by Michael Joy
ankles.
"Someone threw him off the top of his building, it wasn't me."
"So who is your paymaster?"
"One of the guys who died said we were recruited by Russian Mafia, guy calling himself Ivan the Terrible in Chicago. Don't look at me I didn't give him that name, I saw the guy once in the distance before he drove away in a big black armored Humvee not the civilian version, the real deal. I don't know where he got the military version people claim he even has a real machine gun mounted on it."
They stuck the gag back in his mouth. "We will keep this one for now. Can you learn whether what he says of this gangster is correct?"
I was on leave but it was now night time, so people I worked with were arriving to go on duty in Miami. They got on the data base and told me that such a man did exist and he was suspected in the slaying of more than a dozen people related to among other things his meth business. He was particularly noted for hiring ex-military thugs and using high tech equipment. His name had been floated as being a frequent employer of the disgraced Pete Donner.
When the Sasquatch told me I could leave I gathered my possessions and left at speed. I now know too much about their people.
The story made headlines even the densest reporter could not chose to miss the connection. There had been two bombings both occurred at exactly the same time in different parts of the world. Early on a Sunday morning in Bern the largest branch office of an international company was attacked, one attacker wearing a hooded cloak and on stilts had walked up to the large plate glass window beside the security doors and had thrown a small concrete bench through the glass. The other hooded figure had thrown at the two security men heavy bags of what turned out to be damp clay which knocked them stunned to the ground. They were then disarmed and bound before being carried out of the lobby by the attackers. Security cameras showed the attackers had left behind a small package. Three minutes later when the police were arriving on the street outside the lobby was decimated by a bomb which experts estimated was composed of less than five pounds of fertilizer and diesel fuel. The part that reporters focused on was that the two security guards were tied to barrels each of which had held more than four hundred pounds of the same compound. Spray painted on the sidewalk in letters five feet high was a message. "Two Hundred employees Monday to Friday, withdraw the two million euro reward. S."
The other event was in Chicago in the middle of a windy night when downed branches were setting off motion sensors in a high security estate three armed guards were killed with arrows. Then breaking in the back door near the six car garage, what were referred to as commandos went through the house. Armed men died of various forms of blunt force trauma, women were most often tasered at a distance so they could not give alarm. The bodies of nine men were deposited on the front lawn, the women were tied comfortably to chairs within the house. The final touch of this tableau was Ivan the Terrible seated in a reclining chair in the driveway.
He began screaming at the police officers as they left their cars telling them that the Big Foot who had killed his men had warned that they would detonate the explosives strapped under his chair if the police approached within fifty yards. This would not just kill him but also the police officers. While they called for the bomb squad and kept their distance the bomb exploded, possibly by accident at about the moment he finished his statement that he had chosen to hunt them and they had expressed their displeasure.
Afterwards they found a spray painted message at the side of the house, "2 million euros, seek big money, die young. S."
Two days later websites were deluged with statements that an unknown environmental organization, who were tired of media wasting their time with mythical creatures like mermaids and Big Foot while polar bears and dolphins were genuinely threatened was responsible for the attack on the media headquarters other rumors surfaced that rival drug dealers had killed Ivan.
I remembered how Speaker had said that he was unusual in that he was willing to lie.
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If you have enjoyed this story, but would enjoy less talk and more action try the novel
"Hunting Werewolves in Miami" by Michael Joy
