by Mark Graham
Ice finally realized it was starting to get a little dark outside and he had to stop this before it was too dark to see. He didn’t want a light bulb shining, and being visible from miles away.
Ice went and got a bucket of cold water and splashed it into Horacio’s face which seemed to get his attention. He then went over and got a small surgical scalpel. Immediately he shoved the tip into Horacio’s piss hole and drove it all the way in, opening the thing like a fillet fish. Horacio screamed as Ice took his scrotum off and threw it in a bowl, Then he reached up and grabbed both testicles and jerked them down as far as they would go and cut them off, throwing them in the the same bowl. He took the time to wrap the bowl in clear rap and walked them off to the side. He went back and grabbed his camera and took another couple pictures as he had been doing at every step of his actions.
When Ice returned to Horacio the man was almost dead and bleeding a lot. “Well, you might have a minute of life left or you might have an hour. Either way I have a treat for you. In saying this his opened the latch on the chain and Horacio fell onto the tarp with more blood then anyone would think a man had. Ice was actually surprised to be able to feel a faint heartbeat. “Shit, he’s going to miss the big finale,” Ice laughed.
Ice wrapped, and rolled the tarp up tight after laying both ends over each other to seal the container when he was done. He grabbed the tarp and brought it back up and laid it near the barn door. He returned to the basement and poured water over all his tools, then poured bleach on everything, using a few gallons to cover the floor too, just in case. It was getting dark, but Ice had enough time to put his tools away, hide a few things, lock other things up and grabbed the bowl with the balls in it. He went back outside, grabbed the the body, hoisting it over his shoulder and put it in the car’s trunk.
When he did all he could do at the incinerator, he put a moving blanket over the seat of the Chevy. Tom had bought a huge car shredder the year before so Ice drove the Chevy over to the ramp and hooked it up. He took the bowl and placed away from the machine and hit the button. Within fifteen minutes the entire car was completely shredded. Ice hit a few buttons which would send all the scrapes to the incinerator where the melted steel and whatever else there was would join Horacio’s ashes.
Ice grabbed the bowl and walked out to the front of the yard. He went inside the building and grabbed a set of keys that went to one of the company pickups, started it up and drove out and went home, ready for a nice rest.
In the morning Ice felt refreshed and actually felt like the old Steve. A responsible law abiding citizen of the U.S., and one of it’s protectors. Steve felt he needed to completely finish the assignment so he got on his computer and sent an e-mail off to wherever very top secret files went to within his agency. He included all the pictures he took plus a picture of the testicles and sack. The only thing he needed to do then was to send the body parts in too. He packed a pre-paid mail box with hot ice and put the balls in with it. He addressed it. His last thought when he dropped the package off at the post office was, “well, he wanted his balls, so he will now get them.” He drove off smiling, returning the truck to his brother.
Chapter Five
Ice loved Colorado Springs this time of year. It wasn’t cold enough to snow, but he could plainly see a lot of it up in the mountains. It’d be a couple more months before winter season might come. He sat in a restaurant where he could look almost straight up and see the top of Pike’s Peak. The ID he was carrying was that of a boat salesman from Grand Haven, Michigan by the name of Chet Rollinger. He had never used the ID before but had insured that whoever it was didn’t have a record of any wrong doing. The way it worked was the Agency contacted the IRS, and the IRS contacted the boat dealer who owed a lot of back taxes. The result was that the dealer and some of his sales employees were told they had a salesman working the western portion of the U.S. by the name of Chet Rollinger. The people who answered the phone, whoever they might be would also know about this salesman, even if they had never met him. All the corners were covered by the time Ice arrived in Colorado Springs. He had been there several years before, loved it, but by now one would not remember the stranger that was in town for a week. Ice was driving his Mercedes and it had a bunch of guns and other stuff hidden in a secret compartment under and in front of the trunk. He could get to it by way of the back seat too. As long as nobody ever tore the car apart, they wouldn’t find the stash.
After Ice ate he ordered coffee and opened his computer. Before clicking to get on his Agency site he checked to make sure no one behind him could see the screen. The screen was such that from an angle or being more than 4 feet away a person couldn’t see it anyway. To insure even more privacy he set the print ro be very small. He checked his messages and found a few from the agency with their never ending bullshit and a message from the Director. The first three were what he thought. One was to be nice to the airport people and treat them professionally, another one about driving within the speed limits to not get any one’s attention, and the last one that the agency was planning on a Christmas party in a few months. Ice thought, “wonder what idiot came up with that one,” he said under his breath. He knew it wouldn’t happen other than maybe the administrative staff. No agent wanted to be around a bunch of other agents, and let some knothead talk to them all out at the same time. He tucked it back for whenever he talked to the Director again. The first item came because of him more likely. A year or two before, Ice was trying to catch a flight out of Seattle. When he got to the checking point he told the security guy that if he touched his junk he would whoop his ass. That got the bells and whistles going with it ending up that the guy on the ID he was using was put on the “no flight’ list. The agency didn’t get too excited knowing their agents were a bunch of killers, liars, bull shiters, maimers, and whatever other illegal violent thing might be out there.
