Page 11 of Stray
“Should be?” Dominik repeated. “And if he’s not?”
“Then we abort mission.” Rebel caught my eye through the rearview mirror. “Do you want to head in first to check it out?”
I held out my hand for the syringe Dom had ready. He placed it in my palm, and I clutched it tight. Slipping on the creepy comedy theatre mask I always wore for these jobs, I got out of the car and strolled up the front walk.
Spotting the doorbell camera, I turned my head to avoid it while pulling a piece of black electrical tape from my pocket for this purpose. I covered the camera lens and rang the bell. If there were kids inside, I was out of here. I drew the line at the involvement of children.
It took a few minutes before the door opened. A man with thinning hair and a scraggly goatee stared at me in surprise.
“Can I help you?” he asked, wary at the sight of my mask.
Instead of answering, I immediately jabbed him in the neck with the syringe. He stumbled backwards, his hand going to his neck. I stepped inside, watching as he collapsed to the floor. It didn’t take long to determine that the house was otherwise empty. At my signal, the rest of the guys entered. Jordan had joined them.
Jordan was the med student we employed to help with organ removals. Casper had handled a few on his own but it was nice having someone more knowledgeable. Jordan was still far from being a doctor, although he’d done enough of these removals to be pretty experienced.
“Let’s get to work. We don’t have a lot of time.” Rebel began to bark orders, instructing Casper and Auryn to move the unconscious man to the bedroom.
Jordan set to work, creating a relatively sterile work environment. He placed a mask over his clean shaven face and a little hair cap over his short dark hair. He took this task quite seriously.
Casper lingered close, ready to help him if needed. I wasn’t a fan of the surgical shit, so I lingered near the door with Rebel. Dominik and Auryn watched the entryways.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Jordan and Casper worked to remove the kidney. Jordan spoke in low tones, giving Casper instruction. Rebel and I remained quiet, not wanting to cause a distraction.
Jordan was almost finished when Dominik called from downstairs. “Fuck. Someone’s here.”
Rebel launched into motion. “Don’t let anyone upstairs.”
We’d never had an interruption before. I started to follow Rebel when the sound of a woman’s scream rang out. There was a series of thumps and bangs, followed by one more scream.
Rebel and I descended the stairs in time to see Dominik slide his knife across a woman’s throat. There were signs of astruggle everywhere. Tables knocked over. A lamp broken on the floor. Auryn stood there with wide eyes, his mask clutched in one hand.
“What the hell happened?” Rebel barked.
“She took one look at us and flipped out,” Auryn explained. “She pulled out pepper spray. Then she tried to run. We couldn’t let her get away. She’s a witness.”
Everything had happened so fast. Now we had a dead body on our hands. This had not been part of the plan.
From upstairs, Jordan called, “We have an issue here. This guy is bleeding out.”
“Fuck,” Rebel muttered, sprinting back up the stairs.
The commotion downstairs had caused Jordan to panic and nick an artery. He managed to salvage the kidney and put it on ice, but our donor was in rough shape. Try as he might, Jordan couldn’t slow the bleeding.
“He’s not going to make it.” Jordan stepped away from the unconscious man, frantically shaking his head. “I don’t know what else to do. There’s no time to try a transfusion. I’m not even equipped for that.”
Everything had gone to shit so damn fast. What should have been a routine kidney removal with an unconscious donor left behind had quickly turned into two dead bodies we’d never planned for.
“Can you grab any other organs?” Rebel asked, always focused on business. We didn’t always kill our donor. In most cases, we left them alive.
Jordan looked like he might be sick as he stared down at the dying man on the bed. “I don’t think so. We don’t have that kind of time.”
Understandably, hearts were worth more than any other organ. They were also the most difficult to obtain. It was unfortunate that we were going to lose this guy anyway and wecouldn’t take anything else. Maybe we deserved as much. We’d really fucked this up.
“Make sure there’s no evidence left behind,” I said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
What else could we do? As long as there was nothing tying us to these deaths, it was better to leave the bodies. Trying to move them would only increase our chances of getting caught.
Sometimes shit happened. It fucking sucked when it wasn’t part of the plan. We had no choice but to roll with it and keep going. Jordan was deathly pale. He seemed to be trying not to throw up. He had no problem stealing an organ from a living person, but this was too much for him.
