The White of a Cow's Eye

Tangles and Bluey smiled like spoilt cats, but Paris pulled the ugliest face he could, and said;

"Like fuck!"

"I have just been appointed foreman by Mr. Stavano, and you have a choice. Either go peacefully or I call Stavano down here to give you the official version."

Tangles arrived just in time to knock Paris to the ground as he lunged with a blade at Ray. Both men held Paris to the ground for a few seconds, before he pushed himself free and scurried for the knife. He reached it as a loud voice from behind said; "Mr. Paris. In my office."

Stavano was there with an armed security guard who had one hand on his holster. The clip was up and the threat to shoot seemed very real. The security guard looked old and weary, but the holster by his side shivered with the freshness of newly polished leather. Paris threw the knife away and thrust a look at Ray that cut him deeper anyway. "I'm coming back for you! And you Stavano!" To the security guard he said. "And you had better consider a pension, Bruce, before I get to you!"

The guard wilted in his stance.

"You'll do nothing of the sort, Paris. You'll get off my property now and you will stay off it. You come back here, mate and you get arrested. That simple."

Paris brushed past the three men, mumbling obscenities, and made for his car. He started the engine, and despite the road being mostly basalt, he made the tyres screech madly before speeding through the gates.

Five minutes later, when calm had returned to the shed, Ray remembered to breathe again. Tangles' grin was genuine and welcoming.

"Congratulations. You are going to keep me and Bluey on?"

Ray thanked him. "Sure...but..."

"One thing though. Don't ever mention my brother again."

"But he was your brother."

"He was an arsehole." Tangles said. And that was the last time Wood Duck was mentioned. "Forget it."

"I have some more dirty work to do. I have to get rid...I mean I have to tell Mick and Renee they no longer have a job."

"Need some moral support?" Bruce asked, tapping his immaculate holster.

Ray said he could manage it, but secretly doubted it. This would be the second time he was to be responsible for their cessation of employment. He was doing them a favour. If Stavano discovered who was down there, he would come for them himself.

***

"Bender!" Mick spat. "Back again are we?"

"Yes," Ray said.

"I'm surprised Paris didn't kick you from here to the street away."

"Paris has resigned" Ray said. "I am the foreman now."

"You're the foreman?" Renee laughed, nervously. To Ray, they looked like a couple of hungry hyena's and he was their chosen prey. Renee was busily threading intestines through her fingers. Directly above her hung the old sifting machine that Ray had invented for the purpose. It hung there like a claw from some giant bird. Spider webs clung to it. Ray thought it was the saddest sight he had ever seen.

"I see you have gone back to your old ways. Manually sifting." Ray commented.

"You can shove you machine, mate." Mick said. "Besides, it's broken. And anyway, it's a dangerous piece of crap. Killed old fart face Stavano, you know?"

Ray approached the machine and removed the cover. A couple of the wires had been torn out deliberately, but that seemed about all. He joined them together and hit the switch. A dull thudding sound escaped from the bowels of the machine. It was the only indication of life, but the claws did not move. Mick laughed. "Like I said. It's a piece of shit. We don't need that crap any more."