The message from the Director was short and sweet. “Meeting next Wednesday at 10AM. Be there. Plane will be ready for you at Colorado Springs airport annex Tuesday evening at 6PM. Serious discussion. Might involve you.”
Ice decided to just take it easy and see what was around Colorado Springs, take in the sites and see if he could find anything special. It didn’t surprise him that the agency knew where he was, but also knew that if a job was to be done here, the message would have given him the mission.
At the coffee shop the next day Ice was enjoying a Americano grande along the side of the building. For some reason he remembered Eva Harden and her call. After thinking for a few minutes he realized there were a few things it might be. First, it might be a real call and a real threat; second, it could be the agency putting him under a test. Agents were not allowed to take on a mission that was not authorized by the Director, nor was he to assist in anything like it. Agents who did were immediately labeled rogue and a hit was put out on them. Hell of a way to quit a job.
Ice used one of his throw away phones to make the call. A man answered the phone, “Yeah, ah, what do you want?” in kind of a nasty way.
“I have a number here where a woman called a couple weeks ago wanting some help. Is Eva Harder there?”
“There ain’t no Eva Harder here . . . oh wait . . . oh yeah, Eva Harder; just a minute. That got Ice’s attention quickly. A house-wife would more than likely answer the phone herself and the man answering was no son of the woman.
“Hello,” the voice said. “How can I help you?”
“Are you Eva Harden?” Ice asked, trying to be polite.
“Ah, yeah . . . are you Steve?” she asked.
“Yes, I am and wondered if you were still needing to talk with me? Ice responded.
“Ah . . . . yes . . . I do need to talk to you but I would rather talk in person.” she said sounding kind of demanding.
“I can’t do that Eva,” it’s against my own rules. I don’t make deals in person where it might not be what it seems. I have a habit of not walking into traps.”
“Oh, I see,” the woman answered
, sounding a little upset. “Well then I really wish not to even talk to you then. Good-bye.” The woman hung up without another word.
Ice thought it important to check out this name and situation and find out what was really going on. He’d do it if he ever found himself near that city, but didn’t want to go out of his way. He would report it to the Director so he would be aware of the situation.
Chapter Six
Ice was early for his meeting by at least twenty minutes. He picked up a cup of coffee on his way in and found several people in the room including the Director. He was quite sure the Secretary of State was sitting next to him but her face was in the direction of the Director as he said something to her. All the rest were peers of his in the agency. He recognized two FBI agents walking through the door and getting themselves a cup of coffee and a donut. They looked around and ended up sitting next to Ice. The three of them nodded, and the two FBI agents continued with there conversation. Something about the old days. Why did everybody talk about the old days. That sucked. Men had a way of justifying their action by remembering all the good things. With Ice and a few other in the room, they could remember a bunch of really bad things.
“We have four more on their way,” the Director called out, “we’ll get started after they arrive and get comfortable.
Ice thought about the telephone call he had returned to Eva and couldn’t put a close on it. He felt something was happening but he didn’t know what. It was one of those things that just doesn’t make sense, and up until she had called and left the recording nobody had ever known who he was, outside those few who knew him through the agency or in Maumee.
Two men walked into the room, looked around, and got themselves coffee and a donut. They saw two empty seats next to Ice so they sat there, all three nodding at each other. Then a man and woman came in and did the same thing. the last two had done and sat opposite of Ice, and again the nodding thing went around.
“Okay ladies and gentlemen, let’s get this started,” the Director barked. He went around the table and named everybody at the table and who they represented. The two guys who came after he did were ATF and the man and woman were Homeland Security. None of the agents Ice worked with had much use for either agency but were polite anyway. Ice and the Director had agreed a while back that they thought the ATF should be a convenience store.
“I have one important thing to pass along which is very important to all our federal agencies . . . . all our law enforcement agencies anyway,” the Director started. “I have to leave soon so let me get this out to you. We didn’t want to send out a cover all e-mail to everybody because we know a lot of e-mails go un-read. Shame on us!
“Last week, all in one day, and at the same precise time, we had a number of agents killed with sniper fire. We have no idea what is happening or by who. We’re quite sure we can’t nail “terrorists” as commonly used, but they are definitely creating terror. We need all of you to go back to your agencies and make sure this gets back to your directors and any body else that needs to know to insure complete coverage. It was last Monday. At 10:00AM Chicago time two FBI agents were killed in Chicago. At the same time, 11:00AM Toledo time two Customs officers were killed, and it goes on like that. Two of our agents were killed in New York, two ATF agents were killed in Florida, and two Homeland Security agents were killed in Texas. Why CIA agents were in Oklahoma, we don’t know, but two of them were killed in Tulsa. We have another two CIA agents killed in Israel, and two Department of Defense agents killed in Washington D.C. All sniped within seconds of each other. We have a highly organized bunch of folks out there who can reach any place in the world and have communications good enough to put all these shots in at the same time. So, we know it reaches internationally. It reached my ears first because some yo-yo politician farther up the line thought maybe we were doing it for some stupid reason. But it wasn’t us. We all have to be very careful.”
