My People Part 3

My People part 3
Bangkok
“Micki, why do you have to be such a dick to Mathew, they’ll smoke you, you dumbfuck”, said Ricardo.
“Grow some balls, motherfucker, this old fuck Su za ler aint worth shit, I tell you. A real boss has attitude and balls; he’s just an old motherfucker” Micki retaliated in an instant,” Now if your balls have left you, Mr Cuckold, go fuck Mathew and suck that motherfucker’s dick”
Ricardo had had enough of Micki. The sooner he gets the job done, the better. Micki had always been aggressive, but Ricardo never knew him to be this arrogant.
“Where’s your gay-friend anyway?” said Micki, laughing as Ricardo had chosen not to get into a verbal fight with him.
“Mathew is on his way, now shut that asshole on your face or I swear I’ll drown your drunk ass in the ocean” Ricardo had better things to do, he settled back to going through his plan. Ricardo stood like a child would stand outside his examination hall, he was going over everything in his head, from small details like fuel to stories they would recite if caught by the cops. He didn’t feel the need to have any elaborate plan for this job, his real problem was Micki. Micki refused to properly answer Mathew, and Ricardo was afraid he might offend him. They needed Mathew for the job.
Micki went over to a few school girls and started whistling and making rude hand gestures. The girls formed a tighter group and started walking faster; Micki made a few offensive sounds and then settled on throwing stones at the dogs. Ricardo didn’t know if he was amused by his stupidity or irritated by his reasonless cockiness.
Ricardo saw a black truck turn in to their street, spotting Mathew in the driving seat. It was decided earlier that Mathew will drive and Ricardo will sit in the passenger’s seat, leaving Micki to sit behind, alone. Micki had thrown a tantrum like a wild hog, creating a scene in the bar; at last he was tossed out by the bouncer and beaten up after he tried a fist to the bouncer’s face. Micki was still bruised from that fight, so the dogs weren’t just afraid of the stones he was throwing at them, his purple-red, swollen face made him resemble a giant bulldog.
“Come on, dick. He’s here, leave that dog” Ricardo had to shout again. He was really pissed at Micki; almost on the verge of shooting him, before someone else did.
Mathew stopped in front Ricardo, he was wearing simple clothes, a brown shirt and light faded jeans. He wasn’t even carrying his gun; they were to give cops no reason to arrest them. Ricardo got in the passenger’s seat and shook his hand, they waited for Micki to sprint back to them and get in.
Mathew drove carefully out of the packed street, Micki yelling abuses at everyone on the road. Mathew didn’t react for the first minute, but soon Micki broke past his poker face and he said,” Your guy shouts a lot, and nothing he says is good”
“Tell me about it” said Ricardo and Mathew smiled.
“I’ve heard about him, he has offended many people. The guy’s got balls but no head to control them”
“That’s an apt description”
Micki shouted again emphasizing Mathew’s point.
“Don Su za ler asked me to give you a message” said Mathew as they came out on a wider street, and Micki stopped yelling.
“What is it?” Ricardo said, straightening up and looking at closely at Mathew.
“You have to go see him after the delivery has been done, but alone. He has more work for you, but said that he’s got none for your loud-mouth partner” Mathew recited as if he had learnt it by heart.
Ricardo was not surprised that don didn’t like Micki, if he had a family, they wouldn’t like him either, but Ricardo was rather taken aback with this piece of information, he was offered another job, even before he had finished the current one.
“What kinds of jobs do you do for him, except for driving trucks?” Ricardo asked, trying to gain some information.
“Anything he asks for” was his short reply.
“Ever murdered someone?”
Mathew looked over at him and said,” You’ll see”
“What do you mean?” said Ricardo with genuine curiosity and raised eyebrows.
“Don Su za ler has specially trained assassinators for that, I do smaller jobs, kidnapping and torture” He stated the last line simply, without emotion, without looking at him, like he didn’t want to be judged because of that, like he wasn’t fond of his work. Ricardo was able to empathize with that, he understood that.
“Oh.”
“I think you’re going to work with Me.”, Said Mathew, after a long pause, his eyes on the road.
“I don’t kidnap or torture people.”
Mathew shrugged.
“I don’t do that, no kidnapping, no murder” said Ricardo, even though he knew telling Mathew won’t matter, he’ll have to talk to the don. He wasn’t excited about it.
Mathew didn’t respond, just shrugged again. They heard Micki banging on the thin steel separating the back of the truck, Ricardo opened the latch,” What?”
“You knuckleheads didn’t notice that shitty car following us over the last mile?” he said and Mathew checked his rear view.
“He’s right, this car has been there for a long while”, said Mathew, thinking hard,” I know a way to lose them, there’s a side road that’ll bring us out on the other side, we’ll have to take a new route then”
“Go for it”, said Ricardo as Micki turned away from us and continued watching something on his cell, glancing at the black car every so often.
Mathew suddenly pulled into a tight street and stepped on gas, racing on the thin road which had a turn every few seconds. Mathew steered like a pro and soon they were deep enough inside the maze-street that he dared slow down.
