Smoked

  Moments of silence passed, orange and red flames flickering in the night.? It was so quiet that Smoke could hear them licking and crackling across the miles.???

  Then the sirens began.

  Smoke got back in the car and started it up.? Roselli was dead.? Soon, O'Malley would join him, going down with his boat in heavy seas off Orient Point.?

  And somewhere out there, a new life was waiting for James Dugan.

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  The children were all the same.?

  Big Roland Moss was going to fuck with him now, test him a little.

  "Hey Cruz," he said from behind the wheel.? "How come me and Fingers here can't stay in your hotel?"? His eyes met Cruz's in the rearview mirror.? A razor-sharp, predator confidence showed there.? Cruz knew from that look that Moss was one of those guys who never felt fear.? Unlike Cruz, Moss had been born without the capacity.? No fear.? No empathy.? Moss was the ice-cold center of his own barren universe.

  He had probably tortured kittens as a little boy.

  "You know, it makes us feel a little left out.? You get to live it up in some swank place, and we get the Holiday Inn.? It don't seem right somehow."

  His comments elicited an embarrassed giggle from Fingers.

  Cruz glanced out the window.? The sleek Mercedes nosed its way through Portland's end of season throngs.? The narrow streets of the Old Port - the newly glittering waterfront district - teemed with well-heeled tourists peeking in shop windows or laughing as they stumbled out of the public houses.?

  "Hey Cruz, I'm talking to you, son."

  Cruz regarded Moss again.? Thick neck.? Wide brow.

  "You ever kill a man by mistake?" Cruz said.? He spoke just above a whisper.? They could hear him all right up front.?

  Moss smirked.? "Me?? I don't make mistakes."

  Cruz smiled.? "I do.? Sometimes I get a big guy around me, kind of a pushy type, you know?? And I end up misreading his intentions.? Maybe he startles me.? Better he goes down than I do, right?? Can't be too careful these days.? So they put me somewhere by myself.? It cuts down on the mistakes I make."

  Moss pulled the car into the cobblestone circular driveway of the Portland Arms Hotel.? A man in top hat and tails, white gloves, the whole silly get up, hovered by the door.? He eyed the car, ready to pounce.?

  "I guess I'll need to remember that," Moss said.?

  Cruz stepped out, dossier in hand.? He hadn't been out of the car in nearly six hours.? The first thing he noticed was the temperature change - it was colder here than in New York.? And New Orleans?? Forget about it.? He had only just left there this morning, but already it seemed like weeks ago.?

  Hopefully, they'd be out of here in two days or less.? Maybe even by tomorrow night.? Otherwise, Cruz was going to have to buy some new clothes.???

  "Call me if you get anywhere," he said to Moss and Fingers.? He waved off the doorman, and carried his own bag up the steps.? The Mercedes pulled out just as he entered the hotel.

  Inside, the lobby was all carpeting and polished chrome.? The help tip-toed around and spoke in hushed tones.? Aging yuppies in lime green cardigan sweaters and sunflower yellow pullovers lounged in overstuffed chairs by the fire.? Their cheeks were rosy with the brisk chill of the Old Port, not to mention the flames of the fireplace, and the sherry and port wine in their glasses.?

  Check-in was effortless and Cruz went straight to his suite.?

  Once in his suite, Cruz double locked the door.? He was on the third floor, so there was no chance of them coming in that way.? The only way in was through that thick, solid door.? That pleased him.? The kids weren't staying in the same hotel as Cruz for one reason: Cruz had no intention of letting his guard down so some young stud could move up the ladder by putting him in a box.??

  Cruz poured himself a seltzer from the mini-bar and took off his light jacket.? Jesus.? It had been a long day.? He went in the bathroom and was pleasantly surprised by the two-person Jacuzzi tub built right into the floor.? He took the Glock out of his waistband, and laid it on the sink.? He removed the rest of his clothes, checked the windows and doors again, then went out to his kit bag.? He brought the bag into the bathroom.? He locked the bathroom door.? He turned on the jets of the tub, as well as the underwater lights.? He brought the bathroom phone within reach of the tub.? He killed the overhead lights, moved the Glock to the edge of the tub, then settled into the hot bubbling water.

