“THIS IS THE LAST CALL”

“This is the last call for flight EG334X. The gate will close in 3 minutes.”

Disappear, he said. So here I am, at the airport, a crumpled grey hoodie, a pair of sunglasses and a copy of today’s local paper the only things keeping me under wraps, as I wonder when to make a dash for the gate. I don’t want the attention, and I haven’t had time to find anyone to forge me a fake passport, so if I’m going then I have to go as myself.

But Mark Gouldern has his fingers in many pies, and I’ve been wondering since I got here if his technology is behind the security at this airport. Will he know as soon as it’s scanned that I’m still alive? Does he already know because of some face scanner on the main entrance?

It’s clear to me that Mark is a man who will do anything to get what he wants, even if that means putting a hit out on an innocent man. All I did was call him out on some business discrepancies, and now I’m in the firing line? He sends the human weapon after me!?

I have to go, because I don’t have a choice.

But…

Why should I go? Of course I have a choice. Men like Mark are exactly like the thug that gave me this scar. They’re both bullies. They both think that they can grind a man into the dirt to assert their dominance. They both expect that they won’t get stung back. I came to Miami because I heard the thug who slashed my face open was here. I’m here to confront him, when I find him, and make him atone for what he did to me.

So if I can move halfway across the world to do that on some unproven gossip…why am I running away from someone like Mark? I know exactly where he is going to be. In that ring, at Drag Em To Hell. I can force him to atone for what he’s done to me. What he’s doing to my family. I only just got my Viv back, and here I am on the brink of losing her again.

Well not today.

X told me to disappear. And I will. But maybe disappearing isn’t about staying hidden forever, maybe it’s about staying hidden until the opportune moment. Maybe it’s about taking Mark by surprise to gain an advantage over him, because lord knows he’s taken the advantage by force countless times.

Maybe it’s time I practice what I preach, and took back the control that snivelling corporate slimeballs like him take from the layman every single day. A man who sees human life as a resource and not a gift does not deserve to control anything, nevermind a conglomerate. So now I must take him down at Drag Em To Hell. And then after that?

Telegon.

The paragon of profiteering, the ultimate in unscrupulousness.

Telegon must fall.

“This is the last call for flight EG334X. The gate has now closed.”