Chapter 11

Abu Hassan locked his car and started towards the large brick house being a very successful artist had bought him. It was located five miles from the nearest neighbor, and an hour into the mountains outside of Portland. Abu said a quick prayer to Allah for indulging in the same decadence as the infidels in the hated America, even as he carefully wiped his five hundred dollar shoes on the welcome mat.

Abu opened the door to his fine home and stepped into his own private hell.

Abu started, as a figure seemed to materialize in front of him and grabbed him by the shirt. Abu had a split second to recognize the Demon Hunter before he was thrown across the living room and rolled up against the far wall with a pained grunt. "You shouldn't have signed your work Tattoo Man, made you easy to find." Abu scrambled to his feet, his eyes darting for an escape as the demon walked slowly towards him. "You and me are gonna talk Tattoo Man, and you're gonna tell me all about the group what did those things to Violet." Abu started to edge towards the kitchen, thinking to find something to defend himself with against the Demon Hunter. "Run Tattoo Man, run. I'm more comfortable in the mountains anyway, Tattoo Man. I know a thousand ways to get you to talk out there." At the look on the demon's face Abu knew he would meet Allah before the day was over, and the thought of his reward gave him a bit of courage. "Kill me demon. I will tell you nothing about the faithful." The cruel curving of the Demon Hunter's lips sent a trill of pure panic down Abu's spine as he turned to dart into the kitchen.

Vomit exploded from Abu's mouth as he skidded to a stop when he beheld the head of his twenty year old son sitting in a puddle of congealed blood on the kitchen counter, a look of pure horror frozen on his face. "Junior there bragged to me that he had taken Violet's ass first, Tattoo Man." Abu whirled to look at the demon that had come silently closer. "I staked him out back and built a fire over his nuts, Tattoo Man. He did not die well." "You are not human!" Screamed Abu as he backed slowly away from the Demon Hunter. Abu watched as the demon nodded in agreement, even as he stalked closer.

"Mohamed put my humanity in a box with the rotting head of her grandfather and delivered it to me Tattoo Man. You helped destroy any goodness in me. Now there's nothing but hate, and you are going to feel it all Tattoo Man before I let you die." Abu shrieked when his bladder gave way as the demon that was terrorizing him lunged and grabbed him by the shirt. "I want to know all about Mohamed Tattoo Man, and you're gonna tell me everything." Abu felt himself picked aloft and carried bodily outside, and his mind panicked at the thought of dying like his son. "Do not do this! I beg of you do not! I can pay! I can pay any price you want, just do not do this!" Abu babbled as he pried futilely at the hands carrying him outside on to his back porch.

"Violet begged didn't she, and you two sand niggers didn't show her any mercy did you?" The demon paused and took a deep breath. "Smell that Tattoo Man? That's the scent of your roasted son. The smell of the man that first raped my little Violet. While my friends are away and going through your whole life in the states, I'm gonna be the one you get to know real well Tattoo Man." Abu found himself airborne again as the Demon Hunter howled his rage while tossing him backwards. Abu screamed and rolled in agony as something hard dug deep into his left kidney when he landed. "Did Violet scream Tattoo Man? Did you enjoy listening to her as you animals violated every part of an innocent girl?" Images of the fun he and his son had had with the infidel over the three day period they had her in Washington, in between art shows, danced through Abu's mind, and despite the situation, Abu felt himself grow aroused.

"I thought so Tattoo Man." Abu heard the Demon Hunter mutter as his hands were bound tightly behind him. Abu felt the Demon Hunter's weight as he squatted on his back, and Abu whimpered as he was forced to look at the blackened and charred form of his son's body by the hand pulling on his hair. Abu felt his bowels give at the hell hot breath that whispered in his ear. "You'll die harder Tattoo Man, but before you do you're gonna tell me everything, and scream loud enough for Violet to hear you. You and your group have created a monster Tattoo Man, and I'm out for pain and souls."

As the first steely rays of dawn lit the rugged mountains of Oregon, Kraven made his sure, swift and silent way south. He carried nothing except a full three subject notebook away from the house he had spent the last forty-eight hours questioning Abu in. The screaming and begging of the man who had both scarred and tattooed Violet had been a balm to Kraven's tortured dreams of watching helplessly as Violet endured those horrors.

As Kraven made amazingly rapid progress using animal trails and nearly invisible, for the untrained that is, mountain passes, cutting west just past Portland, his mind drifted to the huge amount of data Tattoo Man had given him. The notebook in his possibles pouch contained names, addresses, bank account information, meeting places and times, as well as internet addresses. Kraven figured that what he had was the tip of the iceberg as far as finding Mohamed went. None of what Tattoo Man had given him was anything more than the money-makers for the organization.

Kraven stopped his ground-eating stride inside a copse of trees, just twenty yards from the jogging trail that would lead him north to the Mountaineering Inn just outside of Portland's south side. For the last two and a half weeks or so Kraven had been prospecting in the mountains for gold, officially that is. In reality, as the others worked to track down other arms of the investigation, Kraven had spent over a week roaming the mountains outside of Portland and preparing his moves carefully.

Kraven grunted and strained as he rolled a large rock away from the partially exposed root system of a massive pine tree. It took Kraven scarcely a minute to pull the large backpack out of the shallow cave and replace the rock. Smiling to himself as he hoisted the heavy bag on his back and picked up the pick that was laying beside it, Kraven began making his way north; the image of a successful prospector complete.

Kraven admired the colorful sunset as he washed the dried mud off his pick at the outside faucet beside the manager's office of the Mountaineering Inn, as he had done every day for a week prior to his four day mission.

"See your luck's holding out there young man. Finally got enough to satisfy you yet?" Kraven looked up at the old man who owned the Mountaineering Inn, as well as most of the surrounding wilderness, and nodded wearily.

"I got a girl in a bad way back in DC, and I figure this'll pay the bills." The grey headed and seamed old scarecrow of a man hooked his thumbs in the belt holding up his jeans, and gave the large backpack a long and considering look.