There was no movement in the smoke filled room, or what was left of the room.

Shrieks were coming out from the back side of the mansion as other gang members searched for any survivors.

But all they found was blood spilled all over and body parts lying around. They decided to escape before the police arrived on the scene.

A hand came out of a pile of rocks,behind the broken desk, followed by a series of coughs.

Mike limped his way through the mess. He had severed no fatal wounds but was cut through many places.

No one paid any attention to him as he made his way outside the Mansion, wiping his face of all the blood.

He saw a woman clapping and laughing at the sight of explosion, crying out curses at the Costello family.
Her cloak suggested that she was the same woman who was crying besides the gate when they had entered, but it was hard to tell with all the smoke.

He limped his way towards her, only to find it was Jane, his sister.

He tried to walk as fast as he could to reach her and gave her a hug.

“Jane, what are you doing here? Did they do this to you? Where’s Bill?”

Jane started crying out loud at the sight of Mike.

“Come on Jane, lets get out of here. You wait here and I’ll just pick up a car from here.
We need to run as far away from here as we can.”

He turned away and strolled towards the black sedan John drove him in.

He had barely taken a few steps when a wooden log hit his head and he fell down.

“Jane… you…why did you?” was all he could manage with all the pain rushing through his head as Jane kept hitting him with the log.

Jane cried out loud in agony, “All my life, I did nothing but take care of you. Managed your house. Moved town to town when police chased after you.
Did everything you asked me to do…everything. But you always kept screwing around.

I told you the mob would get you in trouble but you wouldn’t stop…you would never stop.

You took away my life.

Bill was the only one I cared about in life… and he is gone. Gone because of you.
Now I have nothing to live for…Its all over, because of you. I hate you… I hate you.”

And she kept hitting him, till he was drenched in a pool of blood and his body went still.

Jane sat there crying out in grief, hugging Mikes body, as the police sirens got louder and louder.

“So you saved me from wolves only to feed me to the Lion?” Mike blurted out, not able to control his anger anymore.

“Look kid. Just do as I say and you might get out of this alive. Besides you should have thought of the consequences before you pulled into this shit.” John grunted.

“You are fucking insane. Just barge in there to meet Frank, that your plan?
You might just shoot me here to save him the trouble.”

“If you don’t shut the fuck up kid, trust me… I will. Is this the place?”

“Yes, that’s Frank’s mansion. He takes care of the business in those quarters out there.”

“What about his family?”

“Well the wives and kids of the family, stay on the rooms back of the house. No body ever goes there.”

“That’s the first good thing I’ve heard of your shitty mouth all day. It seems we are in business.”

“Why are you doing this John? You have everything to nail him now. Why not wait for the warrant?”

“You’ll know soon enough kid. Now let’s give a call to uncle Frank now, shall we?”

John called Frank Costello from Joseph’s cell, and a coarse voice answered in a couple of rings.

“Yes Joseph. Do you have him?”

“Unfortunately, Joseph is not here Boss, because I killed him. But I have what you want, I have Mike.”

“Who is this?”

“My name is John. I wanted to make a deal.”

“You should have thought of it before you killed my man John. But, I must say I admire your bravery of calling me and confessing your crimes.
Business would have been ten folds if all of my men had the balls to pull such a thing off.”

“I tried to talk sense to Joseph, I said I wanted to meet you, but he just wouldn’t listen. And I hate talking to pricks.
Personally, I think you are better off without him.”

“And why was it that you wanted to meet me, Mr. John”

“I am tired of pulling of short scams now. And I want to join the big game.
I want to work for you, so I had to do something to get your attention.
So I got Mike, when the word spread you wanted him down, sadly Joseph got in the way.”

“Well, you now have my undivided attention Mr. John.
And if you took Joseph down by yourself then you surely have proved your competency. Very well I’ll meet you.
Where are you at the moment?”

“I am right outside your mansion Boss. The cops are sniffing hard for Mike, so I took the liberty of getting him here with me.”

“How insightful Mr. John. Show Mike face at the door and my men will let you in. They’ll bring you to me.”

As soon as John cut the call, Mike started shouting.

“I can not fucking believe you just did that? You just killed me and committed suicide. He’s gonna kill you too, you know.”

“Now we haven’t got much time so I am explain it to you only once. Listen to me and listen to me good, and then if you’re lucky you might live.”

John noticed a woman curled up by the gate, weeping out laud, and his jaws clenched in rage.
They drove inside the Mansion after the men at the gates confirmed Mike was in the car.

There were about fifty guns pointed at them, as soon as they got of the car.

A man came and searched John. He took out two guns and a knife off him and threw them on the ground.

