Laifer cringed whenever his men hit their batons on their police shields. He knew intimidation was the appropriate method to assert crowd control, but mishandling the situation could result in a trample over his men. He could not allow for that. He sought furiously for a means to break the crowd, and then it hit him: there was a woman among the workers!
The tall, gaunt man speaking for the Agricultural Division of the Heimlein Labor Union had by now fully lost control of the situation. Laifer tried to ignore the recrimination yells that drowned out his hesitant excuses for the food rationing he had announced, as the man's lowered head was all but calling for a charge from the miners standing less than a hundred feet from his pedestal. The yells of the crowd reverberated throughout the cave walls and ceiling, increasing its intensity tenfold.
Turning a blank stare and avoiding the frowning gaze of the workers, Laifer passed through the right part of the line formed by his Coal and Iron Police force. The technique was dangerous, but as the protesters' eyes started to turn towards him, and grips on mining picks seemed to tighten, the Union representative made up a “limitation of our ability to provide cooked food due to a lowering of coal production in the mines during the previous quarters”. Really! These men mined so much coal just their smell was flammable!
At least the speech focused all attention back to that idiot up in front. It also started a wave of calls for his blood. Now where was that damned woman? Time was pressing!
The Police Manager's heart almost stopped when he crossed the crowd completely, thinking he had lost her. Just for a moment his blank stare was very real, until the movement just ahead caught his eye. The woman had crossed the crowd just as he had: she was not part of the indulgent, but she would have to do anyway.
A few feet away from the crowd he caught up with her. His gait suddenly changed, his back straight as a wall and his head bent to tower over the woman's miniature frame. He was almost on her when he hailed her.
– Hey!
– Y-yes? The girl turned around, her breath “haletant” from the surprise.
Laifer's eyes got hold not only on her youth, but also noticed her chest for a second. She looked like his kind of woman. Damn it! He'd have to be careful not to let his gaze stray.
– This is an illegal protest. Show me your papers!
– H... huh... wha... The woman stuttered, looking left towards the assembled protesters.
The police manager bent his head a little more, fixing her with a gaze from the top of her eyes. A rictus started forming in his visage.
– I said your papers!
The woman's lean shoulders lowered a bit more as she took her Union membership card from her left pocket and presented it to the scary man. Her head was still timidly looking left and right.
The card was in as poor a shape as any worker out there, really, but the red stains looked like dried blood. Laifer had to focus for a second just to read “butcher assistant” on the half-erased card.
– Participation in an illegal manifestation and destruction of Union Property! (he displayed the card high, catching more attention from the crowd, then looked at it again). Askata Suna, you are under arrest!
Now was a delicate moment. Laifer had to keep the crowd always in his peripheral vision, make sure they were watching, but not advancing on him. Just one direct look could provoke them into a frenzy.
He then threw the girl's card back at her. She raised her arms in fright, as he expected.
– You wanna have a fight!?!
The police manager's left hand took Askata by the throat, threw a jab right to her forehead. As she raised her hands higher to protect herself, he got an uppercut directly to her chin, throwing her on her back.
His grin by now was a manic smile, the kind you read in tales to frighten children. He moved around Askata and noted that the crowd had turned silent and watching. The girl still lay on the floor, almost motionless, her tears the only sign of movement and her gray eyes wide open in disbelief.
Laifer then placed his left foot on his victim's stomach, slowly, almost gently, enjoying the soft feeling of her belly under his steel toe boot. She had become limp now. He took a moment to appreciate her body, then bent over to her
– Do you like fireworks, little girl?
As he pronounced these words, he pulled on a string from his belt and drew out an ensemble of firecrackers. He was gleaming now, or so it seemed, as he lit the end of the string and lowered it to her face. When the first firecracker burst, flames sprouted from it, burning her forehead and left cheek. Then he dropped the rest on her chest, the explosions blackening her work uniform and tearing holes through it, the sent of fire expanding in the cave. She was a screaming mess then, waving her arms up and down like the puppet of a mad puppeteer.
Suddenly he let his foot off of her, and Askata tumbled out of the way, struggled to get up, and ran out crying like a dog that's been kicked.
Laifer, Manager of the Coal and Iron Police's 7th district, stood up tall, ignoring the girl now, catching a whole crowd in a staredown he just knew he would win. The fear of fire was written on their gruff faces, their eyes a little wider then before, the smell of smoke just now reaching their noses, and the silence of the men speaking for itself.
There would not be an outbreak of violence now.
No one, absolutely no one, threatened Laifer's men.
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