Not Quite a White Knight Bk. 02 Pt. 03

Still, I did not start the group pistol-whipping that their patches begged for, this was a friendly meeting, for the kids.

But some folks were just begging for that beat down.

It seemed the gang was shaking the place down, demanding money from the owner. If they had been professional we might have had a peaceful meeting in private, exchanging respect, and explain the facts of life without any excessive bloodshed and broken bones. But that did not happen.

Two guys, the president and maybe his "heavy" bodyguard, went to the counter to see the owner. They were loud and talked like they were reading a bad movie script. Meanwhile, two guys who looked like Dumb and Dumber checked the crowd out, then peeled off to bother Pammie and Tonto. There were three other couples in the place, but Pammie was the sweetest so naturally she attracted the ugly flies. The tall skinny goofus, who carried a baseball bat, took a lookout position in the center of the room where he could watch the front door, but didn't. Instead he was fascinated by the antics of Dumb and Dumber in the "Pammie" zone.

I never go anywhere without "my little friend," a compact Glock 29 holstered in the small of my back. I could have dropped them all with that but then there would have been noise and blood and paperwork and nobody needed that with their pizza sauce.

Tonight I also had my shoulder rig with a big fucking Glock 20 long pipe (both are 10 mm) on one side, and two spare mags (one extended) plus a silencer and a few special purpose bullets (blanks, frags, and shot) on the other side. I figured, when a Federal Judge is in the mood to sign things (it's his job), why not ask for the works - concealed carry and silencer permits. It was not like he was going to read what I gave him, that was what clerks were for. So I was kosher for the hardware.

I knew Ernie had a carry permit, at one time he had won a quick-draw + shoot contest involving ankle holsters; I heard he used a small Berreta back in the day. Tony had a felony bust but he always liked close-up work anyways, he had a number of throwing knives plus a tool belt with some long extra sharp screwdrivers, a hammer and some wicked chisels. If he ditched the knives he was cheap, legal and very deadly. His approach was painful and messy, but effective.

When I spotted the gang colors my first move was to slip the compact Glock 29 from my back and stick a blank in the pipe. Then I slipped the Glock 20 out and screwed the silencer on, because the combo looks so fucking intimidating. Both of these moves were below the table, so nobody saw steel or heard a thing.

The two guys talking to Pammie and Tonto were being a pain but I really did not want to shoot anybody until Ernie and Tony were back. Then I would not have to shoot anybody. So the kids put up with some stupid posing.

Then I heard Dumb say that Pammie "better get friendly with me or she would get friendly with all his gang."

"All purple of you? As if!" was her retort.

That was when a number of things happened at once.

Tony walked out of the restroom and was expecting to take the pizza off the counter (the box had his name on it). But the bodyguard grabbed it and said "the little guy" could wait. The thing about holding a pizza box is that you naturally use two hands. Tony was all-city soccer in his prime. So he kicked the guy hard, kicking the ball the length of the field hard, hitting in the bad place. Then as the guy is falling, Tony hit him hard on the side of the face with some brass knuckles that just appeared. Like I said, Tony brings the extra topping of pain. It was a bank shot, the guy's head slammed into the metal edge of the counter as he fell, I'm sure he didn't feel it by then. He was out for the night.

Tony caught his pizza as the guy fell.

At the same time Tonto started to get up out of his chair but Dumber, who was behind his chair, put hands on Tonto's shoulders and held him down. Tonto is a small guy and does not know the counter-move. The other guy, Dumb, touched Pammie's hair just as Ernie opened the door. Her father saw it, and yelled for him to "get away from her."

Dumb responded with, "who's going to make me? An ancient beaner?" At the same time the guy in the middle of the room moved to intercept Ernie with his bat.

Ernie faked them, stepping towards Pammie, acting like he didn't see the bat-guy, so the guy did nothing defensive. Ernie took some quick steps then went low, sliding like Ty Cobb into bat guy and taking out his legs with a neat scissors move, just like he did when he was younger. The bigger they are... Pammie saw it and her eyes sparkled at her Daddy.

Like I said, all that happened at once.

