MIND  THEFT
FIND IT ONLY AT
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COVER  ART  BY  DAN  BURCLAFF
MY NOVELS
COPYRIGHT © 2001--2020 Author Joel Goulet
FIND IT ONLY AT
CHAPTER ONE
BANGKOK
        The sun was just beginning to rise over Thailand. In an office in Bangkok two brothers were at work, opposite each other, at a drafting table. They owned the company and were always at the office before anyone else. The older of the two, named Kulap noticed his brother’s blank stare. He knew what was happening to his younger brother, Kamon.
        “What did you see, Kamon?”
        “A man with a sword. He has a patch covering one eye. I do not know where he is, or what he’s doing. He’s outside.” Kamon looked directly at Kulap. “He’s going to cross all our paths.”
        “You don’t know when or how?”
        Kamon shook his head. “Things weren’t clear. There is something else, Kulap. I saw Trevor lying down with handcuffs on. I cannot tell where he is, but he’s inside. I saw furniture.”
        “Kamon, did you see Abela?”
        “No. Just Trevor and someone that was bald.”
        “Let me know if you see anything else, bro.” Kulap knew not to dismiss his brother’s visions. Something had always come of them in the past.
                                        ~*~
LOUISIANA SWAMP
        German citizen Frickenstein did not have to tell his driver where to park the black sedan. The place was familiar to both driver and passenger. The driver knew his job was to get the passenger to the place and then stay in the car. He had been in Frickenstein’s service for the better part of eight years. He knew the German’s likes and dislikes well. Although an American, he could speak German as fluently as his passenger, which was a plus as far as Frickenstein was concerned. 
        The dirt road where the car came to a stop ran deep through a Louisiana bayou. Rarely did a car travel down the road: which was mostly used by fisherman, or alligator hunters. Once the sedan stopped,  Frickenstein exited the car, straightened his suit, opened an umbrella, and stepped to the rear of the vehicle. The trunk sprang open before he reached the back of the car.
        He looked into the trunk at a long-polished hardwood case. So many times it had been opened through the years. Death was directly related to the case. He opened the box and took from it a shiny samurai sword with a red colored hilt. Each time the sword had left the box a heart had stopped beating. The sword had been with him for ten years, since he took it from a Japanese man whose fate had been decided by an organization, that had contracted Lord Frickenstein’s services.
        He carried the black colored umbrella in one hand and the sword in the other, as he walked down a path leading from the road. Unnoticed by most people, only a small number of Realm associates knew of the path’s existence, or where it led. Frickenstein was no stranger to the path, knowing where every fallen tree crossed, or boulder jutted from the ground. A path so familiar, he could walk it blindfolded. 
        The path wound its way through wiregrass, moss and other vegetation found in the bayous. Old cypress trees grew in thick groups. Spooked white-tailed deer would run for a distance, stop, and look back at the human invading their place in the world. Many of the animals had seen the human before, and they, no doubt, had smelled the scent of death in the air as he walked the path in the opposite direction.
        A far less expensive second black sedan came to a stop behind the first. Two bald men exited the car and assisted a man from the rear seat. The man was nearly naked, wearing only a pair of skimpy blue underwear shorts. His hands were handcuffed behind him. His face was cut, and traces of blood ran from the corners of his mouth. The three men started down the path Frickenstein had walked. 
        It was warm and very wet at midday. Frickenstein stood close to a body of water. He could think of a million places he would rather be. In the past he had been in the exact same place several times. To him it was a place of death, mostly of his own doing.
        He was six feet tall, one hundred ninety pounds at thirty years old. He was a smart dresser, preferring a suit over any other clothing. Bald, he had a deep-set left eye that most people said was as dark as a pool of blood. It was often that eye that rendered a spell of fear within people he met. There was a very noticeable scar that started on his forehead and ran downward over his right cheek. A black patch covered his right eye where the same sword blade that left its mark, also took half his sight. On the right side of his neck, he had a tattoo of a human skull that was often covered by dress shirt collars and ties. He wore a cologne that he bought on a regular basis in Berlin. He was told by the Realm’s Overlord that she liked the smell of it. 
