Franky Is Lucky

We drove back into town mostly in silence. I could tell Amy did not want to hear where we were going just in case her suspicions would be confirmed. We drove until the lights of the city were in full view. I didn’t need an address there was only one place with security and luxury good enough for Adrian Aster. So I just drove towards the tallest buildings in town. Past the muddle of car repair places and into the strips of bars and night clubs. I was stopped at a red light when a green and purple neon sign caught my eye.

The sign was a glowing purple triangle with a palm tree next to it. The word Bermuda was scrolled across in yellow neon script. When the light turned green I found a parking spot and cut the engine. Amy looked around suddenly catching her eye upon what I had seen.

“You know predictions are hardly ever so literal.” She said to me sitting back into her seat.

“The place looks empty. And what do you know about clairvoyance? Hmm? Maybe the kid is a prodigy. Can’t hurt to go in. A shot of tequila never hurt anyone.” I opened the car door and stepped out. Amy followed after. As I crossed the small one way street towards the bar she was hot on my heels.

With a push of the wooden entrance doors a flood of latin music flooded into the street. I held the door for Amy. I didn’t normally look too out of place in these type of establishments but Amy and I were still in the sweats from earlier and looked strangely vagrant.

We walked up to the bar and I ordered a round of shots and paid the bartender cash. He didn’t card us which was amazing since I no longer had an ID. Sometimes luck wasn’t so bad. A man in a plaid shirt and high wasted jeans and a huge belt buckle saddled up towards us. He looked strangely southern.

“Hey Ronnie we got some pretty ladies come in here. You girls just getting of work or sumthin‘?” He spoke with a drunken drawl.

“Naw man we just love to dress like nurses.” I said eyeing him with my leave us the hell alone stare.

“Sorry ladies.” Said the bartender a sturdy man middle aged man with a white shirt and apron on. “Earl here has had a little too much to drink.”

Earl walked over to the barstool nearest us and sat down with some commotion.
“Ya’ll want to know something amazing?” I gave him another look but he pressed on. “I’ll tell you something amazing did you know that the Bermuda triangle is really just an area of magnetic interference. That’s why boats and planes and shit constantly go missing. It messes with all the navigation or sumthin’. Can you believe that? The only thing mysterious about that place is that it has some damn magnetic interference. Crazy right? It blew my mind when I found that out. I tell you. Magnetic Interference.” I gave him another look.

Earl and the bartender where the only ones in the whole place. Amy had been right this was a dead end. Maybe the kid wasn’t some clairvoyant savant after all. I threw back both mine and Amy’s tequila shots and slapped a five on the counter for a tip. I motioned to Amy and we walked out the door into the crispness of the night.

I beeped the car as we walked across the street.

“Told you.” Amy said smugly as we climbed into the vehicle.

“Told me what?” I replied coyly.

“That this was a dead end.” She said as she buckled her seat belt.

Just then a thought popped into my mind that would have never come to me had we not stopped in to that bar.

“Maybe not.” I said as I threw the car in gear and drove away from the bar.

We drove towards the penthouses at top speed. Amy was milling over the brief exchange in the bar trying to figure out what exactly had transpired for me to gleam anything valuable out of the conversation.

We arrived shortly at the penthouses I circled the building once parking at the fast food place across the street. We were in a very conspicuous car after all. We crossed the street towards the penthouses and walked through the front door into the foyer. I glanced at the buzzers trying to locate Aster’s name and found it but just as I was about to press it a pizza delivery girl came in and hurried towards the buzzers he hit Aster’s name and the intercom rang back.

“Who is it?” said a male voice.

“Uh I am here to deliver some pizza.” She replied not too professional.

“Oh okay I will buzz you in” Said the voice on the other end.

Just then the buzzer rang and the pizza girl followed through I took that as the cue to grab the door and follow her in. All three of us climbed into the elevator. She pushed Aster’s floor number twenty and I pushed floor fifteen. She looked at us awkwardly.

“Long night?” I asked as the elevator slowly climbed.

“Yea it has been rough.” She said in reply.

“Well I want you to know I am really sorry about this then.” And with out hesitation I punched her in the face knocking her to the floor.

She was a petite girl probably only 16 or 17 as the elevator slowly climbed to the fifteenth floor I made haste to switch our clothes. When the elevator finally stopped at fifteen I had Amy hold the door as I placed the body against the wall in the hallway.

“What about me?” Amy pleaded. “How will I get in.”

