It’s bad to get calls when business is done. If you get a call, and business is done, and the call isn’t about new business, it means there’s something wrong with the old business. Something didn’t get done right. So I’m worried, naturally, when we get the call.
Rock sighs when he hears the phone ring, because he knows it’s no good. He answers it. He has to. I stand nearby so I can hear too. “Tell me,” Rock says.
“Mr. Mahon,” says a voice I don’t know. It doesn’t sound familiar at all. It isn’t a boss of ours.
“Who speaks?” Rock says. You can’t play around on the phone. It’s business. Especially if they call him Mr. Mahon and you can’t recognize the voice.
“My name is Figaro,” says the voice. It’s Figaro, I guess.
“Yeah,” Rock says. I don’t know what he means by it. I’ve never heard him talk like that before. That’s not how Rock says “yeah.”
“You have killed my two brothers today, Mr. Mahon. I dare say I am quite displeased by these developments.” He’s concealing his emotions in wrong words. I don’t need to see him to know this.
“What I do, I do for reasons, Mr. Figaro. I mean no disrespect to you. If you have questions about my work, you would do better to contact my superiors than me. I am not answerable for my actions.”
“’Not answerable.’ It’s funny you should use that phrase, Mr. Mahon. That’s exactly how Mr. Chad Nezzar expressed it. He said that he was ‘not answerable’ for your actions. He said that you were not working under any orders. It seems that no one is answerable for your actions. What do you think of that, Mr. Mahon?”
“I cannot contradict my superiors, Mr. Figaro.”
“I am a doctor, Mister Mahon. I am Doctor Figaro.”
“What Mr. Nezzar says is true, Dr. Figaro. I worked without orders.”
“I don’t believe that for a second, Mr. Mahon, but you are much easier to muscle than your employers. If you agree that my brethren were killed unjustly, would you not agree that some service is owed me in recompense?”
Rock starts to move his head up and down. I don’t know why he does that when he’s talking on the phone. No one can see him do it.
“That is reasonable, Dr. Figaro.”
“I am nothing if not reasonable, Mr. Mahon. I have already cleared this through Mr. Nezzar; you would agree, I think, that contacting Mr. Nezzar first was an entirely reasonable, efficient thing to do, yes?”
“Yes.” Rock is either very tired or lying.
“Good. That was my thinking. Furthermore, you shall be catching the first flight to Malacansa. That is, the first flight you can reasonably expect to board. You can do me no good if I am here and you are all the way over there. That is reasonable, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Good. There is someone here in Malacansa, a girl. You will bring her to me.”
“Yes,” Rock says, “but we should discuss this when I arrive. Not on the phone.”
“I fear, Mr. Mahon, that if I were to meet you in person, I should very much like to kill you. You are the man who killed my only brothers; doesn’t it only seem reasonable that I should very much like to see you die?”
“Yeah,” Rock says. He looks at me. Neither one of us like this very much, but it’s hard to know what to do. Figaro has already contacted Mr. Nezzar. “Why don’t you send an intermediary?”
“I fear I would order that person to kill you. I believe, Mr. Mahon, that I would try to kill you whenever the opportunity presented itself. And that would make me feel very happy for a short period of time. But then your superiors would be unhappy, and we would have something of a war on our hands. It is therefore best that we never meet, and that I never know where exactly you are. Do you understand? Is this not reasonable?”
“Yes,” Rock says, lying. “But my superiors are not men of violence. We are not a mafia, Dr. Figaro. If you must declare war, let it be on me alone. I will come to Malacansa, if you wish, and we may have it out there.”
“Have it out? Dear God, Mr. Mahon, let us not become uncivil. I am not one to be misled by my emotions, at least when I can avoid it. I am not being duplicitous. I know you are not responsible for the great blow to my family; but I also know that I am apt to lose myself when I consider the cruel slaughter of those who meant most to me in this world. Nor do I desire a war with Mr. Nezzar; it is a war I would be destined to lose, I fear, and besides, I see no reason to let this incident come between us and our future plans for King Timothy. You will come to Malacansa, Mr. Mahon, and you will find the girl known as Eris Samson. You will deliver her to me however you can, without becoming known to me in the process.”
“While you attempt to kill me in any way possible.”
“Correct. This is what reason dictates. Let us hope we do not see each other any time soon, Mr. Mahon.”
“Eris Sampson? E-R-I-S, S-A-M-P-S-O-N?”
“No P.”
“Alright. It’s done.” Rock hangs up before Figaro does. He’s not angry. Sometimes people are angry and they hide it, but Rock isn’t hiding anything. He’s not angry, even though he might die. We wouldn’t be any good at our jobs if we were afraid or angry about dying. But we’re the best at what we do. That’s why I know I’m going with Rock. And he doesn’t have to ask. He knows I’m going with him too. It might be more romantic for him to beg me to stay behind and for me to refuse, but we both know that I’m going in the end. Besides, Rock doesn’t want to die, whether he’s afraid of it or not, whether he’s angry or not. Rock doesn’t want to die, and that means he needs me. Especially now that we’re hunter and hunted.
“We’ll go tomorrow,” Rock says. He sits down on the bed and puts his face in his hands. He’s not depressed or frustrated. He’s just tired. I sit down next to him and put an arm over his leg. Even when I’m right next to him, Rock is alone.
Rock puts his arm around me. “I think it might be easier just to kill Dr. Figaro. I’ll call Nezzar tomorrow and see what he thinks.” Rock lies down. I nudge him lovingly until he pushes me away. I go and stand in the doorway. I’ll wait until he falls asleep before I go to bed. I don’t know why.
“Hearse,” he says. He usually doesn’t talk to me at night. It’s surprising that he’s talking to me now. “If Figaro knows my number, he knows where I am.” He’s not talking to me. He’s talking to himself. I don’t answer. He groans. “We’re not safe here, Hearse.”
He sounds very strange now. I think Rock is afraid. I have never known Rock to be afraid, really afraid, but I have known others to be afraid and now Rocks feels just like them. I don’t know what is on his mind. I don’t think Rock can be scared by death.
“We have to travel now, Hearse,” he says. He sits up. He’s still dressed. We could leave now, but he starts to take his clothes off. He has something on his mind.
He throws his suit on the floor. He does not do that to his suits. Something is different, very frightening about Rock. He opens his closet and takes out a box. I have never seen the box before, and I can tell it doesn’t have any weapons in it. I think it has clothes in it. He opens it. It does. But these are not like any clothes I have ever known Rock to wear. They are short, and thin, and look like flowers. They smell like plastic. Rock starts to put them on. He notices my questioning look.
“We can’t be known, Hearse. I’ve worked a million jobs, but I’ve never had to work like this. A million jobs. I’ve gone in secret, traveled incognito. But I’ve always stepped out with class, Hearse. If they know my M.O., they know this. This time, things will be different. As for you, you’ll blend in. You’ll be fine. But I….” He finishes pulling on his shirt, over his head, and it interrupts him. He smooths the shirt out over his stomach. It’s tight. He looks in the mirror.
The fear, if that’s what it is, increases. Rock’s heart is beating hard and fast. His brow is sweating. He closes his eyes and tries to slow his breathing.
“No one can know it’s me,” he says to himself. “No one can know…”
He reaches up and touches his scalp with both hands.
“No one must ever know…”
He pulls.
“…my horrible secret.”
Rock holds his hair in front of him. He begins to cry. I watch in silence as he puts on sunglasses and sandals. He makes no attempt to hide his emotion.
He almost leaves the room twice, before grabbing a baseball cap for the ride to the airport.