Hunter's Games by James P. Sumner Page A

me.”
    He smiles, but says nothing, which makes me think that prediction might not be too far wrong.
    “Okay,” I begin with a heavy sigh. “The Shark’s real name is Danny Pellaggio, and he’s doing this because twelve months ago I killed his entire family.”
    Silence.
    Wow… you could hear a pin drop at our table right now and I’m very aware I’m sitting with three FBI agents in a bar full of cops. I’ve just admitted to killing someone. Well, lots of people, actually. You could argue this isn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but I’ve got no choice.
    “I promise I’ll come along quietly if you want to stop this here and now,” I add, trying to ease the tension.
    Wallis and Johnson say nothing, but look at Chambers for guidance on how they should react.
    “Start from the beginning,” says Chambers, finally. She seems to be going through an internal struggle, trying to ignore the confession and focus on solving the more pressing issues. “Leave nothing out.”
    “You’ll forgive me if I’m quiet and slightly vague, given you’ve brought me to a bar full of police,” I say, not trying to hide my sarcasm and overall displeasure at the current situation. Chambers nods, understandingly.
    “Heaven’s Valley didn’t start out being about Dark Rain. I went there because a mob boss named Roberto Pellaggio had hired me to...” I pause, choosing my words carefully. “...remove a former business associate from a property deal. It turns out, this former associate was going to sell him some land as an under-the-table transaction, but didn’t realize that some people he worked with at GlobaTech Industries also had plans to sell the land to Dark Rain.”
    “Jesus,” says Johnson. “Aren’t GlobaTech one of the biggest defense contractors in the country?”
    “They certainly are,” I reply. “Luckily I now count them as friends. Anyway, I removed the associate from the picture, but I couldn’t hand the deeds for the land over to Pellaggio. He was pissed at me and we had a... disagreement, but it was left with me advising him to leave me alone.”
    “Which I’m assuming he didn’t do?” asks Wallis.
    “I’ll get to that part. Anyway, it turns out GlobaTech as a whole wasn’t aware of this deal with Dark Rain, and they soon had an internal reshuffle and the deal was dead in the water. However, the reason I opted not to give the deeds to Pellaggio was that the land was actually a Uranium mine… which obviously opened up a whole new can of worms.”
    “What a minute,” interrupts Chambers, confused and shocked. “Uranium? In the United States?”
    “Yup. Long story short, the land and the mine are now property of the U.S. government, following a brief conversation with the Secretary of Defense.”
    “Jesus Christ!” says Johnson, a little too loudly.
    “Oh, it gets better,” I say, somewhat wearily as I realize I’ve just technically committed treason by telling them this. “Both Dark Rain and Pellaggio’s mafia outfit then started taking it in turns to try to kill me. I got blown up by a car bomb that I thought Pellaggio's men had planted. It turns out he’d not even started trying to take me out—it was Dark Rain. But given how pissed off I was, I went to his house and... explained my unhappiness in short, loud, lethal movements to Pellaggio and the small army he had as protection.”
    “Wait, I remember that,” says Wallis. “The Mansion Massacre, right? They said that was a professional mob killing. That was you?”
    I nod.
    “Bullshit,” says Johnson. “One man couldn’t do that. There must’ve been twenty guys in there that night.”
    “Twenty-one, actually. What can I tell you? Like the old saying goes: you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry...”
    “So what does this have to do with The Shark?” asks Chambers.
    “I saw a news report on TV about it a few hours afterward, and it said there was one survivor—Danny Pellaggio, Roberto’s youngest son. He’d