“A set time, one-year renewable. Strict non-disclosure. We don’t tolerate competitors from within.”
“You know who I am. You know all about me, and you know I am a man of my word. I guarantee that if I take this, I will never work against you. I’m either in all the way or out.”
“We know that. Despite what you may think, people successfully retire from this business.”
“If I take this, I want to be one of those, and sooner rather than later.”
“Take the card, Ian, and then we’ll explain what your job entails.”
“I’m not a salesman.”
“No. You’re an operator and a damn good one, with a nose for the truth. We have all the contacts we’ll ever need. You only have to talk to them to make sure we have the truth on the target. You make the recommendation to us, and we post the job. When we get a bid within the parameters of payment and time, we take it and start the clock running.”
“Simple as that?”
“The truth is a vicious taskmaster, Ian.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“What a man does for pay is of little significance. What he is, as a sensitive instrument responsive to the world's beauty, is everything!” H.P. Lovecraft
The evening ended with a handshake. I picked up the gold card and slid it into my pocket. I gave the men my current phone number, and they countered with a password to access The Peace Archive’s internal web. They said I would find everything I needed there.
“I will send my final answer in the morning after we’ve had a chance to talk privately.”
“Of course. Do what you think is best for you and your family.”
The two men strode out as confidently as they had entered, eyes scanning the area for threats as was their habit. The restaurant had filled, leaving only two or three tables empty. Jenny and I sat back down after Chaz and Vince walked away. We ordered one molten lava cake with two spoons and sipped the champagne.
“Is this what you want to do?” Jenny asked.
I thought for a long time before I answered. “I was afraid I had put you at too much risk. That we couldn’t just live, like we were able to the last few months. I want more of that and less watching the shadows.”
“They said you were fine, they wouldn’t come after you. If we quit the game now, we have everything we want.”
“I want to be able to bathe you in diamonds.”
“I don’t need that garbage, Ian. You are such a man , doing manly stuff. How about us just being together? That’s good enough for me. We can get a cheap apartment in Cabo. Then I’ll put on a swimsuit for you.”
It was impossible not to smile at Jenny’s offer. “The siren’s call of pleasure and peace.” I squeezed her hand. She narrowed her eyes with a twinkle and a smile, knowing what was coming next. “What if we can make a bigger difference in the world?” Jenny waited for the rest of it. “What if I can fix what’s broken with the Archive and make sure what happened to Jimmy doesn’t happen to anyone else? Keeping bad guys off the street is worth our time and effort. In my opinion . What does the other half of this partnership have to say?”
Jenny sighed and rolled her head. “I loved the past three months. It sounds like you want more of that and a job, too.” She air-kissed me. “Can we have normal lives?”
“A different normal.” I paid the check with my new gold card. It went through without a hitch. I left a hundred-percent tip. “When I say we can change the world, I mean it.” I looked around before leaning close. “What if I take over The Peace Archive?”
“There go our peaceful lives.” Jenny kissed me. “Easy come, easy go. We better get back to the gym in the morning. I think we have our work cut out for us because we have to be better.”
“We need to find out what that looks like for us. Can we be who we are while also doing this job?”
“We can’t be anyone else,” Jenny replied. She held her champagne glass up. I clinked mine against hers. “Like you believed in Jimmy, I believe in you.”
“Peace through superior firepower.” I quoted the Strategic Air Command motto, the nuclear bomb people.
“Peace through peace. What if we work ourselves out of a job because there are no more bad guys who deserve the Archive treatment?”
“Then we shall turn in our gold card and retire while we’re still young enough to enjoy it.”
“I’ll always be twenty-nine,” she deadpanned.
I looked at her. Another masterful play that forced me to change the way I looked at the board. “More of that. On our toes. I don’t think this job will be as easy as they made it sound. But…” I took a few moments to shape the rest of the words. “A better society. Clear the worst of the evil away so the rest of humanity can simply live.”
“We’ll adjust.” She drained her flute. The server magically appeared and topped off our glasses, removing the empty bottle. “I will be what you need me to be. The same and different. Like those crazy kids who met a lifetime ago in a bar over a Shirley Thunderbolt .”
“Thunderbolt Special ,” I corrected. She wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“What do you say we grab a couple from a bar in Bally’s and go wild?”
We stood, complimented the server on the meal and service, and hand in hand, we walked out. Dreamline was playing in my mind. “A better world awaits, Miss Jenny. To shape it, we will be what we have to be.”
The End
If you like this book, please leave a review.
Reviews buoy my spirits and stoke the fires of creativity.
Or you could simply pick up Ian Bragg’s next book, right now – A Clean Kill, available on December 26, 2020. https://geni.us/IanBragg2
Don’t stop now! Keep turning the pages as I talk about my thoughts on this book and the overall project called the Ian Bragg Thrillers.
