32. Mayor
Mayor Victor was at the top floor of 「Olympus City」, the tallest building rising in Golden Tower's center. Looking down at the brilliantly shining city from his glass-walled office, he felt deep satisfaction. He was the very person who created this Golden Tower, the pioneer who transformed what had been merely a port city into a gorgeous city of pleasure. People loved Golden Tower and respected Victor. At least within Golden Tower, he held absolute power, and he himself believed it should rightfully be so. And that day too, he was using that power to harass his twenty-third female secretary in his office.
Knock knock.
"Ah, wait."
Outside the office waited an old man in a dark brown suit. His remaining hair combed back revealed his forehead fully, with thick wrinkles deeply carved above. An unlucky face by anyone's assessment.
"Come in!"
When the man opened the door, a young-faced woman with flushed face hurriedly fastened remaining buttons and slipped out. The man lecherous eyes traced her retreating back with a sly smile, then entered the room where his boss was and adopted a servile attitude.
"Dmitri! My friend!"
Victor sprang from his seat and forcefully struck both the man's arms with his huge arms. Though knowing better than anyone they were playing a rotten madman's game, when with Dmitri he felt sticky camaraderie as if they were comrades who'd crossed battlefields together. Victor often played around mimicking ancient epic tones, and Dmitri skillfully reciprocated the wordplay.
"Good to see you. Come sit!"
Victor seated his executive secretary Dmitri on the plush black sofa. Perhaps the cushion was too plush—as soon as Dmitri sat, his body sank deep into the sofa. Victor brought brandy in a round glass bottle and filled two glasses on the table.
"Dmitri! My Homer who appeared on a trireme from the distant Mediterranean to sing of the Trojan army's valor! The joy your epic brings me is more brilliant than the golden light Caesar gave the Roman legions, and intense enough to turn back Odysseus's steps toward the underworld that Virgil chronicled! Now, for that joy, tell this body—bound to a great ash tree pierced by sharp spears enduring nine nights—news like a spring arriving at desert noon."
Victor handed Dmitri the brandy-filled cup. As Dmitri received the glass, he immediately clinked it and downed the throat-burning liquor in one gulp. Dmitri also followed suit, his face quickly reddening from the strength then soon showing a relaxed expression.
"Mayor, you seem increasingly overflowing with youth and vigor each time I see you. Like a bull rushing to claim a beautiful Phoenician princess, shaking heaven and earth like lightning. Even if a barbarian king of Scandinavia who once roamed the North Sea seeking new plunder appeared to debate passion, victory wouldn't come easily."
Victor laughed heartily enough to lift the ceiling, pleased by Dmitri's flattery. Dmitri always scratched Victor's itch precisely with broad shallow knowledge. Perhaps because codes full of vanity oddly matched, no one could follow him in this regard. Victor usually called Dmitri 'the witch with a serpent's head'—more maximum praise he could give in fitting rhetoric than sincere disgust.
"The task you instructed last time was cleanly handled without anyone knowing, like Hercules's cunning wife poisoning her husband's clothes. Like that poison spreading instantly tearing flesh causing writhing in agony, the tribe troubling the mayor all transformed into monsters being mercilessly massacred by hunters' guns. Moreover, our militia shot all those related to 'that matter' on site, and immediately recovered and destroyed CCTV and other records. You can consider obstacles blocking the mayor's path almost completely removed. However..."
"However?"
"Matching body counts, exactly one is missing. It might be we couldn't find the corpse, or it drifted somewhere... but don't worry too much. Our militia definitely confirmed killing everyone..."
"Stop!"
Victor slammed his glass onto the table cutting off Dmitri's words. Dmitri trembled in fear at his sudden action. The benevolent face ready to give his life just moments ago had vanished. Victor's face burned bright red, contorted like a demon with bulging veins.
"So you're saying you let one escape?"
Victor demanded with glaring eyes. Dmitri was at a loss. Victor usually acted magnanimous toward people, but when touching a threshold he disliked, he'd lose reason, consumed by rage and rushing to extremes. Smashing heads with objects at hand or grabbing collars to hurl out windows. Dmitri immediately got off the sofa, knelt, and bowed his head.
