Read Online Hitmen Triumph by Sigmund Brouwer - Free Book Online

to like her. It didn’t work.
    A few seagulls squawked nearby. They were fighting over half a burger someone had left behind on the grass. Seagulls. Why were they called seagulls when this was the prairies? Or if they really were seagulls, what were they doing here when the nearest sea was so far away?
    These weren’t questions I would ask out loud. I had other questions for her.
    â€œDoes your father own the theater in Kensington?” I asked.
    â€œNo,” she said. She stared past me and thought for a few seconds. “This is hard to explain. I was in a video store yesterday...”
    I coughed.
    She raised her eyebrows.
    â€œJust clearing my throat,” I said.
    She nodded. “This guy sold me an illegalcopy of a DVD. He said it would be cheaper than seeing it in a theater, if I shared the cost with my friends...”
    â€œTheater prices
are
pretty high,” I said. “Not that I’m agreeing with the guy.”
    â€œMy dad’s business is really suffering. A lot of that is because of piracy.”
    â€œPiracy,” I said.
    â€œYeah,” Merecedes said. “I’m making a documentary about it.”
    â€œDocumentary?”
    â€œI want to go to Mount Royal College when I get out of high school,” she said. “They’ve got a journalism program. The documentary will help me get into the program. And maybe it will help my father too.”
    I nodded. “Makes sense. And I can understand you wanting to help your dad.”
    â€œPiracy is getting bigger and bigger,” she said. “Especially in Canada. And now biker gangs are discovering they can make a lot of money from it.”
    Bikers!
    I was beginning to get that horrible feeling in my stomach. She wasn’t part of whatNate was doing. She was trying to fight it. And if Nate was part of it, and if it involved bikers...
    â€œEarly in the summer, my dad heard a rumor that one of our projectionists was copying movies onto a flash drive. I decided to watch and see what happened.”
    Mercedes hesitated.
    I decided to help her. “And it led you to Nate.”
    Her eyes widened in surprise.
    â€œYou know?”
    â€œOnly a little,” I said.
    â€œHe picked up the flash drive. I didn’t know who he was. I just remembered his face. Then I saw his photo in the paper once. So then I knew his name. But it wouldn’t do much good to just stop someone like Nate. I wanted to find out who he was working for and how he was getting the illegal copies out of the theaters.”
    I told her about seeing the guy go the washroom the same time as Nate. Then I had a question.
    â€œYou were at the Hitmen golf tournament to meet him, weren’t you?”
    â€œYes,” she said.
    â€œVideo camera in your purse?” I asked.
    â€œYou know?”
    â€œDon’t get mad at me,” I said, “but remember a guy with goofy hair and a lame mustache in the video store? That was me.”
    â€œYou!”
    I told her everything. About listening to her conversation with the guy behind the counter. About how his tattoos matched the bikers’ tattoos. I told her about the bikers who put me on the train track. The only thing I didn’t tell her was the part where the guy in the video store made the rude noise.
    As she listened, her face became more and more serious.
    â€œSo,” I finished, “it turns out you didn’t have to worry about telling me something I wouldn’t want to hear.”
    She shook her head sadly.
    â€œNolan,” she said, “how do you think I found your car at the high school?”
    â€œI had wondered about that,” I said.
    â€œIt’s because I saw you park down the street the night that Nate went to the videostore to deliver the flash drive with the pirated movie. Nate saw you too.”
    â€œWhat?”
    She pointed to her purse. “You already know I videotaped him in the video store for my documentary. What you