‘Parker, who is MZ1?’ I said.
‘My friend,’ he said.
‘Your friend who? And, why is he calling?’
‘Mike Zeen, he’s a friend from Long Island. He came with me to Thailand,’ he mumbled through the tape, still hardly able to move his lips at all.
‘Does he know where you are right now?’
‘No, he’s in Phuket town.’
I hit silent on the phone and let it ring, continuing with his password…
‘Parker I’m going to write down what you told me.’
I walked across to the bag of Pump’s things and got some more tape, pulling a large almost yard length piece off.
I grabbed some paper and a pen from Gigi’s table and I wrote…
beOtch1
I showed it to Parker.
He shook his head yes. I wrapped the tape around his head again – two and a half times.
I said, ‘Parker, you don’t know me, but I’m not one to play games. You were responsible for telling those guys to hurt my Thai friend at Paradise Beach and for that I have to really make you pay with cash, pain, and humiliation. But, if you’re fair with me I’ll consider that. You could make this difficult if you wanted to. It would be the wrong choice for you and Ivan, but it’s your choice. See, even though you look like you’re sitting there helpless and pissing your pants… you can still choose something that will affect your future.’
I paused.
‘Everyone has choices… except children sometimes. You know all about that, yes?’
I walked over to Parker’s computer and said. ‘Ivan tells me you were a runner. I know you like to run around Long Island when you’re not banging little kids in Thailand. I found some results online for Parker Wu in some of the old man races. You run eleven minute miles which, quite frankly sucks, but, I’ll bet running is a part of your life you wouldn’t want to give up, not even if you were in prison. At least walking is important I’d imagine… Yes?’
He looked at me, afraid to show emotion perhaps. He wanted to know where I was going with this…
“If the password or other information you give me now, or later doesn’t match even one time. I’m going to start by cutting off your third toe on the left foot. Then the rest of your toes in random order as it comes to me.
Now, all I have with me is Frank’s knife and my knife. Frank’s knife is very sharp. This is one of the sharpest knives I’ve ever had the pleasure of cutting with. It’s so fucking sharp that it’s too sharp actually.
My knife I brought with me from the USA is a simple hunting knife. It’s a folding knife hunters use to field dress deer or whatever else. I use it for fish mostly. It was made in Portland, Oregon. It isn’t all that sharp. It isn’t heat-treated like Franks. It doesn’t hold the razor sharp edge like Frank’s does. But, the cool thing is, it has a handle on it with some nice rubber grip that will make it easier on me to cut your toes off. It won’t be any easier on you…’
I laughed out loud.
‘Because it’s so dull compared to Frank’s you would probably pay me if you had the chance so I’d use Frank’s knife to cut your toes off instead of my own $40 knife.
Here it is right here Parker, take a look.”
I pulled the hefty hunting knife out of my pocket and unfolded it. It looked more impressive than Frank’s knife did, to the untrained eye.
When I thought he was getting the point, I said, “If we get through your toes, and I won’t cut off the big toes – no, there are a couple wicked bleeder arteries in the big toes… don’t worry about those. But, if we get through your other eight toes and you lie to me again about something I will slice your Achilles tendon in six or eight spots on each leg. I’ll slice them and dice them like I’m cutting strips of deer jerky meat.
If for some reason you can get through all this trauma. And, realistically I know you know, that’d be quite impossible…
But, say you do. And you’re still lying to me as we go about things here I’m ready to start gouging out eyeballs and cutting around your kneecaps and the tender ligaments that hold that amazing joint together.”
I remembered, ‘You know the Vietnamese eat the eyeballs of their dinner fish?’
I went on, ‘If, for some reason you get past that and are still not a raving lunatic… there are so many other joints and tissues to work with I don’t think I’ll run out of anything soon. You know what I’m saying?’
There are so many things in the human body to fuck with – and most of them cause pain when prodded, sliced, and hacked at with a knife. That’s just the way God in his infinite wisdom created us.
I was silent for at least three minutes. His eyes were clenched tight, he sweat all over the floor. His stomach jerked in spasms…
‘Now, before I log in to your computer is there anything you want to tell me?’
This vigilante fiction novel is not likely to appeal to women or those with a weak stomach. Anyone with a soul might not enjoy this book. If you enjoy payback stories – this is one of the most hard-hitting you’ll find.
