No Way Out Ch. 04

He looked up at Teresa, who was staring back at him. "No, Commander Troy did not have the papers. I did. And now, they're dispersed to the Four Winds; you'll never get them back... especially the originals of this.

She had drawn a file folder with some papers in it and handed it to Nash. "Oh yes," she said, "they kept every record of it, of the deal your uncle made with them to take down Superior Bloodlines! But they easily got the upper hand, and didn't honor the deal. Fortunately for your uncle, Commander Troy did defeat Superior Bloodlines."

Nash's face wilted as he saw what was in the folder. "What does Commander Troy want?"

"He doesn't even know about this." Teresa said. "This is all me. And it is not a negotiation. Your conduct, as well as your uncle's, has been inexcusable. This information has already been disseminated to the Press, and to Congress. When it hits the airwaves, the damage to not only your uncle but the FBI itself will be worse than a nuclear bomb going off in the County."

"My God." Nash said. "You'd do that to the FBI? And to my uncle, who was just trying to destroy the White Supremacy group that----"

"I'm aware of that." said Teresa. "But like I told you, my first loyalty is to the man your uncle helped torture over those papers, to keep his dirty, shameful secret covered up. And Clan Troy never lets an insult pass."

"Again, what do you want?" Nash asked weakly.

"Nothing." Teresa said. "I'm not a blackmailer. There is only one honorable thing for your uncle to do. Perhaps it will occur to you on your elevator ride back up to the Hospital. Now go, before I change my mind and leave you trapped down here."

Martin Nash took the folder with him and almost ran down the corridor to the elevator. He got in and pushed the button to go up, and the elevator closed. He was not worried about how Teresa would get out, as his mind was exploding in fear at the impending disaster to his uncle's reputation, and the FBI's.

For herself, Teresa went the other way down the corridor, to the the secret passage the Iron Crowbar had found. There's always another way out, she thought to herself. There's never 'no way out' for those on the side of Justice...

Part 18 - Retribution Redux

8:30pm, Friday, January 24th. The lab technician showed the doctor the results. "White blood count is going off the charts."

"We've got to get him into the O.R., stat." said the doctor. He and two nurses went to the room of BATFE Special Agent In Charge Curtis Halsey. In the room with Halsey were ATF Special Agent Karl Coleman and FBI BAU Agent Peter Page.

"We're taking him into O.R." said the doctor. He and the nurses transferred Halsey to a gurney and took down the hall, down the elevator, and on down the hall to the O.R. section.

The Federal Agents attempted to go with Halsey, but the doctor stopped them at the entrance to the O.R. wing. "Only Hospital personnel beyond this point." the doctor said.

"We're coming in there with him." said Coleman. He suddenly found himself being confronted by Town & County Police Lieutenant Micah Rudistan, with Corporal Hicks backing him up.

"No, you're not." said Rudistan. "You heard the doc."

"Get out of my way, you faggot local cops." snarled Page. "We're Federal Agents."

"And we don't care." fired back Corporal Hicks, his hand on his holstered weapon. "If you go in there, we'll shoot you. Your big bad Federal badges won't make good armor protection for your heads." The Federal Agents were forced to relent. Kurt Coleman got out his cellphone and made a call...

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

After the creation of the new EMS, the County bought several of University Hospital's ambulances, but not all of them. University Hospital Ambulance 375 was still owned by the Hospital. It was the ambulance that had transported the Rev. Jonas Oldeeds and his murder weapon out of the Fairgrounds all those years ago. (Author's note: 'Case of the Executed Evangelist', Ch. 04.)

The medical team that had taken Curtis Halsey into the O.R. drove him into an ambulance and downstairs through the nearly-empty E.R. areas, then outside to the loading dock, where Halsey was put on Ambulance 375. E.R. Staff had seen that happen in the past, for a patient to be transported out of the Hospital that way, so they did not take much notice.

The ambulance was driven away from the Hospital with its lights flashing but no siren. After getting to University Avenue, the ambulance shut off its lights, and made its way down University Avenue to MLK Jr. Drive, upon which it turned, going west.

The ambulance then turned onto side streets and drove by a number of businesses and warehouses until it got to a metal-walled warehouse with white trim. It was not easy to see in the dark that the metal walls were red. This was the warehouse where a stolen nuclear weapon was found, and where Trent Ridge had met his destiny. (Author's note: 'The Nuclear Option', Ch. 03-04; 'A Death in the Family', Ch. 04.)

