Chapter 50

It was an intelligence puke's idea of a smooth operation: a dumb intel puke.

Robert allowed me to change the plan enough to clip the sharp edges, but the Council waited too long to bring the reporter to the attention of an Enforcer. If they were that unsure of our abilities, they should have let one of the Foot believe they had been promoted, and dispose of them afterwards.

The other two Enforcers would probably have chosen a different method also. I thought a random mugging gone deadly violent was harder to trace back than a robbery where the owner got home sooner than expected. On the street, the mission could be aborted by walking away; in her house, I had no choice but to kill the reporter even if cops surrounded the house.

I thought of those things on the way to her house; once inside, there was only emptiness.

I heard the others fidgeting as their impatience increased. The female Brothers were in the house with me, but did not know how to wait quietly. I marked it down as something they would need to learn.

The front door opened.

The reporter stepped inside the door. She talked to herself as she looked over the mail that accumulated while she was on assignment. She did not behave as if she noticed the van outside.

She dropped her keys onto the table by the door and walked down the hallway to the living room. I closed my eyes as she reached to turn on the lights.

"What the..." she gasped noticing the missing pieces of her living room.

Two steps put me in position behind her. She did not notice me until my left hand covered her mouth. I bent her backwards and stabbed into her chest with the knife in my right hand.

The hesitation at the last second was intentional; she screamed into my hand as the blade violated her. I pulled it out roughly and stabbed her with more power than necessary. The third stab was unsure; the fourth one panicked. Pressing the knife into her, I made my arms tremble as I set her down.

The female Brothers were breathing hard when I looked at them.

"Tell them," I ordered.

I would have preferred to leave all the Brothers outside, but the four of them together might have reinforced each other's desire to do something stupid.

Bitch #1 talked into her radio mike while I cleaned the knife and sheathed it. Asshole and Average Brother walked into the house through the back door. Asshole looked down at the dead body and then at me. He crouched down to study my work.

"I could have done this better," he criticized standing up and staring at me. "You're supposed to be a killer."

"Finish the job," I said to all of them.

He shook his head and walked to pick up one of the items on our list. The death of the reporter excited him. Average Brother studied the body also, but did not make any comments.

"Assholes!" Bitch #2 whispered. "We killed an innocent woman, and the two of you are whipping it out to compare sizes."

"I killed a woman," I told her. "You are robbing her house, and not doing it quietly either."

A botched house robbery!

I was going to have a short conversation with the Brother that planned the sanction.

The Asshole did not remember to pull out of the parking spot hard as if someone had left in a hurry. I understood Anna's difficulties with getting the present members of the Foot to listen; they were amateurs that thought a title made them seasoned professionals. The arrogance needed to be beat out of them before they would listen to a 'has-been' like Anna.

We pulled into the warehouse and got out of the van.

The four Foot Brothers watched as I burned all my clothing and handed the knife to a Sibling to shave it into metal fillings. They smiled and shrugged at each other obviously thinking that I was taking things too seriously.

"WOOOH!!!" Asshole yelled. "Man! What a fucking rush! Did you see that bitch lying there? Iane is going to get some action when I get home. WOOOH!"

He spun in a circle with his arms raised to the ceiling.

My kick caught his knee from the side; his arms lowered in shock as he instinctively reached for the pain. His neck made a familiar sound when I grabbed his head and twisted.

It takes power and technique to break a neck like that; I had both. He made it easier by being surprised, and reaching for the pain instead of the danger.

The three Brothers freezing to watch the dying Asshole collapse disappointed me. They took a step back when they looked up and saw two 9mms pointed at them.

"Does anyone think they can do that better?" I asked standing over the twitching body.

Asshole showed bad instincts by not striking back or moving out of my reach when I broke his knee; the lack of aggression was a mistake. Faced with a similar problem, Average Brother reacted incorrectly also; in his case, aggression was the mistake.

He reached for his sidearm and met a bullet. They did not get along well so I introduced two more to his chest.

The two female Brothers showed good instincts by putting their hands up to ensure I did not think they were reaching for a weapon.

"I don't like to repeat myself, but you might have been distracted," I said. "Do either of you think you could have done that better?"

"Jesus! You're fucking crazy!" Bitch #1 exclaimed.

"Not an answer," I said.

"NO!" Bitch #1 screamed when my hand tensed on the gun that was pointed at her head.

"Fuck no!" Bitch #2 said at the gun pointed at her.

"I'm glad we could have this discussion on our relative qualifications," I said.

They waited thirty seconds before speaking again.

"Aren't you going to put the guns away?" Bitch #2 asked staring at the 9mm I still pointed at her.

"I haven't decided not to kill you," I said.

She tensed but managed to control her instincts before they put her in the untenable position of being dead.

I nodded with approval.

"Fuck me!" Bitch #1 forced out harshly. "You're the Ekat!"

"WHAT?" Bitch #2 exclaimed looking at her.

"The fucking Bloodline Brother!"

Bitch #2 turned to stare at me.

"An Ekat Enforcer!" she said in horror.

I watched as she turned, got down on her knees, and puked; all while showing better instincts than I gave either credit for by keeping her hands up.

"I guess not everybody is a fan of my family history," I said.

"I've read the profiles," Bitch #1 snapped. "Every Ekat was the child of a Brother, even the first one. For all intents and purposes, Ekats were the children of the Brotherhood. There's shit not in the records about our past, but the Ekat genealogy is perfectly preserved. There's even a detailed biography of every member of your family until the line was lost. I couldn't tell you the name of anyone who sat on the Council two hundred years ago, but I can find out on what day each of your ancestors lost their virginity."