“As far as my organization goes,” the Director went on, “we’re going to at least try backing up each of our people in some way or another. Y’all might think about the same thing. Although, thinking about it, all these occurrences happened to two man teams. All your directors, myself, and the Secretary of State have a meeting scheduled at an unknown place tomorrow. Hell, we should probably have it on teleconferencing so all of us can’t get taken out together.” He looked at the Secretary of State and she seemed to nod that teleconferencing was the best idea. Didn’t take so much time in travel either.
The group talked with each other, some asking the Director some questions. After about ten minutes the Director rose and stated, “I need to leave. I have several appointments waiting for me and we know we can’t keep them waiting too long,” he said sarcastically. He walked out the door, but when he walked past Ice he put his hand on his shoulder for a moment. Ice took that as a “come up to my office shortly, we need to talk.”
The meeting officially broke up after the Director left but at least half of them stayed talking cross department for any information they had, or just catching up.
Ice was kind of taken back by the new information and did wonder if the call with the so called Eva Harden had anything to do with whoever it was that killed all the agents. He went to the elevator going to the first floor and got a big cup of coffee before heading up to the Director’s office. The coffee upstairs was the same, half bad stuff the agency seemed to serve all the time. In some coffee pots he had poured from, he could tell that it had been on the heating plate for way to long. If he could put a spoon in the coffee and couldn’t see anything under the service he’d pour it out. Anyway, the stuff on the ground floor was Starbucks, and he usually just drank regular coffee or Americano for the extra kick. He needed the extra kick this morning.
When he entered the Director’s secretary’s office there were three people already there. The secretary looked up and pointed him right in to the Director’s office, opening the door for him.
They had a weird set up when it came to the Director. His secretary that he used for outside appointments was on the other side of the floor. People came there as they would with any appointment. There were some in that office that might wait all day before they may possibly get in. If the Director really didn’t want to see them the secretary would tell them about 6PM the Director had an emergency call. Having three people in his real secretaries office was not common, especially if the three were different appointments.
The Director got up smiling and walked toward Ice and shook his hand and said, “Here have a seat right here.” The Director pulled a chair out for him. He was kind of relieved because if you were invited to the table you were not in trouble and have to put up with some micro-managing. The Director was too good of a leader to stoop to micro-managing but there was always that fear.
“There’s a few things you and I have to talk about Steve,” the Director said. Ice realized this would be a very comfortable, father-son kind of talk.
“I have something I need to share with you too Director,” Ice stated matter of factly.
“Okay, you first,” the Director replied.
Before I went to South America I had a recording on my phone from a Eva Harder. Her message was that her husband was a jerk, a local politicians, and did some very bad things he was doing. She was trying to cover up I think that her intent was for me to get someone to put a hit out on her husband. Well, I finally called her back last week and when I told her I wasn’t involved in anything like that she got kind of huffy and hung up. The guy who initially answered the phone sounded like some low life mean guy. He didn’t even know who this Eva was when I first spoke of her to him.”
“Well good for you Steve, glad you didn’t fall for it. It sounds almost like something I might do to a new agent to see if they’d go for the quick buck outside, what they swore not to do. However, it worries me as it probably does you. I didn’t know anybody knew you by your real name anymore except for the three of us here and those that know you in Maumee.”
/> “Yeah, that bothers me too,” Ice responded. “I can’t put my finger on it but it’s been bothering me.”
“Well, for now, watch your ass,” the Director said. “I’ll arrange to get your telephone records for the incoming call and then the one you made to whatever number it was you called to.”
“Meanwhile, we do have a huge problem with these assassinations. I would like you to kind of cover Bob on his next assignment, and then Karen on an assignment she goes on tomorrow. Unknown back up, so don’t let them know you’re there either. You do have my okay to kill anybody who tries to take out any of our agents of course. Just let me know.”
“Okay, yeah, no problem,” Ice answered. “Anything on the South American assignment I took?”
“Well sure there is Steve,” the Director responded, “there’s some really happy politicians, business men, and agencies glad it was done. I learned after you’d left there that not only did you annihilate every one there but there were some high ranking drug lords in town too. Guess they were planning a private meeting in such a far-away place. I think you’ll probably get a bonus on that one. Just check your account and you can see if you did.”
“Okay, anything else?” Ice asked.
“No, but I will see you at one, in my conference room. It’s just another of our agent meetings. Hope we get most of them in this time. I happen to know that only two of them are on assignment right now. Watch your back though.”
Ice left and on his way to the elevator met one of his peers, a guy by the name of Hank, or that’s who he was told he was. They talked a few minutes when Hank asked Ice if he wanted to go have lunch. Ice realized he was hungry so they walked out of the building and went to a cafe about two blocks away.
~~~~~
The meeting was well intended with most of the agents there. They sat around the table waiting for the Director. When the door opened they figured it was the him, and it was.