Turmoil in Paradise
Trouble Shooter or Hitman
by
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Gawler pulled the Humvee into the kerb, opened the door and stepped out onto the rough pavement. Two thugs crashed out of the Chinese café wrestling, locked together and struggling to get a grip on the pistol one of them held by its butt. They were both heavily built. But not as big as Gawler. One had a barbed wire tattoo across his forehead, the other sported long scraggly, greasy hair and a bushrangers beard. They reeked from the sickly-sweet aroma of the rum seeping from their pores. The bearded guy had one hand trying to rip the gun away from the hand of the tattooed guy. He was forcing the gun downwards. With his free hand the bearded guy was gouging the face of the tattooed guy who in turn was using his free hand to try and claw the bearded guy’s hand away from his face. Three shots splattered slugs onto the pavement. One of the slugs ricocheted millimetres from Gawlers boot. The thugs collided heavily with Gawler. One of them screamed “get out of the way you pussy.” Gawler thought “last week I was called a hitman, now Im a pussy- not possible to be both, this needs to be resolved right now.” Gawler used both hands to apply a vice-like grip to each of the thugs’ wrists which were still the focus of the wrestle to possess the gun. With a mighty weightlifter’s heave, he wrenched both combatants arms upwards momentarily lifting both thugs off balance. The gun was now at chest height pointing upwards with each guy still using one hand to get a controlling grip on it. Another shot rang out and a bullet smashed into the mouth of the tattooed guy. The bullet exited through a large and ugly hole in the back of the tattooed guys head after blowing fragments of teeth, brain, skull and portions of his face onto the pavement and over the face of the bearded guy. Some smatterings of brain also splattered onto the front window of Chinese café as the guy fell to the pavement. As the tattooed guy was falling the bearded guy finally wrenched the gun away from him. He pointed the gun at Gawler and breathlessly grunted. “You got yourself into something you should have stayed out of you pussy, now you must pay.” Gawler decided to end the conversation before the bearded guy could utter another word. He stepped to one side as he swung his outstretched left arm in an arc extending with full force from his chest and shoulder. He sliced the guy with a backhanded rabbit killer which thumped onto the righthand side of his neck shutting off his earterial artery, - Gawler hoped temporarily. Still clutching the gun, the guy fell across his fallen former adversary.
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About the Book
The town of Buckleboo Creek in tropical North Queensland was known as a tropical paradise. But engineer Sam Gawler learned from the moment he hit the towns main street that the place had a seedy underbelly. Gawler was nominally a‘Trouble Shooter for the giant mining corporation which dominated the town. But the unorthodox methods he used to sort out the company’s problems were described by some who knew him as those of a ‘Hitman’. He was the man the corporation called upon when sticky situations required an unorthodox solution. He was not an employee. He was a ‘gun for hire’. The agreement Gawler had with the company guaranteed him that they would always provide all the support and resources he needed. And they expected him to do the job his way. The company wanted results from Gawler, but they didn’t always want to know the details of how he got them. They understood that he cut corners and pushed boundaries. He was paid handsomely to get the job done. But Gawler always had no doubt that if he stepped over the line the company would deny all knowledge of him. He was comforted with the unwritten understanding he had with the company that they would always back him to the hilt behind the scenes. He preferred the anonymity the role offered him. Now the company needed him at their goldmine in Buckleboo Creek. Gawler had been their first and only choice. He had spent several years travelling to sort out difficult issues at the company’s trouble spots in many parts of the world. He had always come up trumps.