Film Noir Ch. 01

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The Police radios came alive. "We've got smoke coming at us! Smoke at the 143 intersection!"

"Stand in place, get ready for them!" said another voice, obviously the coordinator of the series of checkpoints. "All units, get ready. Launch drones!" Almost instantly, four yellow dots appeared on the dash map.

"Ah, there's the toys I've been expecting!" I said.

"They'll see us." Cindy said.

"Not for long." I said. A pink spot on the map flashed towards one of the four yellow ones. Looking up in the sky as Cindy drove, I could see a black dot merging with another one. "Our drone is firing... that's one bogey drone falling to earth."

Yep, my drone was a 'killer' drone, designed to take out other drones. I called it 'Apache', after the Army helicopters that do such a great job against Enemy tanks, troops and aircraft.

The Police radio blared up "They're taking out our drones! Where are they?"

"Going west on State 256... wait, turning north, turning north! They're going for Checkpoint A!"

My drone had taken out all of theirs. I had it land ahead of us as we went up the road, and I very quickly retrieved it and put it in the trunk of the Black Beauty. "Okay, Kato, top speed! I'll blow their doors off."

Police radio: "Here they come, here they come! They're not stopping, we need backup!"

*BOOM!* *BOOM!*

The two Police vehicles were blazing hulks of wreckage, and the Black Beauty went through without having to ram them. Smoke mortar rounds from the Black Beauty had blinded whoever was manning the posts, and their attempts to fire at us were way too late.

Part 7 - Pain in the Back

The dame was bad enough, but now her cohorts had caught up to me. And they practiced for their chiropractor degrees and took target practice on me. When they were done, an all-cymbal band was playing a full symphony in my head. The orchestra was on a ten-city tour of my back, and I had a season pass with front row seats.

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We got onto the Interstate and drove like mad. I'd put the blue light on top of the Black Beauty and plugged it in. We also might've taken some of the shoulders to get around cars.

But we were not pursued. This absolutely shocked me, but there were no Police vehicles coming after us. As we neared the City, the Police vehicles on the dash map were just doing routine patrols, and none were on the Interstate. This aroused my suspicions, and I told Cindy to be on an ever-increasing lookout.

Ergo... we made it. We pulled into the parking lot of the Federal Building. But we had to park outside, which was disastrous; they wouldn't let us pull into the underground part of the garage. Your Federal Government at work. Sheesh.

As we parked, I noted the situation. We had a fifty foot walkway bridge from the lot into the Federal Building. We had tall buildings all around, lots of window, lots of places for a sniper to be. This was the moment.

Les Craig was running up with several other people, including the two Automatons and and Agent I realized was Special Agent Waddell. Jack Muscone and Martin Nash were also coming out. Everyone had heavy armor on.

They surrounded the back of the Black Beauty. "Here, Mrs. Morelli." said Craig, offering her a trenchcoat as she got out of the car.

"It's very heavy." she said as he wrapped it around her.

"It's bulletproof, kevlar-lined." said Craig. "Okay, let's get her inside." A small cluster walked towards the walkway. Cindy and I followed with Jack and Martin. I was watching ahead of me, watching for something in particular as the cluster got onto the narrow walkway, where they were vulnerable. And I saw it: just a small turn of the head...

I turned to look over my left shoulder, and clearly saw the sniper on the roof of the taller building behind me. "GUN! GUN!" I shouted as I grabbed Cindy from behind and began tackling her.

*POW!*

"AAAAUUUGGHH!" I screamed out.

It hurt. It hurt like hell. I'd been struck in the lower back. Not even in the time of my 'John Galt' electric torture at the hands of Casey B. Walker did anything hurt this much. It was the kind of pain that makes a man want to vomit, and to pass out. I willed myself to do neither, concentrating on fighting the pain, wondering if the bullet had gone through me, and if I was dying inside... no, the pain was just on the back...

"I'm hit!" I cried out. I was falling forward, onto Cindy, as things got surreal. As we got to the ground, Cindy breaking our fall with her strong arms. I still stayed on top of her, protecting her. "Don't move, Cindy." I gasped. "Stay down."

The cluster had gone to the ground, but got up as a group and began hurrying Mrs. Morelli into the building. Federal Marshals were coming out of the building at the same time, and Jack and Martin were covering me and looking for the sniper, who had now disappeared. Radio instructions began flying across the airwaves, but like the attempt on me and the Legislators before, the sniper would not be found.

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I could not move my legs. "Get her out from under me." I gasped as I raised up on my arms just enough for Nash and someone else to pull Cindy out from under me. She was as pale as a ghost or Slender Man could ever hope to achieve as she looked back at me.

"Don't move him." said someone. "Something may be broken."

"Like hell!" Cindy yelled. "We've got to get out of this field of fire!" With that, Martin Nash helped me to roll over into Cindy's arms. She picked me up, strong enough to carry every bit of my weight, and headed across the walkway to the door. It hurt like hell, like hot needles stabbing into my back again and again, as she ran with me into the building, followed by the various Federal Agents and Marshals..

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"Set me down standing up." I said to Cindy once we were inside what looked like a lobby room.

"How about I carry you to the Hospital." Cindy said. "You need a doctor."

"He's got one, right here." said a voice. It was my wife Laura. She looked pale and scared, as well.

Cindy set me down, and she and Martin helped me to stand as my trenchcoat and outer armor were removed. The bullet had been a high-powered one meant to penetrate armor, and had gone through the light armor of the trenchcoat and the heavier armor of my vest. But I'd had a third layer on, the 'girdle'...

... and the 'girdle' had held.

That was the good news. The bad news was the bullet had impacted right over the two vertebrae that were damaged in my helicopter crash with Pastor Westboro. (Author's note: 'A Tiny Slip', Ch. 02-03.) And while kevlar vests save lives, they can only absorb and redistribute the energy of the impacting bullet so much. The worst part of my backbone had taken a direct hit.

"There's already swelling and bruising." Laura said. "We need to get you x-rayed immediately."

"Is there a place in here that can do it?" I asked.

"No, you need to go to the hospital." Laura replied, somewhat matter-of-factly.

"Wait." I said. I was able to walk, with help. "Take me to the entrance there." There were, of course, monitors for people coming into the Federal Building. And they had one of those devices that could see through clothes. "Laura, will this be able to tell you anything?"

"Only that you are the craziest but most brilliant man I've ever met." Laura said. Nevertheless, I went into the machine. The security people turned the device up to full power, and Laura could see enough to know what had happened.

"There are cracks in those two vertebrae." she said. "You've re-injured the old wounds, and have a few new ones. The lining between the two was damaged when you crashed your chopper last summer; I have a feeling that that lining is about to disintegrate on you."

"We'll go to the hospital," I said, "just as soon as Mrs. Morelli testifies."

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She walked into the chamber like a fashion model walking down the runway, smoothly and confidently and with an air of sexuality that every man in the room could feel. She took her place next to her lawyer at the table. A moment later, she was called to the witness stand, before the U.S. Attorney and the Federal Judge.

Watching were FBI Special Agent In Charge Les Craig, his automatons, Special Agent Waddell... and the Deputy Director of the FBI.

"Would you state your name, please?" said the U.S. Attorney.

"On the advice of counsel," Betty Morelli said, "and pursuant to my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, I respectfully refuse to answer any of your questions..."

To be continued.