A Life Not My Own Ch. 02

When the craftsmen finally figure out that I'm not leaving until they leave though I think it is Echo's suggestion I get a pair of pit bulls from a fighting ring to be my pets and she's going to get them real, real soon. They leave and we head out to place right south of downtown. I think I impress both Lydia and Echo by rummaging through my bathroom for a nail file and breaking it off in the lock...in case it mysteriously develops the desire let a stranger in.

"So Dominic," Lydia says once we are on the road, "is there a car in your garage worth less than $50,000?"

"With depreciation, that white Beemer is only worth $28,000, if that helps," I shrug.

"How much is your toy worth?" Lydia teases.

"$127,000 but I had some extra puts on," I informed them both. Echo had a sharp intake of breath.

"You understand that is more than I make in two years," Echo finally says softly.

"I can give you all kinds of crap reasons for that but I think you are making a wrong assumption that is perfectly in-line with your career," I tell her.

"In-line with my career; what would you know about my career that doesn't come from a spreadsheet?" Echo growls.

"You deal with corruption, moral compromise and an insane desire for money and the things money buys, drugs included," I relate. "I had to weigh at a very early age that I could market my talents for money or I could struggle and own my life."

"How did you do have a clue?" Echo gets angrier, "Were you tempted to sell term papers?"

"Precisely," I agree. "All I had to do was hope I didn't get nailed for an honor code violation. Except, when you think about it, they were rich and if I broke down once I would never get out because they were rich and I was poor. One compromise and I'm their bitch forever. So fuck you if you think I don't understand. Greed is a drug too."

"Yet you chose to work in finance?" Lydia intervenes.

"It is what I'm good at," I say followed by, "stop at that store please."

"Umm – okay," Lydia gave me a glance she then shared with Echo. She grabbed a spot and I was out before she could cut the engine off or ask me what I was doing.

I was back in the car two minutes later – pre-paid disposable phones are always by the counter; its smart marketing. I hop back in and get to work on the phone.

"Sorry for the mess," I mumble as I pop the phone open.

"Fine Dom but what are you doing?" Lydia inquires.

"What is the trash pick-up at the place we are getting lunch at?" I ask instead.

"How is that relevant?" Echo rumbles.

"Before we go to the meeting where I will agree to help you guys I'd like to spoof my GPS," I explain. "On the off chance someone as paranoid and criminally inclined as Michael Harrow takes an interest."

"Where did you pick up that trick?" Lydia sounds impressed.

"Drug Kingpins: LA," I answer. "They gave out dozens ways to beat surveillance."

"You picked it up from TV?" Echo is incredulous. "It is a Reality TV show but still."

"It works," Lydia laughs.

"The science is accurate," I add.

"Anyway," Echo turns in the seat and regards me intently, "what makes you think we are doing anything more than saving your ass from little Ms. Harrow?"

"Really?" I look up from my work and study her eyes. I guess she needs me to beat it into her.

"Fine, first it is the both of you, not you alone, Echo," I begin. "Second; last night you said you would call me about doing something tonight and here we are, the three of us, driving to lunch. Don't bother telling me something about protection – you ask a patrol unit to come by – they come by and you aren't the one to misuse your authority," which is an amusing thing for me to say considering our history, "outside of our first date."

"Third; you nearly had a fear orgasm when you met Mr. Harrow last night and finally you were terrified that you would get me killed when I dropped you off last night," I tell them.

"First date?" Lydia picks the kernel out of all the facts I've put forth. "Tell me, Gloomy, or I'll make up lies for the wardroom."

"Why doesn't Dominic tell you?" Echo glares back at me.

"We met at a traffic light; she scowled, I waved and after I made a nuisance of myself we got a cup of coffee. She wanted to see how a rich, stuck-up playboy lived so I took her to my place - we failed to talk because she sucks at it and we became a little physical before we broke it off and she left," I totally lie.

"Did you get her clothes off?" Lydia quizzes me.

"You will have to ask Bunny Ears about how far we went," I grin.

"I will shoot both of you," Gloomy mumbles as she sits facing forward and crosses her arms.

"Someone finally got some!" Lydia crows triumphantly. She's almost right.

