3
Three prison-hard thugs are sprawled on the couch watching TV. A huge intimidating man called Hew waddles in and plops down in front of his boss Connor who sits behind a large desk. Tosses an envelope onto the desk. Connor drops the envelope on an antique scale - sees it's correct - and slides it into the top drawer. Pours a shot for Hew... When the door opens and Ianto Jones steps inside.
Heads turn. The fat welsh bastards are eyeballing up Ianto like lions do Antelope. Connor sneers "You lost, Pal?"
Ianto hesitates. Makes his way to the desk. Places a card in front of him. "You gave this to one of your women the other night."
Connor looked at Hew then said calmly "I give out lots of cards. You want pussy, pal? You still get it up?"
Chuckles from everybody. Ianto waits for it to stop. "I'm here about a certain girl."
Connor waits. Ianto continues "Name's Lisa. She has been missing for almost a week … I am told she is one of yours and you are … punishing her."
The room gets quiet. "I think you have the wrong address, pal."
"I'm not a cop or anything. I just want to help her." Ianto assures them as Connor studies the man in front of him.
"These girls. They represent an investment to you. I understand that." Ianto glances around at the other guys. "I can give you ten thousand dollars. It's all I have."
"You want to give me ten thousand dollars. For what?"
"Her freedom."
Connor looks at Ianto. Another heartsick John "This whore. What's her name again?"
"Lisa."
Connor is pretending to think "Doesn't ring a bell. Whoever she is she must really know how to suck cock."
The muscle laugh. Connor turns to them and waves a hand as he asks "Believe this guy? Gonna give me ten thousand for one pussy. Must be Ferrari pussy... (to Ianto) How many fucks you got left, man? Enough you pay ten thousand I guess."
Connor turns cancer serious. "The fuck you think you are? Come in here and offer money for my girl. Ten thousand. Why not forty thousand? Four hundred thousand? You fucking Toffs think you can come into my place of business and buy whatever you want!? You think you set the price? Fucking beautiful black girl... You fucking insult me."
All eyes boring in on Ianto. An eternity of silence. Then Connor bursts out laughing. "Look... he almost wet his pants! I'm fucking with you, man. You got big balls coming here. I like that. Okay. Be Mr. White Knight. The fuck do I care."
Connor holds out his hand.
"Ten thousand for the pussy..." Ianto takes it. Then Connor adds "A month."
Ianto goes to pull away but Connor tightens his grip. "You think one-time payment? For pussy like that?" Lets go of Ianto's hand. "Go home and jerk off ten thousand times. Then come back. She be used up then and I sell her to you. She be a good floppy slash then, not so … nosey. I may cut off her nose for poking it about in my business. I fucked her good … we all did and touched her up so when she is healed and can work again … this will pay us back for the downtime."
Ianto realizes that's it. Turns towards the door.
Connor nods to one of the Muscle who grabs a six-inch blade from a table and shoves it up his sleeve. Moves behind Ianto as Ianto reaches for the door knob. Only Ianto does something unexpected...
HE LOCKS IT. Turns. Half-lidded. Dull. Like a tiger. With the detachment of a predatory animal... A series of frozen pictures flashing through Ianto's head - mind calculating and evaluating a thousand details in a millisecond ... PARTS OF THE ROOM FADE AWAY. The unimportant parts to Ianto anyway. Walls, doors, furniture, faces... Leaving only what's necessary to him: The glass edge of a shelf. The Dragon Tattoo covering the carotid on the man's neck, the handle of a knife in the man's waistband... the throbbing heartbeat in the centre of the second man's chest... The shot glass on the edge of a table... The third man's eye and the outline of a gun under his coat... And the fork. Weapons and targets disconnected from any sense of humanity. The eye measuring the distance between the objects and the time it will take him to kill everyone in the room. This has all happened... in the blink of Ianto's eye. The lens covering his eye seems to alter as it calculates with him, thank the gods he upgraded from the frames.
"OK then" Ianto said to himself "Time to be The Man."
What happens next defies explanation. There is form and elegance to it. It's not just graceful or flashy… it is brutal and beautiful at the same time. Ianto snapping the glass shelf in two... the jagged edge hisses through the first man's neck - slaying the dragon - an opera of blood enters the air... Ianto already across the room. Planting the fork deep into the heart of the second man... The others halfway to their feet when Ianto scoops the Gold shot glass from the table, ramming it into the eye socket of the third man, driving it deep enough to enter the man's brain... Man quivering like a frog in a science experiment... Connor's hand coming out of the desk drawer with a .45... Ianto already pulling the trigger of the gun inside eyesocket's pocket... Blowing Connor's hand off at the wrist... hand and gun twisting into the air like a dead bird... Ianto catching the head of the fourth man. Using his weight and leverage to snap the neck with a nauseating crunching sound... Ianto steps back... As the men fall around him. Heartbeats, the rush of blood, the sigh of breath... all cease. The room now ungodly quiet.
Ianto drops back to earth as gently as an autumn leaf... shoots his cuffs.
Connor is gasping for breath. Hyperventilating. Handless arm aspirating blood into the carpet. Good hand fumbling with his Cell Phone... Ianto crouches beside him. Takes Connor's Cell from his hand. Voice quiet and devoid of smugness. "Your heart's beating three times its normal rate, trying to keep your blood pressure up. That's why you're having trouble breathing. But you're losing too much blood. In 30 seconds your heart will give up and go into cardiac arrest. Your body'll shut down and you'll slowly suffocate. It's going to suck to be you. (beat) So I need you to concentrate and listen to me... "
Connor's eyes find Ianto. "I want you to think about the girl. The one you beat and raped. I want you to know her life is going to go on while yours is going to end on this filthy carpet with no one giving a shit. I also want you to understand that you died over ten thousand dollars. If you had taken it everything would have been different. I gave you an out but you didn't take it. Guys like you never do. I will find where you have her and she will be free … you will just be dead"
Connor's eyes register the last words before they go blank.
.
.
.
.
Ianto woke with a soft intake of breath, as he does when dreaming of his kills. They all haunt him. All of them. Especially Lisa.
