Chapter 5
Melo looked around to make sure
there was nobody in the corridor and quickly snuck into his room, quietly
closing the door behind him. There was
no need for any of the staff to see him carry an assault rifle around. He
shuddered at the idea of having to deal with police on top of all their
existing problems. But now that nobody
could see him, Melo carefully placed the weapon on the table and reached into the
small bag he had thrown over his shoulder. Inside were all the cleaning
utensils for maintenance, and a half-empty bottle of rum that he took from
Cree. Lord knows he deserved the damned drink. Throwing the cleaning kit on the
table, Melo proceeded to search the cupboard for a glass – drinking a thousand
dollar rum out of the bottle seemed a tad juvenile. Having only managed to find
a cup he finally sat down at the table with a sigh. It’d have to do.
The soft light of the small lamp
that stood on the table, even mixed with the erratic blinking of the half-muted
TV was not enough to illuminate the table properly. Drunk and drowned in
twilight Melo picked up the gun. Quickly, with a steady, almost surgical
precision he removed the studs and took off the stock. Next came off the
handle. One by one every piece took its own place on the table. The removed mechanism
unit and mobile assembly were carefully placed next to a clean ashtray, where
Melo had stored all the removed studs. He took a sip of the rum, and involuntarily
smiled. Say what you will about the ungodly price, but the rum was good. The
kind of rabid bitterness he usually got from most hard drinks was not present,
instead it went down smoothly. Too smoothly perhaps. He took the bolt, twisted
the amp lever – removing it, and pulled out the firing pin. The drumming of the
rain, heard even through the quiet murmur of the telly, was getting on his
nerves. The details of the case just weren’t sitting right with him. The entire
thing – the town, the people, the killings, the guns… it was all making him a bit paranoid. He quickly dismantled
the head and with a strong jerk twisted off the bipod. Melo shook his head and
refilled the cup.
“Morning’s always wiser…” He said
quietly under his breath and, taking a piece of special cloth, started cleaning
the barrel. Once that was done with, it took him a bit of effort to locate the
brush in the bag. His vision was slowly getting blurrier as he found himself
amidst a warm, soothing haze. All of his worries slowly became insignificant,
as he steadily and carefully cleaned the firing mechanism and the chamber with
a brush. All other metal parts he worked over with a piece of clean cloth. The rum
was taking effect all the more quickly, as it made friends with the scotch he
drank earlier. Melo could no longer hear the TV, his mind completely,
blissfully blank, as he pushed the firing pin back into the head and installed
it back into the assembly. Next the
mechanism unit was returned back to its place. Then the handle… then the stock…
Finally the bipod found its way back. Barely conscious, Melo staggered to his
bed, falling asleep before his head could touch the pillow. Only the drumming
of the rain and the quiet murmur of the telly remained, along with an empty
bottle of rum.
The morning was murky and just as
unwelcoming as the evening before it. Liene stretched in her bed and got up.
Looking out the window she shivered a little. She was feeling cold just by
looking at the weather. If anything it seemed to have gotten a bit worse than
yesterday. The wet brown leaves were
spun around the street by strong wind, giving it a dirty look. Liene sighed
and, quickly throwing on her jeans and shirt, disappeared in the bathroom. Rain
or no rain – teeth gots to be brushed, eh?
The bathroom was small but tidy, as usual with most ensuite rooms. A tiny bar of soap was sitting on the sink, next to three tubes of toothpaste. Liene shot her eyebrows up in surprise. That was quite unusual, but she wasn’t about to let anything free go to waste. She quickly popped one of the tubes open, and pocketed the other two. As Liene began brushing her teeth she could feel her mouth going slightly numb, much to her surprise. She grabbed the tube again and read the English description carefully.
“Lavendik-Straub toothpaste. New Innovative Formula! Say NO to bleeding gums!” Followed by a long list of chemicals and other ingredients and warning: “May cause a slight feeling of numbness.” Liene shrugged and continued brushing, if anything it really was better than most other things she normally used. Unless it was all a ploy by their enemies!? Maybe they planted this toothpaste here for her to use! And the mouth feels numb because of the poison they put in it?! Could it be that she was being sneakily assassinated at this very moment-
The bathroom was small but tidy, as usual with most ensuite rooms. A tiny bar of soap was sitting on the sink, next to three tubes of toothpaste. Liene shot her eyebrows up in surprise. That was quite unusual, but she wasn’t about to let anything free go to waste. She quickly popped one of the tubes open, and pocketed the other two. As Liene began brushing her teeth she could feel her mouth going slightly numb, much to her surprise. She grabbed the tube again and read the English description carefully.
