The Scorpion's Tale (43 page)

Giovanna looked reluctantly at Steven.

“How about you, Steven, are you coming?” Nick
asked.

Steven nodded.

“And you detective?” Nick asked.

“I’m ready.”

“Are we hunting together, or should we split
up in teams?” Steven asked.

“Whatever we decide, Gia and I are together,”
Nick answered. “You guys can come with us, pair off, or go by
yourselves for all I care.”

“I’m staying with Steven,” Giovanna said.

“Do you really think I’m going to lose
another girl to Steven?” Nick responded, as he grabbed her gun and
held it to her head. “May I have the honor of your company?” Nick
kept the gun pressed against her temple as he slowly backed
Giovanna up to the door. “We’re out of here,” Nick said. “We’ll
meet over his dead body or in hell.” Nick pulled her through the
door and disappeared.

“Wonderful!” the Scorpion exclaimed. “This is
more exciting than I had hoped! Be the worthy adversaries I am
expecting with great anticipation!”

Steven and Detective Johnston stared at each
other, shocked by Nick’s outrageous behavior.

“It looks like you’ve bit off a lot more than
you can chew,” Steven said.

Detective Johnston nodded. “I never expected
anything like this. It’s a fascinating world we’ve entered.”

They slowly scanned the room. “He has every
advantage,” the detective said. “He has us on camera and he also
knows every inch of this castle.”

“We have no choice,” Steven replied.

“Agreed.”

Both men entered the Scorpion’s labyrinth
from a different entrance than Nick and Giovanna had used. Steven’s
end game had finally begun.

The halls were dimly lit. The only light came
from torches, held by brass sconces drilled into the stone walls.
The flickering flames cast illusions of movement along the
passageways. The architects had not placed much emphasis on décor,
nor did it appear they were sober while planning the interior. The
hallways zigged and zagged aimlessly, preventing Nick from
deciphering the floor plan. It was deathly quiet, with the only
sound coming from their footsteps and their own frantic heartbeats.
Nick walked cautiously, his gun out in front, pulling Giovanna by
the wrist. Nick tested every door in the corridor in order to
penetrate into the heart of the castle. Only one door allowed
entrance into a narrow stairway winding upward. Nick carefully
inspected the entrance.

“That’s exactly what he wants us to do, Gia.
It looks like a winding staircase leading nowhere. We would be at
his mercy.” He left the door ajar as he pulled her away. “Let’s
move down the hall.”

Further down was a straight, open staircase
leading upward. Nick motioned for Gia to remain where she was while
he pressed his back against the wall and moved slowly, fixing his
gaze skyward toward the top of the staircase. He reached the top
without incident and beckoned Giovanna to join him. She hesitated a
moment, having no desire to be by Nick’s side, then quickly ran
upstairs, since her fear of the Scorpion outweighed her disgust at
Nick’s touch. The second floor hallway, like the first floor,
seemed to extend indefinitely in either direction.

Nick opened the nearest door and warily
peered inside. He turned from the room into the wrong end of a
silencer. The Scorpion had another gun pressed against Giovanna’s
head. He slowly back-pedaled down the hallway, keeping one gun
aimed directly at Nick and the other pressed against her body.

“You have greatly disappointed me, Nicholas.
I thought you would be much less predictable. Now I will take my
prize. The girl comes with me, which actually may be a relief for
her. Hand me her gun, Nicholas, then you can continue to save
yourself.” Nick reluctantly gave up his extra gun and the Scorpion
pointed at an open door leading into a dark passageway. “After you,
Ms. Milani,” he said, pointing his head down the hallway, never
removing his eyes from Nick.

She proceeded slowly into darkness. The
Scorpion walked backward, then closed and locked the door behind
him. Nick immediately shot out the lock and kicked the door in. He
ran down the short corridor that ended at three adjacent doors.
Nick opened the first door and barged in. It was an empty office.
He opened the second door and discovered that it, too, was an empty
room. He was about to proceed to the third door when he noticed an
entrance camouflaged by the far wall. He moved past the door, gun
first, onto another narrow staircase leading downward. He followed
it to the end, sweating in fear among the moving shadows, as
firelight and darkness did a macabre dance along the walls.

