Chapter 1

I sat in the parking lot and waited for the guard to walk to the door and open it. My crew was ready to perform their tasks as soon as the guard let us in. As soon as the door was opened we would then proceed to destroy Best For You Specialties, Inc. I looked at the can of dead roaches on the seat beside me and smiled. We would insert a roach into cups of yogurt and then put the infested cups of yogurt in different boxes that were ready for shipment in the huge refrigerators. The boxes would be shipped to grocery stores in many parts of the country. When many roaches were found by the purchasers and reported to the stores, the FDA would step in and shut down the plant for inspection. I'd make sure that it hit the papers. Best For You Specialties was on shaky financial ground and this would seal it's fate. They would never recover from this. Our client would get full value for the substantial amount of money this was costing him.

Our client had heard about us and he came to us for help. Best For You Specialties was making inroads into our client's main markets and it was beginning to hurt. We investigated the businessman and decided to accept him as a client. As usual, no contract was signed between our client and my organization and great pains were taken to ensure that nothing would tie our client to me or our organization.

The guard opened the door and my crew raced for the building. They ran to the packaging machinery and within three hours the infested cups of yogurt were in the boxes ready to be shipped around the country. My crew cleaned up thoroughly and when they were finished no one would know that we were in the plant. The guard let us out and we were gone in minutes.

The guard was to meet us tomorrow after he signed out at the end of his shift. He would drive to the abandoned building that we owned to pick up his ten thousand dollars. The problem was he would never be able to spend that money. His body would never be found and his wreck of a car would be shredded before the engine even got cold. We are very good at making certain people disappear.

The guard had been easy. These rent-a-cops were usually paid minimum wage or just a little more and they were always short of cash. For that reason they are always willing to make a little extra money. I made sure that I approached this guard while he was on his way to work; he always stopped and got a chocolate milk shake, with extra chocolate please, before he started his shift. I laid out the deal for him and he jumped at it. The way that I set the whole thing up he never had time to tell anyone about the plan so there would be no way to connect him to me.

The guard showed up right on time to collect his money and within an hour there was no trace of the guard or his car. It was if he had never existed. I had had the guard followed to make sure he hadn't talked to anyone after he signed off his shift at the plant. The client wasn't informed of what happened to the guard; some people get squeamish about murder. Very few clients would approve of how we make the bodies disappear.

After the Feds started taking down the families and the godfathers were being sent to prison for the rest of their lives we sat down and analyzed our business. We decided that the gambling, prostitution, loan sharking and labor unions were making us way too visible. We needed to divest ourselves of those enterprises and become more invisible to the Feds. It was my idea to start Revenge, Inc.

Revenge, Inc. is not really a corporation and it is just a business enterprise that we keep invisible to the general public. The people that need us hear about us through business associates or friends and occasionally we contact someone that we know we can help. There is a long process to get in touch with us for our safety and we thoroughly investigate everyone before we attempt to contact them. No client ever meets face to face. We always talk through third parties that never see us, from behind doors or walls or on scrambled phones that we supply the prospective client. The phones are used one time and then thrown away. There is no way to trace the phone to us. Thank God for pre-paid cellular. We always work with one person and one person only. That one person has a lot to lose so he is very careful to make sure he doesn't become known to others.

Our business has been very successful and the Feds don't even know we exist. We are good at what we do and the people that we take revenge on never know what happened to them. Some very well-known companies have been on the receiving end of our efforts. I guess that you think Enron was brought down in a matter of weeks because of the actions of a couple of corporate criminals. Think about it. Do you really think that it's possible to destroy a company in a matter of weeks? We worked on that one for a long while before we set the wheels in motion to bring down the company. All it took was a few well placed and knowledgeable people that we placed in important positions. We made a ton of money off of that one.

We don't always destroy a company. If a major corporation develops a superior product that gives them a leg up in the marketing we destroy the reputation of that product. The company will inevitably pull the disgraced product from the market and there's a level playing field again. If we can't destroy the reputation of a product we cause problems with the distribution and the company looses money on the product until they are forced to remove it from the market. A few well-placed stock holders are invaluable in a case like that. They keep raising hell until management is forced to remove the money loosing product from the market.

