Bill Longo sighed as he finished the unusual drink before him. Life wasn’t this hard before. As a mortal, everything was easier.
And despite how hard Longo and his partner/brother Jack seemed to work, things never eased up for them.
Before their most recent nuisance, their primary headache was the Latin Kings of Milwaukee. Now that they had them under control, their local vampire coertie was the largest power center in Milwaukee.
Team 13 seemed to be ready to destroy all that.
Already, the team of g-men had taken out Bill’s rival, Lord Paulington. Sure, that was nice, but they would find the leadership of the Longo gang soon enough. This minor group of mortals had to be stopped.
So that’s why Bill had hired the assassin that was now walking into his office.
***
Ramo walked into the dark office. The first thing he noticed was how pale the seated man was. Then the assassin-turned-mage noticed the glass filled with either blood or tomato juice on the table.
Ramo scanned the room for possible threats. The room was vacant save the man before him and there were no visible trip wires or darts. Ramo didn’t trust these . . . creatures, but he had to find employment.
Besides, this vampire sounded like he wanted to eliminate Team 13. Ramo’s sworn enemies.
“Mr. . . Ramo, was it?” the seated vampire said.
“Just Ramo will be fine,” the mage said in his mild Syrian accent.
“Ah, from the Old World,” the vampire said, noting Ramo’s dialect. “I’m a bit Latvian myself.”
Ramo didn’t care to break the ice. “Onto business, okay? I hear you’re looking for someone to take out certain lawmen.”
“Not so much take out. And I only want one of them gone,” the vampire stated matter-o-factly as he sipped his drink. “Not even gone, really. Well, gone, but not dead. Can you make him disappear without killing him?”
Ramo rolled his eyes. “I’m an assassin, but I suppose. I can temporally displace him.” Ramo stared without expression at the confused vampire. This vamp was obviously a former blue-collar everyman. “I can send him back in time.”
The creature of the night seemed to understand and nodded vigorously. “You see, if we ax him, the government will send in loads of men to find him and hunt me down. But if we send him far away, the rest of his team will search for him or have the government do it. Either way, they’ll lose their researcher and operator. After all, knowledge is power. And this guy gives them knowledge.”
Ramo raised his eyebrow. “Which member do you want me to take down?”
The vampire leaned forward and spoke. “Professor Jonathan Frink.”
Ramo nodded emotionlessly. “I’m gonna send him back to a random point of his life. He won’t affect us now, so don’t worry about that. I expect half of my payment tomorrow and the other half when the deed is done.” The mage/assassin grabbed his trenchcoat, turned, and walked out the door, knowing full well that he would send back more than just Frink.
***
Frink woke with a start. He had been napping in his chair when a piercing beeping noise came from the monitor in front of him. The scientist focused his eyes on the screen and saw that a window showing a map of Wisconsin had opened on his screen. The window zoomed in on the map to an aerial view of Mequon County.
The Professor saw a small dot in the center of the screen radiating blue circles. Frink moved the cursor over that spot and a popup displaying details appeared.
The bubble displayed the words “PSYCHIC DISTURBANCE - LEVEL IV - Location: 5 m. radius @ 322 Fox Drive, Mequon County, WI”
Frink called Johnson.
***
Andy was on the bed in his underwear. The woman was casually walking toward him, shaking her hips slightly. Andy had never seen the woman before tonight. She kneeled on the bed in front of him in her thin robe.
“You ready?” she asked in a soft voice. Before Andy could respond, she opened her robe.
Andy woke up screaming.
“Andy!” Bionic yelled as he burst into Andy’s room.
Agent Andy calmed down. “Sorry,” he said, “I was having a nightmare.”
“Women?” Bionic guessed.
Andy nodded. He had that dream about once a year. He hated it.
“Well, get dressed. Professor Freak called. We gotta suit up,” Bionic explained.
“What time is it?” Andy asked as he looked for his alarm clock. It read 4:15 AM. About an hour before wake-up.
“Early. Mark said something about a disturbed psycho.” After his two bits, Bionic went into Andy’s closet and pulled out a suit.
“You mean a ‘psychic disturbance’?” Andy said as he took the outfit from Bionic and walked out of his room, hoping Bionic would follow.
“Whatever. It’ll be dead when I’m through with it either way,” Bionic said as he pulled Andy’s Berreta and holster out from the drawer in the bedside table. He then tossed the weapon to Andy.
Andy caught it and went to take a shower. He took one before he went to bed (as he did every night), but he wanted to take another cold one to wake himself up. He hoped Bionic didn’t follow him into the bathroom.
“By the way,” Andy said as he left his living room, “How’d you get into my cell?”
Bionic smiled and replied, “I have a lockpick set.”
They were all ready to go in thirty minutes.
Andy reset his watch to the correct time right before they left.
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