Chapter Three

Present

 

Two days later, Durante contacted Jay and gave him details on a few jobs he had to assist Ignitro and Isaic with. The first job entails breaking and entering into a rival business. They are to retrieve some documents and return them to Durante so he can sell them to the highest bidder. And under no circumstance are they allowed to peer at the documents.

This is stupid. I know it’s stupid. I shouldn’t be doing this, Jay thinks. But I know we need the money. It’s fine if I get in trouble for it, as long as I get the money so we can pay everyone off.

The university Jay’s mother worked at should have paid well, but the professors had recently gone on strike, so she hadn’t received a paycheck in a few weeks and was using back up money to keep food in the house. Jay knew this was what he needed to do.

He arrives at the grocery store side entrance, and there is a black car already waiting. Ignitro sits in the passenger side, Isaic behind him, and Jay climbs in behind the driver. The car pulls off, and they head for their destination.

“You gonna be alright?” Isaic asks Jay, noticing his leg bouncing up and down.

“As long as I don’t have to kill anyone, I’ll be fine,” Jay assures.

“You’ll kill who I tell you to kill,” Ignitro says without looking to the two in the back. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that. I’d hate for it to get messy.”

Jay can’t help but gulp before slowly exhaling to try and control his breathing. He then tries to mentally pump himself up, remembering this was for his mother. He was willing to go to jail just to keep their money flowing. Sadly, he didn’t see a positive future for himself anyway, knowing he wasn’t going to college, even though Jackie has tried to convince him to go to Haven City University.

After a rather brief car ride, they pull up to a nightclub. From the line outside, it seems packed even though it’s late afternoon. The three step out and walk straight up to the bouncer. The bouncer holds his hand out and asks for their names.

“Tony sent us,” Ignitro says. The bouncer presses the piece in his ear to listen closely to his boss’s words and points the three to the door.

They step inside, and Jay takes in the scene. It’s what he pictures all clubs to look like: bright lights, music with heavy bass, people dancing, drinking, and laughing. Ignitro nods to a door in the back, and Isaic and Jay peel off towards it while Ignitro heads to the boss’s office.

#

One of the two guards watching the entrance to Tony’s office opens the door for Ignitro, and Ignitro steps in with his arms wide, putting on a fake smile.

“Ay! Tony! How’ve ya been?” Ignitro asks. Tony, dressed in a white suit, gently pushes a model off his lap and glares at Durante’s son.

“Cut the shit, Matt,” Tony demands. “You people finally cavin’ in, for real?”

Ignitro nods, still smiling.

“Yeah, crazy init?” he says. “We’re looking forward to workin’ with ya.”

“Appreciate the words, my boy,” Tony says. He snaps his fingers, and a guard from outside the door walks in and brings out two glasses from a drawer in the room. “You want a drink? Let’s have a drink.”

#

Isaic and Jay eye the guards in the vicinity of the door they’re supposed to get through. Isaic loudly whispers to Jay, “Use the hook up we have here to create a distraction,” he says. “I’ll get through the door.”

Jay nods and pulls out his phone to see the description of the plant Durante set. He walks over to the corner of the bar near the guards and sits beside a woman.

“The Butcher would like to thank you for your assistance,” Jay says, using the codewords Durante gave him. The woman in the red dress he’s sitting next to looks at him and nods. She grabs her drink and walks over to one of the guards, tripping and spilling it on his suit.

“Ay, what the hell, lady?” the guard exclaims. She smiles and wobbles back and forth as if she’s actually drunk.

“Sorry, handsome,” she says. “I’m just…I’m just tryin’ to find…tha-tha bathroom.”

“Do I look like a toilet to you?”

“Everything alright over here?” Jay walks up and asks, his legs shaking through his baggy pants.

“She wit you?” the guard with the wet suit asks. Another one walks over and scopes out the situation.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“This chick spilled her drink on me,” the wet guard explains.

“So, change,” the other guard says. “I don’t understand why you’re makin’ a big deal outta nothin’. There are drunk people here. It’s a club. Get over it.”

“How ‘bout I spill a drink on you then, huh?”

Jay looks over at Isaic. Isaic is already at the door and twists the knob, opening it, and sneaks in. Jay thinks this odd, believing a room holding such sacred documents would be unlocked. Within a matter of seconds, Isaic steps back out and nods at Jay.

For a second, Jay believes the job went off without a hitch, and this isn’t anything he could actually go to jail for. He believes this until a third guard they didn’t see before walks up to Isaic and questions him. Jay doesn’t hear the conversation, but Isaic ends up punching the guard in the stomach so hard that blood spews from the man’s mouth.

“Hey!” the dry guard near Jay says, and he sprints over to his partner. The plant woman cracks the glass she’s holding over the wet guard’s head, knocking him out. Jay’s fighting adrenaline kicks in, and he looks for nearby threats, but because he’s done nothing, no one suspects him, until Isaic runs over to him and grabs his arm, pulling them both for the exit.

#

“What was that? I-is that screaming?” Tony asks.

“Dude, how much have you had to drink?” Ignitro says. “I don’t hear anything.”

