To the people that mattered, his name was only Grey Mutton Chops, in account for his facial hair. Indeed there was not much else about him that called to the attention of others, his many facial surgeries had made sure of that. He barely looked human, which served him just fine. Both his lack of name and lack of features were more of an advantage than a drawback in his line of work.
He arrived at the Icy Steps about an hour ago on orders from the Short Man. The place was desolate compared to what he was used to. A tiny village leeching off of civilization. There was to meet three men; Bjorn, Cnut and Felix. The last one he was particularly anxious to see.
He took a rental to a penthouse in one of the only buildings in the town that wasn’t at least half a century old. ‘Good’, he thought. He was tired of damp old places already, and his work required him to see so many…
In the penthouse, Bjorn, a muscular man with a long beard, and Cnut, an effeminate man with his hair styled in a bob, and none at all on his face, were waiting for him. The strong looking man looked anxious, the girly one was uninterested. Immediately, the man with the Mutton Chops judged their character to be poor. The bearded man only feigned strength, but was nothing more than a scared child unwilling to bear the cost of doing business. The other one not only looked hideous, but he was lacking the seriousness required for the situation.
“Hmmm, you look more unremarkable than I imagined…” Said Cnut first.
“Who cares about how he looks?” blurted Bjorn, “we really gonna do this?”
“You two don’t have much of a choice.” Said the man with the chops, his voice startling the muscular man, and provoking a smirk from the other.
“Yeah, B. Best not to worry about it. It''s just this minor unpleasantness and then we are back in the good graces of the Short Man.” Said Cnut, playing with a strand of hair.
“Only a minor unpleasantness? Felix is our friend!”
Cnut sighed, “yes, yes. And we are going to miss him dearly. But he knew the risks, the money is what counts for honour amongst us.”
“All of this for a measly ten mill…” The muscular man looked dejected. “Can’t we just get it back?”
“The amount of money will hardly affect the Brotherhood operations. What matters is that a message is delivered.”
“Then send your fucking message!” Bjorn yelled, “the fuck do you need us for?!”
“To be here in front of you is a symbolic gesture. It’s to show the Brotherhood that you two are worthy of the covenant you took.” The grim man said.
“Worthy, huh? What a joke…” Bjorn said, sulking.
“You must give the go ahead. The sacrifice is yours to make, otherwise it is meaningless bloodshed.”
“As if I would give the go ahead…!” Bjorn said.
Grey Mutton Chops looked towards them without a change in his expression, but Cnut couldn’t help giving Bjorn a side eye.
“Hey now,” Cnut said, attempting to cut the cold atmosphere, “it really is no big deal, we just have to say… ‘Yesss’”, his tone was grating, “can you repeat after me? ‘Yesss’”
“Shut the fuck up, cunt. I always knew you didn’t care.”
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“Oh, I care! I care sooo deeply… I care about all the money you are just going to miss on if you let such a trifling thing as ‘friendship’ impede you from saying one simple word is-”
“Yes! I know, goddammit. YES, there, I said it. Now could you two go away? I need to be alone.”
“Well there you have it.” Cnut gesticulated towards the man with the Mutton Chops, “are we worthy to stay in business?”
“You are worthy to the brotherhood, at least. Let the bloodshed begin.”
“You two speak about bloodshed as if you were children!” the muscular man interrupted, “can’t the blood of that bitch that started all of this be shed as well?!”
“Not by my hand.” The man with the mutton chops answered, “you two get to decide what to do with her.” With that said, he fixed his coat and left the penthouse.
“So she’s ours to do with as we please, huh?” Bjorn asked Cnut without really waiting for an answer.
“Yes, the girl is very interesting indeed. Shall we play a game, my dear friend?” Cnut answered regardless.
“You are no friend of mine, but I’ll play your games.”
Cnut laughed, “you are so good to me!” he got close to Bjorn, “you are going to love what I have in mind.”
<hr>
Ella and Selim were sitting awkwardly in a hotel room.
“So how is it that you are planning to kill them, exactly?” Selim asked.
“Well, I was hoping you would help me, like, gather info and stuff…” She answered, twiddling her thumbs.
“Oh, now you are scared?” He said back, some anger showing in his voice. “All I got is that.” He finished pointing at a small table between them.
Ella rested her head on her left fist and looked at the picture that was sitting on the small table again, “you sure this is your sister’s place?”
“Yes.”
“And why do you care about that bitch anyway?”
“Just because you don’t like my sister doesn’t mean I don’t love her, shit head!” He yelled at her.
“Ok, ok!” she said, showing him her palms as if that would stop the words from hitting her any harder. “But why are you only complaining about your sister’s house being photographed? You received several pictures, right?”
“Yeah, my parent’s, my grandmother, and my last ex girlfriend.”
“And where’s the grief for them?”
“I don’t particularly care about them… Your point?”
“Well, it’s not someone that knows us, for starters. Otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered sending the other pictures. They only sent you pictures of your last girlfriend because it’s the girlfriend that you had when you first got on social media, no previous girlfriends, or people that you are fucking now, like your room mate.”
“So…?”
“So they don’t have any real intel on you, they likely find you through my socials.”
“You use social media?”
“I am… A human being…”
“But how could they find me through your socials?”
“The only pictures I’ve ever uploaded were selfies that had us both in them…”
“You… What?”
“You would’ve known if you followed me back…” Ella said, sulking.
They both turned their heads up to the ceiling.
“I have a pretty good lead on who might be onto us, but I’m not sure how we are going to locate them.” Ella said, breaking the silence.
“Just feed me names, I’ll run a search.”
“I don’t have their names, But I know where we can get them.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“Well… I might need to send you to get those names.”
“Uh huh.”
“It shouldn’t be dangerous, you only need to go to the police station…”
<hr>
Selim arrived at the small town’s station on his lonesome. He breathed deeply and repeated the words to himself, “they have no evidence on me, they have no evidence on me,” and he walked inside. He went up to the reception and asked: “hey, I have an acquaintance that was detained here? His name was Felix Olafson?” ‘god, is this guy’s name generic’, he thought as he spoke.
“Yes, we were actually hoping someone who knew the guy would show up. Let me take you to the morgue.” The officer on the reception answered.
“The morgue?” Selim asked, puzzled.
“Didn’t you come to confirm his death?”
“No, I was… Coming to see him.”
“I’m sorry, this must be awfully shocking. He was shot earler today, not far from here, shortly after being released on bail.”
“It’s that so…” he said and turned around to walk slowly out the door.
Once outside, he looked at the icy horizon for a second, and then picked his burner and rung Ella.
“You got the stuff?”
“No, we are going to have to look a bit harder than we expected for those names.”
“Why?”
“Well, whoever they are… Let’s just say they don’t like loose ends.”
“... You serious?”
“Deadly so. I’m coming back to you.” He said and he hung up.
On the other side of the line sat Ella. She was looking at a board that had a picture of Felix on it connected with red string to a post it that said: ‘the entrepreneurs.”
She rubbed her forehead for a bit, and when she was done, she reached for the board and crossed Felix’s picture.
“Well, mother fuckers, you want play games with me?” She said out loud while putting on the marker cap.
“Then let’s play.”