The Heist (5 page)

Shuggie was
glad Xavier couldn’t see his reaction on his face as he poured his
soul out to him. He knew the last thing that a man like Xavier
needed was to be pitied. There was no denying, however, that
Shuggie respected Xavier more than he had any other being he had
encountered in his long life.  How a father could disown his
own young son and sell him to a band of sex crazed demonic bitches
was almost incomprehensible to him.

Just as Shuggie was about
to speak words of comfort to Xavier, one of the assholes was
ordered to check if they were both awake yet. In one way, he
thought to himself, it was probably perfect timing. Shuggie doubted
there were any words that could help heal the deep wounds that
Xavier carried.

Xavier slowly
raised his head and tried to open his swollen cut eyes, grinning at
the vampire who had punched the side of his head to wake him
up.

“
Morning
sweets, black coffee for me thanks.”

The soldier
was warned off from hitting him again as Stefan approached Xavier.
 Stefan didn’t dispense with the normal pleasantries and
instead gripped Xavier’s skull with his fingers, digging into the
bleeding scalp.

“
So, you’re
playing with the big boys now Stefan?” Xavier laughed loudly as
Stefan spat in his face and clawed a scar down his left cheek. “You
know the ladies just love men with scars, Fanger.” Xavier masked
his thoughts from his captor when he felt him trying to search his
memories — a typical Vampire trick. He was so fucking predictable.
 “Now that’s just plain rude, trying to read someone else’s
head Stefan, yeah?” Xavier’s eyes darted around the room sizing it
up. Seeing the torture table being laid out he added, “All this
bother for us? We are honoured, although, it kinda reminds me of
that snivelling fuckwit brother of yours just before I beheaded
him. What was his name again? Where’s Wally? Wilber? Ahh that’s
right — Limp Willy.”

Shuggie heard Xavier spit
a tooth out as he was punched in the jaw, thinking that his temper
would always be his downfall.  As soon as Xavier was hit,
Shuggie rocked back on the chair legs, knocking both him and Xavier
off balance.  Xavier took the opportunity to loosen his hands
from the ropes on his wrists, and he trapped the vampire that was
between Stefan and the tent beam.  Shuggie caught a glimpse of
Xavier stabbing the soldier in the thigh with what looked like a
small steel rod.  As the soldier bent to hold the puncture
wound, Xavier punched his hand upwards, and tore the steel across
his throat, getting himself drenched in the vampire’s blood in the
process.  

Shuggie
ripped his hands loose from the restraints with a strength that
even surprised him, and ignoring the huge welts and burns he swung
himself around and head butted one of the soldiers in the stomach,
winding him.  He gripped the man’s head on either side and
gave a sharp twist, detaching his spinal cord from his brain.
 The screams and howls from the injured vamps were making his
ears bleed.  Shuggie crouched down, kicking the legs off of
the broken chair, and took the splintered wood in his bloodied
hands. With an upwards jab, he speared the third vampire
soldier easily.

Out of the corner of his
eye, Xavier could see Stefan and the last vampire soldier gathering
up the various data and equipment that had been stored in the tent,
ready to make their escape. He launched himself to tackle Stefan to
the ground, his soldier intervened and Xavier landed in a heavy
thud onto his back.

Giving a
strong right hook to the soldier’s face, Shuggie joined Xavier.
 Offering a hand to help him to his feet, he watched as Xavier
used the soldier’s face as a punching bag and smirked when he heard
the satisfying crunch of bone as the soldier’s face crumpled. The
soldier was a resilient little bastard though, and came towards
Xavier with some funky Kung Fu shit. Xavier moved with the grace of
a dancer, and one round-house to the side of the soldier’s head and
he heard Xavier comment it was ‘bedtime for Dracula’.

Shuggie held
Stefan’s arms, immobilising him and nodded to Xavier.  Xavier
walked over casually, and took a thin steel chain from his neck
wrapping it around a now panicking Stefan’s neck. Shuggie knew it
wasn’t enough to paralyse him, but it would give them enough time
to haul Stefan over to the torture table, using his own steel
shackles on him.

