Abacus

no,” the old man said from his seated position. “I am here to explain. We did not shoot you. You of all people kn ow we don’t do half jobs.”
    Randall shuffled over to the old man and pointed his finger angrily inches from his face. “Well, why treat me like a leper after all we have done together. Why abandon me like that? I trusted you, you were the only person I could totally rely on and you betrayed me. You make me sick,” he said, tempted to hit the old man.
    “If it makes you feel better, hit me,” he urged. “Get it out of your system.”
    Randall’s raised open hand shook with fury as he contemplated the slap. He looked at the perishing flesh on the man’s ageing hands as they draped over the armrests. He couldn’t bring himself to doing it. Pointing to the door, he yelled, “Have your say and fuck off! Just fuck off out of here before I change my mind and flog you.”
    Randall had always wanted to meet Noel face to face. He always wondered what he looked like, but these were definitely not the circumstances under which he expected their first meeting to take place. Randall’s fury did not appear to rattle him at all. He seemed calm.
    “They were goi ng to let you go, you know,” he said, clasping his hands under his chin.
    “If you had gone into hiding or taken off, DL were going to let you live. Start a new life. You have done so much we thought you needed a real life. You have carried so much pain. We thought you had done enough for society and you deserved peace. They agreed to let you go, let you spend time with your family with no more burdens in your life.”
    “And what if I didn’t go?”
    Noel shook his head. “Deep down I knew there was a fair chance you wouldn’t go. I thought there was a chance you would be stubborn and stay.”
    “So why tell me you don’t exist?”
    “To try and scare you into going. We should have known that you wouldn’t budge. You are a product of our making. We should have known that when cornered, you would come out fighting.”
    “You did underestimate me. But I don’t understand why you were not just upfront with me. Tell me my options.”
    “They used the exercise for another purpose.”
    “An d what was that?”
    “ The Abacus has advised DL to move you further up the food chain. By telling you DL did not exist, it was a test. A way of determining if you were ready to take on things on a larger scale. The fact you toughed it out and stayed meant you passed, and now they deem you fit to take up this new role. Congratulations.”
    “Cong ratulations? Are you serious? After all you put me through, you think a simple congratulations is enough?”
    “I t is a tough gig, you wanted to scale things up so you now have the chance to do that.”
    Randall walk ed around the room thoughtfully. Whilst he was still upset with his treatment, everything now made more sense. “And what about that psychopath Leanne, she would have to be sent from you, wouldn’t she?”
    “Yes , she was. You see, we knew about the list you were compiling in the small book. So we sent her in to work through your list and knock them off systematically. Everything seemed to work quite well, don’t you think?”
    “I suppose so,” Randall said , shrugging.
    “So what we are now proposing to do is to put you in another environment where you will become your own Abacus and determine the targets for yourself. You will be given a green light to kill those you choose, under our protection and authority.”
    “And what about Leanne?” Randall asked.
    “She will lay low for a while, but she is at your service whenever you need her, and you will need her, trust me.”
    “And the moleskin book?”
    “W e had the book and destroyed it. The threat by her was designed to ensure you did not do anything rash in regards to her.”
    Randall sat on t he end of the bed opposite Noel. Looking out the window, he tried to take it all in. He had so many questions to ask but he could not think of them all right now. “So who shot at my family? And who shot at me?” he asked, coming to life.
    Noe l handed him two passport-sized photos. “These two are personally responsible for both shootings, they are from a local OMCG.”
    Randall looked at the photo s and raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure why they have targeted me, but that will all end now.”
    “We were going to finish the m off for you,” Noel explained. “But we figured you had a vested interest in sorting them out