Disclaimer - Not for personal gain. No infringement intended. No Mounties harmed in the production of this story.
Chapter 7 - Prometheus
Ray Vecchio came awake in a state of confusion and then panic as Paolo and Mikey's hands grabbed at him and pulled him from the bed. His first reaction was to fight, but barefoot in pajamas and still hazy with sleep, he was at a disadvantage. Paolo had him on the ground in seconds, his foot coming out to connect with Ray's stomach and rib cage repeatedly until all Ray could do was curl in a ball and wait for it to stop.
Kowalski was, well, confused and panicky too. But he couldn't afford to be. He had to be Mikey and get some kicks of his own in on this man who apparently wasn't corrupt at all, was undercover like him, and oh, god, was his cover safe? Who had ratted Vecchio out? Someone in the Chicago PD? Kowalski had to protect his cover, had to, even if it meant he couldn't protect Vecchio right now. It was his only hope of getting all of them out of there alive at the end of things.
Paolo got in one last vicious kick, catching Vecchio in the temple.
"Tie him up good and lock the door while we deal with the other two." he ordered Kowalski. Using nylon rope Paolo told him to bring with him when the mob man told him it was time to pay Vecchio a visit, Kowalski bound Vecchio firmly but gently. He checked his pulse. It was strong and steady and Kowalski sighed with a measure of relief that at least so far Paolo hadn't managed to kill Vecchio, before leaving Vecchio hogtied on the floor and locking the door behind him.
-=-=-
Fraser watched Toe drag Xu off in one direction while he was roughly manhandled to the small cellar under the farm house. Two-lips wasn't being gentle, but he wasn't going out of his way to cause pain. Down a set of stone stairs, the cellar was dark and dank, and lit by a single fixture projecting from one wall. There was a thin pillar from floor to ceiling in the middle of the room.
"Put your arms round that." Joey said. Two-lips pushed Fraser into position and Joey snapped handcuffs onto his wrists, chaining him to the pillar. He had room to slide down and sit, but only by awkwardly hugging the cold concrete support. Fraser stayed standing, preferring to keep his dignity while he could.
Paolo trotted down the stairs looking as smug as Joey had.
"Mountie." he said. "It's late, and we're gonna talk in the morning, but some of us need our beauty sleep. Now Two-lips, there's no hope of him turnin' into a prince, so he's gonna stay awake with you. If you start to fall asleep..."
Paolo drew back his hand and slapped Fraser hard, sending his head snapping backwards.
"...he'll wake you up. If you still can't manage..."
Paolo stepped behind Fraser and delivered a sharp and sudden kidney punch.
"So you just wait here and think about what you're gonna say to me tomorrow that's gonna stop me from killing your girlfriend and your partner in front of you, then capping you. The rest of us are gonna go back to bed."
Paolo and Joey left the cellar. Two-lips departed briefly but returned with a kitchen chair, an ashtray, and a cup of coffee. He lit a cigarette. "Gotta keep myself awake. Hope it doesn't bother you." he said conversationally to Fraser.
Fraser opted to say nothing.
-=-=-
After leaving Vecchio trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, Ray Kowalski sought out Paolo Scardina to find out what was going on. He found Paolo, Marco, Joey, and Toe in Marco's personal den, a dark wood-paneled room with lushly erotic Victorian paintings on the walls, and deep red leather chairs around a fireplace. The fire was blazing, and the Scardina men had brandy glasses in their hands. This didn't surprise Ray. What surprised him was the figure perched on the arm of Joey Scardina's chair.
"But- she-!" Ray blurted, pointing at Xu. "I thought she was with them." was all he could manage.
Marco Scardina laughed. Ray noticed that while the Scardinas all looked smugly amused, Marco's bodyguard Toe had a sour expression on his face.
"Just a small prank, Mikey." Paolo said. "Relax. Siddown. Have some brandy." He gestured expansively.
Ray poured himself a brandy and stood in front of the fire, waiting for an explanation. Paolo provided it.
"You see, Xu comes to Joey straight up and tells him she's being run by the Canadians and the Americans and she wants out, a nice position with our organization in sunny Sicily down the line. Joey sees that she's got... a certain value to us... feeding us information and feeding back bullcrap to the Feds."
Joey grinned, looking inordinately pleased with his find. Ray shook his head slightly. Xu seemed pretty sharp. He guessed she targeted Joey because she could flatter his sense of self-importance.