“I didn’t think you were going in.” I replied as I hustled back into the elevator.

“Well I mean I just thought you would need me or something.” She said fervently.

“Well once I am in and can disarm the guards I can let you in. Okay you big baby? Geez.” The elevator door dinged for the twentieth floor and I got out and so did Amy.

I walked slowly down the hall to the penthouse number listed on the buzzer, 204. I knocked on the door and stood nonchalantly holding the pizzas in one hand. A man in a suit opened the door.

“How much is it?” He asked looking me over.

“How much of a tip you going to leave?” I asked him.

He turned to shout towards his buddy. “Hey man how much a tip we leaving?” And just then as his body turned his gun pocked through on his side underneath his unbuttoned jacket. I dropped the bag of pizzas and grabbed it. It was hefty with a silencer at the end.

“Listen very carefully. Stay calm and do everything I say and I will not kill you.”

“What the hell?” Too late for him. I shot him in the heart. The gun making a little pinning noise and nothing more.

I stepped over the body and walked through to what looked like a very sheik and modern marbled entry way. The entry way was round with three arch ways. One lead to the living room, the other to two sparely lit hallways which I had to assume were the bedrooms. A very tall man walked through the living room arch way.

“Dave did you get…” He stopped dead in his tracks and drew his gun but did not have time to shoot before I shot him in the arm. Grabbing his arm in pain he dropped his own weapon. I rushed him at that moment knocking him to the ground almost silently. With my hadn over his mouth and the gun to his head I whispered.

“How many other guards are there?” I said to him. He shook his head to indicate no more. I did him the courtesy of shooting him in the head this time.

As I went back the front door to go get Amy I felt myself shaking uncontrollably. I had not wanted to kill anyone before I had never experienced a moment on non-hesitation when it came to someone else’s life. I had spent the last few years of mine trying to spare people any kind of pain or displeasure that I could cause. Yet here I was able to take the lives of two men coolly and efficiently without even a second of pause. Who was I anymore? I did not feel like the same person I had been a few days ago.

I motioned for Amy to come inside. As she walked in she looked in amazement at the two men and all the blood now seeping to the floor. I grabbed the gun of the second guard and handed it to her. Then I motioned for her to follow me under the first archway into the hallway on the right.

There were two doors down the hall on to the left midway down the wall and one at the end of the hall. I assumed the one to the left was a bathroom and the other at the end of the hall was the bedroom. I slowly walked door the hall making sure to make as little noise as possible. When I reached the door I noticed a soft blue glow emitting from the bottom of the door. I slowly turned the knob and swung the door open.

Inside the rather large room were several computers with televisions mounted on the wall right above them. The computers were sat on a very large sweeping desk that ran along the expanse of three walls almost wrapping the whole room. I stepped in letting Amy follow and shut the door behind me.

There were three computer chairs in the room and I took a seat in one of them and pulled up to the computers.

“What are you doing? We are going to get caught in here!” Amy said in a hurried and scared whisper.

“Let me think for a second okay?” I said back in a shushing whisper.

I turned to face the bank of computers and tapped a rhythm to with my fingers on the desk. I launched a systems search for files and typed “S.I.G.I.” in the search box within a less than a minute the screen blinked “1,263 files found.”

“No fucking way! It can’t be that easy?” I breathed.

As I looked down the list of files all of them seemed to be linked to a server. I tried opening one and it was password secure. Shit. Well at least I knew they were here.

Just then I heard a commotion down the hall. A woman was shouting frantically. They had found the bodies. I spun around in the chair and looked at Amy’s petrified face.

“Well I guess they know we’re here. You better hide in the closet.” I said motioning to the slated folding doors. She did as I said too scared to argue. I shut her inside.

“Don’t come out unless you have too.” I told her through the slates. I sat back in the office chair facing the door to the room. Any second now they would burst through and I would ready and waiting for them.

I hide the gun in next to my leg buried under the cushion and the arm of the chair. Just as I poised myself the door flung open. I didn’t blink.

“YOU!” shouted Aster.

“Me.” I replied calmly.

He charged I grabbed the gun.

“What’s the password to the S.I.G.I. files?” I asked coolly with the gun pointed at his chest. He stopped in the middle of the room. His face smug.

“I knew you were coming you know.” He stood straight with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Really? You didn’t stop me.” I replied coolly.

“I was told not to.” He replied as equally calm as me.

Just then Dr. Molokai and Adelphia walked into the room.