Bigger Than Jesus Page 16

  “It wasn’t quite so classic then. Then it was just old. No, I moved up because I was the guy wiring three cars to explode one morning. Three jobs in one night! I never had a remote starter, but I did keep my car locked up in a garage every night, which is what those guys shoulda done, the rats.”

  “That’s why those guys got blown up? They were all rats?”

  “Well, I speak too harshly. One of ’em was, for sure, yeah. We heard later that the feds’ investigation stalled out after that morning. It’s a shame.”

  You hear his words, but you can’t detect any tone that sounds like true regret.

  “We never figured out which of the three was the one who wasn’t righteous. It’s a terrible thing, Jesus, to kill a friend, a fellow soldier, a brother.” The way Vincent looks at you, you know he knows about Rodolpho and the red churning water beyond the propeller blades. The only person you ever told about Rodolpho was the kid you adopted as your new brother. Vincent has had long talks about you with Denny, you’re sure.

  “Yes,” you say finally. “Yes, it is a terrible thing to lose a brother.”

  “But you gotta do what you gotta do to save The Machine. In Viet Nam, they said we bombed the village to save the village. Sacrifices are made so we get to keep what we fought for. Sometimes terrible sacrifices. Sometimes, you even have to kill a son to save a family.”

  Marv pushes the button on the visor to activate the first gate to Jimmy Lima’s place. He turns the wheel and you’re through and on your way up the long drive to The Castle. Denny will be there with the key. Or maybe they figured out where to find the storage locker and already picked up Panama Bob’s skim. All that doesn’t matter anymore. Vincent sees your game and he is ice.

  We all need luck, he said. Your luck drains away, flushing your life with it.

  “You sleep okay, Jesus? I sleep okay. My own prostate swoll up and tried to kill me, but I still sleep okay. You know the secret?”

  “Sir?”

  “The secret to success and dealing with all of life’s troubles and sleeping fine and letting go of worry and stress…. Everything civilians don’t get but we have to learn if we’re going to be soldiers and make ourselves useful cogs in The Machine? You know that secret to overcoming all of life’s difficulties?”

  “What’s the secret to all that, sir?”

  “Not minding. Not minding, doing what you gotta do. But you, my young friend? I think you’ve learned this lesson too late.”

  He knows you’ve got your hand on your SIG, yet he doesn’t look the least bit worried. Now you know what Vincent won’t do and what will stop him: Nothing.

  You do mind. You should worry, so you do, all the way up the long driveway to Jimmy Lima’s castle in Great Neck. The end is coming fast.

  DESCENT

  Bald Van is on the inner gate, strutting back and forth with his heavy combat shotgun, a SPAS-12. Van has told you on many occasions it’s the same model used in the video games he loves. The SPAS-12 in Van’s hands is a very dangerous thing. Unlike most of Vincent’s guys, Van spends time practicing with his weapons at a range. All mob guys carry, but few can be bothered to put in enough time to know how to put bullets in the right places.

  Back in Denny’s apartment, Marv tried to convince you a night attack on Jimmy’s castle would be the smart way to go. You told him going ninja was the quick way to breaking an ankle jumping down from the high wall that surrounds Jimmy’s place. The grounds are patrolled by dogs at night and getting your throat ripped out is a hard way to go. The closer you get to the big house, despite your muscle and your surprises and an old man for a hostage, now you wish you’d taken your chances with the guard dogs’ teeth.

  Marv slows the Cutlass for a moment so Van can see Vincent sitting beside you in the back. As soon as he sees him, Van signals Chico to open the gate. Chico carries a bolt-action Remington Model 700 sniper rifle with a long can — a noise suppressor screwed into the end of the long gun’s muzzle — and he quickly steps up to slide the heavy iron gate back on its wheels. Chico’s weapon has a bipod folded under the barrel for stability and accuracy on the long shots. It’s a standard issue police rifle used for containment, but it’s a slow, stupid choice for a sentry on a gate. Assuming you get to live long enough to fight your way out past this dunce, it’s not a good time to tell him he should be making smarter hardware choices.

