Back to GatefoldIssue #18 by Mike Hintze
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He walked around the room, exposed to the world without a care. His silk robe was open at the front, exposing his less than adequate manhood. Behind him was a young girl, knees held to her chest, crying on the bed. She had been brought in moments earlier and left alone with the man. He was sipping from a glass of wine.
My sights never wavered as I watched him. His cocky demeanor made me sick. The intelligence I had read on him was worse. His name was Werner Van Klaustik and he was involved in the conspiracy I was now neck deep in thanks to Nick Fury. Van Klaustik was also involved in the slavery/prostitution ring I had busted earlier, the ring that had set SHIELD upon me like a swarm of locusts.
The last twenty four hours had been one of the most mobile of my life. From Malaysia to Canada, the Unites States and finally Bermuda, I had evaded detection while I found this creature. He wasn’t the big guy at the top of the conspiracy within SHIELD, not even close. But he was my closure to the events in New York. Those girls had faced untold tortures before I had found them. The men with them had paid dearly…and now it was time for Werner to pay up as well.
I zeroed my sights on him. The shot was from several hundred yards away, a hard shot in perfect conditions…but with this SHIELD issue rifle, a much easier one to make. I was officially off the grid with the world and most importantly, SHIELD. The equipment I had at my disposal was phenomenal. I agreed to do what it took for Fury in return for carte blanche to do the mission as I saw fit. When I saw the arsenal at my disposal, I knew right away I had made a good choice. I wasn’t Fury’s lapdog…but I would sic the right people when they were presented to me.
Werner turned to face his latest victim. His robe slid to the floor, revealing the liver spots and old flesh of the old man he was. He raised his arms, stretching, then began to walk to the bed. Her eyes were full of horror. What she saw in his face…she must know she was not going to survive this encounter.
I took a deep breath, then released it. My sight was on Werner’s center of mass. I relaxed.
I pulled the trigger.
My sights never wavered as I watched him. His cocky demeanor made me sick. The intelligence I had read on him was worse. His name was Werner Van Klaustik and he was involved in the conspiracy I was now neck deep in thanks to Nick Fury. Van Klaustik was also involved in the slavery/prostitution ring I had busted earlier, the ring that had set SHIELD upon me like a swarm of locusts.
The last twenty four hours had been one of the most mobile of my life. From Malaysia to Canada, the Unites States and finally Bermuda, I had evaded detection while I found this creature. He wasn’t the big guy at the top of the conspiracy within SHIELD, not even close. But he was my closure to the events in New York. Those girls had faced untold tortures before I had found them. The men with them had paid dearly…and now it was time for Werner to pay up as well.
I zeroed my sights on him. The shot was from several hundred yards away, a hard shot in perfect conditions…but with this SHIELD issue rifle, a much easier one to make. I was officially off the grid with the world and most importantly, SHIELD. The equipment I had at my disposal was phenomenal. I agreed to do what it took for Fury in return for carte blanche to do the mission as I saw fit. When I saw the arsenal at my disposal, I knew right away I had made a good choice. I wasn’t Fury’s lapdog…but I would sic the right people when they were presented to me.
Werner turned to face his latest victim. His robe slid to the floor, revealing the liver spots and old flesh of the old man he was. He raised his arms, stretching, then began to walk to the bed. Her eyes were full of horror. What she saw in his face…she must know she was not going to survive this encounter.
I took a deep breath, then released it. My sight was on Werner’s center of mass. I relaxed.
I pulled the trigger.
“Intelligence: Part Four of Four”
24 Hours Earlier
“I want the man behind the New York operation.”
Nick Fury looked at me with that all-knowing gaze he’d perfected over the years as big man of the spy game. I could never tell whether he was considering what I said or trying not to laugh in my face. The man behind the world’s biggest spy and law enforcement agency, and he was being told by a vigilante about what must have amounted to peanuts in his grand scheme of the world.
“You killed them all, Frank.”
I smiled, not in any amused way. “I killed the men in that building. I didn’t kill who they report to. That operation wasn’t limited to that one house. It was a network. I want the head of that network.”
Fury chomped on his stogie. “We’ll get there, Frank,” he said. “We have other fish to fry first.”
