A Simple Job

Alternate entry for NYC Midnight’s annual Short Story Challenge, I wrote two stories but ultimately decided to use the other as my entry. However, I think this one turned out nicely. I hope you enjoy.

“Finally, I want to say to all of you who are here with me today, and those of you watching from the comfort of your own homes. If you vote Sal Dommark for Mayor, I will not sleep until I have rid this good city of the criminals that believe they are welcome. We once were the safest city in the state, and we will be again!”

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Sal raised his arm and waved, smiling proudly. This was it, he was going to win the election for Mayor, all of his hard work finally paying off. There was just one final piece of the puzzle. His heart skipped a beat and he tried to remain in the moment.

“Thank you!” Sal spoke into the microphone one last time before leaving the stage. People surrounded him as his feet hit the pavement. They were asking questions and going over notes, assistants, and assistants' assistants. He heard none of them.

“I have some errands to run. I’ll get in touch with you shortly,” he said to his own assistant before walking briskly away from the scene.

Sal could see the building in the distance, it was only fifteen blocks away. His heart had never beat so fast as he hoped and prayed everything was in order. He knew, logically, there was nothing to worry about, the crew were professionals and the job was simple. They had said so.

He tried not to look suspicious yet couldn’t help glancing over his shoulders as he walked. This wasn’t in his comfort zone, he was no criminal, nor was he a bad man. But, what other choice did he have? Governor Hale was out for blood, he wanted Sal not only out of the race but out of the city entirely. Nothing more than a ghost to those who cared to remember.

His heart beat faster with each clap of his loafers on the sidewalk. Turning the corner as he approached the meet up, he glanced one more time at the towering building, now only ten blocks in the distance, and tried to maintain his composure.

Sal saw the garage door closed on the old abandoned auto shop. His company had bought it a year prior in hopes to rebuild once the area began gentrifying, but the street remained still barren in this part of town. It was one of Sal’s main campaign platforms and something he held dear to his heart. This wasn’t the city he had grown up in, where he had fond memories of playing with friends in his youth. It had become some kind of monster over the decades, consuming all the good in its path. But Sal would change all that, he would not stop until he did.

The bell above the door gave a tired and strained, ding, as he entered. Muffled, hurried voices in the back of the shop echoed off the walls. Sal tried to breathe slowly, he did not want to seem nervous, though he thought the sweat on his brow may betray his intent.

“Well it’s a bit out of our hands now isn’t it?” Sal could hear Mr. Monday’s voice as he pushed through the plastic curtain.

“Well, took your sweet time getting here didn’t chya?” Mr. Wednesday said meeting Sal’s eyes. Sal’s breath caught in his throat as he surveyed the room. Ms. Tuesday was pacing back and forth in a corner cursing under her breath and twirling her hair. Mr. Thursday sat smoking a cigarette quietly in the shadows of another corner. And there, in the middle of the room were Mr. Monday and Mr. Wednesday, standing over an unconscious woman tied to a chair. Sal felt nauseous.

“Who… what… ?” He asked, pointing to the woman as his breath caught in his chest. Her head hung over her shoulders and her loose, red hair shrouded her face.

“Ahh yes, so you see we got a bit of a predicament here,” said Mr. Wednesday smiling widely. “It seems as though someone gave you some bad information. So I did you a favor.”

“Shut up Wednesday,” said Mr. Monday harshly.

“What’s going on?” Sal finally got out as he doubled over resting his hands on his knees. This was not the plan at all, there should be no humans tied to any chairs or any even harmed for that matter. It was a simple job.

“Wednesday get our buddy a chair before he passes out, Jesus,” said Mr. Monday. “Take some deep breaths, Sal. In,” Mr. Monday inhaled deeply and motioned inward towards his own body with his hands. “And out,” heavy exhale, outward hands. He did this a few more times until Sal appeared to regain his focus.

“Things went exactly as planned.”

“Did they!?” Sal shouted angrily, pointing to the woman in the chair. “Who is that?!” His breathing was picking up again.

“Sal, I need you to breathe and calm down. I am going to explain everything, but I’m gonna need you to just shut up, and listen. Can ya do that for me buddy? Cause if you can’t I’m going to start getting a little grumpy, it’s already been a long day. Okay?” The two criminals were both big men and the last thing Sal wanted to do was see what Mr. Monday meant when he said, a little grumpy.

“Okay,” Sal said breathing deeply. “So what happened?”

“Yeah Monday, what exactly did happen? Cause I feel like maybe I missed something too,” the sarcasm on Mr. Wednesday’s voice was piercing and he started laughing. Mr. Monday shot him a hard stare that may have killed Sal but didn’t seem to phase the thug in the least.

“Everything was going smoothly, running just the way we talked about. Governor Hale came down from his penthouse to the third-floor coffee shop, at exactly eight a.m. Thursday played his role perfectly,” A heavy puff of smoke came from the shadow that had consumed all but the legs of Mr. Thursday. “He got the key card off of the Governor without so much as a blink of suspicion. He smoothly delivered it to the restaurant level where I sat at my table. Watching him work really is quite a treat," Mr. Monday smiled widely and another daunting smoke cloud drifted over from the corner. "Once I got the key from Thursday, I quickly took care of the entire security system, disabling the cameras on every floor and wiping the memory from the previous twenty-four hours. All the while Ms. Tuesday had eyes on the Governor as she drove him to run his morning errands,” Mr. Monday paused and sighed deeply.

“This is where things get complicated,” he glared at Mr. Wednesday.

