The Miami Broncos

Chapter 16: Silent as Stone

Written by Francois Guint-Riel (FGR)

I heard the phone ring in my sleep, like an awakening dream, as if something was telling me that I was better off opening my eyes before the damn thing actually did. As I gave a growl-stricken yawn and disputed to myself if I should just go back to sleep or get my pistol and shoot the telecommunication device, the black plastic thing rang out on my bedside table. Mist had been visiting Sara at her place last night, and I simply put if down to the fact that she was calling to either ask me for a ride back or brag about the really hot time that she’d enjoyed with the vixen, something I didn’t even twitch at hearing anymore. Sure we were married, but seeing as both of us were sort of libertines when it came to our free time, neither of us had the moral authority to say anything so we just lived the life as long as we possibly could. I picked up the receiver, ready to hear Mist on the other end but the voice was nor a lynx, or even female.
-I’m looking for Don Ulrich Luther, said the voice, which sounded a bit like another big cat’s.
-This could be, depending who’s asking, I replied. Name, affiliation..?
-This is state department special agent Yuri Norton. I was given this number by a kangaroo named Vincent, alias Jumpy.
-Right, Yuri, I said as I remembered the name from a few talks I’d had with Jumpy. Black mane lion, right?
-Last time I checked, chuckled the voice. I have some very sensitive information to give to you, if you would hear it.
-Insensitive to the point to be safe to be told over a phone line?
-Not quite so insensitive, corrected Yuri. Would it be possible for us to meet?
-Very, but where are you?
-At the airport, answered the lion. I can take a cab if you have a particular location in mind.
-I’ll send a limo, I corrected. Look for a black ford snub, and mention to the driver that you’re looking for Attila. He’ll drive you somewhere we can talk.
-Perfect, I look forwards to it.
-Me as well! See you then, Yuri.
I hung up before calling the mansion and having two drivers sent out, one at the airport and the other for me, the delay until his arrival long enough for me to get a good shower and put something on my back. Before taking off, I left a message with the front desk for Mist, in case she called while I was gone. I couldn’t help but wonder what in the word a State Department agent could be thinking to offer me information, but then again we had done some major favours for them and Jumpy had gotten along with him great the two times that they had worked together, therefore it wasn’t inconceivable that there was some relationship between us after all. Still, I let my mind wander as we pulled into the mansion’s parking lot, a few minutes before I saw the lion’s limo come in as well. He was certainly punctual, I had to give him that.
-Agent Yuri, I said as I came over to the car and shook the lion’s paw, I’m Don Ulrich of the Bronco Family. If you come this way, we can discuss things over inside.
-Thank you, grinned Yuri as we made our way to my office at the back of the building. I know this is a bit unconventional, but…
-Think nothing of it, I insist! Have a seat, please.
-Very comfortable, sighed the cat as we took our seats. You have quite the place here, Don Ulrich.
-Say, you can drop the ‘Don’ if I can drop the ‘Agent’, I laughed. So, what’s a good soul from the state so concerned with that it sees him come down the coast? I don’t remember ever meeting anyone from your agency.
-No, I don’t think you ever have, nodded Yuri. Actually, the information I have to give you is mostly what brought me here. It’s concerning the incoming election for governor, you see. I’m sure you’ve heard of Jakob Prusset, the opposition for our incumbent eagle?
-Heard of him? I’ve heard too much about him and from him, I grunted. He really has a tooth against all manner of organized crime, and seems to classify us alongside street gangs, for what that shows you about his tact. I’m sure that if he gets the office, we’ll be in for a rough time, that’s a certainty, and that immunity we had is out the window as well right from the get-go.
-That’s the least of his talk, added Yuri. He’s a supremacist, Ulrich, a pure blood anti-anything that’ll turn this state upside down in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, that’s been kept out of the public eye, and any journalist that tried to get into that locked closet has ended up in a rather bad way. Recently, my supervisor, who was leading a discrete investigation into his life, disappeared from his home. Everyone knows that I’m his second in command, and I’m afraid that I’m in danger as well. I wanted to come here and talk to you about the situation and offer any help I could before something happened, which I’m almost certain will, eventually.
-Not if I have anything to say about it, I corrected, reaching across and patting Yuri’s arm. Stay here as long as you need, and we’ll see what can be done about this.
-Unfortunately, even our best analysts came to the same conclusion over and over, sighed the lion. Unless Jakob simply vanishes, and by that I mean vanishes, not assassinated, then this cannot be resolved.
-Both are possible, with the condition that no proof is ever found, I replied, looking at the ceiling, but this is sounding more like the planning of a political assassination then anything else I know. Not that I’m opposed to it, but it would certainly be a liability for anyone from the Family to do it.
-But you must know someone who could do it, insisted Yuri. I mean, there must be a few people out there that you know…
-Sell their services for the highest bidder? There are, but to call on them is a risk, a rather large one. Still, like I said, I’m not opposed to it. I’ll just call Tracks, if you don’t mind. He’s more aware of contractors then I am.
I took the phone and dialled to the deer’s cell, getting him on the line within two rings, and invited him to join our meeting, though I left the reason out for the time being. He was in the backyard tuning a few rifles so therefore we didn’t wait long to see him at the door, closing it behind him when I signed for him to do so.
-Tracks, said Yuri, getting up to give the buck a hug. I see you’ve been well!
-You as well, leo, smiled the deer. So there was something about a contractor?
-There is, I said as we filled him in on the situation. We need someone who can do this quietly and that worst come to worst, can’t be traced to us or the State Department.
-That’s pretty high profile, sighed Tracks, taking his muzzle in his hand. I know a few, but one really comes to mind. He’s expensive, but mind you, he’s done a few absolutely unimaginable contracts in his time. I met him once, and he gave me his card, here… Jean-Michel Gallet le Jeune. Do you want to contact him?
-Well, that would mean that we’re serious about this, I nodded. All right, pass me the card, Tracks.
The number on the card seemed to be a cell, but the country code before it seemed to indicate it was someplace in China. Still, I managed to get it right after two attempts, and a woman’s voice picked up on the other end.
-Hello, who is it?
-I’m looking for Jean-Michel Gallet, I stated. This is the right number?
-It is, but what do you require of Jean-Michel?
-A contract.
-Just a moment please, said the voice, fading to the background as another took over.
-Hello, said the new, deeper voice, this is Jean-Michel. My apologies for the first part of the conversation, but I must be careful, and always have strangers answer calls for me. What can I do for you?
-I have a contract to offer you, I said, a hit, but a clean hit with no evidence.
-As a hit should be, acquiesced the contractor. If you would give me details, I will give you my price.
-The mark would be Jakob Prusset, candidate for the governorship of Florida, in the immediate future. We desire a clean disappearance, if possible.
-Of course it is possible, assured the voice. My price would be two million, paid half in advance, half upon confirmation to an offshore account which I will communicate to you.
-Quite fair, I replied, jotting down the account number. I’ll transfer the payment immediately.
-I ask nothing more to start, replied Gallet. Good day, and I will advise you when I have finished with this.
-There goes, I said as the contractor ended the call. Tracks, could you find Yuri a room for a while, until we get our call back from this fine gentleman?

(Switch to Gallet)

I hadn’t really expected for anyone to remember me in Miami after I’d executed a quick contract there. To be blunt, I preferred when no one remembered me when I was somewhere, for my own good. An assassin who’s easy to remember isn’t all that good and gets to be a celebrity, and like all celebrities, dies young.  Being an armadillo, I was always at a staunch disadvantage on this point, due to the fact that the Second Genesis hadn’t seen many of my kind through and people tend to notice me when I appeared. I’d adapted, moving from more direct techniques in my first two years in the business to more long-distance means, anything from sniping to setting up traps of any kind. I was twenty-eight, with ten years of experience, though no one but me knew that. For all my friends and family knew, I was a cook at a local restaurant in Las Vegas, who I paid to repeat it like a parrot whenever anyone asked, a nice cover.

Now this contract, from the Bronco Family at that, for I had been able to easily trace the caller that had placed the order, required some artful thinking… Yes, artful. I knew the target, and had actually been offered two previous contracts on his head, though the clients had been unable to meet my price and took it back, something I took as a personal insult. After all, this was my living, and quite a complicated mark to take care of indeed. I checked my account for a few minutes, finally seeing the sum that my new client had promised appear, giving me the green light to start. If they wanted to make this creature disappear, then I would have to forgo any sort of indirect approach, which would give too much time for people to notice the result of my work, hence I’d have to think of something more discrete, more in the vein of an ambush where he would be isolated enough to take without prying eyes to see. With two contract offers on him previous, I had taken a certain interest in Jakob, and acquired a bit of information on him in case that someone would be so kind as to hire my services to eliminate him. I knew where he lived, a lavish residence in Fort Myers with all the latest security mortals could afford, too involved and safe for me to even think about infiltrating. He worked at a law firm in the same city, but there too, there would be witnesses a plenty, far too many for this business to be possible. That left two things, specifically the occasional rallies that he attended more and more frequently now that the elections were heating up, and the regular indiscrete encounters that the porcupine, such was his race, enjoyed. It wasn’t a very well-kept secret that his pastimes included womanizing and whore-taking, even if that meant philandering on his wife, a rather ugly trait. The two last options could perhaps together serve as a plan, couldn’t they? Visit a convention, propose a romantic meeting with a beautiful woman to my mark, and at the quiet meeting place where he would meet her, instead find me with a strangulation cord! Porcupine… Maybe not, rather something that would keep me from his quills… The femme’s murderer, poison, in the romantic’s beverage, champagne! Better, poetic, and quite easy to clean up once all is done. It was a beauty of a plan, really…

Four days layer I was surrounded by anxious and excited partisans outside a convention hall in downtown Miami. I didn’t remember the name of the place, nor did it matter. I never took note of the identity of my marks normally, and the details of their deaths usually also faded. I didn’t want to be filled with the memories of each either, as it would just make the contracts personal, which I really wanted to avoid at all costs. Digressing, I was in the crowd, waiting for Jakob to arrive so that we would be shown inside after a quick pass through the metal detector stations that the security had temporarily installed at the doors we would be taking. I had no concern about them, as I hadn’t brought anything with me that could arouse suspicion, aside from a small number of pancuronium bromide tablets, which could easily be passed off as an aspirin unless one sampled them, not that they’d say much about it after that. I tried to appear as overjoyed as the spiny beast arrived, shaking hands and greeting the front row of the crowd before entering with his bodyguards as the detector stations started filtering the attendance. I cooperated fully with the policemen, passing through the arch without so much as a sound, then continued on, following the crowd as the hall filled up to hear the speech the candidate had prepared. I had to concentrate to stay awake through the whole rant that he gave, but I could certainly understand why so many people wanted him dead! He had a hard line about almost everything from gun control to law enforcement, and even changing the guidelines for capital punishment that he described as ‘too forgiving to the criminals who deserve it the most’. I pretended to think that it was genius, as did everyone else around me, then as he finished up and came down to talk to his supporters, I managed to get close enough to lure him into a handshake and voice my offer.
-The campaign’s a real roller coaster, isn’t it mister Prusset?
-I try to weather it, replied the porcupine.
-I heard from a little bird that you like, eh, a certain kind of distraction? If that’s the case, I may have a worthy distraction indeed for you to enjoy.
-Well… if it’s somewhere close and you are sincere, maybe…
-My sincerity is complete, mister Prusset. The Royal, room 304 tonight, whenever you wish, a gentle mare of good breeding will be waiting for you, sir. They key will be with the concierge.
-Ah, wonderful, smiled Jakob as he left the handshake. As soon as this is over, I’ll visit…
-Of course, and good luck, sir.

