The Hammer Commission

by John Van Stry

  Mark was surprised that Rafael actually blushed!

  "Janet fulfills a greater role in my life than that. For all of what I have become and what I am, she loves me and accepts that which I must do. I have found that I actually love her as well, I would be lost without her."

  "Isn't he such a sweetie?" Janet said smiling.

  Mark laughed as this time Judith looked embarrassed. “Monsters need love too Judith.”

  “Mark stop being so crass,” Janet said, “Rafael is hardly a monster.”

  They talked a while more after that, Rafael telling them about his success as an Elvis impersonator, which he started at first out of a need for money but found he truly enjoyed over time.

  Mark excused himself after a while to go outside and relax on the patio while he contemplated his next move.

  Several hours later Mark was still sitting outside staring up at the stars, drinking a beer with a couple of tigers curled up around him.

  “Want some company?”

  “Hey Janet. Judith finally succumb to Rafe’s charms?”

  “Oh she did that an hour ago. I figured I’d just let you sit out here and unwind before I came out and joined you. Slide over.”

  Mark slid over a bit on the lounge, letting Janet curl up against his side.

  “You know, I’ve never asked, are you happy with Rafael?”

  Janet sighed and nodded, “Yeah, I am. It’s incredibly intense at times, and it was strange as hell at first. But he is one hell of a man.”

  “Monster you mean.”

  Janet smacked him. “What is it with you and the whole monster thing?”

  “He’s a monster. He’s a big fucking scary monster. And he’s going to get bigger and even more scary. And I brought him here.”

  “You and Jake brought him here.”

  “No, I did. Jake wanted to kill him. I talked him out of it. Me. I stood up to my organization; this is all on me, all of it.”

  Janet looked at him. “Why?”

  “Because he was a man once? Because I felt sorry for him? Because I’m an idiot?” He shrugged “Pick one. So yeah, I wanna know, was it worth it? Did I do the right thing?”

  “Yes, you did the right thing Mark. He’s a good man; he’s my man, stripes and all.”

  “You mean you’re his woman, you don’t own him, he owns you.” He grumbled.

  “Same difference Mark. So why so negative? Why are you even here?”

  “I’m here because I’m desperate. As for the rest?” He took a long pull on the beer bottle, “I think I’m going to be taking early retirement, the painful and terminal kind.”

  “Come to bed.”

  “Janet...”

  “You can keep your shorts on.”

  Mark could feel his face turning red, but he was faithful to his women, they meant everything to him. “Okay.”

  % % % % %

  Mark was sitting in camp mending his extra shirt when he heard a surprised gasp. Looking up in surprise he saw a rather attractive blond standing there looking at him.

  “Um, Hello?” She said, “What are you doing here?”

  Mark could feel his face blushing, she was wearing a pair of shorts, and not a stitch of clothing beyond that, and she was rather nicely endowed. He moved his eyes to her face and tried to control himself, it had been some time since he’d seen a woman. Longer than that since he’d seen a topless one. “I could ask you that myself Miss,” He said, his voice sounding funny in his own ears from lack of use.

  “My sister has a cabin off that way,” she said giving a wave, “I thought I’d come up and commune with nature for a while. Now what about you?” Helena asked him with genuine curiosity.

  “I... I needed some time to be alone is all.” Mark said a little embarrassed. “Do you always commune topless? Miss?”

  Helena laughed, “Oh this?” She gestured to the shorts, “On the really nice days I wear even less.”

  Mark almost groaned.

  “So you aren’t in trouble with anybody, are you?” Helena asked.

  He shook his head, “No Ma'am.”

  “My name’s Helena,” she said and walked right up to him sticking out her hand.

  Mark jumped to his feet, because sitting there put his face right in front of that magnificent chest so he’d be pretty much staring, and that was just rude. “I’m Mark,” He said shaking hands and doing his best to keep his eyes... elsewhere.

  Helena tried not to giggle, he so badly wanted to stare at her body yet he was trying to be polite. “Mark? That’s a nice name. So how long are you going to be camping here?

  Mark shrugged, “I don’t know, a while?”

  “Okay!” Helena gave him one of her brighter smiles. “Well anyways, I got a lot of walking to do today. See you around?”

  Mark shrugged and looked around, “Not like I’m going anywhere.”

  “Well I’ll be sure to stop by tomorrow then!” Helena said with a grin and with a little wave turned and walked back the way she had come.

  “He was watching your ass like a steak dinner as you left,” Hope teased Helena when they met back up in the woods.

  “Poor boy has been up here by himself for what, four, five months now? And yeah, he’s seriously lost some weight. But at least he knows how to behave himself. Wouldn’t even stare at my chest, and you know he wanted to.”

  “So what are you going to do now?”

  “Visit him a few more days, see what happens.”

  Mark was surprised when the next day, Helena stopped by again. Dressed once again only in those tight cutoff’s.

  “So why here?” Helena asked as she came into his small camp and found a place to sit.

  Mark blinked, a little overwhelmed. He knew he must look a sight, his clothing was getting a little ragged around the edges and even if he did keep himself clean he wasn’t very well groomed. Helena however was totally unconcerned.

