CHARACTERS:
Red Appleton, President of the United States, after President Sullivan's death in office
C. C. Connor, former Chief of Staff to President Sullivan; trained assassin
Millie Manowitz, California state representative, twin sister of C.C. Connor; assassin.
Samantha Anthra, Chief of Staff to President Appleton; murdered Pres. Sullivan
Manuel Kontroz, Assistant to the President
Ben Baker, aka Butcher of Baghdad aka Bobby Do, assassin
Bull Schlitz, Chief Police Inspector
Detective Piglette (Piglet) Detective
Alexander Enero, Assassin, shot by Betty Brady
Dulce Corazon, Assassin, shot by Betty Brady
Betty Brady, Assassin, drowned by Dave Vision
Dave Vision, Assassin, vivisected by Zack Newton, Detective/Assassin, shot by unknown sniper
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FLASHBACK from Baker's Dozen

"I actually had another agent in the mix," said Connor, "but he must have been taken out early. He can't be located." 

"Who was that?" asked Baker.

"Tim Bends."

As if summoned from the dead, from beneath a mound of body bags, the pitiful specter of Tim Bends rose to his knees. His body, blackened in dried blood and soil, with one eye peering out like a diamond in a ghastly statue of coal, trembled and fought to remain erect.

Connor yelled, "Is that you Bends? Boy, you are a marvel!"

Bends, using whatever supernatural strength his body still retained, lifted a crossbow and rested it on a crate. Before another word was spoken, he pulled the trigger and sent a bolt straight to the chest of C.C. Connor.  
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FLASHBACK from Assassin Nation

Kontroz had left his plane and advanced on the covered area, passing a body which looked like a big meat pie.  Inside he discovered five more bodies.  One, appeared to be a rotting corpse, lying over a wooden box, with a crossbow still in his hands. 
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Last Time:

"How can you possibly know any of this for sure?" Bull asks, holding his revolver in the decided direction of Manuel Kontroz.

"The police phone records are available for inspection. I was able to eliminate any outside calls concerning these cases. There were none, leaving the messenger as the origin as well."

"I can't imagine Detective Peesh -- Detective Peegla --"

"Detective Piglette, Inspector," comes a voice from the doorway.

Bull looks at the man as if he doesn't recognize him.

"Piglet?"
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Kontroz reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out two sets of soft ear plugs. Extending his hand to the inspector, he says, "Put these in -- quickly."

Looking at the plugs and then to the eyes of the stranger, Bull rolls the pliable wads in his hands as he turns back to his partner. 

After inserting the plugs, Kontroz' hand touches his collar and removes a six-inch, string-like wire, which he pulls into a straight stiff wand. 

Detective Piglette moves into the office as Manuel Kontroz maneuvers himself between the two policemen. At the same time, Kontroz snaps his right wrist back, ejecting a comb-sized device from his cuff to the palm of his hand.     

"His name is Tim Bends, Inspector," says Kontroz.

"Who's Tim Bends?" asks Piglette.

"Yeah, who's Tim Bends?" repeats Bull.

As Kontroz raises both the device and the wire up in front of him, he watches the detective to note any subtle changes in his demeanor.

"Tim Bends was the Assistent Postmaster General in the Sullivan Administration."

"Sounds like a dangerous man," says Detective Piglette, smiling. 

"The last time I saw him he was a dead man in the frozen forests of New York state," says Kontroz. "His DNA was positively identifed and his body supposedly removed and processed with other casualties." 

"People go postal in the woods?" asks Piglette. "Who ARE you anyway?"  

Kontroz attaches the wire to the device, which now looks like a small remote control.

"What is that -- a phone?" asks Bull.

"Some assembly required I see," says Piglette, noticing the Inspector's revolver in his hand and slightly elevated toward the stranger's direction. "Who is this, Bull?"

"I ain't entirely sure, Piglet, but he's been makin' me feel like I been on a snipe hunt while the fox was in the hen house."

"Tim Bends was reported killed in a private plane crash last year," says Kontroz. "Then I found his body, which I presumed to be dead, in a secret government training area."

"Find a plane too, with the Assistant Postmaster General?" says Piglette.

 "No, I did not. Lately, however, I've discovered many interesting things about mind control."

"Do tell," says Piglette, hand slipping behind to the small of his back and his own revolver.

"I was recently attacked by someone with whom I was, only seconds previously, having a conversation."

"Politics, right?" says Piglette.

"She received some type of signal, after which she became quite determined to kill me."

"That sounds like half the women I date," says Piglette, producing a gun from behind his back.

"Yeah," agrees Bull, then looking to Kontroz, the pistol in his hand definitely aiming at the visitor. "My second wife was a lot like that."

Kontroz smiles before presenting  a blank face. "My personal plane absorbs, deflects, and records radio waves within a two thousand hertz span. This person who attacked me did so after being switched on with a radio signal. I have all of several hundred captured signals on this floppy string. When I press this actualizer, the area will be flooded with them."

"That story is bizarre. I should arrest you for saying it," says Piglette. 

Manuel Kontroz presses a button on the device.  


To be continued