I kept my face neutral as I felt a rush from the successful offer, then as my mark wandered off into the crowd once more I slipped back out of the hall and made my way to the hotel room I’d reserved under a false identity to preparing the stage. I ordered up a bottle of champagne about fifteen minutes before what I’d calculated to be the end of the rally, time enough for the three tablets I dropped into it to dissolve, but not so long as to allow them to form at the bottom of the bottle. I set it in the middle of the living room with two poured glasses, then hurried into the bedroom to wait. I’d paid a prostitute mare back in Vegas to record a few phrases that I thought would serve well, a nice pony I’d well, further entertained after that… remarkable stamina, really. Nonetheless, now all that remained was for Jakob to arrive for me to trigger the trap. Ten minutes later, earlier then I would have hazarded to guess, the door opened and I sat the porcupine walk in alone through the small gap I’d opened of the communicating door.
-Hello? Is there anyone here, he called out in a playful voice. I’m here!
-Hey there, said the recorded voice on my tape. I’m just getting ready.
-Is that champagne?
-Have some champagne, said the recorded voice. I bought just for us… just for you.
-Oh, that’s very nice, chuckled Jakob as I saw him walk towards it, then lifting a glass to his lips and chugging it down. Nice… but what the..!
Just as I’d planned, the porcupine dropped to his knees and grabbed his throat as the poison started its work, then collapsed on the ground as the relaxant effects kicked in. Two minutes later, I opened the door and walked over to check him out, finding no pulse on the mark, but out of precaution, snapped his neck just in case. I hadn’t been too imaginative for the disposal of the body, simply bringing a large trunk with me in my luggage that I could fit him into, albeit quite uncomfortably, though it hardly mattered as I stuffed him into it. Rolling it down to the lobby, I left for the parking, loading the case into the van I’d rented for the disposal before driving off out of the city. Heading up the 95, I stopped on a quiet stretch of highway and took out the trunk, dragging it off on the roadside along with a shovel to bury it, which took my a good while, but two million’s dollar’s worth of sweat wasn’t too much to put up with. I threw out the shovel a few kilometres down the road, then headed back to the hotel to gather my things and return home. Tidy, and no one the wiser, as the client had asked. America needed another Jimmy Hoffa story, didn’t it? There was something to this contract though, something a bit different. I didn’t have a habit of asking for motives, unless the contract was very tasteless, and even allowed myself to refuse some based on my sense of goodness. Call it ego for playing God, but some I just wouldn’t do. This one puzzled me a bit though. For political adversaries to want Jakob dead was logical, as was the other offer from a gun lobby organization, but the Bronco Family just didn’t strike me as anyone who would really have any stake in his demise. Maybe I’d get answers when I called them to confirm the assignment, which I did as soon as I got back to my room, right after having emptied the champagne bottle into the toilet and washed the bottle and glasses clean. It was late, ten thirty something, but I never wasted time when it came to closing a contract, just in case I needed to make some extra effort to convince the client that it had been executed. This one was a question of trust, seeing as how I had only my word to offer that I had seen it through. Still, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to push that hard…
-Hello, said the voice on the other end, the same I remember I had talked to before, who is this?
-This is Gallet, I replied. The mark was eliminated as per the terms discussed.
-I admire your efficiency, Gallet. I will transfer the outstanding sum on the contract immediately, if you wish. However, there is more to this story, if you want to write another chapter.
-I may, if I would be able to know more about the background of this story.
-The rest of this would have you learn it to be able to proceed, said the voice. Come to this address in Miami if you’re interested.
-I’ll be there in the morning, I stated.
-Very well, we’ll be waiting.
I hung up and checked my account to see the second million deposited, just as the client had promised, which put more faith in his new offer. It would be strange to meet a client in person, that’s for sure. I hadn’t done so in a very long time, since the very beginning of my career, when I had judged it too risky for both my identity and the proximity that it put me with them. If any law enforcement agency learned about me, they could just as well invite me to talk about a contract then arrest me on sight, something I couldn’t afford to have happen. Like I said though, there was something about this contract that seemed different, in a good way perhaps. I packed up my things and took my van back to the airport, dropping it off at the rental company’s 24 hour desk before continuing to the Greyhound counter and purchasing a ticket for Miami. The ride was smooth, as any that I’d taken on the bus line, allowing for me to sleep a few hours until we arrived at the downtown terminal. There, I rented another car, this time a nicer sports cabriolet just for the kick of it, driving to the address the client had given me as the sun rose. The location was a very nice mansion estate by the seaside, though the security was visibly quite heavy, a telling sign that it was the Family’s homestead. It was sort of a privilege to be invited there as a contractor, perhaps, and the polite tone of the voice that I talked with at the automated gate was certainly enjoyable. I followed its instructions and parked in the side lot, getting out after having holstered my Walther PPK/S in my inner breast pocket. It wasn’t a sign of distrust, but rather the opposite if I was allowed to keep it during my visit. Anyway, seeing the place, I would probably be turned into a colander if I ever drew it at a bad moment. A guard from the front door came to escort me in, waving to his colleagues that I was to be exempt of routine searches, instead shown inside for my meeting. I was lead through the mansion to the very back of it, where a tall black panther was apparently waiting, along with a black-mane lion in the classical federal agent getup, sounding some serious alarm bells in my mind, though the look of the lion didn’t seem to imply any sort of intent towards me, just anticipation.
-You must be Gallet, said the panther as I entered the room and the guard closed it behind me. I’m Don Ulrich Luther, of the Bronco clan. This is Agent Yuri, of the State Department.
-Glad to make your acquaintance, Gallet, said the lion as I shook his paw. My compliments go to you on your undertaking of the candidate’s execution.
-Yes! We were surprised how quickly you did so, very well done.
-I was only doing what I was hired to, I corrected.
-Modesty is useless to the professional, waved the panther. Now, let’s talk about this situation that we were hoping you would be interested in.
-Certainly, I nodded. I like my work to be like a well-rehearsed dance, and I’m not a huge fan of the surprises bad intel incurs.
We spent a good two hours and then some discussing the internal problems that the State Department had been suffering from as of late, and their inability to act overtly to correct it due to both policy and the very legality of the actions required. As soon as we got into the details, a striped hyena came in with a carafe of coffee and mugs, plus the usual ancillary to compliment it, winking in recognition at the Don. The lion prepared his cup first and really directed the focus of the meeting with a few observations.
-There are still a lot of things going on in our group that I don’t like, said the lion. First off is the disappearance of my superior, then the blockade that we were imposed when we tried to investigate Jakob.
-A single person couldn’t have that much influence, I commented. Is that what you were thinking?
-Precisely, nodded Yuri. There must be others that were on his side somewhere, close enough to appose a veto to our work. When they learn that he’s gone from the face of the Earth, I’m not certain what their course of action will be. Honestly, I’d rather not have to find out.
-So you want me to come in and check it out, I said with a confused expression, is that it? That puts me right in the lion’s den, if you don’t mind the pun.
-Not at all, chuckled the agent. Actually, I’m in charge while my supervisor’s missing, so I can bring you in under my authority without anyone to say a word against it. Plus, I could put you up for as long as it takes.
-Perhaps, because I can’t give you a timeline for the execution of this contract, I grunted.
-As for payment, started Ulrich, we could work out a sort of ongoing salary while you’re on this.
-I have a counter-offer, I started. Since I’m basically working for your agency, Yuri, would it be possible for a certain number of files to go missing on certain murder cases?
-You clean up the agency, I’ll clean up your files, grinned the lion. Fine, I think that’s a good agreement. After all, I suspect that most of them were put aside due to lack of evidence, right?
-I do hope that they were, otherwise that’s just unprofessional of me, I laughed. Well, it’s a deal! When do you plan on starting?
-I was heading back tomorrow, said Yuri. That sounds good?
-Like a beautiful melody, I replied.
-I’ll try and find you a place for tonight, said the panther, somewhere safe and comfortable.
-Actually, you gave me a two-bedroom, offered the lion. If you don’t mind a roommate, which you’ll tentatively have for this contract anyway…
-I might as well find out if I need earplugs now, I smiled. Thanks, I’ll get my things.
I turned on my heel with the lion behind me to get back to my ride and get my suitcases, my portable home, as I called them. The lion had good conversation, not shy in the least as we talked about right about anything all the way to the bedroom on the second level that we would be sharing for the time we were in Miami. We continued as I got the minimum out for the overnight stay, though I could tell that Yuri had pretty much put together a full profile of my personality, or at least based on what I’d told him, and voiced something that hit pretty hard, that I hadn’t really been ready to bring up.
-So you’re always on the move, aren’t you? I can see that you’re used to getting around in a pinch.
-Part of the job, I nodded. I really can’t say that I’ve ever stayed in one place for any length of time.
-Ever stop long enough to enjoy the cash you make?
-Once again, I have to say that it’s part of the job too. Imagine that I’m in a beach chair somewhere and some soul that recognizes me from someplace, what do I do? Yeah, that would be some vacation, trying to sneak back into some safe place while the guy blabbers to the authorities about having seen me!
-I’ve been on a few assignments like that too, grunted the lion, mostly scouting out gangs here and there in the state, though it felt good to get home after that and hang out with the guys from the office. Do you have anyone that you sort of talk to in your time off? You know, ‘the guys’?
-Never, I sighed. Anyone I meet is someone that could possibly talk about me to the wrong person and mark the start end of my career. This is actually the first time I’ve opened up to anyone in many a year, Yuri.
-That’s a lonely way to live, whined the lion. I’m sorry that it has to be this way for you, but you know...
-It’s a consequence of my decisions, and I knew it would be so when I started. Still, I look forwards to retirement, that’s for certain. Thanks for listening, actually.
-Hey, called Yuri, grabbing me across the shoulders, you have to let your guard down to breath once in a while.
-Yeah right, I grunted before taking the lion’s arm and flipping him over my shoulder onto the bed, bouncing on the cushions for a moment.
-That was quick, laughed the cat as he tumbled off the mattress to catch me off guard and take me down with him as he flopped back down. How was this?
-Predictable, I answered, but fun. I’m heavy, eh?
-Heavier then I would have thought. It’s the carapace, right?
-Check it out, I said as I raised the back of my shirt. Hard as stone, which sort of goes with my name.
-Gallet, yeah, chuckled Yuri. You know, I don’t want to sound too weird or anything, but I’ve never met an armadillo before you.
-And you wonder how the rest looks?
-I’ve never been able to find any pictures on the web, blushed the lion. It’s wrong to say, but...
-You want to get a look.
-I, well...
-If we’ll be staying under the same roof, I’m sure you’d have seen it sometime. In exchange, you do the same. Deal?
-Deal, nodded Yuri as we started taking off the clothes from our backs.
-You’re a fit cat, I said as Yuri stood proud in his briefs.
-Nothing compared to you, corrected the lion as I entered the same state. Well, I’d never have imagined that the world would be blessed with an Adonis like you! But you know, when I was talking about pictures...
-You meant this, I laughed as I took off my underwear. Eight inches of armadillo goodness, right here!
-And six and a half of prickly cat over here, returned Yuri as he did the same, looking over with a warm air.
- Verily, there seems to be. All right, let’s be honest, I said. You wanted more then this, don’t you?
-I... I saw what I wondered about, coughed the lion.
-You may be a good profiler, I chuckled as I walked over to trace a few lines on his chest, but I can tell you that I’ve become just as proficient at reading through fronts as any of your boys at the agency, capeesh?
-Sorry, grunted Yuri, reaching for his underwear. I don’t know what I was thinking there, I...
-You need to put aside those hours in the range and dedicate them to assertiveness reinforcement exercises, I laughed as I threw him on the mattress before jumping on the cat. You see on my part, I’m quite assertive.
-You are, are you?
-Quite. See, I had a certain plan regarding pleasuring myself with your hot body, then sleeping with you like a squeak toy. And see what I did?
-I could take lessons from you, grinned the lion as he fondled my crotch.
-My rates are reasonable compared to what I ask for contracts.
As we ploughed ahead in our explorations, I remembered the good practices I had been privy to from one of my first clients, a young street walking boy that had hired me to rid him of his pimp so he could leave the trade to return home. He hadn’t been able to come up with the full sum of the contract, therefore had offered me a night that I’d never forget. Yuri probably hadn’t expected for me to be so well versed in masculine affections, but the cat reeled and roared as I took him for a wild ride, slipping his cock all the way in, about five inches, before I rode him like a circus carousel, coercing him to jack me off while I did my work. I must have been right on target in terms of erotic sensuality, for the agent’s eyes were glazed over and his tongue hung loosely from the side of his mouth as he came, seconds before I shot off on his chest. I giggled as I worked my cum into his coat, kissing the cat and teasing his mouth until I simply gave a whine and got off him, standing up to work the cramps out of my rear.
-Was that about what you thought you were in for, I asked, or did you want a little extra?
-There’s an extra available?
-Sure there is, I smiled as I pull him to his paws and guided him to the shower. Close your eyes, Agent Yuri, and you’ll forget you’re still on Earth and not floating in heaven.
The cat gave a happy grin as he obeyed my recommendations and I gave him a delicate massage wash, getting him to purr harder then I’d ever observed any of his genus do. Half out of affection and half out of curiosity to get a better feel for me, he did the same with personalized variations, such as a percussion massage of my back plates, which I’d never had, to my great regret for it was an unimaginably pleasant feeling to experience. After a bit of rest, which even I thought I needed as the rest of my stamina and endurance to pain and exhaustion had vanished in the last seconds of my little lion ride. I’d been on the road longer then the last few days had seen me, but the state I’d found myself in after those hadn’t exactly rated as my best. That said and qualified, I normally didn’t have the safety of a roost to rest in either, an enjoyable difference indeed. Yuri woke up maybe thirty minutes later, though I was down another full hour before I could be persuaded to do anything else then breathe.
-Hey, called Yuri as he poked my feet, is the rock still alive?
-Barely, I chuckled, but it still is. Is there a reason why it should be dead?
-Well, if you don’t feel like a better picture of the fray you’re going to be thrown into when we get to Tallahassee, it’s your choice, but…
-Ah heck, I’m up, I sighed with a grunt as I sat up and stretched. Figure I need boxers for this?
-Not really, blushed Yuri, but if you put some on, I do to.
-Forget it, I giggled as I reached over and groped the cat’s sack. So, where am I going, Agent Yuri?
-This is the place, said the lion as he pulled up a building plan on his laptop. My office is there, and yours will be here. It’s been vacant for a year, so no one has any claim to it. As for whom you’re going to be, I’m still not there yet.
-I’m Special Agent Arsene Leblanc, of Interpol. I’m on a fact finding assignment regarding the persecution of biker organizations in the United States, and as there was a successful intervention made here a few years ago, my superiors decided that it was a good place for me to start my work, before moving on to Washington, and perhaps even Toronto, in Canada.
-I can’t believe how cool you stay when you say that, gaped Yuri. Do you think you can pull it off?
-I can get papers to back it up, just regular quality fakes, from a contact. They should do unless things get more complicated. If they do, I’m afraid that I’ll either have to leave your workplace or you’ll have to cover me a bit.
-That’s not a problem, waved the lion. Is there anything specific you need to know for this project?
-A list of the staff you want me to look into, with pictures or something I can identify them with as well as their addresses and contact information, and access to a telephone, internet, and whatever system you operate on. Internal mail, communication records, I need to be able to check on as well. If you can’t officially do it, I just need the internet access and I can do the rest.
-So you’re a hacker? Well, you’re certainly more into technology then I am.
-Comes with the territory, see. After all, there’s plenty of information waiting to be harvested on right about anyone if you know where to look. Here, pass me your laptop.
-Sure, grinned Yuri. You’re going to get something on me?
-Your credit card records, I said as I started to work. Here, I think I’ve got it. So you bought a rubber butt plug and three Speedos? Wow, you’re rather surprising, Yuri my man!
-Ah well you know, I get bored, and…
-Hey, no justifications required, you’re a fun-loving cat, that’s all.
-Right, I sure am. I have this list of employee profiles from the office, here. There are names, pictures, personal info and all that. Would this be good?
-It should do, I said as I looked over the files. Now I need a plan of the entire building, if you can manage that too.
-Got that here, nodded the lion as he opened another file.
-I love this sort of well-planned operation, I called out. All right, now when I’ll be there, I’ll try and figure who sits where and who wanders where. Normally, I can get an idea who are the angels and who are the demons after a few hours of observation. Don’t be surprised if I find out more then you think, though.
-Hey, you’re the professional, shrugged Yuri. I’m sure you wouldn’t have made it this far without a darn sharp mind. Man it’s getting late.
-Then let’s see if we can find some place to get a bite, eh? I’m sure there must be a fridge to raid somewhere around here.
We dressed up decently before we took the stairs down to the first level and got some directions from a guard to get to the mansion’s lounge. The crowd there looked at us a bit funny for a few seconds, then continued on their business as if we weren’t even there.
-Figure we’re strangers here, I said to Yuri as we sat at the bar, or did we say something out of place?
-It’s not every day that we have a state agent and an elite freelance assassin here at the same time, commented the hyena behind the marble, looking quite amused at our appearance. Anything I can get you gentlemen?
-A plate of nachos if you could, I stated, and a Melon Ball, double shots.
-The same, asked Yuri, thanks you.
-Coming right up, smiled the laughing dog as he got to work on the mixers.
-Hey, there’s Ulrich, I said as I noticed the panther walking down the stairs into the room.
-Hello you two, said the Don as he sat at the table. I take it that you’re both in good straights?
-Just getting down into the details of infiltrating Yuri’s office, I chuckled.
-Nice, grinned Ulrich. Hey, you ordered yet?
-Yep, sorry.
-Nah, I’ll get something too. Stripes, I’d...
-You’d like something like this, said the hyena, giving the cat what looked like spiked grenadine.

