“Yes! Of course I am certain!” General Mpombo pounded the table for emphasis. The other diners looked over as the silverware rattled, then looked away. Restaurant patrons in Monaco soon learn to be indifferent to such spectacles. “We need no lions or gorillas! Hippos are the deadliest animals in Africa!”

“Very well, very well,” smiled Valerii Letchovski, billionaire of uncertain means. “We have a plan, then. With your hippos augmented by my cybernetic scientists, we cannot fail to take over the Penta-”

“Fresh pepper, sir?”

Neither man had noticed the waiter approaching. It was as if he had materialized from nowhere. But as it happened, Letchovski’s salad could’ve used some pepper. “Yes, yes, sure.”

But instead of twisting a clublike wooden object, the waiter held out a metallic cylinder and pushed a button on the top end. Aromatic black pepper sprinkled gently down. For a moment, Letchovski thought of the black snowfalls of his youth in Novokuznetsk. Then Mpombo spoke. “This pepper mill, it is very unusual.”

“Indeed,” the waiter smiled. “It’s part of the GRIND Reflex II Salt and Pepper Mill Set, made with an ergonomic design from high-quality, non-corrosive 316 stainless steel.”

Mpombo looked covetously at the silvertone device. “I must have one for each of my palaces. In my country, fresh pepper is said to give a man virility.”

Now Letchovski joined in. “That’s a most intriguing one-handed operation. Very efficient.”

“Indeed,” the waiter smiled again. “It leaves me one hand free to carry a plate…” The two men at the table nodded. ”...or stroke a lover…” They laughed. ”...or kill a couple of maniacs.” Their eyes widened as Agent Derek Rand pulled a gun from inside his waiter’s disguise. Two quick bullets ended the cyborg-hippo threat to civilization.

As Mpombo felt his last breaths leaving his body, he moaned, “The great General Mpombo…killed…by a mere…waiter.”

“Indeed,” Rand smiled. “Don’t underestimate waiters, General. Who do you think invented the GRIND Reflex II Salt and Pepper Mill Set?”

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