Author's note: I do not own Black Lagoon, its characters or anything else. The original character and situation I have created are mine.
Three days. It had been three days since they had heard anything from Revy. What was once thought of as an easy delivery job had turned sour fast. At first they all thought she had just gone out for a bit of private drinking after she was finished. A day went by, then two. It was now day three and the rest of the Lagoon Company were in a sorry mood. None of them had gotten a good nights sleep in awhile and they were all paying for it. Each of them kept to themselves, not willing to ask what they knew they were all thinking.
Benny had been hard at work at his computers, tracking down the location of the client that had hired them as well as any information regarding the surrounding area. So far, he had turned up empty handed. The most he could guess was that it was a bogus deal to begin with. Dutch spent the days chain smoking cigarettes while hold up in their little motel room in Roanapur. That wasn't the only thing he did to pass the time. For the past day and a half he had been all over Roanapur, knocking down doors and knocking in heads for information regarding Revy's location. All he got for his troubles were more enemies, which was the last thing he needed in a place like this. But he hadn't cared. They were like family. And he'd be damned if he was going to just sit on his ass with his dick in his hands.
Rock knew his place was out of the others' way. Times like this, he understood that getting involved in a situation that he knew next to nothing about would only earn him scorn from his ship mates. Of course he had complained about them all sitting around and waiting for news. He eventually relented from his tirade and fell into the same depression that the others did. But regardless, his mind swam with possibilities. While Revy may not have been the easiest person to get along with, Dutch was right in stating that they didn't leave family behind. It was just eating him up, being powerless and unable to change their situation. Rock would just stare out the windows or stare into Revy's room, pondering the motives and the "what-ifs" of those who had abducted their muscle, their "Two-hands" as she had come to be known.
Dutch's instinct after the first day was to pay Balalaika a visit to see what kind of assistance she could give. Being on good terms with Hotel Moscow definitely had its benefits.
"I'll have my people look into it Dutch" she had reassured him. "In the meantime, pray for her. That's all you can really do right now"
"Yeah, I'll get right on that" he said with a hint of sarcasm, walking out of her office and closing the door behind him.
A few days later and Balalaika had turned up with nothing. Dutch had already been on the warpath through the streets, shaking people down for information, and he wasn't too pleased with the results.
"Fucking figures" he said as he lit up a cigarette. The strong smell of burning tobacco wafted in the air. They all rested in their motel room as the day was coming to a close.
Benny and Rock were going over the paper work from the job that had cost them their friend, looking for holes or something that seemed out of place. But as far as they could tell, it was pretty clean. A simple delivery job. All they had to do was take a shipment of ammunition to the other side of town. It wasn't one of their usual jobs. Hell, it wasn't even that complicated. A retarded monkey could have done it. But then again, that in itself should have been a red flag. They all had been busy at the time, except for Revy. She had practically jumped at the chance to get out and do something. The lack of work had been getting to her. And by getting to her, it meant that if she didn't do something besides laying around eating old pizza she was going to shoot someone.
The worrying had set in when she didn't come back.
"Damn it!" yelled Rock in frustration as he shoved some papers off the table.
Benny looked at him with slight disdain as he went to scoop up the sheets off the ground.
"Are we just going to keep sitting here and wonder where she is?" he exclaimed, standing up and addressing his companions. "We should be out there looking for her! We should be calling in favors and shaking people down and…"
"Rock" Dutch said in an aggravated tone, cutting him off and not even bothering to stand. "Would you do us all a favor and shut the fuck up? You think we haven't exhausted every resource we've got? You think I like sitting here, twiddling my thumbs?" he asked, taking a drag on his cig before letting the smoke travel out his mouth.
"Well I don't. So if you don't have anything to say that so much as pertains to where she might be, I'd advise you to sit you ass down" Dutch said, making a pointing motion towards the floor.
Once Rock had reluctantly and begrudgingly done as he was told, Dutch continued, "The last thing we need is to bring more shit down on out heads. Cause believe me, I've done my fair share of that already"
They were silent for some time before Dutch got up. Without saying anything else pertaining to the subject of Revy, he walked over to the refrigerator and reached in for a beer. The big black man cracked open the can and drank gingerly from it.
