Halfway landed in the huge living-room, a strong gasoline odor struck her nostrils while the image in front of her froze her in place. In one glance, she evaluated the scene with an expert’s eye. In the middle of the living room, there was Dante, gagged up and tied to a chair - no visible wounds – making desperate noises in her direction, while frenetically struggling his body through the ropes. Was he trying to say, “Get out of here!”? ...  or more probably “Please save me!”  Anyway, right in front of him, there was an average-built man, a couple of inches shorter than her, in a cheap blue training suit, face covered with a smiley plastic mask. At the sudden intrusion, he jumped into a fighting stance, his hands in an awkward attack position, obviously a little troubled by the 5l plastic can – presuming of gasoline - he was holding in one hand.

“Are you here to kill him, too?”

“You’re the chick who called earlier?”

 Oh, man! He was just a kid! His voice hadn’t even matured yet. 18-19 max.

“Yes. I’m here to kill him, too. What a great idea! Here, let me help!”

One meter in front of her, there were two 5l plastic cans of yellowish liquid. She picked one up and started spilling angrily, going round towards where they were at.

“This mother f#cker almost had my best friend killed! I warned you I’d kill you if you made her cry. And what do you do?! You get her to kill HERSELF!!!”

By the time she reached near them, she had already emptied the whole can under their confused stares. It’s still under debate who was more shocked: Dante, who stopped the ‘mmm’-ing and was following her with a dumb look on his face, or the Smiley Mask who was just sitting there, unable to decide whether to believe his eyes or not.

She stopped in front of Dante and, out of the blue, she slapped him so hard that even the Smiley Mask pulled back an inch.

“You think I’m a joke! I WILL kill you myself, you little sh!t!”

She turned around, like looking for something:

 “We need more. Do you have more?”

The Smiley Mask was obviously confused enough to loosen his guard at the sight of the red fingerprints on his victim’s cheek. He was probably smiling for real underneath.

She spotted another can of gasoline behind him, “Oh, there it is...” and lightly passed by him. Before he was able to turn after her, a very expensive black china vase had already smacked the top of his head, splattering into cracks on the floor, alongside the cloth-like body.

She contemplated him for a second from up above, with a pity look, despite her grin.

“Anonymous, my ass!” she puffed, poking him in the ribs with her boot. “Netflix junky idiots!”

Yeah, you’re right, this was a sneaky takeout for a cop. It’s true, it’s not standard procedure but, just think about it! For a woman, regardless of the level of training, fighting any man is like fighting Buakaw himself. They have the natural advantage of more strength. Besides, who knows what an angry Saenchai could hide behind a short guy with a smiley face? There’s no point in taking unnecessary risks by doing the right thing. Even David wouldn’t take out Goliath in a fair and square fight. So, yeah, go for tricky, go for smart! At the end of the day, all that matters is to be the one standing! And, with as little damage as possible.

“This is sub-inspector AyKara Tepes! I have a situation here. I need a police unit asap in ...”

She gave the police operator all the details, then turned towards a quiet, pathetic-looking Dante. After a few seconds of laser strikes, she sighted helplessly:

“Consider yourself lucky‚ ‘cause it would’ve been you lying unconsciously on the floor right now.”

She went to him and leaned down, trying to untie his feet.

“I should’ve let him finish the job. You deserve whatever you get!”

He replied by ‘mmm’-ing again!

“But nobody should sacrifice himself on account of you, you scumbag,” she continued with a low voice through his gradually increasing intensity of ‘mmm’-s, intentionally ignoring him, to show him the level of her anger. Only after he started jumping in his seat so brutally, she finally decided to grace him with a look, and she instantly knew…

                                                                                   End of Scene 

Author’s Thank You Note

I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Please look forward to the next episode.

Also available on Amazon e-book and paperback at https://amzn.to/3YHk507

I’ll be waiting for your feedback, comments, and theories.

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 Thank you so much for your support!