Black Market Merchant

Chapter 144: Admittance
Saul couldn’t tell if he was glad, sad, or terrified that the triplets were now dead. He was glad that those torturers finally got what was coming to them. Yet still sad that he had lost another Match Fight, three strong fighters and let down Boss Martinez. In the end he finally settled on terrified. There was no telling what the Boss was going to do with him now that another thing had gone wrong. Also, that silly confession bet with Queen too. Not that it was going to matter, he himself was now going to have to kill Queen now.

The crowd, from all sides, were throwing trash, food and insults at him. Uncounted bets were lost due to his continued incompetence. Saul didn’t care about them. Their threats and words meant nothing to him. Without looking up, he knew that Martinez was cursing his name and probably screaming about killing him. That was more frightening than any crowd member or anyone could ever be.

Saul reached into his pocket and pulled out the bag of drugs. He had half a mind to toss it away, but he wanted to use it so badly. Saul started to ponder too himself, ”After I deal with Queen will I take it. Yes, I can use this as my reward and then never take drugs again. That will work.”

A half full cup crashed onto the back of his head, stopping his thoughts. Not even giving the one that tossed it a glance, he then stuffed the bag back into his pocket and started towards Sadie and the others. They were eagerly waiting for Queen who was now leaving the Arena’s stage.

…

Wayne couldn’t believe what he had seen just happen before him. Everything had happened so fast and unlike anything he could have dreamed of! Queen had killed them all and with such bloody violence! Looking back at Hanna he was slightly relieved that he wasn’t the only one disgusted.

Hanna was looking a bit pale and had lowered her gaze away from the stage. The state of the triplets was surely beyond mortifying for her little soul. It was fortunate that the dust blocked the worst of the bloody parts. Even though all this was displeasing to him, it was also good news. Surely now his report was going to convince the Mayor that Lisa could handle herself against the Crescent Moon.

Hanna, however, was not looking away from the gruesome stage, but because of what Aunt Lisa told her. She was going to have to make a decision of what to do next based on what Saul confessed too. This was not good! She still had no idea what to do.

”Lisa! You did it!” Sadie and Benny cheered together in unison. They were overjoyed by her victory, because in turn, it was theirs too.

”I can’t believe my plan worked.” Sadie continued jumping up and down on her heels. ”It was so last second and I thought they wouldn’t fight that recklessly at first.”

”No, it played out the way you guessed.” Lisa replied giving a grin seeing her enthusiasm. ”Those idiots keeps hitting the ground a lot with those axes. Just like in their past fight, lots of dust was eventually kicked up. Using it to split them up was a good plan.”

”Thanks. If the fight were anywhere else, my idea wouldn’t have worked.” Sadie replied pressing her slipping red glasses back up her nose.

”What did work the best though was all of my bets!” Benny added with a bellowing laugh. ”I think we tripled what we did last time. That’s including my own money!”

”Seriously! That’s even better than I hoped.” Lisa remarked looking at the thick handfuls of bills in the old man’s hands. He had wasted no time at all collecting the winnings from stunned fans and patrons. Then she saw Saul coming around the ruined stage towards them. ”Let’s get it counted up soon, but first we need to deal with Saul.”

Hanna overheard this and quickly straightened up to look nervously in his direction. ”I have to decide what to do with him. What might that be!” She thought nervously thinking of scenarios that might come to pass. “I wish I had more time!”

Hanna continued think these thoughts as she watched the man come closer. His battered face, tired eyes and exhausted stature didn’t give off a dangerous feeling. In fact, his very being looked downright pathetic. There were even liquids dripping off his wrinkled cloths and a piece of gum stuck in his disheveled hair.

”Perhaps he’s not so bad after all. Maybe he was just there by chance?” Hanna thought hopefully.

Saul stopped just a few steps away before speaking. ”How about we go into the hall? It’s too noisy here.”

”Fine by me. Come on.” Lisa said looking at Hanna. Hanna nodded knowingly and got up to follow the two grownups stiffly. Lisa then called back, ”Sadie, Benny and Wayne can you guys find out where Zane went off too? I didn’t see him anywhere around the Arena yet.”

”Sure, no problem.” Sadie replied giving an excited thumbs up.

”I bet he’s made a ton of money to from his bets like last time.” Benny replied tucking a loose bill back into his pocket.

Lisa and Hanna followed Saul into the tunnel leading to the locker rooms and offices. So far it was empty, and they wouldn’t be interrupted. Saul turned around and crossed his arms as he leaned heavily on the tunnel wall, giving off a slightly uncaring vibe.

”So, go ahead and ask away. I agreed to the bet.” Saul said to Lisa, though he was curious as to why the little girl was with them.

”I want you to confess that you were indeed partly responsible for killing the cop and his family last month.” Lisa replied flatly.

”Fine.” Saul sighed rolling his eyes. ”I’ll admit that I was there, but I didn’t kill or harm them. It was just my job to figure out when they were vulnerable and to pick out the guys capable of doing the job to capture them. I spent around two days watching that family to figure it all out.”

