Journey

Chapter 24

June 9th, 2028

Friday lunch rush at the most legendary Italian deli in Staten Island could be compared to Times Square during New Year's Eve. It was unbridled madness and only the most courageous would dare to brave it. Nick assumes the amount of people is probably why they picked this place. It would've been hard to set up a sting at this location and there were too many people to easily stand out. This setting was as close as a public safe house for the Luccheses as they came and because of that Nick felt very much like a sitting duck.

Nick surreptitiously eyes the patrons sitting at the tables around him trying to figure out who his contact is, if they're even here yet. He's only spoken to one of them but he knew whoever was coming in today was different than his initial contact. Nick makes mental notes of every face, distinguishing mark, and does his best to memorize vague descriptions of everyone around him. He's interviewed enough witnesses in his life to know that having a description of who tried to kill you at the very least puts you above "absolute moron" in the eyes of the police. He is focused on the mental descriptions of the three men on the far right table of the restaurant when suddenly a body blocks his view. Nick follows the torso up to the face making a not-so-subtle pause at the pair of breasts he finds along the way. Nick would tell himself he was only looking at her name tag to know how to properly address her, but anyone with eyes would know better. In response to his brazen ways the exhausted looking waitress named Aurora slams the cup of cherry cola she was holding on his table.

"Hey. No I didn't order anything."

Nick's voice sounds nothing but jittery while actively trying to quickly get rid of the utterly bored woman. The last thing he wants is to spook whoever was coming to talk to him and because of that he had no intention of making it seem like he is friendly with anyone in this room.

"Show me your chest." Nick looks at Aurora as confused as she looks disinterested. "Open your shirt. He needs to know you're not wired or he won't show."

"You want me to... take my fucking shirt off?"

"Open up a few buttons and show me."

Nick grumbles and shakes his head but almost immediately relents and he loosens his tie then undoes a few of the top buttons while Aurora makes herself seemingly busy haphazardly wiping down the table. Once she gets a good look at his bare chest she talks again.

"Empty your pockets. Put everything on the table. I also have to make sure you've got nothing to record with."

"Fucking seriously?"

"Do I look like I want to be doing this? Just do it."

Nick mumbles what seem like curse words as he buries both his hands in his pant and jacket pockets and messily empties everything he finds onto the sticky table. Once he's done dumping about as many useless things as Felix The Cat kept in his bag of tricks, Aurora scans the items and without anything else to add she walks away.

Nick begrudgingly collects all his belongings and slowly places them back to where they were mere seconds before. Once he's finished, Nick nervously begins to fidget with his fingers. Before long, his eyes land on the cup the waitress left behind. He'd be lying if he said it didn't look tempting. His mouth is certainly parched. The cottonmouth feeling is most likely directly tied to the level of nerves he's currently experiencing. Nick pulls the glass closer and examines it carefully. He lifts it up to eye level and turns the glass around looking at its contents. He sniffs the liquid before pulling it away from his face and eyeing it suspiciously yet again. Before he has a chance to turn the glass one more time it is ripped from his hand. Nick was about to curse whoever was attached to the hand that came perturbingly close to his face but the words evaporate from of his mouth without emitting a sound when he looks up and comes across the thickset man that hovered over him with the straw between his lips. Nick watches him slurp the entire contents of the drink within a handful of seconds.