Entry 1

Shillelagh's Little Black-and-Blue Book

Had my first follow-up appointment with Dr. Liu. The Zymogen offices had police crawling all over.

Noticed a girl waiting outside that I had seen before. Urban climbing practice. Free running. Parkour. Call it what you will, she's into it too. And now that I see her in the daytime, she's kind of cute, but probably way out of my league. She must have followed me in the building. That's not too hard to believe. Cops have a way of focusing on a bruiser like me. They don't pay so much attention to people like her. Might have to keep that in mind. I'm still getting my feet wet, and I have a lot to learn.

Dr. Liu was heading up some kind of internal investigation or something. Seems like one of his researchers went missing, possibly kidnapped, possibly staged to allow him to scramble. From what is anybody's guess at this point, but Dr. Liu's tech people found all sorts of shady stuff almost instantly. Akerfeldt was definitely not innocent. Dr. Liu thought it might be useful to have someone check out the MIA Akerfeldt's assistant, a Steven M.

Dr. Liu doesn't seem to have too healthy a respect for patient-doctor confidentiality. When that girl, Parker LaCroix, showed up and told her story, Dr. Liu pretty well put all her business out on the curb.

Then he did the same for me. Let everybody in the room know that I was his guinea pig. They say that the light of day is the best disinfectant. Some metaphor, I guess, about truth and transparency being the best cure to counter corruption. That may be all well and good, but sometimes, when somebody's rolled you in the dirt, the sunlight just shows people where all your stains are, and not necessarily how you got 'em. If the good doc hadn't done so much for me already, I woulda been rightly pissed. At any rate, the current crowd doesn't seem too judgmental. Besides Miss LaCroix (Zymogen's secret guinea pig) and Dr. Liu, the only ones there to overhear our business was some scary Americanized Filipino gal named Miss Reyes and one Mr. Milligan. I thought Miss Reyes was a lowly secretary with a rabid streak, but it seems like she might be a bit more than that. I think Milligan is some kind of Private Dick or "police consultant," whatever that means. Sounds like he fancies himself a modern-day Sherlock.

At any rate, Dr. Liu sent Milligan and Miss LaCroix to check out Akerfeldt's digs. I got the job of shadowing Steven M. I managed to talk Dr. Liu out of a personal check to cover "investigation expenses." Specifically, I wanted to see if I could get him to cover the cost of a motorcycle. Can't rightly shadow a fella if he hops in even a shitty four-banger, and all I've got to chase him with are my Danners. Besides, I felt he owed me for airin' my dirty laundry. I figured a couple grand might get me something quick and dirty offa Craigslist, maybe a little extra to waive the licensing, just take a bike offa somebody's hands. Dr. Liu doesn't seem to have too tight an understanding of what money is like for the flat-broke like me. He cut me a check for fifteen grand. When I learned later on how truly cavalier he is about money, I look back and think I should have tried to squeeze him for a bit more.

Sigh. No time to be greedy. Didn't get into this biz for the paycheck. But still...no.

Finally got the bike, got Steven M.'s particulars from Miss Reyes. She gave me damn near every scrap of company info they had on the guy, plenty of which I had absolutely no right to see. Oh, well. I was able to determine from his insurance info and such that he didn't have a spouse or kids, so there was a pretty good chance he lived alone. That would make it easier to break into his place if I had to...

...Except he was currently home. Or somebody was home. I called his house phone and pretended to be confirming a delivery from Jimmy John's. That almost backfired on me when he considered taking the order. He didn't sound like a man distressed by anything more serious than the munchies. I reported back to Dr. Liu, and he rounded us all back up at the Zymogen offices to compare notes.

More and more stuff was coming up suspicious with Akerfeldt. Among other things was his $90,000 car on a $60K salary. It undoubtedly had a LoJack system, but without a strong contact with the police or a competent hacker on payroll, we wouldn't be able to locate the car that way. I reached out to some people I know to see if a car matching that description had come in overnight. Came up sixes, no luck. Doesn't mean the car didn't wind up in a chop shop, but if it did, it didn't come to one I'm friendly with.

Dr. Liu had a flash of inspiration and decided--just for the hell of it--to call Akerfeldt's cell phone. Someone answered, but it wasn't the missing doctor.

Evidently, they thought that Liu was in possession of something and the guy on the phone was willing to pay. They asked Liu to name his price. He threw out a request for two million, just like that. I could literally hear the guy on the other end of the line not blink before accepting the offer and spitting out details for the meet. Tonight, 1:45 a.m. at Pier 13. Come alone with the goods.

Well, you can bet that Dr. Liu was going to meet them, but he wasn't going to come alone. I'm gathering that a guy like him doesn't get where he's at by not having a bunch of people all around who will do all sorts of crazy things for him for all sorts of reasons. We were in, though none of us were quite sure what exactly the guys with Akerfeldt's phone thought we had that they were willing to fork over two mil for.

