[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 56.
[SPEAKER_00]: The trouble with kidnapping.
[SPEAKER_00]: Part 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: After seeing his uncle's corpse, Lanza wasn't capable of thought, only moving forward as I maneuvered him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I needed to get him
[SPEAKER_00]: I kept coming back to the one solution I had, backing away from it, and then only running into it again as we turned another corner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, out through the narrow opening of an alleyway, I saw what we needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The payphone I spotted from the alley was, gratefully, functional, and had no one in its vicinity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I picked up and dialed, the high tone of the phone chiming continued until Atwell finally answered, who is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your favorite neighborhood miscreant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not giving out all a chance to reply I continued, I needed to come pick me up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mentioning Lanzo would only increase the odds of that while saying no, so I didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't matter as that was refusal was prompt and immediate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go fuck yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you want me to mention to the night governor that you've been watching him for midnight,
[SPEAKER_00]: That suggests you get in that shitty little car of yours and get down here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could hear at well, subjugate all of his nasty replies and his strangled voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: That not quite silenced dragged on until he said, where are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: A quick scan of shuddered storefronts gave me the street name in a number.
[SPEAKER_00]: I read the address to Atwell, then hung up, not wanting to give him a chance to complain further.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lanzo was still hunched against the bin, trying to remember his macho pride and cease blabbering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before he could protest, I rifled through his jacket and came up with his cigarettes, pulled one out and stuck in his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lifted his chin and looked him in the eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: If someone walked by and saw the poor, tear-stained mess the kid was, and me holding him, they might have mistaken us for lovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that were the case, though, I would have thought of something kind to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead I said, get it together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I paused through his pockets again to come up with his lighter and flicked it to life, allowing Lanzo to inhale his smoke with shaking hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once he had restored some semblance of control, I told him, someone's on the way to pick us up.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna get out of here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must find who did this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to get out of town with a girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot let this pass.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you think this was gonna happen without someone getting hurt?
[SPEAKER_00]: But why?
[SPEAKER_00]: He had nothing to do with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought again about Satra's implied relationship with Maro.
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't think of any reason Satra would want him dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd spoken of him with a strange kind of funness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure that wouldn't stop Satra if he wanted to take something from Maro, but the old drunk didn't have much the world wanted, or seemed to want much from the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kept coming back to whip and brick, showing up at Maro's garage.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the Russians were still searching for me, wanting revenge from a kale to death, and they might have shown up to see what Maro knew.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that was the case, I had a pretty good idea who would admit an exorganization was talking to the Russians.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I lied to Lanzo.
[SPEAKER_00]: We waited for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amazingly, we didn't have to wait long before the tiny yellow citrion rolled down the road.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kept lawns out of sight by the trash bin until the last moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the car stopped, I grabbed him and hustled him in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will process the entire time, all of it boiling down to who the hell is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a material witness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where that came from, I have no idea, but I didn't elaborate,
[SPEAKER_00]: His Weasel instincts must have told him there was trouble around because he actually did the smart thing and drove.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the presence of a stranger, Lonser regained his composure and the good sense to keep quiet.
[SPEAKER_00]: At well, on the other hand, Resume disquestionings soon as the situation has ceased its whining accelerated pitch.
[SPEAKER_00]: What the fuck is going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is this kid?
[SPEAKER_00]: I ignored him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's Satra?
[SPEAKER_00]: How would I know?
[SPEAKER_00]: you've been following him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know his routine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is he?
[SPEAKER_00]: In between watching the road to Dodge traffic at will manage to spit a petulant fuck you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on but I stopped listening.
[SPEAKER_00]: I slid the revolver out from the trench coat and said it on my lap.
[SPEAKER_00]: at will stop talking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of the threat he was expecting, I served up my usual concoction of half-truths.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kid is one of Satra's.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take us there so we can drop him off.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we do that, I can tell Satra used saved his ass by starting the fire at the service station.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you can stop hiding from him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sandwiched between the immediate threat of me and Satra's potential wrath, at will acquiesce.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, he's probably at his mother's.
[SPEAKER_00]: We drove east out of town up the same mountain road the brick and whip had taken me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I rolled down the windows so I could feel the ocean wind on my face, increasingly dry, or as he rose towards the blazing afternoon sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: We continued past the empty real estate developments that dotted the hills outside of Old Town and climbed into the road leveled off.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was nestled in between the grey granite of Stark Mountains and distant isolated butes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They made it feel like it was surrounded by its own massive fortress.
