Chapter 1: The Beginning

Mike Little Wolf hated his job. The only saving grace was that the results of his job usually made life easier for more people than he hurt.

He brought his focus back to the present. His target was leaving the hair salon. As he moved to his car, Mike fired. The compressed air propelled the tiny dart into the victim's neck. The dart would dissolve within minutes. At its core was a tiny amount of neurotoxin. This would simulate a heart attack. Mike followed at a distance. Three minutes later the car ahead of him swerved and hit a lamppost.

The man had been a monster. He arranged for young girls of different nationalities to be brought to town for the entertainment of wealthy individuals. When he saw one that suited him, he kept her, instead. Once done with her, she was no longer in shape to do anything. Sadistic was too pleasant a word for him. The Company had received a contract on the man. Mike accepted it, after doing research. This was one contract Mike was actually pleased to carry out.

Mike had not always been an assassin. Mike came from a family of mixed European decent. When Mike was four, his folks were killed while traveling through Arizona. Not being able to find any next of kin, Mike was fostered in the home of an elderly Apache couple. Mike adored the couple. His new mom made a comment the Mike reminded her of a little wolf cub. Mike became Little Wolf to most of the folk on the reservation. Mike would listen for hours to the storytellers.

When Mike was eight, he learned to hunt with Angry Bear, his best friend. Angry Bear was nine when his father took the two boys out onto the plains. Each boy had a knife. They were expected to come home with three skins to prove their hunting ability. Both boys listened to all they were told. Angry Bear decided to concentrate in snares and bring home rabbit skins.

Little Wolf was not content with just rabbits. He watched as the trip progressed for things he would need to fashion a bow and arrows. He also snared rabbits but as something to use to make his bow. Early one morning he knocked down a bird with a thrown stone. He now had what he needed. He braided the gut into a bowstring. Using sinew, he reinforced the ends of the string, where it was strung to the bow. He bound the feathers onto the arrows, using the tiny sinews of the bird. Using hip and shoulder bones from the rabbits, he formed makeshift arrowheads. Rabbit sinew also held these in place.

Early one morning, Little Wolf went to a water hole where he had spotted wolf paw prints. He waited, in silence. Little Wolf was good at waiting. Two hours later, a large gray wolf came to drink. Little Wolf's shot was good. He punctured both lungs. The wolf jumped the stream and took off running. Little Wolf took off after him following the blood. Ten or twelve steps past the stream he came upon the wolf. It lay on its side struggling to breathe. He grabbed its nuzzle and slit its throat. He struggled skinning the wolf. This was the largest thing he had ever had to skin. When he came back to camp before supper, he was tired but proud.

Angry Bear's father could hardly believe it. The bloody arrow and the skin were all the proof that was needed.

Mike Little Wolf did everything he could to learn all the skills of the Apache. He learned hunting, tracking, and stealth, from the men. He learned herb lore and dealing with skins from the women. He was rapt, as he learned everything else he could, from the medicine man.

The next traumatic event in Mike's life started when he was sixteen. He witnessed three seniors trying to rape a freshman girl. The fact that the boys were white and the girl was an Indian really made no difference to Mike. He charged up the alley and kicked the one trying to drag the girl's pants off, in the side of the knee. There was a loud popping sound and the boy went down.

The two holding her arms got up. One let go and took a swing at him calling him an Indian lover. Mike hit him in the gut so hard he fell and started vomiting. The last one didn't even realize his friend was down, before he joined him. The one whose leg was damaged started yelling all kinds of threats. Mike ignored him and helped the girl up. They left the alley, he found out her name was Melisa when he took her home.

Mike had recognized the boy whose knee he damaged as the sheriff's boy and a member of the football team. Three weeks later, he had stayed at school late working on a science project. When he got home, he found his dad beaten to death in the living room. He found his mom beaten and raped lying on his bed. She was not quite dead. She whispered, "Six white boys. Sheriff's. New pussy." She died in his arms. Mike declared war in his soul.

He knew what he needed to do. He grabbed all the weapons and ammo they had in the house, along with all the hunting knives. He threw them in one of the toolboxes in the back of his dad's pickup. He rushed over to Melisa's house and found both Melisa and her twelve-year-old sister Janie were missing. He rushed over to the sheriff's house. Just before he got there, he turned off the lights. He put on gloves a couple of sheath knives and his two pistols. As he approached the house as he neared he saw the sheriff's car and two deputy's cars in the drive. Suddenly he heard a car. It belonged to the last deputy. He got out and walked up to the door. He didn't notice Mike hiding in the bushes. Just before he rang the doorbell, they both heard a shrill scream. The deputy chuckled out loud and said, "It looks like they started with out me." Then rang the doorbell.