Ulrich laughed as he took the drink and hugged the barman, then started to discuss the whole project with us, looking totally amused by the idea of me just waltzing into the state department. We retired after we’d finished our improvised supper, the Don leaving first as a very, very hot female lynx came to fetch him. I commented about that fact to Yuri, who tried to keep a straight face as he discretely explained that it was his wife, getting me quite nice and pink until we sneaked back off to the lion’s room for the night. Once more, it had been quite a while since I’d trusted anyone enough to share a bed with other then a few casual dates and professionals, though Lord Almighty, having this energetic and passably hot lion was a real treat! I could never think of a time that someone had handled my crotch either, hmm...
Yuri had booked a very early flight, in the vicinity of eight o’clock, but I was still the first of the pair to get up, and had the privilege of slaving to get the lion up from bed. After a few tries where either I missed the agent’s paw or he grabbed me and molested me in a few quite enjoyable ways, I managed to perform a miracle and got him into his suit as well as the two of us out the door. A quick cab ride later, we were gazing blindly at the flight board to try and locate our flight, succeeding a few minutes before the announcement blared out for its boarding. To my surprise, two more agents from Yuri’s office appeared to be waiting for us at the terminal, though the lion waved to me that it was normal for him to expect an escort when returning. I swallowed my doubts deep and put on the front that I was to assume for the duration of the project.
-Agents Reynolds and Waller, this is Special Agent Arsene Leblanc, said the cat as he introduced us.
-A pleasure, messieurs, I bowed as I shook their hands. I am from the Interpol bureau in Geneva, on a fact-finding investigation into organized crime in America.
-You’re in the right place, insisted one of the new agents. There’s a lot of activity in Florida.
-But of course there is! With such beautiful scenery, I could imagine many reasons why one would want to call it their own. But I digress, for our flight awaits, yes?
We grouped up and passed through the corridor to the plane, with a strict minimum of questions from the attendants. I had convinced Yuri that I should keep my equipment case with me as carry-along, as I knew full well that luggage was normally x-rayed for unusual items, and the two Walther pistols I had in the case, alongside a few bottles of deadly poisons, would only have made our trip more complicated then it really needed to be. Stowing it away in the overhead compartment, I ordered a glass of wine as soon as the attendants started circulating, then as it was empty I fell fast asleep, though I distinctly felt Yuri’s probing hands once in a while. I came around fifteen minutes before our landing, giving me enough time to really get it together and straighten out my act before becoming the Interpol agent again, apparently fooling the others just perfectly. The real test came when we arrived at the capitol, and I had to pass through the security there. I was used to the searches and the routine checks that government guards usually did, and knew my way around them as well, kidding and trading wit with the officers to distract them from their work to a point where they weren’t really paying attention to it. It worked like a charm, and soon enough I was walking behind Yuri through a cubicle farm of half-height separators and filing cabinets, filled with all kinds of faces, from those smiling and saluting my companion to those with more worried expressions fixed on me. Yuri showed me the office I’d be occupying and gave me the keys for the door, giving me the comfort of locking up my equipment in one of the overhead cabinets, for there was nothing like having a stash on-site, after all. Then, with my door locked, I spied about the place very casually to start getting my behaviour patterns down pat. The lion came by a few minutes after I’d come back from my third walk around the block with a printed version of the personnel files, right on time for me to get a pen and start jotting down notes, eliminating a first batch of faces from the list.
-So you’re down to how many, asked Yuri as he sat down in the chair opposite to me, about two hundred?
-No, more like three dozen, I corrected as I took out the files that I thought merited further research.
-From three hundred people down to three dozen? You’re pulling my tail, right?
-No, I’m not, I said with a chuckle. I know people, Yuri, better then they know themselves, and I know what kind of people have interests that would see them operate as you’ve had them do recently. Are you all right?
-Yeah, I guess, sighed the cat as he looked at me work. It’s just hard to see so many people that I’ve know for years in this light, you know?
-True, which is one of the reasons why you’re not doing this and I am. I can stay objective, Yuri, through horrible times.
-That bad, eh?
-Let’s see, I said as I thought back to past contracts. I once was at a marriage party where I had been hired to eliminate the groom, who a friend of the family suspected to be marrying the bride to get access to her daughter from a first marriage to slate his lust. I actually walked in on him hoaxing her to take off her shirt with my pistol drawn and talked the girl into leaving without saying a word to anyone, then convinced the groom of how much of a monster he was a almost beg to be shot.
-Wow, moaned Yuri, that’s something! You’re a stout heart, Gallet. Hey, there’s a meeting this morning down in the conference room we passed by when we came in on the department’s renewed assessment on the drug trade in the state. Interested?
-Sure, I shrugged. I like this, you know! The other side of the fence and all that, eh?
-I can imagine, and no chance of arrest for a while, grinned Yuri. What are you doing?
-Getting at least one of my birds of death ready, I said as I took out one of my pistols and installed a silencer on it. Extended clip? Nah, this ought to do it.
-You know, we have a policy about having our sidearm stowed when we’re in these walls, commented the lion.
-Well, that may be the case Yuri, but as you may have noticed by the situation where we find ourselves in that perhaps we aren’t exactly a hundred percent safe here?
-I suppose so, sighed Yuri.