Tony orders the guards to go check out the noise, and Ignitro takes the opportunity to set Tony ablaze. He opens his palm up at the crime boss and, seemingly from thin air, comes a wave of fire that connects and melt’s Tony’s face. Tony’s screams attract the guards back to Tony’s office, but when they reach it, Ignitro is gone.

#

The four of Durante’s people, including the plant, hop into the car parked out front. The bouncer heads inside as he hears more screams erupt from the partiers. They pull off, Jay looks back and sees smoke emerging from the front doors.

They arrive at Durante’s office a few minutes later.

 

“YOU SET THE CLUB ON FIRE?!” Durante questions when they file in. Jay’s face nearly contorts in fear, but he manages to keep it hidden. Ignitro shrugs.

“Only after I was sure we got the documents,” he says. “Speaking of…”

Isaic sets down the documents on Durante’s desk. Durante looks at his son, at first frowning, then darting his eyes to Jay and releasing the tense muscles in his face.

“At least you got what we needed,” Durante says. He looks at Jay again. “What’s wrong, kid?”

“You— Matt…didn’t kill anyone, did he?” he asks.

“No one innocent,” Ignitro says. “Dude was a human trafficker. That make you feel any better, kid?”

“I-I guess.”

Jay’s thoughts trail off.

They don’t trust you, right now, he thinks. I need to do something that’ll make them trust me more. I need the money he’s offering.

“Durante!” a voice shouts from the darkness of the storage room before the boss’s office. A frail man steps in and slaps a paper on his desk. Durante looks up at the man calmly, but clearly angry. “I need the money you promised me sooner than later. I’m in some deep—”

The man is cut off as Jay puts the man in a headlock.

“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I suggest you keep your voice down when speaking to the boss. Got it?” Jay demands. The man says nothing, and Jay tightens his hold before the man lets out a muffled, “Mmhm.”

“Good.”

Jay lets the man go, and the man massages his own neck before continuing speaking to Durante. But before he can, Durante raises a hand for him to stop.

“Thank you for that, kid,” the boss says. “Got another job for ya tomorrow.”

Jay smiles and nods, walking out with his head high.

#

The next day, Ignitro drives Isaic and Jay to a laundromat. Jay steps out of the car and takes a few steps before realizing the other two aren’t following him.

“Um, your father said this was at least a two-man job,” Jay says.

“I’ve done this by myself before,” Ignitro says. “It’s simple. Just pick up the money they owe us and come back.”

Jay nods and exhales, walking into the laundromat and being hit with the smell of detergent soap and scented dryer sheets. He sees the man in the giant-windowed back office with his door open. He makes a beeline for it and knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

“I’m here to collect for the Durantes,” Jay says. The man, who has his head down, dartin’ his eyes from right to left as he stares intensely at the paperwork before him, throws down his pen and rips off his glasses to get a good look at Jay.

“How old are you?” the man asks.

“Eighteen, sir,” Jay responds.

“Eighteen? And you’re workin’ for the Durantes? What the hell is the point of me paying protection if you’re what’s here to protect me?” the man asks.

“I can’t answer that,” Jay says, noticing an envelope full of money on the man’s desk.

“You tell your boss I’m not paying anything until I get some real protection, got me?” the man demands.

Jay ignores him and snatches the money off the desk. Then he sprints out of the office all the way to the car, with the man following him. As soon as they step outside, Ignitro rolls the window down and holds his palm out at the man.

“That’s far enough, Paul,” Durante’s son says.

“Oh, Matteo. I…didn’t realize you were still working for him,” Paul says. He slightly bows his head and backs up toward the door. “Apologies for the confusion, gentlemen. Thank you for your protection.”

He steps back inside and hides in his office while Ignitro pulls off. He looks at Jay in the rearview mirror.

“Unconventional method, but I like it,” he says. “Ya got the job done regardless of the hurdle that jackass raised. Not bad.”

Jay smiles, not realizing he’s actually starting to like this job. He’s done something different every day, and though he’s only two days in, he hadn’t done anything illegal he’d be reported for up until this point.

That night, he received a message from the boss describing the difficult mission they had the following night.

#

“Okay, this is breaking and entering,” Jay says. “There’s no way we aren’t going to jail for this.”

Ignitro and Isaic look at each other, Isaic obviously struggling not to chuckle. Ignitro rolls his eyes.

“Look, their operation is more illegal than anything we’re doing here tonight,” he says. “Trust me, none of us are going to jail for this. Plus, my dad is in some of the pockets of the cops.”

“So, we just go in and grab the briefcase?” Jay asks. Ignitro nods.

“If any of us get caught, we come back for them later,” Ignitro tells him. “And if it helps, selling this will actually go toward your payment.”

Jay nods and exhales before sprinting at the fence, scaling it, then clearing it. The other two stare at him wide-eyed before following him and sprinting for the secret entrance to the base Durante told them about.

That easily make their way to the darkened room without being seen, and Isaic opens the door like he did back in Tony’s club.

Shouldn’t these doors be locked? Jay thinks.

