Jupiter Rising Ch. 04

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racism, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

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This story is dedicated to Dr. Albert Einstein, and Professor Stephen Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA.

Part 18 - Agency of the Weak Minded (continued)

As the helicopter took off, Peter Blassingame and the pilot looked out ahead of them, and saw a frightening thing... an armed Cobra helicopter right in their face.

"Enemy aircraft," came a voice on the radio, "this is Inspector Don Troy of the SBI. You are ordered to land your aircraft immediately and surrender to the Police. If you do not, you and your escaping prisoner will be shot down. How copy?"

The pilot turned his craft to run away from the Cobra, only to find another one waiting for him. "Enemy aircraft," the radio crackled, "a third Cobra is above you. Land your aircraft and surrender."

The pilot took off between the two Cobras, flying nap-of-the-earth for a moment towards a copse of trees. The pilot told Peter Blassingame "I'm going to land. You make a run for the trees." Peter nodded.

The helicopter landed and Peter jumped out and ran.

*BOOM!*

I fired a missile out of the Cobra, and it exploded on the ground 30 yards ahead of Peter Blassingame. Seeing that I would blow him away if he continued to run, he stopped and raised his hands.

I landed the aircraft and got out and approached Blassingame, my service weapon pointed at him, the safety off and a round in the chamber.

"How did you know?" Blassingame yelled as I came up to him. I forced him to his knees, then down to a prone position, holstered my weapon, and handcuffed the prisoners hands behind him. Then I forced him to his feet as another helicopter, a Bell 206, landed not far from my Cobra.

"Your daddy thinks I am stoo-pid." I said in Blassingame's ear as we walked towards the Bell. "He is lucky I didn't just shoot you."

"I wish you had." said Blassingame.

"That would be too honorable for you, shit eater." I replied. "I want to watch you die on the table at Jacksonville."

As we came up to the Bell, the door opened and out popped FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone. "Well, well, well." he said with Rudistan-ish joviality. "Looks like Sheriff Griswold taught you how to fish, after all. You landed a big one, this time."

"Naah," I replied, "this piece of shit is just a minnow. You taking him back to Jacksonville?"

"Oh yeah." said Muscone. "Back to Death Row for you, Petey-pie." He took physical custody of the prisoner and forced him into the Bell as I returned to the Cobra...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Meanwhile, the escaping helicopter found itself continuing to be pursued by two Cobras. "Enemy aircraft," said a voice on the radio... a female voice... "this is your last warning. Land your aircraft and surrender, or be shot down."

To emphasize her point she locked her weapons onto her adversary's aircraft. Seeing that he was painted, the pilot made his wisest move of the day: he landed and shut down his aircraft. A moment later, he saw a female in all black coming towards him, her service weapon trained upon him. He got out, his hands raised.

"Get on the ground!" Teresa Croyle ordered. "Spread your arms and legs! I said spread 'em!" She frisked him, then affixed handcuffs to his wrists behind his back.

She waved to the third Cobra, which had been flying overhead. Police Chief Sean Moynahan backed it off as another Bell came in, this one belonging to the Town & County Police and flown by Sgt. Andrew Prince. Out of the backseat popped FBI Assistant Special Agent In Charge Karina White.

"Well done, Iron Wolf!" Karina said happily as she took custody of the prisoner. "Wanna help me interrogate this prick?"

"I better not." Teresa replied. "I might be a little too rough on him..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

11:00am, Tuesday, February 11th. We returned to TCPD Headquarters. Needless to say, the Green Crowbar and Lady Ironside had 'questions' for the Red Crowbar and the Iron Wolf, and we didn't even make it out of the hallway.

"It's all over the news." Cindy said. "The FBI captured the rogue Federal Marshals. They took all of them into custody, though it seems only four of the twelve had large deposits in their bank accounts."

"Another stain on the integrity of Federal Agents." said Lt. Mary Mahoney Milton, who had come up to us.

"Hey now." said Tanya, a bit darkly.

"Fiancés of present company excluded, of course." said Mary Milton quickly. "And yes, we're starting to put together the financial paper trail between the dirty Agents and Edward Blassingame's people."

"Can we arrest Gwen Munson?" Teresa asked.

