Chaos Company

“Wake up, mate!” Liam King slapped his unconscious prisoner across the face. Adrenaline and glee flooded him.

Brian Fraser jerked awake and began thrashing against the restraints holding him in the metal chair. The ropes around his wrists prevented his escape as the chair tipped when he rocked it. It wobbled, then crashed to the floor with him in it. Liam couldn’t help but chuckle at his captive’s failed attempt to break free.

“Agh! Damnit!” Brian roared.

Excitement pulsed in Liam as his captive struggled to free himself. Liam had hoped the bright overhead lights would put Brian in a state of disarray. If Liam’s previous actions had taught him anything, it was to never let his captives be at ease.

Liam paced as he juggled the thought of kicking his boot into the frightened captive’s temple, wishing it was an option he could take. After a long moment of silence, he righted the captive and his chair.

The prisoner struggled violently.

“Do you know who I am? Do you?” His glare swept over Liam’s tactical Kevlar vest and urban camouflage pants.

“Brian R. Fraser,” Liam’s Australian accent thickened in anger. “U.S. Air Force Colonel. Native of Wisconsin. You’re married to Sarah Fraser, your high school sweetheart. You got your MA in Political Science from UCLA before attending officer school. You’re currently in the running to become Senator to Wisconsin. You’re a fan of barbeques, hunting, and ranting about international affairs you have no stake in.”

“So you Binged me.” Governor Fraser’s voice cracked. “You want a cookie or something?”

“No Colonel! I want to be able to enjoy my vacation in Prague without having to be called in to shut up idiots like you!” Liam leaned in and shot a frustrating look directly into Fraser’s eyes. “Do you know how annoying it is to leave a beautiful beach with beautiful women just to kidnap a middle-aged man with more rolls on his neck than I can find at a sandwich shop?”

Colonel Fraser took a breath, and swallowed. “Not as annoying as being the man tied up I supposed.”

Liam looked away and grinned reluctantly before stepping back. He pulled out an empty syringe and held it in front of Fraser’s face. “Do you know what was in this?”

“No. But since you’re delusional enough to think kidnapping me was a good idea, you must have already taken it all.”

Liam laughed while twirling the syringe in hand. “I like that. Calm under pressure. Every hardened individual I’ve tied up starts that way, at first.. I don’t know if you all think you’re untouchable or believe I’m not truly going to do something.” He dangled the syringe between his fingers. “This did hold a heavy sedative. I acquired it from your doctor.”

“Acquired?”

“Poor bastard took a bullet to the head, before he gave it up.” Sadistic delight bubbled through Liam at the memory. He looked over to the Colonel who did all he could to break free. Liam liked when his captives struggled. He liked it even more when they started begging after their fight instincts failed them – and every captive of his always begged, sooner or later.

Colonel Fraser’s eyes widened with horror, before he struggled against the handcuffs, again. “Why? Why am I here? What do you want with me? Just tell me what you want!!”

“Oh come on Colonel! It has to be obvious here that you pissed someone off” Liam shouted, pointing the syringe at the Colonel’s face. He stood back and crossed his arms. “I mean, I piss off people all the time. But at least I’m smart enough not to stay in one place while I do it. Or get captured for that matter.”

Liam stepped into the blinding light that lit Fraser’s immediate area, reveling in the terror suffusing Fraser’s face as the man got a good look at him for the first time. “You!” Fraser bellowed, struggling even harder to free himself. “Every agency in the world wants you dead!”

“Hmm. My wanted status is worldwide now? Guess I should really update my Linkedin profile.” Liam said jokingly to himself.

Unfazed by Fraser’s thrashing around, Liam strode behind his captive, enthralled by the heavy echo of his own booted footsteps off the concrete floor and walls. The authoritative sound sent a thrill up Liam’s spine.

In the past few years highly ranked political and military officials alike came to know the name Liam King well. It wasn’t a secret he was on the top of the FBI and Interpol’s most wanted list. Fraser knew King had killed men like him for no better reason than the almighty dollar. Liam had no loyalty to country, no concern with the lives of others, and he liked it that way. With no attachment or loyalty each contract he took was simple.

“I thought getting my hands on a Colonel would be next to impossible, especially who lives in a military residential area. But I guess your town’s security is as flimsy as any other neighborhood watch.”

“You’re dead!” Fraser roared while straining his arms and legs “You hear me? Dead! You fucked up kid! And when I get out of here…” Liam put Fraser’s threats to a halt with an open hand across his face.

