Chapter 19 A Meeting with The Mayor

The afternoon breeze was musty and damp, sticking to her throat like thick, saccharine molasses. Natasha was slowly losing her patience as she sat silently at the back with Kevin, while Landry drove.

She groaned with impatience. “We’ve been on the road for about thirty minutes now and no one is saying anything.” she kvetched, raising her voice and turning to either of them for answers. “Where are you guys taking me?”

“I thought I’d told you to trust me,” Kevin said, trying to calm her. “Just hang on a bit, we would get there soon.”

“How can I trust you if you aren’t giving me anything?”

“Okay, okay… fine.” Kevin finally gave in to her request. “We are going as far away from here as possible.”

Natasha shook her head. “That doesn’t answer my question, Kevin. Where exactly are you guys taking me?”

“I am taking you to stay with him,” he gestured towards Landry, whom she haven’t heard utter a word since she got into the car with Kevin. “But it would only be temporary.”

“What!?” she heard herself screamed, giving Landry a quick once-over. “I don’t even know this guy.”

“This is Landry,” Kevin introduced, “He is my friend, and you can trust him.”

“Yeah, right.” she jeered. “You would rather prefer I trust your friend over those security officers there at the hospital. If you had let me stay with them, they would’ve protected me and handed me safely to my dad.”

“I don’t know how to break this to you in a way that you would get it, but…” he paused as if looking for the right words to use.

“But what…” she hissed, impatient to hear what he was about to say.

“Your dad, or any of those cops there, can’t protect you from T-Rex.”

Natasha let out a high, lilting laugh. “To say my dad can’t protect me is just preposterous. Heck, my dad is president of threat control unit and a security officer of this city. Hunting these shifters is his job—it’s what he does for a living. If there’s anyone that can protect me right now, it’d be my dad.”

For a moment Kevin was left in sheer silence, then exhaled loudly. “Over a year ago, I had a girlfriend—one whom I loved very much, her name was Loretta. We were going to get married at the end of summer, but then…”

She could see that he was having a hard time remembering what had happened, the memories were just too painful. Could this be the reason he’d been pushing everyone away?

He went on, “She was kidnapped by a man hiding behind a mask, and was tortured by T-Rex.”

“Sorry, who?”

“T-Rex—he is the vicious monster that’d tried to kidnap you today. He made me watch as he tortured Loretta. He’d torn her apart…” he stopped—the tears in his eyes now visible. “No, he did more than just torture her—he broke her soul. Ripped her heart right through her ribcage and let it dangle on her chest so that I could watch. He made me watch her heartbeat until she faded away.”

Gasping, Natasha covered her mouth. “Oh, God, I am sorry.” she said, sympathetically.

“He was going to do the same thing to you if Derik hadn’t stepped in to rescue you.”

“But, why?” she tried to cover the fear coursing through her veins. “Why would he want to do such to me? I don’t even know… this T-Rex guy, if that’s even his actual name. I have never met him before, until today when he tried to kidnap me, and had almost killed Derik.

“That’s exactly what I kept asking myself that day after I got captured. Who did I offend? Did he kidnap me because he thought I was rich?” Kevin got closer to her. “I spent an entire year thinking about it. Thinking about why he had kidnapped me, tortured Loretta and kept me alive to watch her remains.” He turned to look away. “But now I finally understand why he is doing all this things.”

He flashed back to the last words T-Rex had said to him before he vanished from his room earlier today.

… to see you suffer.

He kept hearing T-Rex’s words in his head repeatedly.

“He gains pleasure from watching other people suffer.” he concluded, “He wants to see me suffer.”

His words caused a ball of fear to form in the pit of her stomach. “If my life is really being threatened then I should be with my Dad. I see no reason I should stay with your friend over here.”

Landry, who’d been silent the whole time, finally spoke. “Look Tasha, I know you are…”

She directed an angry glared at him. “Only my friends call me Tasha.”

“Natasha,” Landry began again, eyes fixated on the road. “I know you are probably scared, but the man who is after you isn’t human, and believe me when I say this; your dad, or any of those officers back there, can’t protect you from him.”

“… but you can.” she retorted sarcastically and scoffed. “Don’t you get it? My dad leads a special taskforce. They hunt for these shifters. More reason my dad is better suited to protect me than you two combined.”

“Can you please listen to me!?” Landry argued, almost raising his voice. He was getting pissed at how she kept interrupting him in mid sentences.

He held Natasha’s gaze from the rear mirror, trying to stay focused on the road. “No one in threat control unit has ever seen a real shifter, and I bet they don’t even know the first thing about combating them should they encounter one—but we do.”

Kevin tossed him a venomous glance, as if warning him not to say anymore.

“What do you mean?” Tasha asked, now curious to hear him out.

“I have seen a shifter. Have watched them transform. I know what they look like when they transform. I have killed one before, and I know how to do it again if one shows up. But your dad, he barely has any experience to take down one of these guys.”

He paused for a moment, then continued. “I know you don’t like the idea of staying with me, but right now I’m your best bet if you are going to survive the storm that’s coming at you. I am not doing this because I care about you. Honestly, I don’t give a shit about you. I am only doing this because Kevin asked me to. He’s like a best friend to me, and I can’t turn him down when he needs my help. So just do me a favour and keep shut until we get there.”

