Free Move to Strike by Sydney Bauer Page A

antagonist set on rebuke, you simply flipped the balance of power by preying on the protagonist’s weaknesses, slid your agenda under the confused aggressor’s radar, and turned what could have been a potentially negative experience into one where you came out in front. He had in fact found that it was these unexpected potential altercations that often acted as catalysts to acquiring some previously unanticipated ‘gift’ – his first meeting with his wife being the ultimate example.
    That is not to say that this most recent situation had not been a precarious one, he considered, as he shifted on the less-than-comfortable bed. The man called ‘Chi’ had been angry – very much so, and Chi’s obvious role as ‘shepherd’ meant his equally as pissed off ‘sheep’ had approached Logan with the intent to do damage – and then some. What was worse was that it took Logan a minute or two to work out the source of Chi’s resentment – for he had not, in a million years, expected to come face to face with an inmate who had been the subject of one of his shows.
    â€˜You’re a mother-fucking asshole,’ had been Chi’s opening line. ‘But now you stuck in my hole, mother-fucker, with nowhere to fucking run.’
    â€˜I am sorry Mr . . . ah . . . ?’
    â€˜My name is Chi, and I rule the Asian Boyz, you bitch, and you mess with my mother’s head you meddling son-of-a . . .’
    Then it had come back to him. Chi, mother, the Asian Boyz – that was it! The show had been titled ‘Move On’ and had focused on parents of children who had ‘lost their way’ by becoming drug addicts or prostitutes – or, in Chi’s case, leader of the notorious Asian–American street gang known as the Asian Boyz.
    Now, Jeffrey Logan had to admit, if he were to consider Chi’s choice from a purely entrepreneurial point of view he might have even championed the young man’s ingenuity, given Chi swapped his legitimate job at the local chicken shop for a position at the top of an organisation that was turning over millions of dollars a year (in what Logan’s researchers had discovered was professional theft, arms dealing, drug running, prostitution and, more recently, skilful intimidation and then extortion of those foolish enough to express a willingness to testify against an Asian Boy at trial). But ‘Move On’ was not so much about what Chi had gained but, more poignantly, what his widowed mother had
lost
– a ‘beautiful, intelligent, loving young boy’ who, despite his being given ‘every opportunity to lead a good and decent life’, had chosen evil over goodness, darkness over light.
    â€˜You told my mother to disown me,’ Chi had said. ‘And after she go on your show she not take my calls or answer her door.
    â€˜And since that day I vow I will return the favour, you stinking white mother-fucker son-of-a-whore. I gonna make it so your momma doesn’t recognise you!’ And then Chi and his plebian puppets laughed, and Logan could not help but smile at the ‘height’ before their fall.
    Flip
.
    â€˜Come here,’ Logan had whispered.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Come here,’ he had repeated, this time using his right pointer finger to beckon Chi close. And Chi, not one to appear scared of a skinny, middle-aged white man who stood at least a foot shorter than himself, had moved forward and bent in low as if humouring his prey before moving in for the kill.
    â€˜You listen to me, you Goddamned idiot.’ Logan had gone in strong. ‘We did not screen the whole program, you ignorant son-of-a-bitch. Therewas more. Your mother told me about your sexual dysfunction, about how you had been born impotent and how she reasoned your lack of sexual prowess had been the trigger for your radical “change of lifestyle”. So, my good friend, my