Even though he no longer felt fatigued, he decided that he needed to allow his body some extra sleep.  Get it while you can, Gabriel.

When he woke again, he heard the sound of a shower running in another room.  Jake was gone from the recliner, which was no longer reclining.  A light had been turned on in the room, but only a corner lamp, nothing too bright.  It still felt, to Gabriel, like a halogen shining right in his eyes.  He blinked a few times, groaned, and sat up on the couch.

He was instantly welcomed by all of his favorite parts of sleeping on a couch:  the warm, sticky/sweaty feeling of having slept all night in your clothes in one position and the complimentary stiff neck/back that came with it.

He got up slowly, trying to prevent his body from rejecting the idea.  He walked into the adjoining room that he had figured out to be the kitchen and raided the fridge.  He found an apple in the bottom drawer and rinsed it off in the sink.  The water was so cold and soothing that he gulped what felt like a gallon straight from the faucet before he found himself a glass and filled it.  He munched into the apple and carried his glass back into the living room and over to the recliner that Jake had been sitting in last night.  He sat down heavily and turned on the TV.  The channel that was on was showing a morning talk-show with hosts that seemed like they had had three or four too many cups of coffee before they had gone on air.  Too cheery and excited about everything.  It made Gabriel want to vomit.  He turned the channel quickly through the next few, all seeming to be sad variations of the first, until he came to a Saturday morning cartoon that he thought he remembered watching when he was a child.  It was innocent and required absolutely no thought and it had no bearing on the outside world, which was exactly what he had been looking for.

After watching the TV for about five minutes or so, he began to realize that there was a film of dust covering the screen that was visible from his position because of the angle of light coming from the nearby lamp.  It was irritating.  He looked around and realized that the entire living room area had a hardly noticeable filth to it.  The carpeting was probably about two shades darker than it was supposed to be due to the little dirty spots from people wearing their shoes into the room.  The walls were drywall and there were little smudge marks of black here and there all around.  He looked up and saw that the ceiling fan was covered in dust and that there were thin cobwebs connecting each blade.

To the casual eye, the place looked clean, but when you had time to really look at it in detail, the dirt began to stand out more and more.  It began to get to Gabriel.  After about ten more minutes of trying to ignore it by trying to focus on the cartoon, he found that he wasn’t even watching it anymore, instead just staring at the film of dust in front of the images.  He was starting to feel like he had a film of dirt all over him, too.  He wanted to take a shower, but the thought of taking a shower in the same one that bathed the likes of Jake made him shiver.

Suddenly, he was filled with the need to get out of the apartment.  He stood up from the chair, rubbed the wrinkles out of his pants and went out the door and down the stairs that led to a back storage room for the gun shop.  He then went out one of the back exits and found himself in the loading dock area behind the shop.

Slide was already out there, he was just stubbing out a cigarette in the ashtray next to the door when Gabriel came out.

“Needed some fresh air, huh?” asked Gabriel.

“You too?” he replied.

“Yeah, something like that.”

Slide seemed to measure Gabriel up and down, “You alright, man?”

“Yeah, I was just starting to get a serious case of cabin fever sitting in that room and had to get outside.”

Nodding, Slide said, “I know what you mean.  It’s because there’s no windows.”

Gabriel decided just to agree, it was simpler that way.

“How’d you like it?” asked Slide.

Confused, Gabriel just looked at him trying to figure out what he meant.

“The rifle?” he clarified.

Gabriel grinned, “It’s pretty nice.”

“You think you’re gonna need anything else from here ‘fore we go?”

Gabriel paused, thinking of about a hundred more things sitting within those walls that he would love to be able to take with him, but realistically realizing that he had already gotten probably more than his fair share.

He shook his head and said, “No.  I think I’m ready.”

“Then let’s get the fuck out of here before we have to do that damn stupid job for Jake.”

This outburst surprised Gabriel.  He didn’t expect Slide to want to skip out on someone who was obviously such a prime resource.  He didn’t know how to respond.  He just looked at Slide, trying to judge if he was serious.

