The Deal (4 page)

Operating room three was situated near the
next corner of the hallway at the end, just before one could turn
left and carry on to the other rooms. The cacophony of noises,
desperate and angry voices demanding medical instruments and
medicines I had never heard of before, grew louder as I reached the
doors leading into the room.

When I looked inside through the
lettered glass panels I could see at least four people milling
around this wrinkled old man with various tubes coming out of his
arms, nose and throat. There was a moment of doubt inside me as I
wondered if I had reached the right room, but when I noticed one of
the men inside, dressed in green scrubs, begin to cut along
the
patient's
forehead I felt more certain than ever that I had
finally recovered my target.

In my awe at what I had done to
the security
guard,
a realization had dawned on me
just before I was about to enter the operating room: I had
forgotten to take the big guards revolver. I was still without a
gun, yet as I clenched tighter on the bullet in my hand, I somehow
knew that I had the only weapon I was going to need to see this
thing through.

Knowing was one thing, but I certainly did not
feel I was capable of taking on a minion as powerful as I had been
made believe he was. I could only hope my secret weapon was going
to be enough.

So, drawing a deep breath I pushed
through the double doors with their bright red lettered
glass
panels
and begun the fight to keep my life and give a
new one to the woman I had loved for so long with all my
heart.

Now, more than ever in my
lifetime
, I badly needed to succeed. Not for my own gratification, or
for my own wealth, but for someone who gave me everything and asked
for nothing in return.

The surgeon, along with the three other
occupants turned to stare at me as I entered the room. Covered
almost head to toe in blood, I must have looked like the victim of
a street attack or worse, but instead of being offered help and
solstice I was greeted with anger.

‘
What the fuck are you doing in
here?’ Screamed the surgeon, the mask may have covered his snarl,
but I could see the rage in his eyes.

‘
I’m here to finish what I started
at the beginning of this evening.’ I said bluntly. I was neither
confident nor scared. I just wanted to get it over with.

‘
I’m trying to save this man’s
life. You coming in here covered in blood is going to cause all
sorts of infections he may not heal from.’ The anger in the
surgeons’ voice waned and gave way to an almost pleading
tone.

‘
Trust me. Infections are the
least of his worries where he’s going.’

The surgeon, scalpel in hand,
charged towards me as I made my way towards him. Once he was close
enough I swung my
right-hand
a
round
in an arch, my
fist connecting hard with the man’s cheekbone.

There was the familiar sound of bone being
broken as his head twisted all the way round beyond the point it
was naturally capable of going while attached to his neck. As his
body fell to the floor I continued onwards to the bedside of the
soon to be late Jim Mancini, a one-time mob boss and soon to be
ex-friend of the king of hell himself.

The remaining occupants of the room, well the
ones who could still walk at least, looked at me with fear in their
eyes before they glanced at each other and then decided that
bolting for safety was better than trying to save this wretched old
man’s life.

I allowed myself the few moments it took for
the two female nurses and male doctor to jostle each other through
the double doors. A few seconds later and I could hear the distinct
sound of a woman screaming as they discovered the body of the guard
out in the hallway.

Time is always a factor in any job that I do,
but none more so than what I had to do tonight. If it had been any
other job I would have made the effort to hide the guards body,
that way it cut down on the amount of people who would be actively
searching for me by the time I got out of the building.

Well, that was another time and
probably soon to be another life. In the
meantime,
I had to at
least try and see this thing through. I turned my attention back to
the old man lying in the bed.

There was a silence in the air
broken only by the occasional beep from the heart monitor. The
surgeon had managed to cut a slab of skin neatly across the
forehead of the soon-to-be
dead
man and he had folded it
back over the targets eyes like a makeshift
blindfold
.

I could see the small hole left behind by the
bullet that should have ended his life, and I could not but help
wonder if the surgeon had managed to prise the mangled piece of
lead from his skull before I made my way into the room.

I couldn’t see any kidney dishes containing
human skin or other matter so I assumed it was still in there
somewhere, probably rattling around in what was basically and empty
shell if my new employer was to be believed.

I clenched my fist around the
golden bullet as hard as I could, my
fingernails
digging deep
into the soft flesh of my palm, which in a strange way helped to
re-enforce that for now I was still very much alive.

Raising my hand above the comatose man’s head,
I was about to bring it down hard on his exposed forehead like a
hammer, but I stopped in mid-motion when the heart monitor suddenly
started to beep more and more frequently as the old man’s heartbeat
began to rise and rise.

He was waking up. Suddenly all the
anticipation and fear from earlier that evening came washing back
over me again as it had done when I first broke into Mancini’s
apartment.

Even though he and his expensive
lover had been laying sleeping I had been feeling even more
unsettled than usual because of what I was about to do, and
of course
after my little deal brokering session with the horned one
down below it all made sense why I had been feeling that way after
all. I wasn’t here to take away the life of another human but a
demon, something that I thought had never existed in any kind of
reality.

‘
You didn’t think I was going to
let you take me back to him this easily did you?’ When Argatol
spoke his voice was low and growling like a wild animal, but it
also sounded old.

Old? No that was wrong, it sounded
ancient. In a way, that made sense, since
he
and his
master
had
been kicking around since the beginning of
time.