  As the Cutlass slides up the driveway, you spot Freejack Jack. He’s out on the front lawn in cutoffs tossing a disc back and forth with a pretty girl in a barely-there-in-the-right-spots tankini.

  Twist and Juan, each carrying Uzis, run out and herd Jack and his squeeze toward the guesthouse by the pool in back of the mansion. You look through the back window and catch a glimpse of Chico talking into a walkie-talkie. Jimmy already knows you’re here with his father. There doesn’t seem to be any other muscle around, though, so Jimmy’s not worried about you and he must not expect trouble from the Romanians until after the funeral for Boss Cob and his kids.

  Twist and Juan stick too close together as they follow Freejack Jack and the tankini girl. That might come in handy. Twist and Juan are best friends, but they joke around too much while on duty and stand too close together to be smart. A single spray of bullets, or a nearby explosion, could take them both out at once.

  Freejack disappears out of sight around the corner of the mansion, safely out of the line of fire. When Jimmy brought Freejack Jack in, he was way outside the world of The Machine. He went to college and made no bones. He’s a computer guy and the accountant. Every gang has some guys who are good at math, but he just wasn’t street enough for the job. Before he moved into the guesthouse and girls started showing up, Denny told you he was sure the guy was a twink.

  “No man wears cutoff jeans that short, dawg,” Denny said. “I’m telling you, Jimmy wants a little strange nearby, but it’s not pussy he’s looking for. It’s some guy’s mouth-pussy.”

  You shrugged and had nothing to say. “Jimmy’s business.”

  “Jimmy’s done time, man,” Denny persisted. “You know how that goes. Some guys go to jail and they’re gay for the stay. Sometimes when they get out, they still can’t pray the gay away.”

  When Cat Fornes got hired, Denny started speculating about Jimmy’s love life again. The cage fighter’s muscles were huge, but his masculine image was softened by his high voice and his lisp. Big Denny was sure Jimmy Lima was banging his bodyguard instead of Barbara. Looking back, maybe it was then that Big Denny decided to risk his life and move in on Barbara.

  You didn’t care then, but now you wonder if Cat Fornes got Bob’s skim and took off and that’s why no one’s seen him. Maybe you’re risking everything for nothing and you should just be running with what little cash you have on hand. If you had the courage to leave Lily drunk and asleep in that Jersey motel, you could be a bus driver in California in a month.

  Maybe the skim is what Hitchcock called a MacGuffin: The one thing everybody in the movie is after but either nobody gets it or it doesn’t really matter, anyway. In Pulp Fiction, the MacGuffin was just something shiny and valuable in a case, but Tarantino let you squirm and speculate what it might be as the body count climbed higher.

  Then you think about Lily crying into your chest, looking for an out, God’s blessing, forgiveness or at least escape. You think about all her talk about free will versus fate. To you, the skim is no MacGuffin. The skim matters plenty because you’ve got to get out of The Machine, stop being a cog and get away. You want a chance at having choices. The farther you roll up the driveway and the closer you get to the key, the less likely it seems you’ll make it back down this driveway.

  You’ve visited Jimmy’s house many times, but your palms have never sweated like this. Marv wheels the big Cutlass around the fountain in the circular driveway and parks at the front door. Jimmy Lima trots down the stairs with a bandage on his neck. When Marv steps out from the driver’s seat, Jimmy gives him a nod and you can’t see any change in his expression.
Has Marv turned on you? Jimmy only slows half a step when he spots you beside his father.

  He freezes when he sees your arms are crossed with your hand under your suit jacket, but before you can speak up, Vincent takes charge for you. “Young Diaz would like to have a talk, so I think we should call a meeting, Jimmy. We can clear the air. How’s the neck?”

  Of course Jimmy already told the boss that you stabbed him in the neck with a fork.

  “It’s fine, Pop.” He rubs his neck, nonetheless. If he could set you on fire by sheer force of will, you’d already be screaming.

  You had hoped Jimmy would keep his father out of the loop as long as he was in the hospital, but that was too much to hope for. It’s not just that Vincent wasn’t flustered when you showed up. He must have expected you.

  He’s right. The trick is not minding and Vincent has that knack. You’ve got Marv on your side and a couple of surprises to come, but despite the SIG in your hand, Vincent is still the man driving this bus.

