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Black Book Series: PowerScape, Part Three
By monkeyboy777
chapter six:
Nelson sits alone in a booth at a diner downtown, its late afternoon, and he looks very dazed. His attire is all dark black and blue. A cup of coffee sits in front of him. He looks lost in thought, head down, and eyes concentrated. Soon a young waitress walked up to his table. She was easy to read, even without looking. Nelson felt she almost reeked urban tragedy.
“Are you ready to order?” she asked in a sweet voice. Nelson looked up at her. She was pretty, looked about 24 or 25, Nelson guessed. Her nametag said ‘Jill’.
“Yes I am, chicken strips please. Four.”
“That all?” she asked him. ‘He looks so sad, or maybe he’s ill…’ Nelson ‘heard’ her think.
“Yes Jill … Thank you.” Nelson gave a slight smile and she strolled off.
As he watched her walk away, he saw a man in the next booth reading a newspaper. The headlines were more about the ‘Blood Runners’ goings on in L.A., San Diego and San Francisco and the crime syndicate itself. And in a small corner, next to a smaller article than the one the other day was a picture of Adam/Nelson. Nelson sighed and looked away after scanning the articles. He was more up to date on everything going on than these simple papers ever would be. He might as well have precognition compared to the media. But even his own enhanced senses and intuition could not foresee the tempest ahead. And that’s what stressed and frustrated him so.
‘Food’s ready’.
Jill came back with his food, smiled brightly, and then walked off to other customers. Nelson looked blankly ahead for a moment. Then he ate ‘military’ style. Soon after he paid at the counter and left through the glass swinging doors. When Jill came to clean away the dishes, emptied clean, she got an unexpected surprise. Five one hundred dollar bills lay out on the table as a tip. Jill could just stand stare, unbelievingly.
Nelson got on his Honda and sat for an instant in the parking lot. He smiled a moment at the thoughts he was receiving from Jill. Then he pulled out the flyer for the sports bar. He glanced at it briefly before sticking it back in his pocket and taking out a small card. It was the card that Mario had given him. Nelson read it over, considered it. It was a business card from a club of some sort and had Mario’s cell number on the back. Putting it back in his pocket, he started his bike up and drove around the city until dark, familiarizing himself with some of the highways and byways of the city.
As it began to get dark out, Nelson stopped at a payphone, and called the sports bar and left a message for an interview.
Half an hour later, downtown, Nelson was standing in front of what looked like a nightclub of sorts, wondering to himself. It was a good-sized two story gray brick building with two smaller sections on either side. Many people could be seen outside, though even more noise was coming from the inside. Nice looking, expensive cars and people line the edges. Groups of people are gathered at different points, around cars and outside tables. However, the actual line into the club was relatively small. Whoever wanted to be in was in; whoever wanted to be out was out.
‘Here we go’.
Nelson walked silently through the crowds, some ignored him, some gave him a glance, but no one sought him out and he wasn’t really looking for anyone. Soon he reached the entrance doors, big black oak doors. Two large bouncers dressed in white stood before him on either side of the door taking money and checking customers. A few more people were ahead of him in line, still. So Nelson just stood there waiting patiently, and began to consider leaving.
‘What am I doing here?’
Then, through the doors from inside, came Eddie. Nelson sensed him before he actually saw him. He and some very pretty young woman that Nelson did not know walked out of the front doors to the bouncers’ stations. Eddie started to cat with the bouncers after waving to some of crowd outside the club. As he in turn listened to the bouncers’ reports, Eddie finally spotted Nelson; just a few people back from the doorway.
“Biker boy!” Eddie exclaimed as he cleared the line and strode up to Nelson. “What’s up man? Hey. You decide to come and see us?”
Nelson stared blankly ahead for a moment, then nodded.
“We’ll cool beans, then.” Eddie motioned to the girl, and she came over to them. “This is Aliyah.” “Hi,” she said. “And she’ll take you in to see Mario and the others, no problem.” Aliyah nodded, and then took Nelson’s arm in hers and they walked through the doors into the club.
No problem.
Before the doors closed, Nelson looked back. “Aren’t you coming too?” he asked Eddie, but he already knew the answer.
“No man, you’ll be cool, don’t worry. I’ll be up in a bit, got some … business to attend to.” He gave a slight grin, and the doors closed.