Often a company needs new management and a first class CEO is hired. There are always those who have no interest in seeing the competition succeed so we find something that the new CEO has done in his past that he's not too thrilled about others knowing. We make sure that everyone knows about it. If we can't find something we either set the CEO up or we fabricate something that he has trouble disproving. Even if he can prove it wrong people will remember and wonder. His effectiveness is destroyed.

Destruction of an entire corporation is rare. Usually we just cause enough damage to make the corporation less of a competitor. If we do destroy a corporation it is usually a small startup that has an excellent new product that can cause problems for an established corporation. We would never try to destroy a company like GMC, GE, IBM or Exxon. If we destroyed a company like that thousands would be put out of work and billions of dollars would be lost. An organization like ours has to be ethical. We have to think of the end result of our actions.

I guess I'm using the word destroyed a lot but that's what we do. It's a sound business practice. It's sound but illegal so we are very careful and each action that we take is rehearsed and rehearsed until we know it will work. We are so good at our jobs that know one has ever even suspected that we were involved in the problems that have befallen the companies that we have "tinkered" with. We have never had an unhappy client. If we ever did have an unhappy client we would "make them happy" very quickly. People talk and unhappy clients cause trouble.

Our clients are usually men but occasionally a woman climbing the corporate ladder contacts us. Women are a joy to work with because they know exactly what they want and what is needed to accomplish their goals. If a man is in the way of their progress they will usually have the offending party removed from competition and the man that was in the way will move on to another company and get another job and move on with his life. With a woman that is stopping another woman from getting up the next rung of the corporate ladder these women become more vicious than any man that I've ever worked with. It is not unusual for the woman that is in the way to be destroyed so completely that she can never get a meaningful job anywhere; some of them wind up working in 7-11 for the rest of their lives. Usually sex is involved in the rival's destruction somewhere. Some of the sexual perversions that these women want to be visited on her rival are things that I have never seen done to a woman before or something that I would never do to a woman except to satisfy a client. The women clients that I've worked with have changed my opinion of women. I never want a woman to be after my job.

The strangest case that I've ever worked on involved a teenager that was a rising actor. He started acting as a child and he was starting to get important roles that were catching the attention of major producers and directors. There was talk that his current film might earn him an Oscar or a Golden Globe. He wanted his parents to relinquish their control over his money. I checked on his finances and the parents were doing an excellent job. I couldn't find one instance where the parents had taken one penny that they had no right to. It took about six months to plant the evidence to get an indictment against them for embezzlement. They were charged and convicted. The jury, after reviewing the evidence, firmly believed that the parents had embezzled millions from the son. The parents will be in jail for many years. The teenager gained control of his assets and lost everything in two years. He had to file bankruptcy and no one will hire him now because he became difficult to work with after he got control of his money.

Anyone that feels that the human race is basically good should work with me for a while. I had one executive offer me his teenaged daughter for whatever I wanted to do to her if I would help him get out of the unhappy marriage he was in. I had one mother offer me her six year old daughter's virginity if I would have her husband killed so that she could get his insurance money. I had one would-be female CEO offer me a huge commission if I would kill the present CEO and sell the CEO's wife and daughters into sexual slavery in the Middle East or Asia. I turned each of those jobs down. The people were unstable and sometimes it's just not worth the risk to take those kinds jobs even if the money is good.

Chapter 2

I was sitting in my office behind the kitchen of the restaurant that Penny owns. If you came into the restaurant you'd probably be totally unaware that there was an office behind the kitchen. It looks, from the outside, just like a walk-in freezer. Inside it's better than many CEO's offices. As I said, I want to remain as invisible as possible but I'm not about to live like a hermit.

My car is a Pontiac and if there's an option available for it that isn't on it I don't know about it. The suspension has been reworked to where it rides and drives better than a Bentley and the brakes are the best of the after-market brakes. The engine has had a little work done on it and it will outrun most cars on the road. It would call too much attention to me for me to drive a Bentley or a Maybach. My Pontiac is better than most luxury cars but you would never give it a second glance in the mall parking lot.