“You need me,” I said. “You said as much. There are things in the world, all related to some massive conspiracy, that you can’t redress directy. I can. If you want my skills and my time, you give me that man.” I looked Fury in the eyes. “Or I walk.”
“You walk,” said Fury, “And I can’t guarantee your survival. You pop up on the grid and SHIELD will have you back in a heartbeat. Odds are you won’t survive the week.”
“And working for you is going to be any safer?” I asked. “You’re asking me to be your man on the ground as you fight this conspiracy. There’s a very likely chance I could end up dead by the end of the week anyway.”
Fury gave a sardonic grin. “I can remove you from the playing field,” he said. “You work for me, and Frank Castle is off the grid. Dead to the world. I expunge any trace of your existence. Effectively, you will be invisible. You walk away now, I do none of that. You take your chances.”
“I’ve done pretty well so far,” I said.
“Really?” asked Fury. “Remind me, who took you into custody after you killed those flesh-peddlers? Oh yeah, SHIELD. Castle, you’ve been dealing with enough small potatoes that neither SHIELD nor I gave a damn. Now though, you went and fucked with one of the higher-ups in this Conspiracy…not even close to the top, but definitely a higher-up…and gained the wrath of SHIELD. You are now on the organization’s radar. SHIELD isn’t the New York Police Department. They will catch you and they will kill you…unless I help you.”
“Then give me something,” I said. “Show me someone or something more concrete than your word against mine.”
Fury mulled it over for a few seconds. Finally, he stood up from his seat.
“Fine,” he said. “Follow me.”
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
“Werner Van Klaustik. Born 18 August 1943 in Berlin, Germany. His father was Klaus Van Klaustik, a senior officer with Hitler's SS and superintendent of the Henizburg Death Camp. Van Klaustik Senior was smart enough to see the end was coming for Hitler and had his family spirited away from Germany before the fall of Berlin."
"Van Klaustik grew up in Norway, his mother and him looked after by the Nazi gold that Klaus had semt with them. Werner attended the best schools and became a member of European High Society. He has funded numerous children's charities and third world relief organizations. His name, while not one I would expect Americans to recognize, is well known and well respected in philanthropic circles."
I sat back and looked at Fury as he read the dossier. "Easy to see where he gets his supply of sick kicks from," I said, "But how does he link in to this conspiracy you keep harping on about. Seems a sharp jump from rich pedophile to architect of world domination."
"That's because there is more to Klaustik's story," said Fury. He flipped to a new page in the dossier. "Van Klaustik Senior was not sneaking his family out of Nazi Germany without the Fuhrer's knowledge. In point of fact, I have discovered that the dispersal of Nazi resources globally was at the order of Hitler himself. He foresaw the end of his regime and instead set up a plan to continue the Reich after the fall of Germany in 1945. If the war went well for them, they were set up globally as far as initial infrastructure went. If the war was lost, the Reich continued, but in a far different and covert form. One of those forms was Hydra."
Fury sipped from a glass of water, then continued. "Hydra was started by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, under the supervision of Hitler and the Red Skull. As you now know, Hydra went on to become a force to be reckoned with on its own. What is not common knowledge is that were more 'Hydras' out there, and they were much less public than Strucker's pseudo-religous 'Cut One Head And Six Take Its Place' crap."
"Van Klaustik is the successor of a secret Nazi group?" I asked, bewildered as to how different this case had gone from its initial start.
"He's untouchable, as are the rest of his Cabal," said Fury. "The different groups the Nazis started have, in recent years, come under the control of one individual or individuals. I don't know who he/she/they are, but they are the ones I beleive are truly in control of, among other things, SHIELD."
"So Van Klaustik is off limits, since he's a lead into this whole pile of crap," I said. I was getting less impressed with Fury by the second. This felt like something out of the X-Files.
"No," said Fury. "I know where Van Klaustik will be tomorrow night. If you want in and want the resources to do what needs to happen, then I can give you Van Klaustik's location and the means to take him out."
"I get Van Klaustik," I said, "And you have my help."
Fury pushed the dossier over to me. "Some light reading," he said, "You leave in three hours. Let's hit the armory."
