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EMPTY EYE SOCKETS CHAPTER 9
"Get here you little pest," Toto snapped and tried to catch the pigeon that flew happily above him. He was sure it was Manny who was the most annoying one from the pigeons.
I am sure it does that on purpose, he thought and the pigeon landed to sit next to him. Toto caught it quickly and took the message before the bird could come up with anything else.
It watched him its head tilted as he climbed back to his home to read the message. There was no one on the peer, but Toto wasn't stupid enough to read revolutionary messages in daylight when anyone could surprise him.
The lid he used as a door closed with a loud bang and only now Toto dared to open the message.
Agent Santos,
I am disappointed to hear that you have not found out anything new. But I am still hopeful and encourage you to continue your efforts and report everything to me. I am sure you are interested to hear that Maximino is planning to betray Hector and is actually about to steal a huge cargo of guns. In fact, at the very moment you read my message me and my men have either taken those weapons in the use of our revolution or been destroyed while attempting it.
If that has happened I trust that you will continue our work despite it all and see the day when this world is free from corruption. Be careful and choose the ones you trust carefully.
Salvador Limones
Toto wrapped the message neatly and slipped it into his pocket. He and Lola had already suspected that Maximino wasn't as loyal to Hector as he claimed to be and now they could be sure.
Lola would be glad, she had totally fallen for the man and Toto hoped Maximino really was worth it. Lola was a nice and innocent girl who had a bad habit of falling in love with the wrong guys. Though Maximino was working on betraying Hector it made him neither innocent nor a friend of the revolution. They were still enemies who just had the same goal.
In fact, if Maximino succeeded before they did, nothing would change; they would still be fighting against a crime lord. It would hurt Lola, but she was used to having a broken heart and Toto didn't think it would totally break her.
"Stupid girl. Always sticking her nose to business she doesn't understand," he muttered to himself, though he knew that Lola was probably the only soul in the Land of the Dead that he cared about. He respected Salvador, but didn't think of him as a friend.
Toto hoped and believed that the stealing of guns the rebel leader had written about had gone well. Salvador and his men were not fools and the man must have taken care of it nicely without any problems.
Whatever had happened, Maximino was quiet. As far as he was concerned nothing special had happened in Rubacava last night, and though he wanted to know what had happened to the rebels Toto knew how to wait.
Suddenly the door in his home opened and Lola peered in.
"What is it?" Toto asked. They didn't usually meet at that time of the day when he had to keep his shop open.
"Someone was sprouted last night," the woman announced quickly. Toto forgot the scolding words that he had been about to say and tilted his head in interest.
"Who?" he asked.
"I don't know, but I am on my way to Membrillo's to find out," she said. Toto nodded.
"How did you find out?"
"Well, you know that I work as a photographer here. I happened to hear as two of Maximino's men talked about it and I think it happened in the upper town. People are rarely sprouted there, it usually happens here at the docks so I thought that -- " the woman said, but Toto interrupted her.
"Whatever! Just go and let me do my job!" he said and Lola left with a soft snort.
Though she didn't show it she was slowly starting to get tired of Toto's attitude. All the man did was snap at her or complain about how she should have done better job with finding out Maximino's plans. It made Lola quite mad, she was a grown woman and could take care of her business.
"He understands nothing..." she muttered to herself. Toto had never met Maximino, how could he know if he was evil or not? What right did the man have to judge someone like that? All right, Maximino had made mistakes, but Lola believed he had changed or was about to change.
Especially if it depended on her.
And yet Lola somehow knew that Toto was partly right, but it just made her angrier. Why did she always have to be wrong? Why was she the one who made mistakes and suffered because of them?
Well, this time I am right, Lola decided and walked on the streets of Rubacava. She knew where her legs were taking her and it made her feel slightly uncomfortable.
Membrillo's morgue.
No one in Rubacava liked to pay him a visit, his gloomy and dark sense of humour made even the toughest gangster remember that no one was immortal or invincible in their world.
Lola herself had never been there and she was grateful for that. No one ever went in without a reason and until now she had never had one.
Fortunately. No matter how much Toto Santos annoyed her at times he was the only one who Lola considered to be important enough for her to visit Membrillo. If they didn't count Maximino that is, but Lola didn't think anyone could hurt the might leader of the town.
She arrived there and eyed the thick and heavy iron doors a bit reluctantly. They alone made the whole building look scary and Lola didn't feel any better knowing that there was a police station upstairs. She knew better than well that those who were supposed to guard the law were almost all corrupted, bribed and twisted souls who no one could trust.
The woman gathered her courage -- why was she even scared? -- and pushed one of the doors open and stepped in.
The first thing she noticed was that unlike she had thought the morgue was lit brightly so that you could clearly see the bodies in the middle of the room. At the moment there were only three and each of them was covered in leaves and colourful petals.
The air in the morgue was wet and stale and smelled of different flowers. Had she been alive Lola would have described the smell nice, it reminded her of her mother's greenhouse, but to dead flowers meant only pain and agony.