"Fine, whatever" Rock said, pushing up and away from his seat and making his way to the door.
"Where are you going?" Benny asked, looking up from shuffling his papers.
"To get some air" he replied, slamming the door behind him.
"Hey, wai…" Benny protested, getting up from the couch.
"Benny" Dutch said, cutting the man off. "Let him go, he needs to cool down anyway"
Benny sighed and flopped back down on the couch with a thud.
"Aren't you at all concerned about all this?" he asked, thumbing through the papers.
Dutch leaned his head back and sighed, "To tell you the truth, what I'm concerned about is why someone would go through all this trouble to put out a bogus job, for us specifically, and then pull a bullshit stunt like this"
Dutch returned to looking at Benny.
"Besides, it isn't like Revy to be gone this long. Usually she would put up such a fight that we could hear it all the way across town. A motherfucker's got a death wish if they want to mess with her"
Benny remained silent for a moment while he pondered Dutch's words.
"Dutch" Benny asked, leaning back in his seat, "you've known her for almost as long as I have. We've more than likely pissed off our share of people in this line of business. Especially when it comes to Revy. So what I'm asking you is, who would be the most likely to hold a grudge against her?"
Dutch put out his cigarette in his empty beer can and turned to Benny.
"That, Benny-boy, is the million dollar question. Isn't it?"
III
Suddenly, Rock came bursting into the room with a package in his hands. He was panting and he doubled over, trying to catch his breath. Dutch and Benny looked at him, both dumbfounded and concerned.
"Rock?" asked Dutch.
Rock just stood up, collected himself and tossed the small package to Benny. He caught it and judged the size, weight, and sound of it before understanding that it was a CD-Rom. Benny ripped the brown, paper bag packaging and string off before walked out of the room to his computers. Dutch and Rock were left standing in the common room.
"What is it?" asked Dutch walking over to where Rock stood.
Rock stooped down to pick up the discarded wrapping that Benny had let fall to the floor. He handed it to Dutch who looked at the remnants of it. On the paper were the words "Lagoon Company, come out and play!"
"Where did you find this?" Dutch asked, waving the paper slightly in front of Rock.
"Just outside" he replied, jerking his thumb to the door. "It was practically lying in the middle of the sidewalk, like a Christmas present.
"You don't wrap a Christmas present like you wrap a bomb" Dutch said, wadding up the paper and tossing it into a nearby trashcan. "Whoever sent this obviously wants to get our attention. They would have gotten a quicker response with a brick and a note"
As if on cue, Benny's voice rang out from his room.
"Dutch, I think you're gonna want to see this"
In a few short steps, both he and Rock were looking over Benny's shoulder. He had the disk playing on his computer. A shaky picture appeared on the screen as the camera man pointed the handheld device around what looked like a stockyard. The scene was something that they were all too familiar with. Corpses of men littered the ground, along with thousands of shell casings and dark splashes of blood. It was unmistakably Revy's handy work. Then the camera tilted around to face the camera man. Dutch growled as the man's face appeared on the screen. He was Romanian, bald, had an eye patch covering his right eye and had a goatee with noticeable graying hairs. These were the only features that the video would show. Rock turned to Dutch.
"Dutch? You know that guy?"
"Yeah, name's Carmine. Leon Carmine. Goes by the nickname of the Barracuda" Dutch answered with a snort. "We ran into him once. Back when we took Benny in. He was real small time but he had a knack for starting shit with people out of his league. Make a long story short, the man rubbed elbows with us once and Revy gave him an ass whooping he wouldn't soon forget. He lost his eye cause of her"
Rock's eyes widened at the story. Dutch noticed and went on to explain further.
He tapped his temple and said, "Caught a stray bullet from her pistols. He's been gunning for us ever since. But we figured he'd never get this kind of help"
"What do you think he wants?" asked Rock.
"Shut up and listen" Dutch replied.
They all turned back to the monitor as the big man spoke.
"Hello Lagoon Company! It's been a long time hasn't it? I thank you for the box of ammunition. It's a most generous donation. But it doesn't over look the fact that you played me like a fool a few years back. Well that ends right now."
He tilted the camera around and pointed it at the corpses as he continued to talk.