Mike was furious; he jumped up behind the man, grabbed his head and gave it a severe sharp twist. Satisfied he broke the neck, he stashed the body behind a different bush. He successfully hid by the time the door opened. Another deputy was at the door. He stepped out and looked around. He called the first one's name a couple of times. When he had his back to Mike, Mike stepped out of the shadows and broke this man's neck also. After putting this body with the first, he grabbed one of the deputy's guns.

He walked in and moved very quietly. He heard the sounds of flesh being whipped. Sharp screams followed each blow. He followed the sounds. He found them coming from a doorway and steps leading down. It paused a moment and he heard the sounds of a girl weeping. He heard one voice say, "Ed, Go see what has happened to Joe. I know I said he could whip the young one first this time but if he doesn't get his ass down here, I'm going to have the pleasure of that myself." There was the sound of someone approaching the stairs.

"Frank for God's sake don't touch her, she doesn't even look like she's twelve yet."

"You need to be quiet dear, unless you want to be the center of attention again. You have been that before. Did you like it so much you want to be again?"

"Oh, God, no! But she's so young."

The voice was cut off with the sound of flesh striking flesh.

The man climbing the stairs was distracted by the sounds behind him. When he got to the top, he had no warning before the butt of a pistol struck his head. Moments later his neck was broken as well. One thing Mike had learned was not to leave a live enemy behind him.

As Mike crept down stairs, the voice called Frank said, "Well, Junior you and your friends may have to help your mom remember her place while the guys and I play with these two young squaws."

"But dad you promised we would get a piece of them, too."

"Junior I don't care what I promised. They don't look like they will survive our fun and your mom needs a lesson."

"All right dad but mom's no fun anymore." There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh again.

"Just for that you're last, and you can't hurt her while you are at it."

Mike made it down in time to see the last strike. Frank had knocked his son half way across the room. In the room, no one had any clothes on. There were the six boys from the football team, Frank, Janie was tied up and thrown in one corner, an older woman was tied up in a different corner and Melissa was tied to some kind of X frame suspended from the ceiling. It looked like she had welts all over her back and thighs as well as all her sensitive parts.

Mike decided to get everyone's attention. He shot Frank in the knee. The explosion did the trick. He was the center of attention. The boys suddenly looked more afraid of Mike than they were of Frank. He pointed at one of them. "Start tying them up, Frank is first, followed by Junior then your other friends. You do a good enough job and you may not die screaming in pain. Any one that wants to resist, go ahead. I have lots of ammo."

Mike waited. Frank resisted immediately and received a bullet in his other knee. Once they were all tied, Mike tied the last kid.

His next move was to release Melissa from the frame. He laid her on a plastic covered couch, as there was no place else except the floor. He released Janie next. He asked about their clothes and found they had been cut to shreds as they had been removed. He had her sit with Melissa. Moving to the woman, he asked,

"Do you have a good reason that I can believe as to why I shouldn't kill you too? You allowed this to happen to my friends and I don't know how many others."

"You are right. This has happened to many other girls. It has happened to me, many times, as well. The reason I lived is that he needs me to slave, cook and clean for him. I have wanted to do something but I know he has had visitors here playing from other police groups. I didn't know where to turn. If I told the wrong people, I was dead, and in a very unpleasant manner. If you choose to kill me, promise me you will kill him and the monster he has made of my son, first. I would gladly die if needed, as long as they die first."

Mike knew at that moment that she was an innocent. He could not kill her even if he wanted to. He got a close look at her and it was obvious from the scars on her body that she had been beaten many times in the way Melissa had been. He cut her free. He turned to Melissa and handed her a sheath knife. In a voice loud enough so all could hear, "If they move, hurt them. I need them alive for now so don't kill them. I may need them to talk so don't cut out their tongues. If it comes down to it they won't need their little fingers or little toes."

Melissa's eyes glowed! He could tell that she hoped that they would move.

Mike took Frank's wife upstairs. She started a bit seeing the deputy dead on her kitchen floor. "Are you really going to do it? Praise God! It will be over!"

"Yes, your pain from them will be over. Other problems will start. The authorities will blame you and you will suffer from them for this. I don't want that to happen. I don't have an answer yet but I'm working on it. Does Frank have a safe or gun vault or what ever and do you know the combination?"

"Yes he does and yes I know the combination. He was so bad with numbers, that even the ones in his office probably have the same combination."

"Were any of the deputies married?"

"No, nobody would have them."

"Well, I have to finish this. You may not know it but those six boys beat my father to death and beat and raped my mother to death. They will die."

"My God! What monsters."