The lion seemed a bit more disturbed by the chain of events as we walked to the room, wherein we took seat near the head of the table. I made a visual inventory of the guests, counting four of my more interesting faces in attendance, though I tried not to seem too interested in them. If they were going to do anything, I wanted them to, so I could get some concrete confirmation that we’d reached a certain point in the evolution of the problem. As soon as the last stragglers sat down, the presenters started their show, underlining the major trade routes of illicit substances through the land as well as various more recently investigated points of entry. I was an interesting subject and I did my best to pay some attention to them, though the corners of my eyes were on the audience. Yuri lowered his guard though, and soon no longer paid attention to anything but the projection screen. Right about when the question period was to start and one of the senior agents of the drug division, a sweet-looking field mouse, made her closing comments, one of my VIPs, the head of a special committee on the grey market, got to his feet. I didn’t react right away, though it was obvious from the reaction of the others that this event wasn’t scripted. Then, as I saw him react to the back of his pants and started closing his hand in the classical gun grip position, I started my own movement to draw my pistol. I was a very quick draw, and my mark had only brought his steel to about a third of the arc he needed to level it at the mouse when I had mine perfectly in line with his head. I always selected the soft of the temple for sideways-oriented headshots, and the jacketed round penetrated exactly where I hoped it would before continuing on its merry way through his brain and then back out the other side of his skull, ending its trajectory in the nearby wall. No one in the room said a word for a few tense moments as I flicked the safety back on my weapon and holstered it again, though as the scene sunk into the consciousness of the group, especially poor Yuri, who had certainly not foreseen this sort of incident to happen, natural instincts started to kick in. A few hit the deck, others simply yelled out in shock, the usual things I was used to after a public death, though it was more often through the sight of a scope then in person.
-Everyone stay calm, I called as I raised my hands in a sign of non-aggression before turning to whisper to the lion. Yuri, we need to evacuate this room right now.
-Return to your offices, ordered Yuri. This room is off-limits until further notice, pending investigation. Now, damn it!
-This isn’t what I wished for, I grunted as the last employees left and I walked over to the body. This was my number twenty-two, right here.
-I’d never have thought that anyone would pull something like this off! If whoever’s behind this is acting this openly, we’re in for a civil war here!
-That’s why we have to act dumb, I insisted. Our story is that this agent popped a fuse, came in with a gun, and tried to start a little vengeance rampage.
-Prichard was a cornerstone, said Yuri, he’s been here as long as I have! No one’s going to believe that kind of a tale! My God, what happened, Ron, what happened..?
-This isn’t Ron, I stated, this isn’t anyone you know. This was a gunman that was determined to take out that mouse for a reason, which we need to find out to make the link to the rest of this group before their next action and eradicate them.
-Eradicate, Christ! How many?
-As many as there are, I said as I headed for the door. I need to talk to the mouse.
-How can you... Gallet, I-
-Welcome to my world, Yuri.
I didn’t waste a second to head for the intended victim of the murderer, though my cover was nothing but a translucid pretext at this point and those I crossed looked at me like the Grim Reaper. Still, I pushed on and stood at the entrance to the mouse’s cubicle until she took notice of me and turned. I motioned for her to follow me as I walked us back to my office where she totally broke down on my desk. After a few minutes of comfort and reconciliation, I managed to stabilize the poor woman, and I started more purposeful conversation with her.
-Your name’s Alice, Alice Galahad, isn’t it?
-Yes, yes it is. What happened? All I saw was Ron getting up with a gun, then he- you shot him, and...
-That’s what we need to talk about, I stated. We need to understand what happened in there, Alice. Is there anything between you and Ron that could have prompted him to take action like this?
-No, there isn’t! He’s... he was a great agent, a real friend! I’d never have thought that he would do anything...
-What investigations have you been involved in recently?
-I don’t think I can tell you, frowned the mouse.
-If you don’t then there will be a lot more incidents like this, Alice, many more, and perhaps even more serious.
-I’ve been tracing a group that’s been producing medical-grade heroin outside the city, which I suspected was used to finance Jakob Prusset’s political campaign. There was something that didn’t add up, though.
-What, exactly?
-That this hadn’t been looked into earlier! When I look at the time that this group had been in operation they must have made a huge amount of money, over ten million! Even if the campaign was the major objective, they had a lot to spend, more then what it would have cost to get him into office, and that’s not counting official funding from the usual brokers!
-Who would have been investigating it before you?
-Well, at least five people had the chance to, including Ron, thought Alice as she leaned back in her seat.
-Who were the four others, I said as I took out my files.
-First, who are you, said the mouse as she looked me over.
-I’m here to make sure that whoever’s targeting this office and its employees doesn’t see another day, I replied. Names?
The woman cocked her head to the side as she gave me the names of the other potential suspects, corresponding to a few of my more interesting and senior faces. I called up Yuri for telephone records and anything else he could get on them, then gave a heavy sigh as I stared across to Alice. She blushed a bit as grins climbed on our faces from the strange turn of events.
-You’re a good shot, said the mouse after a few seconds. I didn’t even see you draw.
-You had tunnel vision, I shrugged. I know faster people then me. Still, I’m sorry that destiny wasn’t too kind to you today, Alice.
-Destiny put you in that room, so I guess that it’s all right, said the rodent as she leaned over and kissed me. You can call me Allie, if you want.
-Allie, I smiled as wrapped an arm around her and kissed her again.
-Sorry to interrupt, chuckled Yuri as he popped into the room, giving time for Alice to turn pink and hop out after having left me a note with an address scribbled on it. Here are the sheets, Gallet.
-Thanks, I commented as I started analyzing the records. Lots of calls to these three numbers in two cases... three cases. Looks like we’re getting hot, Yuri.
-Sort of hot like you and the cute mousy, eh?
-I’m only mortal, I laughed. If you say no to a nice soul like that, you’re probably dead and cold. Right, so we need to interrogate these people right away, before they get too organized.
I let Yuri gather himself while I took out my suitcase and got another bullet to click into my clip before we went out again. Things would keep getting worst as I had feared, however, and our walk to the offices of the suspects didn’t quite go as we had thought. We had crossed the main cubicle area of the second level to get to the most ominous of the four when I caught sight of him standing aside the door of his office, as if he was expecting us. Previous experience told me that either that he was doing so to invite us in and explain that he wasn’t who we thought he was, which could lead to more information for us to work with, or that this was an ambush and he was carrying. I made a quick spot check to see if there were any others in position in the vicinity, and seeing none, I made a discrete gesture to Yuri that we were in trouble. Twenty paces away from him, our target reached in his pocket and drew, indicating that my assessment of the situation had been very exact. I dove forwards into a tumble, something that having a hard carapace really helped with, then sprung up to grab his arm and slam it against the wall, causing him to grip his pistol hard enough to fire off two shots that found nothing but the ceiling before dropping it as I gave him a hard punch in the stomach. I followed through with two good hits to the face, then an overhead smash on the mark’s back. Parrots didn’t have very good balance after the Second Genesis, and he fell flat on his face under the force of the blow. I didn’t wait a second before it took him by the feet and dragged him on his stomach into his office, propping him on his chair with Yuri’s help.
-That was close! But what now, asked the lion, do we get security?
-No, I corrected, getting a roll of tape from the bird’s desk and wrapping him up nice and tight. We’re going to find out the whole story about what’s been going on in this place.
-Like Hell, moaned the parrot as he came out of his stupor. Yuri, you don’t have any idea what’s going on. If you want to get out of this alive, you’re better off packing up and getting the heck out of the state and forget about coming back.
-Bruce, you’re not-
-That sounded like a threat, I said as I placed a finger on the lion’s lips. Threats aren’t going to help you, Bruce. Actually, I was thinking you might like to explain why Yuri should leave Florida. I don’t think he wants to, but if you give us a reason why, then he might change his mind.
-Who do you think you are, Kojak?
-No, not really, I replied in a calm tone as I got out a short-bladed stiletto from my pistol holster. You ever see La Femme Nikita, Bruce?
-That’s the stupidest show...
-But they’re quite right about a few things, I continued as I turned his head to the side and made a small, deep cut under his eye. Remember seeing that? You can’t blink now, Bruce, can you? And imagine if some dust got in there too, that would hurt, wouldn’t it?
-Stop, cried the parrot as I wiped some bunnies from the top of a nearby shelf and blew them into his eye. Oh shit, ow!
-Gallet, started Yuri as he put a paw on my shoulder, I don’t think we can do this.
-What did you hire me to do, I frowned, give these people lollipops and ask them nicely why they’re trying to kill of their officemates? Now Bruce, let’s get down to business, shall we, or would you rather become blind and half deaf?
-No one will listen to anything you get from me! It’ll never stand in court!
-Who says that you’ll be tried in court, I asked as I turned his head again, aiming my blade at his auditory channel. Half deaf now...
-Stop it! Stop it!
-Then get talking, Polly!
-They gave us each two million, started the parrot. They gave us each one person to kill, and said to forget anything we saw about their traffic. We did it like good little soldiers, until Calvin refused the deal when they contacted him.
-Who are they, and where is Calvin?
-They’re the guys that Alice was talking about in the presentation. They’re called the White Palms, a bunch of crazy fuckers that want nothing but pure American descendents to call the country home. They have a web site, that’s where we got our stuff. I’ll give you the URL...
-Right, I said as I wrote down the address. Now I’ll wish you good night, Bruce.
-What?
I took the parrot by the neck and slammed him against the desk, knocking him out before I took off the tape and threw it in the garbage can and asked Yuri to call security and have him locked up somewhere secluded as well as the three others.
-We don’t have any further use for them now, I commented as we walked back to my office. Now we know the whole story, and your office is safe as long as no one else takes up with them.
-But we still have to take down these supremacist clowns before we call it a day, corrected Yuri, right?
-That wasn’t part of... well, I sighed as I debated what to say next. Look, Yuri...
-What, asked the lion as we entered the office and he closed the door behind him, what is it?
-Listen, I’m not a law enforcement agent here; I’m a professional assassin. I can’t take things personally, decide to put aside the terms of a contract and jump in with my clients.
-Why not?
-Then why would anyone want to pay? If I’m going to do things this serious pro bono, I might as well drop the ‘professional’ and use ‘volunteer’ instead. Sure it’s the right thing, I’m not saying it’s not, but I can’t make a decent living otherwise, Yuri, you have to see that.
-Then maybe it’s time that you stop being a professional assassin, Gallet, shrugged the cat.
-What would I be otherwise, I asked with an almost depressed tone. I put aside the books and picked up the gun at eighteen, and I’ve been living a good, a very good life with the proceeds from my work. It would take a two hundred thousand dollar job, after taxes, which I haven’t paid in the last ten years, by the way, for me to come close to what I make.
-Well then, smiled Yuri as he put an arm across my shoulders and pulled me against him, guess how much a senior agent makes?
-What? Are you implying that I’d join your bureau?
-Yes, nodded the lion. If I say it, what do you think your answer would be?
-That we should take care of the White Palms and find your superior before too long. The longer we wait, the chances of finding him alive and well get worst.
Yuri grinned and gave me a warm kiss as he hugged me, obviously finding my reply to his tastes. After a comforting cuddle, I got on the Internet and looked up the web site of the group, finding myself looking at a crude site bellowing cries of lunacy and racism. Between the madness and the sheer stupidity that were presented, the location of their ‘recruitment office’ was given, which I pointed out to Yuri with a smile. He picked up the phone and called for a police detachment of the Army National Guard to be mobilized to assist in the intervention. He was only able to get authorization for twelve men, but that was more then enough firepower in my opinion to knock these loudmouths on their ass once and for all.
-I don’t think those will be enough for you to carry into this, said Yuri as he pointed to my pistols. I could have something more interesting issued to us, if you like.
-No need, I said with a chuckle as I affixed the custom laser sights that I kept in the case. I can take out a mark every two seconds with these, believe me.
-You know, if I didn’t know you, I’d be really creeped out from that comment, laughed the lion. All right, let’s get this thing on the road.
I smile and hugged the agent loosely before getting my night vision goggles from another bag I’d packed, getting another laugh from him as we got under way. The police interventionists were already outside, apparently quite used to the punctuality that the state dept expected of them when they were called on. The head van in the three-vehicle convoy was almost empty, offering us a ride as we rolled out to the remote location the White Palms apparently called home. Darkness fell as we put the last few miles behind us, giving us a definite advantage for the operation, and without any headlights, we parked on the gravel road right on the limit of the county. A single dirt road heading into the wooded area was all that could be seen of the Palm’s residence, though we were most certainly not going to use it, rather taking to the cover of the brush to make our advance. With a four meter spread centred on Yuri and me, we closed in pace by pace, careful not to make any noise that could give us away prematurely. Two trailer homes were placed on a cleared patch of land, visibly well guarded by members of the group equipped with automatic weapons, low-quality assault rifles from their looks, but assault rifles nonetheless. An officer to my right accidentally crushed a dead branch with a careless step, and to my disappointment, the attention of three nearby guards suddenly focused on the origin of the disturbance. I knew we were quite visible from ten meters therefore it was only a question of seconds before they opened up on us. I shook my head to Yuri, signalling that we had lost any hope of overwhelming the camp by surprise and that we had to act more directly. He nodded in comprehension as I took out one of my pistols and flicked on the laser sight, the dot appearing right in the middle of the forehead of one of the approaching individuals before a bullet followed it precisely and sent him down. Before his companions had the time to react in a coherent fashion, I had repeated the feat of marksmanship to send them along to Hell. I had us slow down to half our previous speed to see if anyone had seen the three fall but it seemed that the cover of night had served us well enough that it wasn’t the case. Still, the five men outside the closest home baring quite potent instruments of death were too much of a threat for us to overtake without some losses, which I wasn’t willing to take. Instead, we stopped completely and hit the deck, giving me a chance to put out my second firearm and train my sight on them, only turning the laser sights on at the last moment before I cut down the group, only missing a single shot which hit the trachea of the last target, though I quickly finished my job with another to the head, erasing any consequence that the mistake could have caused. Yuri gaped at me before giving me a ‘thumbs up’ with an embarrassed air, as if he considered the suggestion of getting me another weapon for the operation an insult at this point. We swept the woods to the east of the residence before coming in from behind it, splitting into three groups as we breached the home and stormed it. As fate would have it, the group I was spearheading was the only one to encounter anyone, rushing right into the barracks of the Palms, over thirty very confused and dazed souls roused by the calls we gave as we entered. Only one of them was armed, the fire watch, but as he raised his weapon towards us, I sent a shot through both his shoulders, more then enough to keep the rest of his people nailed to the spot as the policemen started arresting them in pairs. While they were being fitted handcuffs, Yuri and I headed over to the other building, kicking in the front door with arms drawn. The place was a lab, packed with containers of chemicals and drug-making equipment, concretizing Alice’s words. From the communicating room came three people, two in what I would have called commander’s garb if I had enough esteem to consider this group a paramilitary force, which I didn’t, and another in a chemist’s smock. The two senior officers were about to draw when I shot them in both knees in a perfectly fluid movement, making them drop like unstrung puppets and causing the chemist to turn part of his suit a tone of yellow that I was pretty sure wasn’t caused by any chemical I knew about. We tied up the chemist first, then the two head honchos dragging the latter by the arms as we rejoined the column of policemen escorting their prisoners towards the road, where I could see the flashing lights of reinforcements, as well as ambulances for the ones who had given their lives to their insanity. Yuri and I stood proudly by the roadside as the detainees were loaded into the paddy wagons and the paramedics rolled down the road towards the camp under escort, just in case we hadn’t been totally thorough, which I was confident we had been.
-Well then, Agent Gallet! How does it feel to serve the safety and welfare of the public?
-Agent Gallet? Maybe Agent Jean-Michel, I said I thought about the sonority of my new name. It feels quite good, to be honest. No regrets!
-You shouldn’t feel any! This was a miracle you pulled off here, ‘dillo!
-That’s buttering it pretty thick, I laughed. But you concede that I sure can handle a pistol, eh tomcat?
-Uncle, shrugged the lion.
-That’s what you’ll be screaming later, I said with a grin, but with a bit more spirit...
-You’re not going to hurt my poor little butt again, whimpered Yuri with a smile, are you?
-I’m going to shove my thick armoured cock right in it and ride you like a Harley...
-Goody..!
We waited until the last of the vehicles had cleared out of the camp before hitching a ride on a cop car back into town, getting a drive right to Yuri’s doorstep. The lion had a nice upper-story apartment in a squat tower, decorated rather sparsely but still quite well, though it was obvious he didn’t really have any idea what to do with it. I somewhat regretted not having had the presence of spirit to ask Yuri to make a detour back at the office so I could have gotten my things and get properly settled, but then again there was the whole issue of permanence. If I was going to start a new life here with a new job and everything, I would have to find a place for the long run, as well as scrap the whole roundabout I had back west. Well, it would be for the better, certainly. Perhaps the lion was fun for the moment, but I didn’t really have any firm intention to stay with him longer then I needed. As for job security, if the only reason why he wanted me onto the team was because he wanted a free ride, I’d have him understand that I may have sold my services as an assassin, but I wasn’t a call boy. The thought fell back in my mind as I hunkered down on the sofa in the living room, getting comfortable for the night as the lion eclipsed himself into his bedroom. I played my card just so that he came back to see me apparently asleep, which I half hoped would be enough for me to be able to get a full, restorative night’s sleep after the more interesting and exhausting hours that we’d shared in Miami. Little did I know that he didn’t have the least intent on us sleeping apart, and tried to lift me up from the chesterfield, slipping his hands under my shell. I heard him give a grunt as he realized just how heavy I was, prompting me to open my eyes and look up at him with a grin.
-Fine, I’m coming, I said as I rolled off the couch.
-I knew you were playing possum, said the lion. You tail twitches when you sleep.
I shook my head as we headed to the bedroom, settling into dreams soon enough. I’d better hope that this was the real deal and that I was staying here, otherwise I had someone here that knew me far too well…

