Chapter 4

It looked to me like my first job would have to be finding a banker who would front for me. That turned out to be one hell of a problem. Martino did not know of a single banker or money lender who was not so far in debt to the Knights Templar that he did not dare to do anything that might displease them. Dammit, this was something that I needed to discuss with Mentor. I would have to bring that up tonight when I talked to Mentor. I would not yet class it as an emergency that required an immediate audience.

I had an idea around the problem, but it would require bringing in to the secret at least one more person. I did not feel that I could do that without consultation with Mentor. If Mentor accepted my idea, the local person did not have to be a banker, he just needed to be somebody on site who would be the contact man for the locals. That is enough said at this point.

Mara and I went through our regular morning routine and headed to the bordello, carrying the six batons. Mara and I were wearing ours. She still had not said anything about how she planned to decorate hers. The first thing we did was to pass out the batons, and the women started carrying on about how they were going to decorate theirs. There were a couple of budding fights beginning to rear their bloody heads when Madam Orsa put a stop to all of the arguments by saying, “Each of you should decorate your own baton as you please without worrying about what the other girls are doing, except that Mara is going to do hers as a penis as Doug wants her to.” Well, that seemed to settle things, and the arguments ceased.

That was when I broke in with, “Dammit, watch out how you are waving those batons around. They are not toys; they are death dealing weapons. Start acting like adults, or I will take them away from you!” That brought some order to the mass of females. “Madam Orsa, I can’t teach six individual classes, so all of you will have to learn at the same time. Where can we all meet to practice together?” Madam Orsa led us to a large room in the back of the bordello where there was enough empty space for everybody to practice at the same time.

“Okay, we only have 30 minutes before time to open for business, so we will need to get some details out of the way. I propose that we meet here for an hour of practice every morning just before starting work. Madam Orsa, is that okay with you?”

“Yes, that sounds good to me.”

I spent a few minutes explaining the wrist strap and lanyard and showing them how to hold the baton. The safety was engaged on all of the batons that I had handed out, but I didn’t mention that for fear that someone would screw up and extend the blade before I was ready for them to do that. I had them start by practicing the horizontal swing of the baton. My main point was to break them of automatically swinging overhand.

“Okay, Ladies, we will start with some serious work tomorrow, but that is enough for today.”

The women went to prepare for the day’s labors while I talked to Madam Orsa about her idea for me to protect other bordellos as well as hers. She had prepared a contract for each bordello owner to sign that specified what I was to do and when I was to work. At the moment, the price for my services was left blank. I read over the contract and suggested a few minor changes that she agreed to.

About that time, the first customer of the day walked in, and I left. My intention was to walk home, but by a different route than I usually used. I didn’t want to set up a routine that could be used to catch me in an ambush because my route was so predictable. As I walked along the street, I noticed that there were only a few solo pedestrians. Almost everybody was walking in pairs or in even larger groups. Was this to discourage muggers? It was damned early in the day for that to become a problem, from my experience in my former life.

I was in the next block and passing an alley when I heard a woman scream for help. No one else seemed to pay any attention to the cry for help, but I could not ignore it. Sure, I realized that it could be bait for an ambush by muggers, but it sounded too authentic to me.

I turned into the alley and hurried down the alley as quickly as I could while maintaining some caution. I turned a corner in the alley and spied a woman being raped. The rapists looked like teenagers, but they were assaulting the woman and they were armed.

I yelled at them to release the woman, but all I got in return was, “Back off, old man. This is none of your business.”

“Old man!?” Now that really pissed me off. Obviously, some physical force was necessary, but I did not want to kill such young men. The actual rapist did pull out and turn his head to face me, though he did remain between the woman’s legs. He snarled something profane at me and drew his knife.

Okay, now I had to act to keep from being knifed. I struck that boy in the head with my baton, and he fell forward just to one side of the woman he was raping. In the process, he fell onto his own knife which entered his belly. Now, that was bad luck if I ever saw it!

His friend drew his knife and rushed at me, but the kid had no grasp of how to fight other than that. I poked him in the solar plexus as he charged me, and the usual happened. By this time my patience was gone, and I clipped him in the back of the neck with my baton. That killed him.