”You were stalking us!” Hanna suddenly blurted out. ”You couldn’t just leave us alone? I don’t care why you were there, but you could have left us alone!”

”Us?” Saul said raising an eyebrow. Then his placid face turned to look concerned and he got off the wall. ”Wait, that hair. You are that cops daughter! How did you survive the dogs? I saw the blood. Oh no, once the boss learns of this, I am dead for sure!”

Saul started to hastily try and pass by the two women, but Lisa’s firm hand grabbed his arm and pushed him back.

”Not so fast.” Lisa growled. ”I can’t let you do that. Hanna, you shouldn’t have said all that. Now things are a bit complicated. You need to make a decision about what to do with him, now.”

”W-What are you talking about? Let me go!” Saul replied nervously. Things had been getting worse for him at every turn and now was no exception.

Hanna was mad. She originally was going to make him promise not to come near her again and leave town, but after learning that he was the one that came up with the plan to capture her family, she didn’t know what to think. Hearing Lisa’s voice, she clenched her fist tightly.

”Beat him up.” Hanna answered nearly above a whisper. Then louder, ”I want all you guys to pay for what you did, but I don’t think killing is completely the right thing to do. So, Lisa can you just beat him up, as much as you can?”

”This little girl’s heart is in the right place, but what she just revealed her identity and that has put her in danger.” Lisa thought inwardly. ”If Saul tells Martinez about Hanna than he will probably try finishing the job. I don’t know what deal they made with that AFR Lieutenant, but it’s probably one they would probably want to keep. Hopefully, this beating will do the trick, but I’ll probably take care of him myself later.”

”Very well. I will do just that.” Lisa replied giving the little girl a grin. Then she held on tightly to Saul’s wrist and her expression darkened. ”But not here. There are cameras and witnesses. You’re coming with me to outside the compound.”

Hearing this Saul gave a gulp and started visibly to shake again. Thinking to himself, ”Who really is this woman? I saw no connections with her and the cop family before. Why does she care so much? I don’t want to find out what is in store for me by then and get beat up. Hehe, good thing the boss said I can kill her. The gun on my back will come in handy soon. As soon as she goes to hit me, I’ll blast her and the kid! That will surely get the boss to forgive me, no doubt!”

…

McMathers had watched the fight with great interest and was memorizing every detail. He was confident that this fight was good enough to sway his rival’s attention and get Crescent Moon to fight Queen. All he had to do now was make the call.

”Return and end recording.” McMathers said softly speaking into the flat screened watch around his right wrist.

A few seconds later a small brass colored orb with a camera lens embedded into its center, flew into his booth from above the still dusty stage area. The orb noiselessly floated into his opened palm and it powered off upon landing. Pressing a button on the orbs back, turned on its Bluetooth connection as McMathers spoke again into his wristwatch. ”Upload previous video and send to Spindle.”

The screen flickered on and a loading bar quickly filled up on screen and in seconds a ’Sent’ notification popped up. The video of Queen’s fight was now being sent to his elusive rival.

”Now let’s go see how my new project is doing. I wouldn’t want her to mess things up and make my plans harder than intended.” McMathers chuckled getting up to leave. A satisfied look had settled onto his aging face, things were indeed going well for him.

…

On the receiving end of McMathers message, far away in an unknown room high above the brightly lit bustling city below, a phone screen lit up on a desk. This illuminated the eerie dark room and drew the attention of a shadowy slim figure. A bony hand with long yellowed nails slowly reached over and scooped it up. The yellowed nail tapped noisily on the glass screen as it selected the message box and opened McMathers message and immediately the video started playing.

”Hmm, McMathers wants to challenge me again?” A feminine sounding male voice squeaked out. ”That old man is such a pain, always trying to beat me, the illustrious Spindle. Ho-ho, a new Shadow fighter beat four Mountain League members so far? Interesting, I guess I’ll play along with him.”

A pair of yellow cat eyes looked up from the phones screen and out into the dimly lit room in front of him in thought. ”Another game of cat and mouse is sure to help me pass the time. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Spindle then lazily looked down beneath him where a man was on all fours pretending to be Spindles chair. The man had only his underwear on and looked to be rather embarrassed or turned on, it was hard to tell I the near darkness.

”Yes sir. I am sure you will find satisfaction.” The man replied without moving.

”I hope it does. Now I think your punishment is not quite done yet. You did a real mess up on your last job, letting it show up to my client five minutes late.” Spindle said getting up from his naked human seat.

”I am truly sorry.” The man replied remaining in place on all fours.

”I should hope so.” Spindle prattled. As he walked across the room the man saw that Spindle had a pair of fuzzy white cat ears and a lively white cat tail was following behind him. The man then looked away as Spindle spun around with his robe flowing around him and continued speaking, ”Now here, lap up this milk and once gone, you can go.”

Spindle placed a kitten’s bowl of milk onto the floor a few paces from the man. Giving an understanding nod the nearly naked man crawled like an animal over to the milk and started lapping it up with his tongue. Spindle gave a heartless smile and started purring; he was enjoying this!