“Lavendik-Straub toothpaste. New Innovative Formula! Say NO to bleeding gums!” Followed by a long list of chemicals and other ingredients and warning: “May cause a slight feeling of numbness.” Liene shrugged and continued brushing, if anything it really was better than most other things she normally used. Unless it was all a ploy by their enemies!? Maybe they planted this toothpaste here for her to use! And the mouth feels numb because of the poison they put in it?! Could it be that she was being sneakily assassinated at this very moment-
“Heeey, Liene, are you up yet?”
Rami’s voice, followed by a hard knock on the door snapped her out of it. She
quickly washed out her mouth and rushed out of the bathroom.
“Yes yes, I’m coming” She swung
the door open, nearly tackling Rami in the process. “Crap, sorry gramps!”
“Never mind,” Rami waved his hand
dismissively, purposely ignoring the nickname. “Cree is waiting already. And I don’t
want to hear his sarcastic remarks this early in this shitty morning, so let’s
go.”
“Well, somebody’s grumpy…”
“I’m always grumpy.”
The door to Cree’s suite was
slightly creaked open in an inviting way. Music could be heard from the inside.
It felt a bit nostalgic to Liene – he was listening to Die Toten Hosen. Hearing German again, for the first
time in weeks was refreshing. The room
itself looked very different from yesterday. The excerpts from local newspapers
and pages from the case file covered the walls. The glass table that used to
stand in the centre of the room was gone and the glass from it was mounted on
the wall, making an impromptu whiteboard. The photos from four specific victims
were pinned to it with writing done in a red marker listing key similarities
between them. Before Liene had a chance to express he legitimate feelings of “what
the flying fuck” Cree himself entered the room from the kitchen. He looked surprisingly
energetic. His suit’s jacket was gone, leaving him in a white shirt and black vest.
Rolled up sleeves added to the dishevelled look, created by messy hair and
faint black circles under his eyes. He placed the jug full of coffee that he
had in his hand on the cupboard and waved at them.
“Good morning ye lazy bastards!
Grab some coffee and freshen up, we have a lot of work to do!” He opened the cupboard
and pulled out several cups, gesturing the due to grab them.
“W-what the hell have you done to
this place?” Rami finally managed to squeeze out the lingering question.
“Huh? I turned it into a proper
workplace, obviously.” Cree raised an eyebrow. “Stop asking retarded questions
bro.”
Rami opened his mouth to say
something, but failed to come up with a decent enough comeback. Liene in the meantime
gladly poured herself a cup of hot coffee. If anything she was glad to drink
some proper brew, and not the dissolving instant shit-drink they served back at
her work. Taking a nice savoury sip, she
turned to Cree.
“When did you get the time to do
all this?”
“Mmm? Ah, tonight. I did it
tonight.”
“Really? Did you even get any
sleep?” Liene raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
“Please,” Cree smirked. “Sleep is
for weaklings! Hahahahah!”
“Kill me… kill me now….” With a
loud moan Melo stumbled into the room. “Seriously, just shoot me… ughhh…” He
had sizeable black bags under his eyes. Arms trembling and with a breath that
could rival a dragon’s, Melo was a positive wreck. A massive splitting headache
signalled the mother of all hangovers. Liene jumped up and helped him down into
a chair while Rami reasonably turned down the music.
“The hell happened to you, Melon?”
Liene scurried about trying to find something that would make him more
comfortable.
“Good half a litre of a 45% high
quality Rum on top of a litre of cheap 55% scotch, that’s what.” Cree replied
with a smirk. “Told ya to be careful with Appleton’s - it hits heavy if you’re
not careful.”
Melo only groaned in response.
Cree sighed at the glare Liene
and Rami gave him and disappeared into the kitchen. A minute later he returned
with a cold can of Duvel in his hand.
“Here, have this then top it off
with coffee, should bring you back to life.” He threw the can to Melo. “Nothing
better to beat a hangover than a can of Belgian lager, eh, bro?”
Melo caught the can and quickly
popping it open, began drinking greedily. Less than a minute later he leaned
back into the chair with a sigh of relief.
“Thanks that helped.” He
gratefully nodded to Liene and picked up the cup of coffee she brought for him.
“So, where are Wolf and Hema?”
Cree shrugged. “Late as usual, I suppose.
We’ll wait for them, and then go over the plan for today.”
Rami and Liene nodded in agreement.
Rami and Liene nodded in agreement.
