Coffee and Donuts

Great Military Story by David Centorbi

I had to go to Miami for a Truth-or-Dare job. ToD was my gig for a long time. The Army taught me well. And they gave me so many opportunities to practice: Somali, Haiti, Iraq 1 and 2, then for some R & R in Cuba — Terrorist Island, where they brought the Headliners to me.

The current Bureaucrats in charge said we were allowed Pop-Up Clubs throughout the US as long as the Gig was no longer than two days. So, for this one, I was able to stay in Miami.

Getting around the city was easy. Uncle Sam always provided me with a driver: get into an air-conditioned Escalade, black-tinted divider, bar if needed — and it always was. And off to the Club. Once I arrived a Producer, the officer in charge, or whoever was running the Gig, gave me the Program that told me all about the Headliner for that day.

And then it was Truth or Dare time — I dare you to not tell me the truth.

To this day I laugh when I hear the Government-Issued euphemism, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. When I was with my old Band and we were about to start the Gig, I would ask, “So how enhanced are we going today?” And Jazz would say, ‘Well let’s start in E and see where that takes us.’ And, of course, we started to play and kept playing until all the notes sounded just right. Then we would go to lunch. Our band always got booked. Our technique was flawless.

Today the Headliner was sitting in a gray metal chair with a black hood over his head.

“Is this who’s interrogation I’m going to enhance,” I asked. One of the band members nodded yes. And then moved him over to the ToD board and strapped him down.

My routine was always the same, I always started off with a choice. I believed in free will: “Tell me what I want to know and we are done. You go wherever Uncle Sam says, and I can go home.”

That never worked. All my Headliners made the choice to suffer. And my technique obliged: first, I had one of the Band members shake the water jug. “Hear that? That’s what my Uncle said was ok for me to do to you.” Then I would get five thin, sharp K-wires, the kind they used in surgery when they are plating or screwing a broken bone. And with a small mallet, I would tap one under the Headliner’s thumbnail. “This is what my Uncle says I cannot do to you, but what Uncle doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” And then the Gig began.

I never played with these Band members before. Names were never given for these quick Gigs.

As we were about to start, there was a knock at the door and a Producer walked in and motioned to me to come over, and I went into the observation room. “So we just found out he has a heart condition.”

I nodded. Letting him know I heard him

“So we need the IGT in the room just in case.”

“Sure,” I replied. It didn’t matter to me. It wasn’t the first time I had to deal with a Headliner’s heart attack

I went back in. The band was waiting. One of them gave me a confused squint when he read,In God We Trust,on the front of the red crash cart they wheeled in.

I gave him a raised eyebrow, what is this new to you.

I looked at the other Band member and I gave him a thumbs-up, then clicked on my stopwatch. And our music started: I motioned to the Band member next to the Headliner to shake the water jug a bit.

“Hear that,” I started my usual script. Then ended with, “Last chance.”

No reply. So I decided to set the tone. I tapped the K-wire four times under his thumbnail, and when I heard the pain, I gave the signal and the water started pouring over the Headliner’s black hooded face….
To Continue Reading Go To The Yard: Crime Blog

Related posts:

After reading through the various authors I enjoy. I went back to a story posted by Timothy Key the post talks about how writing out of comfort zone.

Devcon is an annual Ethereum family 10-days reunion organized by the Ethereum Foundation in order to educate and empower community to build decentralized applications, and to bring Ethereum…

Society should die because it is first to kill us. You are not beautiful if you do not have what we have. Take this magazine read page sixteen, here are ten things to do if you want to look on fleek…