TEN SECONDS , The Kenny Ackerman Story BOOK ONE~ ORIGINS ,by Melly O'Hara

HUNTIN'

CHAPTER 4 HUNTIN'

So's I stayed down there, with her. I had the rooms next at hers in the Inn, so's l could watch over her. Not that it semed ta make any differece. She were different after that; resigned, hard even, like all her faith had jus' disappeared. Oh, she talked an' did the same things she had always done, but that innocence I'd tried so hard ta protect were gone.

An' me, well it didn' take long . Within six monts l controlled the Underground. Silver Lady an' l, we made quite a team. An' those that wouldn' fall inta line – well, we jus' gave 'em the Kenny Special! Settled a few scores too, like the shit –bag guards that left Kuchel when my boss came by, an' the stair way 'night guards' that my boss had bribed ta get a key ta Kuchel's rooms, an' a whole lot o' others who had helped him. Even managed ta get the sons-o'-bitches that had killed Ma an' Pa, an' those they worked for. An' afore long, l got me a new nick-name; 'Kenny the Ripper' they started callin' me. Yep, business was boomin'!

That power ,Jas, it were like bein' a God. No one could beat me. I knew afore they even did, jus' what they was gonna do. An' l were so's lighnin' fast. Still the same now. An' l saw the world for what it really is – a sewer, filled with filth. An' people for who they really was –jus' greedy, drunkin' cheats, liars an' killers.

An' they call US the vermon!

Not gonna lie.. even taday, l could jus' kill 'em all, with no secon' thought. Even my rule 'bout no hits on family men went out the winda, 'cause l could see that the world would be betta off without the scum.

But l needed more, an' so's l started makin' trips 'bove groun' ta Mitras. I were careful like; at firs' only at night 'cause l needed ta find out what my boss had on us that were 'nice an' safe', ready ta go ta the Military Police. An' l didn' know – had it already been sent? Were it like automatically sent if he didn' return from the Underground? I were perdy sure that weren' the case by now. 'Cause he'd been dead six months an' no one had a come a sniffin'. An' no raids by the Military Police, 'cept the usual ta make sure the workers weren' rippin' off the good citizens o' Mitras by fakin' the weight o' the coal we shipped up there. But, l still didn' know who he'd told ' bout me an' Kuchel. How much did his men know when they was investigatin'? Did they know it were me they was investigtin'? Was they ordered ta turn me inta the Military Police, if he didn' come back? An' cause l didn' know, l were real careful.

Before things could get bedda, l had ta find that evidence, the investigtors, an' who he'd told.

It took a while, an' there were many a time where l had ta hold myself (an' Silver Lady – she's got quite a temper) in check, but 'ventually l learned all l needed ta know.

He had nothin'. Nothin'!

It were all jus' a bluff. He jus' wanted ta chain me an' Kuchel ta him, knowin' we'd make him the richest, mos' powerful o' the underworld mob bosses!

All that were left now were ta find the ol' guy that my boss's men had found , who remembered me an' my family. I knew he weren' no threat, cause no one could find him. An' they jus' assumed he was dead, but l needed ta know what he knew. Or see his decomposin' body for myself!

I knew it'd take me away from the Underground an' Kuchel for months, 'cause l had no idea where ta look, 'cept for "the outskirts 'round Wall Sina", my boss had said. An that were a perdy big area. But l weren' no use ta Kuchel now anyways. She were still quiet an' resigned. No more did she ask eagerly 'bout goin' ta the suface, or not wanna leave my side. 'Twere like she were in her own little world now, jus' makin' it through each day. The nightmares still came, not as often now, but she seemed ta find more comfort in the Innkeeper's wife, Martha, than in me. Guess it were a mother thing; that she could pretend that she were a child again. An' in the dark 'twere easier for her ta pretend that the soft arms that held her close was Ma's. Knowin' that after nearly seven months, that there weren' much more that l could do for her, l decided to leave her with Bob an' Martha. They was amenable, an' she were ta work in the bar sometimes ta help out. Kuchel even seemed kinda pleased, well pleased is puttin' it too strongly, but yeah 'pleased' ta have some thing ta do an' spend more time with Martha. Hell, in a few months she'd be eighteen an' prob'ly end up workin' there anyway now she weren' concentatin' on her lessons no more. 'Sides, now our plans for getting' out o' here an' livin' in Mitras had gone ta shit, that were prob'ly her only option. Unless l could change it.