Four Killing Birds by Leslie Langtry

Author:Leslie Langtry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: holiday, humor, christmas, short story, funny, dark humor, quick read
Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing

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Several hours later, Cy and Dak pushed a large cage on wheels up to the cassowary enclosure. I'd fitted the back end with a covering cloth so the birds wouldn't see the guys. Gin and I maneuvered the birds into the cage. Just before closing the door, Poppy jumped into the cage with them.

Gin started to protest, but upon seeing that the little dog had a calming effect on the birds, she let the pug stay. We lowered the cloth to cover all four sides and hooked the cage up to a golf cart. The four of us drove to the airfield, where everyone was loaded onto the plane. We were airborne in minutes.

The four of us spent the whole seventeen hour flight going over the plans until we had them memorized. When we weren't going over the plans or eating, we rested. There was a lot to do once we landed. Dak had brought a couple of movies with him—the usual Bombay family fare of Zulu and Zulu Dawn. I slept through most of that.

Everything looked good. It seemed like we had a workable plan that we could execute fairly easily. But that means nothing to a Bombay. We are used to having things go wrong, so we are never at ease. This isn't because we are incompetent—it's just that after four thousand years of hired work, we've learned that things rarely go according to plan. This is why our family has survived in the field for so long. Expect the unexpected.

On the other hand, this was our one chance at this hit. It was the mother of all assignments, and it was the last assignment. We wouldn't get a chance to try again later. This was it. It's really enough to make an assassin nervous if you think about it.

After landing in Australia, Gin retrieved Poppy from the cassowary cage, and we drove to the private home I'd rented. We loaded the birds into a barn on the property and heaved a collective sigh once inside the house. We had arrived.

The house was gorgeous—owned by a very wealthy New Zealander who never visited. He just liked the idea that he owned an expensive home in Australia. The décor was a sort of Victorian African hunting lodge with taxidermied big game animals in various poses all over the house. We were too tired to even make fun of it all, so we hit four of the guest rooms and passed out.

Every single one of us was up early the next morning. It was Christmas Eve, and we still had some recon to do. Coney whipped up some amazing omelets from the fully stocked kitchen as we talked about the day.

Gin and I took Poppy and a couple of bowls of fruit to the barn to check on the birds. It had been late and dark when we checked in, which was why we were surprised to find that the barn was almost as nice as the house—complete with air-conditioning and cathedral ceilings and skylights.

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