Chicken Mafia
Matthew Ryan Fischer
“How fast could you kill everyone in this room?”
Seven turned to Five and told him to ignore Three, but Three
continued.
“How would you start? Lock the front door? Stop anyone from
leaving? But what if they have a back door? Now you’ve got a problem.”
“What is going on with you two?” asked Five.
“Seven said he was ready to fight a hundred men if need be. He
must have had a plan. Or else that’s just insane. Is our associate a
psychopath? I want to know.”
“I never said I could fight a hundred at a time.”
“You most certainly did.”
“When?”
“When we were backing Five up earlier. I asked what we were doing
there and you told me that they employed one hundred fighters there. So, you
must have thought we could take fifty each? I apologize to you both. Fifty. Seven
thinks he can talk at least fifty men on. So how would you do it?”
“It was a boxing club. We were there to show things were serious.
I never said there would be one hundred fighters there all at the same time and
that we’d have to take them on.”
“So, you admit it?”
“Fine, I admit I couldn’t fight fifty men at the same time.”
“Good. Now there are only fifteen people here in the restaurant. Maybe
three more in the back? So, if you had to, how would you kill them all?”
“Make them listen to this conversation?”
“How fast could you do it?” asked Five.
“I don’t know,” said Three, “but I’d start with you.”
The men laughed.
Seven noticed a woman at the bar. Maybe he had seen her before,
maybe not. She was pretty. But Seven saw lots of pretty women. It wasn’t a priority.
Still, she seemed to have noticed him. That wasn’t so uncommon either. He’d try
to remember her face in case she was from the neighborhood and he saw her again.
Tonight, he had more pressing matters.
“You heard anything more about Nine or the investigation?”
Five and Three shook their heads.
“I heard Queenie called in your father though.”
“You think they’re related?”
“Ask him, he’s your dad.”
“He wouldn’t tell me. Not of it’s a family secret.”
“That’s bullshit, there aren’t supposed to be any secrets from us.”
“Then why don’t you ask Queenie?”
“Yeah, she won’t tell me shit.”
“No respect for the office. How are we supposed to do our jobs?”
“Your dad was one helluva fighter. You think he’s training the new
Nine?” asked Five.
“I don’t think there is a new Nine. Unless you’ve heard something?”
Five shook his head.
“We’ve got to figure out what happened. We can’t wait on Ten.”
“Rules are rules. Let the system run.”
Seven couldn’t tell them about his conversations with Gideon. He
couldn’t tell them he had been tasked with his own private investigation.
“You don’t know what it’s like. He showed up at my door. I still
have blood stains on the floor.”
“Sounds like you need a better cleaner.”
“I just want to know. It’s important. Someone got to one of us. It’s
a danger to us all.”
“Of course. But it’s not our job.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“You got a plan? You want my help with something?”
Seven thought about the USB drive. He might trust Three, but he wasn’t
sure he trusted him that much. He certainly didn’t trust Five that much.
Seven shook his head, then turned to the bar. The woman was gone. The
night was full of failures.
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