I lean over and slap him. “Hey… wakey, wakey, your Highness.”
He snorts back to consciousness, snapping his eyes open, disoriented. He looks around for a moment, and then focuses on his injured leg. His eyes go wide and his mouth opens, preparing to scream once more as the pain begins to register. Before he can, I shove the barrel of the gun between his lips.
“Ah, ah, ah… Don’t be making all that noise like last time, or I’m gonna have to hit you again.”
He tries to speak, but his words are muffled by the gun. I take it out slowly and gesture to him to repeat himself. He spits blood on the soft, cream cushion beside him. “I said… just kill me and get it over with, you bastard!”
I nod. “Oh, I will — don’t you worry about that. But there are a couple of things I need to know first.”
He scoffs. “What makes you think I’ll tell you anything?”
I shrug. “Because if you do, I’ll end it quick and painless.”
He smiles, challengingly. “And if I don’t?”
I shrug again. “Then you’ll die in a manner that’s neither of those things, and that would suck for you.”
He sighs, spits out some more blood and stares at his leg, snarling through a fresh wave of pain.
I rest my foot next to his on the table and lean forward. “First question — who do you think would want you dead?”
He genuinely thinks about it for a minute. “I don’t know… I’m not an idiot. I know I have made many enemies recently. It could be anyone.”
“Huh… fair point, I guess. But why you, specifically? I’m guessing Fuelex has an entire board of rich investors and shareholders. I admit, I admire what you’re doing, but you wouldn’t have made the decision to do it alone. Why go after you and no one else?”
He shrugs, but says nothing. He looks away to grimace at what I imagine is quite an excruciating pain in his leg.
“Is there something you’re not telling me? Something personal? Something unrelated to Fuelex? There must be something… What have you done to warrant having me sent after you? Are you a thief? A liar? A murderer? A pedophile? What?”
He frowns, apparently offended. “I’m none of those things, you… you disrespectful prick! I don’t know why anyone would want me dead. Anyway, why do you care? You’re just a hired gun, here to pull the trigger, right?”
“Honestly? No, I’m not.” I use the gun to scratch my forehead, rubbing the tip of the barrel up and down my temple for a moment. “Truth be told, I’m doing someone a favor. A colleague of mine was sent to kill you. She’s gorgeous. Unbelievably so. That previous security risk everyone is so bothered about… That was her.”
He frowns again. “Who? That stupid Chinese bitch?”
“Well… I don’t think she’s Chinese. Or stupid. And if you feel brave enough to call her a bitch, you go right ahead. But yeah, I think we’re talking about the same woman. Anyway, she obviously failed, but she told our employer that you were dead anyway. She then got into a bit of a state because our employer happens to be quite powerful and resourceful, and she figured they would find out you were still alive and then go after her for lying to them. So, she came to me for help.”
“And here you are… such a good friend!”
His disdain isn’t hard to miss.
“Actually, I was against killing you, at first. My employer isn’t big on telling me why they want people dead, as I’ve mentioned. Personally, I like to know such things before I put a bullet in someone, so I figured I’d come here, bullshit you a little, and see if I could find out for myself why someone would want you gone.”
“And?”
“And… I’ve still no fucking idea, beyond the obvious. I was hoping to get an idea of the kind of people my employer is involved with, but no such luck. Anyway, along the way I decided for myself you’re worth killing, because you threatened me.”
He shakes his head. “Wait… so in the last fifteen minutes, you just decided to kill me? What the fuck? Do you have any idea who I am? I mean, really, who I am. How much money I have? How powerful I am?” He shifts in his seat as best he can with his injury. He hunches over a little, too. Almost as if he’s shrinking, losing his confidence. “Listen… I can give you anything you want if you let me live. Please! I don’t want to die… I’ve done nothing to deserve this. I’m begging you, I—”
BANG!
I put a bullet between his eyes, shattering his expensive sunglasses in the process. His head snaps back violently before sagging forward. Blood trickles from the hole in his head, runs down the front of his suit, and onto the cushion he’s sitting on.
He was starting to get on my goddamn nerves. Do you know who I am? Really? Who says that?
Wait… I’ve said that before, haven’t I?
Yeah, pretty sure I have. But that was different. I obviously would have meant it ironically, to entertain myself in what I’m sure would have been an otherwise humor-free situation.
Ah, fuck it.
Now… how do I get out of here?
14
Shit. I should really start thinking about this kind of thing in advance… I’m sixty-five floors up, trapped in a room with seven dead GlobaTech operatives and a dead Saudi prince. I’m likely to be all over the hotel’s security feeds, and if there’s less than thirty armed men coming for me right now, I’m a lucky man.
I take out my cell and call Lily.
“Where the hell are you?” she asks, as she answers.
I glance around. “Yeah… funny story. Now, don’t shout at me, but things got a little out of hand…”
She sighs. “What have you done?”
“Well, Sayed bin Mawal is dead.”
“What? How?”
“I shot him. And his seven bodyguards.”
“Oh my God, are you fucking insane?”
“You’d be surprised how many people ask me that…”
“Would I? Really?”
“Okay, no, probably not. Look, I’m in his suite on the sixty-fifth floor and I have no way out. I need your help, Lily.”
She’s silent for a moment. “And I thought I was in deep shit… Okay, you can’t go down, right? So, you go up. I’ll arrange an extraction team to come get you. There’s a helipad on the roof.”
I stare out the window. I hate heights. I close my eyes for a moment. “Up… got it.”
“You need to buy yourself ten minutes.”
“Okay. Ah… Lily, there’s one more thing.”
She sighs again. “What?”
“I may have been captured on their security feeds. A lot.”
She gasps with disbelief. “Fucking seriously? Remind me never to ask for your help again!”
“Yeah, well…” I pause for a moment to think of a suitable retort. “…okay, I’ve got nothing. Just sort it, will you? You know how The Order deals with this shit.”
“Fine, whatever.”
The line clicks off. I look around at the bodies of the GlobaTech security team. I feel really, really bad about that, for many reasons. First, they’re the good guys. They were just doing their job, and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Second, they’re ultimately Josh’s boys, and this is a slap in the face for him. But third, and arguably the most important… The Order doesn’t like it when you kill people they’ve not asked you to kill. It’s in their rules. And they only made three of the damn things, so they must take them seriously. I reckon I might get sent to my room or something after this…
Screw it, I’ll deal with that later. For now, I need to focus on getting out of here.