The Prankster
"Hey!" I went down to the phone company, and guess what," Mario boasted, "that call was called from a phone booth across the street!"
"That's ridiculous!" Vanelli who had finally come to retorted. "Who would know the phone number of our hideout?"
"You know Vanelli, that's the most intelligent question I've ever heard you ask!" Tony chuckled at what he said along with Godfrey and Mario. Vanelli frowned at Tony until he stopped laughing.
"Anyway, this is a very serious matter," Mario said holding a chuckle. Suddenly, there was a ruffling in the vent on the wall. "We must get that rat problem checked out," Mario exclaimed. A time bomb popped through the vent and sat in the middle of the floor.
"Fire in the hole!" Tony screamed. He swung the door open and fled the hideout with the rest of the Stabbing Oysters. There was a deafing explosion and then flames shot out the door of the hideout.
"What was that?" Godfrey asked angrily after the ringing in their ears stopped.
"I don't know, but someone wants us dead," Vanelli said, "I'll bet it's Nuniez!"
"You're really on the ball today."
The Stabbing Oysters all looked to where the air vent opened to the street. The vent had been dismantled! They looked back at their former hideout, but all they saw was a charred ruin of debris on the outside of the hole that had been blasted into the wall of the twenty-storey brick apartment building. The only thing that was still intact was, well, nothing. The clubhouse was completely destroyed.
"At least we have our health," Vanelli commented stupidly.
"You grand ass!" Godfrey screamed. "Don't you realize that we are now sitting ducks! We have nowhere to go and nothing to protect us!"
"Actually, your wrong," Vanelli boasted. "I snatched a hand gun on the way out!" Everyone looked at the inside of his light blue jacket to see a black hand gun.
"Vanelli Portillo... you're brillia... uh, clever!" Tony shouted.
"Thank you! It's hard not to gloat when you're as smart as me!"
"What do we do now?" Mario asked, returning to the important subject.
"Maybe we should just go home," said Godfrey.
"Fine," Tony choaked. With that, they all walked home to their bachelor apartaments together to retire for the evening.
The Armed Ambush
The Stabbing Oysters arranged to meet at the Art Institute of Chicago the next day. They couldn't be attacked there. Among the pieces of fantastic art, they felt safe. They walked around the corner into a room of modern twentieth century furniture.
After looking for a while, they decide to walk out into the streets of central Chicago once again. Outside, Tony caught out of the corner of his eye a black BMW which had the same licence plate as the one Nuniez got into in Darem! He knew Nuniez was near.
"Nuniez is around here! Talk like a ventriliquist so he won't notice us talking if he can see us," Tony whispered to Godfather Godfrey.
"Vanelli," Godfrey whispered obeying Tony's suggestion, "do you still have that gun?"
"Yes I still have that gun, why?" Vanelli said rather quietly, but just loud enough so that several bystanders fled in terror.
"You idiot you'll get us killed!" Tony hissed at Vanelli who cringed in fear.
A man emerged from the black BMW and carried a bag. He placed it down in front of where the Oysters were standing. He ran back to the car, opened the door, and then the black sedan motored away. From where they were standing, they could see money in the bag. Maybe it was the five thousand dollars that Nuniez owed them.
Mario approached the bag with extreme caution. It was definitely the money. He touched the money in the bag and there was nothing there. No bomb, nothing.
"It's the money!" Mario exclaimed. Suddenly, there was an explosion, but not of fire. It was an explosion of purple ink! The money was ruined.
Whipping some ink from his face, Godfrey said in his normal voice, "I can't believe it!"
"Somehow I can," Tony said dryly. "But why would he endanger his life by fooling around with us?"