He had a reputation for being ruthless, unforgiving, and above all relentless. He once said that it was his ruthlessness that helped get things done with little resistance. He was a person to be avoided. The mention of his name often sent chills down a person’s spine. All the aforementioned made him the assassin of choice for the Realm.
        He watched the water surface where the heads of alligators could be seen. Frickenstein kept awareness as to the closeness of the reptiles. With the presence of the man, the alligators began to gather, seeming to know what was to come. They were beasts but knew enough not to venture upon land where the man with the sword stood. To them it was a waiting game, and all good things came to those who waited. 
        It was raining heavily. Even with the sound of the rain, he heard footsteps approach from behind as the three men came to a stop within ten feet of him. 
        “What a shitty day, Shawn,” Frickenstein said in a deep German accent. He faced the man he knew as Shawn Wood for fifteen years. In the Realm actual first names were seldom known.
        “Sure as hell is, John, in more ways than one. I wondered how this was going to end.”
        “With you, Shawn, this wasn’t my first choice,” Frickenstein said. 
        “I’m sure mother had something to say about it,” Shawn said.
        Frickenstein nodded. “Yes, she did. I have been standing here in the rain thinking of the work we’ve done together over the years” 
        Even though it hurt to smile, Shawn managed to grin slightly. “Not to mention the good times also, John. Sure as hell can’t forget about them.”
        Shawn had changed his appearance, growing his head of blond hair nearly shoulder length. Surely his mother would have felt disgusted at the sight of it, as she was accustomed to seeing bald headed men. A lengthy beard had also been grown, which along with his hair, had the appearance of a lion’s mane. He was overweight by a good fifty pounds, and if Frickenstein had watched him approach, he would have noticed a bad limp. The man had once saved Frickenstein’s life by getting shot in a leg.
        “It seems like so long ago,” Frickenstein said. If he did not know it was Shawn standing there, he might not have believed it was the same man he spent time frequenting bars, getting wasted to the point of passing out. That was before a woman came into Shawn’s life and ended his nighttime adventures. 
        “It has been a long time, John,” Shawn said. “They’ve been keeping you busy?”
        “Yes. Perhaps too busy.” Lately he had been spending as much time on planes as on the ground. There was no place in the world where Frickenstein had not left his bloody mark.
        “I hope you get a chance to retire at some point.” 
        Shawn did not see any chance of that happening. He knew Frickenstein’s longevity depended upon his loyalty to Shawn’s mother, the Realm’s Overlord. She would work him to his grave. There would never be a time of peace for the assassin. She saw him as money walking on two feet.
        That is never going to happen. Frickenstein shook his head ever so slightly. “I don’t think they’ll let me retire. I have not talked to my father for years, but I don’t think they let him retire. No reason to believe I’ll ever be able to walk away.”
        Shawn looked past Frickenstein at the alligators in the water. “Probably not. And they will never let you in peace. No matter where you go, they will find you. Mother has a way of encouraging people to find someone she wants found, even if it is to the gates of hell. 
        “I know that’s true,” Frickenstein said from experience. He knew how persistent the Overlord was.
        “To be truthful, I never thought I’d see you again. Until now I didn’t know you were still alive.”
        “And now you wish I wasn’t alive.” Frickenstein wondered what was going through Shawn’s mind. What thoughts of his demise were there? Was he afraid? Did he fear death? The thoughts made Frickenstein feel a gut-wrenching pain, and he was not one to feel much of anything when it came to doing away with others. This time was different though. Frickenstein stepped closer to Shawn. “My old friend, it pains me to be here, to do what I must do. When they told me what needed to be done, I almost dared to suggest something else could be done instead.” His eyes moved away from the man standing before him. “When they said I had to be the one to do this, I wanted to say someone else could do just as well.” He brought his eyes back to Shawn. “But it would show weakness on my part, and the Realm has no taste for weakness.”