Lunch is uneventful but Lydia and Echo show me their vastly superior perception abilities and street smarts. Apparently you can learn to discern between new tourists, veteran tourists, new residents, seasoned residents and natural-born Los Angelinos with nuances I can barely understand.

They even find a good place to stash my 'burner' phone with the added bonus that only Echo is tall enough to stash it there. I know that Lydia has chosen the spot for maximum exposure of Echo's breasts as she stretches up to get the job done. Echo knows it and sighs but smiles when she thinks we can't see.

They call their 'Boss' to make sure everything is ready, whatever that means. Brad gives me a call to inform me that Harrow has requested a 4 o'clock meeting. Much to Lydia's and Echo's surprise I plead for him to cancel the meeting or at least postpone until he and Rachel can go over my analysis.

Brad reminds me this is a boatload of money and will move Pierce and Pierce into the big leagues. He also tells me he's landed the Malay Investments account – more money. Of course it is. All I can imagine is that Aya Yen is really great in bed; Brad is normally smarter than this. I tell him I'll make it but it will be tight; I'm with 'that' girl.

I'm not prepared for what I meet but I've never worked for the government in any fashion, much less a task force. A piddling little thing called operational security has never occurred to them, or at least to any one whowants a place at their table. The introductions go around and my experiences in prep school dynamics serve me well.

Captain Tayshanna 'Tay' Freeman is the top dog but only because she's LAPD; every other entity 'tolerates' her being in charge. I want to nut-kick the bunch of them and not because they are a threat to me but because if they screw up, they will kill Lydia and Echo, two people I like and I don't like too many folks.

"Before we begin," I request, "shut off all recording devices and never – ever use my name or make a record of it."

"We don't work that way," Captain Tay lectures me, "We are governmental agencies."

"Oh – I understand," I shrug. "Have fun losing the largest pipeline of heroin in US history as it gets shoved up your collective asses."

"What?" about four different voices mutter. Fuck these civil servants, I want to live and my projection studies lead me to believe that a losing side that doesn't' change things up keeps losing. An 8th grader can tell you the same thing.

"Please," Echo asks me. "Give us a chance. Show them what you can do."

"What do you mean by 'heroin pipeline'?" the guy I think is DEA inquires intently. They haven't done what I asked for so I take it in a different direction.

"Lydia and Echo, can I have your phones?" I request. I take the three phones over to the closest computer and fiddle around for a bit.

"What are we doing here?" FBI girl grumbles irritably. Maybe she's pissed about missing her early Saturday afternoon time spent bitching at her significant other.

"Done," I announce then, "Cover your ears," and I hurriedly do so because I only have a three second delay. The computers flicker and a triple-harmonic high pitched whine rattle the windows.

Five seconds later it's over and I get back to re-connecting the receivers on Echo's, Lydia's and my phones. People are all looking mostly at Captain Ty when I'm done.

"Oh, you will all need to repair your computers and buy new phones now," I inform them. "I've fried your receivers and your computer RAM is toast. Your hard drives should be fine."

"Listen up, you little bastard!" FBI girl starts coming at me.

"I warned you," I roll my shoulders. Now she's right in my face.

"Lady, I don't need you and I don't need this," I stare her down. "You have nothing on me, I've done nothing wrong and you can't afford my services so you can suck it up and grow a set, or you can consider the fact I might be able to be of some help."

"We were told you have some information on the Harrow Group," some guy I think is LA Sheriff's Department.

"I will get to you in a second," I tell him politely. "Rule One..."

"What delusion makes you think you make any rules here," FBI chick just won't shut up.

"Being rude will earn you nothing while wasting fifteen minutes talking to me will earn you at least nothing and perhaps something useful, so I'm going to wait for you to decide if you want to be an adult or a Prima Donna," I say. "Hurry now, you are burning through what little patience I have for civic responsibility."

"At least let me find out what this guy knows about the rumors I've been getting about the heroin," DEA guy pleads.

"Fine," FBI girl backs off.

"Rule One: when it comes to me, Captain Tay Freeman is the ONLY authority – period." I could tell that all three LAPD were surprised while most of the rest were irritated.

"Rule Two: my name is never spoken, written down, or recorded – no exceptions."

"Rule Three: I am not about convictions, laws or national sovereignty. I am not going to break the law but you may not inquire how I get my data. Keep this in mind."