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

And where was I during the early morning hours of Wednesday, January 22nd, as Federal Agents prepared to invade and destroy my homes?

The Eighth Street Latinos were meeting in a room behind a bar south of Town, not far from Hotel Row, where the County's small Hispanic Community mostly lived. They were stunned when the door opened and a broad-shouldered redhead in all black came into the room.

"Away put your weapons." I said. "I mean you no harm." That would hardly deter them, but the hand grenade I was holding with the pin pulled was the more eloquent argument that convinced them.

"He's got help." said one man. "One man in the bar, at least three others outside."

"And one right there in the backdoor." I said. They all turned to see the masked man in black, holding a grenade and also an M-4. They did not know that he was Teddy Franklin, Todd's close friend and a member of Clan Crowbar.

"What do you want, Iron Crowbar?" said the Rodrigo-san, who was sitting at the further back table, playing cards.

"That's the Iron Crowbar?" said a slender, very fit Latino man, that looked like he could've been in the Green Berets, who was sitting at the table closer to me.

"You must be Raoul." I said to the man.

"Not much gets past you, Iron Crowbar." said Raoul. "Take it easy, guys, this cabron is loco.." Turning back to me, he said "So again, I.C.. why are you here? What do you want?

"I want you to listen to some news." I said. "The DEA is trying to set you up. You're supposed to do a drug deal with T-Mac just west of the Junkyard on Friday night. But the other side is not T-Mac's boys, they're DEA. You were supposed to pick up product that would be delivered in a University Hospital ambulance, and it's not the first time you used ambulances to make your deliveries. But it will be the last."

"And you're here warning us?" said Raoul. The others started laughing. "What's in it for you?"

"Just a couple of things." I said. "That ambulance will deliver some bags of product, which will be sugar and cornstarch, not drugs, and you'll take that ambulance to the meeting spot. May I recommend you not have any drugs when you meet T-Mac's boys."

"Man, you ARE loco." said Raoul. "T-Mac's boys will light us up."

"Naah." I said. "They're bringing Monopoly money to the party. Literally. Monopoly money. You're going to embarrass the hell out of the DEA. The News Media will be talking about it non-stop."

"Yeah, that sounds good." said Raoul with mock joviality. "And what's in it for you again?"

I smiled one of 'those' smiles. "I get the person that will be in that ambulance when we meet at the location I'm going to give you. And I get you taking your filthy product out of my County. Go back to Southport, Raoul. If I catch you here, and with real drugs... I will bring the crowbar down on you like you've never been hit before."

"He ain't playing." said the Rodrigo-san...

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

Just a few hours later, even as the FBI was raiding the Mountain Nest and Halsey was about to murder my daughter, I called Dwight Stevens from a burner in an 'unknown location'.

"Dwight," I said, "I know about that drug sting you're planning for Friday night. May I suggest that you not go through with it. They know you're coming. If they're even there, they won't have product nor money."

"What the hell..." said Stevens, but he was speaking into a phone whose connection had gone dead...

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

Now in live time, the back of the ambulance was opened to reveal Curtis Halsey, his hands zip-tied behind his back, and his mouth stuffed with a plastic ball and then sealed off with duct tape. Masked persons in black got out as well. Several large sacks full of powdery substances were near the cab of the vehicle.

Halsey screamed into the gag as he was forced to hobble on has damaged knee to a small, strange-looking black car. It was made of composite materials, and designed to avoid detection. It also suppressed any radio signals. Halsey was stuffed into the trunk, and the lid slammed down on him.

Three Latino gangbangers had their dog go over and through the ambulance. He did not alert, and they nodded.

"Have a nice day." said a large masked man with a gravelly voice as the three Latino gang members and their dog got into the ambulance. The masked ambulance driver got behind the wheel of the small car, and the large man in the shotgun seat, with a smaller person in the very cramped back seat. They drove off. A moment later, the gangbangers drove off in the ambulance...

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

"There's Halsey's signal." said FBI EAD Dr. Robin Isley. She was in the Communications Room on top of the Federal Building. "It's headed southwest. Nothing but farm fields out there."

"Think Lange told the gangbangers what was going on?" Karl Coleman asked.

"Maybe." said Dr. Isley. "Owen Lange is an idiot, an utter fool. He really thought he could get Halsey out of the Hospital under our noses?"