"Spare me. I'll definitely find him."
Perhaps thanks to Dmitri's quick attitude change, Victor gradually regained reason, breathing roughly while rolling his eyes. Soon he quietly stood, went to his desk drawer, took out a pistol decorated with gold, and slowly approached Dmitri.
"Stand up."
His voice was rather calm. Dmitri stood but frozen, unable to look directly at Victor's face. Victor grasped Dmitri's small head about waist-high with his left hand like a basketball player palming a ball, and said.
"Look, Dmitri. Do you seek salvation from me?"
"Spare me."
Victor continued while stroking Dmitri's head.
"Your head is nicely ripened, so round. When this titanium bullet harder than iron pierces your skull, marrow will splatter refreshingly everywhere. Right?"
Dmitri felt the cold gun barrel touching his right temple. He squeezed his eyes shut and repeatedly begged to be spared. Victor looked at the gorgeous city beyond the glass wall.
"You know well, don't you? How I climbed here. Reward the good, punish the wrong. I've never violated that simple principle. That's why people respect me, Victor."
He looked again at his reflection in the glass wall. In his ruthless face he saw the final form a power holder could reach. And was deeply satisfied with that image. Victor approached embracing Dmitri from behind, grasped his left hand, and placed his pistol in it. Then whispered low in his ear.
"Catch that bastard. With this gun yourself. Then I'll give you that secretary from earlier. Pretty merciful, isn't it?"
Victor quietly returned to his desk and sat. Dmitri repeatedly bowed saying he'd definitely resolve it no matter what, then fled out of the office. Victor looked once at his retreating back reflected in the glass, then turned his gaze back to the city's gorgeous lights.
***
"Headquarters. This is Team B. Target recovered. Returning. Over."
A man appearing to be militia put a square device into a black bag inside the 'control room.' When he closed the bag and came out, two similarly armed men waited at the door. Past 8 PM, like people hastily leaving after finishing secret work in a pitch-dark building resembling an abandoned facility, they hurried their steps. Crossing the corridor toward the central lobby, a brief sound broke the silence from the opposite side. One man shone his lantern where the sound came from but saw nothing.
"Creepy. A madman might pop out at this rate."
"Hey, don't say scary things. I'll piss my pants."
"Hunters already swept through here—surely no madmen remain?"
The three continued talking trying to shake off fear. But the fact that only three remained in this water purification plant long stopped and virtually an abandoned building was itself chilling.
"Wait, I think there's something there?"
One man shone his lantern around toward upper stairs. A black object instantly flashed past before his eyes.
"Aagh!"
The man screamed and fell backward. The two behind rushed over and shone light where he'd looked but nothing was there.
"Hey, you okay?"
"What did you see?"
The man shook his head thinking what he saw was too instantaneous, perhaps a mistake. Then. An eerie presence like a black curtain descending seeped behind the three. They slowly turned their heads.
"Aagh."
"Aagh!"
"Aagh!!"
While three armed men lay unconscious back-to-back, the man in a long coat took a device from the black bag and connected it to his satellite floating above his shoulder. The satellite shot a green beam forward creating a rectangular screen. He began fast-forwarding the video at 8x speed.
The screen showed a chemical treatment facility with six large tanks. Deep into night, a tanker truck entered, and three men appeared, inserted three hoses connected to the tank into chemical tank inlets, and opened valves. The hoses wriggled as if liquid was transferring. About 20 minutes later, as they gathered the hoses, suddenly strong lighting illuminated them and gunshots erupted. Two men fell to the floor as if shot. Armed forces appearing to be militia appeared examining the corpses, then cleared them away and drove off even the tanker truck.
When the video ended, the man copied the file, designated recipient as 'Information Security Director Kobe,' and transmitted it. Then he put the device back in the black bag, quietly set it down beside the unconscious men, and disappeared into the darkness.