Pests Be Gone

Rick opened his eyes. The sharp pain behind his right eye made him groan. His face was against cold rough cinderblock, his mouth full of blood. He didn't know how long he had been there or even what day it was. Turning his head, he struggled for his eyesight to adjust. He could barely make out a stream of light.

Crawling from a corner Rick made his way towards the light. The floor felt damp, a mixture of concrete and dirt, and smelled worse than any basement he had ever inspected. It smelled of mold and something else. Metal? Copper?

Blood?

Reaching the doorway where the light originated, Rick was horrified to discover bars separating him from the light.

"Hello?" His own hoarse voice startled him. His throat was parched. He struggled to be heard, louder this time.

"Hello?"

A shadow passed beneath the door.

"Is someone there?" Rick began pulling himself up the bars to a standing position. He hurt all over especially his head.

The door swung open and a light came on, flooding Rick with pain. He backed violently away from the bars and into the wall, then holding his head, he slid down to the floor.

"Richard?" A faint elderly woman's voice wafted over to him.

Standing on the other side of the bars stood the little lady Rick had come to service.

Now he remembered.

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Gary Rogers, the owner of Pests Be Gone, was a real jerk. He started the business to make money, but not to service the customers himself. He employed four techs, including Rick, to do his dirty work. And Gary had a real scam going. He would convince customers to sign up for year round 90 day service. If the customer did not feel they wanted more than one treatment, then Gary would replace the tank with a "placebo". Basically it was a watered down version of the poison. It would kill insects and keep them away, but only for about two weeks. Customers would call back, sign up for the year round service, and receive the full strength treatment. Guaranteed to keep pests away for good.

Rick knew about this and when he was younger and needed the job, he didn't care. Now he was in his late thirties, slowing down, and trying to lead a better life. Unlike Gary, Rick met the customers, face to face, in their homes. Some of these people were desperate to get their homes back from infestations, but simply did not have the means to afford high quality year round care.

After one specific incident, the couple called back and asked for one more treatment. Gary gave them his spill about year round service, but the couple insisted only one more. Gary hung up the phone just in time before a mountain of expletives birthed from his mouth.

"Rick, I want you to go back to the Holmes' place and spray the placebo again. Then in two weeks, we are going to go over and leave a couple of Ruby's kids."

Ruby was the pet name for a large hissing cockroach Gary kept as a breeder. He reserved the babies as last resort field operatives. He would dump the babies off and wait for the couple to call. He always had a smug look on his sweaty face when he talked about Ruby. Rick thought he looked like Boss Hog from the Dukes of Hazard, without the clean white suit.

"No, Mr. Rogers. I've been thinking about your business practices lately. Enough is enough." Rick said this slowly, knowing he may very well be walking out the door in the next minute.

"Excuse me?" Gary stared up at Rick with his beady little eyes. Quite a feat since Rick was 6 foot 2 and Gary barely made it to his shoulder.

"You heard me, Mr. Rogers. This is wrong. And it stops today or I am going to report it." The other technicians in the office stood motionless. The only thing Rick could hear was his own heartbeat and the whirling of the ceiling fan above.

"You think what I am doing is wrong? I am securing your job by keeping business running. All you have to do is service the customers the way I tell you to!" With that, Gary stormed off into his office and slammed the door.

The other technicians quietly cheered Rick on. The others were too afraid to stand up to Gary. To be honest, Rick was afraid of losing his job too, but he would rather make Gary stop his tactics. Or report the man and shut down Pests Be Gone.

A while later, Gary emerged with two jobs. Amos, one of the techs was to go visit the Holmes couple and Rick was to service a new customer named Aileen Rhodes.

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Rick stared through the bars at Aileen Rhodes. She was the epitome of the perfect grandmother. She was small, fragile, white haired with glasses, and a dress that went past her knees. Her shoes were even old lady sneakers.

"You drugged me. You put something in my tea." Rick stood up. The room was completely cinderblock like a cell, probably no more than 9x9. The only opening was the barred doorway.

Rick stormed over to the bars reaching for her. Aileen stepped backwards out of his reach.

As he looked through the bars he could see he was indeed in a basement. This cell had been made in the corner. The floor of the cell was stained with what looked like blood, but the rest of the basement was carpeted with ugly green shag.

"Calm down, sweetie. I had to drug you. Look how big you are compared to me! I'm 86 years old. I can't be wrestling youngins' like you anymore." She watched Rick as he wiped dried blood off his mouth.

"As for all the blood, I couldn't take any chances, so I bashed you in the face and the back of the head. Never can be too cautious."

"Why? I would never hurt you. I was sent here to service your infestation."

Aileen turned and walked to a small refrigerator in the corner of the basement. She brought Rick back a bottle of water. He was suddenly so thirsty. His head throbbed and he didn't try to grab her hand as she slid the bottle to him between the bars. He hurriedly unscrewed the top and chugged the whole thing down within seconds.

When he finished he looked at the elderly woman. She was smiling sadly at him.

"Why all this? Just let me go. I won't tell anyone."

"I can't, Richard. You threatened to expose my son Gary to the authorities for the way he runs his business. I can't let you do that. It would ruin him and he pays for me to live in this giant home in the woods."

"Gary Rogers is your..." Rick couldn't finish the sentence. He never imagined Gary would go to these lengths to get rid of an employee.

"I won't tell. I promise."

"Richard, do you know what bromadialone is?"

"It is the ingredient in TomCat and other rat poisons. It is an anticoagulant."

"It makes the rats very thirsty and when they drink, it just works faster. They are dead within a couple of days, am I right?"

"Yes." Rick could barely hear himself answer. What had she done?

"Gary learned all of his poisons from me, Richard. I was a chemist back in the day. You just drank a very large dose of bromadialone. It is a formula I created to be color free and odor free. The rats will drink the poison and be dead within a few hours, not days. I think it is going to be a hit."

Rick slumped against the wall.

"As for you, Richard. I'll be back to get your body in about two hours."