#nano 17

Bethany hadn’t spoken to me since Nikola had visited that morning. Several other wiseguys had arrived about an hour after she’d left, and one was now sitting outside my door with Bethany, playing cards.

At least, they had been a while ago. No friendly mobster to chat with, no notebook to scheme in, no longer worried that at any second Nikola might burst in and kill me, I had dozed off, dreamlessly, out of sheer boredom.

A loud noise jolted me awake. Blinking, I looked around. Bethany and her card-playing friend were standing worriedly outside the door, looking down the hall. Another burst of noise, and they glanced at each other. Somebody was shooting at someone.

They could be here to rescue me, or to finish me off. But it was probably the first. Still watching the pair at the door, I began to put on my shoes.

The noise was increasing in frequency, and in volume. The other wiseguy made a “stay here” motion - Bethany began to protest, but he dashed off. She watched him go, then turned to look at me.

We stared at each other. Had she been given instructions for a situation like this? Were we supposed to be escaping out the back and running away, perhaps? But she didn’t move. Whatever she was supposed to do, whether it was to my advantage or not, she wasn’t going to do it. And then with another loud bang - I jumped - she fell sideways, into the wall and down. There was blood on the window. I could only stand there, watching, frozen, anticipating whatever was coming.

A man with a gun came into view, moving cautiously, relaxing when he saw there was no one else around. He nodded at me, and spoke into a walkie talkie.

One of Iraiyavan’s people. I nodded back. I was being rescued; I could protest the methodology after I was in the clear. For now, go along with the plan, act grateful. He bent down and disappeared for a few seconds, and as I heard him unlocking the door, Iraiyavan himself came walking swiftly down the hall, accompanied by two others.

He was as elegant as ever. Deep purple suit, hair down, utterly unfazed whatever he’d just ordered to be done. He smiled widely and genuinely when he saw me.

“Maram!” he exclaimed. The wiseguy opened the door, and Iraiyavan flew in, nearly lifting me off of the ground with an emphatic hug. “You’re okay!”

I made myself laugh. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine!” He let go of me. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, and whisked me away down the hall. I took care not to look down, but I couldn’t help but glimpse the card-playing wiseguy’s body next to the door of a classroom.

I turned to Iraiyavan’s man. “What’s your name?”

“Uh, I’m Carlo,” said Carlo.

“I have to thank you, Carlo. Good work back there.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Iraiyavan had cars waiting in the school parking lot. We hopped into the back of one of them and sped off. Carlo, in the passenger seat, reached back and handed me my wallet and phone, retrieved from who-knows-where.

“How did you find me?” I asked. The suburban landscape outside wasn’t one I recognized.

“You’re never going to believe this, but Mr. Kimura sent the location to me! In an email! He was just like, ‘former St. Leo’s parish school in [suburb, ny/nj].’ Pretty cryptic, but it was obvious what he was trying to tell me.”

“Hitoshi told you?” I repeated in disbelief.

“Yeah! Unless it was someone else using his email.”

But Hitoshi didn’t want me free. “He must have figured you’d fail. Or that their people would kill me before you could get to me,” I reasoned.

“Hah! Well! He was wrong.”

If anyone other than Bethany had been guarding me, I’d be dead now. A lucky coincidence for me, and for Iraiyavan. But he didn’t need to know that. “Where are we going now?”

“Manhattan. And then we can talk about what we want to do next.”

What we want to do next. What were the options? Of course, I could try to return to status quo, to reclaim my former position. With Iraiyavan’s backing, it could be done. Based on what had just happened, it would be ugly. People would die. I doubted Ira would let Nikola survive.

No, a return to before was impossible. Everyone had seen how easy it had been to oust me. Iraiyavan hadn’t rescued me altruistically, not completely - he knew that if he put me back in power, he’d have more leverage over me. Seeing as Nikola had taken over his operation, Hitoshi might bargain for power too. And then I’d spend the rest of my days as a figurehead, stuck as the public face of the family but with no way to effect change or realize my goals, waiting to get betrayed a second time.

That wasn’t going to work.

I checked the notifications on my phone. Some emails, not urgent. Two texts from Ira. Where are you??, and ??? several hours later. Poor guy. He must have been so confused.

Iraiyavan’s offices were on the 21st floor of an obnoxiously tall skyscraper, and the entire back wall of his office was glass. It was this wall I was facing as he sat us down at his desk to ‘strategize.’

“Okay, so this is what I’m seeing,” he began. “Nikola’s still in the process of setting up, so the sooner we jump, the more unprepared she’ll be. We’ll win this no matter what, but the easier, the better, right?”

He paused, seemingly waiting for agreement, or feedback. I didn’t have any. “Okay, and then?”

“We go in, we make a scene, we get you back into that office. It’s that easy.”

“All right, it makes sense,” I said. “Then it’s back to business as usual, is that right?”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “Uhh, yeah. Although I think maybe we could make some changes in the future to stop this from happening again.”

“Okay, like what?”

“Like…” He looked away, then leaned towards me. “This could have been prevented if you’d had better security, but I get that you don’t really have the time to handle that stuff. So here’s what I’m thinking. Just let me handle things. You stay busy meeting people and making deals or whatever, and I’ll keep an eye on the rest, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“I know what you’re doing, Ira. The classic power grab?”

He had the air of a puppy being scolded for tracking mud onto the carpet. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

I raised my hands. “No, no, it’s fine! In fact, take all of it.” I stood up, and his gaze followed me.

“What?”

“It’s yours for the taking,” I repeated. “I’m stepping out. I’m not going back.”

It was his turn to stand. “No! You can’t just do that! You can’t just decide -”

“If I have to set my own precedent, I will,” I said loudly. “This is what happens now - I walk out of this building, and you let me go, and you don’t send anyone after me. I’m your friend, Ira! This isn’t a betrayal. It’s just that my time doing this is over! That’s all.”

Frowning, Iraiyavan looked around at his men at the corners of the room, as if deciding whether or not to tell them to do something. He exhaled angrily. He wasn’t going to try to oust Nikola, not without me. He didn’t feel like he had a legitimate claim to power. But he also couldn’t force me to act as his figurehead if I didn’t want to cooperate.

“Fine!” he said. “You can go your separate little way. But I will have you know, I don’t like this.” 

I walked over to the door, but turned back before I left. “Bye-bye, Ira Muldoon. Thanks for rescuing me.” Another moment of hesitation. Was that nostalgia I was feeling? “Maybe we could still hang out sometime.”