Parlous - Aaron Solomon (best ereader for pdf and epub TXT) 📗

Copyright Page and Chapter One

2015 Aaron Solomon ISBN 9781310794810. All Rights Reserved.

Parlous

Chapter One

I stood and let my mind go blank under the coolness of the shower as I just began to slowly take in the steady rush and excitement of finally obtaining my first honest and real profession as a railroad dick at my brother’s current workplace in which he somehow cleared my name and background for the job and required me to take possession of it for as long as Kaya and I were to take up residence here at his home. It wasn’t exactly the gig I’d been picturing at the time Iki put in the application with me for but if it paid the bills and was going to keep me as close as I could get to the brother I had so longed to see again during my days spent cooped up in that looney bin as a pup, I would gladly oblige. After about another minute of rinsing the excess soap off my silky smooth white fur, I shut off the water and slowly began to step out, feeling the gentle coolness of the slick marble flooring on the pads of my bare feet. I made my way into my bedroom at the far end of the hall and immediately began getting dressed top to bottom in my uniform. After putting a double lace on my pair of freshly polished black boots, I grabbed my sig sauer P226 pistol and holster off the nightstand to the right of my queen sized bed and quickly made my way down the stairs to the living room where I met my brother at the front door, quickly giving a tap to the button on his wristwatch when he saw me appear. “Spot on, Gevo.” He said with a warm smile. “You’d make our mother proud. For a moment there I was beginning to think you had somehow drowned in that shower.” “And just what makes you say that?” I asked. “No reason.” Iki replied with a teasing smirk and merrily made our way out to his car in the driveway for the fairly short twenty minute trip down the mildly congested beltway toward Union Station in Washington DC. When we arrived, we each began to go our separate ways as Iki headed for the train crew area and I turned and made my way over to police barracks at the south end. A short time after I walked in, I was introduced to my new partner, Bradley Carter, a young but experienced Shiba Inu who the cap explained had made some pretty big waves since he first started here at this railroad and department nearly three and a half years ago. He was a very congenial guy around age twenty three with strapping light brown and golden yellow fur and the most beautiful and attractive pair of ruby red eyes I had ever seen a dog of any breed and his especially ever possess. I was surprised the females around us at the time weren’t falling out and going bananas over him. “Pleased to meet your acquaintance.” He said cordially shaking my paw. “You know, it’s not every day I for once meet a partner coming from almost the exact same background as myself. I have a feeling the two of us are gonna latch on real easy and real fast.” “Without a single doubt in my mind, I certainly feel the same.” Captain Raimes replied. “Now, get out there and go defend the wonderful animals and infrastructure that make the cogs and inner workings of this great company go round. I’ll be keeping tabs on both you two’s progress. You may be dismissed.” And with that, we strolled lightly down the hall of the quarters and through the double doors to the grand hall of the station to get my very first taste of foot patrol.