"As you can probably tell, this entire job was a set up. Not a very clever one, mind you, but still. Luring one of you out of your little hidey hole and using you as ransom should have been easy enough. But you just had to send her of all people. When the shit started flying, she sure made one hell of a fucking mess. Needless to say she may have even done me a favor. Pay day was next Wednesday. But these were still my associates, overpaid as they were. I'm just lucky I got the drop on her when I did"
The camera moved to face Revy, sitting on the ground, bound and gagged. From the expression on her face, they could tell three things about her. One: She was beaten. Two: She was bloody. And three: She was really, really pissed off. Her hair was a mess and the three of them could tell that she had a few flesh wounds on her. A large noticeable lump resided on her temple, most likely from when she had been knocked out. Carmine walked towards her as she thrashed and glared at him with fire in her eyes. Carefully, he took the duct tape off her mouth.
"Anything you'd like to say to your friends, sweetheart?" the man mused.
"YOU COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKER! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I'M GONNA RIP OUT YOUR BEATING HEART AND SHOVE IT BACK DOWN YOUR FUCKING THROAT! WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, THEY'RE GONNA HAVE TO IDENTIFY YOU BY YOUR FUCKING DENTAL RECORDS, YOU PUSS…" Revy spat at the man.
"Ok, that's enough" he said reapplying the tape as she continued to scream. "She's a little fire cracker, isn't she?" he asked the camera. "So here's the deal Lagoon Company. If you want to see her with all her appendages again, you'll pay 2.5 billion dollars. You'll bring that money to the coordinates that I give you. One man and one man only. No cops, no mafia and no tricks. Now I won't be there and she won't be there. But I'll know if it happens and I'll know if it doesn't. You've got two days. I suggest you get crackin."
Then the tape shut off leaving the three of them in the dark. Benny hit the lights and turned to face the other two. They were uncomfortably silent for a few moments. Rock was more stone cold than he usually was. He turned to Dutch.
"Well?"
"Well what?" replied Dutch.
"What are we going to do about this Dutch?" Rock asked, slightly aggravated by his boss' apparent lack of concern.
"Well we sure as hell aren't gonna pay that asshole a dime" Dutch said, turning his back to them and walking out of the computer area.
"You're joking right?" asked Rock.
Dutch stopped, turned around and leaned against the door frame. "Rock, do you honestly believe that any of us have 2.5 billion?"
"Then we'll go to Miss Balalaika." Rock offered.
"Not gonna happen" Dutch said, shaking his head. "I'm not about to be up to my ass in debt, no matter how good of friends we are with her. Besides, she doesn't really have that type of money. Not just to throw away like this."
"Throw away!?" yelled Rock. "We're talking about Revy here! How can you say that?"
"Rock, chill. We may not have the cash, but we have something better. We have a hacker and a plan"
He turned to Benny.
"Benny, check out those coordinates and see where she is. I want to know every little detail of where that asshole runs his business out of and what we should expect to run into"
"You got it" Benny replied, turning back to his computer and going to work. His fingers made small, clacking noises on the keyboard.
III
Within twenty-five minutes Benny came into the common room, where Rock and Dutch were waiting, with his laptop. Rock looked up expectantly while Dutch just sat in his chair, waiting for the news Benny had to give.
"Okay, so here's the deal" Benny said, setting the computer down and turning it so it would face Dutch. "I did some poking around and found out that based on the coordinates, Carmine is operating out of the abandoned Louis Croft shipping yard on a small island. It's about a days sail south of here"
"Good, anything else?" asked Dutch as he folded his hands into his lap.
"Yeah. I can't be one hundred percent but I think he's installed security cameras around the area and metal detectors at various entrances into the main complex. It's a small place, but if one of those were to go off, I don't think we'd find her alive in time" Benny said, disheartened
Rock cringed at the thought of finding Revy with a bullet hole in her skull, on the ground in a pool of her own blood.
"Can you find us a schematic of the area?" asked Dutch.
"I can. And I know what you're thinking. But Dutch, if he's installed any of that stuff there's no way to tell where it would all be. None of it would be detailed in the original building plans. It would be like walking into a trap" Benny looked at Dutch and Rock solemnly.