Of course, the meet was several hours away, and if you give people too much time to think about doing something crazy, inevitably they'll try to find a "better" way. I used to see it in the bar all the time. I'd see a drunk starting to get his hackles up, getting ready to start a fight. Sometimes all you need to do is distract him for a minute. A lot can happen in a minute when you're laying some patter on a fella. He might get a chance to think about how that fight will actually go and have a second to consider the consequences. The target might shove off and take himself out of the blast zone. Hell, the guy might even turn around apologize for whatever slight and buy the would-be brawler a drink to smooth any ruffled feathers.

But sometimes, some people need to be punched. I'll touch on that assertion again in a moment. The reference will be so ripe with hindsight, you'll be looking for the Charmin.

During our downtime, that Miss Reyes, she starts concocting some scheme whereby we convince these goons to work for us, to sway their allegiance or whatever. With crooks, that shit never works. They didn't get into that line of business because of their keenly honed sense of honor and moral integrity. They are takers. They took money from my family and they took my life from me. They exist solely through stealing what is not theirs and selling what decent people refuse to peddle. They continue to exist because as individuals, people can't stand up against their organizations. Remember earlier when I said I still had a lot to learn? Well, this is not one of those things. I have already learned far more about how the mob does business than I care for, and I've got the scars to prove it.

Worst of all, when the meet goes down, it's the Russians. The fucking Russians. The Bratva. These bastards may not have been in the same Brigade as the ones that shook down my mother for years, the same Boeviks that beat me and left me for dead when they burned my family's bar down around me. They may not have even answered to the same Pakhan. But they all followed the same rules, lessons learned and passed down from their origin in Stalin's gulags to now. This job for Shennong Liu was finally starting to look up! If there was anywhere I wanted my debut strike to land, it was square between some Ivan's eyes! (See? Hindsight!)

Me and Miss LaCroix were together down an alleyway. I can't seem to bring myself to call her "Parker" yet. Her name seems too friendly, and I'm just a brute who might get her into trouble, or worse. Being on a first-name basis with her seems to imply that I have earned the right to use it, and I haven't. I'm some guy who might get her killed if she follows me too close. But I digress.

Milligan had infiltrated a building near us and was supposed to be keeping an eye on things from the roof. I watched in horror as Dr. Liu bought in to Miss Reyes' insane plot to turn these thugs. I could only see it ending badly, whether the betrayal happened right here in the street or somewhere far down the road after Dr. Liu had entrusted them in some way, shape or form...and that could only end badly for me, I'm sure. Especially if the doc lost control of his lips around them the way he had earlier with us. I started creeping down the alley to be closer to the upcoming fire, maybe even to spark it if I needed to.

That wasn't necessary. The weasel pulling the exchange with Dr. Liu and Miss Reyes had keener eyes than I would have given him credit for. He spotted me moving down the alley toward them, and pulled a gun. Dr. Liu tried to calm him down, explaining that the bars nearby were just closing their doors, it was obviously just a random drunk. I tried to play along, pretending to get sick behind a dumpster, but the Ivan didn't buy it. Hey, I never took any acting classes in school, okay? Sue me.

In typical hair-trigger mobster fashion, the guy shot at me. Lucky shot, hit me right below the belt. Nearly in my little Shillelagh.

Here's the strangest thing, though: It hurt, sure. Like a cast iron bitch for just a second. But not like you'd think. Should have laid me low, but I just shrugged it off. Dove through a window nearby to take cover and give Miss LaCroix someplace to run and hide. Then I tore a heavy door off its hinges to use as a shield for when I rushed them. And maybe to beat them with it.

However, by the time I made it to the inside front of the building, ready to burst out, Miss Reyes has gotten everybody all calmed down. How or why she accomplished that, I have no clue. Then, the party broke up because of some police sirens heading our way. Probably a one-two combo of "shots fired" and "burglar alarm." At least I succeeded (if you can call it that) in keeping Dr. Liu from forming any long-standing ties with the Bratva. Tonight, at least. I can only imagine that they will try to contact Dr. Liu again. After all, he has something they were willing to pay a lot of money for, and in my experience, if the Bratva wants something, they don't take just one crack at trying to get it. And if they can't buy it, they'll probably try and take it. 'Cuz they're takers. See what I did just there? Nice, right?

The worst part of the night, though, was not getting to pound any of the bastards. If I continue to have any affiliation with this group, I may have to teach Miss Reyes a thing or two about the streets. I've got a good feeling about Miss Delacroix. She and I seem to be in some kind of boat together, and if somebody rocks it from the outside I fear both of us might splash, so part of me wants to trust her, even if she's an unwilling addict constantly waiting for her next fix-by-post. Not sure yet about Milligan. He's been kind of quiet so far, and he strikes me as kind of shady, but the sort of shady you don't mind having in your corner.

At any rate, I'll have a hell of a story for Vic next time we train at the gym. He'll be sorry he missed out on the party, even as un-soaked in Russian blood as it was. Plus, I'm sure he can give me some good advice to temper my gut when it comes down to feeling out a potential team. He's got way more experience at that than a young punk like me.

Oh yeah...Dr. Akerfeldt? Never did find out about him. Dr. Liu didn't think (or didn't have a chance) to try and negotiate for his release. Not sure how I feel about that. Maybe that's just another reason not to get captured?