"Rule Four: I have no illusions about my risks or survivability. A sane man would be in his car, leaving the state if not the country as fast as he could. There are two people who can question me, my motivations and most of you are not them."

"That being said," I take a breath, "Four things happened recently that spell huge trouble for you. Sixth months ago a joint RCMP-Interpol-Mainland Chinese effort slammed a door on the main heroin network moving the product into North America from Shanghai to Vancouver; this was on BBC. A month later, one of the leaders of the three largest Chinese Triads in San Francisco was in a hit and run and a gang war has broken out; HLN."

"The Sinaloa-Tijuana Cartel war broke out five weeks ago, which is only relevant in the fact that five Chinese businessmen were killed by the Sinaloa's; Azteca. Probability would suggest they were Triad agents attempting to open heroin and opium trade to the US through Mexico which would have been highly cost effective," I explained.

"You sound like you admire them," FBI girl comes at me.

"How about this; for over a month I have been aware that the Harrow Group's major sources of income are, in order, arms trafficking – mainly French, Italian and Chinese; human trafficking from North Africa and Eastern Europe, and all manner of illegal drugs," I shoot back. "I told no one."

"I am not a law enforcement agent; I'm not much of a moralist, and God knows I don't have anything invested in this fight," I meet her gaze. "I'm rich enough to afford my own private security so if this city becomes a war zone, I'll get by. This is the only reason any of you should think I have a chance of surviving; because I don't give a crap and Michael Harrow knows it."

"That's cold," Captain Tay grins, "but he's right." She shoots a look of approval Echo's and Lydia's way.

"No offense Captain but this leads us to LA; you are losing the war here. That is not insult – it is mathematics. You have an increase in population density but a lowered economic potential. Factor in the increase in subsistence government aid instead of infrastructure improvements plus a lower per capita law enforcement budget and you all are boned."

"And the cherry on top is Michael Harrow and a second tier player in the Triads by the name of Aya Yen will be completing a deal in my boss's office at 4 o'clock today," I frown...and the hush is biblical.

"I guess this is the obligatory moment you give us your threat of vengeance if we mess you over," FBI girl says softly.

"No, that is pointless. If you guys screw up, my introduction to my inevitable death will be my only clue. I have given a damn about the world outside my own personal life four times before in my life. This will be my fifth act of blatant stupidity," I relate. "See, I am the only person in this room not under the delusion that we are not all wasting our time."

"When Harrow goes down there will be another Harrow," I sigh. "We will shut down the pipeline and there will be another pipeline. You are all going to die or burn out and end up wishing you had taken another career path. I am the only one here who will wake up one morning, decide yesterday was enough, take my millions and vanish. All that being said, can we work together?"

"One thing," Echo says into the murmuring. "Why do it at all?"

"What would Ben do?" I reply. She nods and though they don't understand my answer, Tay and Lydia nod as well.

"You are unreliable," FBI Lass keeps crawling up my ass; "you are a Brainiac but you have no experience in actually combating organized crime."

"I am not Bruce Wayne, Oliver Queen or Tony Stark, Miss, and I'm barely smart enough to know it. Two of LAPD's finest took me to school this afternoon with their 'simple' ability to discern who was a criminal and who was going to be a victim," I tell the Fed. "I don't know your jobs and I don't want to do your part. You wouldn't be here if you weren't really good at making the arrests."

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't good enough to make Mr. Harrow want my services," I remind her, "and you wouldn't still be here if you didn't think I represented an opportunity. I don't know why you are choosing to be so aggressive but we can talk it out, you can tell me what's wrong, or I will go digging in the next few days and tell you."

"Don't threaten me asshole," she stabs my chest but the three LAPD's come to my assistance.

"Calm down," Lydia intervenes first. "He's not going to tell anyone but he needs you to understand how vulnerable we are to someone like Harrow. Interpol has been running at this animal for over a decade with zero success. Let's try something different."

"I'd also like to remind my Federal colleagues that punching their finger into a prospective contractor – who is working for free – is really stupid," Captain Ty states.

"Considering Dominic's martial arts prowess, assaulting him might prove to be truly unfortunate," Echo growls. FBI chick is proving pretty fearless.