"That's just great then" breathed Dutch.
"So what do we do?" asked Rock
Without any hesitation, Dutch stood up and walked to the door.
"Grab your things boys. We got us a rescue to plan" he smiled.
Rock and Benny looked at each other in confusion, wondering what Dutch could possibly have up his sleeve.
III
The ride had been unpleasant at best. A knot had wound up in each of their stomachs. It was the unpleasant feeling one gets when they try to expect the unexpected. Dutch sat at the controls of the boat, guiding it to their destination. Rock and Benny had been busy going over what little information that they had on hand. Really all they were doing was going over the same ground and trying to familiarize themselves with the area as best they could. Before they had left, Dutch had made another trip around town for some information. According to his sources, Carmine was now operating with less than thirty men. They had reviewed the CD that he had sent and were able to make out thirty corpses. That meant it was just Carmine holding Revy hostage.
Before too long, they had made their way to the shipping yard and docked the boat. Rock had remained unusually quiet the entire time. Most of the time he'd be flapping his mouth and wondering what they should do or trying to get them to come up with a plan. Benny had been a little worried, but shrugged it off. Rock was probably just on edge about Revy's situation. Hell, they all were. There was no excuse for it. In the mean time, they all stood in the bridge and planned what to do.
"One man.", said Dutch, his arms crossed. "One guy has to go out there and drop off the package"
"But we don't have the cash Dutch" proclaimed Benny.
"I know. So that mean's we're gonna have to pull a fast one and hope this motherfucker falls for it" he said, lighting up a cig.
Rock pondered Dutch's words "What do you have in mind"
Pushing his sunglasses back onto the bridge of his nose, Dutch started, "Way I see it we can have one of us leave a dummy package out in the open. Carmine comes out and picks it up while we slip in another entrance. He won't come out without a weapon which means that he'll have to shut down his own metal detectors. When he does, we slip in and try to find her. It's a small island but a big compound so she could be any where. We just have to make a run to wherever Revy might be and hope he doesn't kill her before we get there."
"We could just wait until he comes out and then blow him away" offered Benny.
"Naw, too risky" Dutch said, waving him off. "If what you're saying about the camera's is true, then he won't take any chances. He'd know something is up. Then he would just take it out on her. He'll know that someone would be waiting in the shadows."
The three of them were silent as they pondered what to do next. The task at hand was way too risky. Too many holes and short comings were laid out in front of them. And with the life of their friend on the line, they could leave no room for error.
"I'm gonna go up on deck and do a little recon" Rock finally said.
"Alright, take three minutes then get your ass back here" replied Dutch.
Rock walked out of the bridge, closing the door behind him. Dutch and Benny just stood, mulling over other ideas that the other might have.
"I've got nothing" said Benny. "Rock on the other hand. He might have something up his sleeve. He's kinda got a knack for figuring stuff out like this. Remember the Gunship thing back when we first picked him up. He practically pulled that out of his ass" he slightly laughed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Make's sense" replied Dutch, "He might see something that we don't"
Dutch put a finger to the ear piece he wore and spoke into it.
"Rock"
No answer.
"Rock" he called again.
Dutch looked at Benny and the two of them went to search for the young Japanese man. After a few fruitless minutes, Benny called Dutch over their earpieces.
"Hey, Dutch. I think we have a problem"
"Where are you?" Dutch asked.
"In the armory"
In less than twelve seconds, Dutch walked into the small armory of the boat and stood next to Benny who was eyeing the wall of firearms in front of him.
"What is it?" asked Dutch
Benny held up one of their ear piece communicators. It was Rock's. Dutch took it from Benny's hand and looked at it. Then he looked at the wall of weapons that Benny was viewing. Nothing seemed out of place at first glance, but upon closer inspection Dutch noticed that a small 9mm Beretta was missing. He looked around and saw that there was an additional clip of ammo unaccounted for as well. Dutch turned to Benny.
"You come in here at all?" he asked, somewhat accusingly.
"No, I've been at the computers all this time" Benny replied.
The realization hit both of them.
