Open the paper...
Read the words:
"We have a job for you! Meet us at the Bankers House..."
It was then moment Jim had been dreading the most!
It was a nightmare he hoped he would never have, and yet there it was living itself out right in front of him.
My nightmare is alive inside of me. I am living it.
I am awake and my nightmare is living with me.
O awake! Awake! For my sake awake!
But no...
There is only sleep.
Jim read the message again, hoping that the words written on it would melt away and that he had only dreamed it and that he was really just going mad and holding a blank sheet of paper...
But it was not so!
Meet us at the Bankers House...
'I am not going,' said Jim.
'You have got no choice on the matter, my son,' said Rod. 'You done the crime and now you must do the time. It's just how it goes!'
'That's just it! I didn't commit any crimes!' Jim retorted.
Jim was really growing to quite hate Rod. Right then he just wanted to punch the little man.
'You borrowed money from the Banker. You can carry the mark of the Tailors. It's now on your head to pay them back!'
'Now you listen tome,' said Jim angrily. 'This was your mess! You got involved with the people in the castle, you took out loan you couldn't pay back. You lied to me! You told me you were rich, but you are as bankrupt as your brain. Damn you! And now all of a sudden your problems become my problems, and I receive this letter addressed tome personally. Why me? Why not you? It should be you going to meet the Banker. You should be the one being called up for the job! It's not fair! And I don't care if that makes me sound like a whining idiot, because it's true. I was winning until you got us into the war with the Cartel. I have a right to be miserable and angry. And I blame YOU, Rod. You are my downfall. I am not responding to this letter. I am going to stay here and get drunk. YOU, Rod, can go to the Banker. You can do the job. I am not getting involved anymore. I am done. I have had enough. I am tired and I need to rest. The only thing I am fitting for right now is whiskey.'
Rod heard this and started shaking his head. 'It doesn't work that way,' he said. 'You have been freshly marked, and as a fresher you are obliged to prove yourself by completing a job.'
'You make me sound like I am their slave!' said Jim.
'Ostensibly you are... At the very least you are in debt to them,' Rod replied. 'Look!' he explained, 'it's like this: We needed the money for the business, and we need the Tailors for their protection. It's a good deal! Just do the job for them and they will leave us alone!'
Jim heard Rod's words, and drank them in. He finally understood the situation. He still wasn't happy about any of it, but he knew what he had to do.
'Very well, I will get my coat,' he said. 'I will meet that scumbag at the Bankers House. I will hear out what they have to say. I will do what they want me to do. And then it will be over. I can't believe I let it get to this, but alright. I get it. There is no other way. It's a setup. Fine. I am off.'
Halfway out of the door he turned aggressively and pointing a finger at Rod he said, 'This is only happening because to me because I was weak. I will never be weak again! Today the game changes. And once I have taken back control a messy situation like this will never take place again. I am fed up of being used in other peoples games: First it was Ivan, and after him I had to deal with that DC Peddler prat. And now it's this business with the Banker, a man who I hardly know and yet he somehow holds my en tire life in his hands. I promise after this day I will never be taken for a fool again.'
Jim reluctantly approached the Bankers House.
The door opened before him as he approached.
Inside the building there were two men waiting to greet him:
The first man was the Banker himself, of course, because it was his house Jim was expecting to see the man, but the second man sitting in the corner nursing a glass of whiskey was a complete stranger to Jim.
He had literally never seen the man before.
The stranger got up and shook Jim by the hand. He was an older gentleman, with white hair sweep over into a parting, and he was dressed from foot to head in a military uniform. He even had medals pinned to his left breast.
Who was this man?
Jim soon found it.
'I am Major Shirker,' said the stranger. 'I served for twelve years in the British Army, and fifteen in the US Marines.'
'Why did you serve in the American army as well?' said Jim. 'Seems a bit odd?'
