ShadowShot : L'enfant Guerrier Read online

  “Now I’m going to ask you questions and you are going to give me the answers I like. If I don’t like the answers then maybe I’ll cut your tongue out next. I know you have girls right now. Where are they?”

  “No, no nothing it’s been awhile now.” I gagged him again as he started to yell, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. So I took another pinky. When I removed the gag he was crying.

  I said, “Did the little girls cry? Did they beg for mercy? Now shut up and listen! Start answering or we will go further.”

  “All right. Anything you want, anything. I can give you money and I’ll tell you where they are. Just leave me alone and let me go.”

  “We will see. I’ll ask you again, where are they?”

  This time he told me, where and how many there were. Three, he always liked to have three on hand.

  “Now tell me who’s there to guard them.”

  “Two men and an old woman. They all live there.”

  “Are the men armed?”

  “Yes, but what are you going to do with me?”

  “Well if we had more time I’d love to hear about all the horrible things you did as a Nazi officer, but I’m afraid we don’t.”

  “Then this is about the war?”

  “Save it. I don’t want to hear any bullshit from you unless you want to start losing more fingers.”

  “Just let me go. You have my word there’ll be no more girls and I’ll give you money, a lot of money.”

  “How much is a lot of money?”

  “$50,000”

  “Is $50, 000 all that your life is worth?”

  “How much do you want?”

  “A lot more than that.”

  “I can get you $100,000.”

  “I think $200,000 sounds better. We do however have a problem. You are right. The Israelis have hired me to kill you. Apparently they didn’t know about what you call your little sport. So if I let you live, I think they’ll be upset with me to say the least. I think we all have to give each other a gift. My gift to you is your life less a few fingers. Your gift to me will be $200,000 cash. My gift to the Israelis, since they won’t have the satisfaction of knowing that you are no more is a list of say five important Nazis friends of yours still floating around in Germany.”

  “But I don’t know any others. I really don’t. I swear to you.”

  I started walking around to the back of the chair.

  “You think that you’re going to get away with this? You fool! What my friends will do to you is nothing compared to what you’re doing to me.”

  “I see the arrogance is back. Well that’s going to cost you.”

  On went the gag off went an index finger. When he had settled down I removed the gag.

  “You know you really should start telling me the truth and not being so arrogant, because you’re really bleeding a lot. If you want to start being a good boy I will bandage those hands up before you bleed to death.”

  “All right I’ll tell you.”

  “Just remember I don’t like lies.

  I produced my pen and pad. You can start with the names of your friends who would do something much worse to me. I want the names, what they did during the war, where they can be found. Oh, and if I let you go after I’ve doctored you and gotten my money, you have to disappear completely. Do you understand that?”

  “Yes, yes of course I do.”

  I was just throwing him a bone to make him think that he had a chance. He gave me the names and the information.

  I wanted to know about the money. “How are you going to get it?

  He gave me a story about how the cash was in his mansion. I played along telling him I would doctor him up and go check it out. If he was right about everything he said, we would go get the money and he’d be on his way. I let him know that this was his last chance, while I waived the snips in front of his face. He swore up and down that he had told the truth. I believed him. This guy was textbook classic, a cruel sadistic pervert when he had someone in his power, and a whimpering pathetic coward when the tables were turned. I bandaged him up, gave him a painkiller to put him to sleep, gagged him again, and chained him to the wall. This wasn’t over yet. I had told him that the place was wired, and if anybody tried to get in or out but me it would blow up. I left his prison and made contact with my Israeli.

  I told the Israeli that I had the Nazi, but there had been a slight change in plans. I would do him, but first they had to do me a favor. I could tell he didn’t like this. I told him about the girls. He didn’t seem to know anything about them.

  “You take some men and punish the two Germans and the old woman, and anybody else that’s there. Save those three girls. Take them back to their homes or Israel or someplace, but they’re going to need a lot of mental and physical help. You get it for them.”

  “And by the way,” I said, “He likes to have Jewish girls in particular.”

  “Here’s how it plays out. You get your Nazi taken out with the satisfaction of knowing that I’m not going to be nice to him. The bonus is that I have a list of five ex-Nazis he gave me. We don’t have a lot of time before this guy becomes missing. Here are the details of the girls. Get them tonight. Let me know in the morning that you got them. Then I’ll give you the list. Oh yeah, the list will cost you $75,000.”

  He was very interested in the list. Of course we had to haggle over the price and settled on $50,000 assuming the names were real.

  Next morning I met the Israeli. They had the girls. There were three of them and they were in bad shape, but in time they’d be okay. They were being taken care of as promised, thinking it best to send them back to Israel instead of Romania and Bulgaria. There were two Germans and an old woman just as I had said. They are no more, although not deserving of a quick death.

  “You guys work fast, a job well done.”

  “We have to work fast.”

  “My prisoner is not very happy, but he’ll keep for another day or so. Let’s make haste. Here is the list. Check it out and get back with me tonight at 8:00 pm.”