They were then escorted to the quarters by 20 armed mobsters, where Frank Costello waited for them.

To any average man Frank’s face would seem to be expressionless. But John looked into his eyes and saw hate, disgust and even fear.

Frank was gazing down at John trying to judge his character.

“Quite a warm welcome you have given Boss” John smirked.

“One has to be careful in this line of business Mr. John. I’m sure you would understand that.”

“But of course, I do Boss.”

“I am a man of few words Mr. John and I hate men who beat around the bush. So I’ll cut the chase and come straight to the point.
There is no small timer in this state who is skilled enough to take Joseph down, if there was someone would have brought that to my notice by now.
And even if there was, no one would have dared touched him, knowing his position in my organization.
Yet you took him down, resisted the temptation of a million dollars and here you are standing in front of me.

Only an extreme maniac or an extremely intelligent professional would try to pull a stint like you have today.
And you obviously don’t suit the former profile Mr. John. So why don’t you tell me who you really are and what brought you here?”

John’s expression suddenly changed and hatred burned through his eyes.

“I am Special Agent John McClain, FBI.”

Twenty guns clicked the safety open, ready to shoot when ordered.

“John or would you prefer Agent McClain? Now, that we have established your identity. Tell me, why did you plan on coming here?”

“Officer Dave Turner. You remember him Frank?”

“Yes. He became quite a nuisance a couple of years back, so we had to take him down. Was he something to you?”

“He was my oldest friend. But that’s not the complete picture Frank. Did you confirm who all were in the house before your man Joseph blew it up?
Dave’s wife was there too, along with my family, my wife… my son… my 4 yr old son. We had gone over to his place for dinner.
Only I got saved with a scar on the face to remind me of your sins, each passing day. I was saved so that I could finally confront you.”

Franks face grew grim and his eyes went stiff.

“I am sorry that your family got involved in the unfortunate incident John.
But you should have made better plans if you sought revenge, there is no way you are going to escape this place alive.”

John had a huge grin on his face, as he retorted “That’s where you judge me wrong Frank, you think this is only about revenge?
But this is about my pride and I wanted to look into your eyes when you faced your death. I never planned to get out of here alive.”

John pulled out the grenade from Mike’s jacket and pushed him aside.
Mike dived to take cover, as hundreds of bullets raced towards John.

John went down, smiling towards Frank, as a grenade rolled of his wrists towards Frank.

“What the…” Frank never got to say his last words as the whole place blew up to pieces.

What goes around, comes around.

A car screeched to halt after crossing the SUV on the side road.

Joseph came out of the car with a pump-action shot gun in his hands.

He seemed in no hurry as he strolled his way towards the SUV. His eyes showed the excitement of a predator closing in on his prey.

He checked the driver’s seat, but found no one there.

He decided to give Steve a call. He heard his phone ring; the sound was coming from the cargo storage of the SUV. He went back and opened the trunk, to find Steve’s body stuffed inside, with half oh his head missing.

“What the fuck!” he said as he released safety of the shot gun.

But before he could turn, a bullet pierced his hand, forcing him to drop the gun.

“Well, you won’t need that shot gun of yours today Joseph”, said John as he came out of the bushes, with a gun pointed at Joseph.

“Who the fuck, are you? What do you want with me?” Joseph said holding his bleeding hands.

“You don’t need to know who I am. You are not even worthy, that I grant you your dying wish. Nor, do I want anything from you, as I got all I wanted from my good friend Mike over here.” John said pointing towards Mike, who tried to hide behind a tree.

“You don’t know who you are messing with? Frank will have your head for this.

But I can still save you. I’ll talk to the boss. Just walk out of here.”

“Oh, don’t tell me you think I’m that dumb that I’ll for that crap.

Now, I don’t want to waste time chatting with you, I’ve waited too long for this.”

John charged towards Jospeh and pinned him on the SUV, and threw a series of punches in his guts.

Joseph kicked on John’s elbow that made him lose his gun.

“You should have used the gun when you had the chance” Joseph said menacingly as he threw a punch on John’s face.

“And what? Lose out on all this fun? No thanks!” John retorted, as he licked his blood that was bleeding from his lower lips.

John kicked on Joseph’s left knee that made him crouch, and he then threw a hard punch on his face.

“How does the mighty ‘Jaw-breaker-Joe’ likes his jaw broken?” John said full of sarcasm.

Joseph took out his knife that was strapped on his legs and tried to stab John.

John got out in time, so that all Joseph could manage was a cut.

“I figured you won’t go down quietly. It would have been so disappointing if you did.”

With that John caught his hand that held the knife and twisted it, forcing Joseph to cry out in pain as he released the knife.

John stretched out Josephs hand and made a dash at his elbow, breaking his bone.

