gives me a look that says ‘don’t worry about it’, so I don’t.
“All right, well it’s your choice on the gloves.”
Both of them nod.
“Okay, listen up,” I say. “I already know exactly how we’re gonna do this but I want to talk through it anyway. Trust me, I know what the fuck I’m doing here.”
I’m not too worried about Andros but I look over at Dobry and nod to him, then I keep nodding. His eyes loosen up a little and his body language is a little better. I punch his shoulder.
“Hey, we’re going to kill this old bastard Viktor Skansi. We’re gonna take him out and his wife and whoever else needs to be nailed. Patrik said no limits on this one. Anyone in the way goes down. In a few hours, the old Russian pig will be joining his son Bogdan in hell.”
I light up a smoke.
“Is it always six o’clock when they pull up?”
Andros clears this throat and begins in his short clipped accent.
“Yes, this is always. I have been a part of this surveillance. They will drive up to the curb on Mercy Boulevard. Street is quiet, one way. Six o’clock. On other side of Mercy is a car lot and next to it is a closed gas station.” He runs a big finger down the map, along the small road and stops where the car will. He looks up at me and repeats, “Always at six.”
“Keep going.”
“Viktor Skansi and wife stay inside the car while the three bodyguards get out. There is one guard who starts out ahead. He goes into park all the way to the center statue and takes his position. Waits.”
“What do they pack? What weapons?” I’m looking at the map and at the little center square, with the statue.
“They never show guns but they wear heavy long coats that are unbuttoned all the way down. Maybe underneath they could have shoulder strap for small military type automatic weapon. Hanging straight down along the leg.” Then he shrugs, shakes his head no. “But no, I don’t think. Most certainly they have hand guns.”
“Got it. The one guard goes to the statue, then what?” It really doesn’t matter too much but I still want to hear it all.
“They wait five minutes for him to get in place. Always. You cannot see statue from where the car is. Path curls around trees and bushes. Then one guard gets wheelchair out of the trunk while the other stands at the limo door where Skansi and his wife will get out.”
“Okay.”
“Wheelchair is set up and brought around to door. Viktor Skansi and guard help his wife into chair. One guard starts walking very slowly towards center of park. The old man wheels his wife onto sidewalk pathway and follows. Last guard walks behind the old couple at distance of say 15 meter, same distance between as man in front.”
“All right good, the walk lasts about fifteen minutes right?”
“Yes, that is right. They go around statue and back again.”
“No stops along the way?”
“No stops.”
“Pull up at the same curb, same place and same route every time?
“Yes.”
“Any other men, more guards you might have seen once. Anybody around you think could have maybe been a guard, maybe, just couldn’t tell for sure?”
“No, never different. I have no doubt on that.”
“Hey, wait. No driver? No driver waiting in the car the whole time?”
Andros smiles and shakes his head back and forth slowly. “No and no. One of the guards is also driver.”
“Okay, so look,” I check my watch. “It’s only like twelve thirty. Let’s take a little drive.”
We take their car just in case my car had maybe somehow been made in the last week or so. Coming in and out of Ambrozy’s, something like that. Never know. Hey, Patrik’s boys were watching them, so the Russians had to be watching Patrik.
Coming into the park from the west side, we just look around a little. Not long, and we don’t walk together. I just want to get some bearings and landmarks in my head. Eyeball everything.
We grab sandwiches and shit after that and then head back to the Marriott with it. About forty five minutes later, we’re sitting in the room again.
I take a pen from the nightstand and draw on the map, adding and filling in with x’s and o’s for small stands of trees and hedges. A small gazebo near the path they would be taking. I darken the statue in the little square.
I go to the window, light a smoke and look outside. Clouding up a little and getting colder, no doubt. Luckily, there won’t be much going on in the park. Even so, it still ain’t all that bad for April in Chicago.
My two guys look at the park map and then at me. They wait patiently.
“We park the car where we just did and come into the park from the far west side, just like earlier. First two guys that go will be the two guards with the old man. Andros, you’ll be here behind the little gazebo.” I tap it with the pen. “As soon as the lead guard gets by you, walk in from behind and take him. I’ll see you move before you even do, and I take the rear guard. It’ll be bang bang. My guy won’t even get a shot off, I promise you that.”
Then I point on the park map again, at a spot along the gently curving pathway. “That will leave Viktor Skansi and his wife in the middle, right about here. He might have a gun, but I bet not. Even if he does, he’ll be no match. Him and the old lady die right the fuck there.”
Andros is nodding, looks at me briefly and then back to the map.
“I take out Viktor, and Andros, you take out the old lady. Go straight at her with no hesitation. We do ‘em both at the same time. Don’t even look my way, Andros. I got the old bastard. Even if he’s carrying a damn bazooka, I got him. Afterward, we make sure on both of them. There can’t be no miraculous recoveries for these two in the ICU at Northwestern Hospital. It won’t be pretty, know what I’m saying? So, any questions yet?”
I look at the two. Andros smiles at me and shakes his head no.
“But, what should I do?” Dobry looks at Andros, then at me. “What is my job here?” He holds his hands out, palms up.
“Thought you’d never ask, rookie. As soon as Andros and I start firing, you take out the first guy. The statue guy. I want you right here.” I point again at the map. “Behind this hedge, it will be perfect, close to where Andros says the guy waits for them to circle the square and head back.”