  He picked up the gun and chambered a round.? He grunted to himself and laid the gun, ready to fire, along the tub basin just above his head and well within his reach.? Nine shots if trouble found him here relaxing with his pants down.???

  He went back into his kit bag.? Inside was a six-inch straight razor.? He opened the blade, gazed at it for a moment, then brought it into the tub and under the water.? He placed it on the bottom next to him.

  A gun, and if that somehow failed, a blade.? Anybody who tried him while he was in the tub was in for a nasty surprise.

  Now he could relax.? Facing the locked door, he reached back and put his hands behind him, forming a cradle for his head.? The Jacuzzi jets pounded water against his back and his legs, working out on the stiff muscles in his body.? He closed his eyes.

  Fucking kids.

  They weren't going to get him.? Not like he had gotten Oskar.

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  How many had Cruz killed?

  He wasn't sure.? He had done quite a few in his time.? Beginning with those first messy jobs in and around Times Square - the blitzkrieg knife attacks, the shoot 'em ups in welfare hotels, the guy he had gut-shot six times but who had still managed to run screaming into the street - Cruz had moved onward and upward.

  And being apprenticed to Oskar?? Well, that was part of what had made Cruz a pro.? Oskar was the very definition of the professional - smooth, calm, utterly devastating. Oskar's was the first death that rattled Cruz, and made him wonder about this life.? All these years later, and he was still wondering.

  They were doing a job out in Short Hills, New Jersey and they both knew that the time of Cruz's apprenticeship was coming to an end.? For one, Oskar had asked for, and received, permission to retire.? For another, Cruz had become a polished and effective killer in their four years of working together.? He had always been ruthless.? But now he had verve and style.? Now he could kill without emotion.? He could appear, disappear, and cover his tracks with the best.

  Oskar was sixty-three years old.? Cruz was twenty-four.? Cruz had never counted his own kills.? Oskar had his own kills memorized.? One hundred and ninety-nine.? They had two to do in New Jersey.? Oskar had suggested they each take one, and then he would finish with an even two hundred.? Cruz thought that a fine idea.?

  They cruised along a narrow road of estate homes set back in the woods.? They were driving a nearly new 1980 Alpha-Romeo Spider.? It was small, fireapple red, with a black convertible roof and classic sports car looks.? Although it was a sunny day, they had the roof up.? The car had been a gift to a girlfriend by one of the men in the house, Mr. Eli Sharon.? Eli was an Israeli who had come to the United States to enlarge his fortunes.? He was fifty-eight years old and ran penny stock scams.? His business partner was an American, forty-four year old Howard Brennan.?

  The girlfriend was young and beautiful.? She was from India.? That morning, she had left the house in Short Hills to go shopping.? In a parking lot, she had been abducted and taken by van to a house in Brooklyn.? The transfer had gone without a hitch.? When the girl, shaken and tearful but not hurt, had climbed into the van, Cruz and Oskar had climbed out with her car keys.??

  The way Cruz understood it, she would not be harmed.? Indeed, one of Cruz's jobs today was to retrieve her passport from the top drawer of her armoire.? Very soon, she would book a Tower Air flight from JFK to Delhi.? She would settle in back home, maybe find a nice boyfriend her own age.? That was the plan, and when they explained it to her, she agreed that it was ti
me for a change.

  They pulled up to the gate of the sprawling mansion.? It was a wrought-iron gate with electric cattle wire strung along the top, which would issue a non-lethal charge to anyone who tried to climb it.? It was a low-level type of security installed by a man who either felt he had few dangerous enemies, or who was confident in his ability to deal with them.?

  The Alpha-Romeo had an electronic device on the dashboard that sent a signal to an electronic lock box on the gate.? Once the lock box recognized the device on the dashboard, the gate slid slowly open.? There was no guard around of any kind.

  So much for security.

  Cruz was driving.? It was nice car, a little tight with Oskar's big shoulders there next to him, but nice nonetheless.? He was thinking about buying one.? Just from driving it around that day.

  "What do you think of this car?" he said.

  Oskar sat upright and alert in the passenger seat.? He wore thick, round glasses.? As always, he wore a suit and tie - today, a suit of light summer linen.? His face was lined like that of an old, old man.? Oskar wore black gloves, and had a MAC-10 submachine gun cradled on his knees.? It had a huge Sionics specialty silencer installed at the end of the barrel.? Oskar used to laugh about the MAC.? People would get a load of it and all the fight would go out of them.? They'd become like jellyfish, ready to do anything and everything he said.? Oskar carried the MAC for show - he did his actual kills with the Ruger he kept strapped inside his jacket.??