Joseph was lying on ground now crying in pain with his one hand shot at, one elbow broken and a twisted knee.

He was now at John’s mercy, and merciful he was not.

Mike came out of the bushes to join John seeing he had everything well under his control, and looked at him with new found respect.

“I cant believe you took him down.” he said with excitement and relief.

“Don’t push your luck too hard kid” John said lighting his cigarette.

“What do we do with him now?” Mike said, carefully weighing his words.

“You still got those bottles of booze you got back the Motel?” John questioned.

“Yeah, I kept it on the back seat of the SUV. You want me to get one for you?”

“One? Do I look like I want to fuckin’ celebrate right now? Get all the bottles out here.”

Mike did as was told, and got the whole crate from the SUV.

John started pouring the contents of the bottles over Joseph.

Joseph started screaming, begging for his life, but found no ears willing to listen.

John took the last puff of his cigarette and threw it on Joseph, that put him on fire.

“I couldn’t just let all that Jack Danial’s go to waste! Let’s go kid, get in the car.”

Mike did as ordered, his face was now white as a corpse in fear.

John and Mike got into the car and drove away, as the shrilling screams of agony stopped.

John took out his cell and called up Casey, “I want you to meet me at 21st and 5th Richmond Drive. How soon can you be there?”

“What is it about?”Casey asked.

“You’ll see. I got Mike. He is ready to talk.”

“Good work John. I’ll meet you there in 20 minutes.”

“And one more thing Casey. You’ll find two corpses about ninety miles west on highway, from Motel Mondegar. Just cover it up okay, I’ll fill you in later”

“Jesus! John you didn’t…” Casey couldn’t complete as John cut the call and accelerated towards the rendezvous point.

Mike had written down all he knew about Frank Costello. He never needed any more convincing after he saw what John was capable of doing.

They had waited for only a couple of minutes when Casey showed up.

“You have no idea, how much trouble you have caused me today; have you John?”

“Well, they both were on the wanted list wont they?”

“Yeah, but not on wanted dead list. If we had something on them, we would have apprehended them long ago. But they have got contacts high up the food chain.”

“I think you should be all the more relieved that they are dead now. Listen, here is the list of everything you need to get the destroy the crime circuit.
Everything on Costello, place he stores his weapons and drug , his contacts higher up in police and government, his hide outs, places where the dealings take place, is right here.
This would be the biggest scoop of your career Casey.”

“This is big John. This is great. But we would need Mike to testify to this, so that we can get a warrant against Frank.
We can’t just barge into his place, you know he holds a big position in public.”

“I’m afraid Mike wouldn’t be able to do that. And you know, whats going to happen as soon as you take custody of Mike.
Either he is going to get killed in jail, or some wise ass lawyer will get him out.
Frank would cover up his tracks as soon as he knows that Mike has started talking, so you need to get the warrant of yours today”

“That would need a lot of convincing on my part, and I don’t know if I can pull it off John”

“You know whats the best and the worst thing in our line of business Casey? Everything is for sale and everyone bets on the winning horse.
Here’s one million dollars in unmarked bills. This should help you get that warrant of yours.”

Casey was thoughtful for a minute, and then said, “It’ll surely help a long way. Lets nail that Costello once and for all”, he said as he shook Johns hand on that.

“Leave the nailing part to me Casey. Its the only thing I am good at.”

“I’ll give you that! But what are you going to do with Mike?”

“Mike and I, are going to pay a friendly visit to uncle Frank to discuss his Family issues.”

Casey started to say something but stopped. Knowing John, he knew he wouldn’t stop.

And Mike was staring at them with eyes wide open and his jaw hanging down.

For the first time he wished that may be, he should have let Bob kill him.

John pushed Mike into the car and got in pushed the car into gear, “Buckle up kid, its going to be a tough ride.”

“Our Bob? Bobby the ‘Claws’ Bob?” Steve was startled.

“Yes”

“What were you thinking? Were you out of your mind? You know what he’ll do to you when he finds out?
Wait a second, he’s already found out hasn’t he? That’s why Boss gave the order to take you down?”

“Bob caught us earlier today, and tried to kill me. We had a fight, and he killed his wife. I had to protect myself, so I killed him by accident.”

“You did what? Oh Jesus, you ought to be kidding. And you dragged me into this? You son-of-a-bitch!”

“Look I didn’t know whom to turn to, Steve. We have been friends since we were kids. Please help me out here.”

“Actually, its you who has helped me here Mike” Steve’s expressions changed and he now scheming smile on his face.

He pulled the safety off his gun.

