[b]Peckham
4:24 PM
[/b]

“You just can’t barge through the door like that.”

Etan Ben-David sized up the half-naked woman, topless and wearing transparent knickers. 

“Yet, here I am,” he said. “Apparently I can just barge through the door like this. Where is your boss?”

Realizing that she was naked, the woman quickly covered her breasts and scowled.

“Piss off before I--”

Etan silenced her by wrapping his hand around her mouth. Her eyes bugged out at the act and she started to claw at his hand. He flicked his wrist and tossed her to the side. Tottering on heels that were already too tall, she stumbled to the floor as Etan walked down the hallway towards the door.

“What the fuck?”

Sidney Greenstein was starting to stand up behind his desk when he froze, the eyes behind his thick glasses focusing on the gun in Etan’s hand.

“Isaac sends his regards, Sidney.”

“Oh, fuck,” Greenstein said with a sigh. “I didn’t do a goddamn thing, you Israeli fuck. I don’t know why you’re here.”

Etan crossed the distance of the small office until he stood best Sidney, the barrel of the pistol pressed against his temple. Etan could tell that it was taking every bit of Greenstein’s self-control to not make his knees knock together. 

“Then why the reaction?”

“Let a fucking super-commando Jew shove a gun in your face and see how brave you are.”

“It has happened before,” said Etan. “With Jews, Palestinians, and Egyptians. When a man holds a gun to your head, his nationality and religion suddenly mean very little. Mr. Zinkman’s son confesses to giving some drug dealers the information on his father’s store and how to rob it, I wanted to walk into their office and demand answers, but I did not.”

“Well, why the fuck didn’t you?!”

“Because I am informed that they are too powerful, too many of them. I am a soldier, but I am just one man against many. But you, Sidney, you are just one man. A man that Mr. Zinkman knows cannot be truly trusted, a man who collects dirty secrets and knows many bad people.”

He tucked the gun back into his shoulder holster and walked to the other side of the desk. Etan sat in one of the two chairs there, looking up at Sidney. The old man still stood, his hands frozen in the air.

“Mr. Zinkman knows you would never be so stupid as to take from him. But, he also knows that you know people who would. People who are stupid and reckless. Tell us who they are and no harm will come to you. Refuse or lie, and I will do everything in my power to make your death as uncomfortable as possible. ”

“Fucking hell,” Greenstein said softly. “I’m sorry, kid… okay, here’s what I know...”


----


[b]Mitcham 
6:31 PM[/b]


Charlie sat upright in the driver’s seat of the car. The light of the pawnshop across the street had just gone out. About bloody time he thought. He’d been sitting on the place for hours. Seeing as how it was Good Friday, the place was dead. No sign of Freddy at all, and no other customers had come in after Charlie left earlier. There was really no reason to be open today, but Charlie supposed greed and opportunism never took a holiday. 

Out from the door came the short, fat little man in a leather jacket. He locked up the shop and started on foot towards a parked car halfway down the street. Charlie checked his watch. Bobby had never came back after leaving for the meeting with Coach. Maybe that was a good sign that Coach’s lead was panning out. It made Charlie feel better about following this one.

The pawnbroker’s car started, backfiring as he accelerated down the street. Charlie started his own car and waited twenty or so seconds before pulling out onto the street to follow. The two cars formed a convoy of sorts down the Mitcham street. Charlie smiled to himself as he followed the oblivious little fucker. He really had no idea he was being followed. How stupid must he be to not even check for such a thing?

Thirty seconds after Charlie started off down the road, a third car pulled into the street and the two-car convoy became three. Keeping his distance, Etan Ben-David followed Charlie’s car north out of Mitcham and towards Balham, Battersea, and the city of London proper.