Aliyah guided Nelson up some stairs past the entry way and into the main dancing hall. The place was alive with music, lights and motion. People everywhere, and the noises so loud he couldn’t hear what Aliyah was talking to him about. There were two levels inside, a lounge, a bar on each level, two large television flat screens, and a VIP booth upon the second level. It was in that booth that Mario, Thomas, and the girls as well as some new persons were seated. Mario and Thomas were in a discussion with the other men in the booth, and the girls were just sitting there all pretty and whispering to each other like girls do.
Mario looked up towards the arrivals. “Well, Well …” he exclaimed with a grin. “Look who it is. Guess you already saw Eddie,” with a glance to Aliyah. “You remember Thomas and the girls,” he said gesturing. Thomas waved, and the girls did their little female thing. Nelson nodded. “And these fellows,” Mario motioned to the three men on either side. They wore dark suits and had moody expressions. They looked at Nelson, and he at them. “That’s Marcus, Armand, and Josef. They each nodded in turn, and Nelson back. Then something interesting and unexpected happened as Nelson sensed their presences and reached out his mind.
‘Blood Runners. Play it cool Adam’.
“Hey … uh,” stammered one. “You look familiar, ever been to Phoenix?”
“No,” said Nelson sternly. “Never.” And he pushed with his mind a bit to make the man alter interests.
“Oh,” said the man. “Never mind then.” And he went back to his drink. As did the others, and conversation turned to small talk. Mario joked with a passing waitress when Thomas spoke up.
“Phoenix? Man, what was the deal with all that crap that went down there a few weeks ago. Bombs and crime lords or something.”
The visiting men suddenly looked very uncomfortable in their seats, an activity only Nelson seemed to notice. Mario turned towards Thomas and Nelson, who was now seated by the girls.
“Oh yeah,” said Mario, “I remember hearing that crap on the news, its been on for two weeks. Some SWAT team duked it out with some kind of crime lord hit team or something.”
“And some poor young guy got killed in the explosion at the parking lot afterwards with the crime lords. Real sad. He had a family and a fiancée I hear.” Added Shakira, interjecting.
‘If you only knew’. Nelson thought to himself with a solemn expression.
He looked away from the group at that moment, something the girls only slightly noticed. The conversation then turned to small talk through Nelson’s psychic suggestions. Then after a minute, something very fascinating happened as Nelson sat there listening to the group. The strange men got up to leave and Mario bid them good evening.
“Well goodnight guys, sorry we couldn’t make a deal. No hard feelings right?”
“No,” said Marcus with a small smile. “Not a problem.” But Nelson had more than a feeling that wasn’t quite true. And with that the men left. Nelson followed them with his mind as far as he could.
Thomas spoke in Mario’s ear then, and a bit later Mario looked Nelson’s way. Nelson read his thoughts. ‘No harm in telling him’, Mario reflected.
“Those were some of my more disreputable business partners. Very shady.” He said.
“Oh,” said Nelson rising. “Um… I have to go to the bathroom.” He looked around apprehensively.
“Down the bottom hall, then second door on the right.” Thomas pointed downstairs. Nelson already knew before he spoke.
Nelson started down the stairs, when one of the girls, Thalia, came up to talk to him at the bottom.
“What’s up?” Nelson asked without turning. She was easily sensed. Her aura, a brilliant and blossoming blue. But, of course she didn’t know that.
“Oh, nothing really,” she said in a sweet conversational tone. “Just wanted to get a chance to talk to you away from the others. A chance to get to know you a bit. You know, find out who you are, what you are about …” ‘I like this guy a lot. Why?’ Nelson caught her thoughts.
“Um … OK.” He looked at her. He was startled by her thoughts. He had not manipulated her at all. “But can it wait till I get back from the restroom. I’ll be back in a bit.” And then he left her standing there as he went towards the hall. The music drowned out any departing words, and soon she was lost in the crowds. He caught only the fleeting thoughts of her disappointment and something else, something smothered by the noise of so many souls.
Nelson got to the bathroom doors with ease and went inside. No one else was in there at the time. He went to the sink and splashed water upon his face. Two other men walked in and went over to separate urinals. They only gave Nelson a slight glance.
Then, the power went out.
“What the hell?” exclaimed one of the men.
Yelling and movement could be heard outside in the main hall.
‘Great’. Thought Nelson. ‘Figures. This has to happen now?’