The three of them step inside, grab the briefcase and, as they’re going to leave, Ignitro’s foot crosses a laser tripwire, setting off the alarms for the entire facility. Ignitro sighs and tells Isaic and Jay to run while he holds the guards back. They don’t argue as Jay takes the briefcase and follows Isaic out. Jay looks back and sees Ignitro hold his hands out, releasing waves of flames from his palms at the incoming guards.

As Jay and Isaic turn a corner, they see more guards rushing Ignitro from behind. Jay hears Ignitro yell, but he continues to follow Isaic.

He and Isaic make it all the way back to the car, and Isaic drives off. Isaic shakes his head.

“The boss ain’t gonna like this,” he says. “We’re probably gonna have to get him back.”

“Get him back? What do you mean? They’re not gonna kill him?” Jay asks.

“Fortunately, no,” Isaic says. “He’s too valuable. I don’t know if you saw, but he’s not entirely human. It’s gonna sound crazy, but the guy can shoot fire from his hands.”

Isaic waits to hear a reaction, but there isn’t one.

“You’re-you’re not surprised?” Isaic asks.

“Not entirely,” Jay says. “I mean, I believed there was a hero who stopped that alien invasion years ago, and since then, I’ve been thinking there were others like that, ya know? It is a lot different to see that kinda stuff close up and confirm my theories.”

“Not what I was expecting.”

“How’d you expect me to react?”

“Somethin’ more like, ‘holy shit, dude is shootin’ fire from his damn hands. That’s crazy, you know?’ Somethin’ like that,” Isaic says with a baritone voice.

Jay can’t help but laugh. His mood sours when he realizes Durante is going to be fuming for losing his son, so Jay immediately begins hatching a plan.

#

“Is this all we could get?” Jay asks, standing in front of a small line of Durante’s guards.

“All that I could gather without getting the boss’s attention,” Isaic says.

“I suppose this’ll be enough for a distraction,” Jay says. He walks back and forth like a drill sergeant. “To reiterate the plan, you will all provide covering fire outside to draw out the guards’ attention while Isaic and I sneak in to free Matteo. Any questions.”

“Nah, you explained it pretty damn well,” Isaic says. “Natural leader and shit.”

The guards release rounds in the air seconds after Jay and Isaic sneak inside. The pair pay attention to where a handful of guards come from and head in that direction to try and find Ignitro. Jay gets a peak at the inside of the door the guards just left from and he stops Isaic from continuing on.

“Break room.”

Isaic nods and they search some more, avoiding the same alarms that they attempted to avoid the first time, since now they know what to look for. They try another door or two that turn out to be either a door to the outside or a bathroom.

They eventually, and luckily, stumble upon the torture room he’s being held in. While trying to avoid guards they try to break into a room. Jay tries the door, but it is locked. Isaic steps up and rams his shoulder against the door, and the giant metal door pops off the hinges, slamming against the concrete floor in front of Ignitro, who is tied up in a chair with his mouth gagged. For being tortured, he has a rather blank expression on his face. Though, that could just be the blood from his head covering his face.

Isaic removes the gag.

“Took you long enough.”

“Why didn’t you just burn the rope?” Isaic asks, looking at Ignitro’s tied wrists.

“The fire comes from my palms, Isaic. That and those jackasses had guns on me,” Ignitro says.

Isaic tries to undo the knots and instead gives up and picks up Ignitro and the chair.

“So, you’re not normal either,” Jay says. Isaic points at the fallen door to confirm his suspicion.

The three of them sneak back out and walk to the rendezvous point with the guards who caused the distraction. While the guards from inside went to see what the noise was, and Isaic and Jay snuck inside, Durantes’s guards packed up and drove off to a different location, still near the facility to meet up with them once they rescued Ignitro. And here they were, chair and all.

“So, that’s why the guards were running,” Ignitro says, commenting on his father’s guards sitting in their cars. “Clever stuff, kid.”

#

“As long as Matteo is alive and well, I’m not upset,” Durante says to Jay and Isaic. “You were both brave for going back to save him the same night. Well done.”

#

Getting to return home after a few days, Jay walks into the living room at dawn, breaking into a wide yawn. He looks at the rolls of money in his hands, thinking it was all worth it despite being so tired.

The room is dark, with only a single light source coming from the television, which has the news on.

Jay looks around for his mother.

“Mom?” he calls out.

He walks up to the television. On the screen is a news anchorman, Tom, who works for the Best Story Network.

“Yep, that’s right, folks. A hero serum invented by a Dr. Hanshiro Daichi, also a high-end member of the Alpha Corporation, is now available to the public. However, it is very expensive, and there is no guarantee you will be able to survive the process. Please take precaution, folks.

“In addition, this serum was invented to combat the aliens should they ever return. People who receive the serum and live will have mostly free will. However, should the threat return, being in a part of the military reserves, they would have to join the fight in saving the planet. Even more information on this breaking news story after we return. I’m Tom—”

Jay turns the television off and plops onto the couch, deep in thought about the news he just heard. The sun rises and brightens the room.