Conspiracy
Denver, Colorado
Last year.
It’s funny, as you get older in life you think you seen and felt everything. Austin had grown up in Las Vegas, so he knew heat. At least he thought he did. Until he did a tour of Australia in the middle of the summer. Then as he grew up as a teenager in New York he thought he knew cold going through the winters. But now here he was at the beginning of December, standing in an outer suburb of Denver Colorado. Now he knew what cold was. his teeth shattered and ground together, his hands shook even under the gloves that he bought and under the heavy leather jacket and a thermal shirt. This was the type of cold that you could feel in your bones.
He was dreading stepping out of the car, he let go of the steering wheel and pulled the handle pushing the door open. The air hit him like a hard slap in the face. Austin reached over and pulled the hood from the sweatshirt he was wearing under the jacket up and over his head. His feet crunched on the ground as he crushed the fresh snow. He slammed the door shut looking across the street. A small diner was there, the one he agreed to meet his contact in. Austin used his father‘s old address book to find a trusted private eye that lived close enough to Denver. Lisa wasn’t sure if she wanted answers, afraid of what she might find. But Austin knew that this was the best thing for her, the only way that his sister will be able to move on with her life. Austin moved across the road, he took a few steps down the side walk before taking a left into the door of the diner, a small bell right above the door alerting everyone to his entrance.
Not that it was easy for Austin to ever look like he was just a regular member of society. He gets looks wherever he goes just based on his size alone. He might not have been 7 foot tall but it’s not every day you see someone who is 6 foot 6 and is built like Austin. You add onto that his higher public profile since becoming a professional wrestler and it’s very hard for Austin to go unnoticed anywhere he goes.
He looked across the diner at all the tables and people enjoying their meals, and coffees. He saw a hand shoot up over in the corner he smoked and took a few steps over to it. To his surprise his contact was a young blonde woman. He raised an eyebrow having only dealt with private eyes who were old men, former police officers. Austin moved around and sat down across from her. He took off his gloves feeling the heat from the system inside before placing them next to him and lasting his hands together. The woman looked through a file before closing it and moving it to the side, she took a sip of coffee before looking up at Austin and matching his posture. Even her body language changed to match his as she classed her hands together.
”Mister Mercer. Thank you for coming. My name is Amanda Carr. I have been working your case with the information provided” she signalled to the counter, the waitress gave a small smile and not before walking over with another cup and a fresh jug of coffee. She put it down in front of Austin with a small cup of milk and some sugar. As she backed away and returned to the counter Austin poured himself a cup adding nothing to it instead just waiting for it to cool down enough to drink.
Austin cleared his throat and took a long deep breath before taking a sip. ”So, the message your company sent said you found something.” Austin tried not to seem pushy, but he was interested in seeing what Amanda had found.
She gave a small note before putting a finger on top of the file and moving it towards Austin. She turned and pulled a phone out of her bag turning it sideways and swiping it to open before flicking through a few things. ”Yes, I was interested when my father asked me to take the case. He said while he owed your father he didn’t owe you anything.” Austin gave a small nod trying not to lose his cool. Did this mean that he put his daughter on the case because it wasn’t worth his time?. How dare he.”I get it. I can see it in your eyes and your body language that you were angry about this. But I can assure you I’m just as good if not better than my father. He’s stuck in his ways. And honestly...I looked deeper than he would have.”
Austin took another long deep breath before leaning forward he took another sip of his coffee and then moved the cup out of the way before taking the file. He slowly opened it and started reading. ”I apologise if I seemed skeptical or angry. I’m sure you are a more than capable investi-“ Austin stopped midsentence. He moved a few of the papers to the side before grabbing what looked to be a printed picture. He looked over before spinning it around showing it right to Amanda pointing. ”This...this is a new picture.”
”Yes. I found the target and was able to find a pattern in where he went. At the back of the file there is a list of numbers and names. Known associates, a job, his address. And his phone number. Austin swallowed hard and move the picture to the side before pulling out the piece of paper that she pointed out. His eyes Trail up and down learning everything he could. Amanda gave a small smile sitting back and taking a drink of her own coffee. ”If I had another two weeks I could find out what color underwear he likes.” she laughed to herself as Austin stayed staring ahead.
He slammed his hand on the table, trying not to get angry as Amanda jumped tilting her head confused. ”He’s meant to be dead.” The delivery was cold, with a hint of anger mixed in. Amanda moved back a look of fear in her eyes as Austin took a few deep breaths to calm down realising how he must sound. Maybe it was time to explain to Amanda exactly what was going on. ”I’m sorry. It’s just, this man. If you can call him a man. He’s the father of my nephew, my sister told me what happened with him. It’s been months and he hasn’t contacted her…” there was a look of relief in Amanda’s eyes as she relaxed and sat forward.
She gave Austin a small smile and nod before turning her phone to him, flicking through photos. Another woman, another child. ”He's not only alive….he has a wife..and kid..” Austin gave her the phone back; he shook his head and slumped in the booth. After a few moments he reached into his jacket pulling out a small brown envelope stuffed with money. He slid it towards Amanda and got to his feet.
”Thank you Miss Carr. But this next part I have to do alone…”
What's in the suitcase?
It had been an interesting time for Austin. Feeling the need to take a step away from sin city as much as he could. After losing the Internet championship and watching it become something that he never wanted it to, he needed that time away. He needed to be away from the spotlight and let Alex take it, and after a string of losses that he just wasn’t used to it seemed as if the monkey was finally off his back after beating Caleb.