I chose not to point out that she was babbling; it might have offended her.

"Nobody knows how it happened, but it's like loyalty was bred into the line," Bitch #2 said after wiping her mouth on a sleeve. "The least of you was fanatically loyal, the worst..."

"The worst hunted down two rebellious Bloodlines until every living representative of it inside and outside the Brotherhood had been killed," Roderigo said from the door the Sibling had exited with the knife. "The Brothers would have been satisfied with the removal of the Bloodline's Siblings, but the Ekaterina did not take chances with a danger to the Brotherhood. It was a pity; both times the Ekaterina were at their strongest as a line, but pursuing those vendettas cost them."

"They should have been stopped!" Bitch #2 told him.

"How?" Roderigo asked. "By killing them? The Ekaterina were children that Brothers could love completely because they always chose us. A child sometimes throws a tantrum; a good parent knows to ride it out. Eventually, even the Ekaterina hatred burned itself out."

"Killed itself out!" Bitch #2 insisted.

He shrugged as if the point were irrelevant.

"Roderigo," Bitch #1 said. "The reactionary assholes on the Council cannot possibly believe they can control an Ekat. You've read the histories, an Ekat Sibling was bad enough, but a Brother would be ten times worse. An Ekat Enforcer is like releasing a plague in a crowded city."

Roderigo ignored her words and walked up to the Asshole's corpse. He poked at it with his foot and shook his head.

"You're dead and I still can't stand you, Kyle," he said with a smile lighting his face. "You were a fucking asshole!"

"Roderigo," Bitch #2 yelled as he walked to the second corpse.

He crouched down and passed his hand over the eyes to close them.

"Roderigo," Bitch #2 exclaimed. "This is exactly what we were working against!"

"Kyle was an error of judgment, Evelyn," Roderigo told her calmly. "He should never have been allowed to touch a Brother ring. Let's not get into my thoughts on Kyle putting his hands on a Sibling; David might misinterpret my enthusiasm on the subject."

"You're insulting the dead," Bitch #1 told him angrily.

"He doesn't mind, Charmel," Roderigo answered pointing at the Asshole's corpse.

"It doesn't mind," I said.

They turned towards me.

"What?" Roderigo asked.

"A corpse is an it, not a he," I told him. "It doesn't mind."

Roderigo raised an eyebrow and nodded in agreement.

"You got to love the whole black and white view of the world that David has," Roderigo said looking at the women. "I imagine it's oddly comforting. Siblings certainly seem to like it; at least, if what I hear about his recruiting efforts is true. At the end of this school year, he will probably have brought in more Siblings than the two of you combined."

"Roderigo, I know you admire Ekats," Evelyn said reasonably. "But even you have to admit they were insane. This is what we've been waiting for; the Council has gone too far."

"And what do you propose I do about it?" he asked her folding his arms in front of him.

Evelyn opened her mouth but snapped it shut when I pointed one of the 9mms at Roderigo.

"Whoa-hup!" he said showing me his hands and putting them back at his sides. "I see what happened to John; I stopped thinking there for a second."

I brought the gun back to its original position.

"Let me explain," Roderigo said to the women. "There are two problems with your present position; other than being in an Enforcer's sights. First, I do not have to admit the Ekaterina were insane because I don't believe that. Treasured? They absolutely were. Raised with the highest expectations? Yes, but each had several hundred loving parents. They were, as you say, the Brotherhood's children. Second, I like being alive."

"What?" Charmel said.

"The Council did a run-around our little movement," Roderigo told her sadly. "They believe it is very difficult for a movement to maintain its momentum if the leader is subverted; not a strategy that I was prepared for. I used to suspect Robert, but now I'm thinking Anna planned this. You can't really do much about a grandmother though, sometimes they do know what's best for you?"

"But you're the one that started our movement against the Council," Charmel told him angrily.

"As you might have noticed while David's guns are pointed at your heads, killing me is always on the back of his mind," Roderigo answered reasonably. "Did I mention that I like being alive?"

"You can't be serious," Evelyn said to him.

"Oh, it gets worse," Roderigo announced. "David as the stick is bad enough, but the carrot might have... Who am I trying to kid? The carrot would have made me give up my plans. At least, the unimportant parts, namely you two and any other Brother that was backing me."

"You'd be betraying us if you did that," Charmel told him.

Roderigo stared at her curiously.

"Did you somehow come to the conclusion that I wasn't using you?" he asked. "I have a vision for the future of the Brotherhood; the opposition offered me everything and their price was significantly less than yours. There's no hard feelings on my part, someone just offered me a better deal."

"You won't get away with this!" Charmel threatened.

"I would be careful, Charmel," Roderigo warned looking at me. "Enforcers are the only ones allowed to kill Brothers to prevent things from getting out of hand between Brothers. We played our hand; we lost. I'm not holding a grudge against the winners; they were better players."

"What are you talking about?" Evelyn asked.

"We were outmaneuvered; I thought the Council had been a little slow to take up arms against us," Roderigo replied. "I was wrong; the fact is they had a better plan than I did."

"Fuck the Council's plans," Charmel said raising her voice. "We're almost there, Roderigo."

"I did not want what you wanted, Charmel," Roderigo said staring at the Average Brother's corpse. "Do you know the Ekaterina myth?"