Sin City: Prodigal Son

Chapter: 4

"Ramiel"

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"How long has he been in that room?"

"Through all of yesterday, since he got back. He won't even let me take him to a doctor."

Ritsuko had come over to Misato's for breakfast. They were pretty casual about it, like maybe it was a regular thing. Or maybe Akagi just wanted to get into Misato's pants; not that I'd blame her…. They were talking together in the living room. Either they didn't think or didn't care that I could hear.

"He's going off the deep end, Misato. You keep pushing him, he's going to crack."

"Might have already…."

I might have. I was in the bedroom, having my own conversation.

"Why, Eva?" I whispered. I regarded that cold 9 in my hand for a while. "Why didn't you protect me from the Beast…? That's what you're for; to put some distance between me and the killing. Keep me safe… keep me in control. But I could hear it. You were in my hand, that Angel was dead and gone, but I could still hear it! Why? Aren't you enough anymore, baby…? I've got so much more killing to do… I need you."

The smell of breakfast and the gnawing hunger in my gut finally made me drag my ass out of bed. Misato was having her usual; toast and beer. Ritsuko looked up from her food to take in the sight of me. I was covered in butterfly bandages thanks to Shamshel's handiwork.

"You look like shit," she observed with a smile.

"Fuck you," I mumbled in reply.

"Well, I'm glad you're finally up," she said, as if I hadn't just cursed at her. Took a lot to phase that woman; nature of her job. She got off the couch and walked over to me. I could smell the mix of perfume and cigarettes coming off that tight sweater of hers.

"You want something?" I asked. Ritsuko smiled.

"A favor," she said simply. She licked her lips as she took a glance down at my package. Almost made me forget which team she played for. Good actress… nature of her job.

"Two bodies in the morgue not good enough for you?" I said. The tall blonde pouted a little, shrugged, and then backed off. Out of her coat, she pulled a fat envelope and slapped it down on Misato's coffee table. Like that table had ever even seen coffee….

"I owe Rei some money," Ritsuko explained. She returned to her seat beside her tipsy friend. The mention of Rei's name seemed to sober Misato up a little. Ritsuko continued, "I thought you might want to take it over to her; nice excuse to visit. Maybe remind you why you're doing all this, in case that last run-in with the Angels shook your resolve."

"Only strengthened it, babe," I told her. I scooped up the cash-stuffed envelope and made for the door. "Don't wait up, Misato."

My "landlady" just raised her beer can to me, then downed the rest in one long pull. I strutted out the door like I didn't have a care in the world, other than finding and killing some more Angels. Inside, my heart was jumping like I was a kid at junior prom.

Rei….

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She still lived in the same apartment building that she had four years ago. The place had gotten even shittier, which I didn't think was possible. You keep the Mob and the pushers out of Old Town, that still doesn't mean your neighbors are going to be Ozzie and Harriet, right? I tried the handle of #402, and found it unlocked as usual.

I noticed the ancient mail left neglected in the slot. There were scarcely any signs that somebody lived there at all. I shut the door quietly behind me, taking my shoes off before moving deeper into the apartment. I was just inside the bedroom when I felt something sharp pressing into the small of my back.

"It's just me, Rei," I said softly. I froze, trying not to breathe. If I had, her katana would have punctured my kidney. My sweet, deadly little Rei.

I felt the pressure on my back ease, and I turned around to look at her. She was standing there stark naked, sliding her blade back into its saya. I must have caught her in the shower.

She didn't say anything as she dressed. She pulled on a thong and some tight Capri's. She was pert enough to go braless under a silky, black kimono-top. I just stood there enjoying the show, looking at her as much as she wasn't looking at me.

I would dream about her every night, you know; her body… her face. Every night I was in juvey, or in jail, or with another woman. She was all I ever needed; the only person who really knew me, because we grew up together in that hell. My father's adopted daughter… delicious forbidden fruit that I'd always wanted to taste, but never had.

I'm sure it's obvious, but I'll say it… I loved her. She was the one who used to hold me; a ten-year-old girl cradling a twelve-year-old boy whose dad had just beat the shit out of him again. I was broken… incomplete… and she was the missing piece of me. She was my strength and my control; sort of like Eva is now, almost. I used to wonder how Rei stayed so strong and in control. Who protected her? If only I knew.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Watching her dress, watching her move toward me when I told her that I had something for her, it was easy to forget the past four years we'd been apart. It was easy to forget that I was the one who'd run away… and that maybe I'd hurt her in the process. She walked close to me and I reached out, pulling her closer. My eyes locked with hers, and all I thought of was kissing her soft lips.