Author Notes - Craig Martelle
Written July 26, 2020
I can’t thank you enough for reading this story to the very end! I hope you liked it as much as I did.
Can you tell I love all things Rush? This book is an ode to their musical genius. I hope you’re able to listen to the music as you read. Even if you don’t listen to their songs, understand the power they hold for those of us who do.
I live in the interior of Alaska, about 150 miles from the Arctic Circle. I wrote this entire story after the sun rose and before the sun set a single time. No. I can’t write 70,000 words in a single day. It’s light for about seventy-three days straight during our summers. And then I published this book at the beginning of our six-month winter. We live the extremes. We only had a couple of days in the 80s (Fahrenheit) this summer. I expect we’ll pay for the mild temperatures with a brutally cold winter. The weather has taken it easy on us for the last couple years. The coldest I’ve ever experienced is -74F. I went outside in that for thirty seconds, and I thought I was going to die. -40F (it’s -40C, too) is bad enough. I filmed my wife tossing boiling water out our front door and watching it vaporize instantly. An interesting phenomenon that only those who have seen ambient (not windchill) temperatures at the extreme range will understand. I don’t recommend it for the weak of heart.
Which is me, so I spend a lot of time indoors in the winter. I write a lot, but I get caught up on sleep that I missed out on during the summers. I’m lucky to get five hours when it’s light all the time.
What about Ian Bragg? He came about as an idea—a man of honor who is also a hitman. How can he reconcile that dichotomy? A vigilante for the just? And then one who falls in love, softens, but still has to do what he has to do? I believe there are people out there like him. Why can’t they work for an organization like The Peace Archive? Anything is possible.
People do what they do because something drives them. Ego to be the best. Money. A conscience. Combine all of those, and you have Ian Bragg. Falling in love was easy but dealing with the consequences of that made this story what it was.
As for names, Ian Bragg came to me out of the blue, and at the most
basic level of efficiency, Ian is only three letters, very quick to type. Call Ian’s name an author’s shortcut. For our politician, I wanted something exotic and memorable. I had heart surgery in January, 2020 which was the perfect way to greet the year that would be 2020. One of the underlying issues they suspected was sleep apnea so my sleep doctor is Dr. Clay Tripplehorn. I like to memorialize the good people who help to keep me alive and kicking.
I’m off to write the next chapter in the Ian Bragg thrillers.
Peace, fellow humans.
***
If you liked this story, you might like some of my other books. You can join my mailing list by dropping by my website craigmartelle.com or if you have any comments, shoot me a note at [email protected]. I am always happy to hear from people who’ve read my work. I try to answer every email I receive.
If you liked the story, please write a short review for me on Amazon. I greatly appreciate any kind words; even one or two sentences go a long way. The number of reviews an ebook receives greatly improves how well it does on Amazon.
Amazon—www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle
Facebook—www.facebook.com/authorcraigmartelle
BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/craig-martelle
My web page—https://craigmartelle.com
Thank you for joining me on this incredible journey.
Other Series by Craig Martelle
# - available in audio, too
Terry Henry Walton Chronicles (#) (co-written with Michael Anderle)—a post-apocalyptic paranormal adventure
Gateway to the Universe (#) (co-written with Justin Sloan & Michael Anderle)—this book transitions the characters from the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles to The Bad Company
The Bad Company (#) (co-written with Michael Anderle)—a military science fiction space opera
Judge, Jury, & Executioner (#)—a space opera adventure legal thriller
Shadow Vanguard —a Tom Dublin space adventure series
Superdreadnought (#)—an AI military space opera
Metal Legion (#)—a military space opera
The Free Trader (#)—a young adult science fiction action-adventure
Cygnus Space Opera (#)—a young adult space opera (set in the Free Trader universe)
Darklanding (#) (co-written with Scott Moon)—a space western
Mystically Engineered (co-written with Valerie Emerson)—mystics, dragons, & spaceships
Metamorphosis Alpha —stories from the world’s first science fiction RPG
The Expanding Universe —science fiction anthologies
Krimson Empire (co-written with Julia Huni)—a galactic race for justice
Zenophobia (#)—a space archaeological adventure
End Times Alaska (#)—a Permuted Press publication—a post-apocalyptic survivalist adventure
Nightwalker (a Frank Roderus series)—A post-apocalyptic western adventure
End Days (#) (co-written with E.E. Isherwood)—a post-apocalyptic adventure
Successful Indie Author (#)—a non-fiction series to help self-published authors
Monster Case Files (co-written with Kathryn Hearst)—A Warner twins mystery adventure
Rick Banik (#)—Spy & terrorism action adventure
Ian Bragg Thrillers —a hitman with a conscience and a girlfriend
Published exclusively by Craig Martelle, Inc
The Dragon’s Call by Angelique Anderson & Craig A. Price, Jr.—an epic fantasy quest
A Couple’s Travel s —a non-fiction travel series
The Operator Page 22