The Spider Pt. 28

"May we come in?"

John nodded.

"Sure, sure, fellows. Come in."

They stepped past John into the hotel room.

"How have you been, Soo Jung?"

Soo Jung took a seat at the small table next to the air conditioning unit. The other three men stood behind him, their arms folded in front of their black suits, their faces impassive behind sunglasses, saying nothing.

John took a seat on the bed. Amanda was still sleeping behind him.

"I have been... better, John Claire."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"We lost a lot of men in my organization because of that Red Eyes. A lot of good men."

"A tragic loss."

Soo Jung took his hat off, and put it in his lap.

"I should tell you, John Claire, that my men behind me have been instructed to kill you if I begin to say anything other than the things I have told them I was coming here to say."

"I see."

"I know you can take control of men. I know you have done this to me before. I don't know if you can take control of all four of us, though, before we kill you."

"I can't."

"I have come to offer you a choice. There are two outcomes possible. Neither of them involves you keeping your life."

"OK."

"You took control of our organization, and took our money. When we needed help from you against Red Eyes, you were nowhere to be found. You let us be slaughtered out there like pigs."

"I had my own problems with that thing."

"That's as may be. Regardless, you have forfeited your life through your actions."

"OK."

"If you return our money to us, that woman behind you sleeping? She may live. If she is important to you, she may go and live her life. You will return our money to us, we will put a single bullet in your head, right behind your ear. Painless. A better end than you deserve, but I am not a sentimental man- I only move in a forward direction. I need my enemies dead and I have to rebuild."

John just nodded.

"If you don't return our money to us, then we will still kill you, of course. We will also kill her. Her value is not clear to us. It may be that you care for her enough to give us our money. If not, we can get other money. It is easier to do it one way than the other, but not a- how do you say it?"

Soo Jung looked behind himself towards one of his men, but it was John who answered.

"A deal breaker."

Soo Jung smiled.

"Yes, of course. Not a deal breaker, either way."

"Honey?"

Shit.

Amanda was waking up behind John. She blinked, and opened her eyes.

"Who is this, John?" she asked, looking at the three men standing behind the older seated man.

"A business associate- an old friend."

"Oh. Hello."

Soo Jung nodded his head. The men behind him said nothing.

"Well, Soo Jung," John told him. "I would certainly like to apologize for everything. I would be happy to get you your money. I understand the details of your offer, and I will be returning your money to you as soon as possible."

Soo Jung smiled.

"Wonderful, John Claire. We will give you a couple of days to get the money together -"

Immediately, the three men standing behind Park Soo Jung pulled their pistols out, pointing the weapons at the couple on the bed.

Amanda shrieked in surprise, grabbing at John.

Soo Jung lowered his head, closing his eyes tight. He shook his head slowly, as if to wake up from a dream.

"Ah," he said quietly, resting his head on his lap. "Ah."

He opened his eyes, and pulled his own pistol out of his coat pocket.

"You almost had me, John Claire," he said. "But of course, I told my men that you would try and buy some time, and that you would need to be taken to get the money immediately after we had taken your woman hostage or you would use your mind tricks. When they heard me say 'a couple of days', they knew that you had persuaded me."

"Shit," John said.

Park Soo Jung looked behind himself, at his men.

"What are you waiting for," he said. "Kill them."

Immediately, all three men opened fire with their pistols.

John leapt to protect Amanda with his body, throwing himself over her on the hotel room bed.

He lay there for some moments, hearing the gun shots, one after the other, cradling her in his arms. Hoping that somehow, after all the mistakes he had made, that his final sacrifice might be enough to spare her life.

After some time had passed, John opened his eyes. He heard only the clicking of hammers against metal.

"OK," Amanda said, pushing him off her. "OK."

He rolled off the bed, and saw Amanda standing up in front of the four men.

A dozen or so bullets were hanging in the air, suspended. Just hanging in thin air, spinning uselessly.

Amanda frowned at the men, who kept pulling the triggers on their pistols, although there were no more bullets in them.

She waved her hand at the bullets, and they fell to the carpet.

"OK," she said.

One of the men behind Soo Jung reached into his coat, and pulled out a long knife. Amanda glanced at him, and then once of the jagged bolts of white light leapt from her face into his head, lifting him twitching and convulsing into the air.

She waved her hand, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.

"I wish you had just left us alone," she said to Park Soo Jung.

"Amanda?" John said.

"John, will you face the other way, please?" she asked him.

He did. He saw another burst of light play itself out across the walls, reflecting from the mirror in the bathroom.

After another couple of moments, he heard three more lifeless bodies falling to the carpet.

"John?"

"Yes, Amanda?"

"Let's get our shit and go. And darling?"

He turned to face her.

"Yes?"

"Is there anything else I should, like, fucking know?"

******************************

Heather poured the last of the wine into the glass.

She checked her phone. No calls.

She drank half the glass in one gulp, hoping it would make her drowsy enough to sleep.

But she knew it wouldn't.

Where was she? Why hadn't she checked in already?

Fuck.

She put the glass down, and choked back a sob.

I don't know if I can do this, she thought. I can't lose someone else I love so soon. I can't build another life around someone who is just going to get herself killed.

She turned off the light in the kitchen.

There was a knock on the door.

Heather opened it.

"You," she said. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Hi Heather, look, I know we've had our differences- "

But a blonde woman pushed John out of the way.

"Hi, Heather? I'm Amanda."

Amanda put her hand out. Surprised, Heather reached out, and shook the hand.

"Look, I know John can be a real fucking asshole. I get that."

She looked back at the man she loved, who stood there, wet from the rain and sheepish.

"He's kind of a dick, or at least he used to be. I'm working on that- he thinks he's smarter than he is. But, for the sake of all of us living out our lives? Do you think it would be OK if we came in? Talked?"

Heather stepped back from the door.

"I'm out of wine," Heather said. "I do have beer."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Amanda said.