"That fucking idiot" Dutch said as he and Benny scrambled out of the armory and up to the deck of the boat. They looked out into the blackness of the night, the full moon casting an eerie glow onto the waters and concrete of the island and its shipping yard. Rock was no where to be seen.
III
Leon, the Barracuda, Carmine sat at a security panel and watched as a lone man with a brief case walked into the line of sight of a camera. He was dressed in black slacks with a white button down shirt and tie. Carmine could tell from the video feed that the man was a limp wrist. Not much fight in him at all. He turned to Revy who was glaring at him on the floor.
"That's it?" the man almost laughed. "That's who you're people send to make a delivery these days? Some white collar yuppie? Little girl, I sure as fuck am insulted" Leon said, gripping his weapon a little tighter. "I expected better from the Lagoon Company. Man, I thought at least Dutch would have the balls to show up. Ah well" he shrugged.
He turned back to the feed in time to see the man place the brief case on the ground and walk out of sight. Carmine checked the other camera feeds only to find nothing moving. Just the dead bodies of his men that he'd been too careless to move in the past several days. He turned to Revy with a grin.
"Well, looks like I can take a long vacation after this" he said, hoisting a shotgun over his shoulder.
Through the tape around her mouth, Carmine could swear he heard the woman shout a muffled "Fuck you"
He grinned and went to a fuse box, opening it. Carmine hit the fuse for the floodlights and killed the power to the metal detectors so his own weapon wouldn't set them off. The last thing he needed was klaxons blaring and giving him a headache. He then walked out of the control room and down a series of hallways to an exit. Opening the door slowly, Carmine stuck the shotgun outside and swept the area. Nothing moved and nothing made a sound. He looked several feet ahead and saw a brief case sitting on the ground. Carmine walked over to it and picked it up.
There was definitely something inside. But he wasn't about to open here where he could get jacked. He took the case inside and past the metal detectors before opening it. What was inside the case made his blood boil. There was no money. All that was inside was just clumps of paper. The weight of the case made it seem like there was something of value inside. Furious, he tossed the case down a hallway and leveled his shotgun in his hands. That bitch was going to die now.
Carmine stormed down the hallways and back into the control room. Turning on the metal detectors and turning off the flood lights, he pointed the shotgun at Revy.
"Your friends must not give a shit about you. They didn't pay off the ransom. Guess that means I get to kill you now"
Revy stared at him, not flinching. Just giving him a cold, angry stare. Part of her knew that this was coming. She knew one day that her number would be up. She had just hoped that when it did, that she would take someone out with her.
"But I might as well enjoy this" he said, with a shit eating grin. "I'll make it last a bit. That way you'll know what it was like when you took my fucking eye you bitch! I'm gonna get some pliers and some other tools. Then I'll start at the top, work my way down and make you hurt like never before. You'll be begging me to just shoot you baby!"
Carmine pointed the barrel of the shotgun at Revy's head, taunting her. Then he turned and walked toward the open, darkened doorway.
"BLAM"
Carmine went sprawling to the floor as a round hit him in his chest. How had they managed to get inside? His security system should have been flawless. He didn't have time to ponder this as Rock, dressed in his white collar shirt and tie, stepped out of the darkness and into the well lit room. He pointed the smoking 9mm at the larger man. His expression was emotionless and uncaring, similar to Revy's when she killed someone. Only she enjoyed what she did. Rock's face showed no such glee.
Carmine tried to raise his gun and was rewarded with another shot to his arm, making him drop the weapon. The spent round fell to the floor with a noticeable ping. Rock walked into the room and kicked the shotgun away from Carmine, who was nursing the bullet wound in his arm. Rock looked at Revy who stared right back at him. Her expression told Rock that he was the last person she expected to see, much less holding a gun. Carmine was breathing heavily on the ground from his wounds. The thick smell of copper from his blood filled the room and danced with the gunpowder. Rock glanced over to him. The man would live with medical treatment. But this was not Rock's intention.
"So, they send a yuppie to do a pirates job huh?" Carmine laughed. "That's fucking rich. How the fuck did you get in here and not manage to get picked up by the cameras?"
"I waited till you cut the power to the metal detectors and stayed in the blind spots of the cameras" Rock replied in a monotone voice. "You didn't look very hard, did you?"