The next day, we headed to the capitol with a quick pace, Yuri explaining that it would be better for us to sign me on through one of the clerks who held a morning shift at the bureau, a fellow that he knew would be all too willing to cut through a lot of the regular recruitment procedure and get me in presto. I didn’t protest, quite eager to know that things were back to some kind of normal.
-We’re lucky to have a guy like you with us, Gallet, said the lion. Most of us really don’t know what to do when things get very violent, but I suppose that your insight will change that. Tell you the truth, if it wasn’t for you yesterday, I don’t think we’d be going anywhere but my funeral today.
-Perhaps, I nodded. The question of your superior’s kidnapping is still outstanding, though. I suppose that I could take the mandate to solve that enigma if no one else is already on it?
-Always trust the best guys to volunteer for the toughest assignments, smiled the cat. I’ll write up the dossier for you as soon as I get back to my desk.
The whole process of signing me on didn’t take more then an hour, though the lion split after I started the whole biographical part of the interview. I was so used to making up identities that having to do so in such a structured way was a dream, and I imparted to the interviewer a story about a simple, all American boy that always wanted to do what he could to help his fellow countrymen, all the usual bull that anyone who looked at my file would wave off as being perfectly fine. After I’d finished my storytelling, I was issued the ‘welcome kit’, including my badge, coupons for the quartermasters to get new threads and a first sidearm, plus all the rest that constituted the bona fide fed getup. I wasted no time to get my uniform together the moment it was over, just to fit in with the crowd, though I just as soon headed to my office to modify it to be able to conceal my pistol holster and poison kit underneath without looking too obvious. As I was checking myself out, I saw that Yuri had dropped off the dossier heed promised on the corner of my desk, and stiff with pride, I sat down to its worthwhile reading. I had resumed the whole thing to a few lines of scribbles on a pad I’d picked up in the furniture cabinet right outside my door when I noticed someone peering in at me. Without raising my head I looked up to try and figure who it was, but the long, thin, hairless tail that flicked aside it was enough for a positive identification.
-Hello Alice, I said as I gazed up at her. Come on in, won’t you?
-So you’re no longer part of Interpol, then? I take it that your name isn’t Arsene either?
-Jean-Michel Gallet, I smirked as I gave a half-bow, a fellow agent since about two hours now.
-All right, that I didn’t see coming, frowned the mouse with a grin. But let’s have it. What’s this all about, eh? You come here, intervene with force, then you and Yuri go out in the middle of the night to take out the drug runners that I’d been investigating with the subtlety of an elephant with a sledgehammer. What’s the story?
-I don’t know if you really want to know, I replied. It sort of goes against the contents of the file I just filled out.
-Everyone writes fairytales in the registration sheets, waved Alice. You think I’m really twenty? Jeez, I’ve been twenty for nine years, then! After all, you saved my life, Jean-Michel. I’d be an insane bitch to turn on you because you tell me that you have a few skeletons in your closet.
-Then you’d better sit down, I smiled as I got up and pulled up a chair for the mouse. See, before I came here, I was an assassin for hire.
-A what? What the...
-Give me a chance to finish, I hushed. I took contracts from law enforcement agencies, governments and individuals against the least tasteful member of society, to put it mildly, even quite high-profile ones.
-High profile? How high profile? I don’t mean to pry, but just an example to give me an idea here...
-Only if you swear to God, on your soul, that you never speak of it.
-Come one, insisted the mouse, looking more like a giddy cheerleader then a state agent, who?
-Jakob Prusset is dead and buried, not just missing. Guess how I know that, eh?
-I’ll be, laughed the mouse, that’s not something I would have expected! Well, that’s not entirely true seeing as how you were able to put a piece of lead through a guy’s head in like the blink of an eye. Silencers are illegal in the state, aren’t they?
-So are laser sights that have less then five degrees diffusion per twenty feet, and scope rails for pistols as well, I enumerated as I took the case from aside my desk and opened it up, taking out my firearms and replacing them in their enclosure. And..?
-They’re in the right hands, shrugged Alice. Well, what’s on your mind now that you’ve saved the world, Hercules?
-Hercules, I chuckled, that I’m not. Right now I was thinking about going for a bite somewhere other then the cafeteria here. I’m not that partial to over baked lasagne personally, call me a gourmet. Care to join?
-I suppose I could, smiled the rodent. Are you ready to go?
-On my feet, I replied as I got to my paws.
I have to admit that I was pretty much winging it at that point, more or les s certain where we were going to end up if we only relied on my sense of direction in the streets of a city that I’d only been in for what, two days? Thankfully, the recesses of my memory threw up a name that I’d notice when I’d walked to the office with Yuri, someplace that I was almost sure was visible from the road we were following. Thank the Lord, the pizzeria that I had reminisced about wasn’t a figment of my imagination, and as I pointed to it with a grin, Alice seemed very happy to go there for our lunch. It wasn’t a huge place, that’s for certain, but rather one of those little holes in the wall that some people just craved because of the ‘authentic taste’ that was offered there, something that I’d always put down as being a placebo effect for the fact that you really didn’t want to think about when the last time the health inspectors had run its owner into the ground. Still, the medium Hawaiian that I ordered for us looked like what I would have expected it to, and as we sat down and started transforming it into vital nutrients and protein chains, the conversation continued without event.
-You know, I don’t remember the last time I went out for one of these, said Alice. The work keeps me so solidly tied up that I can’t even think about free time.
-But here you are on free time, talking about being solidly tied up, which seems to be both mentally and morally relaxed, right?
-Oh you got a dirty mind, frowned the mouse with a giggle.
-You could pour CLR on it for days and you still couldn’t get it to shine, I shrugged. From what I could gather during your presentation, this heroin group was pretty much the only thing that was really of concern these days, eh?
-Well, designer drugs are always a bit of a bother, but things have become so quiet in the last few years that I can’t say we’ve been overloaded. I can’t understand why for the life of me, but it just seems that pushers and producers aren’t who they used to be. Go back a few years, all kinds of crazies made party drugs like grannies make muffins, but now, bang! It’s all in the hands of a few individuals that I suspect are part of some kind of organized crime network, and a bloody good one at that!
-So do you have any intent to rock that boat?
-Not if I don’t see a half-decent reason why I should. Tell you the truth, the whole deal started when that biker gang that ran the coast went down in a blaze of glory. I would’ve thought that there’d be an open war in the streets for control of their old holdings, but quite the opposite, it just settled down into this system. A real mystery, but then again, not one I can complain about. I might try and find some other temporary assignment just to keep myself from falling asleep. Speaking of which, what about you?
-Yuri officially put me on the case of your old supervisor’s disappearance, I replied. Tell you the truth, I half expected for him to turn up when we raided the White Palms camp, but there wasn’t a trace of him anywhere. Now, I’m sort of getting another read on it.
-Which would be?
-Maybe this wasn’t a case of kidnapping or anything of the sort, I started as I traced a line on a napkin. Look at this timeline; five people get paid off to turn a blind eye to the Palms; he refuses, and vanishes; Yuri comes contacts me, I arrive; the failed attempt on you; we take down the palms. See? Before he vanished, all was well, people were paid by the Palms, and all was well. He apparently gets kidnapped, and then Yuri takes over. Now what gets me is why they didn’t even contact Yuri before turning openly violent like this? It doesn’t really make any kind of sense! What I see is that he was actually the one calling the shots, and that we were getting too close to the election for anyone to uncover the truth.
-So he leaves and gives the word to start this massacre? That’s a pretty far-fetched theory, Gallet. I can’t say that I couldn’t believe it though because it does make a lot of sense. But where does this stand now?
-First, there was the White Palms, which generated revenue for this whole deal to start. They get formed or recruited by your old director into producing the drugs, and put the money in his hands. He has them contact the others at the department as to avoid exposing himself, all the while sponsoring Jakob, who I see as being some kind of acquaintance of his for them to have this relationship. Jakob… disappears, wink, wink, nod, nod… so now he’s left alone with the Palms. The dream’s over, so he needs to clear out the evidence. He leaves the picture without a trace, sends the guys at the office on suicide missions, and I assume he would have stopped all communications with the Palms before starting anew somewhere under a new identity.
-So all that’s left is for us to find him before its too late and his trail goes cold, nodded Alice. See, that kind of assignment would be really fun!
-You want in? After all, he was linked to the heroin group, and that falls into your specialty, doesn’t it?
-I can’t believe how sharp your mind can be, laughed the mouse as she gave me a hug. Fine, we’ll work it out when we get back and start on this new angle. Don’t mind the company, do you?
-Quite the contrary, I really like, I said as I took Alice around the waist and gave her a peck on the cheek.
The mouse blushed hard as we finished up and headed back, paying Yuri a visit to expose out new vision about the situation. The lion took some convincing, mostly based on the character of his old mentor, but gave in when I started enumerating how a few others that he would have defended had too recently betrayed their appearances. He basically set up a sort of cooperation between me and the drug division, something which would place me and Alice at about the same level of authority and responsibility, just so I could intervene more actively if the need arose.
-Just be careful out there, said the lion, giving us both a caring shake of the shoulder. If this is as nasty as I sounds, I don’t want for you to find yourself in more of a mess then you can fight your way out of, eh? But if you do, do something discrete, eh?
-It’s never murder if they’re guilty, I said as I remembered my business motto. We’ll keep you posted.
-Thanks, laughed the cat. See you later, eh?
-Sure you will, I waved.
-It’s kind of late to start anything serious today, said Alice as she read off her watch. I could introduce you to the team and then we could maybe call it a day?
-Sure, that sounds good.
-Where are you calling home, if you don’t mind the question?
-Right now I’m bunking with Yuri, though I’m sort of on the lookout for another roost.
-I heard that he’s a bit, you know...
-He is, I nodded, which makes it a bit awkward, if you can understand.
-Well, he’s a little idea, started the mouse as she took me by the collar and pushed me against a nearby wall. I’m a single gal here, and I’ve got a big, cold old place that sure could use some company. See where I’m steering this?
-Ah, I said with a whine, I think I do.
We didn’t waste too much time jogging by the mouse’s office to get her things and then made a relay at my desk for me to grab my suitcases before we popped by to tell Yuri that he didn’t have to worry about staying up waiting for me. The lion shrugged and grinned, wishing for us to have a good evening and not do anything that would have the cops banging on our door. Alice commented that our authority overrode them, and that if they came, we only had to flash our badges for them to turn around and play deaf. Before long, we were walking out of the building holding hands, giving it to the asphalt for a few blocks until we came to a very respectable two-story semi-detached where Ally pulled me towards one of the doors. I left her good hand long enough for her to unlock it before she took hold of my limb again and tugged me inside. The entire place was an antipode of Yuri’s home, completely decorated in art nouveau-style, almost as perfectly clean as if someone had just moved in. Alice carefully put aside her purse before asking for me to wait while she went to change into something more comfortable then the three-piece she had been sporting. I discretely poked around until I noticed the mouse coming back down the stairs in a bikini top and faded jeans, looking much more relaxed then before, though her gaze had most certainly changed from a cautious officemate to a come-hither vamp I couldn’t even consider resisting.
-How to you like my place, said the rodent as she strode over and pushed me into a sofa in the living room before sprawling over me, do you like the colours?
-They whole thing is just surreal, I replied. It’s really beautiful, Alice.
-Yay, she giggled as she pulled off my shirt and rubbed my shoulder’s carapace. Hey, that’s soft, isn’t it?
-Hairy ‘dillo, I chuckled as I buried my muzzle in her neck. Squeaky mousy?
-Squeak, sounded the woman as she toyed with my whiskers.
-Is it just me or are you still a bit humid? Was it that hot out?
-No, I sort of freshened up, that’s all.
-Hey, wait a second... I don’t think I’ve ever smelled or felt you any other way then this, with that little rose bouquet.
-To be completely honest, I’m sort of OCD, grunted Alice. I have this thing with cleaning and having things just so, but I’ve been taking therapy for it to try and keep it under control. Sorry if it’s a turn-off, ‘dillo.
-Nope, I whispered as I hugged her against me as to feel her breasts compress against me. We all have our little manias, really.
-Yep, laughed Alice before pulling the strings of her top and peeling it off before folding it with pinpoint precision and putting it down flat on a nearby table. Oh, did I just fold..?
-Never mind that, I said as I cupped her tits and felt their warm softness in my palms. Fluffy mousy titties!
-All for the ‘dillo, she grinned as she suckled me gently. Hey, you come with me and you’ll see what else is fluffy on a mousy, Jean-Michel...
I held Alice’s tail all the way up the stairs to what I found out to be her bedroom, where she slipped my grip and tossed herself on the bed, jumping on it playfully until she launched herself on me and discarded our pants with an acrobat’s prowess. She was soft, softer then any woman I’d been with, ever, and so innocent and cute in her mannerisms that I couldn’t help but grin as she folded our clothes carefully before hopping back on the mattress. She blushed hard as she looked at the pile that she’s made, but I didn’t say a thing, instead caressing her stomach and chest, letting my hands wander far below to draw over her loins, getting a slow whine from her as I did, raising her leg for me to be able to continue further. Before long, I was on my back, holding her against me as my cock ran in and out of her warm sex, both of us forgetting whatever the world and life itself could have handed to us through the years, thinking about nothing else then our deepest love. Ah, nice mousy...

