Cut the head off the snake
Gustav has been gone for hours. The third day that he and Johanna have been working together, his office faking paperwork to give Hohanna “paid leave”. She had been doing surveillance work and reading files non-stop. Learning about members of her own department and their extracurricular activities and lives. The fact that almost everyone she worked with, everyone she trusted had in fact been involved made her stomach turn. At best they turned a blind eye, at worst they were involved and profited off crime.
This was against everything she was raised to be and believe in. Since she was a child Johanna had been told and taught that the police was the best of the best. Citizens that believed in law and order. That wanted to protect people weaker than them. That’s what she had in her heart and mind as she grew up and went through school and graduated before setting off to the academy.
But this was where ideals and loyalty came to die.
The last few months had been hard. Feeling that she was alone in a sea of sharks. Having to watch her own back and thinking that everyone was out to get her and that no one believed her. When Gustav had approached her a few days ago it was a relief. Knowing someone not only believed her but was already a few steps ahead. He knew who she was and knew what she was about. It was support and help that she had needed since all this started. But there was a downside. The last few eats it had just been them. No one else. Gustav said others were working the case, but for security reasons they operated in cells. She wanted to believe him. To believe in him.
But not seeing anyone else, not communicating with other officers. There was a fear that they were the only two. That they were alone. But, this morning something happened. Gustav got a phone call that seemed to disturb him. He grabbed some files, he stuttered and left telling Johanna he’s be back and closing the door. And now here she was, hours later, sitting in the apartment flicking through files and staring at the various monitoring equipment.
The door clicked. Johannas eyes turned and moved towards the door, her hand drifted over to a weapon, her thumb clicking the safety off. The door opened and it was Gustav. He held a white box in his hands as he shut the door behind him looking over at Johanna. ”Good news bad news kid” Johanna raises an eyebrow as Gustav dropped the box on the table. He leaned on top of it with a grin ”We are going into a bigger apartment. We’ll be getting some help….but….we have more reading.” He smiles a tapped the top of the box. Johanna raises an eyebrow and sat back folding her arms over her chest
”A bigger apartment? Back up? What happened?” She was suspicious. Where had he been? What happened for them to get all this extra help? It had to be something. ”There’s something you’re not telling me.” Johanna got to her feet moving around to the box of paperwork and files. She pulled one out opening it up before dropping it and looking over at Gustav ”These are closed personnel files….Interpol investigations...how did you get access to these?”
Gustav just smiled and cleared his throat before pulling out his phone flicking through it. Johannas phone buzzed and she pulled it out reading through the information. ”Krieger, welcome to the CPTF. Corruption Prevention Task Force...I didn’t come up with the name, don’t read into it.” He laughed and picked the box up loving it over to the door before starting to pack up the equipment.
A wave of relief washed over her. It was official. A group to break down and cut out the corruption. This may be the first time in months she allowed herself to have hope. She let out a long sigh and got to her feet starting the clean up. Gustav seemed like a man possessed, he loved and packed fast. Johanna matches him with speed. They had work to do.
”Fucking Jesse Salco”
A pair of hands with black painted nails dragged down a hardwood table taking some of the varnish off. Johanna Krieger very slowly takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.
”Before I talk about anything else. I have to ask Mark Ward. Christian Underwood. What the hell did Jesse Salco ever do to either of you?”
She pauses raising her eyebrows with her shoulders. A genuine look of concern in her face
”Think about it. A few months ago I signed my SCW contract. I entered this company and the stacked bombshells division barely felt a ripple. I conquered the mixed tag division with Alex and again, barely a ripple on a calm lake. The entire time I was taking out bombshells left and right. And now, after that long road I am officially the roulette champion after adding Seleana Zdunich to my list of former bombshells champions that have fallen in my wake. And trust me on this. Seleana won’t be the last.”