But those lips had tightened into a grim line. She'd forgotten nothing. Rei squirmed in my embrace, working her arms up to shove me away. It would've hurt less if she'd stabbed me.

"You don't want me," I said, "but you'll get on your back for any John with enough cash?"

She slapped my face hard, and I deserved it. Doesn't mean that it didn't piss me off, though. I tossed Ritsuko's envelope at her. She let it hit her in the chest and fall to the floor.

"There you go, slut," I said, my face still stinging. "I didn't think you swung both ways."

I slammed the door on my way out… heard some of that old mail cascade onto the floor.

I made sure I was done crying before I hit the street and headed back to Misato's.

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The day after I'd gone to visit Rei, Ritsuko came running over around noon with a hot tip. My visit had almost had the opposite effect from what she'd intended. I had found that I was doing this mainly to protect someone who didn't give a shit about me anymore. But there were other girls' safeties to be considered…. And fuck it if I didn't still love Rei anyway.

"Codename: Ramiel," Ritsuko told me. The grainy surveillance photo showed a business man on his cell. He was young and trim, looking like any other corporate stooge starting on his trip up the ladder. "He's in charge of laundering the Angels' money, juggling their off-shore accounts, and dodging the tax-man. Cooks their books after-hours in the big Bank One building downtown. Easy pickings."

"You weren't shitting me about them being well-organized," I said to Misato. "Alright… so let's get some of the girls together and roll up on his ass."

But Misato shook her head.

"That's downtown, not Old Town," she said. "They're rules…."

"Screw the rules! The cops are going to give you grief over some fucking Angel? What about Carmen, or Sally, or any of the other girls the Angels put in the ground? The cops don't give a shit about them." Ritsuko looked a little sick, me talking about her pals in blue like that, but like I gave a fuck.

"It's their damned pride," said Misato. "If we take care of business on their turf, the cops look weak, so they have to come down on us to save face. Then we push back, and soon enough, you got a war on your hands. A lot more blood, a lot more dead, and the Mob picking up the pieces, is that what you want?"

"It's all fucking politics with you, huh, Misato?" I said, heading for the door. "I guess that's what you've got me and Eva for, right?"

She didn't answer because it was true. I was just her damned tool.

But, for love and revenge, I let her use me.

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That night, I stood in the shadows looking up the bank building as it climbed into the sky. It towered above me; a gleaming metal fortress. The glass of its windows reflected the city lights all around, revealing nothing of its insides.

I'd done my fair share of B-and-E, way back when. It took practice to get into a fortress like the Bank One building, but practice was something I'd had plenty of. Not that I'm some safecracker or anything, you understand. I was just a teenage punk; in for some vandalizing and then out, quick as hell. You could never be totally sure that you hadn't tripped the silent alarms. That was the point of them being silent, right?

The guys roaming the halls with Uzis that night didn't appear to have been alerted to my arrival. Their mere presence sure told me that something was up, though. Gun-toting bruisers guarding an office building at midnight? Fat chance. "Ramiel" was obviously doing a little after-hours bookkeeping, just like Ritsuko had said. Good.

I was going to have to do this quietly. One-on-one, hand-to-hand style. Before you ask, there was no way was I putting a silencer on Eva. I'd feel like one of those self-centered fucks who get their dog an operation to snip its vocal chords. Just fucking cruel.

Ritsuko had said that Ramiel's office was on the 30th floor. I weighed my options. No telling how many guards might be in the stairwell, and I damned well didn't want to hoof it up 30 flights, so an elevator seemed the best choice. There was one in the main lobby with a guard in front of it, and I spotted another guard roving around all over the ground floor. Just two? It was going to be a snap. No pun intended… although that was the sound the rover's neck made when I took him down.

I dragged the first guy into a bathroom, and then set about taking care of the other. The lobby was big, dark and afforded me plenty of cover. From watching the first guard's circuit, I guessed I'd have about five minutes before his pal started wondering why he hadn't seen him again. I crouched down behind a plant near a window, and I almost pissed myself.

A guard outside, not ten feet from me, was looking in through the window. I nearly blew everything in my panic, before I realized that he was looking at his own reflection and couldn't see inside. Soon, he stopped checking himself and started moving toward the front door. My five minutes had just become about two.