From under the
cover,
he raised
his right hand towards me, clasped in his fist was the butt of a
gun I recognized all too well.

It was my own. Now I knew why it
had not been on the front seat as I expected. When the two vehicles
collided and
Mr.
Wannabe demon lord in the bed had
been sent hurtling through my windshield he must have had enough
time to reach out and grab it.

I may have the ability to punch like a God,
well at least while the bullet was in my grip, but I was pretty
certain my eternal life part of the deal had not been finalized
yet. I was going to need to buy time while I thought of a way to
get that gun from him.

‘
This is pretty puny for a big
shot hell beast like you.’ I said, staring straight at the barrel
of my own revolver.

‘
I have lived for countless
centuries. I have conquered lands,
men,
and
woman,
alike. I
am not the puny one.’ Said Argotal. I could sense his rising
resentment of me already and I had not even struck a
blow.

‘
Yet here you are, lying in a
hospital bed with a hole in your head. Doesn’t seem like something
I would expect a demon such as you to have to go through.’ I was
starting to feel more confident now, even though he was still
holding the gun I felt like I was gaining ground on him.

I watched as he raised his free hand up
towards the slab of skin that was once his forehead. He slowly
peeled it back until it was lying flat against his skull once more,
albeit it was going to need some stitching if he wanted it to ever
stay in place.

Once the demon in an old man’s body could see
again, his black eyes were staring straight at me, trying to probe
my very soul for something, anything, that would break my armour
and allow him to reduce me to a jabbering wreck before he finally
put me out of my misery with my own gun.

‘
It is a small indignity I must
suffer to keep this pathetic shell.’

‘
Yeah, I forgot you don’t have the
same kind of power as your boss.’ It wasn’t until I spoke those
words, that I realized one could actually hit a nerve with a demon.
As it turns out they were rather sensitive creatures in their own
way.

‘
He’s not my boss.’ Spat Argatol.
There was no mistaking the venom in his voice now. ‘I’m the one who
feeds him the souls that give him his very power and I get nothing
but scraps from his table.’

‘
Ah,
you’re the jealous type. I always thought it was
Death who handled the grunt work of getting souls from this world
to the next.’ I couldn’t help but smile, even though I knew I was
only stoking the flames of his anger.

‘
Death is nothing but a nomad
soul, unwelcome and unwanted by any of the Gods.’

‘
Seriously? I thought his job
would probably be the one most of your kind wouldn’t mind having a
shot at. At least he does something productive with his day other
than taking drugs and screwing prostitutes.’

‘
I am not ashamed of enjoying
human pleasures, especially the greatest one of all. The one that
makes me feel…how would you say…warm and fuzzy inside.’

There was a teasing in his voice, the venom
had gone and now he was the one who had focused in on something.
This was bad considering I was the one standing without a
gun.

‘
Well,
it obviously isn’t love considering the trail of
bodies you have left behind over the years.’

‘
Your right and each of those
life’s I have taken have been a great pleasure for me. Far greater
than any
drug-induced
euphoria or sexual contact
which is why I’m going to enjoy this…’

The room resonated with the
clash
of
gunfire
and then my own scream as the
hot lead tore into my right cheek. The pain was unlike anything I
had experienced and what made it worse was the fact that it seemed
to slow as it tore apart my flesh, and not slow like the way a
normal bullet would lose its velocity after hitting so many
obstacles in its path.

No, something was making the bullet come to a
stop and it did, buried deep in the soft flesh of my cheek, and
just before it would shred the bone which came after it.

Suddenly the hot lead was racing back towards
its point of origin even faster than it had come towards me.
Argatol let out a gargled scream as the bullet smashed through his
right hand, I could see a couple of his fingers float through the
air and land somewhere near the doors.

I had no idea how it could have happened but I
was not letting the situation slip by, and as soon as I heard my
gun clatter to the floor I was dropping to my knees soon after
it.

A large chunk of my right cheek
hung loosely from my face like a curtain hanging on by only one
hook, and I could feel the cool air brushing
against
my
teeth. I reached out with both hands, well one hand and a fist,
trying to locate the missing weapon.

Eventually,
after a few seconds
of
searching,
I was able to find the cold butt of the gun and
clasp it tight in my grip. Now I really did have the upper hand and
it was time to bring this deal to a close.

Well, that had been the plan until I heard
Argatol climbing out of the bed. By the time I was in a position to
get to my feet I felt something hard hit me on the back of the
head, and then the beeping from the heart monitor
stopped.

The world swam before my eyes as
the force of the blow knocked me further down
onto
the floor.
While I was trying to regain clear sight I was vaguely aware of
Argatol rushing towards the rooms’ only exit, blood gushing from
the stump of his hand.

Slowly, far more slowly than I
would have liked, I tried to get back up and to my feet. It took a
few moments and I had to use the metal footer of the bed to steady
myself, but I eventually got there and despite the incessant
ticking of that inner clock, I was pleased to see that I had
managed to retain the golden bullet, which was turning out to
be
the most
essential
thing I needed.

The doors leading in and out of
the room where swinging rapidly on their hinges which meant Argatol
already had a head start on me. But as I found sure footing once
again I charged after him out
into
the hallway.