Oh boy, wasn't expecting quite so many of you to feel so negative about Masen and his story after the last update. The fact is he's a single thirty year old man and lived a certain lifestyle since his late teens... to show him as a monk isn't going to happen, sorry! Yes, it's a bit pathetic he 'sees' Bella when he's having sex with another woman but he's also completely off his face, so... y'know. It happens.
And you know how White Noise ends... this is just a little snapshot of his journey.
If you ever want to discuss my PMs are always open, don't feel the need to hide behind guest reviews :)
Anyway, thanks so much for reading...whether you love or hate, it's cool. This is a short one.
Song:
Straylight Run: Hands in the sky (big shot)
Duality
Colombia, October 2007
We spend the next few weeks here, September morphing into October. Treks into the Colombian jungle to where they farm the cocaine. Some take a day to get to, others not so long and when we're back at the house, Alec, Javier, and Carlos are usually holed up discussin' shit Caius wants.
We currently route product into the US via freight, but it can take a while. Too long. They want to tighten up the time scales. Move more. Talk of refinin' it in Mexico first so it's good to go as soon as it hits the port.
Alec wanted me in on these meetings, but Caius don't see the need. I'm not important enough, and that's fine by me.
"You always so quiet?" Carlos asks one night over dinner. Javier looks up, grinning, nudging my shoulder with his as I dip some bread in some kind of potato soup.
"He might be quiet, brother, but he's a fuckin' machine. Took Juan Santiago out fifteen hundred meters away, precision, like—" he kisses his fingers.
Carlos looks at me, dark eyes assessing. I was wrong, thinking Javier was the one in control here. Carlos... he's the brains behind this whole outfit. And he's clever, staying out of Mexico like this, with how it is between the cartels right now. Italian-American mafia… fuckin' civilized in comparison with some of the shit that goes down between them.
"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" Carlos quizzes. "Military?"
I finish off my mouthful of food before answering. At one point I'd been considering it. I shake my head though. "Good eye. Practice."
It's what I'd been doin' before it got too dark; that night we met Bella and her friend down by the lake on the state border. Wide open expanse, testing out the range of a few sniper rifles we'd had shipped in before it got too dark.
Carlos nods, thoughtful.
...
The shuffle of footsteps outside my door at just gone midnight has me reaching for my nine, listening carefully before I yank it open, gun raised.
Call me paranoid.
Carlos is stood there, hand in a fist as if he was about to knock. He comes in when I move to the side, lowering my gun as his eyes flit around the room.
I watch him warily as his eyes linger on the few personal belongings I have lying on the bedside table. A dog-eared copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a flick knife I've had since I was a teen and a watch mom gave me for my twenty-first.
Picking up the book, he reads the back of it before placing it back down. Sitting down heavily on the twin bed across the way from mine, he presses his fingers together, rubbing them slowly, coming to play with the gold band on his left ring finger.
His voice is barely audible when he speaks. "You're a lot smarter than Alec gives you credit for," he says, slowly. "You see how this works. The power play here."
He sniffs a laugh, wiping his brow with the back of his wrist.
"What I need you to do… I need my brother-in-law gone. You understand what I'm saying, Masen?"
I take him in. His seriousness.
"Yeah." I tell him, sitting down across from him, gun at my side.
"What are your terms?"
"You tell me. I'll let you know if I accept."
He slips a hand into his pocket, drawing out a wad of US dollars. "Ten now. Ten on completion. My wife… Josefina. She can't… She loves her brother. Quick, clean, is best. If you can make it look… accidental."
"You sure this is what you want?" I ask, thumbing through the money. Staring at him hard. "There ain't no going back."
I hold out a hand, and he contemplates it, wavering. "Yes," he says, eventually. He claps his hand into mine, gripping firmly as we shake on it.
I shove the money in the lining of my bag after he leaves, alongside the other twenty Javier gave me a few weeks ago.
When the money stacks up, so do the bodies.
This is the problem Alec's finding though. Loyalty here means jack shit, even between family. Fuck, even Alec's been voicing his disapproval about Caius recently. But this is what this world is like. Dog eat dog with a little help from a friend.
I watch Javier for days, thinking about how I'm gonna do this. Sitting at the dinner table as he dotes on his little sister with no idea her husband is betraying them both. Wanting him dead.
I see the reasons, but it's fucked.
...
Opportunity knocks on a trip to a farm two days from here. As we're guided through the jungle, it immediately becomes clear something's wrong.
There's panicked shouts as the guys ahead of us start surging forward to see what's happened. And the closer we get, the more nothin' feels right. It prickles the hairs on the back of my neck and I already have my gun raised in hand, eyes sharp.
The trouble with the jungle though is there's plenty of places to hide.
We're hit by a smell that turns my stomach as we carry on moving down a cleared path, and minutes later we see for ourselves.
Bodies fucking everywhere. Some are hacked up, others lying where they fell, blood coating the jungle floor, flies crawling all over. Things are on fire. Makeshift structures. Flesh. That's what that smell is.
Whatever went down didn't happen long ago. Javier's men are engaging, pumping the jungle full of lead before they give chase to an enemy I can't see.
Javier turns to us, but I'm already there, pulling the trigger. His mouth is slightly open as his head jerks back with the force of it, his body hitting the ground seconds later.
Alec spins from in front of me, his face a picture or incredulity.
"The fuck are you doing?"
"Contract," I reply, stepping over Javier, nudging him with my foot. I bob down to double-check. Dead has gotta mean dead.
"Carlos? And you didn't fuckin' think to run it by me first?"
I tilt my head as Alec shakes his.
"Well, that makes life easier. Damn shame. I liked the crazy son of a bitch."
When Javier's men come back, we lie. Say the bullet came from outta the jungle.
They accept it.
His sister doesn't. Her distress. It gets under my skin, her cries and pleas when the news is broken. And she don't even know it was her own husband that wanted it. Set it up.
That night I question my morality. It's the first time in a long time where I feel like I need to.
But this is who I am.
What I do.
Why I'm no good.