“
Guess you and me gonna have that little chat after all
Stefan...and the first thing you’re gonna do is tell me what the
fuck your employer wanted you and your bitches for?” Xavier spat
the words in Stefan’s face as Shuggie started gathering up the
bodies of the now very dead undead.
While Shuggie dragged the cadavers outside, he could hear
Xavier say “playing hard to get? I can work with that” then laugh.
 He watched as Xavier walked out of the tent, and disappeared
into the woodland, reappearing some minutes later with a kitbag
over his shoulder.  Shuggie followed Xavier back into the tent
and helped him unpack his bag of tricks. Stefan was still shouting
and cursing at them.

“
What is he
wittering on aboot?” Shuggie said, jutting his chin in the
direction of Stefan.

“
Our eternal doom’ or some shit.  To be honest Shug, I
stopped listening ten minutes ago.” Both of them exchanged a
knowing look as they took various tools into their hands and walked
back over to Stefan.
Before Xavier
got to work, he turned to Shuggie.

“
I need to
explain something to you, Shug. This asshole here,” he indicated
Stefan, “was as I told you the one who captured me and my men and
tortured us. What I didn’t tell you was that I’m going to use this
opportunity to settle a debt — and my payback is gonna be a bitch,
yeah.” Xavier was weighing up a sledgehammer in his hands as he
spoke, but his face and voice had taken on a darker
edge.

“
See, torture
of prisoners for information I get, it’s all part of the game,
yeah.  But this sick bastard crossed a line. When me and my
unit had been captured by Stefan and his dogs, we were held and
interrogated for days.  After constant questioning, beatings
and torture, I was still saying nothing — and because I refused to
fucking talk, Stefan decided it would be ‘fun’ to slice me open,
take out my kidney and make me fucking eat it in exchange for
saving the life of one of my men. So this is both business and
personal to me. Understand?”

Xavier lifted
his vest and turned to show Shuggie the scar on his side — jagged
and deep — where Stefan had cut him open. He looked over and
seen the flicker of recognition and acceptance in Shuggie’s eyes,
and the fear and loathing in Stefan’s.

As Xavier
took a sledgehammer to Stefan’s limbs, Shuggie got to work with
pliers, and pulled the finger and toenails off. “Who would have
known the baddest vampire war-mongerer screamed like a bitch? Well
we all do now, yeah?” Xavier smirked over at Shuggie, and told him
to stand clear. He took out a small bottle and started pouring it
onto the raw nail beds seeing the flesh sizzle and shrivel
up. “Two parts petrol, one part liquid mercury and a dash of
steel mixed for good measure. I call it nosferatu neutraliser
or bitch be gone, both work for me.”

Shuggie was
sickened by what Xavier had told him, but wasn’t surprised. The
lower ‘made’ vampires were fundamentally sadistic and egotistical,
and he had heard similar stories through the years. He had his own
reasons for hating this breed of vampire, but this was Xavier’s gig
and he would support him one hundred percent. “Remind me ne’er tae
get oan yer bad side, ya mad bastard!” Shuggie laughed, before
re-joining Xavier at the top of the table.  He passed Xavier a
rusty corkscrew and folded his arms watching the expert at
work.

Xavier leaned
over Stefan’s face. “You haven’t told me how I get a hold of your
bastard employer, Stefan. You need to work on your communication
skills. So being the friendly guy I am, I’m prepared to help you.
You sing like a canary? I’ll stop corkscrewing your eyes
out.”

Xavier smiled as he put
the point of the corkscrew to Stefan’s pupil and pushed down,
turning the rusty iron slowly.  The burst of optical fluids
squelched as it tore through his eye.

Shuggie knew
that Xavier was in the zone, because he had started creasing up
laughing when Stefan contorted on the table trying to fight back —
but it was apparent there was already an air of defeat about
Stefan. As Xavier pulled the eye out of the socket with a ‘pop’ and
threw it onto Stefan’s chest, they both watched as it rolled down
and fell onto his restrained hand.  Stefan’s tongue started to
loosen a little, and he gave random details about the rogue spy and
his operations, but it was nothing of any
real
importance, nothing of any
great significance.