Chapter Two

“Last chance, clown.” I said harshly to Vance Mitchell who was sitting opposite the chair in front of me at the far end of the interrogation room at the Federal Correctional Institution of Cumberland, Maryland. “Spill the beans. All of them.” “What more would you like to know, agent?” Mitchell replied with a wide conniving smirk. “That I’m possibly the greatest and most skilled assassin and criminal mastermind this world and its animals have ever come to know? Ooh! Or how bout my victims? Would you like to know what I do to them before and after their untimely ends? Most rarely even see it coming cause they don’t even have time to scream.” He let out a rather goofy but maniacal laugh after his last statement, much to my annoyance and I growled ferociously at him before replying, “We’ll see how long you can keep up that tough guy act. Cause as soon as this last hearing for you comes up, you’re gonna be in a nice padded cell with only the two walls on either side of you for company. How’s that for a so called ‘end’?” “Careful what you wish for, agent Kaya.” He said. “You just might get it.” In a single flash the second I looked up at him, he was gone with the pair of cuffs his paws had been in lying mysteriously on the table with their hooks somehow strangely opened. Almost as fast as he had gone, he reappeared and I heard the heavy metallic click as I looked down to see my right paw cuffed to the right leg of the table and a struggle with the guards outside the door sounded as I hurriedly reached into the back of my leather jacket with my left paw for the key on my belt. I opened the cuff and freed my paw as quick as I could, only to hear the loud pop of a gunshot and I turned my head just in the nick of time to see one of the guards drop to the floor like a sack of potatoes, clutching a spot on the left chest of his uniform which I could see through his paw was turning crimson with blood. I drew my weapon and rushed over to him but it was already too late. He had already lost a substantial amount of his blood and from the looks of it, Mitchell had gotten hold of the cell keys on his belt and was beginning to start a full prison uproar as inmates of every species in the state immediately began flooding down the long hall towards me and a few remaining guards around with weapons of any and all varieties present in their paws and hands. I brought my desert eagle up to the aiming position and put a bullet in the heads of the two armed with shotguns and then holstered my pistol to face the five or so inmates approaching me armed with handmade shanks, pipes and just about anything else they could get their mitts on and jumped into my fighting stance as the one to my right threw the first swing but I dodged just in time and delivered a hard uppercut to his chin, sending him flying upwards and giving me the perfect opportunity to kick him hard into one more approaching inmate which rendered both the pair unconscious almost instantly. The other three were taken down with a few solid hook punch combinations and I quickly continued forward, hot on Mitchell’s trail as he killed two more guards at the door in front of him and raced through it to the parking lot outside and made his escape in one of the transport vans before I could even have one chance to get a clear shot at the driver’s side window.

Chapter Three

After a long, hard day of nabbing shoplifters, purse snatchers and just about every other criminal you could find in and around the station and the railroad itself, we’d finally caught a well-deserved break around noon which I gladly decided to spend down at the food court area and made a trip to one of my new favorite restaurants of all time there, Sabbarro. It was a nice little Italian bistro Bradley had introduced me to in which he said served the best lasagna in all of the city which had always been a favorite dish of mine along with turkey and cheese casserole which my mother used to always make for Iki and I when we were small pups growing up. “So, what did you mean when you said you had the same background as me?” I asked Bradley as we took a seat at one of the tables in the back corner of the eating area and began to gradually chow down and enjoy our lunch. “I was pretty much of a bastard because of my lowlife father too back in my heyday.” He said. “My mother went all sorts of ways to try and keep me goin down the right path but one day she just said I had to experience it for myself and I did and boy, was it one hell of a wakeup call.” I listened to all of his story with great interest and almost could not believe my ears. This dog was almost an exact photocopy and replica of my former self, minus joining the world’s most powerful assassination organization one minute and having them absolutely despise your guts and then turn on you the next. He truly was another being who finally understood me other than Kaya and my own brother. About a good while later after we were just finishing up with our decent meal, there was suddenly a bloodcurdling scream that rang out from the north hall somewhere near the shopping area followed by the loud bang of two gunshots and a mess of hollering animals running to and fro, desperately trying to escape the chaos of the scene. Without even a moment of hesitation, we both drew our weapons and quickly rushed over and our stomachs dropped as we found that one of our own had taken the hit and was now bleeding out heavily from two wounds on his right chest and shoulder. “Cheng!” Bradley called out to the red fox as he assessed the situation. “What happened?” “Jackals.” Cheng grunted. “They… Came outta nowhere. Their leader was some psycho wolf. Said his name was V-Vance.” I was speechless. Vance Mitchell? Out of federal prison? It couldn’t be. “Where did they go?” I asked. Cheng pointed weakly with his index finger toward the escalators at the end of the hall and I quickly put two and two together to know he meant they were headed for the upstairs parking garage. I turned to Bradley. “You get on the horn with dispatch and call for EMS. I’ll go after the shooters.” “Right.” Bradley answered and I hurriedly made my way as fast as I could up the stairs and into garage level A where I then had to look no further. There, with that same sick grin as usual plastered on his muzzle, was my former boss and instructor, Vance Mitchell.

Chapter Four

“Hon, you let him get away?” I said to Gevo as me and my team of fellow agents arrived on scene at the parking garage of the train station. “I had to, Kaya.” He replied with a sigh. “About a week before I started in this job, I made a promise to both my brother and myself that I’d throw away all the remnants of my old life behind. And killing is definitely a big one of them.” “Oh. I see.” I replied, understandingly. “So,