One in Ten Ch. 06

"He will be charged with contempt of court," the woman retorted.

"Where did you get your law degree?" Capri asked politely.

"The University of Quebec," the agent stated proudly.

"Well then, you should know that it is a matter of official record that my client has been in communication with 'said' criminal conspiracy," Carpi started sedately then,

"So how in the fuck are you going to separate this communication, which you want to know about, from the criminal conspiracy in a manner that doesn't abuse my client's Fifth Amendment Rights?" Capri snapped angrily. "Holy Mother Mary, Israel do you have pheromones that turn most smart girls into drooling idiots?"

"Uhhhh," I groaned as I righted my seat and sat down. "I can do you one better. Dimples, your team is the best in its field right?" I wheezed. We waited. She didn't like being called Dimples.

"The very best," she finally stated.

"Yet you've learned exactly what since bringing me in?" I stared. "I typed 'Fine'."

"Angel and Seneca are lowly Metropolitan cops, not one of you hot shot feds. Seneca, what would you have done?" I kept my eyes on Dimples. Seneca hesitated.

"I would have said, 'Israel, please tell me what that call was about?'" Seneca said.

"And I would have answered honestly. Why?" I continued.

"You love Angel, I'm her partner so helping me helps her," Seneca reasoned.

"Even though she's betrayed me, and you and I don't like each other at all?" I kept going.

"Yeah - pretty much," she mused.

"And that ladies," I smirked at Dimples as I addressed her group, "is why you are losing."

"You are striding across the landscape like some modern day titans and I'm nothing but a scrap of trash beneath your feet. Your problem is that I'm not trash. Men like me are your genetic future and we think your feet stink. Oh, you were all nice and friendly thirty minutes ago. You gave us this nice, cluttered room that wasn't an oppressive, business-like setting."

"You fed us and were practicing all those little body language skills and word usage you were taught in whatever fucked-up male psychology classes you took. The second I had something you wanted, and I didn't snap-to like that pet lizard, Dr. Bryan, you pounced," I berated them, "without an ounce of concern for my physical and mental well-being."

"Despite ALL of you knowing what I've been through in my life," I grumbled. "You chose to use my weaknesses against me, to harm me, and you still have pipe dream that I might be coerced into helping you. Wake up! You are the villains of this piece. You are beating up on the weak and helpless. You are not out to rescue men. You are simply trying to give women a few more dicks to fuck before this sad parody of life comes crashing down."

"Mr. Jensen, could you please tell me what the text message was?" Dimples asked me.

"I'm not really feeling talkative at this moment. I'm a bit weirded out. I need to freaking unwind...Angel, can I have sex with Agent Dimples?" I turned to my lover. She blinked, but the surprise wasn't hers alone. I was moving way past the profile they had painted me into.

"Can I think about it?" Angel looked me over. Sadly, we were not telepathic. "I'm not comfortable with you having sex with Special Agent in Charge Treyvon."

"Okay, Angel," I acknowledged. There was silence for half a minute.

"Detective Kristi, could you explain something to me?" the agent who had freed me earlier spoke up.

"What do you want to know, Special Agent Fraklos?" Angel answered.

"What is the dynamic between you two?" she questioned.

"We love each other. He doesn't want to become attached to me because he sees that as a form of codified possessiveness. Instead, if he is going to do something that might cause me emotional turmoil, he consults me first. It is called compassion and it is something I've never asked for, he gives willingly and another reason for me to love him," Angel explained.

"But you betrayed him," Fraklos pointed out. "You have betrayed him repeatedly. We are here because you revealed something he told you in confidence - yet, he remains loyal. How do you figure that?"

"See, that's why you are in trouble," Angel regarded the feds.

"Yes, I betrayed him, but he knew I would relate everything he told me because he respects the fact that I am a Metropolitan Detective. He hates my profession, but he loves me despite that, not because it," Angel grinned then looked at me. "I get it Israel, I finally get it. For the rest of you, Israel's been kicking your asses ALL DAY LONG."

"He even kicked your ass over the phone and I have to believe that was totally unrehearsed," Angel added. "What did Ms. Montanyard say? He was waiting for the Material Witness warrant at City Hall. He knew what he was saying, what you would do and he didn't get it from me. Israel Jensen, a man who nearly collapsed when he stepped off the elevator, is making a mockery of your sparkly little asses - and I wouldn't have thought him capable of it either."

