The Apex Predator

The Apex Predator

A crime boss and his trusted enforcer encounter their most dangerous adversary yet: innocence

Dainius Belov had enjoyed an unprecedented run at the top of the city's crime empire since arriving from Russia in the spring of 1991. He was smart, he was ruthless, he was cautious, and he was protected by a man named Thor.

In their 22 years together, rivals had risen and fallen on a regular basis, and most often at Thor's hand. There was a time, maybe, when this role as primary enforcer would have bothered Thor. That time was hard for him to recall, though, and after enough years he was no longer certain it had ever existed. The craft of killing came to him in stages. First had been the obvious -- kill or be killed. It was important to be skilled in a violent world. In a place alive with predators, the apex predator lived the longest...

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In this offshoot of his popular Lincoln Perry series, Michael Koryta explores a sad, sordid world in which tigers, trust, and organized crime all vie for center stage. Thor -- the story's protagonist and arguably the apex predator of its title -- is a seasoned hit man whose evolution as a killer developed from survival ("kill or be killed") to sustenance ("money promised things, or at least told lovely lies") to a kind of social value specific to mob life, until his code of honor is tested by the discovery of an exotic animal racket run by his boss. For all its violence, Koryta's story features a tone that hovers between sanguine and bloodless, but Thor, Perry, and the big cats nevertheless act out a tale of chilling moral ambivalence.
– Jason Kirk
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Series: Short Stories
Publication Year: 2013
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