Pepper

by Carol Buhler

  Firth was implementing his “harass the don and reeth” campaign—with me as his instrument.

  He joined his boss and Lady Jill in Opel the next night. The owner in Whay had caved easily. Firth now controlled the clothing factory, with the ex-owner running the place as manager. The one in Mont, however, was holding out. Pepper had kidnapped the owner’s son and stashed him in chains in one of Firth’s other homes under the guard of one of his assassin trainees. He assured Firth the man wouldn’t hold out too long.

  His next tasks were to escort Lady Jill to inspect several large farming operations in Opel, assess the financial prospects of each, and to purchase up to three. Surprised at how well she’d assimilated his teaching, he felt pride at her excellent negotiations and reported as much to his boss. Firth just smiled enigmatically. “We’re progressing very well, I think.”

  Leaving Jill visiting with Lady Syl of Opel for a few days, Firth and Pepper traveled south to deal with the recalcitrant factory owner in Mont. When they stopped for two hours in Kavv to visit the bank, Pepper saw Lord Roark waiting inside, touched Firth’s arm to indicate the Lord’s presence, and faded into the background. Things always went smoother with Roark when Pepper was out of sight. He listened unashamed to the men’s conversation.

  “And how is the lovely Lady Kelt?” Firth asked with a touch of sarcasm that Pepper thought should have been hidden. Roark wasn’t a stupid man and Pepper felt he’d brindle with antagonism at any slight to his wife. Then, his boss made things worse by asking about the reeth now living in Kavv Palace with the Lord and Lady.

  “They bring calm to the household,” Roark said rather defensively. “I’ve been much happier with them in residence.”

  “I can see that,” Firth said. “What about your takeover of Pith?” In his corner, Pepper winced. It seemed to him that Roark had become quite content with his domestic arrangements and had dropped his urgency to rule Pith. Boss won’t like that.

  “Maybe you’re too happy with those reeth there.” Firth went on. “Make sure you don’t lose sight of your goal...” Roark started to retort when Firth held up a hand to stop him. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing. I have to hurry so I don’t miss my flight to Mont. We’ll talk more the next time I’m in Kavv.” He strode toward the teller leaving Roark staring after him with a puzzled look.

  Boss, don’t upset one of your few allies, Pepper thought but didn’t say.

  As soon as they landed in Mont, they rented a car and drove directly to the house where the trainee assassin held the factory owner’s son. The boy, in his late teens, looked hammered, with one eye swollen shut and a split lip. His bare arms were covered in black and blue patches. Raising his eyebrows, Firth silently questioned the man left on guard.

  He shrugged. “He keeps trying to get away. I’ve been telling him he’s better off here than home. He’s too stupid to learn such a simple fact.”

  “Maybe it’s best,” Firth said. “His father may ditch his stubborn attitude more quickly when he sees his son this way.” He turned and started toward the door.

  Just as Pepper stepped out of his way, the boy screamed and threw himself at Firth. Before Pepper could move around his boss, the trainee was on the attacker, his hands clutched at either side of the kid’s head. One twist snapped the kid’s neck. Then, the trainee looked up, ashen-faced, to see rage swelling in Firth.

  The boss said nothing to the trainee but turned to Pepper. “See to it.”

  Dropping the kid, the younger man tried to flee. Instead of throwing a knife, Pepper thought to save the man’s life. He could be useful again. After all, it had been a simple mistake, a moment’s loss of thought. But the trainee didn’t cooperate. And he’d learned well. It took several moves to subdue him. Pepper held his apprentice in a head lock preparing to talk some sense into him when Firth stuck his head back through the door.

  “Finish it. We’ve lost the advantage.”

  Pepper sighed and used the same move the apprentice had.

  He loaded both bodies into the trunk of the car, then drove out of town to a deep ravine to the south. Although dry the majority of the year, the ravine flooded when the sea was high due to a storm. The bodies would never be found, even if they didn’t float away. They returned to the airport and booked flights back to Opel.