“And while I’m on the subject of the now turner Roulette champion, I’ll admit that at Violent conduct she brought a fight to me. But then again, it’s amazing the kind of fight or flight chemical reaction you have when you’re standing in and bring that surrounded by flames. I personally didn’t care, I knew I wasn’t going in the flames and I also knew that Seleana didn’t have what it took to burn another human being. It takes a special kind of beast to enjoy the smell of burning human flesh...yet I did…”
“I don’t care what kind of match I defend this championship in. I’ll do whatever it takes.“
“I don’t care if it’s another inferno match, I don’t care if it’s something to do with barbwire or glass, I don’t care if it’s a submission match, a false account anyway match, cage match. An electrified cage match. whatever the wheel lands on, it just gives me more chaos to play with. And that is the name of the game. I told Seleana that this title was tailor made for me, chaos. And if they want me to defend the championship every single week, I wouldn’t care. But they’ll very slowly start to run out of challengers. Because after a bombshell gets in the ring with me, especially in a match as brutal as some of them, they will be changed forever and won’t want to do it again.”
Johanna can’t help but chuckle. She pushes off the table and folds her arms over her chest.
”Which brings me to Jesse Salco.”
She pauses again and takes a long deep breath.
”Jesse fucking Salco. The broken record of the bombshells division. The woman who is more championship hungry than all of us in Wolfslair yet someone who is currently starving. But it’s always someone else right Jesse? It’s always you versus the world. But you will always, always talk about beating your opponent like the thought of losing never enters your empty little head. Every single week Salco, you spout off and guarantee victory. Now, I get it. I get why you do it. You want to put forward a mask of confidence. You want to say you’ll beat everyone before the match…”
“The issue is that ninety nine percent of the time, you lose. You beat Maki, and the whole world looked shocked. Hell Jesse I was shocked. I applauded because you fi ally lived up to a guarantee. But again Jesse look how shocked eeeyone was. Do you know how bad it has to be the people that surprised when you actually win a match? Most match ups in sin city wrestling people can still see the possibility of anyone winning the match, so they can be upset but there is a difference between say, Jack Washington beating Alex Jones, and you beating Maki.”
“And after beating her, you now have a roulette championship match against me. And part of me wants to believe it is that when I got you this championship opportunity Jesse. I mean that makes sense right? So you win one high-profile match and suddenly get a championship title opportunity? No that doesn’t make sense. You didn’t earn a shot at this championship.”
“So, if you didn’t earn it...why did you get it?”
Her eyes narrow and her arms stay folded across her chest as a small smirk curls her top lip up.
” that’s why I asked Kristian and Mark at the beginning of this, what did you do to piss them off Jesse? You had to go through that horrible match with Maki, and you escape it, so now you’ve been put in a Roulette championship match with me. And as I said, on the surface it looks like you’re being rewarded. A title opportunity, a chance for you to finally capture some gold and live up to all those guarantees that week after week and match after match you decide to try and make. A chance for you to finally live up to the potential that you apparently have that no one else can see. But you scratch the surface dig a little deeper you find something a little bit more nefarious don’t you Jesse?”
“Who in their right mind would want to go into a match against me? Let alone a match that could end up being any type of rules on a spinning wheel.“
“I know that you will come into this match with all of the heart and effort that we know you exude every single week. But the problem is Jesse, that you do have that effort every single week. You do put your heart into every single match. And it has got you nowhere. All you have to do is stop, study, and learn. When you lose the match don’t ignore it, studies, make sure what you did never happens again. If you’re coming up against a opponent that you know is dangerous and one of the best in the world, don’t ignore that fact and lean away from it and talk a mad amount of shit and put forth that you think you’re the better wrestler. Because every single piece of evidence shows the opposite to that.”
“Be honest with yourself, look inside and question why you were going to lose the match and then try and beat it within. And if that doesn’t work, like it won’t work when it comes to facing me, then you take your beating like a real woman, you pull your pants up, go to the back, and try it all over again. That is the only thing that’s going to happen here Jesse, because you are facing someone who is better than you. Or more dangerous than you. And someone who has absolutely positively no mercy.”
