Kenneth closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to stem the rage that was threatening to engulf him. Was everyone around him completely incompetent? Could he not have a single moments rest?
He slowly opened his eyes and focused on his mate, “Is there anything else you want to dump on my lap? As it seems that no one can handle anything on their own.” His eyes bored into the woman who could not raise her eyes to meet his.
“Th…there w…was another explosion tonight,” she stammered. She glanced up to see his livid features and immediately lowered her eyes again. “It wasn’t one of ours. It was a distribution plant for House Himura. This is the second facility of theirs that has been destroyed in the last two days. I thought you should know.” She quickly ended her speech and fell silent.
That gave Kenneth pause. Why would someone be attacking House Himura? They had an uneasy at times, but mutually beneficial, alliance with the native Yakuza branch. Who would be crazy enough to start attacking them and risk bringing the rage of both a vampire House and a sizeable organized crime syndicate down around them? Maybe it was an offshoot of those terrorist organizations he had been hearing so much about as of late?
It was possible that whoever it was simply didn’t have any idea who or what they were dealing with? And if that was the case the fools would be disposed of quickly. No one simply wanders into Little Tokyo, blows up a few buildings, and walks out again. There would be a price to pay for this little display. Too bad he wouldn’t be there to see these idiots get their comeuppance.
He nodded to his mate and idly waved her away with his hand. He walked into his study without even looking at her as he passed. He sat down behind his desk and picked up the phone.
After a few moments and a few words between him and Brian he hung up the phone again. He needed more wild caught wolves. There had to be something that he was missing, something that he could use from his failure with Dutch.
Scowling he picked up his cell phone and jammed in a number.
“Hello,” came the short reply.
“Tony, I want you to kill that damn wolf and get rid of the body. I will be receiving more wolves soon and you will have the facility ready to receive them when they arrive.”
There was a long silence on the other end, “Sir, you can’t mean for me to…to actually…I couldn’t! I won’t!”
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Kenneth leaned forward in his chair and pressed his forearms down on his desk, “Listen to me, you meat headed shit sack! I don’t give a damn what you think you won’t do. You will kill that fucking animal and dump the body. I don’t want to see it again. Do you understand me?”
Another long silence from the other end, “Yeah… yeah I understand, you never told me that I was gonna have to kill any of these animals when I took this job.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Tony! I don’t give a damn what I did or didn’t tell you, just get it done!” He jammed the hang up button and slammed the phone down on his desk.
He was so tired of dealing with morons and fools. He should have killed the thing himself. But as long as it was done, he didn’t care. Tony was good with the animals but he had hired the man precisely for his lack of spine. He wouldn’t disobey him. He leaned back in his chair and for the third time today he wondered what God in Heaven or Hell he had pissed off all of a sudden to make his life a living hell surrounded by cowardice and incompetence.
* * * * *
Tony slowly hung up the phone. He looked out the window from his office and apartment onto the holding area with all the enclosures. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to find anyone that could take in a wolf in such short notice. And he knew that it would be killed on sight if let loose, once people recognized it for what it was.
He looked at his office and grabbed a cattle prod and a small pistol that he kept for his own security. He looked into the clean camber and slid a fully loaded clip into the weapon. He pulled the slide back till it clicked and he eased it forward. He looked out at Dutch as the wolf was happily trotting back and forth along his cage wall.
Wolves weren’t meant to be inside like this anyway. They were meant to be out there, in the forests, the mountains, the deserts, where they had roamed and hunted for thousands of years before humans came. Now, there was so little space for them left, maybe all there was for them was a concrete enclosure like this.
Tony slowly stood up and tried to breathe. His breath was ragged and heavy. His eyes began to tear up as he looked from his weapon to the majestic animal that he was about to kill. There had to be some justice in the world. Maybe Dutch would go to a better place, maybe, if there was a God out there, he might not condemn him to hell for what he was about to do.
Tony was openly crying now, sobbing loudly as he trudged toward Dutch’s enclosure. The only thing this wolf had ever done was be captured and brought here. There was no malice in what Dutch had done. He had been a failure as far as his employer was concerned and that had ultimately meant a death sentence. He entered the feeding enclosure and closed the door behind him.
Dutch came up to meet him and immediately saw that something was wrong. The two unfamiliar instruments in Tony’s hands made him back up a step.
Tony knew that Dutch had no idea what was about to happen. He looked down at his weapon and back at the beautiful animal in front of him. “Dutch, I hope you make it to a better place than this.” Tony had a hard time holding the weapon or even standing without bracing himself against the steel bars. “I wish I could have been stronger for you. You have been a good friend…Ple…please forgive me.” His lip quavered and he breathed a deep ragged sigh as tears freely fell from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
A single gunshot rang out hollowly through the facility.