Fixer # 6

“All right,” she gasped, “Enough foreplay. Who the hell are you?”
He coughed and asked her in a wheezing whisper, “Relax your foot, I can hardly breathe.”
“If you don’t give me the answers I want you won’t breathe,” she replied as she let up a fraction on the pressure she had placed on his neck.
“All right, let me breathe.” She let up just a fraction more. The man’s color slowly started to return. “My name is Xavier. I am a decoy put in place to keep the real Juneau out of harm’s way. My boss is Jim Johansen, the primary in charge of enforcement.”
“Why would one of the triumvirate want to save Juneau’s life? They’ve done everything imaginable to bring him out of hiding so they can kill him,” Emily replied.
“Wait, I’ve got it. You’re trying to draw him out by creating some situation hat he would have to become involved in. When you, as Juneau, screwed it up, he’d have to come out of hiding to save face literally and figuratively. God, don’t you people ever give up?”
“I have to report back to Johansen within the hour saying that you were neutralized. If I don’t an entire hit squad comes down on you like rain,” he said.
“Oh, Damn, I told the black man we should have spoken in a more inconspicuous place. So what do you have to show Johansen – my head on a stick? What? I’m certainly not going to let you kill me today and you’ve made me late for my meeting. Up you go!”
The Juneau look-a-like got up and shook his head trying to straighten out his neck. “How about I go to that meeting with you and we try to work this out. I mean, what to show Johansen and all.”
It was always interesting that even in the nicest parts of a city people did not become involved in situations that might entertain a notion to call the police. So, Emily, who had received no interference with her handling of Xavier hailed a cab. Have you ever been to London and seen those lovely black cabs? J9 was rife with black cabs, and Emily sank back into the luxury of the seat staring at Xavier. He really did look like Juneau. The only feature that was slightly off was the nose. Juneau’s didn’t come to quite as sharp a point as Xavier’s.
“So how did you really get involved in this?” Emily asked.
“Like I said, I work for Johansen. Maybe 10 years now. I got the new face eight months ago. I had to have the heal time before I could go out in public. Plastic surgery is still a witch. I wish they could create a different way to change your face. Hell, they can make a mechanical horse smell like a live horse, why not come up with a way to change a face?”
It was strange that plastic surgery and enhancements had not moved at the same pace that other technology had. That was about to change, but Xavier and Emily knew nothing about it.
“Beats me! Too bad you had to through all that only to have your plan blow-up in your face. Sorry, bad pun,” Emily chortled.
I’m not so sure it did blow up in my face, maybe, just maybe, this is all for the best. You have me in a cab and you’re taking me to Mr. Black. Perhaps my face is going to make it intact.”
“Level with me, said Emily. Why me, why Mr. Black? And are you going to report in to Johansen so I can live to die another day?”
“Damn, I can’t believe that I forgot – give me your comm-.”
“Sorry, I don’t’ carry a portable comm.- Too many people know where you are when you carry one. It has GPS and I don’t need that. I carry around enough hardware. If someone really wants to get a hold of me, they can find me, or leave a message at my service. If they come to find me then I know that it’s utterly important.”
“Have the cab pull over then because I’m going to have to call.”
“Why don’t you carry a comm.-? I’d think a tough guy – assassin like you would make that a necessity.”
“Same deal. I don’t want every Jim, Karen, or Jacob calling me.”
“So, it’s true. You are a part of it all; they are going to try to change things aren’t they? We’ve got to get the real Juneau out of danger so that we can continue to exist.”
Does it sound melodramatic to you? Wow, it sure does to me, but perhaps we need some melodrama, no – we have to much melodrama. It’s time to tone down the characters. So let’s change the last bit of dialogue to this:
“We’ve got to find the real Juneau, only he’ll know how to stop the triumvirate.”
The car pulled up at the Jessso Club at 9:25. Emily didn’t like being too early. Who knows who could be following her? Hell, if this idiot had found her, anyone could. What was she going to do with him? He couldn’t keep following her around. That would never do. So, maybe the fixer could take him out; but she had to get him alone. She couldn’t very well tell the fixer, “Oh, by the way, can you get rid of the guy in the corner? He’s been sent to kill me and has attached to me like a puppy. I don’t need this growth. Amputate it!!”
She needed to go online and figure out who he really was and why he was following her. But that was going to have to wait.
“O.K. You wait here in the cab, or go someplace else. I don’t have time for you right now.”
“Sorry, I’m like glue.”
“Well, Elmer, I don’t need this!” And she tapped him on the shoulder. The would-be assassin slid to the floor of the cab in an unconscious heap. “Gees, they sure make them trusting nowadays,” she thought. Emily paid the cabbie adding an extra 100 so he would quietly dispose of the sleeping guy.
She smoothed down her pin-striped suit as she stepped out of the cab. She looked good and it was a certainty that she wasn’t going to blend in. As she walked into the bar, she took in her surroundings. The Jessso was wood-paneled like the old English gentleman’s club. It really catered to the expensive executive who wanted a plush setting for an after hours meeting or for that little assignation after work. It was a perfect place to meet the fixer because everyone was so discreet.
As Emily looked from the bar to the tables placed at discreet distances from each other she saw the fixer seated with his back against the wall, watching everyone who came into and went out of the room. His eyes settled on her and she moved slowly over to the table. She wanted to give him the time to see that she was harmless. Well, not exactly harmless, but certainly not ready to kill him today.