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
"So you're really doing it," said Maria Hill. "I wasn't sure you would. In fact, I thought approaching you was a mistake, at least at the start."
I set down the SHIELD issue magnetic pulse rifle and turned to face her. I normally didn't think of physical beauty in a woman....my mission left little time for anything like that and when something physical did happen it was nothing to remember after the fact. Yet, here I was, seeing Hill for maybe the first time since this whole clusterfuck started. She was a beautiful woman, no question. She took care of herself, but then I had never met a SHIELD Agent that didn't. Kind of went with the job. I was also trying not to see how similar she looked to my own wife.
"Then I guess since Fury is the boss of you, that your opinion doesn't mean anything to me." I knew I should have been kinder if I was going to be working with her, but I couldn't help it. She needed to be brought down a peg and shown who was really calling the shots here. Fury may have recruited me, but this was my game now. She worked for me now, regardless what she thought.
"I read your dossier," she said. "Some of the things you've been through and survived....I can't decide whether you are a superhero or a whack-job."
"I'm no hero," I said, "So that answers that question." I looked her in the eye. "What makes you so special in Fury's eyes? He's not a man that trusts easily."
"That's between him and me," said Hill. "We leave soon. Best be all packed up." She turned and walked away.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Now
I pulled the trigger.
Van Klaustik went down like a sack of rocks, his heart ruptured by a magnetically projected aluminum slug . The girl with him screamed at the blood spray on the walls. I pulled the rifle back and nodded to myself. My mission had changed. The scum I was after were a whole new level of evil. I had essentially unlimited resources and I no longer existed on any government database.
I was a ghost. A phantom. A spectre.
But....I was still a Punisher.
NEXT ISSUE: 'Agent of Fury' - Part One!
“I want the man behind the New York operation.”
Nick Fury looked at me with that all-knowing gaze he’d perfected over the years as big man of the spy game. I could never tell whether he was considering what I said or trying not to laugh in my face. The man behind the world’s biggest spy and law enforcement agency, and he was being told by a vigilante about what must have amounted to peanuts in his grand scheme of the world.
“You killed them all, Frank.”
I smiled, not in any amused way. “I killed the men in that building. I didn’t kill who they report to. That operation wasn’t limited to that one house. It was a network. I want the head of that network.”
Fury chomped on his stogie. “We’ll get there, Frank,” he said. “We have other fish to fry first.”
“You need me,” I said. “You said as much. There are things in the world, all related to some massive conspiracy, that you can’t redress directy. I can. If you want my skills and my time, you give me that man.” I looked Fury in the eyes. “Or I walk.”
“You walk,” said Fury, “And I can’t guarantee your survival. You pop up on the grid and SHIELD will have you back in a heartbeat. Odds are you won’t survive the week.”
“And working for you is going to be any safer?” I asked. “You’re asking me to be your man on the ground as you fight this conspiracy. There’s a very likely chance I could end up dead by the end of the week anyway.”
Fury gave a sardonic grin. “I can remove you from the playing field,” he said. “You work for me, and Frank Castle is off the grid. Dead to the world. I expunge any trace of your existence. Effectively, you will be invisible. You walk away now, I do none of that. You take your chances.”
“I’ve done pretty well so far,” I said.
“Really?” asked Fury. “Remind me, who took you into custody after you killed those flesh-peddlers? Oh yeah, SHIELD. Castle, you’ve been dealing with enough small potatoes that neither SHIELD nor I gave a damn. Now though, you went and fucked with one of the higher-ups in this Conspiracy…not even close to the top, but definitely a higher-up…and gained the wrath of SHIELD. You are now on the organization’s radar. SHIELD isn’t the New York Police Department. They will catch you and they will kill you…unless I help you.”
“Then give me something,” I said. “Show me someone or something more concrete than your word against mine.”
Fury mulled it over for a few seconds. Finally, he stood up from his seat.
“Fine,” he said. “Follow me.”
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
“Werner Van Klaustik. Born 18 August 1943 in Berlin, Germany. His father was Klaus Van Klaustik, a senior officer with Hitler's SS and superintendent of the Henizburg Death Camp. Van Klaustik Senior was smart enough to see the end was coming for Hitler and had his family spirited away from Germany before the fall of Berlin."