And the last thing she paid attention to was the man who fiddled around the bodies. His bad bearing and somehow humble features almost made him disappear in the middle of his subjects. Lola couldn't help but think that Membrillo looked exactly like his "customers".
Membrillo turned to glance at her a small hoe in his hands.
"Step in, my dear. These fellows can't hurt you anymore," he said softly and returned to his work. He probed through leaves and flowers clearly looking for something and Lola dared to come closer. She felt slightly sick while watching as the man investigated the bodies as if it was nothing.
She coughed to get Membrillo's attention again.
"Excuse me," she started.
"Yes, yes, I know. Who did you come for? A sister? A friend? Or maybe a lover?" Membrillo asked and Lola was disturbed by the fact that he clearly thought she had come for selfish reasons. Would it really be unheard of that someone just paid him a visit? Didn't he have any friends?
"I... am looking for a man. I have not seen him in a long time," she said. Membrillo nodded and stopped working for a while. If someone in the Land of the Dead looked truly dead it was him.
"And you are afraid of finding him here, are you not?" he asked with his strange soft voice that made Lola feel quite uncomfortable. She wished she wasn't there alone.
"Be my guest and have a look. Don't let me -- or anything else -- bother you," he said. Lola said nothing more and stepped closer to the first body. It was clearly the newest; the flowers were still in their glory while the two other bodies seemed to be -- literally -- dying.
"I have not got a look at it yet. These two others have demanded all of my time. But time is all I have," Membrillo replied.
"I see," Lola said and bent carefully closer. She quickly drew back with a squeal of disgust and had to shake herself.
"Don't be so shy. If he truly is your lover I am sure he would want you to touch him one last time," Membrillo said and gave her his hoe. "Here, if it helps," he offered quietly. Lola took the tool and moved few leaves away thinking why she was doing this. It was clear that this body was the victim of the last night, but was it really that important to find out who he was? What use would it be?
On the other hand, if they knew who the man was they'd learn more of the situation in the upper town. It was Lola's mission to spy there, but to her shame she had to admit she had concentrated in other things.
A leaf brushed against her palm and she almost dropped the hoe in fright and surprise. But then she noticed that she had actually been lucky and her empty eye sockets saw something that was neither plant nor bone.
It was a white piece of plastic and at first she thought it was only trash, but then she saw neat writing on the other side. Lola snatched the card in her fingers and read it.
A personal pass for Eduardo Montana to all of Hector LeMan's casinos and clubs.
So this man had worked for Hector LeMans, but that hadn't been enough to save him.
Lola felt strangely happy knowing that if Hector's man had been shot in Rubacava Maximino had to be involved somehow. And if that was the way things were he couldn't be evil.
Maybe there was a chance for them to be on the same side.
"I suppose he is not the man you are looking for," Membrillo said behind her and Lola flinched. She hadn't remembered where she was and with who. She gave the card to the man, it was no use for her now and he had already noticed it in her hand.
"Yes, he is not Carlos. I still have hope," she said and Membrillo gave her a short glance.
"Yes, I understand. I hope your hope doesn't let you down," he said and shook his head after reading the card.
"More and more of these with every passing day. Something must be going on..." he muttered to himself and for a moment Lola thought he had forgotten about her. Then the man spoke to her again.
"Would you like to take a look at the other bodies?" he asked helpfully, but Lola shook her head.
"No thank you. I'm sure Carlos will appear again," she said. Membrillo nodded.
"Then I will continue my work. New bodies come every day and I can't afford to rest," he said and suddenly Lola felt like that she shouldn't be going after all. She thought she was still needed, but the woman couldn't say why and who needed her.
Besides, she had no time to stay, Toto had to know about this and she had to come up with how she was going to impress Maximino the next night.
"I will be going then," she said and left not glancing behind her. The thick door slammed shut and Membrillo was alone again.
---
Hector LeMans was furious. No, he was more than furious. He was so mad that could have sprouted all of his men not caring about anything else.
His weapons were gone!
They were simply gone, disappeared from the warehouse and no one seemed to know where they were.
When he found the guilty that poor man or woman would really hope that Hector's imagination wasn't as cruel as was rumoured.
Immediately after learning about the disappearance of the cargo he had sent his best assassins to look for them and the men who were also missing from the warehouse. They must have taken the guns. It wouldn't take long before they would come back and then he'd get his answers and dark pleasure.
Suddenly the doors of his office flew open and he knew his men were back. The two, Pedro and Meré, were excellent assassins and the only ones who could open his doors as they pleased.
The men stepped in dragging a poor soul with them. He looked like he had gone through quite a battle. Apparently Pedro and Meré had tried to get the answers from him themselves.
Hector didn't stand up behind his desk nor did he say anything. All was quiet which made their prisoner more nervous than anything.
"So," Hector started then. He tapped at the shining surface of his desk with his greenish fingers and kept his stare at his victim.
"Why did you steal my weapons?" he asked.
"We didn't steal them! We got a message from you! We were told that the guns were not good and that we had to return them to Puerto Zapato as soon as possible!" the unlucky man explained in hurry. Hector glanced at Pedro.