  With precision timing, the Israeli met me exactly at 8:00 pm.

  He told me, “The list checked out. All five of them were in Germany. We are going to snatch one of them. Two we will eliminate. Sadly that’s all the manpower we have available. We would like you to take out the other two. They will be at a château in the mountains. Apparently all of these pigs and your man are to meet there within the next couple days. Your two will be there tomorrow. We simply don’t have the manpower to pull this off quickly. It shouldn’t be too difficult for you and we will pay you $20,000.”

  I said, “For two that’s not a very good deal. I think I’ll do it for 40,000.”

  “I can’t give you that much and there’s not time to haggle over it. You’ll be in one place. You can do them both at the same time. There may be some servants but its very low key. No guard.

  “I’m not sure how you can be sure of this, but all right, $30,000.”

  “Done. What do you need?”

  “Only a driver to get me in and out of there.”

  “You will have the cash when the driver picks you up. Our German?”

  “You mean my German. I’ll finish him tonight. Aren’t you forgetting the $50,000 for the list?”

  “I am not forgetting. Here it is.”

  “I’ll call you in the morning and let you know where the driver should pick me up. Make sure it’s a good four-wheel drive, perfectly legal, and he has $30,000 in cash.”

  We shook hands and wished each other luck. I liked that guy he was very efficient. I went back to my prisoner and took off his gag. He was awake. He didn’t look good, no doubt in a lot of pain.

  The first thing he said was, “I need pain killers.”

  “Well,” I replied, “We have a problem. The good news is that I made a deal with the Israelis. They have the three girls and have killed your friends. They were also very excited about your list. I have to thank you that. You were truthful a
bout it. All of your five friends; apparently prepared to meet at a little Nazi gathering will be eliminated. Finally, I would like you to tell me a little bit more about the setup at the chateau.”

  He started running at the mouth about how the place looked and who would be there. There would not be guards or dogs where the doors to the rooms were situated. I made a mental note of everything he told me.

  “Now the bad news is that I don’t think that you will be able to give me $200,000.” “Yes, yes,” he said, “Of course I will. Not a problem I have it in cash. First give me some painkillers.”

  “Well I can’t do that you see. I’m sorry, because I said I would and I do like to keep my word. However, you know that’s not going to work. I doubt that you really have that much in cash laying around and there’s no way that we can just walk in and get it so I’m afraid I will have to kill you.”

  “But you said.”

  “I know I said. “I’m sorry about that. How many times have you lied to someone, given them hope, and then killed them in your Nazi days? What about those little girls? How could you do that to those children? To tell you the truth I really should spend a couple of days or at least hours torturing you. I want to hear you beg for your life.”

  At that point he just broke down and started whimpering, crying and begging.

  “Were you moved at all when some of your victims begged you? Probably not.” Where it came from I don’t know, but it was very weird. At that moment I changed my mind, I cut off his cock stuffed in his mouth, and then cut his throat.

  The Company didn’t know or choose to tell me that this freak had his own private perversion. He was a child molester of the 10th degree. He had very young, mostly homeless girls kidnapped from Eastern Europe. He would smuggle them into Germany, have his way with them until he had used them up, and then either sell them or eliminate them. I would’ve done this job for free but the Israelis had money to burn. So why not.

  As planned the Israelis driver took me out to the château. I told him not to park too close. We found a little dirt track where he could pull in and not be seen from the road. I could see the lights of the château through the trees. It would take me probably 20 min. to get their walking carefully, and a lot less coming back if need be. I wanted to get there at nine o’clock thinking they’d be finished with dinner. I didn’t want to have to search for them in bedrooms; too much chance of running into someone. I didn’t know how many people were actually going to be there. There were only two guests so far, the others not expected till tomorrow. It wasn’t that I was worried about taking out any extras because I figured anybody there was a Nazi, or a Nazi sympathizer. Mostly I didn’t want to get into a big firefight where I was outgunned. I had a long barrel 38 Special with a silencer and a 9 mm backup. I started thinking maybe my 97 would’ve been nice, but too noisy. No this had to be done quietly. I had to find them, take them down and get out of there before somebody got on the phone. If we had a whole team we could go in and take out everybody, but there was just me. The driver was just the driver.

  The driver said, “It is time to go. Do you have everything you need? Do you want an Uzi?”

  He gave it to me with two extra clips, and said he hoped I wouldn’t need it.

  “Make sure you’re here when I get back,” I cautioned.

  I checked the Uzi and slung it over my shoulder underneath my coat. I could get to it there if necessary.

  A little ways from the edge of the clearing I could observe the place. I was hoping that there would not be any dogs but there probably would be. Germans loved their German shepherds and I couldn’t blame them. They were fine dogs and I hoped I wouldn’t have to kill any or be eaten by some. I did a 360 of the château, staying back by the edge of the woods. As I had hoped, the lights in the dining room went out. I could see some lights go on upstairs. I took note of where they were as I checked out the reflection of a roaring fire in the living room.

