Chapter 12

The following characters appear in this chapter:

The clients

Three of Knut’s lieutenants, 6’-1’’ to 6’-3’’ tall (1.85 to 1.90 meters), 225 to 250 pounds each (102 to 113 kg), 30 to 34 years old, all have dark hair of various length and different eye colors

Cliff has the Narrative

We arrived back at the restaurant from dinner in plenty of time for me to be a bit early for the meeting.

“Think I should arrive early for the meeting?” I asked Yuryi after we had parked a block or so from the restaurant.

“Since we have no idea of when they will arrive, or what they may be planning, I would say that arriving at exactly the appointed time would be best,” he told me.

“Remember, that I will be there to back you up. Just play it cool whatever they say or try,” he added.

“Okay, I have a few minutes to wait then,” I told him, looking at my watch.

“I’m going to head out now, and see just what may be in that hidden area off the room. If anyone is in there, I’ll deal with them, so don’t worry about that part,” he told me before exiting the car and just vanishing.

“Well, fuck! If I walk slowly, I should get there about two minutes early. It will take that long for whoever is in charge to get me to the meeting room,” I said to myself. After exiting the car, I removed what I would be taking with me and locked the vehicle before setting out.

Arriving at the restaurant, I found a number of people sitting around in the lobby and apparently waiting for a table. Walking up to the greeter, I introduced myself.

“Hi, I’m Clifford Lomidze. I’m attending a gathering here that is scheduled for 8:30 tonight,” I told him. He looked at me as if I was lower than scum before checking the sheet on his podium. On reading down it, he had a look on his face that said, ‘Oh shit, I’ve really fucked up’.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Lomidze. One of our associates will show you to the room in just a minute,” he told me and rang the bell sitting on the corner of the podium. Shortly, a younger man appeared.

“Conduct Mr. Lomidze to room 4,” he told the man.

“Follow me please, sir,” the younger man said, and we set out through the restaurant. Arriving at the door to room 4, he knocked.

“What?” a voice said over the speaker next to the door.

“One of the members of your party has arrived, sir,” he replied after pushing a button on the speaker. The lock on the door clicked, and it was opened by the shorter of my three clients.

“Come in,” he said, and the door closed after I had passed through it, nearly catching on what I was carrying.

“What the hell is all of that?” he demanded.

“This is what I have brought for my presentation,” I told him.

“Presentation! What presentation?” he demanded.

“Why, the explanation of how and the proof that I have fulfilled my part of the contract,” I told him to a scowl.

“Is this going to take long?” he demanded.

“Not very long, but I want all of you to be very sure that I have removed the target of the contract,” I told him to a somewhat confused look from him.

“I want you to be sure that the individual I was hired to remove has, in fact, been removed and will no longer bother you,” I told him in plain English to a look of understanding.

“Come on over to the table then,” he told me. The other two men were sitting at the table already. It was rectangular but only three and a half feet wide (1.07 meters) by nine feet long (2.75 meters). The three clients sitting behind it ranged from 6’-1’’ to 6’-3’’ tall (1.85 to 1.90 meters) and from 225 to 250 pounds (102 to 113 kg) and in age from 30 to 34 years old. They all had dark hair and different eye colors. The one who had greeted me had already taken his seat behind the table. He had taken the last seat in the large room. It appeared that I was expected to stand during the meeting. This was actually fine with me.

On reaching the table, I placed the laptop on it, took it off the ‘sleep’ setting and turned the screen towards the three clients.

“This is the video that I made of the removal of the target,” I told them before starting the video. They watched it all of the way through ... twice actually without saying more than, “run it again.”

The man in the center of the table looked up at me when the video finished for the second time with a very unhappy look on his face.

“There was no sound of a shot on the video, though we could hear everything else. Also, those sent to observe, and to be sure that he was dead reported that there was no sound of a shot at the scene. We aren’t going to pay you if that fucker actually had a heart attack, as the bitch was screaming,” he told me.

“The sound of a shot?” I asked in a sardonic voice. “Is that what you were expecting? Is that what you really wanted? If so, you could have hired a couple of gangbangers to do a drive-by for a lot less than me, if that is what you really wanted. Of course, then you would have had a few other problems,” I told them in an irritated voice.

“Problems?” the door guy asked.

“Yes, little things like the target lying in the street with a hole or holes in him and bleeding. Of course, that presumes that the gangbangers could actually hit him. Maybe they did or maybe they didn’t. Maybe, they hit him and also the woman and a couple of the moving men. But that would only start your problems.

“There would be the police, the fire department, ambulances for all of the victims, and finally, the media would arrive at the scene with all of the commotion that would involve. There would be questions, lots and lots of questions. There is also the little matter of the multiple video cameras on the apartment buildings and in the neighborhood. The entire thing would appear on the evening news and there would be a lot of speculation on why that had happened in that neighborhood, especially after the media dug into their backgrounds. The police would be on the case for months, so you will pardon me, as I had presumed that you wanted a nice quiet assassination, which I have provided,” I finished.

“Did you use a silenced gun? Is that why we didn’t hear a shot?” the guy in the middle of the table asked.