Micki banged on the wall again. Ricardo opened it and Micki said,” I didn’t see no car, we’ve lost It.”, in an uninterested voice as he went back to staring at his cell phone, and now as there wasn’t a vehicle to make noise around, Ricardo heard moaning of a girl coming from the cell. He’s sick, was Ricardo thought and then out of nowhere they heard sirens of cop cars. Ricardo looked out of the window to find them surrounded from all sides by cops. Cop cars were coming out of the shadows which didn’t exist earlier. It was a trap, thought Ricardo, panicking but then his sensible side kicked in, they still had nothing to hide, they didn’t have the supply yet, they just had to stick to their story. A cop was asking them to pull over and come out with their hands behind their heads. He heard Micki bang the steel wall and opened it to see his wild face, he was screaming at Mathew,” You son of a bitch, you got us busted”
Ricardo said,” We don’t have the supply yet, calm down you fool, and just tell the story, they’ll have to let us go.”
Micki turned his face away again and looked as if he was in pain. Ricardo was about to ask him what was wrong but then he realized Micki was trying to remember the story.
Mathew put on his usual poker face, and nodded at Ricardo. He pulled the truck to the side and stopped. Ricardo opened the door and stepped out with his hands behind his head, and heard Mathew do the same. Micki jumped down from the back, his face red and hands behind his head. He looked like he had done this particular drill a lot of times.
Two cops approached Ricardo and frisked him; he had nothing to hide so he didn’t panic. When the cops were done checking for weapons, last to get checked was Micki, who had left his weapon home after a lot of persuading, a cop with a pot-belly slowly walked over to them. He was a man in his early 50s and had the expression that made him look uncomfortable and angry permanently.
“What’s in the truck, slut?” the cop asked Mathew.
“Nothing, it’s empty” said Mathew, his poker face still on.
“Empty in the back, maybe, but what’re you hiding in the cab?” asked the cop fiercely. Ricardo had his first ping of panic; they really had been set up.
“We’re not hiding anything” Mathew shrugged his shoulders, and the cop slapped him, full in his face. The sound of the slap echoed, even though there wasn’t enough room for it to. Mathew’s face changed colours like his expressions, from pale and surprised, to red and angry.
“Motherfuckers, I find one thing that’s not supposed to be in this truck and your sweet ass is mine” the cop said while holding Mathew up by his hair. “Check the whole damn truck, leave nothing, rip it apart if you have to” He yelled at the other cops, about five cops hurried to follow his command as he let Mathew go with a jerk. Ricardo, Mathew and Micki stood with their hands up behind them as the cops raided the truck, taking their superiors word rather seriously and actually ripping it wherever they thought something could be hidden.
We don’t have the drugs, yet. Whoever informed these motherfuckers didn’t know the whole plan, thought Ricardo, Ricardo started thinking of ways he could escape if the cops didn’t agree to let them go even after they found nothing. He saw Mathew take one of his hands down to his lower back, and move a little to the side as if trying to pull something out from his underwear. Ricardo was about to signal him to do nothing when there was a loud noise and the bottom of the truck was ripped open and a heavy wooden box thumped to the ground.
“AHA,” yelled the commanding cop and opened the box. Ricardo burst into sweat as he saw the cop pull out big bags full of cocaine, and then weed. He couldn’t comprehend what had happened. “You’re fucked, pretty boy.”
Then the truck blew up-unlike the movie blasts, the truck started smoking as soon as the leader cop turned his back to it, to show Mathew and Ricardo the bag and before anyone could even start to comprehend what the smoke meant, the truck blew up in the air, going up like a firework and blasting into a shower of metal. The cops surrounding the truck lay scattered all over the place, dead or injured so bad they were knocked out. Micki was thrown almost 10 feet in the air and he landed behind a bunch of cop cars, his frame bloody, Ricardo and Mathew were swept off their feet to go flying back to the cars as did all the cops surrounding them, Ricardo hit a car particularly hard and slipped down to the ground, spread-eagle, he looked sideways and found Mathew lying 5 feet from him, his forehead bleeding. The cops were struggling to hide behind the cars, crawling their way to the nearest one. Ricardo crawled over to Mathew and just as he was about to touch his unmoving frame, he rushed up, standing up like he was simply playing hurt, which he probably was.
Mathew ran to the nearest cop with a tiny knife in his hand and dug it deep in his thigh, the already doubled-up cop flailed and screamed and fell over backwards. Mathew got into one of the cars and reversed it to face the way they had come; Ricardo jumped up and ran towards the car, diving inside as Mathew opened the door.
Mathew was about to speed off when Ricardo held his hand and said, “Micki”. Mathew swore and looked around for him and shouted his name, after a loud reply, they saw Micki run out from between the cars, cops shooting at me from behind, he was limping and bleeding, he had not even reached half-way towards them, when a bullet went through his head and he fell, skidding on the floor, instantly dead.
Mathew vertically kicked the gas down and sped out of the massacre as bullets smashed the windows and Ricardo bent down in his seat, low enough to smash his face in the glove box. Mathew was driving like a crazy person; going so fast, everything was a blur, he wasn’t bleeding anymore, just had a hazy look on his face. Ricardo was just starting to feel the first indication of anger, when Mathew pulled out onto a crowded street, and continued to drive on their original route. The car was silent, but Ricardo could hear his heart thumping loud enough to drown the sound of the car’s over-strained engine. Suddenly, Mathew took a wild turn into a completely empty street; it had nothing but locked down shops. It was dark and looked hostile; Ricardo wondered why Mathew didn’t drive him to the docks. Mathew skid the car to a halt and climbed out comfortably to shout, to no one in particular,” He’s dead.”
Ricardo couldn’t comprehend at first but then saw Su za ler step out of the darkness, with Koshi right behind him.