-------------------

Law enforcement training logically made
Detective Johnston the point man. He had been opening each corridor
door and inspecting the rooms as Steven covered him. As the
detective stepped out of a small room into the hallway, a
titanium-tipped arrow pierced the right side of his ribcage. Steven
heard the impact of the arrow as it hit hard into the huge man’s
body, felling the detective immediately. Steven crawled to the
detective. His eyes rolled back in his head and a trickle of blood
oozed from his mouth. Steven saw the arrow tip protruding from his
side. He grabbed the detective’s face in his hands.

“Mike, don’t die on me. Not here, not
now.”

The detective moaned and winced in pain as he
tried to move.

“Don’t move,” Steven commanded, as he raced
over to a bed and retrieved a pillow. He bent down and carefully
raised the detective’s head, sliding the pillow underneath. He
heard the sound of metal on stone and felt an object beneath his
leg. It was a large ring encrusted with jewels around a gold image
of St. Peter’s Square. From behind, the Scorpion said: “Steven, I
am offering you the opportunity to take him from the island. You
have a choice. You can take your friend to the seaplane. The ring
assures you safe passage. You can either save his life or you can
leave him to find me. If you choose to leave, I can assure you that
you will never find me again. You will die an old man dreaming of
the revenge you could never realize.”

Steven’s answer was three resolute shots into
the darkness.

“Take my gun,” Johnston said, coughing up
blood. “Get that son-of-a-bitch.”

“I’ll be back for you, Mike.”

The detective’s breaths were short gasps.

“I’ll kick your ass if you die on me,
Mike!”

The detective smiled weakly and then lost
consciousness. There was little Steven could do. He peered down the
hallway and crept on his belly to a wide staircase leading up to
the third floor. At the base of the staircase was an abandoned
long-bow leaning against the wall, a crumb left by the Scorpion
indicating his trail.

As Steven made it to the third floor, the
Scorpion emerged from the darkness and knelt beside Johnston. “I
knew you would be important in Steven’s education. Another lesson
learned.” He placed the abandoned ring on the Detective’s finger
and moved on.

It had taken Steven five minutes to guardedly
climb the stairs. He looked both ways down the immense hallway, as
if crossing at a green light. Then he heard Nick’s voice.

“Steven. I’m down here. I need your
help.”

There was terror in Nick’s voice, which
echoed from a room beyond Steven’s line of sight. Steven slowly
walked toward Nick’s voice and stopped where the passage angled off
into a blind direction.

“Steven, please. I need you.”

Nick’s voice was coming from a room on the
left side of the hallway. He knew the Scorpion would already have
visual confirmation of his position.

“I’m here, Nick. What’s going on?”

“I’m a little bit tied up at the moment,”
Nick quipped.

Steven warily plunged his gun through the
doorway as he slid to the floor. He scanned the room. It was
windowless, with bookshelves covering the walls and a few tattered
chairs. Nick was seated in the far corner at a small table. His
arms and hands were immobilized by an antique locking device.
Nick’s gun sat on the table just beyond his reach.

“Where is he?” Steven asked.

Nick motioned to the camera on the ceiling.
“He’s watching.”

“Where’s Giovanna?”

“He’s got her.”

Steven shot him a disgusted look.

Nick shrugged. “Not my fault. Anyway, I don’t
think she and I have much of a future.” You’re not buying the
Scorpion’s bullshit, are you?”

“I just might be,” Steven snapped. “Let’s get
a few things out in the open while we’re just sitting here shooting
the breeze.”

“Go for it!”

“You knew Amanda was going to be at Tony’s
house that weekend.”

“That’s absurd. How could I possibly have
known?”

“It’s been bothering me for a long time. It
was something you said while we were sitting together at the
cemetery. You slipped when you mentioned the condition of her van.
You had been in contact with Amanda, even up to her death, isn’t
that right?”

Nick looked extremely uncomfortable. “You’re
crazy. I hadn’t spoken to her in years.”

“You’re lying. You knew Amanda and I would be
at Tony’s that weekend.”