“Don’t look at me like that, I did nothing wrong. I did you a favor brother,” Mr. Wednesday said angrily, pointing to Sal.

“Yeah, favor,” said Mr. Monday rolling his eyes. “Anyway, Mr. Wednesday got to the penthouse without issue, quietly put the guards outside the door to sleep, and made it to the safe. But, once the safe was opened, not only was it empty, but this appeared behind him,” Mr. Monday pointed to the woman tied to the chair. “The Governor’s daughter, the one who you told us would be on vacation with her mother.” Sal’s breath left him again. “So either you set us up, or someone set you up. Either way, now you have a bit of a problem on your hands.”

“I shoulda just shot her right there in the penthouse, I mean she saw my face so there weren't many options. But then I thought to myself, you know what Wednesday, why don’t you bring the broad to the meet since the info Sal needed wasn’t there, this should work for him even better. Nothing like ransoming a loved one to tug on the old heartstrings,” Mr. Wednesday laughed again as he walked around Sal and patted him on the shoulder.

Sal could not believe what he was hearing. How had things gone so sideways? He stared at the woman tied to the chair. Never had he wanted to hurt anyone, the girl had problems but she was not a bad person. Everyone had heard of Governor Hale’s daughter running with some of the same people Sal wanted to get off the streets, but never this way. His stomach turned again and, not strong enough to fight the urge this time, Sal threw up on the floor in front of him.

“Jesus man, pull yourself together,” Mr. Wednesday said disgustedly. Sal could feel the hot streaks of tears streaming over his cheekbones from the corners of his eyes.

“Sal, c’mon now buddy. What’s done is done. You have to make some decisions going forward now.” Mr. Monday was kneeling beside Sal and he met the man’s eyes.

“Wh-What do you mean?” Sal asked sheepishly.

“Well, we can’t do anything else here for you until we get the order from Friday. So you can call her, and figure out what you want us to do next, or, we can leave you with your package over there and wish you the best.”

Sal didn’t want to believe any of this was happening. And what did they mean, want them to do next? His mind was racing and standing still simultaneously. He did not even feel himself pull his cell phone out of his pocket and find the handler, Ms. Friday’s, contact information.

“There ya go, just give her a call and we’ll get this all sorted,” said Mr. Monday motioning to the phone in the shocked politician's hand. Sal pressed the call button and as the ringing began on his phone, he heard a cell phone in the room ring in unison. His heart beat against his ribcage so hard he was sure he would go into cardiac arrest. It was coming from the woman tied to the chair.

Slowly her head raised, the ropes fell from her wrists and she pulled a phone out of her pocket. She turned, meeting Sal’s eyes as she answered,

“This is Friday,” she said, a smile consuming her face.

“I-I…” Sal’s hand fell back to his side as he dropped the phone.

“Oh Sal,” said Friday pocketing the phone. “You just aren’t built for crime baby.”

“Look at his eyes, oh my god!” Mr. Wednesday was laughing maniacally now. Sal was trying to piece things together but it felt like his mind was speaking to him in gibberish. Ms. Friday walked over to Mr. Monday and gave him a loving hug.

“You see Sal, Monday and I here have known each other for a very, very long time. Since we were teens running around the city. My father’s position has afforded us a comfortable lifestyle, to say the least,” the two smiled and giggled. “So imagine my dismay, when he came and told me about a job he had heard about that involved my loving and precious daddy?”

Tunnel vision had taken over his eyes and suddenly the other members appeared. Ms. Tuesday was not frantic anymore, and Mr. Thursday was still smoking with a smile spread ear to ear. The crew stared down at the man in the chair with furious intensity.

“So, together, my friends and I here came up with this little scheme. And,” she motioned with open hands around the room, “here we are. Now you have a choice to make. My father wants you out of his life altogether. So, we’ll take a check made out to my daddy’s campaign in the amount of your entire campaign fund, you’ll resign publicly, and leave the city never to return. Pretty easy, I think, guys what about you?” The crew chuckled and muttered in agreement.

Sal tried to figure out how this had all gone so horribly wrong for him. How had he not seen what was happening right in front of his face? He couldn’t just quit now, could he? Now that he was so close to achieving his goals and being able to make a difference? And what would they do if he said no? Sal thought he may throw up again and tried to harness the feeling into a courage he did not truly possess.

“Or?” he managed to breathe the word out quickly. The crew erupted in laughter as if he had just dropped the funniest one-line joke they had heard in their lives.

“Sal, listen,” said Ms. Friday through guffaws. “The or is that the police show up here where you have Victor Hale’s daughter tied to a chair after kidnapping her from her home, holding her hostage, beating her, and threatening to kill her.” She changed her demeanor, she looked scared and helpless as she spoke the next words. “Officer, there was nothing I could do, I was so scared. He said if I didn’t do exactly what he told me, he would kill me and then kill my father.” The crew laughed harder.

Sal stared at their faces but the sound had left his ears. There was just a ringing now as he thought about the very short time ago when he stood at the podium. When everything was coming together perfectly, except for one final piece. The strangers in front of him had the upper hand, there was nothing he could do and everyone in the room knew it. In a fleeting, desperate moment he wished they had given him a third option where they simply killed him and left. But he knew what had to be done.

“Very well,” he said, swallowing acidic vomit. He would not give them the satisfaction of any more regurgitation. At least he could have that. Mr. Monday kneeled next to him again and patted him on the shoulder.

“There, there, buddy. We told you, it was a simple job.”