“What are you doing Steve. I am your oldest friend… you are my brother Steve”

“Friend…do you even understand its meaning, you sick fuck? All of my life, I’ve been compared to you.
And all you fuckers needed me for, was to make fat jokes. Well whose laughing now?

I busted my ass off to rise up in the gang. I’ve more connections with the cops than anyone. Still it was you who was everybody’s favorite with your smooth talking and charming smile.
And look at you, you are so pathetic that you can’t even last a day, without anybody’s help.

I’ll take you down and then the Boss will give me the respect I deserve.
And if its any consolation, Joseph already knows about your little plan to go to Mexico and he would be here any minute.
Even with my help, you would not have made it out of here. “

“Steve, trust me you don’t want to do this.
You know what? I took the briefcase over there from Bob’s house. It has over a million dollars there.
You can take it all, just let me go. Please, for old times sake.”

“Well well well… this gets better and better. Not only I get to take you down, but I also get a million bucks to keep for myself.
All I got to say to Boss is I didn’t find any money on you.
And don’t worry friend… I’ll make it quick, for Old times sake.”

And just when Steve was about to pull the trigger, a bullet shattered his skull and he fell over Mike.

It took a moment for Mike to suck up what happened. By that time he was being pulled up by John McClain.

“Who… who are you?”

“No one you need to know kid. I need to know everything you have on Frank Costello. You get me?”

“I’ll tell you everything. Whatever you want to know, just get me out of here. Joseph may come here any minute.”

“The ‘Jawbreaker Joe’ Joseph? Frank must be real pissed to send him for a scumbag like you?”

“Seems like going after you wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Get in the car.”

They sat in the car and John, pulled the car over to the woods by the side till it was not visible from the road.

“What are you doing? Didn’t you hear a word I just said?”

“Actually I did hear you. Here is a pen and a paper.
Now sit in the car, and write down every single place where Costello keeps his weapons and drugs.
Don’t make me regret the decision of sparing your life. As you might have already noticed, I don’t minding bending the laws myself.
And I don’t need to tell you that, I am all you have between your life and Costello right now, so trying to run would be a bad…bad idea.”

“But why are we staying here?”

“Because, I need to have a talk with Joseph to settle some old scores. So now, we wait.”

“John, This is Casey. I have a lead on the Jaguar you wanted me to trace.
We have it on surveillance tapes parked at Motel Mondegar on 5th Avenue. You want me to send a team down there?”

“No need to send a team, its nothing I can’t handle myself.”

“Try not to kill him John”, Casey sighed on the phone as John hung up.

The Sedan headed its way to Motel Mondegar in full throttle.

John took 25 minutes to reach there, the Jaguar was still parked there.

He went inside the Motel and headed for the bar. That was the most obvious place to start when inquiring about a thug.
He gave Mikes description and showed the bartender his badge.

“Now, I don’t want any trouble here. I just want to know if you’ve seen such a man here?”

“Well yes officer. He left here about an hour ago with another guy, heavy built, about 6 ft tall.”

“How are you so sure?”

“I clearly remember him sir. Well we don’t have many customers at this early hour.
On top of that, he ordered the 20 bottles of the Jack Danial’s for take away and asked to bring the most expensive dish served out here. He practically ordered food for 10 people for just the two of them.
That’s why I remember him so distinctly. We seldom get such customers. Gave us very generous tips, he did sir. A good man he is.”

“And did the gentleman mention where he was going when he left here?”

“Well yes, as a matter of fact he did. There was an exceptionally good looking Mexican lady on the next table.
And he said, he always had a thing for Mexican ladies, and said he was happy to be going to Mexico, for he’ll find them in plenty there.”

“Could you tell me what was the make of the car this other man came in?”

“I’ll ask the wallet and get back to you in a minute.” With that he went out for a while and returned “Its a black SUV Sir. The wallet saw both of them in go in the same SUV.”

“You did a swell job. Here’s one for the help”, said John and passed on a $100 bill to the bartender.

“Well, today is certainly my lucky day sir. A very good day to you”

But John had a feeling, that the day was not going to turn out so good. And he took the highway out of the state and the engine screamed he started his chase.

Ninety miles ahead of John, Steve started pulling over his SUV from the highway.

“What the hell are you doing, you need to get me out of the state, as soon as possible.”

“Not until you tell me exactly what’s going on Mike?”

“Look Steve, you are my best friend, and I need you to help me. You have contacts in the police. Use it to get me out of here.
I promise I’ll let you know everything”

“I am not doing anything or going anywhere until you tell me how deep a mess you are in. So whats it going to be?”

“Come on Steve, for our friendship, just do this once.”

Steve sighed, and took out his gun.
“There is an order to take you down, given by the Boss himself. For our friendship I give you 5 minutes. Start talking.”