Fallen Star Rising

Fallen Star Rising (Part 5)

Back on my feet, I found the Fat man struggling to sit up.

"Oh hey," I said to him in my most innocent voice, "what's up mate?" His face was starting to swell from the brief but thorough beating I had given him mere moments before, but that did not seem to deflate his vocabulary one bit.

"You fucking limey prick! You are dead, you hear me? Fucking dead!" He was looking at my feet and bleeding from the mouth. As he shouted, he sprayed bloody saliva over his chin and onto his nice shirt and tie.

I somehow succeeded in not rolling my eyes at the rhetoric and leaned in closer to the Fat man's face, baring my teeth some. "After that show I just gave you, I would think you would be a little bit more interested in what I wanted and a little less interested in idle threats, yeah?"

Jabba looked up and into my eyes and I saw the embarrassment and anger instantly abate. I couldn't tell you what he saw when he peered up into the windows to my soul, but it shut down his bravado real quickly.

"What do you want?" he stammered, breaking eye contact and looking down at my shoes again.

"And now he becomes reasonable," I said with sarcasm, wiping sweat from my forehead and combing my hair back from my face with my fingers. I straightened up and pulled on the handle of the safe that was just barely still cracked, pulling it all the way open.

It was a large safe, and contained envelopes, papers, a modest stack of cash, and a large brick of what I could only assume was heroin or crack or some other drug. Towards the back of the safe was a gun, laying loaded and ready within easy grabbing distance.

I continued to talk while looking through the safe, not sparing the Fat man a glance, "What I want, friend, is nothing unreasonable." I pulled out a stack of manila envelopes and started opening them, checking inside.

I discarded one envelope and continued, "I am here for an honest and fair trade," another two envelopes were tossed to the floor. "A trade, in fact, that was agreed to years ago between the man you have replaced," more envelopes hit the floor, checked and discarded, "and the Liu family."

"Who?" the Fat man asked, and I smiled as I rained down another couple of envelopes on his head having checked the contents.

"You have not forgotten our early discussion already, have you?" I asked, smile still curving my lips as I crouched back down to look him in his face.

"No! I just meant...what did you want with me?" He blubbered a little when I paid him real attention. I think I scared him some, though I could not imagine why.

"As I was saying, it was a simple understanding they had with your organization," I straightened up and checked another envelope, finally finding what I was looking for, "They needed a loan that a bank wouldn't give, and in return, they agreed to pay back the loan with a pretty steep interest rate."

I looked down at Fatty and showed him the deed to the Liu restaurant I now held in my hands. "So the Liu's worked hard and saved and paid their loan monthly as they were instructed. Everything was fine until you took over." Tucking the deed into the envelope, I crouched again, my nose suddenly so close to his that he snapped his head back and his eyes widened in fear.

"And then the Liu family were informed that the nature of their loan and their monthly payments had changed." I lightly tapped him on the forehead with the envelope containing the deed. "And why is that? Why did you decide the loan interest should increase?"

For once the Fat man did not seem to have a reply. His eyes rolled in fear and he looked around the room searching for anything that might throw him a lifeline. Sweat poured off of his scalp, wetting the collar of his shirt.