  You get out on your side, closer to the house, your hand still under your jacket, as Marv helps Vincent out of the car on the other side.

  “Where’s Paulie?” Jimmy asks.

  Vincent leans on the Cutlass’s trunk for support and barks out a laugh. “These guys took him out easy. I didn’t hear a thing. My hearing’s not so good anymore, but still, very pro. I didn’t know for sure he had me until he walked in my hospital room. Very smooth. Jesus, you’ll be a real loss to the organization.”

  You ignore the compliment and the threat. “Paulie’s alive and tied to a gurney. He probably still thinks there’s a Romanian on the door waiting for an excuse to cut him up.”

  Jimmy points at Marv. “You turning your back on us, too, Marvin? You throw in with the little Cuban? What? Did he tell you a story and you believed him? You should never believe a word from this guy.”

  “This isn’t about you or Jesus, Jimmy. This is about family. Jake killed my brother. I know he’s here. You know what I’ve got to do.” To everyone’s surprise, Marv is crying. He pulls out the Smith & Wesson ahead of schedule. He doesn’t point the pistol at anyone — it’s down by his side in a listless hand. “Give me Jake Cibrian so I can avenge my brother and I’m done.”

  You don’t have time to shout a warning or get the situation back under control. Jimmy’s still pointing at Marv, two fingers out and thumb up like he’s a kid pretending he’s holding a pistol.

  “You’re already done,” Jimmy says. He raises his other hand to his ear and tugs the lobe. Marv’s head explodes with a very precise one-shot kill from a .308 round.

  You underestimated Chico. He must be putting time in at the range with Van. You throw yourself to the ground behind the Cutlass before Chico can chamber the next round. Your gun is out but Jimmy stomps on your arm. You might have kicked out and taken Jimmy down with you, but there’s Bald Van with the SPAS-12’s muzzle digging into your back. You never saw Bald Van coming. You were focused on the wrong details, watching faces instead of watching your back. You drop the SIG.

  You walked in with an old man for a hostage and Marv for muscle — a guy you conned into being an ally. Now you have nothing.

  Almost nothing.

  You still have hope until Van tells you to get up. At the top of the stairs stands a big man with cold eyes. Big Denny De Molina, the friend and adopted brother you killed. It’s hard to imagine you ever worried about having to kill him again. He’s on crutches with one leg in a plaster cast that reaches from his right ankle to his crotch. His lower lip trembles and you take in at a glance that when you nearly killed him, you hurt him in ways no cast can heal. But that’s not the crazy part.

  Big Denny is flanked by two beautiful women. One is Jimmy’s wife, Barbara. She is the woman Big Denny loves so much, he tried to kill you to protect their secret. But that’s not the craziest part.

  The other woman is the only woman on earth you’d kill for. Lily is dressed entirely in red, down to her three-inch, come-hump-me pumps. But you’re the one who’s really fucked, aren’t you? In the next few minutes, before you’re murdered, it might be nice to figure out if Lily is the one woman on the planet worth dying for. That’s pretty far out there, but still not the craziest part.

  “Take it easy, Jesus,” Lily says. “I talked to Daddy and Papa Vincent. They have a plan. We’re all going to get out of this alive as long as you don’t do anything stupid.” Lily says that like she believes it. That’s the craziest part.

  YOU'VE COME UNDONE

  Pete and Jake are waiting in the great room. In most houses, this would be called the living room, but not in a castle like Jimmy’s. From the front window, beyond Vincent’s Cutlass and the fountain, the vast front lawn — the “grounds” when they’re this big — stretch out to the inner gate. It’s a long way to run and, assuming you can get out of here, Chico will have a few shots at you before you cross the lawn. You probably won’t even make it as far as the fountain.

  Bald Van is thorough. He takes your trench coat and removes your chain and hockey stick tool. He takes the knife from your sock and, careful not to scratch the white wood, places it delicately on the Baby Grand piano beside your SIG Sauer P220 and the extra mags . You’ve eaten with these guys, played pool and poker with them and worked beside them. They know your usual weapons and where you keep them.