“I used a very specialized weapon. I brought it with me so you would understand exactly how the job was accomplished,” I informed them, closing the laptop and moving it out of the way. I then brought up the case that I had been carrying and opened it on the table. Removing the barrel and the stock, I assembled them into the rifle I had used.

“This gentlemen, and I use the term rather loosely, is a very special high-powered air rifle. This is what I used to remove the target,” I told them holding up the air rifle.

“You shot him with a pellet from an air gun?” center man said in disbelief.

“Did I say anything about a pellet?” I asked.

“Ah ... no,” he answered.

“I most certainly did not use a pellet to remove him. What I used was an ice needle. A very special ice needle. It looked exactly like this one,” I said as I reached into the case and removed an ice needle from its insulated carrier and held it up. It was a bit difficult to see being made of plain water ice.

“What’s so special about that?” center man asked in a dubious voice, as I set the ice needle on the table in front of them.

“There is nothing special about that one. It’s just a bit of frozen plain water. It wouldn’t kill anyone,” I told them.

“Then how did you kill him?” they all demanded.

“Because I used one of these needles,” I told them holding up another insulated container. “This package holds a very similar ice needle, but it isn’t made of just plain ice. It contains a very powerful neurotoxic poison,” I added.

“So, you loaded that in the gun and shot him,” center man said.

“Do I look stupid?” I demanded. “These things are as dangerous to the user as they are to the victim. It’s very easy to fuck up and wind up dead from your own stuff. It has to be very carefully handled and kept frozen all of the time in its container. Just touching the bare needle anywhere on your skin can have you out and dead in no time.

“You can see that the practice needle is already beginning to melt just sitting there on the table. On a human body, it will melt faster since the body is warmer than this room. That just spreads the poison faster if the needle remains in or on the body of the victim,” I told them.

“It is so dangerous that the needle itself must be handled quickly and with special rubber gloves as it also begins to melt rather quickly. On hitting the victim anywhere on the skin, it will begin to work in 30 to 45 seconds or so and incapacitate them. They will fall down, but they aren’t dead - yet. They can’t move but will continue to breathe for a time. They will appear to have had a heart attack. Ambulance attendants will actually take these symptoms to be caused by a heart attack if they arrive quickly enough.

“The patient will die on the way to the hospital. Most heart attack victims are not subjected to an autopsy, as that would be the only way to determine how they died. It would need to be a very thorough autopsy with chemical analysis of their blood to detect the byproducts of the poison.

“The poison will break down in an hour or so when exposed to air and sunlight. It requires longer to break down in the blood stream, but it would be well before any autopsy was performed,” I told them.

“You don’t need to worry about the needle. The remains of the needle will melt in a short time and appear to be just a bit of unrelated water at the scene. The poison will have broken down in an hour or so. The byproducts are a bit nasty but not fatal if touched in some way,” I assured them. They were staring at me in disbelief.

“You will notice that in the video there was no hole in the target or any blood on the street. There were no police, fire trucks, or the media. There was only an ambulance that took the target and the woman to the hospital where I am sure he was pronounce dead. The cause would be listed as a heart attack based on the report of the ambulance crew and the woman,” I finished.

“But where did you get this idea and the stuff?” door guy asked.

“That is a professional secret. Did I ask where or how you make your money? No, certainly not. I neither need nor want to know things like that. This poison is very dangerous and difficult to obtain. The source is proprietary. He doesn’t want anyone to know that he produces this substance,” I told them to frowns.

“WHY?”

“Because he doesn’t want a bunch of knuckleheads using it and killing themselves and others. That would draw too much attention to him. He doesn’t need that,” I told them.

“So we couldn’t get any?” center guy asked.

“What did I just say? If a lot of people start showing up dead from this poison, there will be a federal investigation. No one needs that. Do you want the FBI, the DEA, the CDC, and God only knows who else in here looking at everything that is going on?” I asked them.

“You’re sure we couldn’t get any of that stuff,” the center guy repeated.

“You can get the air rifle. They aren’t that expensive. But not the poison that I used. Even I can get only a very limited amount of it, and it is rather expensive. It is only available from the one source, and he is very selective who he sells it to and how much of it,” I told them, to unhappy looks from them.

“Then I guess you are no longer of any use to us. You can go,” center guy told me.

“There is the matter of my $35,000,” I reminded him.

“You expect us to pay you for that minor job?” the man at the end of the table who hadn’t said anything so far demanded.

“We had an agreement. I was to remove the target, and you agreed to pay me $35,000 for that. I have removed the target. Where is MY money?” I demanded, but had a bad feeling about this.

“You expect to be paid for that fucked up job, and you won’t even tell us where to get the poison,” he demanded back.

“Oh, I could tell you where to go to get the poison, but whoever you sent there would never come back ... not alive,” I told them but was really pissed off now.

“Would you welsh on a deal with the CLOSER?” I demanded. “That wouldn’t be good for my reputation. I don’t always use poison. That’s just for special jobs, and I am a very good shot with a 7 mm Mannlicher sniper rifle from five or six hundred yards (meters) or so. That should be sufficient for this area. OR, I could visit you at your homes, or your mistress’s apartments. Perhaps even at the several clubs that you frequent here in Duluth, or the ones that you visit in Superior,” I told them without mentioning any names. They seemed shocked by my knowledge of their hangouts.