”Oliver answer your damn phone or you’re fired!”

CLICK

Damn it. Oliver’s boss Gina left him a voicemail. Who did that? Maybe it was because he had been ignoring her texts, emails, and facebook messages. Oliver thought for a moment about what he should say to her. He’d been sent here to Tombstone Arizona to look for someone but he didn’t have a lot to go on. Just a description, a tall balding white male who had a nickname of the Baphomet. And he didn’t even know what the source of this information was. It was just in the CIA’s database. He didn’t know what to say, but Oliver had kind of a “fuck it” life philosophy so he decided he would just call her back now and improv on the fly what to say to her. This strategy had served him well in life. Whenever his back was against the wall, he just made shit up on the fly, and it always worked out well enough. He was alive wasn’t he? So it must have.

The phone dialed.

CLICK

Gina: Hello?

Oliver: Hi Gina. I’m just calling you back. Sorry it took a moment.

Gina: Yeah-

Oliver: I was just busy searching this town all day.

Gina: Ok well Oliver I just need you to be available for updates. This is important.

Oliver: Well I asked around all over this town. No one has seen or heard of this guy.

Gina: You asked around?

Oliver: Yeah, I even went to that OK Corral museum. No one’s heard of him. Yeah no big tall caucasians around here. But that makes sense doesn’t it? He probably just attended this event, this wrestling event “High Stakes”, didn’t go out to any businesses or talked to anyone, just did his thing and left.

Gina: Are you sure? He must have left some trace.

Oliver sighed. This wasn’t going so well. He knew what this was really about. This was a waste of time and Gina was just desperate because she might be out of a job soon with the new administration. He even suspected she might try to scapegoat him for some failures on her way out so he was being cautious.

The truth is he didn’t think finding this Baphomet guy (lame name) was going to be possible. Not because he was some genius. He murders people in federal custody and then joins a wrestling company that puts his face all over national TV. Seems stupid but it means he’s untouchable. Oliver had seen this before. The worst most despicable murderers were in charge or corporations and countries.

Gina: Hello? Are you there? Are you sure you looked all over the town, I understand he isn’t there but we need information, anything he might have said to anyone.

The CIA was caught flat footed as usual. They’d even sent him out here almost 3 weeks after the perp was last reported seen here. It’d make more sense to go to wherever this wrestling promotion was scheduled to be at next but Oliver guessed they must have someone else on that, he was being given this shit assignment because they wanted to blame him for “failing” and then to have an excuse to not promote him. His career trajectory should have had him in charge of the western district of Mexico by now, with a path towards being an ambassador or cabinet member in ten years. Not sniffing up the ass through the crotch end of a pig.

Oliver: No trace here. Where do you want me next? This XWF is touring over in Western Europe.

Gina: Yeah, Oliver, you’ve been out in the field before. You have a black belt.

Oliver: Yeah so?

Gina: You’re going to go undercover. Join the XWF and tail Baphomet. Get in close.

Oliver: What are you talking about? Who is this guy? If you know he murdered people take him in. Why is this our problem? Undercover?

Gina had a loud annoying voice. Oliver especially hated her because his wife was named Geena. Not spelled the same but pronounced the same. It always made him think of her and it had ruined his relationship with his wife. But it was such a stupid thing, he couldn’t tell anyone or he would look like an idiot.

Gina was trying to tell him to go undercover and he knew for sure now he was being undermined. It’d make him look like a laughing stock in ten years or so when he planned to join public life. He couldn’t have this kind of thing on his resume. Although it could be interesting . . . there might be a way to turn this to his advantage. As usual Oliver was going to trust his instincts.

Gina: This is a red flag primary priority mission.

Oliver: Priority? Ok so you have to tell me more about this guy if this is what I’m getting myself into. Classified or not-

Gina: It is classified but-

Oliver: Classified or not, I have clearance!

Gina: Ok so the people getting killed, Tony Gold, Corbin, Corin whatever Havens, the thing they all had in common was they were members of the High Society. Oliver, that is a society we only recently learned existed. Danny Starr and all of these other guys got arrested and the CIA has barely had any time to question them and they’re getting killed off. There’s something going on here.

Oliver: Gina who are these guys? What did the “High Society” do? And who else have you sent after this guy?

Gina: We did send some other agents. They . . . stopped calling in. We think they’re dead.

Oliver: Jesus-

So it was like that. Starr was rich and powerful and had kept under the radar for years as the CIA amongst others looked for him. Only recently had he been arrested and his henchmen were getting taken out. The govt must have been protecting him. Or were just embarrassed that he had eluded them for so long. So this mission really was worthwhile. He could use this to get to the big leagues. But he had to be careful. Apparently this Baphmet guy had also killed his fellow agents. But those guys were idiots. Now they were bringing out the big guns. Oliver graduated top of his class from Yale. Skull and Bones. Z Society.

And even if this turned into another cockup like Operation Gideon it could be spun the same way. All of those guys got promotions even though they fucked up. It could only help him if he was involved with something like this. He just had to not die.

Gina: Ok, so I’m going to send you the XWF contact details. And there’s someone there for you to talk to.

Oliver: Ok great who is it?

Gina: Name’s Tommy Romeo.

Oliver: Romeo?

Gina: Yeah, check your messages. And answer your damn phone.

CLICK

Alright that was it. He started looking at the website on his phone. This was going to be fun actually. He already knew this place was full of a bunch of clowns. It must have been a place for low level criminals to hide out. Hide in plain site, that whole idea. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d beaten the shit out of a low level punk. Just last fall he had been walking around Manhattan when some teenager tried to grab his phone out of his hand. He chased the kid down, tackled him, broke his arm, left him there. He wondered what happened to the kid. He really snapped the arm at the elbow behind his back. It had been unnecessary but he just kind of got furious at the sheer audacity. To attack him! Oliver Danielson. Soon . . . Ambassador Danielson. Or maybe even politics. He could be the vice president for his friend Pete Buttigieg when he runs in 8 years. Would being a professional wrestler really hurt his chances? Americans wanted over the top characters to rule over them nowadays. This would be perfect.