Things were about to get messy with whatever weapons the Purples had, Pammie and Tonto were still vulnerable, so I froze everybody at the party by firing the blank at the ceiling. Outside it would be loud. In the little pizza place it was DAMN loud. Everybody froze and turned my way, that is what the rules say when somebody fires a gun at a party for stupids.

I spoke to address Dumb's last question directly, hamming up my "Scarface" accent. (I could not help it.) "In answer to your stupid question, helping el senor would be me... and my little friend." Every bad guy knows that line - and the grenade launcher that goes with it. I pointed the small compact Glock 29 at Dumb with my left hand. "Plus my little friend's big brother." I held up the Glock 20 in my right hand aimed it at Dumber. Now, the 29 is a small pistol, it shoots a big bullet but does not look that intimidating, especially with a big guy like me. However, the extended Glock 20 with a silencer in my right hand is a monster, it looks bigger than Dirty Harry's fabled Magnum. The FBI does not use them because they are too big and powerful, plus the bullets tend to keep going after hitting a body or a car or a wall, etc.

Dumb could not think of a retort so he raised his hands. Dumber just looked stupid, something he probably learned in our failing schools. Bat guy watched Ernie pick up the bat and knew pain was coming in his immediate future.

The guy with the Prez patch was the only purple guy who kept his head. Ignoring his unconscious buddy-guard bleeding on the ground, he started to move to either flank me or pull my eyes off his friends. He was inexperienced and tunnel-visioned, he only had eyes for me. I ignored him, he was stupid and had a tiger on his tail.

Tony pulled out a foot-long Phillips-head screwdriver with one hand as he closed the distance. In a moment he grabbing the guy's head on one side, then put the tip of the screwdriver into the guy's ear on the other side, drawing blood. "Do you want to die looking real stupid... and screwed?" Tony asked.

El Prez put his hands up.

Tony promptly kicked El Prez in the back of the knees so he went down hard.

Meanwhile, in the center of the floor, Ernie was working some moves. He has outwitted tall guys with baseball bats before. The guy Ernie took down was holding the bat with both hands when he went down so his long nose absorbed some of the impact. Ex-batter/lookout was also a bleeder. When Ernie stood up again he had the bat. Dumb had his hands up and backed off quick. Dumber was confused, he stayed where he was so he took a quick poke from the bat to the jaw. Just a tap. Maybe Ernie knocked out a tooth or two. He dropped to his knees.

Ernie then explained good manners to Dumb and Dumber, first reinforcing their words with tactile aids delivered by the bat to the torsos. After they were both tuned up a little Ernie said to Pammie, "avert your eyes honey, the bad man has to learn something the hard way."

"Oh yes Daddy," Pammie responded, her voice clear and sparkling as a bell. I noticed she peeked.

Ernie took the tire-iron Dumber carried and stuck it through Dumb's hand because he had touched Pammie. First he made the guy hold his hand out for a solid whack first, just to reinforce the lesson and numb the pain. Then he put the pointy end through the hand. Next he made a mess of the guy's face. Finally he insured that the guy had no thoughts of a sexual nature for a few weeks. Honestly, I could not watch it.

Tony dragged "El PreZ" to me, then went and did a number on the guy who hassled Tonto, who was already missing some teeth. He used a short length of common pipe along with the brass knuckles in a nasty 1-2 combination; it sounded like he cracked the guy's ribs and from the chips that flew out of his mouth we knew he would also need even more dental work. Tonto wanted to do something but Tony said he should never do something he had to lie about until the subject was serious. These guys were not worth it for the kids; he glanced at Pammie and said Tonto had good reason to go keep his record clean so he could go to college.

The last lesson was for the baseball bat guy. There were no head shots, but he found out how the bat felt when it was rammed in the stomach or slammed on each shoulder. One shoulder smash Ernie knew was a bone breaker 9 times out of 10 and this guy had no luck, he would never swing a bat properly again.

When the lessons were done we put the four guys against the wall. Tony's bleeding soccer buddy was still out but the pizza guys stopped the bleeding - so there was less to clean up. We emptied their pockets and checked them for other weapons. "El PreZ" had a cheap .22 auto with no bullets but that was okay, the spring was busted; I bet he showed it to people like it worked. His sleeping bodyguard had an old (as in 1960's era) pellet gun that looked sort of like a Luger. With no orange tip that toy would get him killed real fast if a cop saw a hint of it. They all had these pathetic little knives and three had clubs of one sort or another, but that was it.

