Chapter 20

The Recruit: Mission #2

Jake thought it might be a long time before his next assignment but it came quickly. He had to travel to a farm in the country. There he would find a recently returned soldier recovering from PTSD. Jake was to behead him and leave a note on his body. If anyone else was there, he was to add them to the body count.

The directions were simple, but they didn’t provide much info on the soldier or who else might be there or how he was to access the site, etc. The good news, Jake thought, was there was no time limit. He would have to research and plan.

He had the soldier’s name, so he started at the library, searching through newspaper files. It didn’t take long. Jason Peters was a hero who had lost a leg. There was even a picture of him sitting on the porch at the family farm.

Jake drove to the farm and went past several times during the day. The problem was, unlike the city, he couldn’t stop and watch because there were no other cars to hide among. He took pictures of everything in the area and then went home.

Slowly he developed a plan. He would need to do more stakeouts to learn the routines but his plan was simple. He would wait until the old couple left. Then, with the soldier sitting alone on the porch, he would boldly drive up to the house. He would introduce himself as a reporter and say he was writing an article about our heroes returned from overseas. Then he would say he had a rough draft of the article about Jason and would he read it over to check for accuracy. He would lay the prepared paper in front of him and stand slightly behind him. When the soldier bent forward to read he would take the hatchet, hidden behind him in his belt, and whack him over the head until he stopped moving. Then he would use the hatchet to hack off his head.

Jake had examined the pictures he had taken and noted there was a small patch of forest near the farm gate. If he could find a place to hide his car, he could wait in the forest and watch what happened. On his printer he had made up a fake ID, and for his baseball cap he had created a card that said “Press” which he had stuck to the front. The next day as he was driving past, the old couple pulled onto the road from the farm lane. This was too good an opportunity and Jake didn’t like all the time involved in planning, so he drove on a little, did a u-turn and stopped. He got the hatchet positioned in his belt under his windbreaker, the Press cap on, and the story ready. He drove up to the house and stopped. The soldier was sitting in his usual spot on the porch.

Jake got out of the car, walked toward the porch and said hello. He quickly spewed out his story as he walked up the porch steps. He was just laying the article in front of the soldier when the screen door opened and a young woman came out.

“This is my fiance, Joyce. Honey, this reporter is doing a story about me.”

Joyce said, “That’s wonderful. Would you like a glass of lemonade?”

“That would be very nice.”

Jake was thinking fast. He couldn’t let them live now they had seen him because his story wouldn’t hold up for long. Joyce went inside and Jake slipped on his gloves, took out his hatchet, and whacked Jason on the head with the back of the blade. It was a stunning blow, and the soldier fell face forward onto the table. Jake quickly stood by the door. As Joyce opened it he hit her in the face with the back of the blade but it was a glancing blow. She screamed and ran back into the house. He dropped the hatchet and chased after her. Jake caught her in the kitchen as she was reaching for a knife. He punched her already bloody face until she fell unconscious. Then he sat on her hips and put his hands around her neck and choked her. He laughed. This was bringing back pleasant memories of the time he had killed his sister. He regretted not killing the other sister. Perhaps he could look her up sometime.

Joyce was the colour of blue that indicates death. Jake wanted to stick his penis into her, but he was afraid of leaving DNA. He searched the house looking for condoms but could not find any. He would have to remember to always carry some when he was out on a job. There were two more steps he needed to do to complete the job. He had to cut off their heads and then leave a note on the soldier’s body. He recovered his hatchet and returned to the kitchen and gave Joyce’s neck a blow with the sharp side of the hatchet’s blade. It cut but her head did not roll clear. This was harder than he expected. It took several more blows before her head lay beside her body. He was happy not to have gotten much blood on himself.

He was on the porch ready to start with the soldier when suddenly he heard a car crunching on the gravel. It was the parents returning. The soldier looked like he had his head down resting. Jake slipped the hatchet back into his belt and walked down the steps toward the stopped car. The old guy was getting out when Jake said,

“Hi, I am a reporter doing a story on your heroic son and I hope I can include a few lines about you and your farm.”

He had his left hand out as if to shake the old farmer’s hand but as the farmer awkwardly reached with his left hand toward Jake; he grabbed the hatchet and drove it, blade side first, into the top of the man’s head. He dropped dead. The wife was screaming and trying to run to the house but Jake caught up to her and split her head almost in two with the hatchet. Suddenly everything was quiet again.

“Damn. Now there is a lot more work.”

Jake chopped off the old couple’s heads where they lay. He returned to the soldier, laid him back down on the porch and cut off his head. Then he carefully took out the prepared note and pinned it to the soldier’s chest.

“We can kill your soldiers in our country or yours. It is more convenient to kill them in our country. Please send more. Allah Akbar. ISIS.”

Jake took a careful look around and ended up in the kitchen looking at Joyce when he realized he was hungry. He looked through the cupboard until he found crackers. In the fridge he found cheese. He changed out of his bloody clothing and put on the clean clothes he had brought. He took everything to his car and left to go to a mall and dump the evidence.

Jake had become a news junkie and listened to the TV news and read the newspapers because he was always watching for any news about his exploits or further assignments. The following day there was nothing. The next day the same. On the third day it was all over the TV news. Joyce’s parents had become concerned about her lengthy visit to her fiance’s family and had driven over together to see if everything was OK.

Jake thought it strange that there was no mention of the beheadings and nothing about the note. The comment was that the four people had been brutally murdered by a person or persons unknown and that was it.

He soon got a message in the paper but instead of being congratulated they chastised him for not leaving the note. He felt cheated because he had left the note. There were directions to go to a park and look under a rock. He found $500 for supplies. The note said they had cut his pay because he didn’t follow all the instructions. Jake now realized how cut off he was. He had no means of telling them he had left the note.

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