”Well, I showed another pretended that he really needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better way to try and lead someone like me. Caleb storms has been around long enough that he really should know better, that he should know what it takes to be the champion and to climb up that ladder. ” but, he doesn’t. He came at me and put up more of a fight than you would expect and did a lot better than a lot of people expected him to, but the truth will reveal itself and what happens after the match. Will Caleb look at the loss and realise what he can learn from it? Or will he just ignore it and go back to doing what he was doing? Because that clearly hasn’t worked. A lot should be taken from what I say when I said here before or after a match and dissected all make observations about my opponents.”
“In the end, when I talk people should listen. My success has spoken for self. I have done everything that I could to become one of the best professionals on this planet today and to be able to give my knowledge to others. I’m far from a seasoned veteran like say, Alex, but I am someone who is and will forever be a world champion. So when I look at you and I try and give you advice, the hard way, you should listen.”
“Caleb probably won’t, Jake Raab didn’t.”
“And where are they now? What are they doing? Caleb is still in the exact same position now as he was a year ago and two years ago at three years ago. And Jake? After having an interesting run he has faded away into obscurity to the point where no one really cares about him, and that when we do talk about him it’s places like this where we want to know what went wrong and why he failed. So maybe, just maybe some of you need to start listening to myself and to Alex and to Alicia because we know what it is to succeed and be champions in this company and all around the world. Some people call it arrogance, some people think that we’re just cocky assholes. Some people think we all sound the same, but then again those people are failures at everything they’ve done in their lives and shouldn’t ever come back to sin city because, they’d get destroyed.”
You can see the annoyance and anger in Austin‘s eyes as he takes a long deep breath trying to calm himself down. It seems as if the monster has been released and the beast is ready to take over.
”So, when I come into a match like this, against two people who need my advice. I wonder if they will listen, or arrogantly shove it aside. But the match we are going into, it is one that is different and hard to describe. See, normally we are just fighting for position on the card, to state our claims to get shots are championships prove that we can be the best. But this match has another goal. You need to beat your opponents down to the point where they can’t stop you climbing a ladder to get a suitcase. What is in that suitcase? None of us know. It could be a guaranteed title shot against any of the champions. It could be a contract for more money per appearance. Or, it could be a gift certificate to subway. We have no idea.”
He offers a shrug, his long hair tied back as he paces back-and-forth.
”Stephan Callaway and Agostino Romano. One man who can’t do anything in this company aside from the blues, and another man named after a cheese. Callaway and I have been here before. We’ve been in the ring before and constantly I keep telling this guy the same thing. He’s a veteran of this business, a former world champion and someone who likes to mouth off about it every chance he gets. But he hasn’t been able to do anything. In this company he’s a name on a piece of paper, he’s a punchline to a joke that is very rarely funny. It’s more sad. And week after week he does the same damn thing. The last time we saw him was about a month ago when he had to get in the ring to face Mac Bane, Lachlan Kane and Romano in a match at the Supercard.”
“Callaway had a chance, a real chance, to put his foot down and remind people why he was a world champion in other companies decades ago. Instead, we saw him record a promo where he talked about coming back to Vegas and bringing back good memories like it was going to make a difference.“
“Stephan. You’re in a company based in Vegas. You are here all the time. So if that time felt special to you than every other time would’ve needed to be special to. Meaning that none of them are special. But then you went on this glorious speech about being the world champion and how if you were the top guy in Sin city wrestling you would have to have so much pressure put on you. But you came crashing back to reality. You talked about your opponents having no motivation to win. And that just goes to show that you don’t belong here Callaway. Your motivation should be to win, your motivation should be to show that you still have it and that you are the best every time you step between those ropes. And the fact that you need a fucking carrot dangled in front of your face to actually do anything in this company just shows me that you need to retire and leave.”
“So, I'm gonna do a favour for you in this match Callaway.”
“I’m going to get in the ring. With you and Romano cheese, and I’m going to beat you down, I’m gonna use that letter in ways that you can’t even imagine, I’m going to throw you off the top of the ladder onto your crush against Matt. I’m gonna make your body hurt so much that it’s gonna remind you how old you are, it’s gonna remind you how much this business hurts. And you are finally going to retire and walk away and stop stinking this company up with your inane bullshit.”
Austin laughs under his breath and shakes his head before refocusing.
”Now, Agostino Romano. The most stereotypical Italian name since Luigi Mario. Part of me likes you. So, part of me likes you because it’s quite clear that you do not give a shit what people think about you. You obviously have heart and soul when it comes to professional wrestling, you obviously want to make this a future for yourself and you want to learn and do you want to try hard. I applaud you for that. I absolutely applaud you for it. And who knows? With a little bit of extra help and some focus you might do something in this business and in this company. And as I said part of me likes you. There is another part of me though that wants to beat the hell out of you just for who you are.”
“You teamed up with Candy in a failed attempt to capture the mixed tag team championships, and hey I get it you tried hard and soda candy. I know what it’s like to team with candy and I’m very impressed you’re able to keep your cool with her unbelievably crushing positivity. But that doesn’t give you a free pass. You needed to tag with her to get yourself a title shot because you haven’t been able to do a damn thing as a singles wrestler have you?”
“You came into this company and act like you actually know what you’re doing when in reality you don’t. You fly around the ring, you act like you are god's gift to this company and you dress like a reject from burning man who is high on acid and doesn’t know why he’s there.“
“Romano, you can get in the ring and you can do everything you possibly can’t win. In fact you very well might. In this kind of match luck comes into it, Callaway has absolutely no chance but you do. I don’t know what’s in that suitcase and neither do you but we’re going to be fighting for it. You are getting in the ring with one of the biggest and strongest members of the sin city wrestling roster who is also back on the winning path and who wants his championship back. You’re going against one of the best professionals on this planet today. So what are you gonna do cheese boy?. Good luck...to both of you. You’ll need it.”