“I mean it man, he’s just going to ask us to do some ridiculous job that’s three years below our capabilities.  Working jobs for him is like going back to the high school prom after you graduate.  It’s just embarrassing.  And it does nothing to help your marketability.”

Still confused, Gabriel responded, saying, “But it’s a favor.  He did us a big service, the least we can do is give him something in return.  Even if it is below us, that just means it’ll be that much easier, right?  I say, why not.  If anything, it’ll be good practice for what we’ve got coming to us.  That, and you’d hate to lose him as an option in the future.  That’s a good kind of guy to be friends with, even if you don’t like him.”

This last was Gabriel trying to appeal to Slide’s already skewed logic of the situation.  Gabriel kept reminding himself that if he didn’t keep Slide’s recklessness in check it would end up getting them in trouble.  The last thing Gabriel wanted to do was have another person pissed off at him, let alone an arms dealer. 

Slide looked down at the ground at his feet in consideration of Gabriel’s argument.  He reached into his pocket as if he were fishing out another cigarette but then brought his hand back out, still empty.

After a moment, he looked up at Gabriel with a reassuring smile on his face, “Fuck!  You’re right,” he said, squinting into the morning sun.  “I guess I was just getting a little ahead of myself.  I want to get started on our task and didn’t want to have to be bothered with this shit.  But you’re right, we’ve got to take it one step at a time.  Take care of everything.  If we leave something undone, or not done right, even something seemingly unrelated like this, it’ll just end up coming back to bite us in the ass later, right?”

Gabriel was momentarily taken aback by Slide’s sudden responsible outlook of the situation.  He had been expecting to have to fight with Slide a little bit more over this issue.  He wasn’t even sure if he was going to end up winning.  Part of him had half expected them to be making a mad dash for the Lincoln out front, throwing their new cases and bags of ammo into the car and peeling out of the lot with Jake running out of the front of the store after them, shaking his fist and cursing them to the ends of the earth.

Gabriel was glad that that was not how it was going to play out.

“Yeah, Slide.  We take our time, watch our step, take it one thing at a time and we’ll get through this.  ‘Cause I know there isn’t one guy out there that’s going to be able to stop you and I from doing exactly what it is we’re set out to do.  It’s as simple as that.”

Gabriel’s newfound confidence in what they were trying to do was empowering.  He felt refreshed and awake.  The fatigue from the day before was completely gone.  He felt like he was ready to take on any challenge.  No matter how big or complex, he would be able to figure out a way through any problem.

“You have any more dreams last night, man?” asked Slide, changing the subject.

Gabriel looked at him, noticing that he had somehow fished another cigarette out and slipped it between his lips, the Bic in his hand, waiting for Gabriel’s response to light it up.

“No.  I was too tired last night to dream, I think.”

Snap.  The lighter flared and the end of the cigarette blackened.  Slide pulled the cigarette away from his lips, exhaled, then said, “That’s good.  I was hoping I wouldn’t have to stop and fill you a prescription for Paxil or some shit, ya know?”

Slide’s smile was infectious.  Gabriel was laughing and it felt good.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed out loud.  He couldn’t remember the last time that he had just stood around and shot the shit with a buddy.  Yes, he could.  It was the last time that he and Slide had been together. 

The open asphalt of the loading dock was beginning to reflect the heat of the rising sun and Gabriel felt his pores opening up again.  It was a refreshing feeling for about two minutes and then he started feeling uncomfortable and wanted to go back into the air conditioning, maybe even grab a quick shower after all.  If I keep my eyes closed in the shower, maybe it won’t be so bad, he thought.  With that, he opened the door and went back inside, Slide following closely behind him.

The shower felt wonderful and was exactly what he had needed.  He felt like he was washing the fatigue away from his bones and muscles along with the sweat from his skin.  The shower itself was surprisingly clean.  For how dirty a person Jake seemed by his physical appearance and that of his living room, his bathroom gave a completely different impression.  If Gabriel hadn’t heard the shower running earlier and known that it was Jake using it, he would almost have ventured to guess that the discrepancy was due to the fact that Jake never used his bathroom.  But Gabriel knew that he did.  After a quick recon of the medicine cabinet, he found further evidence in an opened stick of deodorant and a rolled-from-the-bottom tube of toothpaste.

