57. Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ1UxkjhELU

“What the fuck do you mean?” Paganini shouted.

I was instantly intrigued. Although he was a heartless monster, he took great pride in using civilized language. He never outrightly cursed, but when he did, you knew that there was a huge problem afoot.

I walked to the door and put my ear to it, but he had stopped shouting. I picked up the water glass on the desk and pretended I was going to the water cooler down the hallway for some water. They didn’t notice. They were in his office trembling before him. As I refilled my glass, I was able to put two and two together.

Montana and Anya had escaped!

At first, I couldn’t believe it. It was too good to be true. How was that even possible? There were at least four men guarding them. I started to think it was a mistake. Maybe I’d misheard or misunderstood. But from the way Paganini and his men were behaving the unbelievable had happened. Somehow Montana had managed to escape with my daughter. I wanted to shout with joy.

I went over to my desk and made my decision. I was going to finish the job he had hired me for. With a few strokes, I began to retrieve all the money that I had transferred to untraceable accounts all over the world.

It was the skill that had brought me to Paganini’s notice. Almost half a billion dollars had been hidden from the government and ferreted away, thanks to me. I glanced through the window. Paganini was having a tantrum. I instructed the AI to initiate the process of transferring all the money, every cent of it into tens of thousands of charities all over the world. The AI asked me to confirm the order. I clicked yes. The AI began to work its magic. The money disappeared from his account at the speed of light.

Finally, when his account showed zero balance, the process stopped.

Now came the final leg of the process. I installed the malware from the hard drive, and it served to destroy all the information on the established routes. There was no going back. Now, either I lived or he did.

First, I undid the laces of my right shoe, then I rose to my feet and headed over to his office after announcing that I had done what was needed, I waited for the next bit of interaction.

“You’ll be living here from now on,” he said. “You and your daughter. You’ll get everything you need here, so focus on serving me the best way that I need, and maybe in a few years, you’ll be allowed once again to venture out on your own.”

This man, I understood now, was sick in the head.

“Where’s my daughter right now?” I asked.

He showed no reaction. “She”s safe. We’ll have her delivered to you before the end of the day.”

“And the woman with her?” I asked.

“The teacher?” He came around the table then, amused. “My, but you are greedy, aren’t you?”

“Where is she?”

“You’ll have to work a bit harder for her. I’ll tell you exactly what I need done. Do it and you can have her.”

I stared at him and pretended to be worried and resentful.

”That is a fair and merciful trade, isn’t it?” he asked with a smile.

”My daughter”s safety is the most important thing, but I’ll do whatever you want done. As long as I can have her back.”

”Good. I must say it’s been very easy, actually a delight, working with you, Luca. Your father raised you well,” he said. He looked at two of his men. ”You two go ahead and get the car ready.” The two men filed out before him.

He had started to walk out of the room, when I called out, “Don Paganini.”

He turned, one supercilious arrogant eyebrow raised.

“I wanted to thank you for sparing my daughter and the woman. I know you could have so easily killed them. As a mark of my gratitude and an early birthday present, I have instituted a new program for you. You will be able to launder dirty money faster than ever. It will also save you millions of dollars every year. Let me show you on the computer. It will only take a minute and I think you’ll be very pleased.”

He looked impressed. “You remembered that my birthday is in a week. All right. Show me this wonderful program of yours.”

”Just a moment,” I said and lowered myself to the ground.

Under the guise of re-tying my laces, I retrieved the special folding blade from the heel of my shoes. I went forward and threw an arm around him just as he neared the desk.

“Tommaso,” I called, and he turned to me, his expression showing surprise that I’d used his first name. Almost no one dared, but in his eyes were something else too: pure sexual excitement.

Smoothly, I slipped the knife into the inside of his elbow and slashed him all the way down to his wrist. His skin and flesh opened up like an ugly flower. The blade was so sharp and the movement so quick he didn’t even feel the pain until I had released him and stepped away.

Only then did he see the blood gushing out of him like I’d turned on a faucet. He was horrified. He looked up at me with amazement, as if I had betrayed him. Then his eyes filled of panic. A that moment he still believe something could be done to safe him. Then he stumbled and fell back into the chair. One hand flailed uselessly in the air.

“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “You will be dead before you feel any pain.”

His eyes bulged with fear. He opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish. He didn’t even try to call for help. He knew now he was done for. He died with his eyes open and staring, but without making another sound.

I stood just behind the office door and waited. In minutes his men had noticed something was wrong. They began to shout and run around frantically looking for him. They burst into the office, and with one leg forward at the right moment, I tripped the first guy. With the element of surprise on my side, I rammed my fist into the throat of the one behind him and retrieved his gun. With a single, well-placed bullet through the head, he was gone. Then I turned around to do the same to the other.

The silencers were very helpful since I didn’t want to draw any attention.

I knew my way around, but I only had a few minutes to get to the surveillance room, so I hurried over to it. There was a guard there who was, fortunately for him, napping on duty, consequently his death was painless and even quicker. I looked at the video feed. There were only a few men dotted around the building. I saw Arianna lying on a bed on the second floor. Now that I knew where she was, I plugged in my hard drive into the system. Almost instantly every screen became white noise. I waited for the malware to wipe off every retrievable footage.

Once the red light started flashing, I pulled the drive out, pocketed it, and walked out.

I needed a new start after this, and this meant that if the authorities or whoever took over the family from Paganini came over, there would be no trace whatsoever that I’d ever even been here. No need for revenge.

Quickly, I made my way to the second floor.

I saw no one until I reached the hallway. One of Paganini’s men who was guarding the floor saw me. His eyes widened with shock, but before he could reach for his gun, I had already broken his neck.

She was in the second room on the left. The door was locked so I went back to the still body of the guard and found his keys. Hastily, I opened the door and went in. She was so still she looked dead, but she wasn’t. She was asleep and so high on drugs she couldn’t open her eyes properly. I could hardly believe this emaciated waif was Anya’s mother and had once been my wife. She woke up and babbled some gibberish.

“I knew you’d come for me,” she mumbled. She had lost a lot of weight and I carried her easily into the elevator. I went down to the garage and stuffed her incoherent body into one of the SUVs. As ever, the keys were in the box by the garage doors.

As I started the engine more of his guards seemed to realize what had happened. About three of them ran out just as I reversed, and I couldn’t help but smile as I stepped on the gas pedal. Their shots rang out, but it was useless. I ran down two of them and was back out on the street.

I was out. I was free from Paganini!

I’d called the cops while I was with Arianna, and I could hear the sirens in the distance. I avoided the routes they would approach from, and in no time, I was in the clear.