It was some good twenty more
minutes before Wolf and Hema finally showed up. Cree was about to chew them out
for being late, but it turned out the duo had good reason. They came in carrying
several plates filled with food: several burgers, chips, salad and jugs of
sauce. Suddenly everyone, Cree included, realised that they didn’t have a single
bite since they got off the plane. The hunger hit them like a truck – hard and
quick. In seconds the food was divided between everyone, and for a few minutes,
everyone just ate in silence. The much needed breakfast charged everyone up,
giving the gang back the energy they didn’t even realize they had run out of. Even
Melo seemed to get the colour of life to come back to his face.
Finally once everyone was done
with their plates and coffee, Cree clapped his hands and jumped up from his
chair and approached the makeshift whiteboard. Picking up a marker he drew a
vertical line and marked each side “Recon” and “Info” respectively.
“Alright guys, the plan for today
is simple. We’ll be splitting into two teams - Reconnaissance and Information Gathering.
The recon team will go with me,” He wrote his name into the recon column. “And
survey the known crime scenes. Get a feel for the area, so to speak. The info
group, in the meantime will be in charge of gathering as much intel on this
little town as possible. Should prove to be quite challenging, since this town
has no digital footprint at all. Any volunteers?”
Rami raised his hand. “Info. And I
want Liene with me.” Liene moaned in disdain while Cree turned to Rami in
surprise.
“Really? I thought she’d be more
useful with the recon.”
Rami shook his head. “Since we
can’t use internet we’d have to go to the council building to check their
physical records manually. And I really bloody doubt that they will let us go
through everything. Soo… we might
have to gain access to restricted files in a more… direct way. Catch my drift?”
“Hehe, I see.” Cree smirked and
turned to Liene. “Any objections?”
“None at all.” Liene seemed a lot
more enthusiastic, now that a prospect of breaking and entering was introduced.
Cree nodded and wrote their names into the info column.
“But!” Liene raised her finger. “If
we’re talking about stealing records from a protected building, we’ll need at
least one more person as a lookout. Somebody inconspicuous, somebody young,
with an honest face… “A pause hung in the air as everyone turned to Hema at the
same time. He blinked a few times before realizing what was going on.
“But-but-but, we don’t know if you’ll have to break into anything,
do we? Aren’t we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves? Maybe you won’t need
me at all!” His voice was filled with notes of desperation.
Rami shrugged. “While you do have
a point, it’s better to be prepared, rather than to be caught shorthanded.”
Liene, Melo and Wolf all nodded
at the same time. Cree then clapped his hands with an evil smile, “It’s decided
then!” and wrote Hema in under info.
Hema fell back into his chair and
hung his head. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……”
Cree turned to Melo and Wolf with
a silent question in his eyes. Wolf shook his copy of the case file he picked
up from Cree yesterday and stood up.
“Recon, I want to examine the
crime scenes myself. Something in the forensic reports just keeps on nagging
me.” Cree nodded and put his name on the
board.
Melo stood up with a grunt,
checked the Beretta he had holstered on his back, and then slapped himself on
the face twice to wake up completely.
“Not much of a choice really.
Only fresh air, only recon, only hardcore!” Having said that he cocked his gun and holstered
it back.
Cree’s smile turned vicious. “Everything is
decided then. Now…” He walked to the cupboard and pulled out a plastic bag. He
emptied the contents onto the now vacant chair, where Melo had been sitting – inside
were five cheap phones. “Burners, pre-paid. We contact each other in three
hours or once we discover something. As usual, ditch if compromised. All
understood?”
Wolf picked up his phone and
handed the rest to the others.
“Business as usual then?”
“Indeed.” Cree smirked and then threw Rami a car key. “The
one on the left is yours. Drive carefully.”
“Wait, didn’t your friends drive
off in the second car?”
“Don’t think too much about it,”
Cree frowned. “They returned it yesterday night.”
Rami nodded and headed out. Liene
and Hema quickly followed suite. Cree casually straightened out the sleeves of
his shirt, grabbed the jacket and winked to Melo. “Roll out?”
Melo nodded. “Damn straight.”
“Wolf, you got your gun?”
“Yeah,” Wolf patted his side. “Safe
and sound under the sweater.”
“Good!” Cree then reached behind
the chair and pulled out his over the shoulder holster. He put it on, tightened
it with Melo’s help, and put on the jacket - concealing the weapon completely. He
then paused for a second sniffing the air.
“Hmm… looks like I’m driving.”
Melo snorted. “Get going,
smartass.”