Hitman's Creed - 29

 

Joey stared stonily at Glenn. "Are you sure you want some novice helping you?"

"Get over it, kid. You know what I said was the truth." Glenn pocketed Miriam's phone when she handed it to him, wrote down the number Mary gave him and said to Joey, "Now move it. The sooner we get this done the sooner Fairburn will be out of our hair."

Joey followed Glenn upstairs, still pissed as hell but at the same time very interested in what Glenn was planning. The wood-paneled room they entered was obviously used as Glenn's office, with shelves along one wall and catty-corner from them a large desk with a computer and all the necessary peripherals.

"Nice," Joey said almost enviously with a nod toward the computer.

Glenn shrugged as he sat down and booted it up. He logged in, hit the internet, worked through several screens until he got to the email account he needed. He sent a message to his hacker, and then while he waited for a reply he turned to look at Joey.

"I know you're angry with me and I'm sorry but this isn't a game or a textbook exercise. Your father needs to be stopped and I intend to do just that."

"I understand, but you're talking like a gunslinger going off to a shootout on Main Street or something," Joey replied, leaning against the wall by the desk as he stared at Glenn.

"Exactly." Glenn cracked a small grin for a second. "Maybe not on Main Street, but your father is a bastard and killer who seems to have no boundaries. I plan to find out where he's gone to ground and deal with him."

"Kill him?"

"If necessary, yes."

"There are laws against that, you know," Joey told him somewhat snarkily.

Glenn nodded. "I'm well aware of that. I'll try avoid it but if it comes down to him or me then I'm not going to wait for some lawyer to tell me if I'm in the right or not."

"I can help."

"How? Could you shoot a man if you had to?"

Joey's mouth tightened. "To save a life, I think so."

"Have you ever fired a gun?"

"I've gone hunting a few times with friends."

"Kill anything?"

Joey shook his head.

"Why not?"

"We didn’t come across any deer, which is what we were hunting," Joey admitted. "But I could have, if we had," he added somewhat defiantly.

Glenn rubbed his forehead between his fingers. "You've held a hunting rifle, probably practice shot it at a few trees, never even killed a rabbit or a bird to say the least of anything bigger. Like I said earlier, right now you're all book-learning with nothing practical to back it up. No way in hell do I want you to have my back in a situation like this. You'd probably end up either as a hostage or dead."

"You don't know that," Joey spat out angrily.

"You're right, I don't, but now's not the time to test your mettle. I don't want to be worrying about you when all my concentration should be on him."

"As if you would," Joey muttered, then said quietly seconds later, "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"Yeah it was because I would. Even if you were just, well, any old someone I would, but you're not." He sighed to himself when Joey's eyes lit up. "And don't take that as some kind of romantic declaration, kid. I'm fond of you; I don't want to see something happen to you."

"Fond?" Joey scowled. "Mothers are fond of their kids; kids are fond of their pets."

"Bad analogies. Mothers love their kids and kids love their pets and… fuck…"

"And?" Joey said, pushing for what he wished Glenn would say and knew he wouldn't.