I mentioned Penny. Penny is my twenty-eight year old daughter. She is one of the most beautiful women in this city and has tons of suitors. She has learned how to handle men so that she can get them to do exactly what she wants them to do. She never has trouble with men. If she ever did have trouble with a man he would probably be in the next can of dog food that you feed to your dog.

I bought the restaurant for Penny and she's made it into one of the most successful places in the city. She gave the chef a piece of the business and he works his ass of for her. If the chef ever leaves the business comes back to Penny. Whenever any celebrities come to town they always stop here. This is somewhat because of Penny and the food but many of the current crop of actors and actresses owe me favors or, at the very least, have heard rumors of what I've done for others.

I have made paparazzi loose pictures that would kill an actor's career and have even made paparazzi choose another line of work; I have "convinced" a producer to cast a rising actor or actress in an important role, I have even had a hand in picking an Oscar winner. The actress that was a shoo-in for an Oscar suddenly had an embarrassing set of pictures surface from something that had happened when she was trying for her first role in summer stock. The Academy decided that they didn't want an Oscar winner to have that sort of reputation. The word was put out and the actress that was a shoo-in lost many votes and my client won the Oscar. She's been grateful ever since and has sent me several very big name clients who needed my help.

When Penny was born I had her birth certificate use her mother's maiden name for her last name. There were rumors at the time that I was connected with the mob and I didn't want her saddled with that. Those rumors are not around anymore but she still uses the last name she was born with. It helps when she needs my help but she doesn't want to been seen as accepting help from her father. When she does need help I always make it look like she made it on her own. Appearances are everything.

Penny walked into my office, "Daddy, someone contacted us."

I looked up from my paperwork, "Where did the contact come from?"

"Benny," she said.

I had several ways for people to contact me and none of them could be traced to me. Benny had a corner news stand that sold out of town and local newspapers and magazines. Benny was an old ex-criminal that had been in prison more than he had been out. He got tired of it and opened up a news stand. He sold newspapers and magazines, ran numbers, delivered messages, delivered packages that FedEx and UPS didn't want to deliver and did whatever he had to do to make a few extra bucks.

If someone indicated that they had to contact our corporation they would discretely let Benny know. Benny would put an out of date copy of Newsweek that had been torn almost in half out in plain sight. One of my people that kept an eye on the stand would see the magazine and ask why the magazine was on the stand. He would then say that no one in their right mind would buy an out of date and torn magazine. Benny would put the contact information in an old newspaper and hand it to my man. My man would hand Benny a hundred dollar bill and walk away without getting any change. After that, there were several other couriers that would handle the message before the message got to me. Each of the couriers took elaborate precautions to cover up the trail of the message.

I looked at the paper that Penny had handed me. I recognized the name on the paper. The man was one of the richest corporate lawyers in the city and he was always in the papers accepting an award for his civic works. As far as I knew there was never a breath of scandal associated with this guy.

I handed the paper back to Penny, "Could you have Carl check out this guy. I want to know beforehand why he wants to talk with me. Try to find out how he learned about us."

Carl had been one of the finest private detectives in the city. He had taken a job that he never should have; it was a nasty divorce situation that had nowhere to go but to go to hell. The wife was loony from the word go and she pulled a gun when she caught Carl following her. Carl ducked behind a car and pulled his gun. The woman started firing at the car and some ten year old kid playing in the street was hit and killed. The woman dropped the gun and ran.

Someone, it was never determined who, picked up the woman's gun and took off. Guns are valuable on the street. The gun was never found. Carl had never gotten off a shot.

The woman was arrested and she claimed that she ran because Carl had started firing at her when she confronted him for following her. She didn't have a gun registered in her name and she had a ton of character witnesses that swore that she was terrified of guns. There was a witness that came forward as the trial started and said she saw Carl firing at the woman.