After showering, he scraped off the top layer of the deodorant that he had discovered and applied some to his underarms.  He then applied some toothpaste to a fingertip and brushed his teeth as best he could that way.  He hated being stuck in a strange place with no toiletries of his own and no change of clothes.  He almost questioned why he had taken a shower in the first place when he began putting on his clothes from the day before.  The shower had felt good though.  Maybe they could stop at a clothes store so that they could buy some new clothes.  He wasn’t sure when would be the next time they would be in Chicago.  Even then, he wasn’t sure when he would be able to go to the apartment, if ever.  He was certain they had the entire area under surveillance.  If one of their Lincoln’s showed up in the parking lot just for Gabriel to pop in a grab some things, they would be dead.

When he came out of the bathroom, Jake and Slide were no where to be found.  Slide’s gear was even gone.  He grabbed his gear and left the room, heading for the shooting gallery.  They weren’t there, either.  He finally found them in the room where they had first been introduced to Jake, which must have served as Jake’s office, sitting at the table with a thick file folder open between them.

“You’re just in time,” said Jake as Gabriel walked in.  “We’re discussing the means of your payment.”

He motioned to the file folder and Gabriel moved around to the side of the table to allow himself a clear view of the contents.  It was the usual.  On the top was a stack of photographs of the subject going about his daily routine.  It looked like he was either fairly important, or very paranoid, because in each photo Gabriel noticed two or three large men around him, acting like they didn’t have anything to do with the man.  Unfortunately, it was the same group of men in each picture, and they weren’t very good at looking like they weren’t concerned with what was going on around them.  Gabriel guessed that they were higher level amateur bodyguards.  They’d been doing the job long enough to have some experience, but they weren’t by any means pros.  Not a big problem.  If a pro was good enough, you wouldn’t even know about him until it was too late.  With that logic, Gabriel always had to assume that there was an ace in the hole that he didn’t know about.  If the guy was concerned for his safety enough to have three amateurs on his payroll, why not one more that was a pro?  Even though getting a pro on your payroll wasn’t like the difference between a normal sized meal and super-sizing it, you got what you paid for.  And if you thought that you would need a little extra bang for your buck, you would look into going pro.

Jake summarized what would be gleaned from the rest of the paperwork in the file:  that the guy was another arms dealer that had started in the Kentucky area but had decided that the market would be better in Detroit, which it is.  Unfortunately, Jake liked to keep the business he had and didn’t like losing customers to people that decided they wanted to start selling in his town. 

Jake had already tried several times, peacefully, to get the guy, Michael Sullivan, to pack up and go back to Louisville, but he refused every offer.  Jake had even tried to offer him a partnership (one where Jake would profit more that Sullivan, obviously) but was refused again.

Finally, Jake warned Sullivan that if he didn’t get out, it would come down to violence.  Sullivan chose to respond with a preemptive strike of his own, showing Jake that he wasn’t scared of his threats, by attacking one of Jake’s shipments of new arms.  He had been anticipating the shipment for a month, as had many of his repeat customers.  In the battle that ensued, Jake lost three of his best bodyguards.  Sullivans men commandeered the truck full of black market arms and ammo and now, Sullivan was selling them himself.

Not only did Jake lose the money from the shipment, but he had also lost some of his largest customers, mostly drug dealers and gang members, who had no sense of loyalty and would buy what they needed from whoever had it.  They were a mindless market, one that would pay you whatever you asked as long as you were the only one that had it.  Competition was unacceptable.  Jake needed people with Slide and Gabriel’s particular skills to have a talk with Sullivan to make him realize the folly of his decisions and, if possible, Jake needed as much of his shipment back as could be salvaged.