  Leaving the business with the owner in Mont soured Firth’s mood for days. He only smiled for Lady Jill, and even then Pepper felt the undercurrents of fury held tightly under control.

  **

  “I have a new task for you,” Firth said one morning before Lady Jill appeared for breakfast. “Take your remaining apprentices and go into the area of the border between Kavv and Pith. Hire farming families to work on the lands we’ve been buying. Offer them good wages, good locations, whatever it takes to get them to desert their croplands immediately. Concentrate on those working for Lord Metz.”

  He paused and Pepper waited patiently for him to go on. “Hire trucks to move them and send them here to Opel where we’ll assign farms. I’ll arrange housing.” He handed Pepper a bank card. “Draw on the funds in Kavv.”

  “You’re no longer counting on Lord Roark to bring you Kavv and Pith.” It wasn’t a question. Pepper easily saw the advantage to Firth of crippling big farming interests in the two city-states.

  “No. I think he’s become worthless to me.”

  Lady Jill entered the room and the men broke off their conversation to greet her. “I’m glad you’ve come in,” Firth said in a totally different tone than that he used with Pepper. “You and I will head for Apel tomorrow and I’m going to see what you’ve learned about evaluating land.”

  She flashed Pepper a worried look. He smiled in encouragement while Firth picked up her hand and fondled it, then continued in a teasing voice Pepper had never heard before. “I’ve located some parcels and would value your opinion. Plus, I’ve never dealt with President Asis before and am depending on you to use your charm on our behalf.”

  He let Pepper know he’d seen the appealing look from his wife by staring at him as he continued to tease Lady Jill. “Rumor tells me Asis’ wife and teenage daughters are all agog to meet a real lady. You’ll be quite successful, I’m sure.” He turned to escort her to the table set for two. “Pepper’s going on a mission to Pith for me. We’ll see him again in a couple of weeks.”

  Pepper knew he’d been dismissed and left with no further encouragement for Lady Jill even as he thought about what he was about to do to the woman’s ex. In Apel, she’ll have to deal with her current husband on her own.

  Driving sizeable moving vans, Pepper and his three remaining apprentices arrived in western Pith with bags full of money. On a large map they’d obtained from the recording office, they’d marked off all the farms that were either owned by Lord Metz or leased by him. These were their specific targets. Pepper handled the first farm they approached so the others could learn what he wanted them to do.

  The four climbed out of the van—they’d left the other three vehicles out of sight—and Pepper approached the man who appeared to be the one in charge. Holding out his hand, he said, “I’m Joshua Ferrell. My boss is looking to hire knowledgeable farming families for some new developments up north. Would you be interested in making a change to your lifestyle?”

  The farmer, dressed in jeans with patches and a worn old shirt, perked up. “What sort of lifestyle change are you talking about?” By the time he’d finished his question, a woman had joined him, obviously his wife.

  “My boss is offering a hundred dollars a day, guaranteed, during startup, then twenty-thousand a month, also guaranteed for a year, and once the farm is producing well, seventy-five percent of yield in place of the guarantee. There’s one stipulation. You have to decide right now and get started on your way today. We’ve brought this van to take you and yours to your new home.”

  As soon as he’d said twenty thousand a month, the farmer and his wife began gleaming with excitement. The money was outrageous and Pepper knew i
t. The farmer asked timidly for proof and Pepper promptly handed him a bundle of twenty-dollar bills. When he found himself holding two thousand dollars, he got the family to gather a few things, including the dog, and climbed happily into the van, leaving the farm abandoned.

  The four recruiters brought more trucks and within four days had cleared out a majority of the farmers employed by Lord Metz in western Pith. They moved easily across the unguarded border in this vast farmland and started in on Kavv farming families, whether or not they worked for Lord Roark.

  When Pepper returned to Juel, having sent his helpers to continue their recruiting tactics, he figured he and his men had collected at least two hundred families. And, as his plane from Pith flew over the area, he was satisfied to see farms baking below them in the intense sun.

