The Last Option

That night Bernard arrived at the hotel with thousands of questions in his head. Knowing that his son-in-law was debating whether or not to ask him about his past, Anthony decided to tell him part of his life, at least the part in which he worked for mobsters like Gonzo and Don.

When he became a widower and with limited job options in his hometown, Marshall, the accumulation of debts and supporting his children, he had to force himself to look for new work alternatives in the state capital, so he came to Little Rock seeking to improve its economic situation. At that time one of his sisters-in-law offered to take care of Margaret and Andrew while he traveled to the capital, which was partly a great relief for him, dedicating himself to finding what to do to support them.

He was about to complete a month without having a stable job when despair seized him. One night, trying to get some extra money, he had the bad idea of wanting to rob two men who were talking in an alley next to a nightclub, with the bad luck they were two well-known gangsters from the city, whom he didn't knew, and that they had three thugs guarding them.

Anthony never knew where the three thugs came from, fearing the worst he faced them bare-knuckled and defeated them due to his robustness and military experience. The two gangsters, surprised with him for having defeated their thugs, invited him for a drink and then offered him a job.

"My name is Gonzo," one of them, a tall, bald fat man, introduced himself, "and this is Don, my business associate in this club," unlike Gonzo, his associate Don was thin and cadaverous appearance. "Normally we would have dispatched you from this world for what you did out there, but my friend and I are really surprised with your abilities and decided to offer you a job."

"What should I do?" Anthony asked feeling he no longer had any other job options that would give him immediate income.

"To begin with, you only have to collect some debts," Gonzo said, "there are people who owe us some money and we want them to catch up."

"If they refuse, that's where your fist skills come in," Don said. "You give them a lesson, you tell them that you will come later to collect and then you do it, and that's it. That will be your job to start."

Anthony did not see the job as complicated and accepted. He rarely had to give them "the lesson" Don told him about, but overall he did very well for the first few months, collecting most of his debts and gaining the trust of his bosses. That served to get him a "promotion" soon after, and his new job, given his experience in the navy, consisted of getting the nascent competition in the city out of the way of his bosses, which was wreaking havoc on the youth with a type of adulterated drug.

"As you know, our business consists mainly of games and bets," Gonzo told him one day, "and from time to time serving as a "bridge" for the passage of drugs to other States. We have never wanted to get into drugs despite the good income they give, since we have some conscience and we know that this seriously harms youth. We have no problems with those who distribute them because the amount is practically negligible and it doesn't reach everywhere, but now we have a new group recently arrived from North Dakota that is taking to the streets on a large scale a new adulterated drug that has already killed at least fifteen young people and we cannot allow that."

"Our city feeds us," Don said, "so we have to take care of it. It's one thing to have young people trying marijuana, and quite another to have them dying from using ecstasy or adulterated cocaine."

"Having told you this, we want to give you the opportunity to do something for our city," Gonzo completed. "You told us that you were a Marine, and you are experienced enough to take out targets. We want you to find the bosses and members of this new gang that is settling in the city and eliminate them."

"What about the police?" Anthony asked, foreseeing this possible obstacle. "Shouldn't they do something about it?"

"The police chiefs themselves have asked us for help," Gonzo scoffed, laughing widely. "They consider this could get out of hand or some corrupt judge won't convict those damned if they manage to catch them."

"They offered to get out of our way," Don said, "of course, doing their investigations when they turn up dead but not associating ourselves with their deaths at all."

"Do you trust them?" Anthony asked suspiciously.

"We have their word that none of their investigations will lead to anything," Gonzo concluded. "In addition, we have our "insurance policy" that guarantees us immunity at least for a long time."

Gonzo and Don almost laughed out loud, the "policy" they were talking about was a set of photos and videos of several police chiefs and high-ranking officers involved in illegal betting and gambling, as well as some other activity linked to prostitution.

Given the green light, Anthony did his job and tracked down and murdered each of the gang members who had recently arrived in town, thinking he would rid the town's youth of certain death and dangerous drugs, kids like his children, as a justification for what he was doing and not to have any kind of remorse that kept him awake at night.

Having heard that story, Bernard thought that if he had been in his father-in-law's place, he would surely have done the same without hesitation.

Two days later Gonzo called the hotel room telling them that he already had the information they wanted.

An hour later they were back in front of him, in the office at the back of the club.

"The person you're looking for is a very dangerous professional assassin," he told them with a worried face, "and it's not easy to locate him. He apparently hasn't taken any more jobs for some time, rumored to be in the service of only one person, but it's unknown who he or she might be. As I told you, they are rumors, perhaps that information is false. The truth is he has kept a low profile, and no work has been carried out by him."

"This job was done by him," Bernard said, "I saw him myself and later identified him in the police photos. I haven't the slightest doubt."

"Then it must be true that he works for someone else, as we suspect," Anthony said, "no one attempts a kidnapping by killing the hostages and their accomplices."

"And when he accepted jobs, how was he located?" Bernard asked. "There must be some way to contact him."

"His jobs were all «high level», Gonzo highlighted the last words with a gesture with his index and middle fingers of both hands, "that means he only worked for those who could pay for his services, since the man it's expensive, meaning mafia bosses, politicians, businessmen."

"But is there or isn't there a way to contact him?" Bernard insisted, feeling a little disturbed by the turns the fat man was giving him.

"It had a form some years ago, but it isn't known if it is still active. When someone wanted to hire him just had to put an ad in the New York Times in the "employers" section of the classifieds with the ad: "Urgent CS Request" and add the contact number, if he was available he would contact the person at less than twenty-four hours."

"CS?" Bernard asked. "What do those acronyms mean?"

"Nobody knows for sure. Many believe it means "cleaning staff", in reference to the trade of "cleaning", as some assassins call it. Only God and that guy know what it means."

"Okay, we'll do that when we get to New York, see if he falls for the trap and shows up," Anthony said. "Anything else?"

"The ad should only be posted on Monday," Gonzo said, "he just check the classifieds that day."

"OK. Thank you very much for everything, Gonzo," said Bernard, "in New York we didn't have anyone to help us with this."

"We are indebted to this old fox," the fat man said, pointing at Anthony. "My proposal to eliminate him for you still stands; I can send people over there for that because the guy is really dangerous."

"Believe it or not," Bernard stared into his eyes, "I also just became someone very dangerous; I just needed one reason, and this guy gave me three."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck, man," Gonzo said, "may you achieve what you set out to do."

"Luck, and a lot, he's going to need. Trust me."

Bernard and Anthony hugged the fat man goodbye and then left the office in search of the exit. They already had what they wanted.