"Van Klaustik grew up in Norway, his mother and him looked after by the Nazi gold that Klaus had semt with them. Werner attended the best schools and became a member of European High Society. He has funded numerous children's charities and third world relief organizations. His name, while not one I would expect Americans to recognize, is well known and well respected in philanthropic circles."
I sat back and looked at Fury as he read the dossier. "Easy to see where he gets his supply of sick kicks from," I said, "But how does he link in to this conspiracy you keep harping on about. Seems a sharp jump from rich pedophile to architect of world domination."
"That's because there is more to Klaustik's story," said Fury. He flipped to a new page in the dossier. "Van Klaustik Senior was not sneaking his family out of Nazi Germany without the Fuhrer's knowledge. In point of fact, I have discovered that the dispersal of Nazi resources globally was at the order of Hitler himself. He foresaw the end of his regime and instead set up a plan to continue the Reich after the fall of Germany in 1945. If the war went well for them, they were set up globally as far as initial infrastructure went. If the war was lost, the Reich continued, but in a far different and covert form. One of those forms was Hydra."
Fury sipped from a glass of water, then continued. "Hydra was started by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, under the supervision of Hitler and the Red Skull. As you now know, Hydra went on to become a force to be reckoned with on its own. What is not common knowledge is that were more 'Hydras' out there, and they were much less public than Strucker's pseudo-religous 'Cut One Head And Six Take Its Place' crap."
"Van Klaustik is the successor of a secret Nazi group?" I asked, bewildered as to how different this case had gone from its initial start.
"He's untouchable, as are the rest of his Cabal," said Fury. "The different groups the Nazis started have, in recent years, come under the control of one individual or individuals. I don't know who he/she/they are, but they are the ones I beleive are truly in control of, among other things, SHIELD."
"So Van Klaustik is off limits, since he's a lead into this whole pile of crap," I said. I was getting less impressed with Fury by the second. This felt like something out of the X-Files.
"No," said Fury. "I know where Van Klaustik will be tomorrow night. If you want in and want the resources to do what needs to happen, then I can give you Van Klaustik's location and the means to take him out."
"I get Van Klaustik," I said, "And you have my help."
Fury pushed the dossier over to me. "Some light reading," he said, "You leave in three hours. Let's hit the armory."
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
"So you're really doing it," said Maria Hill. "I wasn't sure you would. In fact, I thought approaching you was a mistake, at least at the start."
I set down the SHIELD issue magnetic pulse rifle and turned to face her. I normally didn't think of physical beauty in a woman....my mission left little time for anything like that and when something physical did happen it was nothing to remember after the fact. Yet, here I was, seeing Hill for maybe the first time since this whole clusterfuck started. She was a beautiful woman, no question. She took care of herself, but then I had never met a SHIELD Agent that didn't. Kind of went with the job. I was also trying not to see how similar she looked to my own wife.
"Then I guess since Fury is the boss of you, that your opinion doesn't mean anything to me." I knew I should have been kinder if I was going to be working with her, but I couldn't help it. She needed to be brought down a peg and shown who was really calling the shots here. Fury may have recruited me, but this was my game now. She worked for me now, regardless what she thought.
"I read your dossier," she said. "Some of the things you've been through and survived....I can't decide whether you are a superhero or a whack-job."
"I'm no hero," I said, "So that answers that question." I looked her in the eye. "What makes you so special in Fury's eyes? He's not a man that trusts easily."
"That's between him and me," said Hill. "We leave soon. Best be all packed up." She turned and walked away.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Now
I pulled the trigger.
Van Klaustik went down like a sack of rocks, his heart ruptured by a magnetically projected aluminum slug . The girl with him screamed at the blood spray on the walls. I pulled the rifle back and nodded to myself. My mission had changed. The scum I was after were a whole new level of evil. I had essentially unlimited resources and I no longer existed on any government database.
I was a ghost. A phantom. A spectre.
But....I was still a Punisher.
NEXT ISSUE: 'Agent of Fury' - Part One!