The professional cleaning service began on Wargul’s floor twenty minutes later. “Oh, this will be sweet, Payaso. I’ll hack into their building security, and avoid most of their cams. You’ll have the easy work. We’ll use my downstairs safe-room, where I have the multiple monitors in place for this kind of op.”
“You can’t break into the building without being seen, Muerto. You’ll be on video somewhere approaching the building. They have cams everywhere.”
“Who said anything about breaking in? I’ll drive to SFO International, stash my gear in a locker, and then take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into the city tomorrow morning after we walk Jean to school. I’ll have my lawyer Muerto disguise on, complete with briefcase, three piece suit, long coat, and hat. I’ll find a quiet place to wait for day’s end, drifting into position somewhere near his office. At the proper moment, I’ll come in with Muerto mask in place, zap Brook, and administer a sleepy time shot to his paramour adulteress. I’ll duct tape Wargul into a chair, and shoot him in the head with my .22 auto with stainless steel titanium noise suppressor. I’ll let the janitor discover him while I hightail it to BART for my ride to SFO. I should be back home before ten.”
“You rattled that out of your psychopathic mind in seconds after noting Wargul nails his secretary after hours. You are a very bad man, Muerto.”
“Thank you, Payaso. I try to be thorough. Your job will be to watch everything around me on building security. I’ll be observing their security people during the day. I’ll let you know if I spot anything funky that could disrupt my exit from the building. The important check will be watching me on their cams as I avoid them, going all the way to his office in the morning.”
“You’ll need to note down how well I do at each checkpoint,” Nick continued. “I can probably do it a few times without arousing suspicion in the morning with people arriving for work and appointments. After that, I don’t think it would be a good idea. If I can find and disable any type of alarm at an emergency exit door, I should be able to disappear into the night without even a stir from security. You’ll be watching for exactly when the body is discovered, where I am at that time, and when the police finally arrive in relation to my journey home.”
“One thing’s for sure,” Gus replied, “if you can pull that stunt off without a hitch, it will definitely rate as a cold blooded professional hit. Tim and Grace should have no problem requesting and being granted a change of venue for Sadun. Do you want me to fetch Jean home from school too?”
“No. I don’t want you moving from the screens. I’ll have Rachel drive over for Jean. She won’t have to explain where I am, but if she does, the answer will be writing my new manuscript. That is exactly what I’ll be doing all day tomorrow, while avoiding excess scrutiny.”
“It will be one stress filled day. You are going to ask John to come over on this too, right? I don’t want to be the only one on the monitors.
“Of course.” Nick poured another half beer for Deke, and sipped from what remained in the bottle. “I need John in on this too in case I have to go to ground for a while, and avoid all public places. If that happens, I’ll find a spot along the docks on the Embarcadero to wait until he can make his way into the city. I plan on making sure that safety valve doesn’t get opened though.”
“When you steamroll one of these suicidal ideas into motion, do you ever get even a slight twinge of anxiety?”
Nick met Gus’s curious stare with a malicious looking grin. “Here’s the deal, Payaso. As you know, I kill people as a vocation, and I’m good at it. I’m good at it, because I don’t hesitate. I don’t care what the mark does for a living, what brought him or her to a position where I’m ready to execute their asses, or who will be wailing in sorrow at their funeral. Sure, I may have an assortment of reasons why I decide to kill someone, but once it’s decided, it’s a done deal that either the mark or I will be dead. Wargul’s going to die tomorrow, or I am.”
“I sure picked the right comic book character for you, Muerto.”
“Remember who talked me out of retirement, Payaso.”
“Believe me, you haven’t let me forget that for a day since I did it. I shouldn’t have bothered. You were only about a week away from a rampage or going back to work on your own. Even your fictional psycho, Diego, on a killing spree mimicking your own real life adventures while earning you a fortune wasn’t enough. Admit it, and take me off the blame list. You used me.”
Nick chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right, Payaso. I’ll stop needling you on that point. I was done with retirement. Even going back into the sand was preferable. When you hit me with the Muerto thing, it came at a great time. I hate when I can’t wear the mask and make videos now. I want to do the hit tomorrow as El Muerto, and it’s disappointing I can’t.”
Gus held his beer for a toast, which Nick clinked with his own. “To Muerto.”
“And Payaso, and El Kabong,” Nick added.