'What can I say? I am eccentric man, not only that but the Americans needed my skills in eradicating their enemies within the Brazilian Cartel. It is my speciality, sniffing out gangsters!' said Major Shirker. 'There is a war going on right now between the Brazilian Underground and the US military. The news agencies are very careful never to cover any of it! It is a Secret War! And a war that I hope to end soon! I know where the Brazilians keep their secret base. Because you see, I served in the Brazilian army as well as the US army. That's how I know what I know.'
Jim asked the Major if he ever served in another army in his time as a military man.
The Major appeared to be flattered by the question and responded to it with great happiness and pride, 'I have served in many armies, my good man. The best army I ever served in was the army of the Isle of Man.'
'The Isle of Man has its own army? Really? Tell me about it,' said Jim. It was a good question, one that anybody else would have asked.
'The Isle if Man defence force was setup ten years ago when the British Secret Forces feared a full scale attack from the Brazilian armed forces. You see at the time the Cartel were trying to enveloped a war between the Brits and the Brazilians. The Brazilians were trying to forge a secret military alliance with the Irish. The Isle of Man was going to serve our fine country as a staging point for an invasion of Ireland, if necessary, incase the Irish agreed to base Brazilian troops on their soil. Thankfully that hasn't happened not yet. But the Irish did invite the Brazilians over for drinks...'
'So how long as this war with Brazil been going on for?' said Jim. 'Sorry for my ignorance but it is the first I have ever heard of any of this.'
'For thirty years,' Major Shirker replied. 'It is a secret war! There are many secret wars that the government trees to keep quiet, you may not know it but we are also at war with Devon Island. The island is said to be empty, but the British and the Americans think there might be an enemy army there, possibly the Brazilians again. The Cartel are very powerful, and maybe the most dangerous enemy the world has faced since the Second World War.'
'Good gosh! Who would have thought?'
'Anyway! Less of that kind of talk it time to get to business!' the Major replied. 'We need soldiers like you, Jim, to step up and fight the good fight!'
Hang on a minute? Did the Major just refer to Jim as a soldier?
'Indeed,' the Major pressed on. 'The Brazilians could make an attack on our position at any time, and we must be ready for them! We need brave men like you to fight the good fight! Now roll up your sleeve! I need to find a vein!'
'I beg your pardon?'
Jim had a right to be concerned, and even a little frightened.
'You must be injected,' the Major continued. The Major opened a large suitcase and took out of it a very very very very large needle. The tip must have been over a foot in length! 'I will try to stab you in one go,' said the Major. 'Let me warn you! The needle can break so you are going to have to be calm and still! If it breaks you might require surgery, and then we will have to start this business again - which will be unpleasant for all of us! Ah Jim! This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you...'
'Why are you doing this?' said Jim.
'This jab contains a very powerful serum,' said the Major. 'A potent formula that stimulates muscle structure, and increases hormone activity. So you are going to be a very angry man for the next few days! The effects of the jab will run out after five weeks, in which case you will be jabbed again, continually, until the war is over.'
'So what are you exactly expecting me to do here?' said Jim. 'All this talk of jabs and hormones is scary. I am a drunken and loner: Do you understand what that means for my life? I need my hormones to be dead, not reawakened.'
'Well your life is going to change a great deal from today, Jim,' the Major pressed on. 'You are a soldier now. That's right! You have been caught in the draft! It's time for you to man up and be a man! The soldiers of our army are strong lusty men, fierce brutish killers! It's time for you to step up, Jim, and do what a man must do!'
Jim was aghast to hear this.
So they were going to put him in the army?
This was all his nightmares combined into one!
The Major continued, 'Yes! That's it! You heard me very right! You are going to serve on the front line in the defence against the Brazilians! You are going to forge history, and help your country win the Secret War!'
O no he was not!
Jim punched the Major, and kneed the Banker. Then he stamped on the needle and ran away.
(Remember! All spelling errors and grammatical mistakes are intentional - the author 😆)
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