That shut her up, and she remained quiet throughout the journey, like one who was being kidnapped.

Mr. William entered the closed room where he was supposed to meet with the mayor. Took his seat in one of the chairs surrounding a round table. Behind him was the mayor, an older man in his late sixties with touches of grey in his dark hair. He walked into the room right after William got in. Took a seat facing William.

Then another, a large body size, bookish man with a black moustache and round glasses, much older than the mayor, walked into the room after the mayor had entered. He wore a scarf about his shoulder, which made him looked as though he was in his early seventies. The intimidating man shut the door right after he got in and sat beside the mayor. They shook hands all around and all men became quiet, waiting for the mayor to begin his speech.

“I convened this meeting to condemn your actions yesterday.” the mayor stated, directing his glare at William.

He took out several pictures from a big envelope and dropped them on the table before him. William slides the pictures over and examined them. Raised his brows after a quick glance.

“These are the victims of the fire incidence yesterday—the victims that you ordered to be burnt to death.” the mayor grumbled, glaring directly at William, then continued, “About a hundred and seventy people died from that fire yesterday—women and children most especially, and several others were left injured. All for what? Because of a mare suspicion that you had that they were animals, shifters you call them.”

The mayor was now pissed. “The reason I’d commissioned threat control unit in this city was so that I could protect my people from threats and danger that might bring them harm. But because of your actions, you have besmirched the integrity of this taskforce and put the very citizen whom you swore to protect in harm’s way.”

William finally realized the gravity of his actions and regretted it. “We all make mistakes, sir, but every day these shifters keep growing in their numbers here in the city, and we have a scrimpy understanding of how we could find them, much less stop them. When I got the tip that most of the citizens who lived in that park were shifters, I had to seize the opportunity to rid this city of these shifters.”

“Most of the citizens living there were shifters?” The mayor raised an eyebrow at what he’d said. “That means you must have known that not all of them were animals—some were human, correct?”

“Sir, that was just a small price to pay for…”

The mayor barked at him angrily, threatening the very foundation of the room. “Am I correct!?”

The room became silent for a moment, then William answered, “Yes sir, I knew some of them were humans. But…”

“And yet you had all these innocent people burnt to death.” the mayor interrupted him again.

Again, the room was left in sheer silence, then the mayor continued. “How many of those bodies did you confirm to be shifters?”

“None, sir.” William answered disappointedly and with great difficulty. “None of them were shifters.”

“None?” the mayor jeered, not believing what he’s hearing. “So these deaths were all for nothing? Do you know we’ve lost friends and allies in this city because of what you’ve done? This city has been painted black just for the action of one man. Believe me, all the shifters present in this city right now won’t kill up to a hundred and seventy people even in the next five years. But you have slaughtered all those innocent people in just a day.”

“I am sorry, sir.”

“You’re sorry?” the mayor gibed, craning forward in his chair. “Sorry won’t bring back all those people whom you’ve murdered.”

“I promise, sir, something like this won’t repeat itself again.”

“No,” The mayor shook his head. “It will not happen again, and I’m going to make sure of that.” he turned to the older man sitting beside him and introduced him. “This is Sir Lawrence Linus. He worked formerly as a shifter hunter in Fallout, and has caught and executed shifters in their numbers in his good old days.”

The mayor turned to Lawrence. “He’s retired though, took a lot of convincing to get him down to this city, much less to come work with us. He will take over from you as the president of the task force.”

William’s expression hardened.

The mayor continued, “Under Sir Lawrence’s command, I expect to see some changes.”

Lawrence took off his hat and dropped it on the table before him. “Thank you for the honour granted me, Mayor Ramsey. Give me a week and I will burn every shifter in this city to the ground.”

The mayor smiled satisfactorily. “I’ve always known you to be a man of your word. I know you won’t relent.”

“Where does this leave me?” William finally spoke.

“I won’t have you locked up for the murder of all those innocent women and children, and I won’t kick you out of the taskforce either. From this moment, you will take orders directly from Sir Linus. You will serve under him as his vice president.”

There was a chilly silence in the room. A cloud of disappointment spread across William’s face. He hadn’t recovered from the stress of losing his daughter in the hospital chaos, and now this happened. His trembling lips threatened to form a word—an insult rather, but then he swallowed them back in. Knew he’ll regret it later after this is done. He had to choke back his rage for the sake of his daughter.

“This meeting is adjourned.” the mayor stood up and walked out the door.

Sir Lawrence stood up, adjusting his jacket. Pressed the cowboy hat to his head. “See you in the office tomorrow.” he smirked at William and left the room too.

After a long silence, William stormed out of the room and started bumping his fist into the wall. Roared angrily as he punched the wall until his fist bruised and bled. Then he noticed that someone was standing at the corner, watching him with a rather puzzled expression. He turned and found, much to his dismay, Frank, who was taken aback by the violent display of his rage.

“What are you doing here?” William asked, raising his voice at him.

“Sir, we have a problem.” Franks sounded a bit shaken. “Mrs. Eulich is dead. She was killed this morning.”