“Don’t make threats you can’t cash Colonel. It’s unbecoming of you.”

Frasier’s body shook in fear. “You think you can just come in here? Where my wife and son sleep?”

“Ah ah ah. Correction, where your wife used to sleep. A graveyard is more fitting for them now.”

Fraser shook his head in disbelief. “No! No! No! You didn’t!” He rocked his chair back and forth. “Not my wife... my son!”

Liam grabbed Fraser by the neck keeping him still. “This is what happens when you piss off dangerous people, Brian. They pay men like me to ruin your life. But your son, he’s just a boy. I’ll let him live. But he’ll grow up an orphan.” He smiled at Fraser’s tearing eyes. “The way you’re having a bitch fit, I’d say I did the little bugger a favor, mate.”

Fraser jerked his upper body away from Liam’s grasp. “Tell me who hired you. Who hired you to kill my wife? I’ll have you both killed! I swear to God!” Fraser screamed, so loud that neither he nor Liam heard the door open from behind him.

“No, you won’t.,” A Middle Eastern man in a three-piece suit stepped into view, accompanied by four other Middle Eastern men wearing ballistic vests over street clothes and carrying UMP45 machine pistols. Each also carried a SIG Sauer and P2220 pistols in their belt holsters.

A grin tugged at Liam’s lips as he stepped back to let his employer take a look at the roughed-up politician.

“Good job, Mr. King.” The well-dressed man stopped in front of Fraser, grasping the governor’s jaw to turn his face from one side to the other. “And here I assumed by paying half in advance, I was just giving money to a dead man.”

The well spoken man pulled out a 9mm Sig Sauer from a shoulder holster under his jacket and waved it at Fraser.

“Do you know who I am, Governor?”

“I should have known. Adir Jafri. You call yourself some kind of general, in charge of a group of Turkish radicals. You people think you’re liberators, freedom fighters, but you’re really just a bunch of thugs. Terrorists” spat Fraser.

Jafri’s men held Fraser’s seat, allowing Jafri to land one good punch to bust the Colonel’s lip open. “For weeks you’ve been pushing for your friends in Washington to start a task force to hunt me down. My sources informed me you told them I was a threat that you wanted handled. Here’s a lesson you should’ve learned a long time ago.”

Jafri shoved the gun barrel up beneath Fraser’s bruised and bloodied jaw. “You want a man dead, you kill him. If you want a man to kill you, you speak about how you want him dead.”

“Go to hell.” Blood dribbled from the corner of Fraser’s mouth.

“Mr. Jafri,” Liam reached to ease Jafri’s weapon away from Fraser. “Normally, I’m all for sticking around for the good stuff, but I’m in a hurry to get to my vacation and if I leave now I can still make karaoke. So how about you just give me my money and I’ll be on my way? That way I can go before things get any more intimate.”

Jafri glared at Liam for a moment before laughing. “I like you, Mr. King.”

He snapped his fingers which prompted one of his men to toss a suitcase at Liam’s feet.

Liam picked up the suitcase and weighed it in his hand. “You know, I’ve carried a lot of cash in my years doing this sort of work...” He brought the suitcase to his ear and shook it again to be certain. “So unless these bills are marked in the thousands I’d say your very light on our agreement.” He threw the case at Jafri’s feet.

“You get one million for your services, Mr. King.”

Liam smiled and laughed lightly. “We agreed on two million. Half for taking the job, half for when I delivered the Colonel to you. Now I know your part of the world probably uses pebbles and branches to count but that doesn’t excuse for bad business mate.”

Jafri stalked toward Liam, gun still in hand and his expression menacing. “We agreed for you to kill him before I arrived. Does he look dead to you?”

“Looks alive to me, sir,” one of Jafri’s men piped up.

“We agreed to a dead governor before my arrival. You didn’t fulfill your end of our agreement, Mr. King.” Jafri jabbed the barrel of his weapon against Liam’s sternum. His men closed ranks around them until Liam couldn’t move. “This is what happens when you don’t follow instructions to the letter. Now, take the money and be glad you’re walking out of here with your life.”

Liam forced a grin at Adir and picked up the suitcase.

“That’s a good boy.”

Liam clutched the handle of the suitcase tightly, and to his employer’s surprise, he swung the full force of the suitcase against Adir’s wrist, causing him to drop his weapon. He then threw the suitcase at one of the soldiers behind him, crashing against his nose and knocking him back.

