Jack Maverick, ex-federal agent, burst through the window of the drug

lord's palace with a sneer on his face and guns blazing, sending a sea of

glass into the room that would take weeks for Hilda, the maid who came in

every Tuesday and Thursday, to clean even if she worked unpaid overtime,

which she didn't since in today's world it's a seller's market where maids

who speak decent English are concerned.


Runner-Up Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2000, Detective Category:	
Nicolas Juzda, Toronto, Ontario, Canada



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Iacobus Mavericus, praetorius, vultu deridente et tormentis iaculantibus 

per fenestram palatii saluit domini medicaminum fragmenta mittens vitri 

in cubiculum, quod Hilda, quae serva diebus Martii et Jovis hic laborabat,

multas septimanas mundare deberet, etsi sine mercede et sero laboraret,

quod aberat quia hoc tempore famulae, quae Anglice tolerabiliter

loquantur, mercedem summam appellant.