Jaws Of Fury

Another Contract

Max leaned against the door frame, holding a glass of rum and coke in one hand and scratching his stubble with the other.

"I'm looking for another contract." I mumbled as I wiped my face off.

"What happened to your head?"

"It is nothing. Do you got any contracts or not?"

"Let me check the board. I'll let you know.". Max turned around and went to find me a contract. I went down and sat at the bar.  I ordered a drink and began to drink alone when I was joined by another mercenary. He was probably part of a biker gang of some kind, He had a long scraggly beard, he was tubby and tattoos covered his arms. I recognized him as one of the regular trouble makers of  Max's Motor Sports. He went by the nickname of Moose.

"Hey Tiny." He taunted. His voice was deep and gruff. It sounded and smelled like he was a smoker.

"Piss off. I really don't have the patience for you and your bullshit right now.". I felt a small spark of anger begin to glow inside me.

"Word around the bar is you caught feelings for someone. That true?". He was begging for a fight. I could tell he was not gonna back off, so I waited for him to take the first shot. But it might be easier said than done. With each taunt, that small spark grew in size. 

"Moose. I have never had a problem with you. If you want to keep it that way, you'll back off and go somewhere else."

"What are you gonna do Tiny? Use that fancy kung fu on me?" He got way too close to me when he said that. He was about a half inch away from me.

"How about I drive my knee through your teeth?" That spark had now turned into a fully fledged fire.

"Them is fighting words. Why don't you calm down and tell me about your new girlfriend?". He was really pushing the envelope now.

"Why don't you go eat another box of donuts by yourself fatass?". I looked him dead in the eyes when I said that and I gave him the slightest grin before returning to my drink.

"You son of a bitch!" he roared. He punched my square in the jaw. It was hard enough that it knocked me off of my stool. The fire had now turned into a full on inferno. I stood up and tried to speak. It came out weird. I realized that my jaw had been dislocated. I set it back into place and it made a delightful crunch sound. At that point, other patrons within the bar got excited. They began to cheer and boo and place bets on the winner. Moose charged at me with his head down like his namesake. I stepped out of the way and he crashed head first into a mirror. The glass shattered and fell to the floor. He had shards sticking out of the top of his head and he bled profusely. He was stunned. I seized the opportunity and brought my elbow into his face, breaking his nose. He got up and surprised me with a solid liver punch.  It hurt and I growled in pain, staggering backwards, trying to ignore the throbbing agony in my side. Moose swung again, this time with a straight left hand jab. I side stepped it and roundhouse kicked him in the ribs before grabbing his beer bottle from the counter and smashing it over his head. The crowd roared and cheered. Moose was down on his belly and I went over and dislocated both his shoulders before smashing a stool over him.  The crowd began to cheer "Finish Him!" as someone threw me a knife. I would have killed him if Max had not stepped out at that exact moment.

"Jesus Brute! What the hell were you doing!?" He rushed over bending down near Moose to scope out the damage.

"He pissed me off" I shouted. My liver and jaw were still throbbing with pain. The massive inferno in my gullet had began to wither.

"I don't care about him! That stool was new!"he yelled as he picked up the splintered pieces of hardwood that was once a stool. He got two guys to drag my unconscious assailant outside and to call him an ambulance. 

"Any contracts?" I asked. "I sure as hell could use one." I added. Not that I needed money, I just needed something to take my mind off that girl whose face was still fresh in my mind. I was still angry that I could not shake her from my mind.

"I got three. One is pretty easy , another is somewhat difficult and the third is nearly suicidal. I'm gonna go ahead and say you want the hardest one. Am I right?"

"Yeah. What do I need to do?"

"Was afraid you were gonna say that. Well, the gist of it is, you need to break into a very heavily guarded, high tech lab and kill the head honcho that works there. Apparently he's been doing experiments on animals and that has really pissed the hippies off. That's why they're paying you top dollar.". His face was grim, it almost seemed that he did not want me to go. It looked like he almost knew something was up.

"Top dollar?". I inquired. "How much?"

Max looked me dead in the eyes and said four words. "One hundred thousand dollars."

"I'll take it!" I exclaimed. My mind was already racing as I thought of all the awesome stiff I could buy! Better weapons, new clothes, more bullets, that new ski-doo that Max refused to give me a discount on! The possibilities were nearly endless! "Where is this lab?" I asked as I signed my name on the contract.

"No one knows. But what we do know is that there is a convoy headed there tomorrow consisting of one large truck, four cars and two bikes. They'll be on the lookout for trouble so you will want to stay out of sight. Do that and they will take you straight to the lab. Now the asshat you're gonna put on ice is a Doctor Kurt Harris. A real sadistic and paranoid individual, he'll lock the building down if he even thinks something is off. His office is on the twentieth story, the top of the building. I'd tell you where the entrances and exits are, but like I said...this place is top secret. Only reason we know about this is because the hippy that wants us to do this hacked into their security and scored an address that he refused to share with us. Unfortunately we don't have that kind if skill here so you'll have to do this the old fashioned way. The convoy is estimated to drive right passed us tomorrow at 8pm so the darkness will provide you some cover. That's all I know Brute. Good luck and happy hunting." .

I shook Max's hand and I went to prepare myself for the next day. I was going to need every ounce of skill and strength if I was going to pull this off and get paid. I hopped into my car and headed for my safehouse.