"No." said Tanya. "Julius Jefferson and Lindy Linares went to the Courthouse, where Munson was waiting in Judge Nance's courtroom with him. Jefferson told them that Blassingame had attempted to escape and had been returned to Jacksonville, and he would NOT be allowed to come up here again. Nance started cussing him, but he told Nance to take it up with the Federal judges if he didn't like it."

Tanya: "Then Lindy arrested Gwen Munson right there in the Courtroom, and took her to one of the witness rooms, where she and Jefferson interrogated her. She denied any knowledge of the escape attempt, and dared them to try to prove it. Then she walked out, and they didn't have probable cause to hold her, so they had to let her go. So she's free, for now."

"We'll see if we can change that." I said. "Let's go into my office. I need some coffee."

We went into my office, and I made coffee for everyone. After Cindy poured everyone cups, I reached into the small refrigerator that was the bottom part of my little wardrobe closet, pulled out some Bailey's Irish Creme, and fortified my coffee with it. Tanya accepted my generous offer to spike her coffee, while everyone else said they were on duty(!).

"So how did you know, Don?" Cindy asked.

"Well," I said, "I was fortunate to remember that Bettina had said a little blurb about Blassingame being brought up here for a hearing, which is highly, highly irregular after being convicted and being on Death Row. But that's Nance for you; he was obviously in on it, as was Gwen Munson, who called for the Punk to be brought up. Unfortunately, we have no proof: no money in their bank accounts, unlike those Federal Marshals that accepted retirement-worthy payments to deliver Peter to that helicopter."

Your Iron Crowbar continued: "When I heard that small blurb, it just stuck in the back of my mind. We got official notification later, so it's not like we wouldn't have known, but I'll bet Bettina would give her eyeteeth to take that news nugget back if she could."

Your Iron Crowbar: "Anyhoo, let me just say that Dr. Lionel Carmela has been attacking me relentlessly for a while now. He's been behind a lot of the demonstrations and riots we had to deal with in the past, and more recently he tried to get Laura stripped of her medical license." (Author's note: 'Believer', Ch. 01.)

Your Iron Crowbar: "The whole complex operation to kill Dr. Robert Stoddard and blame it on Dr. Stephanie Steele had several motives behind it, all related to Carmela's goals. Stoddard had been working with the U.S. Government for years on theories with military applications. Carmela wants the Constitution destroyed and the nation 'fundamentally transformed' into a Totalitarian Socialist State, and he deeply hated Stoddard for being such a strong supporter of the American Military. So Stoddard was executed."

Your Iron Crowbar: "Framing Stephanie Steele also served Carmela's goals. He hated her for not being a radical Leftist, but also because her husband is a Republican Council Member and they are friends with me and Laura. And last, the murder and the framing served to distract me, as did Carmela's attempt to physically attack my daughter."

Your Iron Crowbar: "Edward Steele mentioned his wife's case being a distraction to me, and that struck me. Then 'distractions' was mentioned in the Amber Harris car crash. And then there was the 'McGinty's Materials' blackmail threats in Midtown, another fire I had to put out, as well as the other Media crap Bettina was throwing at me."

Your Iron Crowbar: "So I realized something was going on. And some of our Detectives most very astutely realized that the Stoddard murder was 'professional grade'... and I connected that dot to some of the ex-Navy-SEAL group that Trent and Quint were a part of. I strongly suspect that one or two of them broke into Selena Steele's home, stole her gun, and used it to kill her mother's colleague.

Your Iron Crowbar: "I remembered that those perps had connections, strong connections, to Edward Blassingame... whose son on Death Row was scheduled to be brought up here for a legal hearing... all that distance across our State. And I remembered Blassingame's fellow Swamp Frogs polluting our Federal law enforcement agencies. And I'm just paranoid enough to actually think about all of that being connected."

"Wow." Cindy said. "That is deep."

"Yep." I said. "So I had a few words with Jack Muscone and Karina White, and they quietly did some checking. They found the anomalies in the Marshals pretty quickly."

I added: "And we are not fooled by Chief Moynahan's willingness to let us fly the Cobras down there... after all, it gave him the chance to fly one of them." Teresa gave as much of a grin at that as I've ever seen from her.

"Why do they even try?" Mary Milton said.

"Because they think I'm an Agency of the Weak-Minded." I said with a grin. Then I let the grin disappear into an angry frown as I said "But Lionel Carmela is about to find out otherwise... the hard way..."