  Van leans on the wall by the window but keeps his gaze fixed on you. He flicks the shotgun muzzle an inch and waggles his eyebrows and you take a seat. Big Denny lowers his bulk to the loveseat awkwardly, his broken leg straight out. Pete and Jake sit on a sectional couch and glare at you. Jimmy and Lily sit behind you along the back wall. Vincent sits across from you so he can look into your eyes.

  “You’ve forced my hand, Jesus,” Vincent begins. “I’m going to have to air the family’s dirty laundry, though maybe that’s for the best anyway. Baldy, you sweep this room? No bugs?”

  Van nods.

  “For sure?”

  “Swept for insects twice, sir. The Feds don’t have a prayer.”

  “Fine.”

  Pete trembles as he stares at you. His fists are clenched. “What were you thinking bringing my daughter into this?”

  If they’re going to kill you anyway, you may as well go out with style. “She likes black eyes.”

  “What?”

  “Denny gave me black eyes and Lily found me irresistible. I understand your confusion. At first, I thought she meant that she liked black guys.”

  Jake guffaws but Pete silences him with a hard look. Vincent at least has the grace to smile. From behind you, Lily whispers for you to shut up.

  “Yeah, better you shut up, Jesus,” Vincent says good-naturedly. “This is the point in your story where all the interested parties gather and things get explained, just like in an old Nero Wolfe detective story. Only you’re no detective. You think you’re smart, but you’re not so smart. You’re the guy things happen to. I’m the guy who makes things happen. Understand?”

  “So far I do. Speak slow.”

  “You punk!” Pete rises and steps close, drawing back his hand. He hasn’t taken his ring off. You imagine that ring will hurt when it connects and you wince and turn your head, hoping to roll with the expected blow. The strike never comes. When you open your eyes, Lily stands between you and her father. She says nothing. She just shakes her head and Pete lowers his hand.

  “Everybody have a seat,” Vincent says. “I’m going to break this down for you. There are complications coming our way because of a lack of discipline and loyalty in the ranks. This, I will not tolerate. You don’t get a house like this, Jimmy, by being sloppy. You especially don’t continue to keep it if you’re going to be sloppy. We’ve gotten weak and lazy. If we’re going to grow, we need to toughen up and clear out the dead wood. With discipline, we could be so much bigger than we are. For the rest of The Machine to work better, we’ve got to make examples of those who would fail us. Harsh discipline builds a legacy. Remember this: I am not the bad guy here. I’m
the fucking king. I make the tough decisions today to make sure there’s a castle here tomorrow.”

  Vincent turns to Pete. “Speaking of things that make me sad, the kid played you with an old scam and that’s one thing that’s got you pissed. The second thing that’s got you pissed is that your only daughter is still hanging out with this loser.”

  Vincent turns to you. “Pete came to me months ago and asked me for permission to whack you, Jesus. I said no. I told him the little guy could be useful and if there’s a shit job that comes up that could get him killed, then maybe I’d use you. I also told him that Lily is a beautiful young woman and she should make her own choices…up to a point. Let them date and be young and feel their wild oats and later, Lily will settle down with someone of substance.”

  Lily crosses her arms and looks sour.

  “Don’t even,” Pete says. “This is not the place or the time for you to be the rebellious kid. I’m sorry, Vincent. I spoiled her.”

  Vincent turns to Pete and shakes his head. “That’s not what you should be apologizing for, Pete. Jake tells me that as soon as you fell for Jesus’s grift — magically making counterfeit money out of real bills — you were plotting against Jimmy and telling yourself it was for me and The Machine’s own good. Think about it a minute longer and it’s clear you were thinking of promoting yourself.”

  Pete glares at Jake, but before he can move, Jake stands up, pulls his pistol and levels it at Pete’s midsection. Pete sits back on the couch, his mouth a thin line, while Jake reaches into Pete’s jacket and removes his pistol and sticks it in his own belt.

  “You thought you saw an opening,” Vincent says. “You thought I was weak. I’m old. You, of all people, should know the difference between old and weak, Pete.”

  “Dad, can’t we deal with this somewhere else?” Jimmy says. “I don’t want this to happen in my own home. Marv’s corpse is bleeding on my front step, for Christ’s sake!”