(xxxvi.)

"Do you understand the true meaning of pain?"

He stammed, and reeled back. "I-- I don't, what--"

Chet grinned, evilly. "You want to know what that has to do with the Omnivion corporation, right?"

Louis nodded. "Yeah. Well, it's just that--"
"Yes?"
"Well, y'know, usually you let us go off and we do our thing, and then, this time, you're actually here... and you brought all kinds of stuff with you."

Chet pulled a match out of the book. He closed the book, and struck it.

There was a long silence.

He shook out the match.

"You ever heard of something called 'Operation Waxed Beans'?
"I've heard of something like that, yeah. What is it?"

Chet took a cigarette out of his pocket, and put it in his mouth.

"This was a while ago. A long while ago. Senator Morton was in the middle of a re-election campaign. There wasn't too much going on, so we were helping his campaign. Well--" He paused, struck the match, and lit his cigarette, "--no, we weren't really helping him. We were really just hurting everyone else. Anyway, he had a stop coming up in some small town. That whole 'town meeting' thing."

He flicked the ashes away.

"So, we were there, fucking with his opponent's podium, before the debate, y'know? Anyway, this girl bolts in. No one knew who she was. She was dressed all in black. She kinda looked like a ninja. She just ran into the hall, and stopped. Stared at us for a minute. Then, she ran to the stage, and ran past us. Next thing any of us knew, there were police and shit everywhere."

"...so, she got you into trouble with police five years ago? That's what this is over?"

"Wha-- no. No. There's more. We almost got in trouble over that. We got them to beleive that there was an actual problem with the microphones, so they both had to go it without. That wasn't the problem. That's just where it started."

Louis stared, blankly. "So, the two of you have a long, on-going grudge."

"Yeah. The day after election day, she showed up again. We were waiting outside someone's house -- he was a spy from Massachusettes, residing in Wyoming -- we were going to arrest him. We're all just sitting there, waiting for this guy to come out, and this girl just walks up to our van, y'know, knocks on the door. She says 'I know what you're up to, you're trying to arrest that guy. But I'm not going to let you,'."

"It was Lorelei?"
"Yup."
"She stopped you?"
"Yup."
"How?"

"When he came out, she ran toward him, tackled him, dragged him back to his feet, and told him to run before we killed him."

"Did you ever get him?"

He flicked the cigarette again.

"No."
"Oh."

There was another long pause.

"Where is he now?"
"...he's the chairman of Omnivion."


[chapter xxxvii]