The Deal Read Online Free

night air, and the blizzard that was accompanying it,
I reached over to the passenger seat where I remembered leaving the
.45 revolver, my trusted weapon of choice for most of the jobs I
took on.
    My dismay grew when I quickly realized the
lethal weapon was no longer where I had left it. It occurred to me
that the jolt of the crash had probably sent it flying to the
floor, but a thorough search of the soft carpeted area around the
seat turned up nothing.
    This night was just going from bad to worse. I
still had the golden bullet, handed to me by the dark lord himself,
safely tucked in my trouser pocket but it was no good without a gun
to fire it with.
    Another thought did occur to me though as I
forced the door open and slid outside. All of the hospitals in the
lower Manhattan area always had armed guards. It would mean having
to get physical, but it was the only opportunity I had to obtain a
weapon I could use.
    There was a slight tingling of fear running
down my back as the snow hit and melted against the soft skin of my
stubble coated face. I think this was due to the fact that there
was no certainty I would be able to get a good enough shot off to
kill this so called minion of Satan. I mean if a bullet straight to
his forehead isn’t going to do the job then another one is less
likely to make much of a difference.
    I reconciled with myself that there wasn’t
much point on dwelling on that rather large problem, since if I was
unable to make the deal on time then it would all be for nothing
anyway and I would end up in the place no human ever wants to go,
experiencing the kinds of torture that only the devil himself could
dream up.
    The heavy scent of disinfectant was
accompanied by a gust of warm air as the automatic doors to the
accident and emergency area of the hospital slid open revealing a
tired and bedraggled looking nurse behind the reception desk and
just a few homeless looking men dotted around the waiting
area.
    As with most hospitals, everything looked clean and germ-free and there was very
little noise except for the sounds of someone being rushed to one
of the operating theaters for emergency surgery. I could
hear surgeons bark orders at their nurses and the clanging of a
metal bed carrying the patient himself as it was hurtled down the
hallway at breakneck speed.
    What worried me as I stood there
letting in the cold and glancing around, was that I could see no
sign of a security guard. There was always at least one standing
guard near the main doors, usually, some guy who was more
inclined to hurt people than heal them.
    ‘ Can I help you, sir?’ Her
voice sounded as tired as she looked, and I could tell the nurse
behind the Formica coated desk would happily accept any chance to
get rid of me.
    ‘ Yes, I was involved in a car crash just a few
minutes ago. My uncle Jim Mancini was in the passenger seat and the
paramedics have brought him here.’ I quietly prayed she did not
know about the bullet hole in his head, although I saw no
reason why she wouldn’t, after all, it was her job to know
these things.
    ‘ Mr. Mancini is on his way to theater three. Just
head down that hallway there and you’ll find him.’ She may have
looked like a woman who had been awake for far too many hours but
her eyes were strangely alive and full of knowledge. It was
like she knew exactly why I was standing there in front of
her.
    I followed her trembling finger as it arched
towards the hallway to my right. I gave her one last glance,
thanked her, and then made my way in the direction I had heard the
cacophony of sound a few seconds ago.
    I still had no gun, but I somehow
felt like that wasn’t going to be a problem. Sure enough, as I made
my way down the hallway, the fluorescent lights almost
blinding in their brilliance, I could make out the padded jacket of
a security guard. As I got closer I noticed that his stance was
relaxed, and he was leaning against the wall.
    He was outside the first operating theatre. He
was a