The focus came to, a blurring motion through dirty window frames. A dark blue sticky leather seat… plants… signs rushing by… the glare of a bright midday sun… I blinked my eyes a few times as I came back to reality. The side of my head was throbbing in unnecessary pain. . .

I was in the backseat of a car.

Two men dressed in expensive suits occupied the front of the vehicle. They seemed to be speeding rather recklessly down a two lane highway. The one on the passenger side was fiddling with radio knobs, trying to find a radio station through an endless band of static.

“You ain’t gonna find nothin’ on there, Brine!” The driver said, batting the passenger’s hand away from the dial.

“They gotta have something to listen to out here!” The passenger argued. “Come onnn! Let me spin through the hundreds again!”

I decided to continue playing dead in the backseat. I kept my head pressed low right where it had been, and to listen.

The truth was that I knew these two men. The passenger was Identified as ‘Brine’ who was an associate of my cousin. And of course the driver was indeed my cousin, Satino. I heard it immediately in his voice. There could not be a worse backseat to occupy at this moment.

The car shifted, and then regained control.

“Brine! Let it go! Your knocking me all over the road!” Satino snapped. “Come on! Settle down, we can’t upset the boss! No fooling this time, I mean it.”

“Yeah yeah.” Brine replied, turning away and lighting a cigarette. “I don’t get why we got stuck on this detail. I mean you saw Quiny! He’s a made man now! A made man! We came up before that guy and we earn twice as hard as him… but you know what boss says-“

“Ah ah ah! Stop!” Satino held up his hand to Brine. And then he reached over and plucked a cigarette straight out of Brine’s pack. He lit it and then continued. “Now don’t worry about us, Brine. We are putting in our time at the company, Boss knows that. He is sending us on this one because he trusts us to get it done.”

The car hit a large pothole and I was lifted into the air in the backseat. I came slamming down onto my face, and a large sharp pain came from that spot on my head, and I instinctively grabbed it and winced. “Ahhh man that stings!”

“Oh look.” Brine announced. “Sleeping beauty is awake!”

“Its about damn time.” Santino said without looking back. “Rise and shine, Cage.”

“Where… are we?” I asked, now sitting myself up in the backseat. I kept the palm of my hand on the back of my head.

“Ah don’t worry about all of that.” Said Santino.

“What… what happened? Did you knock me out?”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Boss didn’t want you knowing where we were headed on this one. We could have used a blindfold but this was more fun. You’ve been out for 9 hours now!”

“Santino. What the hell are we doing 9 hours away from the city!? Tell me, do you plan to murder me out here!? Is the Boss writing me off!?” I demanded.

“Well funny you should mention that, we were just talking about the Boss.” Santino explained. “Now listen up the both of you. Everyone in the company wants to talk about this and that with the Boss. They ask who he plays favorites to, they try to stir things up. They always have and they always will. But that don’t mean nothing to the Boss. What the Boss cares about is money. Because the Boss knows that money is power. Power enough to get just about anything handled no matter what.”

“Is that why you are dragging your cousin way out into the desert? To make the Boss a little money?”

Satino made a hard right and ran straight off the road into the dirt and continued driving at a high rate of speed away from the road. A nerve had been touched with him.

“Cage, if it were not for me, the Boss would have disposed of you a long time ago. You are more trouble than you are worth. I’m the last friend you got now. Hell, even Brine here wants to kill you. You messed up and brought an informant into the company, and now the Boss is in some deep trouble! He has every right to get rid of you.”

“So thats it!?” I asked. “knock me unconscious and drag me all the way out here to die!?”

Satino slammed on the breaks and the car lurched forward hard, kicking up a thick cloud of orange dust around them. All three of us lurched forward and I grabbed onto the seat in front of me to avoid flying through the windshield. Satino calmly placed the car into ‘park’.

“Now, get out.”

“What?”

“Get out of the car, Cage.” Satino ordered.

“I’m not getting out! I don’t even know where the hell we are!”

Satino turned around with a pistol pointed directly at me. “Get out of the car Cage.”

I immediately began to sweat in fear. “Yeah, sure thing. No problem cousin.” I grabbed for the door handle without taking my eyes off of the gun. Then I opened the door and scrambled out of the car as quick as i could.

Satino and Brine followed suit a few seconds later. Brine walked to the trunk and popped it open with a key. He reached inside and then tossed a spade shovel out beside the car, in the dirt.

“Here is how this is going to go.” Satino explained. “You are going to pick up that shovel and dig where I tell you to dig.”

I nodded, and grabbed the shovel with both hands. Then I watched as Satino pulled out a folded piece of paper and studied it and then looked up at the land. Then he began to count paces. A half hour later we had stopped beside a small tree. He kicked around the dirt until he found a Ruby in the dirt.

“Here.” He announced. “Dig here.”

“What is here?” I asked.

“Just dig!” Santino ordered with the gun.

I did what he asked. I dug and dug and by the time I had a shallow hole I was already exhausted in the mid day sun. I dug while Satino and Brine leaned into the shade of the tree and smoked cigarettes. As the hole got deeper the day went on. The sun was beginning to set when I finally brought my spade down on something hard. Something made of metal.

There was a defined “CLUNK” that caught the attention of the other two goons. They came up to the hole for immediate inspection.

“Whatcha got there Cage?” Brine asked, peering down at me.

“Something metal.” I said.

“Thats it!” Satino exclaimed. “Quick, get the damn thing open!”

I used the shovel to clear out the sides of a large metal box. Then I used its tip to pry on one of the corners. To my surprise it loosened and the top of the box lifted open.

Inside of it were two briefcases. A red one and a black one. Satino and Brine nearly jumped with excitement. Then Santino pulled out a large Satellite phone.

“Who are you calling?” Asked Brine.

“The Boss.”

“The Boss!?” Brine asked, sounding confused. “Now?”

“He asked me to phone him in personally the second we opened the package.” Satino explained.

“He didn’t tell me that.” Brine wondered.

“You know how the Boss works-“Satino started but stopped as soon as his phone call had been answered.

“Yeah Boss. Its Santino. We are here. We got it open. . . Two briefcases, right. A red one and a black one. We are collecting them now, about to dispose of Cage here. . . Change of plan?”

Satino’s face became white. Something inside that conversation had just seriously spooked him. He peered down at his gun and then back up towards me first, and then Brine.

“Are you sure about this? . . . Alright Boss. Its for the company.”

Satino turned and unloaded three rounds at Brine. Two of them struck him in the chest, and one struck him in the forehead, causing him to fall over dead in complete shock. Satino’s hands shook, in near fear of himself. He turned towards me.

I decided to put up my shovel towards him in quick self defense. If he was going to murder me I could at least try to injure him with a well placed throw.

Satino still kept the phone up to his ear. “Its done. . . Yes. Yes I understand.” He then motioned toward me. “Cage, hand me the red briefcase.”

I did this and he grabbed it, setting it down beside him. Then he handed the phone to me. “Boss wants to talk to you.”

“About what?” I asked, confused.

“I don’t know.” Satino replied. I believed him, he looked as if he had nothing to hide.

I grabbed the phone.

“Yeah Boss?”

“The combination to the black case is 445. Inside of it you will find a gun. You will use this gun to kill Satino, collect the red briefcase and bring it back to me. If you fail to do this, I will kill your family before I finish you off.”

The phone clicked and the call ended suddenly. I dropped the phone, and looked down at the black case.

“What did he want?” Satino asked.