Silence. Nick took a gulp of his drink. “No one died.”
“What happened then,” Dan asked. “Is he in a hospital somewhere with his memory wiped?”
“Oh… very funny, OG. I worked the logical and common sense solution to the problem. I paid him off. Man, we hit the jackpot this morning, guys. Toast.”
Dan held back while the others toasted. “Don’t you have to give over anything taken in a raid to the government?”
“You bet I do,” Nick said, lowering his voice. “As soon as it’s the government that infiltrates a terrorist underground training center filled with soldiers, weapons and biological plagues, I’ll be the first to drop off the booty on their doorstep. Since it was only the Unholy Trio, I don’t see the government connection for the payoff.”
“Agreed,” Gus said.
“I was hung on a hook for a couple hours, left to fend for myself,” John added. “I get an extra cut for my new lady love, right Muerto?”
“Excellent points, Kabong,” Nick replied. “You shall indeed. As matchmaker supreme, Muerto must provide an ample dowry for his sidekick Kabong.”
“Matchmaker, dowry, lady loves? Boy, I missed out on a lot not being bait this time.”
“We’re saving you for the ‘Ripper’ operation. Thanks to Kabong’s quick infiltration, we had to move fast, especially since he screwed up and got put on a hook like a big guppy.”
John, who had been taking a gulp of beer when Nick made the guppy remark, nearly shot it back out through his nose. Gus pounded on his partner’s back while John coughed his way into control. “Not… funny!”
“That did sound serious about a matchmaking. What the heck did I miss there,” Dan asked. “Did you meet someone while infiltrating the training center, John?”
John shook his head no. “Muerto is trying to choke me out, but also introduce me to Dimah Kader’s cousin, who is escaping from her murderous family back East. Kabong will be the hero who makes her safe, and later weds her so as to have a huge family of loyal American Kabongs.”
“Have you seen your soon to be bride, Kabong?”
“No one has yet, but I am certain she is most beautiful.”
“I’m not very trusting of Muerto, but I hope it works out for you, John,” Dan said.
“What is this about not being very trusting of Muerto? El Muerto is completely trustworthy, Geezer. How dare you call into question El Muerto’s ulterior motives?”
“Now you’ve done it, OG,” Gus said. “You’ve launched him into third person El Muerto. Snap him out of it or we’ll have third person El Muerto for the rest of the day.”
“I have been watching the news since early this morning,” Dan said. “They only played small bits of the video you characters put together. That was impressive. It caught the media assholes by surprise. They tried to frame it as a brutal murderous rampage by insane men no better than the terrorists. The people laughed in their faces, saying stuff like it was a great start, and they can’t wait for the next El Muerto attack. How did your boss like it?”
“He loved it. He knows there will always be fallout over an action like that, but he’s in for the long haul. I trust him with my life. Paul will back any play we make to get the ‘Ripper’ too. I’m sorry we didn’t get to Seattle before he got the fourteen year old runaway, but we didn’t have a choice. This is how I think we can use OG. We’re going to get our own harem of prostitutes, and OG is going to be their pimp.”
“Oh…my…God… you are nuts, Nick,” Dan replied. “Who in hell would ever buy me as a pimp?”
“Damn, Nick,” Gus said. “That’s not bad. We’ll have to recruit some tough ladies to pull this off though. You’ll be great as a pimp, Dan. We’ll dress you to the nines. You’ll have three or four very high class ladies of the night, and we’ll back your play. I’ve read the ‘Ripper’ has cleared the streets of prostitutes, just as you told us you joked with the Marshals about, Nick. The ‘Ripper’ will be ripe for finding a new victim. He won’t be getting anymore runaways. The police are doing roundups of all indigent girls on the streets that have nowhere to go, and no means of support. It’s too bad they don’t do it everywhere, and it’s a shame it takes a murdering monster to fix aspects of social problems no one wants to deal with.”