  Chapter 18

  “Good work!” Firth told him when he entered the office and made his report. “I’ve settled those who’ve arrived in our housing complex on the north side. Soon, we’ll start sending them on to their new positions.”

  Pepper appreciated the good words but felt there was something Firth was hiding from him. He knew better than to ask. The man would tell him when he wanted to.

  “I heard from one of our people in Bonn.” Firth smiled the way that always made Pepper uneasy. “The don are reaching out to humans for building projects. Seems that they’ve had no new construction in their capital city for over forty years and have decided humans are good for something after all. One of them showed up in Zron and held a secret meeting with contractors and builders from all over the continent.” Firth sent Pepper a peculiar look.

  “Secret?” he responded. “How did they keep it secret?”

  Firth grinned evilly. “They tried—didn’t succeed of course. No one keeps secrets from me!”

  Pepper put an interested look on his face which seemed to satisfy his boss. Where the man was going with this, he had no idea. He knew well how Firth liked to tease with vital information.

  “Touchstone Construction bid on the project and two of their estimators were flown to this ‘Center City’ of the don and reeth. They were blindfolded during the flight but were able to snap some photos while they were inspecting the building site. They think they’ve figured out where the place is and want to sell the location to the highest bidder. You go to Bonn and make sure we’re the highest bidders.”

  Pepper sighed. He’d just returned and was looking forward to a few days of relaxation. Instead, he headed back to the airport, purchased yet another ticket, and went to Bonn.

  The job turned out to be extremely easy. For some reason, no one else seemed to want to pay for the location of the don’s Center City and he got the storage pin with the predicted latitude and longitude for less than he’d expected and he hadn’t had to threaten or kidnap anyone.

  Before he called to check in with his boss, he rented a car and visited the von Straus property. Watching Byron playing ball with five active boys that looked exactly like him made Pepper notice his aches, pains, age, and loneliness. He felt infinitely older than his brother looked.

  He turned away from the sight to question Ludo about the estate finances and to meet the young man training to take the old butler’s place. Satisfied, he returned to Bonn and called Firth.

  “Good,” the man said. “Glad that’s settled. Read me the coordinates.” Pepper put the storage pin he’d received into his phone and read off the numbers.

  Firth repeated them, then started in on another subject. “I have a report of a strange resident in a psychiatric nursing home in Pith I need you to check out. The patient is exceedingly tall, strong, and definitely out of his mind, the aide says. He mumbles continually about don, reeth, and led. Go see what’s going on there.” Firth read off a name and address. “Let me know immediately what you find.”

  “Of course, sir,” Pepper replied.

  He gathered up the bag he always carried with him, went to the airport, and caught a flight to Pith. I’m getting plenty sick of airplanes.

  After meeting with Firth’s informant, Pepper was convinced the mysterious patient was definitely don. However, getting him out of the psychiatric hospital wasn’t going to be easy. He’d need to get hospital plans, tools he didn’t usually carry with him, and learn whatever he could about the personnel. Conferring with Firth, he received the go-ahead to do what was necessary to bring the live prisoner to Lady Jill’s home in Juel. Although he protested the location, thinking to not involve the lady, Firth insisted.

  Pepper rented a room in a nearby hotel and the next morning visited the Planning and Zoning Department in the Pith governmental offices. He left shortly after with complete building plans of the target hospital. According to Firth’s spy, the patient was being held on the second floor so he might have to access it from the air. Fortunately, the building was shaped in a U and an ornamental green area made up the interior. He should be able to slip through the shrubs and bushes unseen. But how to get to the second floor?

  He could easily climb, but he’d have to bring a possibly struggling prisoner back down, one that was definitely taller than he was, and probably stronger and heavier. He’d need a diversion of some sort.

  That afternoon, he scouted the green area and located what had to be his target’s window. Bars! Of course! They don’t want their crazy patients escaping to terrorize the citizens. He added a hacksaw to his list of items to purchase.

  Over a leisurely lunch, Pepper pondered the situation, then located a hardware store. With the purchased hacksaw, a grappling cable and its accessories, and a long length of tough, green rope, he decided he was ready for an early morning kidnapping.