"He could be telling the truth. We surprised him and the others on the way to Rubacava. But they could have been taking them to somewhere else too," he said and was followed with a desperate "No!" from the poor man.
"It is not like that, we were just following the instructions..." he continued more calmly, but still terrified. Hector crossed his hands on his desk.
"Who gave you the orders?" he asked slowly and his whole form smelled of danger. If the man in front of him had been alive he would have been swallowing and sweating like no tomorrow.
And there would be no tomorrow for him.
"Vincento, the guard, brought us a work order. Your signature was in it! We have dealt with them so often that we can tell a fake from a real thing!" the man tried to explain. Hector thought about it.
"Vincento. Find him," he said pointing his words at Meré, who shook his head.
"Impossible, mister LeMans. He has disappeared. We got the information just a moment ago," he said.
"Then why wasn't I informed of it any sooner?" Hector asked angrily and now he did stand up. His huge form made the three men feel really small and helpless. Now even Pedro and Meré started to get nervous.
"We were about to, but thought finding the weapons was more important," Pedro said carefully. He had a hoarse voice as if he had something in his throat -- had he still had a throat.
Hector sat again and seemed to relax.
"At least we got the cargo back," he stated then, but noticed how his assassins glanced at each other.
"Right?" he asked.
"When we found the men all cars were gone and only the men were left. The weapons had of course disappeared with the cars," Meré said.
Hector said nothing.
That was a bad sign, as long as Hector LeMans talked there was a chance to survive, but when he was quiet the situation was serious. Everyone knew that, but all they could do was to wait and see what happened.
"So we lost five trucks of good guns," Hector said quietly. He turned his stare from his assassins to the trembling man between them.
"Care to tell me how the hell that happened?" the crime lord asked sweetly. The man didn't dare to meet his employer's eye sockets, but kept his stare in the dark carpet beneath him and started to tell...
Juan didn't like the mission that had been given to him, but he would have sprouted himself more gladly than gone and complained to Hector LeMans. In the middle of the night when he and his friends had been about to stop working and go home to sleep Vincento, who was known by some of them very well, had appeared with a work order.
And that work order had changed all of their plans.
It had turned out that the cargo of guns from Puerto Zapato was not good enough and Hector LeMans had told them to return them there and get new ones. All they could do was to obey; pack the guns in cars and start their long journey towards the port town.
As said, Juan didn't like t. He had had to leave his lovely wife Esmeralda in Nuevo Marrow to wait for his return and that really annoyed him. They had so little time for each other anyway.
Suddenly the car in front of him stopped and Juan had to slow down to stop his car from hitting the one ahead. That didn't quite work and a metallic bang made him clench his teeth.
"What the heck do you think you are doing?" he shouted from the window to the driver ahead, but got no answer. At least not one he would have liked to.
"Out of the car. Now."
Just then Juan noticed the man who was dressed up in a poison green outfit and covered his face with a darker scarf. He had a gun in his hands and pointed it nastily at Juan's chest, so he decided it was for the best to obey now.
"Who do you think you are?" he asked angrily and in fright, but the man didn't reply to him. Instead of that he guided Juan at the left side of the road where his partners were waiting for him. They were guarded by a group of other men dressed in green and Juan was starting to feel really nervous about the whole situation.
And then he realised one of the men had not hidden his face. He was a bit taller than the others and dressed in green as well. He had a strange hat, but Juan couldn't quite remember the name of it. The man had black moustache and something in him was really magnificent and powerful.
It was clear that he was the leader of this group.
"Who are you?" Juan dared to ask and his voice trembled a bit.
"You don't have to be afraid; I and my men won't hurt any of you. We are not like your employer. You have committed a horrible crime, as you work for Hector LeMans. Because of that we must punish you and take these weapons," the man said and some of his men moved in the cars.
"But who are you?" Juan asked again and the man looked at him.
"My name is Salvador Limones. You might have heard of me, my friend," he said and Juan had to respect that man. Only very few would have dared to tell their name in a situation like this and get in trouble with Hector.
"What will happen to us? Hector is going to sprout us for this!" he realised and hoped the freedom fighters would help them, but Salvador only shrugged.
"That is because you work for the enemy of freedom. You should have made a better choice," he said calmly and took his place in the car that was the first in line, but before the car left he waved his hand at them. All of his men revealed their faces as if they weren't afraid of their victims remembering them.
"Viva la Revolución, my friends!"
Hector was silent after the man had finished.
"What happened to your friends?" he asked then. Juan glanced around himself uncertainly as if he didn't know what to answer.
"We shot them. They might have been betrayers," Pedro replied for him and Hector nodded slowly. Then he drew a gun under his desk.
"It is never good to have potential betrayers near you," he said and before Juan even realised anything two red poisonous darts had hit his chest. He felt the numbing pain before he knew he was shot and tried to struggle free from Pedro and Meré’s hands.
And he screamed.
When the show was over Hector snorted at himself before putting the gun back.
"Salvador Limones," he muttered.
To be continued...
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