"I apologize Israel," a tear tracked down Angel's cheek. "I should have never doubted your love for me. I'll really work on it. Oh, you can have sex with Enola, if you still want to."

"Nah, I was joking about that. She's the polar opposite of Zuiko. I mean, sure they both have only had sex twice in their lives, but Dimples doesn't want to have sex," I mused.

"Are you sure?" Angel inquired.

"It is in the eyes," I noted. "I barely register on her radar. I don't do it for her."

"Mr. Jensen, would you please tell me what was on the text message," Dimples repeated.

"There is not a single reason I can think of to tell you," I stared back.

"Detectives Kristi and Poole, please go to the main conference room and wait for your next assignment," Dimples commanded. Angel and Seneca dutifully stood and left. Capri snickered and dropped her head to the table with a loud 'thud'.

"That was so totally counter-productive," Capri mumbled playfully, "I really can't find the words to capture its essence. Israel?"

"Everything is right with the Game Plan, Boss," I snickered. "I was able tell my love good-bye, I had a nice lunch and I think there is a nap in my future."

"I'll wake you if something intelligent happens," Capri raised her head and smiled at me.

"Capri, thank you for showing up today. You know there is nothing I can do for you," I sighed.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle," Capri quoted. "That was from an Englishman from long, long ago. In this case it should be 'bad women'."

"Do you really believe me that this whole, sick society needs to trundle off to extinction?" I inquired with deep curiosity.

"I've spent my life until now competing with the women around me, never really thinking about men that much, except hoping to get lucky along the way. I never thought about a gender divide, much less an impassioned struggle by men to be free. Until I met you, I thought we were equals. After witnessing my gender's ugly underbelly, I'm a believer in your cause, Israel," she patted my arm. I didn't flinch one bit.

"I apologize for ruining your life," I patted her back. "Want to move in with me?"

"Sure. I'm about to be homeless, penniless and friendless," Capri shrugged. "Solving one of those three problems won't suck."

"You are going to make your disbarment incredibly easy, Ms. O'Hara," the Latina smirked.

"Oh, for the love of the Goddess, shut up!" Capri groaned. "If all you are going to say is stupid crap, just be quiet. I can live with my client as long as we aren't having sex, you dipshit. If every word out of your mouth is an insult to female intelligence, keep your yap shut." The agents remained outwardly calm.

I would have still cautioned Capri about bearding the monsters in their cave, but it looked like she was having too much fun. That was when I realized she understood. None of us were getting out intact. Oh, we may walk out into the sunlight today, but there was no coming back from this for her, or me.

Francesca and now Capri - I didn't understand it. I was grateful, but I couldn't wrap my mind around women who had sacrificed everything - if not for me, for a cause they had no experience with. In the final analysis, Kuiko, Aniqua, Venus, Samantha and Roni made sense. Their future prospects were bleak.

So was Angel, but her profession gave her an out that her economic status couldn't provide. Capri was clearly very talented and should have gone far in the legal field. She could have secured a male, and her genetic destiny. Francesca was at the top of her game. She was at the cusp of power. The odds were good she'd succeed. Even if not, she'd live well.

She had thrown it all away for me after being in my life less than one week. For a second, it all came apart. If I had had sex with my first girlfriend, I would have missed the Aurora Slasher. If I had met someone like Capri, Kuiko, or Angel in college instead of Bethany. If I had progressed to my first job with Francesca as my boss - I would have gone for her.

"Israel?" a hand brushed my cheek and it was wet. "Israel?" Capri repeated. I'd been crying. I looked into SAC Treyvon's eyes and saw triumph.

"You will never understand," I chortled at Dimples.

"You are not that complicated, Mr. Jensen," she responded.

"Then why was I crying?" I challenged her.

"It doesn't matter. You've done well to get this far, but in the end you are still a fractured little boy in a basement wondering why you can't get your girlfriend pregnant. A few more taps and you'll come apart," Dimples stated her beliefs as fact.

At first, Dimples eyes retained that smug, superior glint. It took a few seconds to realize that mine wasn't a smile of a man collapsing. I was laughing at her on the inside. I was laughing at Flame and Little M as my body was being bruised and battered because for all their power, they couldn't save themselves and I now knew Dimples was in the same boat.