Nick shook his head. “I think the Scorpion
has gotten to you. He’s fed you a bunch of shit and you’re buying
into it!”

“I read the letter, asshole!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nick
asked, taken off guard.

“The apology you wrote to my wife the day we
got married.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Nick said, looking uncomfortable.

“You raped my wife, you son-of-a-bitch! She
never wanted me to know, because she knew I would have killed you!
And if I killed you, your family would have killed me, leaving my
daughter fatherless, like me! Catarina was your daughter, not mine,
isn’t that right, old friend? You knew it all along, didn’t
you?”

Nick looked past Steven and peered nervously
at the camera.

“Answer me, shithead!” Steven screamed,
pounding his fist on the table.

Nick no longer cared about playing games with
his nemesis. All his emotions came bubbling to the surface, with
Nick spewing unrestrained loathing.

“Yeah, that’s right, she was my daughter. She
wasn’t your wife when I fucked her!”

“You raped Amanda!” Steven repeated.

“We started something she was reluctant to
finish. I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t exactly call it rape. I know
deep down, she wanted it!”

“She was my fiancée, you prick!”

Nick’s eyes flashed with hatred. “So the fuck
what! I loved her first and she loved me. I didn’t give a shit
about anything else, especially you! You didn’t deserve her. She
was mine!”

Steven’s face was flush with anger as he
hatefully unloaded more of his wife’s secrets on Nick. “She didn’t
love you. She pitied you. You mistook that for love, because you
never knew the difference. You were always a self-centered bastard
and you raped her!”

“It’s over, Steven; it’s the past. There’s
nothing we can do about it. Amanda’s dead. Forget about her now.
You have to concentrate on saving your own ass.”

“You knew Alberto had my father killed.”

“Get over it, Steven,” Nick shrieked,
returning to his true form. “Your father knew the rules. He was an
assassin, for Christ sake! We all know the risks of the business.
You’ll get no sympathy from me about your daddy.”

“I was just a kid! I didn’t know any of those
rules!” Steven bellowed. “All I knew was that I lost my best
friend, and you knew the whole time!”

“Bravo, bravo,” exclaimed the Scorpion over
the loudspeaker. “Shakespeare could not have scripted this better.
This is absolutely glorious! What do you think, Giovanna?”

Nick looked stricken.

“I am sorry, Nicholas, that was quite rude. I
invited Ms. Milani to watch the drama. I should have asked you
first. I hope you do not mind.”

“Nick, you are the most despicable person I
have ever met. I am sick that you ever touched me,” she said almost
inaudibly.

“When you paid for the hits on Tony and his
partners, you knew Amanda and I would be out there, didn’t you?”
Steven said. “Was it a coincidence or just icing on the cake to get
rid of both of us and soothe your battered ego?”

Nick said nothing.

“Was my wife collateral damage, or did you
want us both dead, along with your own daughter? Tell me the
truth!”

“That is surely
the question
, Steven,”
the Scorpion said. “Let me enlighten you. Listen to this, if you
will. Nicholas was arrogant enough to speak with me directly on
this matter. I believe this would be considered the proverbial
‘smoking gun’.” The Scorpion then played a recording.

Nick’s voice was clearly distinguishable on
the tape, although the Scorpion’s voice was electronically altered.
“The Brazilians demand that the contract be closed at once. Tony
and his wife will be at the house all weekend,” Nick was saying. “I
just found out they may have guests–a young couple with a little
girl. They will be driving out to Westhampton in an old, beige
van.”

“I do not kill children,” the Scorpion said.
“Make sure their van does not arrive or I will see you in
person.”

“I’ll do what I can, but I have no control
over their guests. That is your problem now. The husband is
expendable. Kill whomever you need to, it’s of no concern to me,”
Nick said.

“You are not hearing me. No children!” the
Scorpion replied. “Take care of it or I will take care of you.”

The Scorpion shut off the tape and there was
total silence. He let Steven absorb the reference to his
expendability. “Now I am making good on my word to you, Nicholas!
Gentlemen, in sixty seconds, I am going to electronically release
Nicholas from his restraints. You will have a choice, Steven. You
can kill Nicholas now, or I will release him to kill you. The clock
is ticking.”