Xavier told
Shuggie to set up the IV kit that he’d brought in his kit bag.
 Doing as he was asked, Shuggie tapped the IV and put into
both of Stefan’s arms, connecting the bags he’d set on the floor,
watching as the bags started filling up with Stefan’s lifeblood.
 He knew that vampires could resist most forms of physical
torture, but what really frightened them was being dragged out in
the sunlight, being burned in a fire or being drained of their
lifeblood.  As he was needing to get information out of him,
the slower draining option was best.

“
Looks like
you’re drying up there Stefan — where’s your fucking boss now? You
seriously think he gave a shit about you and your boys? You’re more
stupid than I thought asshole.” Xavier fixed a vice to Stefan’s
head, cleaning the saw on the side of his combats.  He gave a
grin to Shuggie before looking back down at the one eyed, gawping
mouthed Stefan. “Shit, nearly forgot, can’t leave empty handed, can
I?” Grabbing a chisel, Xavier put the steel to Stefan’s gum line
and thumped the chisel hard, removing his fangs and pocketing them
like trophies.

As Stefan
gargled, the IV had almost fully drained him of his blood. Xavier
took a saw to his neck, the blunt teeth of the tool taking time to
work through his skin, muscle and bones until his head was savagely
removed from his now lifeless drained body.

Shuggie took
a video of the camp, before gathering all the documents and files
that were of any relevance, and then unscrewed a can of gasoline
that Xavier had brought with them. He splashed it over all the
bodies, equipment and periphery, then stood beside
Xavier.

Neither men spoke to the
other, but when Shuggie was finished emptying the gasoline, Xavier
took a cigarette out of his top pocket and put it in the corner of
his mouth.  He flicked the top of his lighter three times,
then took one long draw and flicked the cigarette onto the gasoline
watching the place light up like the fourth of July.

“
Well what do
you know, smoking is dangerous for you!” Xavier turned to look at
Shuggie and both of them started to laugh as they watched the
inferno.

Shuggie
started heading back towards the truck, shouting over his shoulder
to Xavier, “Fuck this shite Xavier, we should’ve stood doonwind —
the stink o’ fried arseholes is making me gag.”

The Intel
they had retrieved from Stefan and the laptops and files that were
in the camp were enough to track down and bring the rogue in, but
neither Shuggie nor Xavier were privy to what happened to him after
that. Their superior officers operated on a need to know basis, and
although both of them had put their life on the line for this
mission, they weren’t permitted to ask any questions.

Over two
decades and numerous missions later, Xavier had grown into the
fiercest and most loyal Commander that Shuggie had ever known, and
the two were more like brothers than best friends. At forty seven,
Xavier was still as sharp as when he’d met him. Shuggie still
looked like a male of thirty eight years of age.  Neither
Xavier nor Shuggie had ever mentioned the conversation they had
that day until many, many years later.

Xavier was by
then Commander of his own special unit of soldiers, working
independently for whichever Government or official of his choosing.
Shuggie was his Lieutenant and, apart from one major incident,
where he had been imprisoned and tortured, the two had worked side
by side every day since Prague.

Xavier not
only saved Shuggie’s ass when he got taken, but he freed another
body — one who would prove to be an asset to his Unit — the genius
Doctor/Research Scientist Teodora Valdez. She quickly integrated
herself into his small private army, and had been a loyal member
ever since.

The Doc
became the only other living soul to know Xavier’s secret, as he
had her test his blood. It had always bothered him on a suppressed
level that he was unable to shift.  He used to entertain the
notion that maybe his father wasn’t really his, but there was no
mistaking the family resemblance. So, trusting the Doc with his
burden, she took sample DNA and ran some tests. The results were
not exactly what Xavier had been expecting.

Taking the
results from the Doc, Xavier had sought out Shuggie. Handing over
the report, he sat in silence as Shuggie read and then re-read it.
After what seemed like hours but could only have been a handful of
minutes, Shuggie put the report down and looked at
Xavier.

“
LWS? That’s
what the Doc has diagnosed ye with? Ah huv tae be honest Commander,
but ah’ve ne’er heard o’ such a thing afore.” Shuggie couldn’t read
Xavier’s expression.  He had built a brick wall around him
that even grenades or bulldozers couldn’t break once he got into
that mind-set.