The pair of us showed up at the doors of the capitol around quarter after nine, looking just positively beaming from some inner radiance that always came from some good old fashioned ass banging. I guess maybe a few people read into it, but we were far too high on our euphoric craze to care for even a second. Instead, we picked things up where we left off in my office, using our authority to get Calvin’s phone records and anything that would give u a lead on where he might be at the moment. I figured that if he had some way of finding out that we had commandeered this information, he would interpret it as us getting our things together to try and find out who could have kidnapped him, therefore there wouldn’t be any misplaced suspicion that we would have read through his cover story yet. Just for good measure, I took a little walk through AmEx’s records, where I found our first solid piece of information.
-Well, I said as I tapped Alice on the shoulder, it looks like Calvin may be a kidnap victim but heck he sure does spend on his card!
-What, startled the mouse, he’s using his credit card? Where from?
-Looks like he’s in New Orleans, I stated as I looked at the records. Damn, he sure does move! That puts him in a nice position to get a ride down to Mexico and make our investigation that much more unpleasant. 
-But that’s outside the state, grunted Alice, that’s out of our jurisdiction. Although...
-Although that’s one of the reasons that I’d around here, I smiled as I checked the addresses for some continuity. I suppose I could go right ahead and find him and drive his sorry butt back here so we can slap him in jail until heck freezes over.
-How do you plan on going about that?
-Find him, put him in a car trunk and drive him here, I shrugged. It won’t be a comfortable ride, I suppose, but then again that’s a detail at this point.
-We could also just contact the New Orleans state department and get him together, suggested the woman. But then again all this trash about us, having some pretty dirty laundry in our basement, so my vote goes to your with your plan. Call it what you will, but...
-Hey, every time this sort of thing happens, it makes us a little les credible, after all.
-So you use the word we, now, eh State fed Jean-Michel?
I gave a grin as I picked up the phone and called Ulrich up, just out of friendly courtesy, and also to tell him that I was sort of out of the circuit if he ever needed any more contracts taken of. After three rings, I heard the panther’s voice on the other end.
-Hello, who is this?
-This is Gallet, I said with a crescendo. How are things in Miami?
-Quite well! So Yuri called me this morning and told me that you’re as good an agent as you are an assassin! Is this true?
-It seems to be, though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to conduct a proper arrest without my dirty old habits kicking in.
-Ah, that’s always a good thing. After all, I’d hate to think that all that taxpayer’s money is going to pay for these morons’ room and board. How are things with this big adjustment?
-Fine, save for the fact that this business isn’t quite over yet because of a nasty little loose end that I’d be quite happy to have tied up. One of the guys that were at the head of this stupidity ran, and now we have to go to New Orleans and take him in by hook or by crook.
-New Olreans? So you know where he is?
-More or less, I sighed. At least we know that he’s in the city, but that’s pretty much it.
-Well, that’s a pretty big and pretty crowded place to look for a guy that doesn’t want to be found. Listen, I have some people I know there, and they might be able to give you a hand.
-More of the family?
-Always! We’re everywhere, just like the wind and the rain. These two are psychics, very good ones, and I’m pretty sure that they’ll be able to find them with their strange and wonderful abilities. Give them a try, and I can tell you that you’ll be happy you did.
-I trust you, I giggled as I noted the names and number that the Don gave me. If you need anything off the record, just give me a call, and I’ll see what I can do, eh?
-Certainly! It’s good to have an acquaintance like you, Gallet. Take good care, friend!
-Did I overhear something about psychics, frowned Alice, or was it something else?
-Well, I’m always willing to be pleasantly surprised, I said as I wrapped an arm around the mouse, and I’ve never had a bad word from Ulrich up to now. Worst comes to worst, we loose a bit of time, which doesn’t really change anything at this point. Come on! Don’t tell me that you’re not sort of curious?
-I’ll never be able to say no to you, smiled Alice. All right, let’s go home and pack it up for a little trip, shall we?
I let the mouse get up after a little hug, then tailed her to the secretarial section to fill in papers for an official displacement, which would mean that we didn’t have to worry about paying for our hotels room there, as well as a nice allowance for meals and the like. As soon as we’d signed the papers, we ran back to our place and packed a few days’ worth of clothes in a common suitcase. I found it sort of funny to have someone with me on a trip like this for a change, let along for it to be funded by the state, but I wasn’t ready to protest, instead jumping on Alice the moment that she had her back turned to me to zip the luggage up, giving a long squeak out as I pinned her on the bed and tickled her. Darn it all, she managed to find my worst weakness, for right between my back carapace and my fur was the most sensitive region of my anatomy, and her thin fingers found it with the utmost ease. I thank the stars that no one had a camera to see me on the ground writhing in laugher as she stood over me tickling my sides. It just wouldn’t have helped my credibility after all, for either of my occupations, to be honest...