The entrance doors burst open and ten men wearing black masks and suits carrying automatics, and they waved them, firing overhead. Then a bulkier, taller man with two pistols in hand stepped to the front of the group. “Listen up!” He yelled in a deep voice. “Everyone to the back over there. Cooperate and this will all go smoothly. Don’t and you’ll end up like these fellows.” He pointed to the two dead bouncers and a guard being dragged past his feet. “Do we have an understanding?” The crowd was silent. “Good.”
Thalia was in the group on the first floor. Mario and the others still were on the second floor, very stunned and frantic at the entry. Two of the armed men headed up the stairs and secured the floor, pacing assertively. The large leader then strode up the stairs and came straight to Mario’s VIP table.
“What the hell is going on?” Mario asked stepping forward impatiently. “Who the hell are you?”
The big armed man leaned inward across the table. “Silence Mr. Acosta,” he said in a low voice.
Then suddenly one of the other guards reached forward and slapped Mario across the face with the back of his hand. Shakira gasped.
“I’ll do the talking, thank you.” And a grin could be seen below the man’s mask.
Two of the armed men entered the bathroom. It was empty. Two young men had darted out into the hall when the shooting had started.
“Hey, you need a break Smith?” One asked the other.
“Nah, I’m good,” Smith replied.
The men made to exit the bathroom. When the door closed again, Smith found himself alone. “Hey Leon, Leon?” He looked around the hall with his flashlight. Then he walked back to the door and peeked inside. “Leon? You in here still?” He asked the darkness. No one answered, and he walked all the way into the bathroom and looked around shining the flashlight around the stalls.
Suddenly the flashlight and his rifle were out of his hands, knocked away to the floor many meters away. Then he was knocked down too, by another blow. Smith looked around, then up. A dark shadowy figure clung to the ceiling.
“Sorry,” it said. “Leon’s out. Can I take a message?”
Smith grabbed a pistol from his belt and fired wildly at the darkness above.
Everyone in the main hall heard the shots. More screams from the crowds. The bulky ringleader turned his head to the side to listen in concentration. Many of the other armed men paused then pointed their guns towards the sounds. None moved from where they stood. The leader waved two guards towards the hall. As they moved in, he looked back at Mario. Under flashlight Mario was rubbing his face, Thomas sat their looking livid, and Shakira and some others were cowering in a corner.
“What is this Mr. Acosta? Resistance? I hope not, for your sake.” Growled the large masked man. “Well, while my men check out the situation, let’s get down to business. No guess you know who we are but let me enlighten you as to what we want. Our ‘managers’, you could call them, want us to make it clear to you the new scenario here in Los Angeles. Sixty percent of the clubs, brokerages, and estates in this district belong to the Blood Runners. However, your little excursions hamper our expansion program. So, quite simply, we request you give over your holdings, all of them. Every building title or broker ticket.” The bulky man paused. “A request or demand, you take your pick.”
Mario never got a chance to answer. Though that may have been fortunate for him, with what he had in mind to say.
The two scouts that had gone into the hallway were thrown back into the main hall with extreme force. They were thrown with such power that they slammed into, and through tables at the other and of the main hall. In the darkness, no one could see what caused them to be thrown so violently into the room. The other armed men were very agitated now. One fired his pistol into the dark where the bodies came from. The ringleader called him down.
“Hold!” He yelled down. Waving his men forward. “Wait until we can see who this is.” ‘Another guard or some street cop’. He thought to himself. Then he heard a strange whisper coming from right inside his head.
‘Wrong’. It said.
Nelson grinned under his mask. He knew he shouldn’t be getting pleasure from this, but he always enjoyed it when he shocked and startled the Blood Runners. He figured it served them right anyways. After stretching right quick in his black battle suit, Nelson leaped to the ceiling easily and climbed out of the hallway to the top of the main hall as some trigger happy fool unloaded a pistol to where he had been standing.
Now it was pure chaos. The group on the bottom floor was still screaming, and the armed men were pointing their weapons outwards in all directions. They were chasing shadows now. Nelson heard the large man on the second floor call out orders. He decided to send the leader a little hello. That did it.
The big brute marched down the steps with two pistols in his hands and stared into the hallway. Nelson couldn’t see the man’s face, but his feelings were easy enough to interpret. This guy was pissed. But amidst all the fumbling around on the two floors, four armed men stalking the first and two remaining on the second, no one had spotted Nelson’s black clad form crawling along the ceiling to exactly above the ringleader’s head.