Slide and Gabriel had heard this kind of deal so many times they probably could have said if for Jake a dozen different ways.  They knew the politics of these kinds of situations.  They understood that your average city-based gun dealers, while they looked scary and unapproachable at first glace, what with their access to large amounts of things that kill other people and all, they were really just big, dumb, cocky targets that weren’t that hard to take care of.  Local arms dealers were notorious for being too macho to admit that they needed very much protection, image being more important than safety.  If a gun dealer looked like he was scared of guns, who would trust him to buy them, right?  If a gun dealer looked like he was impervious to his own product, the customer would think he knew what he was talking about and would buy whatever the dealer said to buy. 

For a perfect example, one only had to look as far as Jake himself.  A man who had been selling arms to the entire Detroit area for years, Jake still had little to no security in his very own base of operations.  The guys working the floor area of the store were ordinary guys from the neighborhood, probably had hardly any experience with firearms at all.  In the back area, there were probably two or three guys at any given time working security, well-armed, but pretty lax.

Gabriel started thinking how back in the old days of mobsters and gangsters, Jake would have had his own guys that would have taken care of this kind of dirty-work in-house.  Nowadays, though, hitmen were freelance.  It was much more lucrative to keep your options open.  Some still chose to stay loyal to one group or even one particularly important person, but those were few and far between.  Adding loyalty into the mix was making it personal, which Gabriel and Slide didn’t care for at all.  The more personal a situation was, when it came to their line of work, the more dangerous it was for everybody involved.  That’s why the situation that Gabriel, and Slide in turn, was involved in with the advisors was so ugly:  it was personal.  It had become personal when those thugs blasted Gabriel’s front door down looking for blood.  It would remain personal until there were no more thugs left to hunt for his blood and there were no more bosses left to order the hunt in the first place.  Gabriel realized it was no small task.  One that he and Slide would most likely die trying to complete.  But it was necessary.  Gabriel refused to feel hunted.  He was the hunter, he was the wolf.  He would never allow himself to be the sheep.  He would not rest as long as there was someone that thought of him as such.

Gabriel realized that he had allowed himself to get off track thinking about so much.  He realized that Jake was still waiting for a response.  He knew that Slide was confident that they would have no problem with this job without even talking to him about it.  He knew that they were in as long as he said so.  If he said no, they would have to give back their new toys and they would be back at square one.  He didn’t know why, but as much as he agreed with Slide’s opinion that this would be a cake-walk, he couldn’t help but feel a certain twinge of hesitation.  He didn’t know why, but his intuition was not usually wrong.

Still, with hesitation, he assented.  They would complete the task.  It would be no problem, he assured Jake.  Slide added that they would have it done by the end of the week with both of them working on it together.  Gabriel almost stopped him, remembering his three week minimum, but then realized that this would count as an exigent circumstance.  And he was confident that with Slide and he working together, it would be a relatively quick and simple task.

What could possibly go wrong, he asked himself.  Your hesitation probably has to do more with everything else going on than directly related to the task at hand, anyway.  You’re just being over-cautious like always.

**********

Two days later, Gabriel was sitting in the rusted out, wheel-less shell of a vehicle that was so decayed and stripped by age and weather, it was no longer recognizable as any specific make or model.  He sat in the back seat, idly polishing the barrel of his rifle that lay in his lap.  There was a smell in the air that he recognized from somewhere but could not place.  Strangely, however, it brought him a pleasurable sensation, although he would not have otherwise described the scent as something pleasant.  It was as if his subconscious mind was somehow remembering a moment from his past that went along with that particular scent that it was not allowing him to remember, but was giving him the sensation that went along with it. 

The sun was setting through what used to be the rear windshield of the car.  Glancing at his watch, he knew that it would only be a few more minutes until the car he was waiting for would come around the corner behind him, turn towards his position, and make its way down the street.  The husk of a vehicle that he was in was one of several that were piled on the otherwise abandoned lot.  He had wondered momentarily at how these vehicles at gotten here and been forgotten and left.  But then he realized that sights like this were fairly common in the downtown areas of Detroit and decided that the story behind this lot of vehicles would be just as mundane and uninteresting as those of all the other abandoned structures and lots that littered the area.  Anyway, he had something far more important that he had to keep his attention on for the time being.  He had to be prepared for when that vehicle came around the corner.  This was the moment that Slide and he had chosen.