  “Because it’s far away from everything.” He told her without thinking about it.

  “I see. Why was that important?”

  Mark thought about that a minute before answering. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, but he didn’t want to be rude. Or make her think he was crazy and then call the police or somebody to run him off. He frowned. “I just got out of the Army. I, well... it was rough. I don’t like looking at everyone like,” he paused a moment, “like I had to there.”

  “Ever kill anyone?” Helena asked curious.

  Mark nodded.

  “Bothered by it?”

  Mark shook his head, “Not really. It’s what happened to my platoon.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They got wiped out, I was the sole survivor.” Mark said and put his head in his hands as his mind tried to process the whole event, but it just didn’t seem to make any sense.

  Helena sighed; she obviously had triggered some sort of bad memory. “Sorry, I’ll go for now.”

  She showed up three more times, not really staying more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time, just talking a little, asking a few questions, or talking about something else.

  Two days after her last visit another woman showed up.

  “Hey Mark!”

  Mark looked up, “Who are you?” he asked surprised. She looked a lot like Helena, but was a little shorter, thinner, and more of a brunette than a blond. She was also only wearing a pair of cutoff’s, and nothing else.

  “I’m Helena’s sister Hope.”

  “Does she know you’re wearing her shorts?”

  Hope shrugged, “No idea.”

  “Don’t you girls own any clothes?”

  Hope smirked, “We’re nudists, we only put these on because you’re here.”

  “So where is Helena?”

  “Dealing with her own affairs. She doesn’t live around here actually, she was just visiting and decided to come up here and talk to you. Now it’s my turn.”

  Mark nodded and tried to keep his eyes on Hope’s eyes and not her rather lovely che
st, or nicely tanned legs. “You have the same eyes as Helena.”

  “Yeah, all four of us look pretty similar.”

  “Four?”

  “Me and my sisters.”

  “Oh.”

  “So, tell me about yourself.”

  Mark blinked, where Helena had been fairly non-intrusive, Hope apparently was very.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m curious. Did you grow up around here?”

  “Actually, no. I grew up in New York.”

  “Oh! I’ve always been curious about big cities! Tell me about it!”

  "Sure, have a seat," he said gesturing to one of the logs and then spent the next several days doing just that.

  It was nice to have someone to talk to for a change.

  % % % % %

  “Sleep well?”

  Mark stretched and pushed at the tiger that was curled up on the bed next to him until it rolled over and got off the bed. “Yes actually.” He noticed that Janet wasn’t in the room anymore; it was just him and Rafael, well the two of them and a couple of tigers.

  “I hadn’t known about you standing up for me, thanks, I appreciate it.”

  “I suspect you know why.”

  “Of course.”

  “So, what did you find out, anything?”

  “Not much. No one is seeing any increase in activity anywhere. So if I was a suspicious man, I’d say someone was targeting your people.”

  “But how are they doing it?”

  “That’s your department, not mine.”

  Mark sighed; he’d hoped for more than this, “I need to go to Paris.”

  “I can set you up with a private jet.”

  “I, I would like a favor.” Mark had spent the night thinking about this, it wasn’t something he wanted to ask, but he had to.

  “Sure, what do you need?”

  “If I don’t make it, I’d appreciate it if you let my family move into your territory.”

  Rafael looked surprised. “You’d trust me with your women?”

  “Rafe, I’ll be dead. I’d rather they were sleeping with you than getting torn apart by some devil and sent to hell.”

  “I’ll take care of them. To be honest, I’m surprised; I never pictured you for a family man.”

  “Then how did you know?”

  “Judith is very curious about you, and it came up during the night.”

  Mark nodded, “I’ll have to ask her to keep it quiet. It’s a secret I’d rather be kept secret.”

  “I think she understands that now, I told her it wasn’t something she should be sharing.”

  “Thanks. So she conscious yet? Able to walk?”

  Rafael laughed, “Yes she can walk. She’s actually in the shower right now.”

  “She’s a one woman disaster area, you know that right?”

  “Yes, it was quite entertaining. You have my sympathies."

  "Anything you can do about it?"

  "Sadly no, it is not within my powers. Staying for breakfast?”

  “Is Janet cooking?”

  “Of course!”

  “Definitely.”

  7

  “So where are we going?” Judith asked him, lying back in the seat on the private jet. Rafael had gotten them a rather nice one, not that he was all that surprised. Rafael had not been lying about having consolidated his hold on Las Vegas rather completely.

  “Paris, I want to interview a few people.”

  “Why does he have tigers roaming the property?” Judith asked sounding a little perturbed.

  “Some sort of Rakshah thing. He is a tiger spirit after all.”

  “It’s freaky.”

  “Actually, I kind of like it.”

  “What?”

  “I like cats.”

  “They’re not cats, they’re tigers!”

  “They’re cats; they’re just a little big.”

  “Just a little big he says!”

  Mark sighed, “Do you have something you want to say?”

  Judith blushed, “What makes you say that?”

  “Because you sound like you have a problem.”