Joey piped up. "So then Pop says he needs this job done and Xu says she has the perfect setup. The Mountie is so clean he squeaks and she can get him under her thumb."
Ray began to grasp that there was no insider at the CPD. The whole thing was a setup from the start, a trap for Constable Fraser. He felt a guilty relief that his own cover was probably quite safe.
Xu spoke next. "Detective Vecchio insisting on coming along was an unexpected bonus. I've worked hard to make our Fraser feel that he needs to protect me, but frankly, having his partner as leverage is even better."
"Yeah." Marco agreed. "Joey, you've done good so far. Xu, the Mountie's boss thinks his cover is all set, right?"
Xu nodded. "Corporal Dolenz sees this whole operation as an opportunity to gain personal glory by taking you down. He was eager to believe that Constable Fraser was safely established undercover. And I will be able to pass back false information about who Fraser's target will be when we move on the actual target. I promise, it'll be smooth as silk. Benton is sure to cooperate."
Paolo cracked his knuckles. "I'm going to see to that." he said.
Ray took a deep swallow of his brandy. Paolo was an inventive sadist, through and through. Whatever he had planned to ensure the Mountie's cooperation was bound to be unpleasant.
"Is that really necessary?" Xu asked. "I assure you, protecting my safety and that of his bosom friend Ray Vecchio will be enough motivation."
Kowalski detected a note of prurient curiosity in her question. He wasn't entirely sure it was sincere, but for whatever reason, she still wanted the men to believe she had full control of the Mountie.
Joey Scardina reached up from his chair to pat her thigh.
"Don't worry, sweetcheeks." he said. "Paolo knows what he's doin'."
Xu's smile looked forced to Ray.
"Of course. I apologize." she said.
"No need." Paolo said. "But yeah, I do know what I'm doin'. Right now your boy will say he'll do the job for us under the threat to you and his friend, sure. But he'll still be trying to wiggle his way out any way he can. Give me a day with him and I'll have him broken down enough to be too scared to say boo. He'll say he'll do our job and he'll do it."
His tone of voice was enough to send chills down Kowalski's spine.
Toe grumbled. "I still don't see why you didn't tell me. I need to know this stuff, boss. You got undercover cops around, I should know that."
Ray filed that away. Toe would never be disloyal to Marco, but it was good to know he had a grievance. Any chink in the fortress of the family's loyalties was there to be exploited.
"No harm done." Marco said. He would tolerate, to a point, being questioned by Toe. "I just wanted to be sure our patsy didn't realize he'd been played the whole way. More convincing if you guys didn't know all along."
Toe grunted reluctant assent.
Not for the first time, Ray wished desperately that his cover allowed for a cell phone. Not that there'd be coverage out in the middle of Indiana, but now that he knew what was going down, he needed to contact his captain, get things rolling. He was expected to sit on his hands, gather evidence? But that'd been under the serious misconception that Fraser was bent.
-=-=-
Fraser didn't know what time it was when Paolo reappeared in the cellar. He knew that he desperately needed sleep. He knew it had probably been all night. Some time ago, Two-Lips had been replaced by Joey Scardina, whose techniques for keeping Fraser from falling asleep included a bucket of ice-water, and, like Two-Lips, a generous sampling of body blows. Both were careful to avoid marking his face, but otherwise, ruthless. Two-lips's chain smoking made Fraser's throat ache for water, and at least Joey spared him that.
Paolo came bearing two items, both long, narrow rods. A broomstick, and, Fraser identified with a sick feeling in his stomach, and old fashioned electrified cattle prod. Unlike the more powerful stun guns used by riot police and unethical interrogators the world over, cattle prods weren't designed to do more than cause a short, sharp burst of localized pain. But over the course of hours, well, it was nothing to look forward to. What information could Paolo want from him? Whatever it was, Fraser determined to stand fast.
"Good morning." Paolo said jovially. "Still awake? Good! My brother got you up here to do a job, and the way I see it, even though it turns out you're a fuckin' narc, I'm going to make it damn hard for you to say no."
He stood close to the pillar that Fraser slumped against, looking self-satisfied and smelling tantalizingly of coffee and bacon and fried potatoes. Fraser's stomach rumbled involuntarily but he guessed that by the time the morning was over he'd be glad he hadn't eaten.