"Air Force Academy Ring from 1998, from your build, height and weight plus general weathering that only comes from high altitude desert climes, I'm guessing that you were an Air Rescue officer – that's an elite few and fewer still are women, which explains your natural aggression and your unwillingness to back down or disregard procedure."

"With that information, I'll know who you are within a few hours and figuring out your social security number will be made easier by your marriage then divorce filings," I lay it out for her. "Bank records I can get. You live within thirty minutes of here so I have your utilities, paper delivery, mail schedule and a dozen other tidbits – that's day one."

"So?" she grounds out.

"Profiling isn't even his thing," Echo gives a shark-like smile. "Harrow wants him because of his financial forecasting."

"I don't know how I'm going to sell this to my superiors," FBI chick grouses.

"Tell them this is LAPD's operation and they don't need to know," Captain Ty gives her own wolfish snarl. I can only imagine how many times she's been on the receiving end of the NTN bullshit – in her own city. Now it's her turn to have her hand on the font of knowledge, which is why I chose her to protect Echo's life as well as Lydia's and my own.

(Saturday Afternoon (The Office))

I took fifteen minutes to bring my system into data-crawler mode and synch it with my phone. My encryption isn't NSA but is pretty top notch and I'm going to need my wireless for the calamity that's coming. Brad calls me to come over for the meeting in his office; I wave good-bye to my cactus (it's been sole and loyal companion since Prep School) and put my room in lockdown.

Indira, Rachel's PA, is on duty for the meeting but the undercurrent of nervousness in the Pierces has gotten to her. She was barely out of college when she joined the firm twenty years ago. Back then it was five people and she was office manager. She still knows everybody. I still don't know what secret deals were cut for Rachel to get Indira in the divorce. I hope that neither regrets that decision now.

"Go get them, Killer," she smiles.

"If you feel like taking a coffee break, I'd highly recommend it," I am inspired to say.

"Are we in trouble," Indira whispers. I nod and she taps my elbow. "Come behind me and give me some cover."

I do so and she slides a panel in the left side under her desk. She pulls out an Uzi between her legs and double checks it, flipping the safety and chambering a round.

"When the time comes, go to dinner with the Brad and Rachel," I warn her.

Brad and Rachel haven't eaten socially in over a year.

"Okay; we didn't always work in a safe neighborhood, you know," she winks at me. "Good luck." I join the awkward gathering in Brad's office but don't bother to sit down.

"You may want to ask the Snow White to leave the room," I suggest to Harrow, "or do you plan to dispose of her in the next forty-eight hours?" We lock wills. He waves his hand dismissively and Blondie takes a powder. I start working on my phone as I will for the entire meeting; it's important for what is to come.

"You can thank me for saving your life later," I give her a weak smile, "maybe on your 21st birthday. Now, Mr. Harrow, you wanted to rate the quality of our services."

"Let me see; you are clever not brilliant," I began as I kept eye contact, "you have exceptional instincts and you've learned to trust them so you like to take risks which means you were in a hierarchy but hated it and you were often insubordinate in ways that didn't get you fired but would have stymied your career."

"Since the maximum leg bone extension is 4 inches – you would go for the max - that would put you at five foot eight inches in height before and since you are proportional now, that would mean you were stocky then. Everything points to you being physique obsessed so you worked out fanatically then as now – it was never a casual thing with you," I continue and if he can prove I have missed the mark I'll swallow a kitten.

"You keep your hair blonde all the time and you are proud it so you were born with black hair," I work out.

"Why not brown or red?" Rachel gulps.

"Oh, he's obviously from Germany or Russia," I explain. "Only they would have an intelligence apparatus big enough to train such a successful foreign operative and the likelihood of red or brown hair is low and our guy was 'average'. He is very familiar with information services but he's not a programmer. He had the resources to statistically meld into another person's identity and as well as reconstruct his entire body."

"We are certainly paying our intelligence officers a whole hell of a lot of money these days," Harrow huffs.

"Your brother – your stance in videos indicates favoritism toward bonds of brotherhood – was a criminal and he died – check that; he was murdered. Criminal financing is the source of his reconstruction and Harrow's initial phantom cash infusion. You took his one-shot lump of money both of you were planning to use for him to disappear and created a far more elaborate disappearing act."