The Devil's Assassin (16 page)

June smiles in
spite of her dread that she has just heard Linus’s last words on Earth. A tear
runs down her face as she runs her free hand through the prison guard’s hair.
Then she gets up momentarily leaving him while she opens the door for the
barking dog.

Professor Jay
Miele and Dr. June Dituro are dressed for a warm summer day as they sit at a
patio table in June’s backyard. The barbecue is smoking and they have lemonade,
potato salad, BBQ sauce, beer, and potato chips on the patio table. June’s left
hand is on her glass. She looks at the diamond ring on her left hand and
becomes lost in thought.

Falstaff is on
one corner of the wooden deck, taking a nap.

“You know it
occurred to me today,” says Jay, “that maybe the reason that the Maero never
really gained a foothold against man, in fact was destined to lose, is because
of man’s best friend there.” He points to the sleeping hound.

June looks up at
Jay, out of her daydream and answers him. “But we’ve suggested through the
media that everyone should get a dog if they want to feel protected from the
Maero. We have known for a while how useful the dogs are at deterring the
creatures.”

“What I mean is
that it may be that our very friendship with dogs has been brought about
because we sought their protection from the Maero. Who knows what the situation
would be had this partnership not come about.”

June is about to agree
when the patio door slides open and through it walks a large man and a woman
with curly blond hair.

“Any food left
for us?” he says.

“There’s the
college boy,” says Jay. “Thanks for picking up my pretty wife!”

“That’s no
problem,” says Linus smiling at June. “She likes to hear the stories of our
undergraduate years.”

“Yes,” says
Janice to Jay. “He’s painting a pretty picture I must say.”

“He’s a huge
exaggerator, Honey,” says Jay to his wife Janice.

Linus goes to
June who extends her left hand as he approaches. He kisses it and then bends
down and kisses June’s lips. Her mood is visibly brighter. She’d been waiting
for Linus.

“Hi, Darling,”
says Linus. “I thought about you all through macro biological systems class
today.”

He kisses her
again. She smiles with infatuation. “Did you? You’d better be careful, Honey. I
thought you could clear your mind whenever you wanted to.”

Linus smiles.
“I’m
okay. The professor here will let me know if my grades start slipping.” He
stands up straight. “How’re the steaks coming?”

“Should be done
soon,” says June.

Linus sets a
couple of biology books on the table and walks over to the grill. He opens it
and smells even though the air is heavily laden with the aroma of fine steaks.
“
That
Arroyos is a pretty good guy. These steaks he
sent us from Argentina must have cost him a fortune.”

“His way of
thanking you for helping them get rid of two
poco
diablos,” June answers.

“I didn’t have
much to do with him catching the second one.”

“Maybe not
directly,” says Jay, “but the world learned a lot about the Maero thanks to you
getting stabbed twice and living through it.”

“Happy to help,”
says Linus wryly. “But it’s not so miraculous considering it didn’t stab me
where it usually stabs its victims.”

“I thought that
was why you tackled it the way you did,” replies Jay, “so you wouldn’t be
stabbed in the lungs?”

Linus nods his
head. “It’s something I wouldn’t have thought of had I not cleared my mind. And
as soon as it occurred to me I had to dive at its ankles before it read my mind
and figured out what I was doing. It all could have gone very wrong.”

Jay shakes his
head, “Pretty brave to subject
yourself
to its lance
like that when most people who do so die. You’re lucky that the toxin only
activates in lung tissue.”

“Well, the
terminator here was supposed to let the dog in,” Linus says, massaging June’s
neck. “Lucky for me she stayed and killed the Maero before it found my lungs
through my back.”

“I did it for
purely selfish reasons, Señor Hather,” June says. “The point is, we wouldn’t
have known about the poison coating its lance unless you’d been stabbed and
lived.”

“I’d just as soon
not go through the ordeal again. But these steaks are a nice reward.”

They all chuckle.
Linus smiles and gives a friendly pat on his friend Jay’s back who is sitting
next to Janice.

“Heck, I don’t
need steaks. The best thing I got out of this whole Maero situation, my real
reward, is the three of you, and especially my fiancé.”

A tear gathers in
June’s eyes and rolls down her cheek and Jay replies, “Same for us buddy.”

Linus sits down
next to June and holds her hands while looking into her eyes. “We’re going to
have the best wedding you’ve ever had.”

June smiles and
after a moment whacks him in the arm.
“
Heeyy
!
I haven’t had
any
weddings.”

Jay, Janice, and
Linus laugh. “Oops, did I say ‘had’, I meant ‘seen’. The best you’ve ever
seen.”

June smiles.
“Whatever it looks like, wherever it is, as long as it’s you I’m marrying,
it’ll be the best wedding and the best marriage.”

She grabs Linus
in a bear hug and squeezes him from behind as they sit. Janice scoots closer to
Jay and puts her head on his shoulder in response to Linus and June’s romantic
display.

After a few
moments, Jay gets up with a large plate and goes to retrieve the meat from the
grill. Linus and June then kiss each other for a long moment and then Linus
gets up to help his friend retrieve the meat from the barbecue. The dog walks
over to June and gladly accepts some scratching behind his ears.

›

The light of
predawn is starting to bathe an old Hindu temple in Bhopal, India in the first
red rays of light. Something watches the temple from about one hundred feet
away and from a position near the ground. The water of a nearby river laps
against the shore. Up at the top of the many stone steps leading to the temple,
a monk appears in the doorway. From this distance he appears to be drinking in
the beauty of the day. He takes the first step down the long stairway.

The Maero takes a
deep, calming breath and waits.

The End

The lemur in this
story is portrayed in a fictional manner and in no way represents how a lemur
might act in an actual human home. Besides being illegal to own in many states,
they are a lot of trouble to own. I would suggest adopting a shelter cat or
dog, which can be a very loving companion. At the very least, research the
logistics of owning any animal before you buy or adopt one, especially an
exotic animal.

Ring-tailed Lemur - Photo by
Alex Dunkel

Midnight - photo by erin holmes

Brian M. Holmes graduated from Northern Michigan University
in the frigid Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That summer he began writing local
sports for a penny shopper newspaper. Since then, Mr. Holmes has lived in New
Jersey molding text as a proofreader, copy editor, editor, and educational and
technical writer. He has worked on mass market fiction and nonfiction as well
as technical and K-12 educational content. He also runs an editing and
proofreading website called
GradeAedits.com
.
Holmes published a poetry journal called
The New Jersey Review of Literature
,
acting as co-editor, publisher, marketer, and distributor. He and his wife,
Min, also published two photo books,
New
Jersey 9/11 Memorials
and
The
National 9/11 Memorials
. He is an avid photographer, history buff,
political observer, bowler, blogger, techie and
Trekkie
.
He also enjoys reading on his Kindle Fire.

BrianMHolmes.com
for more information.

@
writebhback
on
Twitter.