Part 19 - Set-Up

1:00pm, Tuesday, February 11th. I pulled into the parking lot of University Campus Police Headquarters, with Sheriff Antonio Griswold and Lt. Commander Teresa Croyle riding with me. There was a group of Officers and other people around a gray car that was parked in the shade of a tree in the parking lot.

"What is that bastard Troy doing here?" yelled Lionel Carmela, who was standing next to the gray car.

"Investigating a crrrrime." I drawled.

"You don't have jurisdiction here, you son of a bitch!" yelled Carmela.

"Bullshit, Fat Boy!" I fired back. "I'm an SBI Inspector, and I have jurisdiction here!" I then lowered my voice and said "Why don't you try telling the County Sheriff that he has no jurisdiction here, you fat faggot?" Officers laughed as Carmela turned beet red.

"Soooo, is there a problem, Officers?" I quipped.

"There may be, Commander." said Commissioner Briscoe. "Dr. Carmela here said he witnessed Detective Tracy Stone hide a kilo of heroin in the trunk of her car, here. We borrowed your drug dog, Sergeant Tango, and he alerted. We opened the trunk and found a kilo of China White with the spare tire in the well."

"So desu ka?" I said. "Where is Detective Stone now?"

"In the building, being questioned." said SBI Agent Terence Johnson.

"So, since the esteemed Dr. Carmela's word is the probable cause for bringing in the dog, have you gotten his sworn affidavit yet?"

"No sir." said Campus Police Cadet Officer Tatum.

"Why, you need to get his sworn statement." I said. "Otherwise, there is no case against Detective Stone. The evidence will be thrown out."

"They don't need my statement." replied Carmela. "The dog alerting is sufficient probable cause for the search."

"Oh, you're a lawyer now?" I sneered at Carmela. "Again, folks, has Dr. Carmela giving his sworn affidavit that he saw Detective Stone put the heroin in her car?"

"No sir." said Agent Johnson.

"They don't need it, you fucking rapist!" Carmela yelled at me.

Sheriff Griswold went over and got in Carmela's face. "You say that slanderous comment again, and I'll personally haul your fat ass to County Jail... and put you in 'gen pop' with the gangbangers. They'll teach you what 'rape' really is!"

"Police brutality!" yelled Carmela. "He just threatened me!"

I laughed. "You think that is Police brutality?" I said incredulously. I held up the red crowbar and said "Police brutality begins... when I split your head in two with this thing. Now are you going to give a sworn statement? Or will any charges against Detective Stone be summarily dropped?"

Carmela grudgingly gave his statement to Cadet Officer Tatum, and also signed Agent Johnson's affidavit for the SBI.

"Very good." I said. "Agent Johnson, will you place Lionel Carmela under arrest, please?"

"FOR WHAT?" yelled Carmela.

"Perjury." I said. "You just gave a false statement on two sworn affidavits."

"You'll never prove that!" Carmela yelled as Sheriff Griswold personally effected the arrest, cuffing Carmela's hands behind him.

"Oh, I think I will." I said. "Let's go inside... and watch some TV."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We went into the Conference Room. Sheriff Griswold read Carmela his considerable legal rights under a U.S. Constitution that Carmela despised. Then Detective Stone came in, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Carmela's eyes showed unappeasable hatred when he saw her.

"Commander Croyle," I said, "what are my four favorite words, besides 'You are under arrest.'?"

"Let's watch some TV." Teresa correctly replied.

"Yes, let's do!" I said happily as I petted Sergeant Tango. A video came on the TV screen.

"Well," I said, "I apologize for being a bit distracted this morning, flying my helicopter across the State, arresting Peter Blassingame." I noted Carmela's eyes react just a little bit before he regained control. He's good, I thought to myself. But not good enough.

"I understand Detective Stone parked her car in that dark, shady spot." I said. "Hard to see, especially after sunset. Detective Stone went out to dinner with Officer O'Neal, then to his apartment, leaving her car here overnight. And here... oh my, what is that? The infrared is clearly showing someone coming up to Detective Stone's car. That is certainly not Detective Stone, it's clearly a man."

I continued narrating: "Oh look, there's a camera in the trunk of Detective Stone's car. Oh, there's two of them! One is getting a clear shot of the perp's face, while the other is showing him planting that heroin." The man was young, with black hair, and wearing a gray coat.