  Cruz smiled.? Oskar was a man ready for action.? Even on his last assignment.? Cruz respected that and always would.?

  "This car?" Oskar mused.? "It'll break down all the time."

  "How do you figure that?"

  "It's Italian.? That's a bad sign.? Italians don't make good cars.? You want a good car, then spend the extra money and get a German car.? The Germans, God help us, do everything well."

  "Even if you say so yourself."

  Oskar shrugged.? "I don't say it because my parents were from Germany.? I say it because it's true."? He laughed, and Cruz laughed with him.

  They drove up along the tree-lined and curving avenue that passed for a driveway.? If all was correct, the servants had been given the day off today.? All was correct, Cruz knew.? All was always correct.?

  He drove the car up the driveway, which ended at a circle in front of the grand entrance to the house.? Next to, and attached to the house, was a four car garage.? Eli was rich - there must have been good money in manipulating stock prices - but he was no Rockefeller.? Cruz felt a stab of pity for him.? An Italian sports car, a nice-looking exotic girlfriend, a four-car garage and a big house in Short Hills.? The guy probably saw himself as a new-age sultan.? Untouchable.

  He was about to find out how wrong he was.

  Their garage door was the second from left.? The smoked windows of the car, combined with the glare of the sun, would probably thwart anyone from inside the house seeing into the car and alarming themselves.? The device on the dashboard opened the garage door as well, much as the girl said it would.?

  Everything was normal.? The girl had arrived home from shopping and had just slid into her normal position in the garage.? The power garage door slid shut behind them.? As it did so, the automatic overhead light came on in the garage.

  Cruz checked his guns one last time.? Beside him, Oskar did the same.? Cruz favored a big .44 Magnum in those days.? Its silencer was huge as well.? Howard was to die first, with a blast from the Magnum.? This would intimidate Eli and get him to open the safe.? There was a diamond in the safe that was on its way to Los Angeles tomorrow.? Besides that, any easy cash lying around, Cruz could have it.? This was a loot for cash job.? Nothing else was to be touched except for the passport.? And after all was said and done, Oskar could end his career with a bullet to Eli's head.?

  "Ready?" Cruz said to Oskar.

  Oskar had checked and rechecked the MAC and the Ruger.? "Of course."

  They exited the car.? The door to the house was locked, but of course there was a key on the girl's ring.? Cruz opened the door and it gave upon a large kitchen with an island in the middle and several workstations.? Huge pots hung down from the overhead rack.

  They passed through the kitchen, walking quickly.?

  "There you are my dear, we're in the sitting room," a voice called.? "We have some wine for you."

  They turned a corner and here was the sitting room.? Two men sat in easy chairs.? Eli was the one on the left, the one with a large mole on his cheek.? Cruz knew both of them from the dossier.? They were fat men, and Cruz felt another pang of embarrassment for Eli.? He was the fatter of the two, a corrupt middle-aged man with a lot of money.? He thought he had the love of a beautiful young woman.? Maybe he thought he had swept her away with his abilities as a lover, yes?? Cruz wouldn't put it past him.? Rich men on the verge of violent death were prone to making such miscalculations.? The girl had given them everything they needed to reach this man.? She had done it in a heartbeat, to save her own life.?

  Eli and Howard gazed at Cruz and Oskar.? Oskar held up the MAC as if it needed amplification, and Eli nodded.?

  "I have money," Eli said.

  "So do we," said Oskar.?

  Cruz couldn't resist.? "The girl was with you for your money," he said.? "There was nothing else."

  "No, it was love," Eli said.

  Oskar said nothing.

  Cruz paced into the room.? "She went home to India today," he lied.? "Next week she'll have a new lover.? Probably a young man with a hard body who drives a Porsche and will inherit his father's fortune."

  "Still, I know her.? It was love."

  Cruz shrugged.? Leave it at that, then.? It was love.? He took a step forward and shot Howard in the forehead with the Magnum.? In the second before Cruz pulled the trigger, Howard squinted and cringed, but made no other move.? The shot made very little sound, but the man's head came apart with an audible crack.? Brains and bone flew.? A mirror against the wall twenty feet behind him smashed into a dozen large pieces.?

