“Jean and Sonny really did this on their own?”
“John, Gus, and I took turns monitoring them. Jean scoped the protection con guys using my satellite uplinked laptop. I have a program to see anyone’s keystrokes from the moment it’s used. She used it during the time I had to have her in the safe-room with Rachel, Quinn, and Sonny during a time I was away. We looked into it. It was my decision to allow her and Sonny to play detective. The moment the kids gathered enough evidence to get these clowns to plea out, I called you. Rachel didn’t take it well. The kids have been using deception to do their surveillance with Rachel as the unknown enabler. I had no clue the chumps were packing machine pistols though. I’ll be hearing about that when I get home.”
Neil chuckled. “The kids did damn good. Can we keep the police arrest as quiet as we can without documenting our rookie approach?”
“Of course. Do you need my Colt?”
“We already have the Colt on file. Keep it. Did you get any video of your intervention on behalf of cocky cops, Deadshot?”
“John filmed it. I’ll send the file when I get home along with my report. For the record, you approached the guys with hands on weapons. It wasn’t a situation calling for all of you to descend on the scene with guns ready to fire. I’m glad none of your crew threw a shot off in my direction. That was very nice restraint.”
“Thanks for the charity support,” Neil replied wryly. “I’m hoping we can get the two survivors to cop a plea. Their Uzi carrier being black could have some impact on the case with the usual criminal enablers who seize on anything to make us reactionary Nazis.”
“Yep. The only way the police are ever in the right nowadays is if they die in the line of duty.” Nick smiled. “We were doing a cartoon movie when one of our perps decided to pull the ‘Black Lives Matter’ card. Payaso pulled off his mask and got busy on him. John and I of course expressed outrage at his brutality.”
“I’ll bet. I’ve seen you testify. You’re the best in any court testimony of facts I’ve ever witnessed. If it hadn’t been for your main witness Dan dying before the Kensky case, I’m certain the jury would have convicted him with your testimony. I saw the way you ate Kensky and his lawyer’s lunch in front of the media outside the courthouse. If Kensky had really known you, he would have confessed again just to get put in prison for life.”
“That would have been disappointing,” Nick replied. “I’m glad Gerald was freed to make a new life for himself. He had dreams, needs, desires, and passion.”
“Right. How many hours did he have to enjoy all those wonderful treasures of freedom?”
Nick shrugged. “He had what seemed an eternity to ponder his transgressions. Gerald paid his debt to society in a way he never dreamed possible.”
Neil’s features contorted in distaste. “I’ve seen your Isis videos. Yuck. I’m glad you’re not doing those in our town. You three cartoons are together so much, someone would put two and two together. We received calls about gunshots early in the morning right after I talked with you at the Point. Did I miss something?”
“As it turned out… yes. It was a thread going somewhere I haven’t had a chance to brief you on. I’m working on making the morning’s adventure a onetime occurrence. We learned about a Kingpin of crap is off the coast causing gang, drug, human trafficking, and terrorist problems. I believe any bleeding back into Pacific Grove already happened with the calls you received. No other trace of that event will come to light.”
Neil took in a deep breath. “I remember when the only criminal activity in the ‘Grove’ was an unruly tourist once in a while.”
“I have it on good authority these incidents will be on an upswing because of our importing terrorists on a stupidly steady basis. California politicos rival any terrorist enablers I’ve found. I’m networking with another under the radar group I mentioned to you. They stopped a terrorist attack using a tanker to ram China Basin with an atomic bomb aboard.”
“You mean John Harding, right?”
“He’s the one. We’ll be collaborating to get rid of the offshore threat. I know you’re like me, hoping for authorities to waken from their na?ve sleep of idiocy. Since they refuse to do so, we’re on our own to confront these assholes. I am going to make their life miserable until we hopefully live through this politically correct nonsense where we have to commit suicide to appease the cave dwellers.”
“Amen, brother. I’ll call you if I need you at the station. Your report would be great as soon as you can send it.”
“Will do. Watch your six, brother. I can’t be watching your back every moment.”
“Ouch,” Neil muttered, walking away with his head down.
*