Chapter 14:: Marco - The Revelation

The cigarette was almost burnt up, just a last few bits of it were still left to be puffed away into ash. He looked around and made sure he was alone before going back to the cigarette. His senses needed to be alert, he needed to reassure himself from time to time that it was just him and him alone on that rooftop that night, as he stood there leaning on the edge waiting in the dark.

He glanced at his watch; the person he was supposed to be meeting was late by quite a while. He reached below and felt the briefcase which lay against his legs, he needed to get a feel of it every now and then to make sure it was still there. The night wore on and he had to light another cigarette to keep him going on. He noticed the sky was unusually dark and without stars tonight, a slight breeze was blowing across which made him feel a slight chill. He was slowly beginning to lose patience, he would have gone away by now had the stakes not been so high. All of a sudden, the eerie silence was broken by the sound of footsteps up the stairs and walking out onto the roof. The man who approached him now was an absolute legend in his own right; he had done absolutely everything a man in the business could do. He had a slightly unnerving stare fixed upon the person he had come up to meet and he took a long time to break away from the stare – it was quite a while before he lit up a cigarette of his own and addressed the person he had come to meet.

‘I didn’t know Francesco had begun to send babies still in their diapers to see through transactions like these. What’s your name anyway kid?’

‘Zabrinski, Marco Zabrinski.’

‘Huh? What? Zarbrins….!!!’

‘Zabrinski, Marco.. Zabrinski’, repeated Marco slowly.

‘Don’t you talk back to me you punk! You kids these days, think you know everything and you’re tough enough just cuz you can carry an automatic now.’

‘I don’t have an automatic, Mr. Blanc.’

‘So you know my name huh! Drop the attitude kid, don’t fuckin white collar me.’

‘Francesco makes sure we know the names of everyone we do transactions with, Mr. Blanc.’

‘Yeah yeah right, that’s enough, like I wanted to know what goes on in your little nursery rhyme classes with Francesco. You got the bag kid?’

Marco nodded lightly and answered, ‘Sure do Mr. Blanco.’

‘Open it and show me, I don’t trust that pimp of a boss of yours anymore. Sneaky bastard he always was, to never show his face himself and sending along crummy pissers in your pants like you to deal with someone like me.’

Marco had a wry smile on his face, he was observing Blanc as he spoke and for some reason he felt he was looking at himself twenty years from now.
‘What are you waiting for punk? Show me the damn thing and let’s get this thing over with.’

‘Was wondering Mr. Blanc, you haven’t brought any security with you, why is that?’

‘What do you mean not brought any security? Now I need security huh? From whom, you or your coward boss that fucker Francesco.’

‘Yeah, but say what if something goes wrong or something? Won’t you need any one to protect you or something?’

‘I can protect myself very well from mugs of your kind if that’s where you’re getting at. Now cut the crap and open the bag and show me.’

‘So you telling me, that right now if you ARE attacked, no one is going to be here in a flash with a scary gun and try to save you? That is really brave of you isn’t it Mr. Blanc? Especially at this age.’

The last sentence was uttered with a laugh and it carried on even after Marco had finished speaking. It was quite an echoing laugh; one which could easily have raised a few hairs on the backs of men less braver than Blanc.

‘Hey, what the fuck you laughing at? Francesco is nuts, sending along a lunatic like you.’

‘You’ve never really seen Francesco have you Mr. Blanc?’

‘Didn’t I just say that? He’s a fuckin coward and only ever had the pair of nuts to talk to me over the phone, never shows his face to no one I’ve heard. Now if you want the shipment, then open the fuckin bag right NOW!!!’

‘Oooh, what have we here? A raised voice, I like raised voices, women like it even more. You see they like to hear some authority in the voice of the man who is doing them. They sort of like to know that what’s penetrating them, is engineered by a man who knows what he’s doing. It’s a scientifically proven fact, men shout more when they know what they’re doing.’

‘Hey, listen here POLACK! I don’t have the time to hear about birds getting fucked here and how big they like the cocks to be that fucks them. I want my money and I want it now.’

Marco looked at him a moment and said, ‘Now you can open it yourself can’t you Mr. Blanc?’, and he flung the briefcase at Blanc who caught it and was about to open it when he had to stop all of a sudden.

‘What are you doing?’, yelled out Blanc as Marco took advantage of Blanc’s both hands being engaged in holding onto the case, by whipping out his 9mm and pointing it right between the eyes of Blanco.

Blanco barely managed to say a word properly, ‘I..thought you..thought you said you didn’t have any automatic or something.’

‘Really? I find it hard to believe that a man of your experience thinks it advisable to do these transactions without any guns in our pockets as backup. Either you are really really stupid or it’s the age that’s getting you Blanc. Now, you do know I’ll shoot you if you try to move your hands don’t you?’

‘What the fuck’re you doing?’

‘What is necessary. Remember the last shipment you sent along in return for the fat cash I paid you?’

‘Yeah I remember.’

‘Course you do, yes, oh yes you do don’t you?’, said Marco with a menacing look in his eyes which had begun to go bloodshot by now.

‘Now’, continued Marco, ‘What the fuck was meant to be in that shipment and what was in it? You think you can fuck with me asshole and get away with it do you? A shipment full of cocaine is what I pay you for and what d’yeh give me? What d’yeh give me huh? Powder???? I could not believe how cheap that was, I mean a guy like you! You’re supposed to be a legend, if this is what they call a legend then I’m gonna be a fucking legend after tonight already, and yet so young huh!’

‘Hey hey hey!! Calm down alright, there must have been a mistake. I’ve been sending you shipments for years now, why would I not send you the proper shit?’

‘Hmm, I dunno maybe cuz you struck up a new deal with that mother fucker over on the other side of the ocean to give you more money for less of the shit, cuz he’s so fucking desperate to get a sniff of it that he’ll even give in to the demands of a jackass like you.’

‘Hold on, hold it, let me explain all right. Tell Francesco it ain’t never gonna happen again. Here, take back the money.’

Blanc tried to pass the briefcase back to Marco but Marco wasn’t buying any of it.

‘You move your hands anywhere but keep it pasted to that case and I blow your fucking brains off, you get me!!!!’

‘Okay, okay. Relax, please for fuck’s sake just relax. Listen, there ain’t no need to pay me for this shipment okay, and it never happens again. I’ll make sure of it.’

‘See, if I was a nut to believe the word of a crook like you, then I would have to be a real cunt to do that. You trying to prove I’m a cunt? Huh? What? You trying to prove that? Cuz tell you what asshole, that is the last thing you will ever have done in your life,’

In an instant there was the near silent sound of bullets shooting out of the 9mm, silenced by the long silencer fitted to the nozzle. This was then followed by the thud of the briefcase dropping to the ground, followed by a much louder thud.

Blanc lay there twitching, he barely managed to say anything more, just a few more syllables, ‘I – never – trusted – Francesco.’

Then he fell silent as the light in his eyes died out and his body stopped twitching. Marco walked over to the body and picked up the briefcase, he then opened it to reveal an empty case with nothing but the jacket of his 9mm gun in it.

‘You were right Blanc, you should have never trusted me. You should never have trusted a man who likes to send along crummy kids such as himself to polish off cheats like you’, ‘You were regarded as a legend, but at heart you were still the cheat who had started out by robbing old ladies on the streets of Napoli. And you got one massive thing wrong Blanc, you never fuck with me, cuz when you do, I fuck YOU up. And as you can see, I fuck you up real bad.’