Page 24 of Chasing Danger

Beyond the front doors, the building’s silver mosaic continued along the floor. A large staircase curved up the wall of the circular main room, with irregularly shaped doorways leadinginto smaller galleries. The museum showcased only Outsider Art, and displayed an eclectic collection of techniques and styles. There seemed to be no unifying theme other than “unexpected”. Nothing was ever quite what it seemed like it should be.

I followed Aslanov up the staircase, trying to keep her and her bodyguards in sight at all times. The museum was still open, so other guests wandered around, but in the middle of a weekday it wasn’t particularly busy.

A statue hung suspended in the air above the heart of the main staircase. From below, it looked like an odd chandelier. Just a twisted mess of metal and glass that made no sense. Yet, as we climbed the stairs and I was able to view the statue from every angle, I realized it was actually a man.

The main body of the statue was bronze, with large wings of silver metal and colored glass sprouting from his back. The man’s body was contorted in pain while his wings twisted around him.

It was a fallen angel, or maybe the image of Icarus, frozen in time as it plummeted toward earth.

At the top of the building, and through several galleries, Aslanov brought me to an exhibit that was marked “closed”. It seemed to be a new exhibit, still in the process of being installed. The exhibit consisted of an entire room. Illuminated mostly by blacklight, glowing neon sculptures and glow-in-the-dark paint contrasted with the black background. Consisting primarily of purple, pink, and blue, the room looked like an alien forest straight off a sci-fi movie set.

A stray thought entered my mind that this would be a great place to bring Oliver for a second date. I didn’t know muchabout Outsider Art, other than the fact that it was made by “self-taught” artists and didn’t conform to conventional art standards. None of this meant anything to me, but Oliver would probably appreciate it a lot more than I could. Listening to him explain what made the artwork significant would make the whole experience more interesting.

The daydream lasted only a moment, and I focused back on my task at hand.

A faux-stone structure covered most of the back wall. It looked like a distorted human face, with a gaping mouth forming a cave. Teeth the size of my head lined the outer rim of the cave, and a stone tongue created a sitting table inside the open mouth. Glowing teal water dripped from the face’s eyes and ran down its cheeks into pools along the floor.

While I was sure there was a deeper meaning behind the artistic design, I couldn’t see it. The whole thing just creeped me out.

Sitting at the stone-tongue-table with Aslanov, I ignored the rest of the room. The purple-hued blacklight made her white suit glow, and threw her eyes into shadows so they looked like a pair of dark voids sitting in the middle of her face.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve insisted on meeting here,” she said, flashing me with a cold-as-ice smile as soon as I sat down.

I adjusted the cuffs of my jacket, subtly making sure my watch with the hidden poison needles was exposed. “The museum is an odd choice, but much better than meeting in a cold, dirty warehouse in the middle of the night. I swear, some people have no creativity when it comes to these sorts of things.”

She obviously wasn’t talking about the museum, but I wouldn’t be baited into playing her game. If she wanted to talk about why we were meeting in Baltimore, then she would have to approach the topic herself. I wasn’t going to ask.

Shadowed eyes glared at me for a moment, and I didn’t meet her gaze and busied myself dusting off my suit. Unlike her white suit, my all black outfit disappeared in the blacklight. I was aware of every speck of lint on my clothes, and fought the urge to pluck at the fibers.

Eventually, Aslanov had no choice but to continue the conversation on her own.

“This isn’t the first time our people have met in this city. Fifteen years ago, we tried to set up a trade deal with your ‘Mafia King.’ It failed because someone in your organization betrayed all of us and stole the shipment we sent over. They were never found, and a war nearly broke out between us.”

It wasn’t an accusation, but it was close. My bodyguards stationed around the room were on high alert, while I kept a close watch on Aslanov’s hands. If she was going to kill me, her hands were the first things that would have to move.

“Since that is suspiciously close to what happened this time, let me guess... you assume history is repeating itself?”

Her fist clenched on the table and I tensed, ready to react if she attacked me. “After fifteen years, our Pahkan has graciously decided to give you another chance. Relations between our organizations have always been tense, yet you seem determined to make us your enemy despite our efforts.”

I was no stranger to the rocky relationship between the Russian and Italian mafia. It was the reason I existed, after all. A fewdecades ago, the two sides had been at each other’s throats, until a truce was called and sealed with my parent’s marriage. Since then, peace still remained, but it held on only by the most fragile threads.

“Don’t try to lecture me about my own history. I’m well aware of how fragile the peace between us is. However, I also know that things have changed. TheMafia King, David Russo, is dead, and Alex Mariano has taken over. I was the leader of the Bianchi family fifteen years ago, but I was still young and relatively new to my position so I wasn’t involved with the deal. With so many differences, there’s no way the same person is responsible for your missing shipment now.”

Faster than a striking snake, Alanov’s hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Her fingers lay right over my watch so I couldn’t activate the trigger for the hidden needles, and her grip was strong enough to bruise bone.

The metallic sound of weapons being drawn and cocked echoed around the room. My bodyguards and Aslanov’s bodyguards were all pointing guns at each other, ready to turn the art installation into a bloodbath at a moment’s notice.

“It may not be the same person, but it’s the same problem,” Aslanov hissed as she slammed my wrist against the table. Barely audible over the cold rage in her voice, was the sound of gears snapping. The mechanism hidden in my watch had broken.

“YourMafia Kinghas left your house a mess, and his son is incapable of cleaning it up. It’s obvious your organization is too incompetent to handle this. I’m here to take care of this problem once and for all. We will be given full access to Baltimore’sharbor, and you will pay reprimands for what you have stolen, and stay out of our way. Understood.”

She let me go and calmly leaned back in her seat.

Although my heart beat rapidly in my chest, I remained calm and frowned down at my watch as if pouting over a broken toy.

“So many big plans you have. And what about me? Any plans for the Bianchi family?”

I removed my watch and examined it. Yep, definitely broken. I could probably remove the needles, but there was no safe way to deploy them.

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