The Deal Read Free Page B

on the gas, sure I would reach the hospital
and the ambulance with my target, but I would also have these two
angry cops plus their backup to deal with.
    I was damned if I did and damned
if I didn’t. But just when a sense of despair was starting to
creep into my gut, something sickening and bizarre happened.
    The driver of the cruiser, angry and
frustrated at the lack of cooperation his vehicle was showing him,
turned the ignition key again. A low grunt, like an animal being
awakened from its slumber, emanated from under the hood of the
cruiser and then there was a flash so brilliant I had to shield my
eyes.
    Within seconds, the air was
full with the sound of tortured screams. The sounds of men enduring
pain way beyond the imaginings of most people. When I could finally
open my eyes again I was greeted with the horrific site of the two
police officers engulfed in flames. The last thing I saw was the
anguished, pleading look on the mustachioed officers face and
then the skin on his top lip bubble and melt over the place where
his facial hair used to be.
    I tried to reason with myself that
the whole thing had happened because of an electrical fault with
the cruisers ignition system, but in my heart, I knew fine
well that other, unseen forces, were at play and that made
feel even more nauseous than the site I had just
witnessed.
    Either way, I simply did not have time to
dwell on how it all happened. All I knew was that one obstacle had
been removed, at least temporarily allowing me to carry on with
what needed to be done.
    I offered no second glance at the burning
vehicle or its occupants as I put my foot down on the accelerator.
All I could think of was putting as much distance between myself
and the foul scent of burning flesh as possible.
    Thankfully the Mercedes was still happy to
keep running for me, and so we sped off in the direction of the
ambulance and the hospital it was heading towards. There was no
doubt in my mind that it would not take long before more cops
arrived to find their friends charred remains, nor would it take
them long thanks to the wonders of CCTV footage to track me down at
the hospital.
    I needed to finish the deal and
finish it quickly if I wanted to stand any kind of chance of making
a getaway. How ironic it would be, I thought, that I should
complete the devil's deal only to languish in prison
for the rest of my newly found eternal life. Now that would be the
true definition of irony.
    The Mercedes roared to life once again as I
Pressed harder on the gas pedal. There was the briefest sound of
metal scraping against metal as my car freed its self from the
cruiser.
    The Community General is one of
the smaller hospitals in New York, built primarily to serve the
local neighborhoods , which did not exude
wealth or status but in fact were at the lower rungs of the
ladder where no one would want to live. It was a squat looking
building made with more concrete than anything else. Its glass
windows, although brightly lit, seemed way too small like a pair of
ill-fitting spectacles.
    There was a large parking area at
the rear of the building and a wide crescent area out front where
ambulances and other emergency vehicles could off-load the sick
and wound . A small patch of grass
sat in front of the concrete crescent with a large square
chunk of granite with the hospitals name boldly engraved in
it.
    The ambulance carrying Mancini had
already reached the hospital and to my dismay, its rear
doors were hanging limply open.
    As I drew closer I could see the
brightly lit interior of the vehicle was empty. Both the paramedics
and my target where already inside which meant I was going to have
to go public if I wanted to make the deal on time, which, coincidentally enough, had ten minutes left to go before it
would be broken.
    Deciding that my car would be no use to me
regardless of what happened after midnight, I left it idling just a
few feet away from the ambulance.
    As I was about to climb out
into the cold