I picked up a polished stone from the plant's pot and moved as close to the elevator as I dared. The elevator guard's head jerked to the side when he heard the stone clatter off to his left. Finding nothing, he looked forward again and found me.

I barreled him into the doors, knocking the wind out of his lungs and the gun out of his hand. I sent my knee into his family jewels, buying me enough time to press the "up" button on the wall. Then I picked him up by his neck and held on real tight. There was a wet popping sound from inside his throat.

I glanced over my shoulder at his friend outside. The elevator was slowly making its way down. Faster, I hoped, than the asshole on his way in. It was going to be tight…. I shoved my latest kill inside the elevator with me as the goon outside started to open the front door. The elevator doors almost closed on my arm as I reached out and grabbed the fallen Uzi.

As expected, there was a guard outside the elevator when it got to the 30th floor. Fortunately, he was too distracted with checking on his dead pal to notice that the body had been placed directly under the emergency exit hatch. 142 pounds of me dropping down onto his skull… that, he noticed. It was the last thing he noticed.

To my surprise, there were no other guards in the hall. A quick check of the cross hallways revealed no one else on the floor. It was all so easy; the situation stank like the back of Misato's fridge. Nowhere to go but forward, though.

Only one office door had light spilling from underneath it. I pulled out Eva. No need for quiet anymore. I still had my rules, though, still had to be sure. Didn't want to go in firing, only to cap a janitor or something. I turned the doorknob slowly, every scrape of the latch sounding as loud as a gunshot to me.

I almost had it open when someone tackled me from behind, throwing me to the floor. I was pinned, angry, and embarrassed. No one can sneak up on me. No one is that quiet! No one except…. I stared into her face as she lay on top of me and thanked God that I hadn't shot her.

"Rei?"

Then the world exploded.

I went deaf in my left ear. Something was stinging on that side of my body; my hand and my face. What I later found out was a shotgun blast had blown the door apart. Rei's body on top of me had shielded me, giving her the worst of it. Some of the shot and the splinters of the door had torn through her kimono and embedded in her back. Still, she rose and ran into the open doorway.

"Rei!" I screamed after her.

Eva led the way as I staggered into the office. Vision was a little spotty in my left eye, but I could see that Rei was charging the Angel. Only one of her two katanas was drawn. Her right arm hung limply at her side, covered in blood, while she swung wildly with the sword in her left hand. The girl was not as ambidextrous as she'd like to think.

Ramiel dodged a couple of clumsy slashes, then caught her left wrist with the hand that wasn't holding his shotgun. He squeezed, twisting her arm around and causing three feet of sharpened steel to fall useless to the floor. She tried to kick him with her left leg, but she was in too close to connect solidly. Her right leg screamed and buckled. She would have gone down, but Ramiel held her aloft by her wrist, dangling her like a rag-doll in front of him.

I dropped to one knee, cupping the butt of Eva's handle in my left hand to steady my aim. I closed one eye and sighted down her barrel, but five feet of Rei was covering most of my target. That bastard Ramiel was using her as a shield. Must've had another shot in that gun of his, too, because he was bringing it up to bear.

Everything seemed to slow down. My mind was on fire, picking and dismissing points to shoot as Rei swung in front of Ramiel. That shotgun was just easing its way into firing position. It gave its owner the luxury of not having to aim too carefully. Rei looked at me, knowing that if she tried to fight anymore, she might get herself shot by the Angel or me. But her eyes didn't say "help me". They said "do it".

I squeezed Eva's trigger, and the side of Ramiel's desk disintegrated.

I couldn't hit anything vital on him, because Rei was in the way. My bullet had torn clean through his shoulder, making a dent in the reinforced glass of the office windows behind him. But the impact had thrown his whole arm sideways, sending his shotgun blast wide.

He dropped Rei, and I knew it was over. She landed on her good leg and drew her second sword in an underhand grip. She pirouetted and swung, stopping after she completed a half-spin. A spray of blood joined the bullet-dent on the window, and Ramiel's torso fell from his hips to land on the floor with a wet thump.

Rei wiped her blade clean before returning it to its saya. She kicked the other katana off the floor and caught it in midair. Once she had that one was stowed away as well, Rei limped past me toward the open doorway.

I didn't know what to say. There was only one thing I could say….

"Hey… Rei," I said. I looked down at the splintered remains of the door. I watched her blood drip down onto the carpet. "Thank you…. Thank you for coming."

She looked for a second like she was going to cry. Not my Rei, though. She was stronger than that… she was stronger than anything… especially me.

No, what she did was smile.

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Continued…