"Yes. They are. I find I can't be as big a monster as they were. I will merely kill them. I will send the girls up. Find them something to wear, even if it's just large tee shirts. Then I want all the weapons in this house put in my truck. They can help you."

Mike went back to the basement and reclaimed his knife. He noticed there was some blood on it and it looked like Junior's chest had a tic tac toe board carved in it. He looked at Melissa. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "He was bragging about killing your dad and raping your mom. I didn't like the noise. If you would like a game, I would be happy to play you, they have lots of skin left. We have all night."

Mike made the girls leave. Starting with Frank, he kicked them all as hard as he could in the crotch. Then starting with the one who had cooperated he broke their necks. He piled their bodies in a heap in the corner. He brought the deputies bodies in and added them to the pile after removing weapons and money.

While he was in the basement, he searched it. It didn't take him long. He found a hidden room. Inside there were a couple of file cabinets, and a desk with a computer.

Mike was a wiz at computers. It didn't take him long before he had all of Frank's bank information saved to a memory stick. Then he erased and shredded it from the computer. Between the memory stick and a little notebook from the desk, he was ready to go.

He met the girls upstairs. They had finished with the guns and ammo. Mike had Susan (the sheriff's wife) take him to the safe. It was huge. Mike opened it using the combination Susan knew. The safe was practically stuffed with money. Mike knew he would need it if he were to have a chance of getting away. Grabbing a box of tall kitchen trash bags he started stuffing them without regard for what he was throwing in. He put the three bags in the back of his truck, and put the tarp over them.

Grabbing the keys from the men, he emptied all the vehicles of anything that might come in handy, including the high power radio rig from the sheriff's car. Once all of it was in his truck, he had Susan take the girls to the sheriff's office. They all parked by the side door. After opening the weapons locker, he had Susan and the girls take all the weapons there and pile them in his truck as well. He ransacked the office including the safe he found there. Adding his bags to the truck, it was starting to get full.

He gave a large bundle of hundreds to Susan and a large bundle of twenties to Melissa. He told Melissa and Janie to tell their parents everything that happened. They shouldn't be embarrassed because it wasn't their fault.

"Make sure to tell them that the law did this. You should hold off reporting for a week, until the FBI can get here."

He told Susan to get some clothes and disappear. Go to a relative. Get out of state. Anything she wanted, but hide for at least two weeks, because it was likely she would be blamed for part of it.

Once he was alone again, he bought several prepay cell phones, for cash. Using one of those, he called directory assistance to find the number for the tip line in Washington D.C. Once he had that, he turned around and started to call Washington. Suddenly he lost service. He couldn't understand it, he hadn't moved. None of his cell phones had service, really weird. Suddenly the passenger door on his truck open and a man got inside. The man was greeted by a sheath knife about two inches from his waist. Mike suggested, "You might want to tell me what you're doing in here, before you start bleeding."

"How unusual, I wasn't expecting that. May I say you did a very professional job tonight?"

"Enough compliments, you have yet to tell me why my knife shouldn't be turning red here in a few seconds."

"No, I haven't, yet. How about doing something unusual, I am going to tell you the truth. I am wired and there are two people pointing rifles at your head. If I say a code word or make sounds indicating I have been knifed, you will lose your head. Now, I would really feel better if you put that away so we can talk."

"I assume you are why my cell phones won't work. You must not want to involve the Feds."

"Not yet, anyway. I am here to offer you a job. If you accept, we need to fix things a bit, so you aren't involved anywhere. If not you are on your own, you will probably end up in prison if you live that long. Cops don't like cop killers, even if the cops killed were dirty. In any case, we need to check those bags for anything that may incriminate someone not pointed at by the stuff at the house."

"Something tells me if I don't accept, my body will never be found. The only pleasure I would get, would be sending you ahead to greet me in hell if I turned it down. Tell me what I get if I join you. Also, tell me what will happen to the girls and Susan."

"Originally, the girls were just going to be victims. Susan would have been a complication that would have been removed some time during the mission. You, on the other hand, receive many things besides being able to breathe. You will receive a healthy six-figure income, until training is considered over. Then it will be doubled. Each successful assignment will bring you a seven or eight digit bonus."

"What exactly would these assignments entail?"

"The worst would include eliminating a group of people and anyone that stands in your way. Commonly it is removing a single individual. Occasionally it will mean ruining a person and allowing them to keep breathing. In most cases time is not a factor, when it is a rush job, the pay is better."

"What about salvage rights? I would like the bonuses I get to be paid in gold. As a cover, I will need a college education, in some field that allows me to travel as a consultant. I will not hit an innocent or at least mostly so. Lastly, anyone that touches someone I consider my family, or under my protection, is dead. Even someone in your precious Company."