He knew that Slide would have had no problem with his portion of the task.  All he had to do was pick up Sullivan in their Lincoln when Sullivan made his call.  Sullivan wasn’t smart enough to keep a regular driver and have his own car on the books, but instead would call a local service whenever he needed to be taken somewhere and rent one for the day.  Easily enough, Gabriel had pilfered the man’s cell phone from his dinner table while he was eating the night before, changing the programmed number in the contact list to one of Gabriel’s own disposable cell numbers.  The next day, he had received the call.  The one they had been waiting for.

The plan was to have Slide drive the car by the predetermined location, giving Gabriel a perfectly clear shot at the back of Sullivan’s head as he drove by.  The car would then be dumped, giving Slide and Gabriel the added bonus that when the police would come to the scene they would not only have to deal with the dead body, but the car the dead body would be found in would lead them to ask questions with the firm.  At first thought, that seemed like a bad idea to Gabriel, but then Slide pointed out the fact that the advisors would have nothing that they could tell the police except that their car had been stolen recently.  If they were to try and give them any information on Slide or Gabriel, it would only end up connecting back with them.

No, the police were going to remain uninvolved in the situation between them, but Gabriel and Slide decided that it would be a nice little message to have the advisors find out that the car that they had tried to use to have Gabriel killed was later discovered in the murder investigation of another man, an arms dealer located in Detroit.  It would keep them guessing, questioning what exactly Gabriel was doing, and also making them realize that he was as dangerous as ever.

The black Lincoln rounded the corner behind Gabriel just as was planned.  Gabriel lay down in the seat to avoid being noticed by Sullivan as they drove past.  He counted to five then sat back up, raising the rifle to his shoulder, bracing it on the backrest of the front seat ahead of him.  He looked through the scope, quickly finding his target.  Slide was traveling at no more than thirty miles per hour.  At the angle that he was going away from Gabriel, it was as if they were hardly moving at all.  Gabriel began to apply pressure to the trigger, but then released, confused. 

There were three heads in the car.  He could tell that the driver was Slide, just as it was supposed to be.  He could also tell Sullivan because he had studied a photo of the back of the man’s head for hours the day before, knowing that would be the only angle he would get on the man, most likely, he wanted to be sure he would recognize him. 

But, for some strange reason, there was a third head, sitting in the back seat, to the right of Sullivan.  Gabriel wasn’t sure what to do.  They hadn’t planned on a third person.  The fact that Slide still drove the vehicle by the preplanned location indicated to Gabriel that Slide still thought they should go through with the plan, but Gabriel didn’t know if that meant that he should take out both of the targets, or just Sullivan.  If he only hit Sullivan, the other person may be a bodyguard that would then fire on Slide in the confusion.  Maybe Slide was expecting Gabriel to take them both out for him.  Maybe Slide would take out the other before he had a chance to react, planning on his surprise.

Gabriel wasn’t sure and he didn’t like it.  He didn’t like not knowing what the results of his actions would have on the big picture.  He needed to do something, though, and he needed to do it fast.  If he didn’t do something soon, his window of opportunity would close and the car would be out of his line of sight.

“Fuck it,” Gabriel said to himself as he realigned his sight on his mark.  Gabriel acted before he even allowed himself time to think about it.  The rifle jerked into his shoulder as it fired the first bullet.  He didn’t even allow himself the pleasure of seeing the results of his shot, but was instantly reacquiring his sight and taking aim on the secondary target.  A heartbeat later, just as he was beginning to apply pressure to the trigger again to take out the mystery second passenger, he let off again.  He realized that the head of the second person was directly in front of that of Slide’s.  If the bullet passed clean through the target’s head, it would hit Slide as well.  Gabriel couldn’t take the shot.

“Shit,” he said to himself as he lowered his sights.  He then watched as the car swerved abruptly around the corner three blocks away.