  “What kind of problem could I possibly have?” Judith said a little angrily.

  “Guilt. You had a truly great time last night; now you're starting to realize just what Rafael is and you feel guilty about it.”

  “And you know this how?”

  "Because me and guilt go back a very long way," he sighed.

  “Jake?”

  “It goes far beyond Jake. Rafael is a monster, yes have no doubts about that, but he’s not evil. Hopefully he never will be. So don’t feel guilty about it. Go to confession if you want, trust me it won’t be the last time you sleep with him, and you’re not the first to feel guilty about it.”

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Did you sleep with Janet?”

  “Eventually,” He noticed her smirk, “but we didn’t do anything.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  He shrugged, “I won’t lie to you, and I expect you not to lie to me.”

  “So why didn’t you?”

  “Not interested. I love my family; it’s really all I need anymore.”

  “Then why did you stay away for a year?”

  “Demands of the job. Jake and I were the top team; last year was a very busy year.”

  “How did you get this job?”

  “I killed a vampire.”

  “Vampires are real?” Judith’s eyes almost bugged out.

  “Everything is real, or at least it used to be. But yes vampires are real.”

  “And you killed one? By yourself?”

  Mark nodded, looking down at the floor as he spoke. “They’re not as tough as the stories would have you believe, and it was a young one. I just blasted the hell out of him with a sub-machine gun full of blessed bullets, hosed him down with a fire extinguisher full of holy water, and then cut his head off while he was trying to recover from all of that.” He’d told the story so often now he didn’t think twice about not mentioning that his women had been there backing him up. Without them he'd never been able to get past all of the vamp's followers who were guarding him. Also the first time he had dealt with a vampire it had left him a total wreck, so he hadn't been sure he'd be able to do the final kill by himself at the time. Then again that had been a powerful vampire and he was just a green kid fresh out of Army training back then.

  “I thought you had to stake them through the heart?”

  “That only holds them in place until you cut their head off, or burn their body.”

  “Aren’t they super strong, super powerful?”

  “Physically they're not all that much stronger than the average weight lifter, and of course during the day they're even weaker. When you live forever, you can afford to save up and buy the best PR men in the business, and since one of them got that idea they've spent a fortune on their image. Their real strength is in their followers; they’re very charismatic and attract low-lifes like flies.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, well they’re pretty sick and sadistic and there are a lot of people who enjoy that kind of thing. Part of why I don’t feel guilty about killing them.

  “Anyway, the Church heard about it from the priest I went to, to get the bullets blessed and all that holy water. Which was just as well as somebody had to clean up the mess I left behind. And here I am.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Ten years.”

  "Do you enjoy it?"

  He looked up at her a little surprised by the question; he hadn't expected it but could see she was serious. "Sometimes I do, other times I hate it. Most of the time it's just a job, yeah it can be a very dangerous job, but it has to be done. Why'd you become a cop?"

  Judith smiled, "Because I wanted to help and protect people."

  He smiled back, "That's the best reason there is."

  She nodded, "My Uncle was a cop. He was a big hero,
saved a whole bunch of people from a crazy serial killer. He also took down a guy who tried to shoot up a mall, and a dozen other things."

  "Was?"

  "He's retired. Lives on a boat in the marina, spends his winters in San Diego."

  "Must be tough to live up to that sometimes."

  She shrugged, "He told me he was lucky, always in the right place at the right time. Me? Always in the wrong place at the wrong time."

  Mark laughed, "Well that ability is what got you this job, so don't knock it."

  She frowned at him, "You still think I'm going to get you hurt or something, don't you?

  He nodded, "You're going to get me killed. I'm sure of it."

  She frowned at him, "Then why am I here? How can we work together if you don't trust me?"

  "Oh I trust you, I think after our little discussion in the car that you're going to try very hard and do your very best."

  "That doesn't explain why you're willing to have a partner who you are positive will get you killed."

  He shrugged, "I needed a partner, and it has been made clear to me that you were the best choice..."

  "I was the only choice!"

  "Just so. But I've studied your record and while you are bad luck to everyone around you, and while you fall afoul of a lot of it yourself, you always survive unscathed."

  "And that helps you how?" She said a little snarkily.

  "It doesn't help me at all. But this isn't about me it’s about getting the job done. So while I'm getting ripped to shreds, or whatever fate awaits me," he visibly shuddered as he thought about that, he still hoped he wasn't going to die, but he wasn't going to kid himself, this one might just be the end of him. "I'm convinced that you will be able to do whatever needs to be done to put an end to all of this."

  "Oh that's just fucking great," Judith swore.

  He laughed, "Could be worse!"

  "Yeah, just how?"

  "Our roles could be reversed..."

  Judith got very quiet for a moment as she thought about that.

  "Well as long as we're being honest," she said looking a little embarrassed, "I didn't let him go all the way last night."

  Mark looked at her surprised, "Really?"

  Judith nodded, "Trust me, I really wanted to, but with everything going on, and his being, well whatever he is, I had to draw a line somewhere. Maybe when I've a better understanding of just what I've gotten myself involved in I will."