"Sooooo, Dr. Carmela," I said. "we've got some evidence that clearly contradicts your sworn statement."

"That does not prove I lied." Carmela said.

"Really?" I said. "Let's bring the witness in." The man who was shown in the video was brought in, his hands manacled behind him by Police handcuffs.

"Soooo, young man." I said. "Who put you up to planting that heroin?" The man couldn't help it; his dark eyes went right to Lionel Carmela. But he didn't speak.

"Save yourself, young man." I said. "Is the person who put you up to that in this room now?"

"Don't say a word." said Carmela. "Demand a lawyer. Don't let these thug cops browbeat you into giving up your rights!" I saw the man's dark eyes change; they were tinged with fear.

"I want a lawyer." the man said dully. I nodded, and he was taken back out of the room.

"Your bluff didn't work, thug." Carmela said to me.

"Didn't it?" I replied. "Guys, why don't we take Dr. Carmela to his office, so he can witness my search of it..."

"I want a lawyer." said Carmela. "And I protest any search without my lawyer present."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I used Carmela's keys to open his office door. Detective Tracy Stone shoved Carmela into the room, and I followed them in. Everyone else stayed outside.

Tracy forced Carmela to sit in his chair behind his desk, and I brought one of the chairs in front of the desk around to sit next to him.

"I want a lawyer." said Carmela. "You are abusing the hell out of my Constitutional rights, you fucking Pig."

"Yes," I said, "that same Constitution you've openly vowed to overthrow is what you are hoping will save you now. The irony and the hypocrisy are amusing."

"So you just abuse my rights, Troy?" said Carmela. "Like you did Rodman and Braselton, and that bitch you raped while in your custody? And you call yourself a cop?"

"Why, no." I said, letting my voice quieten as I said "I call myself... a Guardian of Justice." Carmela's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in deep hatred.

"So you're counting on me being constrained by the Constitution and the Law." I said. "What if I choose to remove those constraints? Right now, there is nothing stopping me from taking this crowbar and beating you with it until you are dead. And Detective Stone? She's going to take your side? After you've threatened and blackmailed her all these years, and done all you can to keep her from getting her degree, and from getting jobs?"

"Is that what the lying little bitch told you?" Carmela said, his eyes boring in on Tracy. "She's just a liar, like you are. So go ahead, do whatever you're going to do. You'll never get away with it."

"You wish." I said. "You do wish. Fortunately for you, all I want today is this." I opened the drawer of Carmela's desk, and pulled out three file folders, and handed them to Tracy Stone. Carmela looked absolutely stunned; he had not placed those files there.

Indeed, it was ninja in the night that had found the files and placed them there. When Tracy had told me that Carmela had appeared at her car with the file folder in his hand, I knew it likely was in his office or his car. It wasn't in his car, so it had to be in his office. And my ninja found it, and the copies of it...

"Ahh, the original and two copies." I said. "That makes three. And as Mr. Sherlock Holmes tells us: 'they always stop at three'. Ah, right on cue."

I was referring to the door to the office flying open, followed by Gwen Munson bursting into the room. "What the hell are you doing, interrogating my client without me present?" she yelled.

"Oh, we're just having a conversation." I said.

"No we're not!" Carmela said loudly. "I asked for a lawyer, and this Pig Troy was interrogating me anyway."

"That's not true." said Tracy Stone.

"Any case you may have thought you had, is ovah!" yelled Munson. "You've violated my clients rights! I'm going to Judge Nance, and he's going to barbecue you over this!"

I had risen to my feet. "Better enjoy Nance's presence while you have it. He won't survive the next Election. And I may have him in prison before then." As Stone and I went for the door, I turned back: "And Ms. Munson, don't try to help Edward Blassingame break his son out of prison again."

"You'll never prove that I helped him." said Gwen Munson.

"I don't have to." I said. "It's enough that I know. And you might ask your fat client there about me being constrained by the law..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Back at Campus Police HQ, Commissioner Briscoe said "So this guy we busted for planting the heroin, Terry Toole, is saying he and he alone planted the heroin, that he bought it somewhere in the Tenderloin District, and no one else was involved. He doesn't remember exactly where in the Tenderloin District he bought the China White, he says his motive was because Tracy Stone turned him down for a date, and he finally asked for a lawyer to stop us from asking more questions."