Carmine had to hand it to the kid. For a white collared little prick, he had some spunk.
"So what?" he smirked. "Now you're just going to rescue the princess and go on your merry way? Is that the big plan?" Carmine hissed. "I'll just come back and finish what I started, and I'll make it quick. So quick that you'll never know what hit you." he said, making a gun with his free hand and pointing at Rock.
"No. You won't" replied Rock as he pointed the pistol at Carmine.
"You ain't gonna kill me. You don't have the balls. I can tell just by lookin at you" the man said, nursing his wounds.
Rock looked at Carmine then looked at Revy before turning his attention back to Carmine.
"You don't know a goddamn thing about me" he said. "You don't fuck around with my family"
Instantly the room exploded in a series of loud bangs as Rock proceeded to empty the rest of the clip into Carmine's body, much to Revy's astonishment and horror. The first few rounds hit the man's head and blew out his remaining eye. Gore and brain matter slapped against the walls as the bullets rocketed through the man's body. Then Rock did something that went way beyond what Revy could have ever anticipated. He ejected the spent magazine, loaded another and continued to pump more rounds into the dead man's body. The corpse twitched as the rounds slammed into it. All the while, Rock kept the same, cold, stone dead expression on his face.
III
Hours later, the reunited Lagoon Company was on its way back home to Roanapur. Neither Benny nor Dutch had bothered to ask Rock what he'd done or how'd he'd gone about doing it. He had just came back with Revy, sat her inside then spent the rest of the trip out on the deck. Dutch sat at the controls while Benny slept in one of the cabins, catching up on some much needed rest. Revy sat near Dutch, nursing a cold beer. She put it to her temple.
"How's the head?" he asked.
Revy scoffed and said "Fine, Just need a few more drinks and I'll be all set"
"You took pretty good care of yourself back there. How long did it take you to put all those guys down?"
"About five minutes" Revy replied. "I don't really remember. I wasn't keeping track"
Dutch kept silent for a few minutes. It didn't really do well to dwell much on what they had just been through. The all had made it out alive even at a small expense. But something else nagged at Dutch. And that something was Rock.
"Hey Revy" he asked.
"What is it?" she asked, annoyed.
"Rock's been real quiet since he got back. Anything you'd like to elaborate on?"
She didn't say anything at first, trying to find the correct set of words to explain it to him. finally she decided on what to say.
"Dutch" Revy began, biting her lower lip. She didn't know if what she had to say was what he wanted to hear.
"He said 'Never again. I'll never pick up another weapon as long as my heart's beating'. Dutch, I can't begin to imagine what it was like for him to kill that man. It's not that I'm not grateful for what he did it's just…"
"Just what?" asked Dutch from his seat, twisting his neck around to get a better look at her.
"I like to think that Rock is one of us. I like to think that his strength was never having to pick up a gun and use it. But now that he has, it's like he's really turned out to be one of us. But what I have to wonder is if that's a good thing or not"
She downed the rest of her beer and tossed the can to the side, making an audible metal sound of empty metal before coming over and leaning on the back of Dutch's seat. "I want you to take a good long look at him Dutch." Revy sighed, a hint of sadness escaping with it as she reached for a cigarette.
Dutch looked out onto the deck where Rock sat over looking the water. His back was to them and the wind whipped at his head and clothes. He was half-heartedly smoking a cigarette and seemed to be lost deep in thought.
"Dutch, it's like something finally broke him. Not broken like you or I are. This isn't something that can be fixed or healed with time"
"Revy, what are you getting at?" Dutch asked, unsure of where the conversation was headed.
Revy sighed and cracked open another beer before turning her attention back to Rock.
"All I'm saying is that he'll never be the same again"
Dutch let Revy's words drift over the sound of the motor. Outside, Rock stood up on the deck and looked out over the water. The full moon cast down on him, illuminating the entire area. He took a drag on his cigarette and then tossed it into the rushing waters below. Reaching up to his neck, he grabbed at his tie and made a few short tugs at it. Once it had come loose in his hands he starred at it then held it out. The wind whipped at the small piece of fabric. Without a moment's hesitation, Rock let it go. It flew off into the night and disappeared into the dark waters of the ocean.