I talked to the pizza guy. He said that this was the entire gang, they were trying to establish themselves now that the area was gang-less and seemed to think that he would volunteer to be their first funding source. The wallets said they lived a few blocks away, it all used to be Black King territory. Well, we really could not stay for the questions and paperwork, so we zip-tied the four goons into one package, put the El PreZ in my trunk and took a few of the pizzas to go. (They would not let us pay for them.)

Yeah, I had to remove the M1 rifle that I normally had in the trunk, which was clearly rigged to shoot anybody behind me. They all saw it. The kids could not understand it. Tony could not believe it.

All the customers and workers applauded as we left.

The shop owner would wait 15 minutes before dialing 911, that would give the dozen other customers a chance to pack up and leave. I suggested that I might hear a story about some marines picking up pizza when the gang came in, and that the purple leader ran off with dirty jeans before his day got worse. Because it just might go that way.

We drove to the next exit down the expressway where there was a park and, 100 yards away, a semi-collapsed machine shop. We shared the pizza and talked, in the nice evening air the park was really a nice place. The adults were cool enough now that the kids sat with us. It was good pizza and a better talk.

I talked mostly to the kids (no, they could not see my guns) while Tony and Ernie both discovered they had relatives they could trust. Tony's lived in Portland Oregon and Ernie's lived in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, just across the river in Washington state. They were in different states but one community. What could be better? Okay, Portland was the strip club capital of the US, but it was also a great city for biking. Calls were made, cover stories fabricated, in 15 minutes they made arrangements for the kids to live and work up there for the summer. Pammie hated to be away from her family, but it was the ideal solution that put her with Tonto on a social basis, less that 2 miles apart. Pammie gave me a kiss of the cheek for setting up the meet.

The kids knew better then to ask about the guy in my trunk. Pammie pleaded with me, "they had not killed anyone," so I swore I would not kill him, "but he might be damaged in transit." He had no serious damage up to that point, but he saw what we did to his people. She was okay with that and it was all she needed to know.

The kids left in Tony's car, he would drop Pammie off near her apartment. With Pammie along our guys knew to let him pass.

The last thing that Tony said to me was that things might be changing for him, he had seen a divorce lawyer (Andy Krugler Jr. - I knew him) and he might have some new bodyguards, "from the outside who saw their role differently." It was internal gang business, so he could not tell me anything else. This was a warning, drawing attention to it put me on high alert. He also said he might be hard to contact for a time. I should not try, it would raise suspicion.

Tony was smart, he had given me a lot of information and some things to think about. I hoped he got Tonto out in time so he could make his own moves.

Once they were gone Ernie and I gave our guest a tour of that abandoned building nearby. First he got to connect with the each of the weapons carried by his gang. We did not split his head or break many bones, except for his trigger finger.

Then during the Q and A session we found out this was the first "outing" for the gang. There would not be a second. They organized when the Black Kings collapsed, all kinds of new groups were trying to form for self-defense. They picked the wrong way to do it, but I decided not to offer any advice. Except the obvious: the title "Purple Gang" was property of Detroit. I reinforced that with a pistol smash that changed his face, it was serious offense.

I loaded another blank which he fired, it made sure his broken trigger finger would test positive for GSR when (not if) he finally got picked up. When we were done talking we poured half a pint of cheap vodka down his throat - for medicinal purposes you understand, the pain. He had a lot more coming. We assured him it was kosher vodka. Then we took a trip. We finally dropped him off at a burt-out store in south Compton. He had no wallet or ID. His phone was along but I'm afraid I ran over it. He did have his jacket, his colors and his gun, but if he was smart he would dump those at the first opportunity.

He didn't. It is a fact you can't fix stupid.

I read about it the next day in the papers. It seems he was a nephew of some small-time reporter so the story - starting after he was dropped off in Compton - got some play.

The guy had a bad night. It seems that, displaying a complete lack of awareness, be staggered into a bar with his colors flying, pointed to his patch, announced he was a gang president, and demanded a phone. This was one of those under-lit bars folks go to because they are hoping a real nasty fight will break out, but they will settle for a good beating. Folks lined up a shot with him, the bartender collected $5 a punch and $10 for a kick. Half price for the ladies. Head and crotch shots went for double.