  There was no moon and the sky was still dark when Pepper let himself into a back door of the hospital with his lock picks. He almost immediately encountered an orderly who yelled at him to halt. Pepper didn’t and as he approached, he sprayed the man in the face with one of his less dangerous concoctions. Dragging him quickly into a nearby closet marked on the plans as cleaning storage, he stripped the man of his white uniform and pulled it over his own black clothing. The uniform was fairly big but using clips and pins, he tightened it so he could move almost as well as usual.

  Then he slipped up the stairs to the room he’d marked in his mind as holding his quarry. Using the pass-card from the guy in the closet, he silently opened the door and walked forward with his usual stealth. The figure in the bed could not be a don. She had fuzzy grey hair and was tinier than his mother had been at the end.

  She didn’t wake up as he slipped back out as silently as he’d entered. What now?

  On a hunch, he went up a floor and tried the room in the same position as the one holding the tiny woman. This one held a wide-awake man who glared at him with absolute hatred. Oddly, the don made no sound as Pepper rushed toward him. He did, however, swing his arms in attack. Pepper ducked faster than he ever had in his life and came up inside the man’s long reach. He jabbed a needle into a bicep and whirled away, catching a fist to the side of his head. The don came off the bed silently and bent to catch Pepper while he was down. Rolling frantically, Pepper slid under the bed.

  The don picked up the bed and flung it at the window. Pepper scrambled for cover somewhere else, hoping the drug would take immediate effect. It didn’t seem to and the don came after him, a steel bed pan aiming to crush his skull. Pepper dodged to the left. The don staggered after him, yanking a monitor out of the wall as he swung and missed. The drug seemed to be finally working as the patient stopped and swayed from side to side, the bed pan dangling from his fingers. As he fell, the pan clattered noisily.

  Wasting no time, Pepper leapt on him and bound his hands and feet and then his legs and arms with the green rope. Assured his victim was immobile, he dashed to the window and frantically sawed at the bars until he had an opening large enough to shove his prisoner through. He ripped the sheets off the bed and quickly made a rope of them, hoping to throw off pursuit, then fastened the secured don to the pulley and began lowerin
g him to the ground. Valuable time had been wasted. It was light outside!

  Noise came from the door he’d locked behind him and he whirled to see two, doctors possibly, step through. They shouted and charged. Pepper fired the gun that instantly appeared in his hand, striking the one mid-body—not a killing shot. Then, he charged the other and knocked him unconscious with three swift, hard blows. Glancing quickly around to be sure he left no trace of himself behind, he leapt out the window and swarmed down the side of the building using the grappling rope to control his descent.

  On the ground, he swept the trussed don over his shoulder and ran through the shadows of the trees. Surprisingly, the fellow wasn’t as heavy as he looked and Pepper made good time. Down the street a block, he opened the back of a van he’d rented, shoved his captive inside, stripped off his black mask, and jumped into the driver’s seat. He put a cap on his head which proclaimed him to be a florist delivery man, as did the van, and drove sedately to the edge of town.

  There he transferred the captive to a fast car he’d rented and swept quickly down the highway toward Juel. Muttering about aches he hadn’t felt in years, he drove through the night and arrived at Lady Jill’s house in the early hours of the next morning. Firth met him at the back door and together they lugged their prisoner to the basement where Firth had a locking strong room to put him in.

  Pepper leaned wearily against the wall. “Tough?” Firth asked.

  “Very.”

  “Go get some rest. We’ll talk later.”

  Surprised, Pepper followed those instructions.

  After he’d installed a listening/recording device in the strong room holding their don prisoner, he and Firth took turns listening to the ravings; most made no sense whatsoever. However, the word “led” repeated throughout the garbled sentences and Pepper tried to figure exactly what the don meant. “Led” could mean lots of things. After discussions with Firth, they decided the don might be referring to the metal because it sometimes occurred followed by the word “helmet” in the don’s odd phrasing.