The Cornered Lynx

By Kapt. Nemo

 

Author’s Note: mio gatto is Italian for “my cat.”

Disclaimer: I don't own any bit of Banana Fish.

 

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Darker and Deeper than the widest ocean

The Sleepless city dances in ceaseless motion

A discotheque of buildings, with their spiked and gleaming coiffure

Smoking, drinking starlight, and still it's not enough

Hidden in the city's depths, the lynx is out of sight

Found only when he's looked for in the black blanket of night

A different world from daytime, of drugs and sex and booze

Where law itself has no meaning, for he makes his own rules

This discotheque is but a jungle, in for the lynx to play

And in this exotic, sleepless place, the lynx shall seek his prey.

 

Part One: Icy-eyed Carlo

 

Ash crept over the icy ground, his feet crunchlessly padding towards the alleyway.  Even the boldest of teenage boys would get chills while doing so, and any normal human being wouldn't dare--especially on a December midnight in New York City.  Noiselessly, as opposed to the thudding footsteps he heard everywhere in the city that was ever wide-awake, he found his target, leaning against the dumpster, smirking.

 

"'Lo, Ash . . . long time, no see.  Whatcha been doin' in this neck `o the woods?"

 

Ash coldly stared at him.  "Not fucking you, that's for sure."  The man further exposed his appearance in the lamplight as he moved towards the cucumber-cool blonde, whose aura was crisper than the skin of the wintry air.

 

The man displayed a thick thatch of well-kept chestnut hair, frayed over rich, Sicilian skin.  His cerulean eyes sparkled in amusement-blue as the sea, and malicious as the victims it takes in a typhoon.  "Say, now . . . let's not get catty, eh?  It's been--what, three years?"  The man moved closer to Ash.

 

"What do you want, Carface?"

 

"It's Carlo . . . .  You remember, don't you?"  Carlo moved his face against Ash's, seductively purring in his ear and nuzzling his neck.  "Mmm . . . about this, too?"

 

Ash remained as he was, poised and still as a statue.

 

"After all, Ash . . . we are two of a kind . . . ."  He murmured, tracing his tongue down the bottom of his earlobe, following the contours of his neck.

 

Ash broke his frozen position and grabbed Carlo's left arm, pulling it around his back and deftly gripped his neck, perfectly ready to break both.  Carlo gasped in painful pleasure.

 

"Stop shitting me.  You're going to tell me what you want and why you sent that idiot paper boy for me . . . or else suffer the loss of an arm and neck."

 

Carlo coughed and chuckled, his breath coming out in tight spurts through the lack of air, making tiny puffs of steam exude from his rosewood lips.  "Oooh . . . still the feisty little cat you always were, eh?  How exciting.  Well, let me tell you something, mio gatto . . . you'd better be a little nicer to me.  Treat me nice, and Uncle dearest won't have to be so rough with you.  Nor will I, for that matt--ugh!!!"  Ash tightened his grip on Carlo's neck, bringing the vertebrae to their breaking point.  "WAIT!  Ash!  You don't want to kill me . . . your little Japanese friend is all alone . . . ."

 

Ash paused, his glare burning into the crystal orbs of the nephew of one of the world's most powerful mobsters.

 

Taking advantage of Ash's attention, Carlo continued.

 

"Your little happy Jappy's all alone right now, isn't he?  Well, maybe with friends, but do you honestly think they can take on Dino's men?"

 

"You're a liar, you sonofabitch.  Dino's men don't know where we live."

 

"Oh, please, Ash . . . .  I would have expected that you'd have learned from experience with my Uncle . . . .  Uncle Dino always knows where you are.  You can always run, but you can't hide when the city that never sleeps has a Papa that never blinks."

 

Ash frowned, holding off for a moment.  Shit, he thought.  Can't lie my way out of this one . . . how long has this Guido been spying on me?  And just what the hell is he after?  Ash released the hold on his neck and whipped his arm around, shoving Carlo into the brick wall of the alleyway.  A string of obscenities and a loud thunk of his forehead ensued.  Ash still held his arm twisted behind him, his fingertips welting the smooth, tanned flesh.  "Just tell me what you want.  Then maybe I'll let both you and your arm leave unscathed."

 

"Ngh . . . eh . . . heh heh . . . you're . . . being bold . . . again . . . little lynx . . . .  Not a wise . . . move--ngh!!"

 

"Don't preach to me, Carface, just tell me what the fuck you're after."

 

"Ugh . . . well . . . I--I would've thought . . . it'd be . . . obvious . . . ."  He gasped for the sweet, night air, filling his lungs with cold, hard, oxygen.  "I want . . . what Uncle Dino wants . . . what everybody . . . it's you, Ash . . . and that's not all . . . .  I have what you want."

 

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to be continued