After the money dried up - or the guy was out-of-it - they put him outside while somebody called 911. It would not be good to have the white guy bleed out on the floor - too much blood to clean up and paperwork. If he was found inside, dead or alive, the bar would be in trouble. Ditto if he was dead outside. But if he was just bleeding outside, the bar was in the clear.

When the cops searched him for ID they found his broken gun so right away they checked for GSR and it came back positive. Cop logic said: "It must have broken along with his hand after it was fired." He had to go to the hospital where he was handcuffed to a bed and forced to eat wretched hospital food through a straw. When he was released from the hospital he had a real bad couple of days being questioned by all kinds of cops who carted him from station to station wanting to know who he shot with empty gun before the spring rusted and broke.

Nobody believed that somebody made him fire a blank from another gun just for fun.

I'm told he is now allergic to Crown Vics, the color purple and pizza. Plus his IQ went from 120 to 80.

When I got home I felt pretty good.

-

Next time Cynthia saw me she even gave me a special kiss from Pammie because I was so considerate and helpful. The kiss was of the type and location Pammie could not give me while Tonto and Ernie were present. But Pammie trusted her sister to say it was from her and make an improper presentation. "After all, it is the naughty thought that counts."

In a phone call later in the week Ernie said that for him, a day like that was better than Viagra. He chased Belen around the house a couple of times, tearing the clothing off both of them and coincidentally catching her each time at the bedroom where they were very entertained. The girls were at the apartment studying for finals, but if they had been in the house I am sure they would have locked themselves in their rooms so they didn't see anything. Ernie was really revved up. And just plain up.

Belen also sent me a special "Thank You" which she delivered in person. She was too red and raw to do what she intended, but she was very sincere. We settled for a 69, my tongue soothed her and she really gives a better BJ than her daughter.

Also, Pammie called Ernie her "hero" every time they talked over the next 6 weeks. He was bursting with pride because "the old man still has it, even if he wears a suit and tie."

-

I kept in casual touch with Tony for about a little over a week after that, until school ended. It seemed his wife was happy with the Tonto's planned move for the summer because Tony's relative in Portland ran a burglary crew and he told her that Tonto was their new lookout because he had a new ID and a clean record. The reality was that Tonto worked at a stock broker's office, learning finance.

Soon after school ended things changed and I lost contact with Tony.

Tuesday at work I called Tony's lawyer, Andy. He said the wife had pulled the divorce case Monday, after she bought some life insurance on Tony. (Her lawyer told his lawyer in confidence, as the sequence suggested a possible crime.)

I had to ask. "Life insurance? How did they get the medical?"

"They asked the Judge last week. Actually, I thought we caught a break, this judge is normally pretty fair to guys. The one weakness is that she gives the mother anything she wants if she says it is 'for the kids' in the request. Doing a new medical was too invasive for her and would not fly, but Tony had one 2 months ago so the judge ordered him to produce those results. As soon as they got the medical report they pulled the case. We have a hearing scheduled in August for abuse of process, but in the meantime there is nothing we can do."

"If they resubmit, might they be shopping for another judge?" It was what I would do.

He saw where I was going. "I figured they could, so I also filed motions on that. We will see."

Something bad was up in the land of the Crystal Aztex. So I ordered shadows for our combined patrols and increased surveillance with our K-9 patrols. The next week they informed us they would not be part of the combined patrols in disputed territory during the summer, so we doubled our patrols. We ran off a few meth sales ops that popped up, but I guess they were just testing us.

-

Between when I got home Monday's adventures and Wednesday at noon I put in 20 hours in my office working. I wanted to get ahead on hours. Li works weekends so I didn't see her, but I flavored Resha's smile twice and gave her a drink and a rest break afterward. She appreciated it. I also used a few of the regular girls, I really did not know their names.

I had a 24-hour date with Li starting at 2 Wednesday afternoon, so I also ate right and took my vitamins. Lots of vitamins, I had plans and she had expectations. With this date I was going to seal the deal, making her my loyal spy for life by using her body sexually every way she could think of, along with blowing her mind on some adventures she could not imagine.