Chapter 2

Thank God that Mara had the good sense to wait until the fight was over before she ran up to hug me. I sheathed my knife and hugged her back. By this time, Martino had done the same for Ireena, and he came to me to thank me for saving Ireena. “Thank you, my friend, for acting so quickly. You are welcome to my house for as long as you want to stay.”

I thanked him and asked, “What do we do now? Do we call for the police, or do we handle this ourselves?”

“I don’t know what that word ‘police’ means, but this is something we have to take care of ourselves. The first thing to do is to check his body to see if there is anything you want. Get Mara to help you.”

That was all Mara needed to hear. She immediately began to strip the body, and Ireena jumped in to help her. The two women seemed to enjoy what they were doing, so I stayed out of their way. When they finished, there was nothing left but a naked body. Mara handed me a number of coins taken from a belt pouch, so it was obvious that this was not the thief’s first port of call. I was not now rich, but I did have a comfortable amount of ready cash.

I gave the knife to Mara and said, “I will teach you how to protect yourself with this knife, so keep it handy.” Mara looked very pleased at that statement. I turned to Martino and asked, “Would you like for me to teach you how to defend Ireena and yourself with a cudgel?” That brought the same kind of look to Martino’s face, and he agreed immediately.

Martino said, “Let’s toss this dog’s body into the gutter so that other thieves can see what happens when people try to rob us.” With considerable glee, the two women each grabbed a leg and dragged the naked body to the street. Duke Marno’s men would remove it before it raised too much of a stink.

Once that chore was done, Mara and I walked to her place of business. We got there before the bordello actually opened for business, so Mara had time to introduce me to the other women who worked there. She carried on about how I had already disposed of three bad guys in less than 24 hours, and she gave a very impressive description of what a good fucker I was.

There was an immediate clamor from the other women to try me out, and Mara said that she would think about it. The madam pointed out that it was almost time for the bordello to open for business; there was already a waiting line forming. I was relieved by that and gratefully made my escape.

It was only about 500 yards back to Martino’s restaurant, so I headed there to ask if he knew of any place where I could get a job. Martino did not know of any

job openings that sounded like they would pay enough to be worth my time, so he suggested that I open my own place where I would train people in self defense.

Hey, that sounded good, so we discussed how I could get started. I could certainly use him as a refernce, and Mara was in an ideal place to spread the news of what I could do. Furthermore, Martino just happened to own an empty shop that would be perfect for me to use. It was not far away, and that was a big drawing card. I could fit it out as a dojo and be in business in short order. Martino would even lend me the money I needed to get started. What more could I ask for.

Martino handed me the key to the front door, and I went to take a look at the place. I was very pleased when I saw the place, and Martino was happy to rent it to me for a pittance—at least, he was now getting something for a shop that had not been producing anything for him. After looking around the available space, I went back to talk to Martino. We closed the deal with a handshake, and I was now a business man. All I needed were customers.

Martino recommended a painter who showed up that afternoon to paint a sign on the front of the shop. That was all I could afford at the moment, but it was a start in the right direction. I hung an “Open for Business” sign on the side of the door and waited to see what would happen. The rest of the day was a dud until I was about ready to close up shop for the day and visit Martino’s restaurant for supper.

A man walked in the door. He was dressed as one of the upper middle class, so I had high hopes for him as soon as I saw him. He said, “Good afternoon, Sir. I am in need of a bodyguard on odd occasions. I saw the body in front of Martino’s restaurant and your name was given to me as the one responsible for the thief’s death. I know the thief’s reputation, and I am impressed that you were able to overcome him without drawing blood. Would you be interested in the job?”

“Yes, of course I am interested, but I would need to know more about the job and what would be expected of me if I decided to take it. Please give me more detail.”

“I am a gem merchant, and I sometimes have need to deliver one or more gems to a customer. With the number of cutpurses and other thieves infesting Silano, I am afraid to make these deliveries without some protection. Therefore, I would like to hire you to teach me the rudiments of self defense and to act as my bodyguard. Are you available to do that?”

“Yes, Sir, I would be happy to take on that responsibility. I do have one question; namely, will I have to travel out of town?”

“Not as far as I know at the moment. If that comes up, I will let you know well ahead of time. Can you work with that?”

“Yes, I suppose so. Now, may I have your name?”

“I am Guido Giani. What do you charge?”

“I would prefer to negotiate two agreements, one for teaching you self defense and another for acting as your bodyguard. How often do you expect to need me as your bodyguard?”