  I hoped that all my targets would be there. I could only see three vehicles parked outside, two expensive ones that I hoped were theirs, and one that could have belonged to a caretaker or cook. Sure enough on the opposite side were the dog kennels.

  The other thing that worked for me was a new growth of trees about 200 feet from the front of the château. They would help me to get closer to the building without being observed. I decided I was just going to walk very nonchalantly right up to the front door, or at least a nearby window. Anywhere else would’ve alerted the dogs even if they might not have been able to get to me right away. There was a side door between the main entry and the garage. It had a small alcove that would give me cover. The door had glass in it. I put a small suction cup to the glass, using the glasscutter to pull a piece so there was no noise. I let myself in. The entrance led into the garage where there was a door at the back. I opened it, listened carefully, and peeked around the corner. I couldn’t hear anything. Now in the front entry I quickly checked the locking device in case I needed to get out of there fast. I worked my way around to the room where there was a roaring fire. Even with heavy curtains drawn I could see a fire from the outside, with smoke coming out of the chimney.

  My sadistic informant, Hans, had given me the layout. I was sure that the fire was in the den. I hoped I would find my targets inside. There was a big set of stairs coming down to the main entrance like the kind that the female movie stars would soirée down to make their entrances. Nobody was around. So far so good. There were double doors leading into the room where I wanted to be. I opened them just enough to peek in. I couldn’t see to the left or right easily concealing someone’s presence. I decided to make my entrance with weapons drawn.

  Two men were sitting on a couch in front of the fire smoking cigars. They each had a snifter, and to my surprise were wearing Nazi uniforms. I quickly scanned the room for anyone else. I locked the door behind me. Another door was at the other end of the room. I didn’t want my back to either door. I held the pistol on them and moved so I had a command of all the entrances, the window, and both of them.

  “Hans sent me.”

  One said, “Who are you and what are you doing here? And what was that about Hans?”

  “As to who I am, it doesn’t matter. As to why I’m here, I’m the end of the road. And as for Hans, well, he’s gone. Before he left he ratted on all the rest of you. Actually you might be surprised to know that he was working for the Israelis.”

  “Do not insult our intelligence.”

  I wasn’t about to take any chances with these two. Even though they were old Nazis they had a rough look. They were not weak slimy pigs like Hans. These two were probably field commanders and no doubt packing. I don’t know why I just didn’t walk in and shoot them and leave. For some perverse reason that I really didn’t understand, I wanted to draw it out, find out what made Nazis tick.

  I wasn’t commanding this situation. These guys were Gestapo, and friends with Hans. The Israelis wanted them dead. As far as I knew, Israelis didn’t go after just any German soldier. I put a bullet in each of their hearts, walked around to the back of the couch, and put another one in the back of each of their heads. I reloaded as I went to the curtains to take a look outside. Opening the window I let myself out and walked directly and quietly into the woods hoping that the dogs were still penned and weren’t alerted to my presence. Once I got into the woods I double-timed it.

  I slid into the front seat of the car and said, “Go but take it easy. Everything went well as far as I know. No one’s alerted yet.”

  “You did both of them?”

  “Yes”

  “Where to”

  As a precaution I hadn’t yet told him where I wanted to go.

  “Drive at regular speeds and obey all the laws once we get into traffic. There will be nothing to worry about.”

  I knew no one from the chateau would be calling the police. All went smoothly and the next day I was back in Paris.

  On the way back to Paris I had time to think about the operati
on. It was definitely successful and very profitable for me. Nonetheless, it was a new dimension. I had crossed the line; but still not sure if I really wanted to be there. I had never done anything like that before and it didn’t really feel good. There was no question in my mind that Hans deserved what he got; and had I more time he would of gotten a lot more. Was I becoming like them in some way?

  I cut Hans’ penis off while he was still alive. How I was able to do that was beyond me. There were some strange feelings about this I couldn’t explain to myself.

  The day after I returned to Paris I met with George. He had me completely off-balance. He was furious with me. I’d never seen him angry before. It wasn’t pleasant.

  He said, “Our arrangement was that you did not take contracts on the side.”

  When he gave me a moment to speak, I said, “I didn’t exactly take one on the side. All of this had all to do with one operation. Did you know about his perverse habit of kidnapping small girls?”

  That took George by surprise. He hadn’t known. He would’ve told me about it if he had.

  “I had to take care of this pig and save those girls. I didn’t have the wherewithal to do it on my own. I had to get back with the Israelis for them to do that. I had to give them something. Opening up our German friend, he spilled the beans on some of his pals that I passed to the Israelis. And yes, I took some extra money from them. Everything came down in that one day. We had five names. They didn’t have enough manpower so they asked me to do two of them, which I did. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go against regulations.”

  He seemed to be a little less angry at the explanation. I don’t know how much he already knew. I had always assumed that George usually knew everything. Anyway it was better to be straight up with him. I could tell that he approved of getting the girls back and ending the pigs’ sadistic fun.