I pulled the rapist out of the way and knelt to see if the woman needed any sort of medical attention. Fortunately, she did not. She was not even bleeding from her pussy. She wanted to stand up, so I helped her. Upon standing, she kicked the rapist in the balls, and she seemed satisfied when she realized that both of them were dead.

She said to me, “Thank you for helping me when you did. Those cretins would certainly have robbed me and probably would have killed me if you had not come along. I don’t have much money, but I will give it all to you in appreciation for saving me.”

“Thank you, but I don’t need your money as much as you probably do. Just remember me with joy as you spend it. That will be enough of a reward. Where are you going, and do you need an escort? I would be happy to deliver you safely to your destination. However, I would like to check these thugs for any valuables that might be useful, though I really don’t expect any.”

“I was headed for Martino’s restaurant for lunch. It is only two blocks from here, and I will appreciate your escort service.”

“That is where I am headed, so I will enjoy your company as we walk there. May I ask your name?”

“My name is Serena Gospo, and what is yours, if you please?”

I told her, and we had a short, but very pleasant, conversation as we walked to the restaurant. I ushered her inside the door and then left her as Ireena came up to seat her. The restaurant was nearly full, so I went into the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. Oh, my God, I was unmercifully teased about what Mara was going to say about me showing up with a strange woman. I laughed at the good natured banter, and everybody was happy.

After lunch, I went back to wandering the streets looking for trouble. In the process, I got to know a number of very nice people. I didn’t find any more problems to squelch, but I had a very pleasant afternoon minding a lot of other people’s business.

That evening, I picked up Mara at the usual time, and Madam Orsa had talked to several of the other madams about hiring me. Four of them were interested, and that was enough to get the ball rolling. I planned to talk to those madams tomorrow so that my schedule could fit into what they thought they wanted. I figured that I could work out a routine so that my mornings were free, and I would be on patrol from after lunch to about an hour before midnight. I would adjust that as I got more experience.

Son of a bitch! Madam Julia was hit with a serious problem that very night. She was on my list, so I took seriously what had happened at her bordello. Six thugs had invaded her bordello lobby and had roughed up five men whom they found there. I dropped Mara off at home before stopping by to see Madam Julia. My job was made easy because one of the thugs had been recognized by Madam Julia. He had applied for a job at her place about three weeks earlier to be a bouncer.

Number one, she didn’t think that she needed a bouncer, and, number two, she had heard that he was a troublemaker. He had often shown up at a previous job drunk and disorderly. As he left after being rejected by Madam Julia, he had threatened her by saying that she would regret not hiring him.

He was locally known as Giuseppe, the Bad Ass. There was no problem finding Giuseppe at his favorite tavern consuming wine in what seemed like buckets. So far, he had not paid for any of the wine, and the bartender was going crazy trying to get him to back off. The bartender was short and fat, and Giuseppe was lean and bulging with muscles—the very picture of the typical bully. Obviously, Giuseppe could squash the bartender and practically anybody else any time the mood struck him.

By this time, Giuseppe had drunk enough wine to be spilling almost as much as he was dumping down his gullet. That made him a ready target for me, and I was looking for a way to make Giuseppe attack me. I figured that the easiest way to do that was by chiding him for the attack on Madam Julia’s place.

I walked up close behind him and said, “Well, well, if it isn’t Giuseppe, the Stupid Donkey. Not only are you stupid, but you are a bully who picks on women and men too weak to fight back. I heard about your attack on Madam Julia’s bordello, and I figured that you would need five men to back you up against a few women and a few men who had been working hard all day. To me, you look like an overweight castrato who couldn’t fight his way out of a pigeon coop.”

Apparently I had said enough. Giuseppe dropped his mug of wine on the bar and turned toward me. He let out a bellow of rage that would have done any bull proud. He was a couple of inches taller than me and must have outweighed me by at least 125 pounds. I had no idea if he had received any training in fighting, but I was pretty sure that he had not. He reached for me with both arms as if he were planning to dispose of me with a bear hug.