I received a new letter from J.P. and I’m not certain why they keep coming. Some of you may remember that I was going to ask my friend Keith to help me do some research on the Nussbaum family when he returned home. Well he just got back a few days ago and was happy to take part. He came over last night and gathered the letters and what little research I’d been able to accomplish. He said we was looking forward to the challenge, Keith is an armature genealogist and he thought this would be a chance to really use his skills. I’m hoping to hear from him after the weekend, but he said it depends on how much information he has.
Mike was reinstated to his old job he said it seems odd now. There are a few inconsistencies. We’re probably both being paranoid but Mike said his new supervisor doesn’t seem to know anything about how the Post Office actually works. He also seems to be spending a lot of time in places where Mike is. In fact his supervisor hasn’t really done any actual work this week except to shadow Mike.
He’s also a little worried about a white plumbing van parked outside a house on his block. The house has been going through foreclosure for the last eight months and it’s possible the bank is having someone go in to fix it up for sale but that seems unlikely for a bank. Then again neither of us are experts on foreclosure so maybe this is normal. Like I said we’re both pretty sure he’s worried about nothing but just to be safe he said he’s taken measures to ensure no one is watching him.
As for me, this letter is beginning to take up a bizarre amount of my focus. I’m starting back to school and I’m finding it hard to concentrate on my lessons. Since I’m going into my final semester and want to really knock my senior project out of the park I’m going to maybe put these letters on the back burner for a while.
On the bright side there’s a student new to the school who has asked for my help with a writing project with another class. We’re both taking Starting Your Novel together and he’s asked for my input on a few ideas he’s had. If it takes my mind off this I may just pitch in and help John. I’ve been wanting to get into a writing group for a while.
Anyway, once again I post the most recent letter in hopes of finding someone who may have a kernel of information for me from the written description below. I’d love some sort of conformation of the events in these letters. I just want something to put my mind at risk. I may just stop doing this if it keeps up like this.
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Dearest Mother,
With any hope you are still receiving my correspondence. As you may recall after my last letter I was leaving for the town of Padua on the trail of the mysterious Schuler and Maria, Doctor Cavallaro’s daughter. We managed to stop at an internet café and check in with our various contacts in hope that anyone had identified Schuler from the photo of him we gotten.
While mine and Lucia contacts had not yet returned our messages, Christina’s has given us all the information we wanted. I suppose it could be worse; It seems Schuler is actually Klaus “The Hurricane” Schuler, a mercenary of some dubious reputation. He is trained in several martial arts, a wide array of weapons, and various grades of explosive. He is wanted in sixteen European and African Countries for a wide range of charges. He appears to have committed every crime from armed mayhem to mass murder. He is, by all accounts, a vicious and ruthless thug with no conscience. He received his nickname “the Hurricane” from his tendency to destroy everything in his path when he takes a job.
The fact that he is using an unheard of level of discretion with regards to Maria is to some extent worrying. It suggests that he is working for someone who scares him or is paying him sufficiently to restrain him; in either case it is cause for concern. Lucia was able to reach out discreetly to some of her law enforcement fellows and give us a few known locations on Schuler. He has some homes in the area, most notable among those is a cliff side home in Mestre.
We discussed it at length and decided that before we head to Mestre we needed to arm ourselves. Using some of the local criminal element Christina was able to locate a back ally weapons profiteer. He agreed to meet with us on short notice, but explained there would be a service charge for the rush.
We arrived in the middle of the night, as requested, and found ourselves immediately set upon by armed men and thugs. We discovered our error when one of these men, I believe their leader, began to speak to us of our plans. He was a tall man with a vicious scar down one side of his face that passed under a patch he wore over one eye. His questions were punctuated by brutal assaults to our person.
When it became clear we wouldn’t talk he turned violent. His last remark before the fighting started was to give us Schuler’s regards. Then he brandished a taser and jabbed it into Lucia’s back. As she one of his thugs caught her and tossed her over his shoulder. As the two ran for the exit he instructed his men to open fire. They complied with equal amounts of determination and joy. If these things equaled accuracy then I believe Christine and I would have died there.
Fortunately we were able to get behind cover, ducking behind some crates that were set up in the ally with us. Christina was ready for action and when they paused to reload she hurtled the crates and cleared the distance in a matter of seconds. Using her skills she picked up those two years she worked as a professional wrestler in the States, she leapt up and grabbed the first man she came to around the neck and shoulders. She used him as a pivot to hurl herself into the gunman behind him dragging both men to the ground with her. As one of the thugs finished reloading she rolled to standing and pushed up off a nearby stoop and hurled herself the few yards to the new opponent. She managed to spin her whole body in mid air and kick the man in the chest launching him backwards into two other men.
I, spotting a man behind her readying a weapon, managed to get to grips with him using my cane as a makeshift rapier. I was glad to put into use those years of fencing lessons you had always opposed. I batted the gun from his hands and stood poised for his attack. He pulled a knife from his belt and began to move against me. I parried every strike with a deft twist of my wrist and then was able to riposte to a solid strike to the shoulder or face. It came at me again and again until I finally wore down his defenses and forced him towards a small stair leading to some poor bastards basement. With one final strike I lured his foot work off balance and watched as he fell over down the stairs.
During the altercation I could see Christina as she moved from opponent to opponent. She was a masterful mix of brutality, precision, and showmanship as she vaulted from one man to the next. One moment she was leaping through the air holding a man over her shoulder as a human shield. Then in the next she was hauling a gunman up over her shoulder before dropping to her knees to slam his head into the cobblestone street. When she leapt up and wrapped her knees around one mans head then used her own momentum to swing him off balance and slam him onto his back with a sickening crack, I swear she giggled.
Once we had both finished our opponents off we started gathering weapons and ammunition from the men assembled. We are prepared for an excursion into Schuler’s home in Mestre. There was some discussion of whether we should try and find Lucia. Christina’s argument won out, she feels Lucia may be in Schuler’s company as since these men clearly work for him. Tomorrow we head for his home in an attempt to rescue Maria and Lucia. Christina is hoping we will be able to reach the rest of the team, but is afraid we may not. Still, at least now we are armed.
As always, my love.
Your youngest son
J. P. Nussbaum
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