        “My mother is nothing but weak. She doesn’t have the right to judge anyone else by that.” Shawn thought ill of his mother for many years. Quietly, for he knew she had a spiteful side to her, almost psychotic. His family always feared her and never wished to be in the same place as her. She was part of the family but was not wanted at the same time.
         “As I assume you know, when they suggest something, that’s the final word,” Frickenstein said. 
        Shawn nodded. “I know that once she decides something, nothing can change her thinking. She has always been like that. As for this, it is not going to change anything, John.”
        I know he’s right, but I can’t let him know it. “It’s going to change a lot of things in the Realm’s view. Mostly it will serve as a deterrent.”
        “What a deterrent. Big headlines, bitch takes down her own son. When are you going to learn? As soon as you are no longer of use to my mother, to the bitch, you’ll be making a walk in a place like this.”
        “Perhaps.”
        “Perhaps shit. You know I’m right, John. You cannot hide from them. They are everywhere. They speak and you jump.”
        “I obey.”
        “Do you find it hard to look me in the eyes, John?”
        “No.”
        “Do you think what you’re doing is right?”
        “Don’t give me any of that shit. You were in this same position for years. Right has nothing to do with it, and you know that God damn well.”
        “It’s a job, John. A dirty, shitty, job. But hey, someone’s got to do it.” Shawn grinned. “As for this, you don’t have to do it. I can disappear and they will never know where I am. I’ll even help you take out the two guys behind me, like the old days.”
        The two men took a few steps back. One of them even placed a hand on his gun, inside of his suitcoat. 
        Frickenstein glanced over Shawn’s shoulder at two associates standing ten feet away. For a moment he considered what his old friend had just said. He could do away with the men behind him. There would be no witnesses. But common sense told him letting Shawn go was not an option. “Why the hell did you try to screw them over?”
        Shawn held back a laugh. “For twelve years they’ve screwed me over. She is my own mother. They screwed my family over. Her relatives.” 
        “No one claimed she had a heart.”
        “Or a conscience. Or a shred of decency. I could go on.”
        “A million words come to mind.”
        “Taking a million dollars from them was nothing compared to what she’s taken from me,” Shawn said. “How much have they taken from you? What about your wife for starters?”  
        Frickenstein quickly touched Shawn’s throat with the tip of his sword blade. He was haunted by thoughts of his wife’s mysterious demise. Nightmare after nightmare. “I should put a bullet between your eyes. But she told me she wanted you cut into so many pieces, no one would be able to find the slightest evidence that you ever existed. The rain will even wash away your blood.” He lowered the blade. “You and I go back a long way.”
        “Yes, we do.”
        “I like your family. That is why when they die, they’ll be in one piece. Consider it a professional curtesy.”
        “Don’t expect me to say thank you.”
         “That would be out of character, even for you.” 
        Shawn shook his head. This is all about money to him. “Cetrico is not going to respond very kindly to what you’re doing here today. Why didn’t you join them? I know my mother’s sister made you an offer.”
        Frickenstein had not expected to hear Cetrico’s name mentioned. At the top of a list, he could not think of anyone he disliked more. He turned sideways and looked away from Shawn. “Yes, she did. The only reason I’m alive is because Cetrico likes me.”
        “That’s not true and you know it. She only wants to use you to get to her sister. She is more of a woman than my mother. I know she likes me. After today maybe you will be saying she liked you.”
        Frickenstein pointed to Shawn. “If anything, she tried using you to get to your mother.”
        That is not true. “She has a mean streak, and rarely is forgiving. Money is what drove the sisters apart. It’s what keeps them apart. They have not spoken in ten years. They most likely will never speak again. Cetrico is powerful. More so than my mother.” 
        “Cetrico trusted me enough to give me the details of her organization. She wasn’t threatening to me at all.”
        “You’re not really that gullible, John. You know damn well that if you joined Cetrico’s organization, mother would be the first target they would assign you to eliminate, and you know that would be impossible to do. You’d be sent on a suicide mission.”
        “To a point. I think she expected me to fill your mother in on the details.”