[SPEAKER_00]: This high up there became cooler with a tang of winter still in it, even as it leaves of everyday plants, shimmered and rolled in the afternoon's golden sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inland to the north, I could see the neat rows of a vineyard stacked up on a hillside, each separated from the next by rich dark soil.
[SPEAKER_00]: The estate was crowned by a multi-story angular home of wooden glass at its highest point overlooking all of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Soon the scenery began to repeat itself with other similar plantations as we went deeper into the remote on clay of a wealth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Riding the road, caught between a spring green of the hills and the cool mountain braze.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was hard not to see the charm.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only structure that wasn't a remote mansion was a small church.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's single bell tower reaching towards the blue sky with stone walls, white and resplendent in the Mediterranean sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: After nearly an hour of silent driving, at will stop the citrion on an empty stretch of road.
[SPEAKER_00]: From our position on the pavement, he pointedly looked down a gravel road that sprouted perpendicular from the main drag.
[SPEAKER_00]: Almost invisible within the foiled edge around it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The drive completely disappeared as it traveled through the walls of green vines that climbed up Tressles erected on either side.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the distance, a terracotta roof floated just high enough to be seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Atloss said, that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was hard to ignore the fact that the narrow path into the estate would make a perfect funnel for whatever ambush someone might care to lay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ignored that to say,
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, let's go.
[SPEAKER_00]: At all, carefully maneuvered the car onto the drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: After writing into the claveless guy for the entire time, disappearing into the shade of vines spiked through with Bacolic sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was pleasant enough to feel like the trap I was worried about.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no explosion though, no IED or Claymore, but as that will trundle the card on the graveled path, two of Satra's rucks stepped out from the bordering vegetation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both were visibly armed, black machine pistols to match their dark suits.
[SPEAKER_00]: At well, wisely brought the citrion to a stop several yards away.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the rooks step forward, moving towards the driver's side, at will crank down his window and put on his official faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: With all of us tired and dirty, the pretense of dignity struck me as so absurd I had to stifle laughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rook hadn't quite bent all the way down to the window before he started into a prepared smokescreen about us being on the private property of Madame Satre,
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not here to see Madam, we're here to see Satray.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rook moved his pencil mustache in a way that roughly translated into, who the fuck are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Before he could vocalize that though I added, tell Satray it's the Americans.
[SPEAKER_00]: The skin around the rook's sunglasses, furrowed, radiating, darked out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever the tiny yellow card delivered to the estate, though, was strange enough that he said, wait here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We waited until the rooks conferred.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, some unknown signal passed to them and they parted, stepping out of the road and gesturing us on.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will gently press down on the accelerator and we rumbled down the drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: The narrow vine-bordered path opened out into a yard of dark brown dirt that encircled a stone well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Directly on the other side was a three-story house with a burnt orange facade and blue shutters, a mosaic running the border between these and its green terracotta roof.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of it bore up against the mountain's sun and with a stillidity that spoke of generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was modest in comparison to the newer villas that have been built in the Valley's wine country.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something that might have once been a horse-stable, now converted car park, stood to the right of the house, filled with the slick black cars of Satre's Kevelkade.
[SPEAKER_00]: The picture of Quaintness was only ruined by the two guards standing in the yard, each visibly armed with tubular submachine guns.
[SPEAKER_00]: They shifted in their positions waiting for whatever we might do next.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just should for at, while the park next to the well.
[SPEAKER_00]: A stout old woman stepped out into the village doorway, wiping her hands with a towel.
[SPEAKER_00]: She squinted at the L.A. cars where the brightness of the sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: A third rook followed her, hovering nearby, held at a distance by what appeared to be conflicting forces of orders to protect her and a fear of her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone outside of the car stared at everyone in the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: At well last, now what?
[SPEAKER_00]: The word dumbass was unsaid at the end of the question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Confident that we weren't going to get gunned down in front of an old woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, now we get out.
[SPEAKER_00]: My steps from the car, standing tall to give everyone a target in case I was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: When none of Satra's men opened fire, at well, and lawns of followed suit, and that afternoon silence, I thought I could hear something like the rotating drum of a cement mixer.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of Satra's men, professional enough, not to gesture with his weapon, stepped forward and pointed past the car park.
