With the yelling, screaming, sirens, and megaphones, Filshin was surprised to hear the soft ticking of Pawlowski’s teeth striking the wood plank floor.
It was the sound of failure. Of a dream dying… Cleveland. His job with Blue Sky. Natasha. His family. Tick, tick, tick, tick, and it was all over.
He could never go home again.
Now he had to stay alive. Out-think his gang. God forbid they should find out about Natasha and the kids.
He backed out the rear door.
He needed money now. Money to keep Pawlowski and himself, alive. More money than Usher had given him. Much more. Money to make sure the others followed him, not Popov.
Outside in the alley, the clouds finally released the rain.
A thunderclap made him jump. He spun around and saw a gust of wind bang the back door of the Faust House shut.
Thunder, megaphones, sirens, and pounding rain blended into a caterwauling modern symphony that Gounod could never have imagined.
Prague dealt swiftly and harshly with those who walked on the dark side.
Mephistopheles swept Faust up through the roof of this very house to spend eternity in Hell.
Edward Kelly was taken out the front door to die in the dungeons of Karlstein Castle.
Jan Pawlowski, the Pole, who had dared to blackmail Michael Usher with barrels of atomic sludge dumped in a Polish landfill was dragged out of the back door of the Faust House and driven off into the wild, wild east.
10 Berlin