  Eli's eyes went very wide.??

  "It's in your interest to tell us some things," Oskar said.

  Eli talked a lot.? It seemed he had a lot to say.? One thing he described was the safe's location and the combination.? Then he opened it for them.? At the end of it all, Oskar finished him with a gently laid bullet to the forehead.? It was almost a blessed relief, by the look on Eli's face.

  Oskar went about pulling some things from the safe.? First, he laid his gun down.? He opened a pouch and placed the diamond inside it.? It was quite a thing to behold, that diamond.? Then it disappeared into the bag.

  Cruz stood behind and about ten feet away from his teacher.

  They had each gotten their own dossiers for this operation.? Oskar's had included descriptions of Eli, Howard, the girlfriend, and the diamond, as well as the layout of the house.? Cruz's dossier had included all these things and one more: a description of Oskar and his upcoming retirement.

  "Oskar," Cruz called.?

  "Yes, yes, one moment."

  "Oskar, you need to turn around."

  Something in Cruz's voice made Oskar stop what he was doing.? He stood very still for a moment, no longer looking at whatever paperwork he held in his gloved hand.? Then his back slumped.? It had to be a disappointment for things to end in this way.

  "It's like that then, is it?"

  "It is."? Cruz felt something well up in his eye.? He brushed it away, whatever it was or might be.

  Oskar turned around slowly.? He gazed wistfully at his Ruger, just out of reach on the table.? He made no move toward it.?

  "You got your two hundred," Cruz said.?

  "Yes, I did.? Somehow, it no longer tastes very sweet."

  "You were the best," Cruz said.

  "A cold comfort, I'm afraid."

  The two friends stared at each other for a long moment.? "A final lesson, if you haven't moved beyond learning," Oskar said.

  Cruz shook his head.? Of course there was ti
me for one last word from the teacher.? If only time could stop in this moment.? "I haven't."

  "Avoid the mistakes I've made.? For one, never try to retire.? I gather now that it cannot be done.? For two, never flatter yourself into believing you are not expendable.? You are.? And three, never turn your back on a young man in your charge.? Especially one with great potential.? Especially one that you loved like a son."

  Cruz nodded.

  "End of lesson," Oskar said.

  Cruz shot him four times.? The first bullet entered his brain and killed him.? Without pain, Cruz hoped.? The next three were insurance.?

  Years before, the first lesson, delivered in Oskar's clipped no nonsense tone, had gone as follows: when you kill a man, make sure he is dead.?

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  They didn't call him Fingers just because he was missing some.?

  One of the things he prided himself on was being able to steal just about any American-made, late model sedan in less than two minutes.

  They were in a small seafood restaurant along the waterfront.? Nets and lobster traps hung from the ceiling.? A huge old steering wheel was mounted on one wall.? An ancient anchor stood upright, mounted on a pedestal when you walked in.? Fingers had already finished a platter of fried fish, French fries and cole slaw, and Moss was still demolishing the bread bowl that some New England clam chowder had come in.?

  In a little while, they would head out to the airport and Fingers would pick up a work car out of the long-term parking lot.? The Mercedes wasn't for work - it was for maximum comfort while driving up here.? For work, they needed something nondescript, with local plates, maybe five years old but with a good solid engine.? Something with a little bit of go power.? The body had to be good, no rust, but the paint a little faded, a real middle-class blubber boat.? Left there by some hard-working citizen who had parked his car and flown out to see his sister in Ohio for two weeks.?

  Fingers looked forward to it.? In fact, he could hardly sit still.? He loved these missions, and no doubt he liked to whack people.? But one of his favorite things, although he would never tell a guy like Moss, was stealing cars.? Moss would probably relegate grabbing a car to the scrap heap of STUFF THAT HAD TO GET DONE, like reading your dossier, like ditching evidence, like getting to the fucking airport on time.? Not Fingers.? He loved it when he had to take a car - it was what he had come up doing as a kid - and he liked to show his stuff.? At one time, he had practically lived for it.? That feeling of moving low and fast, his sneakers barely touching the concrete, his eyes darting, sizing up the cars on the fly.? This one?? A blue 1995 Oldsmobile Achieva??