In A Cold Sweat

Chapter Thirty-one

When it came time for the main event of the evening, Irish Stevie Dudgeon came to the ring with a small entourage, accompanied by The Orange and the Green, an old Irish drinking song about an Irishman whose father was a Protestant and mother was a Catholic. There was a large cheering section in attendance for the fighter from Hoboken, New Jersey.

However, when it came time for Frank Sparrow to make his way to the ring, the crowd prepared for his usual big entrance, with his big entourage, lights, props, dancers and smoke, accompanied by the live music of whatever Bronx rapper was hot at the time. But not that night.

That night, Sparrow came out with just his trainer and cut man to a recording of the LL Cool J classic, Mama Said Knock You Out. Sparrow always wore fancy robes and took his time getting to the ring, stopping to shake hands and greet fans, a tactic designed to make his opponent wait, but not that night. That night, Sparrow entered the arena wearing a wife beater, and he and his corner men ran to the ring.

There was something else different about Sparrow that night. He had developed a reputation for coming out cold, therefore it always took him a few rounds to warm up; a fact Mylo counted on. That night, Sparrow entered the ring dripping with sweat.

Instead of sitting quietly and meditating about the fight as he usually did, Sparrow stood up and meditated, throwing the punches and making the faints and moves he saw in his mind. No weaknesses, he remembered Black telling him. Sparrow kept moving during the national anthem and the introductions, so when the bell sounded, he came out ready for battle.

When Black and Nick returned to their seats, Freeze had arrived and was sitting next to Wanda. Mylo was there as well. He was sitting on the other side of the ring in a spot where Black could both watch him and get to him quickly if it came to that. Before the fight began, Mylo was joined at ring side by agent Masters. Bobby leaned close to Black. “Ain’t that the guy from the pictures with Mylo?” he asked quietly.

“I got him.”

“Yeah, but who is he?”

“A dead man,” Black said as the bell rang to begin round one.

Sparrow practically ran across the ring and began working his left jab. Dudgeon, an excellent defensive fighter and a phenomenal counter puncher, gave ground and blocked the majority of Sparrow’s jabs and waited for an opportunity to get in some shots of his own.

Sparrow threw a lead right, followed by an over hand left that caught Dudgeon flush on the chin before he could counter punch. The punch hurt Dudgeon and backed him up. Sparrow stayed with him and backed Dudgeon to the ropes with a barrage of lefts and rights. Dudgeon covered up, and finally grabbed Sparrow and held him until the referee stepped in to separate the fighters. Sparrow took two steps back, but went right back at Dudgeon when the ref resumed the action.

Dudgeon came forward, winging lefts and rights. Sparrow backpedaled, but kept working the jab. The fighters traded shots in the center of the ring. Sparrow knew from watching films of Dudgeon that he was susceptible to the lead right and the over hand left. He kept the pressure on and it wasn’t long before Dudgeon once again found his back against the ropes, hurt and taking punches. Once again, Dudgeon held on and waited for the ref to come separate them, but Sparrow landed several hard rights to Dudgeon’s middle section that took his breath away before the ref stepped in.

When the contest continued, Sparrow threw the lead right and practically pushed Dudgeon back. He was hurt from over hand lefts to the head and was totally defensive against the ropes, blocking some but taking hard shots from the champ, who wouldn’t let up. He stepped in and threw a double right uppercut to the jaw and followed it up with a left that dropped Dudgeon to the canvas.

The crowd, which had been on their feet since the first big punch, went wild as the referee counted Dudgeon out at two minutes and fifteen seconds of the first round.

Black could see the look of horror and confusion on Mylo’s face as the ref raised the champ’s hand in victory. He glanced over at Freeze; he was shouting and beating his chest like it was him who had just dropped Dudgeon. At that point, Black was sure that he hadn’t betrayed him. He felt relieved that Freeze knew nothing about the fix and turned all of his attention to Mylo. Black looked at Bobby. “Tell him,” he said, and kept his eyes on Mylo who was arguing with Masters.

At Mylo’s assurance that Sparrow would lose the fight by knock out in the first round, Masters had bet heavily on Dudgeon.

Bobby turned to Freeze and pulled him closer. “You know your boy Mylo tried to fix the fight.”

“What? Mylo did what?” Freeze shouted over the noise.

“Had the fight fixed,” Bobby said. “Set it up for Frank to take a dive in the first round until Black set him straight.”

“Where that nigga at?” Freeze said, looking around the garden.

“I got him,” Black said as the ring announcer made the decision official. “Come on.”

Black, Bobby, Freeze and Nick left the ladies behind and had just begun making their way through the crowd to get to Mylo, when Sparrow jumped up on the ring ropes and pointed his glove at Mylo.

“What’s he doing?” Masters said to Mylo.

Mylo looked up at Sparrow calling him out, and then turned and saw Freeze fighting his way through the crowd and coming toward him. “Shit!”

“What?” Masters shouted.

“Here comes Freeze,” Mylo shouted back and he and Masters began making their way toward the aisle. Mylo looked at Sparrow on the ropes again and knew that not only had Sparrow double crossed him, but had told Freeze about the fix as well.

This wasn’t how Black wanted it to go. He wanted to be able to walk up to Mylo after the fight and take him away quietly. He hadn’t counted on Sparrow getting up on the ring ropes and calling Mylo out. Now they had to fight their way through the crowd to catch up with him.

As soon as Mylo and Masters could, they quickly separated.

“Freeze. You and Nick get Mylo. Bring him to the parlor,” Black said, referring to the funeral parlor that they used to dispose of dead bodies. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Where you goin’?” Nick asked.

“Get Mylo.”

“What about him?” Nick asked quietly about Freeze.

“He’s good. Just get Mylo,” Black said and he and Bobby went after Masters. All they knew is that Masters was involved with Mylo in the plot to kill Black and that was enough reason to kill him.

Masters made his way out of the Garden as quickly as he could. Not knowing that Black was on to him, he wasn’t in any particular hurry; he just wanted to get out of there. Masters had trusted that Mylo had the fight fixed and had bet a hundred thousand dollars on Dudgeon. There was a part of him that was glad that Freeze was after Mylo and would most certainly kill him. The operation was coming to a close and Mylo had outlived his usefulness. The plan was always to kill him. Better that Freeze kill the rouge agent than for Masters to have it on his plate.

When Masters made it to the street, he looked around for a second and began walking up 34^th Street toward Meyers garage where he had parked his car. He gave the attendant his ticket and waited for his car, still thinking about the hundred thousand that Mylo had cost him.

As soon as the attendant was out of the car, Masters jumped in and rolled slowly toward the street. He saw, but didn’t pay any attention to, the people on the sidewalk waiting for him to pull into the street. Masters didn’t see Bobby nod to Black from across the street.

Black stepped up to the car with his gun drawn and fired three times. The first shot broke the glass. The next two shots hit Masters in the head. The people nearby scattered as Masters’ head hit the steering wheel and the cars horn filled air. Black put his gun away and walked away from the scene quickly.

Meanwhile, Mylo had made it out of The Garden and was trying to make it to his car. It was parked three blocks away on 35^th street, between 5^th and 6^th avenues. He looked