“What do you plan to do?” This from the same woman reporter.
“Set my alarms, be careful, and guard my family. Let me make something clear. I have a conceal carry permit. I served in the Army’s Delta Force Unit. I am an expert marksman, and am a combat veteran. For anyone else tied to those two murderers in custody, who think I’m some daisy ready for plucking from the garden, you will find me an unwilling victim, and a deadly foe.”
“You would shoot to kill?” Another reporter asked.
“It’s only in cowboy movies where someone shoots to wound. I shoot dead center mass. Let’s hope the judge considers Jamal Kader and his partner flight risks, and keeps them in jail where they belong. I’m going home now. I have some writing to do.”
“Mr. McCarty… are you Diego?” Another woman reporter asked from the middle of the pack.
“Diego is an assassin,” Nick replied. “I’m the fiction writer who created him. I do know the difference between fiction and reality. I have been asked that many times. I served my country during wartime. I don’t hire out as a private sector assassin. I walk my daughter to school with my dog, and walk her home at night. I’d like to continue our reclusive lifestyle if I can. We will be going on a book signing tour when my head heals.”
“There have been many instances when you’ve traveled abroad to do research for a book when real life events actually happened that were similar to your character Diego’s missions in your novel. How do you respond to those observations?”
Uh oh. Nick shrugged. “I don’t. Every fictional novel has a disclaimer stating any similarities between the book and real life people, places, or events are purely coincidental. That is exactly true. Reality mimics fiction many times. That’s just the way it is. I think we’ve hit all the high points we can on this subject. Goodbye.”
Gus took over from there with Nick following his lead out to Gus’s Ford Edge. The media did not try and impede their way this time, having received more than enough sound bytes to expand upon, and cause their usual havoc.
“Watching that bitch Flo get marched into the station was the best,” Nick said.
“You sure went over the cliff with the warning. I never figured you’d mention the conceal carry permit to the media, and actually engage anyone thinking to come after you. Are you prepping them for something I don’t know about?”
“In a way I am. I don’t want there to be any doubt I plan to kill anyone in public that comes after me. It may seem a small thing, but people do still retain bits of common sense and logic. That sound byte will be all over the news, and repeated often. Someone facing off with me in public will have no excuse for threatening my family.”
“Define threatening, Nick.” Gus started the Ford and drove away.
“I don’t rule out anything, Gus. We needed a cushion. I think I got it. We only have to wait for some idiot judge to release those scumbags I picked out of the lineup. That process has my attention. Those two disappear the moment their feet touch outside of police custody. I may have to store them for a while.”
“You’re thinking the torture chamber in Carmel Valley, aren’t you?”
“Yep. I know that last mission we did to reeducate those drug dealing parents of Danger’s best friend was a rough one for you, but it is the perfect spot for holding a couple of bad guys until we can dispose of them. Plus, I may need to ask them a few questions.”
*
Gus remembered the past Halloween all too well, where Nick had revealed the property he had in the Carmel Valley with a special setup for interrogating people of interest. Jean had discovered her best friend’s parents were drug dealers. It was the first mission he and Nick had taken on from the then eight year old Jean. They kidnapped the parents of Jean’s girlfriend, drugged them, and strapped them naked to gurneys in Nick’s underground house of horrors, complete with black lighted horrific images and sound system. Gus had never in his wildest nightmares ever imagined a place like that. The drug dealing parents saw the light, and were returned unharmed to their lives without the drug dealing. Gus remembered the sanctions Nick did on the gang formerly involved with the parents. The gangbangers were extremely unhappy with his solution for Jean’s mission he and Gus carried out. Nick killed five gangbangers until everyone who had known details of the parents’ involvement in drug deals were dead.