“I think that I will need you for that on an average of once every three weeks, but the timeing would vary. Currently, I will need your services for tomorrow afternoon and evening. Are you available?”

“Yes, I am.” With that, we began to discuss a price. It did not take long to agree on a price, and we settled with a handshake. For convenience, the self defense training would begin the afternoon of Monday with an hour scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. I thanked Mr. Giani for being my first customer and he left.

I headed out for Martino’s restaurant as soon as Giani left. I wanted to hear from Martino his opinion of the rates that I was charging Giani. Martino said that my prices seemed to be reasonable for what I was going to do, so I was happy with that and ordered supper.

That evening I discussed with Martino about when would be a good time for his lessons. We tentatively agreed on an hour beginning at 9:00 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but we would not start until next week. Martino gave me as much time as he could to talk about the various merchants in Silano and which ones were reliable. At 11:30 I left to meet Mara to walk her home and to tell her what had happened this afternoon.

Dammit, things were all aflutter when I arrived at the bordello. Two tough looking characters had come in that evening to demand protection money. They roughed up the madam a little bit, nothing serious, to impress on her what could happen if she did not cooperate. The madam was not badly injured, but she was in pain and scared to death. The demand had been for more money than she could hope to pay and stay in business, so she did not know what to do.

Mara had assured the madam that I would take care of the problem, and she should not worry. Dammit, I was caught again by my inability to ignore the situation when a woman was being mistreated. I asked for some details on what the thugs had demanded, and the main point was that they wanted 25% of the week’s receipts, to be collected each Sunday evening. A further problem was that we all knew that higher and higher percentages would be demanded if the madam paid the first extortion claim.

The madam immediately relaxed when I told her that I would be there on Sunday to discuss the matter with the thugs. The thing that I had to find out was if this were a gang supported activity, or if this were a scheme concocted by the two thugs. It would be easy to handle if it were the latter, but I was pretty sure that it was the former situation. In any case, I planned to be at the bordello when the two thugs made their next appearance.

As we walked home, I asked Mara’s opinion about whether I should give up on the idea of running a dojo and concentrate on cleaning up the petty crime that was permeating the city? Frankly, it looked to me like running a dojo was safer, but the other possible job was potentially a whole lot more fun.

“I am caught on the horns of a dilemma. I don’t want you to be hurt, but I am afraid that you could become bored and wander away from me to a place with more excitement. Given that argument, I guess that I want you to give up the dojo.”

I talked to Martino, my only other confidant, about this subject, and he reluctantly agreed that I should drop the idea of running a dojo. I told him that I would close the dojo tomorrow, but I still needed a place where I could meet clients. He suggested that I use a small table in a corner of his restaurant as my temporary office with no prompting from me. I figured that meant that he had a very high opinion of me, both as a person and as a friend.

Mara and I took our baths and went to bed with no further delay. I did notice that she laid out a towel with no prompting from me. I guess that she did like a dry bed for sleeping. “Doug, I am kind of tired tonight. I think that the threat to Madam Orsa has affected me more than I expected. Please, let’s just fuck like we did last night.”

I certainly could not argue with that, so that was what we did. Mara and I both went to sleep right after that, and I slept through the night. However, I did have a strange dream.

A voice like nothing I had ever heard before spoke to me as if he were a teacher explaining a new and strange situation to a student. I saw a man sitting behind a desk in an odd looking, but not uncomfortable chair. The man had bushy white hair and no beard. He was wearing something that resembled a jumpsuit that was a shade of purple. He never told me his name, but told me to call him Mentor (was that his name?). His skin was a very pale chocolate color, but I could not tell if that was its natural color or the result of a deep suntan.

“Good evening, Doug. I know that you are going to have some trouble believing what I am about to tell you, but rest assured that it is all absolutely true. I have nothing to gain by lying or misleading you. At the moment, just take what you hear at face value—the truth of what I say will become clear in our future conversations. Yes, I will be contacting you while you sleep for the next few years, and possibly for the rest of your life. Circumstances will control that.

“As you certainly know by now, your consciousness has been switched into an earlier version of yourself. No, there is no way for you to return to your previous body. You died that night from the concoction that you foolishly drank, but I suppose that was the result of already consuming too much alcohol. Again, that is not important, but I mentioned it to satisfy your curiosity. By a means that you have no way of understanding, we snatched your ‘soul’ from your body just before you died.