        “Did you?”
        “Of course. I think Cetrico wanted me to tell your mother as a means of intimidating her. 
        “Then you know the Realm can’t compete against them. The two sides are at war. There can only be one winner.”
        “Perhaps.” Frickenstein was hoping there would be an outright war and both organizations would wipe each other out. He would celebrate-be drunk for a week straight. He knew he could easily find work with any organization, thus was his reputation. 
        “You know you agree with me, John. You know reality when it’s staring you down. The Realm is obsolete. Mother is getting old and when she dies there is going to be a power struggle within the organization. 
        He’s spot on in thinking that. “I can see that happening.”
        Shawn walked to his left a few feet before returning to where he had been. “She was always afraid to share her power with anyone else, even me. That fear will be the Realm’s downfall. She is a stupid woman. And I do not like to call her a woman. She is more of an animal, like the gators she keeps close to her. What sort of person keeps a creature that can take your head or arm in a single bite? Let alone a bunch of them.”
        I do not know anyone that crazy. “Can’t say I know anyone other than her.”
        Shawn grinned. “We should be so lucky that she might get careless and one of them would get her. Poor animal would probably get sick and die from the poison that runs through her veins. Would you miss her, John?” 
        Frickenstein glanced at the two men behind Shawn. “I’ll take a raincheck on answering that.”
        Shawn looked at the two men behind him. “Why is that, John? Because of these two dipshits? They wouldn’t miss her.” He looked back at Lord Frickenstein. “If I was alive, I’d clap. I would pay money to see it happen. The money mother has put away will be sought after. When that happens, Cetrico will cut the Realm’s throat. People like you, if you are still alive, will either join them or be killed. Ten years from now the Realm will only be a memory. What will you be, John?”
        “Time will tell, Shawn.”
        “I wish I could see your final demise.”
        “You probably wouldn’t want to see it,” Frickenstein said. “Whatever happens, I won’t go down without a fight. I’ll take someone else down as well.”
        “I’m sure you will. Tell me, John, is there anything in your life you’d change if you could?”
        The answer was easy for the killer. “Being here.”
        “Other than that.”
        Frickenstein did not have to think at all of an answer. “Yes, meeting your mother.”
        “Can’t fault you for saying that.”
        “What about you, Shawn?”
        “Meeting my mother.”
        Both men chuckled.
        “It seems we should be having this conversation in a bar, drinking a cold beer,” Frickenstein said. The thought of enjoying a cold beer was a nice thought. 
        “I’m open to that, John. It’s not like I have anything better to do at the moment.”
        If only that were possible. “We sure had some great times bar hopping,” Frickenstein said, as past episodes came to mind. “How we managed to stay out of trouble, God only knows.”
        Shawn chuckled. “And how we managed to drag our friends into shit with us.” 
        Frickenstein grinned. “And mostly let them out to hang as we made tracks. It’s no wonder we had a hard time keeping friends.” 
        Shawn released a chuckle. It was amazing considering the situation he was in. Most people would not think anything was funny as their life was ending. “Pissed off a lot of people, you and I.”
        There came a silence between them. The two men with Frickenstein were getting drenched and hoped all the reminiscing would come to an end. They had a gruesome job ahead of them, and both were more than willing to cut corners to get it finished and be someplace dry. 
        Frickenstein sighed deeply. “Shawn, I think it’s time.”
        Shawn nodded. “I guess so, John. I forgive you, my friend.”
        “It’s business. Sure as hell not personal.”
        Shawn turned his back to Frickenstein.
        “See you around, John. I’ll be waiting on the other…”
        Frickenstein dropped the umbrella, raised the sword, and swung around. With a swoosh sound the steel blade sliced through Shawn’s neck cleanly. The headless body fell to the ground where Frickenstein calmly used a handkerchief to wipe blood from the sword blade.         “Cut his body up into small pieces. Toss them into the water for the alligators to eat.”
        As Frickenstein began to walk away, he received a text message. ‘YOU ARE NEEDED IN WASHINGTON ASAP.’