He didn’t stop.  He left the rifle in the hulk of the rusted out car that he’d been hiding in, along with the carrying case, not having time to disassemble it, and not wanting to be seen running down a city street carrying a high-powered rifle.  He jumped out of the car and started running quickly down the street, in the direction that the car had gone.

Seconds later, he rounded the corner and stopped abruptly when he saw that the car had come to a halt only feet past the intersection.  The front end was ruined, wrapped around a utility pole.  The front wheels, lifted off of the ground a few inches were still spinning.  Smoke was curling out from under the rumpled hood.  The rear window was broken in a spider web pattern, generating from where Gabriel’s sniper round had just recently passed through.  There was a fair amount of blood on the driver’s side rear window.  The only passenger in the vehicle was Sullivan who was slumped forward in his seat, obviously dead.  The passenger side rear door was open, as was the driver’s door.

Looking around, he saw no signs of either Slide or the unknown passenger.  Just as he was getting ready to start running towards the next intersection again, he heard two loud cracks in rapid succession, nearby gunshots.  Gabriel was drawing his .45 from its holster as he ran around the next corner.  He saw Slide standing over another man sprawled out on the filthy asphalt of the alley.  A pool of blood was quickly forming under the man’s torso.  He was still alive, Gabriel could tell.  He was clutching tightly at his chest with both hands, as if trying to hold his life in.  Slide stared down at him, gun hanging limply at his side.  He had a strange look about his face.  Gabriel had seen it before.  It was the look of a man who realized that he was dead and accepted it.  Gabriel didn’t understand what was going on.  Before he had time to think about it, Slide turned quickly toward Gabriel as if noticing him for the first time and tucked his gun back into his holster and walked away from the man lying on the pavement.  Gabriel was too focused on Slide’s demeanor to look closely at the dying man, but something told him that he would regret it if he did, anyway.

“Let’s go!” Slide yelled at Gabriel as he ran by him. Gabriel followed as they ran back to the car graveyard that he had just come from.  Slide hunkered down in the front seat area of the car as Gabriel began disassembling his rifle and packing it up as quickly as he could, in the back.

“We need to get the fuck out of here before the cops get here,” said Slide, a look of what Gabriel thought was desperation in his eyes.  Gabriel didn’t think he had ever seen Slide panic before, but he may have been close now.

Gabriel finished packing up his gear wordlessly, watching Slide out of the corner of his eye as he did so.  Slide was visibly nervous.  He was glancing around furtively, almost as if he expected the fatal bullet to come in from any angle at any moment.  What Gabriel couldn’t understand was that Slide kept looking at him nervously, as well, as if he fully expected Gabriel to be the one to turn on him.

Gabriel picked up his rifle case and grabbed Slide’s submachine gun case that they had stowed under the seat and handed it to him.  As he got out of the rusted hulk of the vehicle and they began making their way to their predetermined rendezvous point, he asked, trying to sound uncaring or offhanded, “What the hell happened back there, anyway?”  As he said it, he realized that he had failed miserably at sounding uncaring or offhanded.  All he heard in his own voice was confusion and concern.

Slide seemed not to hear Gabriel’s question and just continued walking at a fast pace, eyes first scanning the horizon for threats, then looking down at the ground as he shook his head.

Gabriel was really beginning to get worried.  To see Slide’s usually unshakable demeanor in such an unstable state was unnerving, to say the least.  Gabriel could not ignore the icy cold feeling of panic start to grow in his stomach.  If Slide could be rattled this badly about something, it could not be good.  Especially when he hardly batted an eye when just days before he had agreed to helping Gabriel in a rampaging hunt of the five advisors, the Leprechaun and all others tied to his current predicament.  What prospect of danger could possibly be more disheartening than that?  What ugly head did Slide fear would soon rear because of his actions.  Killing one person?  Slide had killed so many people without it even scratching his surface, it was hard to believe that he even knew what the word remorse meant.

Gabriel tried to push his concern to the background and focus on the task at hand.  The target had been eliminated, but the job wasn’t over until they were both in the clear.  And they wouldn’t be in the clear until they had put a considerable amount of distance between themselves and anything that had to do with the assassination that had just been committed.