Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. The stories contain mature sexual content and violence as well. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 28
The sky was still dark as the plane climbed into the clouds, leaving the shell-shocked victims of Las Vegas behind it. Maximus Savage looked out the window, smiling. Tomorrow, the world would wake up to news of more horrific exploits of the Savage Gang.
Savage had needed to counter Rocco Lynch’s failures, but he couldn't travel to Pennsylvania to do so, as it would send the wrong message — that his men couldn’t get the job done without him. This would be counterproductive to his goal, which was to intimidate the people of Harrisburg.
Instead, Savage had turned his attention elsewhere. He needed something bigger than the gang's usual operatons in other cities. He needed a hit to grab headlines. A hit to terrify people.
He smiled, thinking about it. The people of America would wake up in a few hours to see footage of Savage himself leading a team of eight men onto the set of a Las Vegas reality television show. The show, like similar drivel clogging the television networks, was set in a house with a group of twenty-somethings. Cameras ran constantly, and those same cameras had caught footage of Savage and his men storming the house, before breaking limbs and smashing faces.
Ten bodyguards had confronted them, and Savage and his men had incapacitated them within seconds. Four bodyguards would require extensive hospital care for facial fractures and other injuries. The gang had then moved on to the cast and crew, who had fared no better. Savage chuckled as he thought of the show’s heartthrob on his knees, begging for mercy. Savage had responded by breaking both of his arms and smashing his face into a mirror.
When the gang finished, not a person was left standing or uninjured, and Savage and his men had made off with the expensive jewelry for which one of the female cast members was famous. By the time the police arrived, Savage and his men had been on his private jet, flying back to Ohio. All in all, it had been a good night.
Savage sat in his seat near the front of the plane, the spoils from the robbery on a table to his right, and twirled a necklace in his hands. Now it was time to address another problem in Harrisburg. He called Lynch, not caring if he woke him.
“Yes?” Lynch answered, his voice scratchy with sleep
“These guns have become a problem, Rocco,” Savage said.
Savage could almost hear Lynch swallow on the other end of the call. Savage remained silent, allowing Lynch to squirm.
“They traced them?” Lynch asked in a low voice.
“Yes, they fucking traced them,” Savage answered. “Rocco, what is rule number one?”
“Intimidate,” the man answered without hesitation.
“And rule number two?”
“Leave no evidence behind.”
“And what is the reason for rule number two?” Savage asked.
“The less they know about us, the easier our job is.”
“Much easier,” Savage said, like a teacher lecturing a high school student. “The FBI doesn’t know who any of us are, and they still have yet to discover one of our hideouts. You might put that track record in danger, though.”
“The trace won’t —”
“Shut up and listen!” Savage snapped. “Since learning of your screwup, I’ve been digging, and learned that Grim delivered the weapons directly to your hideout. How fucking stupid are you?”
“But I thought you trusted the guy?” Lynch protested. “And I vetted him, too. And I did our usual deal, cutting him in on a very small stake of our profits here, just like the arrangements we’ve made in other cities! So he’s got a vested interested in keeping his mouth shut.”
Savage gripped the armrest of his seat, nearly crushing it. “Rocco, I swear, if you weren’t a friend, I’d come there right now and smash your skull in. You don’t get it, do you? He might have every intention of being loyal, but he hasn’t been through our training and indoctrination. We don’t know what he’ll do if the cops turn up the heat on him. We also don’t know how smart he is, or what evidence he’s left sitting around that might lead back to you.”
“I see your point,” Lynch murmured. He sounded so defeated Savage almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“Here’s the deal, Rocco. My guy at the FBI can hide any evidence of the gun trace in their system, including remotely wiping any info from the devices of his agent. But I don’t want to find out she has hard copies with her. She, the other agent, and and some writer chick are heading to Grim’s gun shop tomorrow morning. We need to take care of your problem. They’re the only ones who might know about the results of the trace.”
“I can take care of it. Tomorrow morning I’ll knock off Grim, the FBI agents, and this writer, all in one fell swoop. I’ll take a bunch of my guys, and they won’t stand a chance.”
“No,” Savage replied. “We need this to be different. The entire shop needs to go, and it needs to look like an accident. Any evidence in the shop needs to vanish, and Lockheed and everybody with her needs to die. But this one time, we can’t be obvious about it. We don’t want anybody digging too deep, and maybe looking into the FBI’s backups, after we eliminate their agent.”
"So you're saying…" Lynch replied.
"I'm saying you need to be ready for Lockheed's visit, and make sure the shop and everybody in it ceases to exist."
“I’ll get right on it,” Lynch replied. “Tomorrow, everyone at that place will be dead and any evidence will be gone.”
Forward to Chapter 29 (link works after Chapter 29 goes live)
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
Savage Gang’s freaking ruthless, man......a Las Vegas reality show? They’d better hope they didn’t leave anything important behind that could lead back to them, though I suppose they’ve already got their hands full with the gun situation. I’ll admit, for the first part of the chapter, I thought we were about to go into another flashback because of the mention of the plane and Las Vegas, but it was something else entirely.
Okay.....so when Savage and Lynch were talking about sacking the gun shop and killing everyone in it---Lockheed, Grim, and Harper included---the meme of the “Spanish Laughing Guy” (a.k.a. Juan Joya Borja/“El Risitas”) immediately popped into my head. If you’re not familiar with the meme, just look up any of those above terms on Google; it’s basically nothing but that man laughing for a good few seconds. Perfect to use when you aren’t buying something for even a second; I personally don’t think this “mission” to wipe Lockheed, Harper, and their allies off the board this early is going to succeed. At all. Especially if this novel is anywhere near as long as the previous ones. Plus, we’d still need time to give T.L Grim some characterization, and having him only in one or two chapters before having him get killed in a Savage Gang attack.....meh. Not sure how I’d feel. Then again, he isn’t a particularly major character.
Okay. At most---at most---I can only see Grim dying. And maybe Lockheed and Harper will just barely make it out or something; maybe with some help from Sapphire.
They REALLY don’t want those women on their trail, and I can see why. Their desperation’s starting to show quite a bit, haha! And I’d start treating Lynch better if I were Savage; Lynch is probably going to decide that he’s had enough at some point.
Wonder what’s going to happen next.....!