[SPEAKER_00]: A dirt path disappeared behind it, heading uphill from the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: I nodded and moved that way, feeling at well and lawns of behind me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The latest rain couldn't have been far behind as the path was still a bit muddy, something I chudged through without concern as it was high time to shine my shoes anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lons of a stumble through it like a shell-shocked refugee, while at well fell behind trying to pick and shoes as path from one dry spot to the next.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we headed up to slope, the rhythmic precautions grew louder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not far from the car park was the grassy peak of the hill the house was built on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three other rooks stood around watching Satre walk a worn path led to the top, their eyes shaded with admiration.
[SPEAKER_00]: The night governor on the other hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: paid no attention to anything, but what he was doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was stripped to the waist, the commosal's straining as he pushed a boulder up the hill.
[SPEAKER_00]: His grunting traveled down the short slope, followed by the sound of the rock rolling down after he released it, producing the cadence noise I'd heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: From the top of the hill, such I let out a barking laugh and raise his hands into the air like he was rocky by Boa.
[SPEAKER_00]: I suspect he did this every time he got to the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it kept him in shape.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sweat drenching his fire plug frame, he trudged down, taking a towel from one of his men at the bottom, wiping sweat off himself, he closed the distance till he recognized us.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he noticed that, well, Satra's demeanor became electrified with hostility, the transformation occurring so quickly I thought I had to get in between them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately for me, Sasha only stood as ground and gestured at Atwell with such force that I thought he was going to fling the towel at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But does this love vot to doing here?
[SPEAKER_00]: To keep the peace and atwala live, I said he saved her bacon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tatra squeezed an eye shut and inspected me with the other, looking every inch like the old woman in the villa.
[SPEAKER_00]: He swabbed off his face, wiping sweat and crudulity away.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is this nonsense?
[SPEAKER_00]: I just should from Atwell to Satra, I'd notify him it was his turn to speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: Atwell paused along and out if I were ready to forget in our agreed upon lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully, disproving me when he said someone knew about the service station.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you had stored there, under Satra's narrowing gaze, at well-continued, they informed the police.
[SPEAKER_00]: The flick were going to raid it, and I only found out minutes before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have time to find you, so I had the place torched.
[SPEAKER_00]: I figured that was better than the evidence getting into official hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rigid silence that followed was only punctuated by the local insect chorus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I barely had time to get through one reframe though, before it sought her a laugh, loud enough that I could feel its forced nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: He reached out to put his arm around atleast neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: smiling with a mouth like a dirty razor blade.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satra said, this is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: At well, squirming against the sweaty embrace, said something in the affirmative.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still firmly holding him, a grapple hug.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satra said, side glanced at me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I nodded.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satra laughed again.
[SPEAKER_00]: This time with more honesty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not letting go, but jingling at well more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then how are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did you not tell me this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Such a released him to grab a jug of water from one of his men holding it by the neck and bought on me gesture at well with it saying, I know why.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have been following me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He drank.
[SPEAKER_00]: To my surprise at well shrugged.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Such a slowly lowered the jug eyes blazing at that well.
[SPEAKER_00]: You think I would allow this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Appearing secure in the armor of being a representative of the United States, that well stood firm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satray, we have an understanding, but you don't trust me, and I don't trust you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I hadn't been keeping tabs on things that I wouldn't have known about the station, and you'd be talking to the cops, he shrugged again.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it makes you feel better, I watch everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I watch this town.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: All in all, it was a pretty impressive lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it continued resemblance to the old woman down below, such right eye at well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then perhaps you can't tell me who informed.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did the police know about this station?
[SPEAKER_00]: with almost no hesitation at well answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where, that's what we're here to talk to you about.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to hand it to the little rat.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the best way that there was to go with.
[SPEAKER_00]: At well, hand it to the conversation back to me with a nod, switching the focus of the night governor's gaze.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moving that along, I tilted my head to Lanzo.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you met Maro's nephew?
[SPEAKER_00]: Having paid no attention to the coursekin until that moment, Satray item, there was a slow recognition that translated into a whitening of his eyes and a lopsided grin, Lanzo.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lanzo had used the intervening time to recover himself, but even so it was clear he was having a very bad day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fatigue and tears had ready to his face, whether it was because or despite this vulnerability, such as I moved to embrace him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lanzo stopped him holding up a hand when the older man got close.
[SPEAKER_00]: My uncle is dead.