Carl went to jail for a few years and he lost his license forever. I called in a few favors to get him released early and I was waiting for him at the prison gate. I offered him a job and he's worked for me ever since. I gave him a house that I had taken as payment for a debt, gave him some cash to get him started and bought him the clothes he would need. He works for me exclusively now and he isn't licensed. I pay him cash, pay him very well and I don't report his wages. Hell, I don't report anybody's wages. He has no idea what I do with the information that he gives me and he never asks. He's happy and so am I.

Several days later Carl asked me to meet him at the little restaurant that he liked to go to for breakfast. I met him there and he handed me a stack of papers that contained his report. I read the report while I waited for the waitress to bring my coffee.

I put the report face down on the table of the booth we were sitting in, "You did good Carl. I hadn't heard that Tom Benson was going through a divorce."

Carl put a forkful of eggs in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed the mouthful before answering.

"Yep, this one is going to get in the papers. She claims that Tom beat her and raped her daughter. She said that his main problem is that he's a drunk and he also has a severe gambling habit."

I couldn't believe what was in the report, "How old is the daughter?"

"About twenty," Carl said, "Pretty as a picture too."

I looked for Carl's reaction when I asked the next question, "Do you think there's any truth to the accusations?"

Carl stopped eating and began to get mad, "Not a chance. Tom Benson has to be worth pretty much eighty, ninety million. I bet that if he split everything up half way with the whoring bitch that you wouldn't see nothing' except her dust as she rode out of town. Hell, they only been married two years."

I chuckled. Carl was a very educated man. He talked like a rube to throw everyone off and it worked most of the time.

I picked up the papers, "You available if I need more information?"

"I don't have anything else on my agenda. If you call I'll try to clear my calendar and get back to you.

I left Carl and drove back to the office. As I walked through the restaurant I asked Penny to come to the office. She was talking to one of her employees and she motioned that she would be there as soon as she solved the minor problem she was working on.

I went into the office and reread the report. I found the name of the lawyer that Tom's wife was using. Now I would believe her accusations if she was making them about that sleazebag. Her lawyer has never been able to work his way past ambulance chasing. He tries to screw every woman that comes to him to handle her divorce. He dresses like he got his clothes from the Salvation Army and his clothes are always months past being due for dry cleaning.

Penny walked into my office, "What's up Daddy?"

"Would you do some work for me? I need you to talk to some woman that is taking a good man to the cleaners."

I filled her in on everything that I knew about the case. I told her that I wanted to know all that I could about the woman and the allegations before I talked to Tom Benson. I told her that from what I knew, Tom Benson was a good man and didn't deserve what was happening to him.

Penny nodded, "It sounds like this bitch is trying to give all women a bad reputation. Just let me know what you want me to do Daddy."

Chapter 3

The next Tuesday Penny was standing in the hall waiting for the elevator when Emily Benson walked out of her lawyer's office. Penny had tears running down her cheeks and she sagged against the wall like she was faint.

"What's wrong, honey?" Emily Benson asked.

"That god damned husband of mine. That no-good lawyer of mine is working with my husband I think," Penny almost shouted.

"Don't let the bastards win baby," Emily grinned, "Fight them, fight them good. I'm fighting my divorce and I'm going to walk away with a bundle."

"I think that I've just lost my last chance at winning," Penny said and then began crying harder.

"Let's get a cup of coffee and talk baby," Emily sneered, "I ain't about to let a man get the best of me and you shouldn't either."

The pair went down and Emily led them to a coffee shop a few doors from the office they had just come from. They found a table by the window and sat down and ordered two coffees.

Penny started crying again, "I don't know what I'm going to do I think that my husband is going to win and I'll be left with nothing because everything is in his name. He told me that it had to be that way for insurance purposes."

"Emily sipped her coffee, "Shit, everything is in Tom's name too. That don't count for nuthin. I'm going to get half of everything he's got. I might even get more. Damn sure I'm going to make him pay for my lawyer."

"How did you do it?" Penny asked with tears running down her cheeks.

"Go on the attack. If you don't have anything; make it up. Never give up. The courts always side with the woman even if what you're saying isn't true."