"The transmitter Halsey swallowed is working perfectly." said Coleman. "The DEA Agents will recover him, under the guise of a 'drug sting'. And don't forget... we're doing this right under the Iron Crowbar's nose, too."

"Oh yesssss, I know." hissed Isley. "Okay, move on in. Let's get Curtis out of there before something happens to him..."

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

The three young Latinos, who hoped to become the equivalent of 'made men' in The Eighth Street Latinos organization, got out of the ambulance in the farm field, the lights of the Town to their northeast, and the fence enclosing the metal scrapyard to their east, shrouded in darkness.

From the other car, a white Cadillac Escalade, three of T-Mac's lieutenants got out. "Welcome to the party, gentlemen." said one of T-Mac's lieutenants. "If you got guns on you, you're fucked. Here come the Pigs." They all looked north to see the vehicles coming off the main road and along the dirt road. their blue lightbars blazing.

"TCPD!" yelled Officers as they pulled up to surround the two groups. The gangbangers raised their hands as they were surrounded.

"Hey, we got the Right to Peaceably Assemble." said one of the Latinos. "We even brought an American Flag." He was holding a small American Flag on a stick...

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

"What the fuck is that?" yelled DEA Supervisory Special Agent Dwight Stevens from the van that was the command vehicle, which was parked at one of the buildings on the edge of Town.

"TCPD is coming in and making our bust." said DEA Special Agent Kevin Pitts, a young black man who had set up the sting.

"That bastard." muttered Stevens under his breath, thinking the Iron Crowbar had double-crossed him to take the glory for the bust. "Okay, Pitts, get in there, and take this away from the locals."

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

"FEDERAL AGENTS!" the Federal Agents yelled as they drove up to the scene, the blue lightbars of the TCPD vehicles bathing everything in an eerie blue light. "Drop your weapons!"

They were seeing six young men in civilian clothing sitting on the ground, not even handcuffed. Police Officers were going through both vehicles, and a drug dog was happily sniffing around the ambulance.

"TCPD!" said TCPD Senior Sergeant Roy McGhillie, who was leading the mission. "Lower your weapons."

"This is our bust." snarled DEA Agent Pitts. "What the hell are you doing jumping our claim?"

"We're not jumping anything." said McGhillie. "But you might be glad we did. These guys have no weapons on them, at all. The money in the Escalade is Monopoly money. Literally. Yellow and pink and blue and light green. And our drug dog here has not alerted to anything. The bags in the ambo are cornstarch and sugar."

*WHIRRRRRRRR!*

"What the fuuuuuck?" said one of the gangbangers as everyone looked to the east. It was the sound of a powerful metal grinder being revved up...

*AAAUUUGGGHHH!*

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

The masked persons had night-vision goggles. One of them was in the control room, about to turn on the grinder. The other, a large man, was standing on the catwalk over the grinders. Standing next to him, held in place, was Curtis Halsey.

"Show your face, Troy!" Halsey yelled, then laughed demonically. He was going insane, I realized. And yes,, I'd removed his gag. I wanted to hear him scream.

And his comment showed me that there might be a drone in the area. Had Isley caught onto us? I wondered to myself. Were her people on the way?

"Never mind my face." I growled, my voice whispery and gravelly. "You need to worry about your knee... and the rest of you." I pointed at the control tower, and the machinery turned on.

*WHIRRRRRRRR!*

And then I picked Halsey up and dangled him over the rail of the catwalk. Halsey began shrieking, but his shrieks were drowned out by the noise of the machinery as metal pieces began falling off the conveyor belt into the grinder.

And then I thought of Carole, and Bowser... and a little brown-and-beige train car that had been left smashed on the floor. No, it was not too hard, I thought, as I dropped Halsey off the catwalk and into the machinery, feet-first.

*AAAUUUGGGHHH!* Halsey screamed as his legs were caught by the machinery, and he was pulled down into it.

*GRIND!* *GRIND!* *GRIND!*...

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

We left the machinery running and worked our way south through the junkyard. Coming to the south fence, we went through the pre-cut slit in the fence, then ran over the hard earth of the frozen farm field to the dirt road and the small composite car.

"Q'plaa? asked the driver, Melina Allgood in good Klingon, of which Our Sheriff would approve, as FBI ASAC Karina White and myself took off our masks.

