In Too Deep(90)

"Me too," I said, still confused as Mark set his backpack down on my coffee table, but staying standing behind it. "You said you'd tell me the whole truth. Mark, as much as I love you, I need the truth if there is to be a future between us."

Mark rubbed his hands through his hair and nodded. "You have no idea. Well, I guess I should start with the minor things. Like where my car is."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. I've never seen that truck before."

Mark shrugged. "It's one of my backup vehicles. I don't keep it at my apartment, but in a storage unit over on the East side of town. You're probably now wondering why I have backup vehicles and why I'm talking about storage units and stuff like that. And I guess there's no way to tip toe around it. I've told you that I'm a freelance problem solver."

"Yeah.....?" I asked, confused. I mean, while I didn't know the details about his job, what could Mark have been, other than a freelancer? His work hours were weird, he worked seemingly out of his apartment, going to the clients, not to an office. What else could he be?

"Well, I'm a bit more than your normal freelancer. I'm kind of a...."

Before Mark could complete his sentence, the front door to my apartment crashed open, and two men came bursting through. Both of them were carrying guns, although I couldn't see what type other than that I'd seen them in action movies spitting out a lot of bullets really quickly. I thought I was going to die as the men started to raise their guns.

I barely saw Mark spring into action, and at the time I wasn't sure what happened, but over the next few days I had the chance to try and piece together what I saw. Mark first reached down and grabbed his backpack, swinging it in one smooth motion into the hands of the first gunman. Spinning with the force of his swing, Mark rotated towards the two men, his left arm cocked and catching the second gunman in the jaw with his elbow. The man sagged to his knees, stunned. Mark completed his turn, ending up behind the first man, whose gun hadn't even hit the ground yet. Mark grabbed the man's head and twisted, a sound like twigs snapping reaching my ears and the first gunman dropped, dead.

Turning his attention back to the still stunned second gunman, Mark's face grew hard as he stood above the man. Grabbing his hair, he cocked his right hand back in a strange sort of fist, where only the first set of knuckles on his fingers were bent before his hand flashed forward, the knuckles striking just below the gunman's chin, in the space right above his Adam's apple. A thick, gurgling sound came from the gunman and he dropped, his feet drumming weakly as his hands clawed at his throat. Mark studied him for a second before bringing his booted heel down on the side of the man's head, either knocking him out or killing him, I wasn't sure which.

"Holy shit," I whispered, the first words that came to my mind. It was over so fast I didn't even have time to scream, but just sat there in partial shock. "What the hell are you?"

Mark looked down at the two bodies, and I thought I heard him whisper to himself. "Seventy-five, seventy-six."





Chapter 16


Mark




Things moved fast once the two men the Confederation had sent were dead. I pulled both bodies inside, closing Sophie's door as best I could while she sat on the sofa, staring at me like I was something out of a video game or a horror movie. I turned my attention to the two men, and started searching the bodies while I talked. "After my father moved us up from South Carolina, I got in a lot of trouble," I said as I knelt. "Nothing too bad, a few fights, dealing with bullies in school. Things went bad though when my father got into debt with a group that is called the Confederation around here. They are one of two groups that control most of the crime in not just this city, but a lot of the East Coast. A night of drunken gambling in Atlantic City left him owing them about fifty thousand dollars. I was fifteen at the time.”

"For the first few years, most of what I did was errand boy stuff, running packets from one side of town to another, and gathering intelligence. I've always been pretty good at blending into the background when I want to, and the Confederation saw to it that I learned from some of their best. Since I worked for all of the various members of the Confederation, I wasn't constrained by any cultural boundaries. I learned how to pick locks and avoid security sensors from a Japanese ninjutsu master, while at the same time did jumping exercises with a Chinese kung-fu teacher who was in debt to the local Triads. The Confederation used my skills against their enemies, and against each other. I did a lot of spy work to pay off my father's debt."

"To let me out of my debt, however, they upped the ante. My first hit was against one of the Confederation's own, a sick bastard named Clovis Methis, who was not only running a nightclub for the Confederation, but exploiting teenage girls. When he happened to get the daughter of a rather rich businessman drugged and more, the Confederation sent me to kill him. He was my first hit. For it, I got fifty thousand dollars. And the ability to work as a freelancer."

Sophie looked at the two men, then at me. "How many?"

"Seventy-six, seventy-four of which I was paid. In that time I've seen my fees raised to around a hundred thousand per hit. But, I've always had a rule that, until tonight, the Confederation respected. No innocent blood. Every death I've caused has been a piece of human scum that, if the police had caught him, would have earned him a life sentence at the very least, if not the death penalty."