"Now, we could do it this way. I could say you make the hit or I take out your girlfriend and your partner, and I know you'd say you were going to do it just to save their lives. And we both know you really wouldn't mean a word of it. You'd just be buying time and wasting mine. You got a track record of getting out of trouble, and I figure you'd gamble on that. So I'm not going to give you the option of saying yes, right now, you got me?"
"What if I don't say yes? What if I say no? What if I refuse to help you?" Fraser asked.
Paolo smiled. "I got two hostages to your good behavior. I only need to keep one alive. Capiche?"
"I understand." Fraser said, slightly hoarsely.
"I'm gonna teach you why you need to mean it when you say yes, what will happen to you and both your friends if you even think about betraying me... then when we're done, I'll ask you, and you'll say yes, and then you'll do our dirty little job for us without trying to find a way out."
He sounded calm. Too calm for Fraser's comfort. Fraser couldn't think of anything to say that would make a single bit of difference to the mafia man's cold plan.
When Paolo uncuffed his hands from around the pillar, Fraser knew he should fight, make some move to escape. But his muscles were stiff from being forced into one position all night, and his back and legs were screaming from the growing bruises inflicted on him in the name of keeping him awake. He staggered upright, searching for the opportunity to attack. Paolo rapped him across the shoulders with the broomstick.
"Knees." Paolo ordered.
Fraser resisted sullenly, and Paolo swept the broomstick in a sharp strike across the back of his knees. Fraser stumbled and dropped.
Paolo re-cuffed Fraser's hands behind his back and set the broomstick so it lay across the crooks of his knees. Fraser groaned internally. Although it felt like no weight at all now, he knew that holding the kneeling position with the wooden rod there would be a passive but effective torment for his whole body. He glared defiance at Paolo.
"You're a smart guy so you've got this one figured out." Paolo said. "Nice and easy for me. You stay kneeling like that, don't move, or-"
He unbuttoned Fraser's pajama top, peeling it down off Fraser's shoulders so it bunched on his cuffed arms, exposing his back and chest. Then came the expected demonstration. Fraser braced mentally for it, the bulky old cattle prod, the two metal tips pressed against his sternum and then, the arc of electricity, a pain that made him jolt back involuntarily, eyes squeezed closed for the long count of seconds that Paolo held the prod on him.
"There'll be someone here watchin' you all day." Paolo said. "Me or one of the others. You hold the kneeling position all day and we'll talk. You break it, and you get to do it all over tomorrow. We have plenty of time. Got me?"
"Understood." Fraser said wearily. It was a test he was being set up to fail. Paolo was canny about breaking a man's spirit without any great damage to his body.
-=-=-
Ray Vecchio spent the night alternately sleeping and passed out. He couldn't tell the two states apart but he woke up far groggier than could be accounted for by a simple night of sleep unmediated by a nasty kick to the head. By the time a late dawn broke, he was feeling achy and sore, but ready to try and tackle the bonds that Mikey had put him in. He had no idea where Fraser was, no idea if he was even still alive. But he guessed that if they wanted to kill Fraser they probably wouldn't have bothered to keep Ray alive either. So, where there was life, there was hope. Hope that between them they could pull off yet another miraculous escape and then, well, then Ray was going to find out who was responsible for blowing their cover with the Scardinas, which sorry sonofabitch in the Chicago PD was in their pay, and make that person's life an unimaginable hell.
Ray started working on the ropes around his wrists. Although his wrists were tied behind his back and a length of rope ran down to his bound ankles, the whole setup was just a shade looser and gentler than he would have suspected. Could Mikey have done that intentionally?
As Ray fidgeted impatiently with the rope, he worked to put a name to that face. It had been bugging him since they arrived, the irritation leading to the juvenile flare-up and punches being thrown. He had been working on the assumption that he knew Mikey from the criminal element. An associate of someone he'd arrested, something like that. But now he felt certain he was approaching things incorrectly. His fingers worked nimbly as his mind ticked over busily, reviewing other circumstances in which he could have seen the blond man.
Finally, it came to him. A couple of years back. A citation for bravery, he'd been there to see it presented. Who? Something funny about it. Oh... geez, of course. Another Ray. Ray- something Polish? Ray Krakowski? Nah... It provided the perfect distraction while he slowly loosened a knot. The first knot holding him slipped free right as Ray whispered triumphantly. "Kowalski." He was sure now. There was another cop here, someone he could look to to help him get Benny out. Hope lightened his heart.
Author's Note: A little dark from here out, but my promise stands that I'll put them back the way I found them!