A dirty secret that I never told anyone was the fact that I’d never afforded myself the luxury of first class seats on airplanes, just because I had this superstitious feeling that anyone in the section could just as easily have been my next client as my next victim. I’d been right a few times, as I could recall off the top of my head over six people that I’d seen in the VIP lounges of airports who I’d later seen obeying Newton’s law of cooling at room temperature, if my meaning can be understood. Still, this one time was pleasant and seeing as how I wasn’t officially in the business anymore, I afforded to look around a bit while Alice slept like a log aside me. I guess that aside from her little manias, as the incredibly pains she took to repack our suitcase after we’d stuffed it attested, she also had something with heights and right before takeoff, she’d popped something to doze off for the ride. To defeat my boredom, I took a copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Great Shark Hunt and started reading from where I’d left off the last time I’d taken a plane, which really only dated back a few days. Nobody sober could really agree, I’m sure, but I thought the man was a genius…

Alice recovered from her sleep quickly enough for us to stumble out of the airport and call a cab to head over to our temporary headquarters, a middle-end hotel with two pools and cable, more then enough for us to wash off the inevitable boredom that would come from looking for a ghost in a town like this if we weren’t able to recruit the psychic’s help. If they wanted money, I was ready to shell out a few bucks, but I had a lingering suspicion that they wouldn’t like that offer too much. Instead, I thought of how I’d word my offer for cooperation as we left the car and jogged up to the front desk of the hotel to check in. I signed in for us and got the keys to the room, right on the second level of the six-story block, still trying to remember what I’d tell our new friends when I called. The moment we plunged into the room, Alice was already unpacking our things in her usual manner, leaving me time to finally pick up the room phone and dial out. I waited two rings before a male voice answered on the other end.
-Good morning, this is Jesse.
-Good morning, Jesse, I said in a joyous tone. My name is Jean-Michel Gallet, from the Florida state department. I heard from a friend, Don Ulrich Luther, that you’re quite a skilled psychic?
-One does what one can, replied the voice. Yes, Madame Catherine and I are psychics. I take it that you have some need of our abilities?
-To the point, we’re looking for a fugitive responsible for some real trouble back in Tallahassee. We know he’s in town, but out information stops there. We thought that maybe you’d be able to offer some inside with your own brand of magic. Whatever you ask in return, we’d be quite glad to do.
-Oh, we don’t ask for anything really. So if you’re familiar with Don Ulrich, then I suppose that you’re friendly to the organization he represents?
-Very, I insisted.
-Then come meet us at this address, said the voice. Look for a German Sheppard and a Blue Russian queen, that’ll be us.
-I’m an armadillo, and my associate is a mouse. We’ll be over soon, and thank you, Jesse.
-It’s a pleasure!
I hung up with a little grin climbing on the side of my face, turning to talk to Alice and announce the news to her. I wouldn’t be able to, as the woman was lying on the bed, snoring louder then I’d heard her do for all the time we’d been together. Shaking my head with a shrug, I picked one of my pistols from my special case, silenced and installed a laser sight, stashing it quickly in my holster before slipping out the door without a sound, tossing a few documents on Calvin in my coat pocket. There was no point bringing her along, really, and I was so used to working alone in big cities like this that I almost felt better to be out on my own. I loved the rush, hiding in plain sight, all of that. I felt transparent when I walked on the streets, that no one could tell that what I was about, if anything. I had to hire a cab to get to the downtown residence that Jesse had given as a rendezvous point, which from his careful considerations on the phone, was most probably the homestead of the local Family. I gave the cabbie a good tip as soon as we got to the destination, recommending that he keep someone from his company available for the return trip, which he agreed to with spirit. Hey, a good paying fare that shelled out in cash? Why say no? Ulrich’s residence had been more guarded then the historical building that the address corresponded to, but just as in Miami, as soon as I mentioned to the three doormen who I was coming to see, I was allowed in without being laid a finger on, and even personally shown to a small salon were Jesse had told them he would meet me. I sat down in one of the leather chairs, giving a grunt and a smile as I felt the cushion slowly give way, only opening my eyes when I felt someone looking at me. Just as described on the phone, a young German Sheppard and a just as ripe queen were walking into the room and springing to my feet, I greeted the two.
-Well met, Jesse and Catherine, I said as I shook their hands. Sorry for the sudden call, but…
-Think nothing of it, waved the queen. I’m sorry to be so forwards, but you have a much clouded aura to you, a bit dark even. Are you really from the state department?
-I’ve been with the state department for only a few days, I replied. Before that, I was a freelance contractor to the powers that be to bring justice to those who the law cannot touch. Actually, it was a contract with Don Ulrich that’s brought me down the path that’s led me here.
-And many times you brought justice, seconded Jesse. Two hundred..?
-Three hundred and sixty-seven, give or take, I answered. Serial killers, corrupt policemen, mad politicians, rapists, child molesters, arms dealers, all kinds of people, but all in the most professional fashion.
-How interesting, smiled the Sheppard. So who is it that you seek here in New Orleans?
-This soul, I said as I handed picture of Calvin to the dog. He tried to have a number of people in our office assassinated, and was responsible for backing a certain radical candidate for the governorship before his disappearance. We have reason to believe that he’s hiding out here while he’s planning his next move to get away from his failed plot.
-Yes, here’s here, muttered Jesse. He’s to the south, in the basement of a strip mall. I see a few people with him, four in all, in some kind of uniform.
-Could you show me to them, I asked, or is that beyond the scope of this aid?
-I could, nodded Jesse. I don’t like the feelings I get from him at all: hatred, greed, all very ominous. I’ll ask for some help from the Don before we go.
-No need, I smiled, I assure you I can take care of it.
-We have a specialist here, chuckled Catherine.
Jesse was strong enough at his trade to be quite able to converse with us as we walked out of the mansion to take to the streets. They were good, really, really good, and I just couldn’t wait to show them what mojo I was about too. Nothing drives like pride, after all. Surprisingly, the mall wasn’t that far, just nine blocks in all, though I wouldn’t have guessed that anyone would have chosen it as a hideout. It looked crowded, very crowded, with plenty of people to talk to the police if anyone did anything suspicious. Jesse pointed out a side door that he sensed a lot of movement about, a sign that it would lead us right to Calvin. I nodded as we headed to it, the two psychics standing behind cover before I took out my pistol and kicked in the door. Right behind it, two armed figures had been waiting, but two projectiles turned their foreheads into donuts, ending their sinful existence instantly. I crept along in the storeroom, silently taking out a third soul before reaching another door, built into a recently constructed partitioning wall. Giving myself a count to three, I kicked it in as well, and took out the last of the four guards before training my weapon on the object of our search, paralyzed on the spot.
-Calvin, I said as I looked the Rottweiler, the free ride is over, you’re coming with me, right now.
-You’re an assassin for hire, burst the dog. What business is it for you to get involved in this? If its money you want, then I’ll pay you six million to let me leave and forget about me.
-No, that’s not how it works anymore, I corrected. Either you cooperate with your arrest, or I’ll have to become less polite.
-Of course I won’t cooperate! I’m a dead man if I return to Florida!
-Then I’m sorry about this.
I reached over and slammed the Rottie’s head against the wall, knocking him out cold as I helped him down to the floor. Looking around, I saw a roll of construction carpet that looked like leftovers from renovations to a shop above, exactly what I needed to package my mark. Stripping him naked to make sure he didn’t have anything to help him when we came to, I tied his feet and wrists before I rolled him in the carpet and slung him over my shoulder, careful that nothing was apparent. Furthermore, I dragged the bodies of the guards in the ‘office’ and closed the door, buying time before anyone was the wiser about what had happened at the location. I poked my head outside and asked Jesse if he could get a rental car driven in, getting a grin from the Sheppard as he picked his cell phone from his pocket and called the homestead. Fifteen minutes later, a plain black sedan pulled into the nearby parking and the driver came out to toss me the keys, looking at the carpet roll with a smirk, commenting that I knew my classics. I gave the three a lift back to the mansion before leaving Jesse and Catherine a little gift (a seven figure check) and offering an open invitation to them anytime they were in Florida. The two looked quite pleased with their contribution to the project and waved as I pulled out of the mansion’s driveway, peeling off to the hotel to advise Alice of what had happened. I’d left a note at the front desk, and as I walked into the lobby, she was there getting it before looking over to me with a sleepy grin.
-So you met the psychics, stated the mouse as she ambled over and gave me a hug, and you smell like GSR. I take it were not going to enjoy a long vacation here?
-That depends, I shrugged. I have a naked Rottweiler you probably know rolled up in a carpet in the back of a rental car outside in the parking. If we brought him in and tied him up somewhere, I guess we could take it easy for a day or two.
-Naked, rolled up in a carpet? Well, I’d feel bad about taking away the last shreds of a mortal’s dignity, sighed Alice. Then again, hey, look at the trouble he caused!
-I’ll tie him up in the bathtub, I smiled. I’ll be up soon!