The hulking leader surveyed the first floor from where he stood, his front men using flashlights to light up the hallway ahead. His fingers rubbed the triggers on his guns anxiously. He felt a dread presence looming about him, but couldn’t place it. Then it found him as a silver wire looped around his throat and he was carried upward into the shadows between the ceiling beams. More screams from the crowd. The other men searched nervously for their leader. This was going very badly. What were they supposed to do know? Half their group down, including their head.
Nelson helped them out and made the choice easy for them. He landed lightly in silence upon the floor of the main hall a good ways from the restless crowd. All the armed men shined their flashlights upon the new arrival. The two on the second floor ran down the stairs, rifles aimed to kill on the figure’s masked head. The old plan had done awry, now there was a new plan: kill the intruder.
Three of the riffles fired in Nelson’s direction. He easily sidestepped the line of fire. As the shooters hesitated to aim and discharge again, Nelson knocked the trio’s heads together with a crunch noise. They fell to the ground in a heap. After pulling a blade from a scabbard behind his back, Nelson turned to face the last two armed men who stood at the base of the staircase.
They fired their rifles in turn, but the blade easily deflected the wasted ammunition. Stunned, one of the men ran for it while the other grabbed a hostage. Now it was Nelson’s turn to be stunned. He should have seen it. The bastard had grabbed Thalia.
“Try it freak!” And his gun barrel was pointed into Thalia’s ribs.
It happened quickly without a sound. Nelson moved with staggering speed and was in front of the man and Thalia in a second. His blade went into the man’s weapon arm, pinning it to the wall. The girl ran to the side, and Nelson had a pistol underneath the man’s throat forcing his head upwards. The crowd moved in a bit to watch as the figure in the battle suit pushed the barrel harder into the man’s throat causing him to choke.
‘I should spread your brains across the floor’. Nelson was seething in rage. His empathic waves slammed into the con. His gloved fists and his eyes beneath his mask began to glow a low white/blue.
Then Thalia broke his concentration. “Who are you?” She asked softly.
Nelson turned his head to her releasing his hold on the man. The man grabbed a pistol from his side holster and pointed it at Nelson. But Nelson had already sensed it. His hand was there. The pistol fired into Nelson’s open palm. The cluster of people screamed yet again, but he just cocked his head to the side and jerked the pistol from the man’s hand. It was too much for the man, and he passed out from shock. Nelson took his blade out of the man’s arm as his body fell to the floor.
One more. After wiping the blade, Nelson made to the door that the last armed con was trying to franticly pry open.
‘It’s a no go, buddy’. He thought at the man.
Wide-eyed and wielding his rifle around recklessly in the dark, the man ran towards him. But Nelson covered the distance swiftly and knocked the gun to the floor and picked up the man by his neck.
“Your people have no power or hold here. You be sure to let them know that.” Nelson snarled in a low voice only the man could hear. And then he threw the pathetic wretch against the wall, knocking him cold.
Nelson strode past Thalia and the others on his way to the hallway. She could have sworn she felt something familiar as he passed behind him. Something that made her wonder about Nelson and how he was faring. But no one saw him.
With the exception of a few flashlight holding club goers, there was still no real light in the club. Nelson walked easily to the hall again. Sirens could be heard. Thomas had called the cops during the fight. It was a quick change and hide in the bathroom closet. Nelson had barely made it in when the police arrived. Power was brought back on shortly, and he faked relief when they found his hiding spot. The authorities also found two silver wire bound criminals on the floor of the bathroom. All of the armed men, with the exception of the leader who was hanging by the same wire from the ceiling beams, were injured but alive. The leader was slightly swinging, dead in his noose. All the police who arrived could do was stare.
Minutes later Nelson found Mario and the others towards the entrance. The accosted people were trying to get out while police, medics, and reporters were trying to get in. Mario and Thomas looked flustered to say the least. Eddie, who had been in the first floor crowd with Thalia, was hardly speechless.
“Jesus… Can you believe it?” He exclaimed. “Who was that guy?”
Shakira looked like she was on the verge of tears and Thalia tried her best to comfort her. All looked at Nelson as he walked up. Thalia gave him a sad smile as he approached, he returned it. Thomas took over talking to the police while Mario turned to Nelson.
“You ok man? They didn’t find you in the bathroom?” He asked seriously.
“I’m fine,” said Nelson. “I hid in the closet. Was locked in there the whole time till they found me”
“Wow,” Eddie stammered.
“Yes,” Nelson came back with.
‘Well, just my clothes anyway’.
10/20/2003 3:53:25 AM
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