M.M.M. for short

“All praise the high one” a single voice rang through the rough stone walls.

“Praises to the high one” several voices chanted from underneath pointed black hoods.

“Alright, alright. Settle down, Jerry, you know we voted to get rid of all this stupid ‘high one’ nonsense last meeting” A single figure in bright scarlet robes with a golden smiling mask stepped onto a podium in the center of the natural theater.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, so sorry you’re worship” Jerry waddled his heavy form in front of the base of the podium. “All praise the majestic worship. The king of the gods of life and death”.

“Praises to the worship” The chant rang out less enthusiastically than last time.

“Ah yes, much better. Thank you everyone” A nasally whine came from the golden mask. “Today’s meeting is a very important emergency meeting of our beloved Mass Murders Multinational. Since everyone was here yesterday for our annual meeting, I realized I left out one very important part of business and called another one while everyone was still in town” There were barely contained grumbles and a shifting of feet from those who had missed international flights that morning.

 “It has been called to my attention that there is a proposal to change our recruitment strategy” This time, there were open grumbles and much shifting among the black mass of people. “Greg, I believe you were the one who had a new idea? I’ll let you take the stage” after a flutter of red robes, a single black figure pulled himself out of the crowd.

“Yes, thank you high one, no wait... Bob, no that one’s not right, uh... the worship” Greg caught himself just in time, the red figure holding up a hand after hearing the old title. “Fellow members of MMM, our numbers have been falling for the past fifty years. From our golden years in the 70’s advances in police tactics, not a small part in the advancement of DNA testing, has made it more risky than ever to commit murder. How many people are now caught after their first and never get to enjoy the rush of their second”. Many nodding heads greeted these remarks, spurring the speaker on.

“For too long we have held onto the two traditional ways of recruitment. Sending out invitations after the third murder a person commits or find the strang in our own communities, where ever those may be, and nurture the psycopathy; helping them to start sprees of their own. Well, I say, if the police and other law enforcing agencies can modernize their methods, we can too. The internet is full of the sewage of humanity, just ripe for growing new murders”.

“HOLD ON” the fog horn of Jerry’s voice interrupted, “who said our recruitment strategies aren’t working?”

“I never said they aren’t working, just that we need to add to them” Greg looked down to the smelly greeseball at the foot of the podium.

“The worship, permission to ascend the podium with a counter argument?” A hush fell over the crowd as a hundred breaths were held all looking at the figure in red.

Bob nodded, “Alright, just be quick about it Jerry”.

“The worship, really? I wasn’t done with my proposal, don’t we have to wait until I finish to hear the counter argument?” Greg’s shoulders slumped.

“Oh, is that how that works? You know we’ve never had a counter argument in these meetings”.

“We used to all the time, back when this organization still worked” the oldest member let out the complaint before he even had time to think.

“Is that so? Are you saying I’m not capable of running this organization well Elias?” Bob was in front of the poor man in steps. 

“No, no, the high one, that’s not what I meant at all!” Panic filled the poor man. Any further protests were quickly halted by a golden knife that made its way into Elias’s throat.

“You didn’t get my new title right you know” Bob wiped the blood off the knife on Elias’s shoulder. “Simon, Peter, get rid of that body” The two figures on either side of the corpse gently dragged it away. “Now, where were we? Ah yes, Greg finish your proposal so Jerry can get onto his objection”.

“All, I’m saying is that there are a lot of deprived minds on the internet. We could scout people out there, send some brightly colored informational packets and let them reach out to us if they want a mentor to help them on their path to murder” Greg finished unphased.

“But what if law enforcement try to catch us that way?” Jerry interjected.

“Jerry, it’s still not your turn” Bob said, returning to his previous spot. “Greg, are you finished?”

“Yes and we’ll take protective measures to do this safely”.

“But one of the wounders of online is the anonymously. When we recruited from our local towns, we could see what we were getting beforehand, we can’t over the web. What’s wrong with good old fashioned grooming?”

“It’s too slow, we need to reach more people. The first step, finding potential people, is all we’d do online, we’d still stalk them for months even if they request more information”.

“Well, I’ve heard all from boths sides that I want” Bob guestred for the two men to rejoin the masses. “Let’s put it up for a vote, shall we?” By now, he was back on top of the podium. “Raise of hands, everyone for Greg’s new proposal? I count 60, any more hands? No, alright, all for Jerry’s counterproposal of leaving everything as is? I see 60, again. A tie’s not possible, we have an odd number of people here. Who didn’t vote? Oh wait, Elias isn’t going to vote on this.... Um... I know, let’s leave this for next year’s meeting when we’ve all had a chance to think about this”.

There was a faint groan from people realizing this whole meeting could have been an announcement on the monthly bulletin. But no one dared voice this thought.

“No object to that? Good, I call this meeting adjourned then. See you all next year!” One by one, black figures filtered out of a cave into the black night. Each to disperse to a different part of the globe. The final figure, a red one, took great care to hide the entrance so that it would be undisturbed until the next time it was used before melting into the red sand of the desert.