Mowry's Orchestration of Colonel Harg-Ridaltha's Assassination

James Mowry's orchestration of Colonel Hage-Ridarta's assassination converts a clandestine meeting into a death contract. Rather than carry out the shooting himself, Mowry recruits Gurd and Skriva, gives them the target's address, and uses a promised payment to secure their participation; the killing is then reported within hours. The episode shows how quickly his covert campaign can turn talk, information, and money into lethal action.

Causes and Setting

The meeting follows a run of danger for Mowry. A previous tactic has evidently aggravated someone among Jaimec's powerful figures, and he reaches Cafe Susun without encountering any further traps along the way. The reprieve is brief: at the cafe he finds Butin Arhava and two others seated at a far table, partly hidden in the dimness. The setting gives the negotiation a discreet, guarded character, while the mention of traps keeps the threat surrounding Mowry present even as he arranges violence against someone else.

Butin Arhava has already carried Mowry's proposition to the two men and reports that they are interested. His eager manner presents the proposal as an opportunity, but Skriva immediately asks the practical questions: whom they are expected to attack and how they can be sure they will be paid. The exchange establishes that the job depends not only on identifying a target but on persuading hired men that the offer is credible.

The Contract

Mowry names Colonel Hage-Ridarta as the victim and quickly writes the officer's address on a slip of paper for Skriva. The note makes the assignment actionable: the conversation moves from a general proposition to a specified person and location. Skriva studies the address and returns to the question of money, showing that the target's identity alone has not settled the men's concern.

Mowry offers five thousand immediately as an act of faith and another fifteen thousand when the job is done. Gurd remains doubtful, pointing out that they do not yet have the promised money, even as the discussion invokes the full twenty thousand. Mowry soothes him with the assurance that the funds will come, and that more will follow. He also sets a concrete condition for the remaining payment: when news of Hage-Ridarta's death appears in the papers or on the radio, Mowry will be there at the same time. The promise links payment to public confirmation of the killing, giving the contract both a price and a verifiable endpoint.

Death and Confirmation

The outcome appears not in a dramatic confrontation but in a small item on the back page of a newspaper. Hage-Ridarta, identified as the officer commanding 77 Company S.M., has been found dead in his car at midnight. He has been shot through the head, and a gun lies nearby. The report says suicide is not suspected and that the police investigation is continuing. Those details confirm a violent death while leaving the investigation unresolved; the narrative does not describe the shooting itself.

Mowry recognizes the speed of the result: the Gurd-and-Skriva combination has completed the job within a few hours of accepting it. The gap between the guarded negotiation and the terse newspaper notice is central to the episode's effect. A written address, a split payment, and a promise tied to a news report have produced a death quickly enough for it to surface as an incidental item in the day's reading.

Significance

The episode makes Mowry's method visible through its practical steps rather than through a direct account of the act. He delegates the killing, anticipates the recruits' distrust, offers money in stages, and names a public report as the signal that the work is complete. Gurd's concern about whether the funds exist underscores the bargain's uncertainty, while Mowry's confidence keeps the arrangement moving. The evidence establishes his role in soliciting and organizing the attack, and the report confirms Hage-Ridarta's death; it does not show Mowry firing the gun or disclose the police investigation's outcome.