Page 30 of Jake

“Deny it all you like.” Connor waved a hand in the air. “Tell me about this, Martello?”

I thought back to my first encounter with Martello, a short man with a pock-marked face and perpetually greasy hair. “I first met him a bit more than two years ago in a pub in Rabaul. He was recommended to me by Igori Latinop as a client who would take fifty guns and ten kilos of heroin every month.”

“It’s interesting that you met him around the time Russo came to Rabaul from Bougainville.”

Connor was right, it was interesting timing. “You thinking he was a plant?”

“I’m convinced Russo set him up as a client. He would have used him to get the guns and drugs so he could service his clientele while he was in the process of building his empire. I believe Martello accepted a lucrative deal from Russo to set up the Kumul Cartel as his supplier.”

“Makes sense. What do you think happened to Martello?”

“It took some time but we found him. He’s on his way here. The plane lands in about an hour and we’ll take him to the shed.”

The Shed was a structure on the edge of the heroin fields. It had been dug into the side of a hill, and the door was concealed by bushes and small trees. It was where we conducted some of our more unpleasant business. Giving me this information was the reason Connor had wanted Natalie to leave. There was no need for her to know about the structure and its purpose.

“We’ll wait until the girls have returned to the hotel and take you down there. This one’s yours, Jake. He set out to help ruin you and took part in your beating. The time has come for you to get some revenge.”

“Thanks. I don’t remember him taking part in the beating, I only know it was his voice I heard when he told Russo your plane was arriving. That’s when they took me down.”

“He confessed to Logan[RC2], who was rather persuasive, that he’d been forced to join Russo’s business. He also admitted to beating you, insisting Russo would have killed him if he’d refused. Logan and Daly had a bit of trouble believing him. Waigi and Mala are keeping guard during his one-way trip here.”

Barry stepped into the room and our conversation ceased. Although the doctor had been a part of Dad’s business for twenty years in Melbourne and ours since the beginning in PNG, he used the cover of general practice to distance himself from our illegal practices. We understood and the man had always been loyal and at our disposal when needed.

He set his doctor’s bag on the bed and took out the cast removing saw.

“Everything okay?” he asked, noticing our silence.

“Business, Doc.” Connor stood and slapped my thigh. “I’ll send Natalie back. Make sure you tell Barry about your success.”

CHAPTER NINE

JAKE

“What does Connor mean by you need to tell me about your success?

I rubbed a hand across my mouth in an attempt to hide the fact I was grinning like an imbecile.

“Jake?”

My face heated, and I was embarrassed to tell Barry, even though, as my doctor, he had my best interests at heart and it was something he should know. “Um…”

Barry waited patiently; the cast saw in his hands.

“I’m assuming you want those casts off today?”

“Nat gave me a blow job.”

“Well… well… well… Should I assume there were no issues?”

“None at all.”

“Seems your worry was for nothing, as I tried to tell you from the beginning.”

“You were right; now, can we get these casts off?”

Barry plugged the machine in, placed my foot on the bed, and holding it steady with a hand on my thigh, ran the tiny saw along the length of the plaster cast. Fine pieces of plaster floated in the air, and it took only moments for the saw to break through to the gauze between it and my skin. Turning the device off and setting it on the bed, Barry broke the plaster open, and it fell into his hands.

After setting the cast on the floor, he ran his hands over my lower leg, checking for who knew what. The limb looked wasted, devoid of muscle tone, the skin dry and flaky, but Barry had warned me to expect that as well as weakness. Satisfied with what he’d felt, he lowered my leg to the floor. It was a strange sensation; after the heavy cast, my lower leg suddenly felt light, almost like a floating sensation.