Only Dimples knew that I was one step ahead again, she didn't have her text and her ploy to remove Angel had backfired. By sending Angel away, she had removed that point of leverage. Once Angel was out of sight, she was beyond my concern. Bethany had forced me to collapse my world down into a tiny sphere where my sole concern was myself.

That was not something I had totally abandoned. Like the seventeen year old in therapy, or the man laughing through the pain, a shard of my post-Bethany world was part of the Frankenstein of my soul. A few seconds ago, my mind had betrayed me and I had cried in public for no real reason. Now, another facet raised up a wall that stymied SAC Treyvon.

Best of all, I was keeping my mouth shut.

"Can we talk about the first message then," Agent Fraklos asked. She was playing the 'nice' one now because she had provided me physical comfort. They were talking behind our backs again.

"Israel, until the FBI qualifies the scope of their investigation for us, I don't advise you to respond," Carpi suggested.

"Wait, I should give them something," I argued with Carpi. She smirked at me.

"Can I have my phone back?" I asked Fraklos.

"Sorry, but no; our technical people need to look it over," she apologized.

"Okay, the screen glowed green and the letters were black. There were a lot of them," I recalled thoughtfully.

"Are you trying to be clever?" another agent sounded bored.

"No, I was trying to raise my morale - and it worked. How about you Capri? Feel better?" I asked.

"Oh, loads," Capri grinned.

"You are going to stay here until you give us the answers we need," Fraklos tried to sound reasonable.

"Ugh," I grunted to Capri. I got up and began rifling through some boxes until I found something that looked dreadfully boring, but not insanely so.

I took a big handful and returned to my seat. Capri slouched in her chair, clearly flipped her tablet to something besides my case and began reading.

"Very amusing Mr. Jensen," Dimples broke the silence. "You will break. Close proximity to all these women, the stress of confronting us - you will crumble and you know it."

I looked up at her, nodded to acknowledge that I'd heard her flap her gums then resumed reading.

"Israel, you should think about all the women's lives you're negatively impacting," Fraklos started again.

I had to think about that for a second; to talk or not talk?

"How so?" I inquired. "Whose life am I negatively impacting?"

"Detective Kristi for starters. What about Venus Marlowe or Roni Azari? Things are not going to go well for them in this investigation," Fraklos said compassionately.

"What about Kuiko Sano? Weren't you going to have sex with her tonight?" another agent asked, as if reading my phone logs was a perfectly normal thing to do.

"Still am," I nodded her way.

"Not too likely. You are being obstinate so they could be in custody for some time," Fraklos said. "Jobs and housing could be at risk as well as a permanent criminal record. You can help them."

"What? What are you talking about? Do you mean the people you are going to fuck over because you are all a bunch of frustrated bitches? That's a rather pathetic attempt at coercion, Special Agent Fraklos," I noted. "Seriously, I'm a man. You've spent your lifetimes making sure I can't do shit. What would make me believe anything has changed?"

"How about the fact that you've betrayed your species?" the Latina asked - again, they were all so reasonable.

"That argument is a bit too late, Agent 'Whoever the Fuck You Are'," I grinned. "Why, after a lifetime of discrimination, do you suddenly want me on your team?"

"Special Agent Sosa," she responded, "and you have only been isolated in your own mind."

Capri snorted in amusement at that.

"Really?" I perked up. "Cool. Let's go to your apartment then. I've got a real Zen to break into your place, slap you around a bit because you weren't obsequious fast enough and then you'll let me ass-rape you because you'll lose your job if you don't."

"How does that sound, Sister-in-Equality, because every bit of that has happened to me in the past seven days," I knew my grin had grown brittle. "You want me to show solidarity with you, then show some with me. Prove to me how the world will be a better place if I help?"

"How can we do that?" Fraklos kept being so damn caring and polite.

"Repeal the Gender Inequality Act and disband your branch of the FBI and every GED across the Federation," I responded in the same kind tone. "Non-negotiable."

"How do you suggest we do that?" Fraklos said after being respectfully thoughtful. Capri began giggling.

"How long are you going to let this charade go on?" Capri didn't look at me but I knew she was talking to me.

"You will know it when you see it. I have a date at six, but I should be home by seven so figure out what you want to eat," I chatted amiably.