I returned to the car to get my carpet roll from the trunk, walking at a rather good pace as I felt that the dog had come around from his involuntary slumber. As soon as I was back in our room, I walked over to the washroom and unrolled my cocoon forcing Calvin into the tub at gunpoint before using a nylon strip tie to firmly attach him to one of the handicap handrails, which I was fairly confident that in his present position her couldn’t possibly rip out. He looked terrified, nothing that I would have expected from someone responsible for what we had in his file. His voice trembled as he decided to speak, as if strongly doubting that I’d do anything but knock him out again.
-Are you going to kill me, asked the rottie, is that why you put me in the tub, so you can do it without a mess?
-Maybe, I said as I took a glance at him. Be still, Calvin.
-Oh God. Please don’t, please don’t! I’ll do anything you want, but please, I don’t want to die!
-Strange! So you didn’t mind having your old officemates taken out, but you’re too good to die, are you? Speak up if you have any idea why I shouldn’t bring the same treatment to you, I menaced as I poked the dog’s crotch with my pistol.
-I don’t know anything about that, sobbed Calvin as he started urinating out of fear. I just left when Jakob disappeared, because I was afraid that someone had found out about the money I’d arranged for him. I’ve been hiding here ever since then. Before that I was in Tallahassee, but I couldn’t come to the office because the Palms didn’t trust me anymore. They’ve been calling the shots for months now, I swear!
-So, I grimaced as I poked him again, you’re innocent, are you? Let me tell you that I don’t believe a single word of this, Calvin.
-I swear, moaned the dog as he ran out of any kind of fluid, I just met Jakob, years after we’d gone to college together. He talked sort of crazy, but we were old friends, and I thought that I’d be able to make a bit of money for some paradise to take my retirement in while I helped him out, that’s all.
-So you did this for a nice retirement.
-Yeah, Calvin carried on. Just that, I didn’t really care about the rest, it was between Jakob and those guys. I was just the guy that hooked them up.
-If you’re telling the truth, you still have a lot of blood on your hands. Sponsoring a terrorist organization, membership in a terrorist organization, and that’s just the start of it! We’re talking about the chair here, or prison until your fur turns grey.
-Isn’t there another way, said the dog as he looked up with the blank expression of a broken soul, isn’t there? I swear to God, on my eternal soul, that I’d do anything to repay this crime.
-This isn’t my call anymore, I stated.
-Gallet, called Alice from the next room, can we talk for a second?
-Sure, I said as I walked out of the washroom and closed the door behind me. What’s up?
-Look, I’ve been listening to you two. I... I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing anymore, ‘dillo. I believe Calvin, because you know that he always talked about this little island he’d have when he retired, it was his dream. Maybe he’s right, maybe he did do this for his dream and it got out of hand.
-He played one Hell of a dangerous game to attain it, I said with a frown. Still, I think he’s telling the truth too.
-Then what do we do?
-Did you report our success yet?
-No, I didn’t. So you mean...
-I mean we send Calvin in unofficial exile, I explained, with ten thousand dollars, a one-way ticket to the Maldives, and the clothes on his back. Sounds good to you?
-Sure, nodded the mouse. For old time’s sake, you know...
-Then take this card and take out ten grand the get the ticket, I said as I gave one of my plastics to Alice. I’ll get our exile ready here.
The woman smiled and gave me a long kiss before going out to fulfill the errand with a more relaxed step them before. I returned to the washroom, then taking the showerhead, soaked Calvin down to get the unpleasant smell of his piss away.
-What’s happening, asked the rottie, what are you going to do?
-This is what’s going to happen, Calvin. We’re going to give you a plane ticket to the Maldives and ten grand, and that’s were you’re going to stay. Don’t mistake this for a vacation, this is your new home, and if you’re seen in the States again, we’ll put you in for good, understand.
-God bless you, whined the dog, God bless your heart, armadillo. If there’s anything I can do to pay you back for this mercy, before God I’ll do it.
 -The one thing you can do is to stand by this offer and to save me the trouble of having to hunt you down again, I replied. If I cut those ties, you won’t run either, all right?
-I won’t, nodded Calvin. After all, I’d sort of look stupid running out like this, eh?
-That’s an understatement, I grinned as I took out my stiletto and cut the nylon ties. Put these on, and as soon as Alice is back, we’ll drive you to your new destiny.
-That quick? You know, I’m sort of curious as to why you got a bit hard when you walked in and dumped me in here. If you know Yuri, then you know that’s he’s a bit...
-And so are you, I completed from intuition.
-Just so happens, grinned Calvin. If you want anything...
-What the Hell, I smirked as I pulled down my pants.
-That must be pretty heavy to lug around, commented the rottie between licks at my cock. Come to think of it, if you want to, I wouldn’t mind taking you over the john there...
-Giddy up, I chuckled as the dog assumed the position and I started sodomizing him. Oh yeah!
-One of the reasons why Yuri climbed the ranks like he did, grinned the rottie after a grunt. Shoot, you’re a big guy!
-Damn right I am, I said as I reached over and jacked him off into the sink. Good doggie, good...
Ethics took a nosedive as I screwed our mark, really giving it to his ass with both hands on his shoulders as soon as he’d shot off in the porcelain. A bit of hard loving felt good after a few days of maddening stress, and I wasn’t letting this opportunity to cut loose go for anything. I had the rottie sit down and came in his maw before I had my way with Calvin for a nice, long and pleasurable fifteen minutes, finally giving him another hose-down before prepping him for his departure. He seemed to have just adored the impromptu encounter, and cooperated perfectly as I scripted him right up until Alice came in with his money and plane ticket. I hurried things along from there as the flight was to leave in only an hour, and I was quite eager to have things return to normal as soon as possible. I had Alice drive and boarded with Calvin in the back of the rental, still ready to draw in case that the dog decided to throw everything out the window anyway. He looked out the window with traces of a mix of regret and hope, as if he was glad in some way to finally leave all this behind and just embrace the new life that awaited him. We marched him right up to the counter and then to the terminal, watching him closely right up until he took the corridor to get on the plane.
-Do you think we did the right thing, asked Alice, everything aside? You know, for the good of everyone involved?
-Well, I think we did. After all, our goal was to find out what happened back home, and I’m pretty certain we have a clear enough understanding to say that we accomplished what we’d set out to.
-Then mission accomplished, smiled the mouse. While we’re out here, I was just thinking like this...
-Yes?
-How can I put this, pondered the woman. I’ve always wanted to have kids, Jean-Michel, and I thought like this that since we’re sort of in it, we might be able to try?
-So a little time off work so we can make it happen, eh? I’ve had worst propositions in my time. Let’s hurry on out of here, shall we..?

The product of the two wonderful, magical days that we’d written off as ‘investigative review’ at the office came six months later, as mice had such short pregnancies, probably the shortest in the creatures of the Second Genesis, not that I believe in that. The idea that we were reliving the world as another people who has previously inhabited it was preposterous after all. That religious flop aside, I had the pleasure of both driving Alice from our residence to the hospital around two in the morning, though the shrill calls she gave didn’t leave much to guesswork for the doctors at the emergency, rushing her through to deliver a pair of the cutest grey squeakers that I’d ever seen. The first time I saw them was in their incubators, two hours after our arrival, realizing that their colour was exactly that of my fur, erasing any doubt that my fine work had been responsible for half their existence. I had felt a bit odd with the whole situation, living as common law partners under the same room and all, but I knew that Alice had wanted to get married after she was sure that we would be able to be bona fide biological parents. Our kinds weren’t that close genetically, but hey, destiny took care of that for sure! The second month we were together, I had made a detour after work to get rings for both engagement and alliances, and as soon as the doctor who had taken over my sweet mousy came to tell me she was awake, I followed him to her room and in an uninterrupted motion, entered the room and kneeled besides Alice and proposed.
-I was wondering where you were, grinned the mouse, still a bit woozy. Are you doing what I think you are?
-Well, I think I have everything that I need, right? A ring, a floor to put my knees down on and a beautiful woman that my heart calls for night after night; is anything missing?
-Only for you to say something to go with the props, laughed Alice. Come on.
-Alice, whatever brought us together, be it fate or God, I take a moment to thank with all my will, because it most certainly is the greatest thing that I’ve ever seen throughout my life. Mousy, I would be honoured past all measure if you would have me as your husband, to grow with you our children, because I can tell you that you’d win any paternity suit you’d prepare against me with their looks!
-Gallet, you’re a nutcase, laughed Alice. Yes, I’d love to be your wife, ‘dillo. They’re the same grey as you, aren’t they?
-Down to the last shade, I nodded as I leaned over and hugged the rodent after having slipped the band on her finger.
-I’ll have to admit something to you right now though, but I hope you don’t take it the wrong way...
-All right..?
-Well, when we were in New Orleans and you know, we brought these children into this world, I didn’t know if I was dreaming or if I’d really found as wonderful a soul as I thought I was looking at, the one I’m looking at right now. You know, I’m not much at all, when you look at all those wonderful lionesses and mares that you see on television, and you’re such an angel ‘dillo, I thought I was just lucky to be with you for a while.
-Hey, stop with that, I grunted with a smile as I kissed the mouse, you’re a ray of heaven-sent light, Alice, and never even think of yourself anything less.
-I love the big buff ‘dillo, she whispered as she wrapped her arms around me. Oh, and by the way, did you see if they had any of those ice cream cups on the menu? I have this crazy craving right now...
-Well, there are four empty ones in your garbage there, I said with a grin, and I had a few more ordered up right before I walked in.
-Did you now?
-Just in case the charming proposal didn’t quite do it, I though the sweets might.
-Awww, isn’t he a cute marshmallow in a shell...
-Squeak!