Liam grabbed the barrel of the UMP45 before the other soldier behind him could take aim and slammed the man’s finger against the trigger. He aimed the gun at the guard behind Adir, spraying him with bullets from the waist up after slamming his fingers down on the trigger with his free hand. Liam jammed his elbow back into the solar plexus of the soldier whose gun he grabbed and twisted the man’s arm up behind his back as he moved the soldier into position as a human shield. He drew the man’s pistol from his hip holster and put four rounds in the man who’d been hit with the suitcase.

In his peripheral vision, Liam saw Jafri dive after his gun. Liam quickly kicked the weapon toward the far wall. In the same fluid movement, he shoved his human shield at the only other guard standing causing the man’s aim to be off as he fired.

Turning toward the two men, Liam fired the Sig Sauer pistol in his hand until it wouldn’t fire anymore, laughter spilling from him as he watched the men convulse as the bullets pierced their flesh. As the roar of gunfire subsided, the two men crumpled to the floor, Liam’s former human shield slumped atop his comrade.

“Don’t move!” Liam turned his weapon on Jafri who froze, kneeling with his hands up, the sweat beading from his neck was visible even from where Liam stood.

Liam quickly moved over to the pile of guards he just dispatched and stripped a guard of his loaded SIG Sauer while dropping the empty one in his hand. He looked up to see Adir making another attempt to reach for his weapon.

It was then Liam’s eyes and vision both turned orange, just before a beam of orange light shot from each socket and blew a cauterizing hole the size of his fist into Adir’s back. From where he stood Liam could see the violent beam had punched through Adir’s chest, just before the man collapsed to his death.

“What the hell was that?” Fraser demanded, fear trembling in his voice.

Liam retrieved the suitcase from the floor. “Just a little modification, compliments of your government’s top scientists. I’m actually surprised you’re not aware of people with abilities like this.” He pointed at his eyes, once again blue. “My benefactor was kind enough to let me experience a preview of the abilities used by your nation’s forces with the help of a serum. I can’t wait to get my hands on more of the stuff! Even though I’d wish he’d put me through the surgical procedure to make the effects permanent.”

“What you can do…it compliments you as the freaking monster you are!” Fraser yelled out with watered eyes glaring up at Liam.

Liam ran a hand through his short blonde hair and laughed. “Exactly what I was going for.” He holstered his newly acquired SIG Sauer pistol, pulled out his cell phone, dialed a number, and put it on speaker phone.

“Boss. Adir Jafri’s dead.” He was acutely aware of Fraser’s frightened gaze on him, and the unsteady huff of the Colonel’s breathing. He grinned to himself. He liked inflicting terror. Liam strongly believed a fearful person is when one is at their most honest.

“How’d it go?” His boss said on the other line.

“You were spot on about the plan. Offering Fraser’s head on a platter brought Adir out in the open. Can’t believe the idiot actually showed.”

“Wait. This…this was all just a ploy to get Adir so show up?” Colonel Fraser shouted. “You ruined my life just to use me as bait?”

Liam looked over his shoulder and put a finger over his lip, signaling the Colonel to keep quiet. “Shhhh! I’m on the phone Colonel. Don’t be rude.” He said before turning away from him.

“Did he pay you before you killed him?”

Liam weighed the suitcase in his hand the second he picked it up. “Yeah, he gave me a million for finishing the job, but don’t think I’ll be counting that towards what you owe me.”

“You earned your pay, Liam. You’re a good soldier and you’ll be rewarded accordingly.”

Liam snorted a laugh. Like he’d believe that, before he saw his money. “Just make sure I get my money, mate, or I’ll give you a taste of what Jafri got.”

“Who is that?” Fraser shouted. “Let me speak to him. If I was just bait for all this than he can let me go!”

“Fraser’s still alive?” Liam’s boss asked.

“Yeah, he’s alive. He wants to be let loose. Mind you, I may have killed his wife for seeing my face.” A devilish grin tugged at Liam’s mouth. “How do you want me to handle him boss?”

Without another word from the other line, the phone went silent.. Humor surged through Liam, and a laugh broke his lips as he tucked his phone away and headed for the basement stairs.

“What did he say?” Fraser pleaded eagerly.

Liam halted and glanced over his shoulder at Fraser.

“He said...” Without hesitation, Liam raised his pistol and fired a round straight into Fraser’s face, causing him to slouch back in his seat. Whistling to himself, Liam holstered his weapon between his belt and pants and resumed his meander up the stairs. He had a lot of extra money coming his way, and he planned to have a lot of fun spending it.