"You may want to forestall those dinner plans," Dimples smirked. "We have business to take care of."

"Nope," I mocked her. "I imagine you are very bright but you haven't been right about me once today. You don't know what's going on and until you figure out what is happening, you can't beat me."

Dimple let her dimples grow a tiny bit. She had gotten me to start talking, to open up and she was going to exploit that to get what she wanted.

"The male birth rate is declining and it spells the end of the Human Race," Dimples said as if she was agreeing with me. I snickered.

"I can fully understand you not listening to me, but you aren't even listening to yourself," I pointed out. "The vanishings are not causing the male population collapse, they are a result of it. Someone knew about this whole Big Lie and set events in motion before either you or I arrived on stage."

"At this point in the game, it is not a question of curing all the men, only a select few. Now, that doesn't help anyone in the room - except maybe me," I sighed, "because the rest of you don't seem to be part of the survival plan. And best of all, I can't even save Angel or Capri and I like both of them - a lot."

"With us," Fraklos said, "you could be more than only another sperm donor. We could really help. This doesn't have to be a long slide into oblivion."

"Oh," I chuckled. "I took care of that this morning. There is not going to be a long slide for you folks. The women you've been treating like some fascist proletariat are going to storm the barricades."

"Israel," Capri interrupted. "Fascist and the proletariat are opposing political positions."

"Whoops," I snickered. "PR degree, not Political Science. Anyway, instead of looking at a slow population decline over the next one hundred years, I expect you to reap what you sow."

"You weren't telling the men to rise up in rebellion - you were telling the women..." Fraklos muttered.

"Damn right," I laughed. "You were mocking me, on the inside, thinking I was asking men to take up arms against their oppressors. In fact, I was telling some dateless, mid-thirties grocery worker that you bitches in power were responsible for all her woes. Men are weaponless and afraid, but women - women are looking for someone else to blame for their misfortunes."

"In case you missed it, you are going to be in that group they are going to lynch; everyone in this room that has tits and isn't Capri," I pointed out. "You don't get to pass on this misfortune to the next generation."

"You would want to inflict that pain on your own gender?" Fraklos questioned.

"I was rendered incapable of helping my fellow man long before I was born," I told them.

"What has inspired this totally anarchistic view? Certainly there is something in this life you find worth saving?" Fraklos persisted.

"There is what I can do and what I want to do. I want this Society to end, but not for the reasons you think," I sighed.

"What would that be?" Sosa took her turn.

"What do you think, Capri?" I asked my lawyer.

"Nap time," Capri advised. I gave her a thumbs up, crossed my arms on the table and rested my head at their crux.

"I understand alright, Mr. Jensen," Dimples acknowledged. "Special Agents Sosa and Vabishi, take Mr. Jensen to an observation room and keep him under guard. We'll resume this discussion tomorrow morning."

"Don't sweat it," Capri yawned. "I'll come at them with a Writ of Habeas Corpus ASAP."

"Let them peddle this cockamamie case before a judge," she smirked.

"It is scheduled with Judge Alissa Gunson at 4 pm," Dimples stated. "We predicted your course of action and took the appropriate measures." Capri glared at her.

"Capri?" I worried.

"If I file for change of court, they are no longer bound by the 'quick and speedy' hearing bit. It could take a week before I could schedule a different judge. Gunson upheld a mother's right to pimp out her underage son. She's about as sexist and mysandristic as they come," Capri filled me in. "She has an eye on the next Federation Supreme Court opening."

"All part of the plan, Boss," I patted Capri on the back.

"Look me in the eyes," Capri demanded. I turned, she put her palms on both cheeks and looked deep into my eyes. "Good. You are just the normal crazy - nothing exceptionally wacky going on. I won't leave the building."

"Thanks, Capri," I stood for my latest minders to take me away. "This won't take long."

"You are mistaken, Mr. Jensen," Dimples commented dryly.

"What will you bet me?" I laughed.

"You are going to lose," Dimples rolled her eyes. "What do you suggest?"

"If I don't get to have sex with Kuiko sometime in the next 24 hours, I'll tell you everything I know," I promised. "When I win, and I will win, you will be Capri's male intern for 24 hours."

Dimples waved me off dismissively. I didn't amuse her. She wasn't the kind of girl amused by monkeys throwing poo, or males fighting for their lives.