"Ohhhh, yeahhhhhh." I said. "And thanks for your help, both of you."

"Just finishing what I should've finished when I shot him in the knee." said Melina.

"And it was my pleasure to help." said Karina White. "That man did everything he could to destroy my career, for years. I just wish I could've dropped him in myself."

"I wish I could've let you." I said. "And from this point on, we shall never speak of this again." Both women agreed...

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

"He's not there." said Karl Coleman into his cellphone to Dr. Robin Isley. "There was a device that was mimicking the signal of his swallowed transmitter. The Police and the DEA are all over the place, but they found no drugs. And no Halsey."

"Ma'am," said Lindsey Black, coming into the room where Isley was, which was just below the Communications Room, "we did get a brief blip of SAC Halsey's transmitter. Just east of where the ambo was found."

"What's at that location?" asked Isley.

"A metal scrapyard." said Black, stating Jameis's grandfather's name as the owner. "Our man embedded in the DEA team texted that everyone heard the grinding machine on the property turning on, and a scream."

"Oh, noooooooo." said Robin Isley...

Part 19 - She Just Won't Stop

7:00am, Saturday, January 25th. Dr. Robin Isley came up to the crime scene, which was crawling with Federal Agents, mostly of the FBI. Their invitation to have the State Crime Lab and TCPD CSI's join them was rebuffed, with both agencies citing the FBI's treatment of them during the Hospital bombing attack. (Author's note: 'Only Time'.)

She looked up at the grinding gears above, then the smaller gears and the railcar bin that captured the shredded material. ATF Special Agent Black said "Blood and flesh all the way down, ma'am, especially in the catch car down here. Types to SAC Halsey's. Our labs are running fast DNA tests."

"What a horrible way to die." Isley said, putting a tinge of both sadness and venom in her voice. "Whoever did this to Curtis is an animal. Where was Donald Troy last night."

"His cellphones pinged from his wife's house, as did hers." said Lindsey Black. After a pause, she said "He couldn't have acted alone in this. The test showing an infection was a false positive. The tech said there was contamination from the previous run. A doctor and two nurses took SAC Halsey to the O.R., but no one can say who they were, and their descriptions match no one on Staff. And Troy wasn't at the scene when the Police and DEA captured those gangbangers and their fake drug deal."

"Fake drug deal." said Isley. "That has Iron Crowbar written all over it."

"With respect, ma'am," said Lindsey Black, "how did the Iron Crowbar get two drug gangs, several Hospital personnel, and the DEA to work with him to do this?"

"I don't know." said Isley. "But I see why Brendan Chapel is so scared of him. Okay, was there anything on his vehicles? Especially that green contraption he thinks he can hide from us?"

"No ma'am, and that was the first thing I looked for." said Lindsey Black. "It's at Dr. Eckhart's compound in Coltrane County, and was there all yesterday and last night."

"But not underground where we couldn't track it." Isley said. "The Iron Crowbar wanted us to see it down there. And his Police SUV was at home, I'm sure."

"Yes ma'am." said Black.

Robin Isley nodded, her mood bleak. There has got to be a way we can beat that man, she thought to herself. There has got to be a way to take him down...

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

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded MILF reporterette at 8:00am, Saturday, January 25th. "The fallout over the pardon of Donald Troy by deeply unpopular Governor Val Jared continues to haunt them as the State Legislature prepares for Impeachment!"

Bettina began: "Commander Troy may have avoided criminal prosecution and prison after being saved by Governor Jared's pardon, but his popularity has taken a deep dive, according to Karl Frazier of Public Policy Polling, who says that Commander Troy's favorables dropped to 50% while his unfavorables are at 52%, showing that Donald Troy is not trusted by the People of this State anymore."

Bettina: "And Governor Jared's favorables dropped to an all-time low of 28%, while his unfavorables are at 58% after unexpectedly and inexplicably pardoning Donald Troy for sex-related crimes. The State House Democrats, which were already holding hearings to impeach the Governor, have now found strong support with State House Republicans, and believe the Impeachment will come as early as Monday."

"There are also implications for the SBI." said Bettina. "Their Director, James 'Curly' Goodwin, is running for Town & County Inspector General against Commissioner Bruce Finneran, and his poll numbers have dropped after the Governor pardoned Troy. KXTC has strongly endorsed Commissioner Finneran for the Inspector General position."