The Nuclear Option 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, 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.

Part 21 - Nuclear War Engaged

"No, don't do it!"

As Cindy raised her arms to kill Bettina, the redheaded reporterette saw a pair of hands grab Cindy's and and hold them in place.

It was Teresa Croyle, wearing all black, having appeared out of nowhere. Her words got through, and she felt the raw power in Cindy's arms leave her. Together they lowered the green crowbar slowly. Cindy's face showed shock now, shock at what she realized she'd almost done, and the near-miracle that had just saved Bettina's life.

"Come on, let's go." Teresa said, putting her arms around Cindy in a bear hug.. "This cunt is not worth it. She's not worth it." Teresa began leading her BFF to the west door.

"You should've let her do it, Teresa Cunt!" Bettina yelled as she got up. "She's going down for it anyway!" Teresa just looked back at Bettina with a smirk, then led Cindy out the west door, into the blinding yellow light of the setting sun.

"Did you get all that?" Bettina called out, coming around the pallet. And then she got a huge shock.

Amber was lying face down on the ground, her hands zip-tied behind her, and a woman in all black and wearing a black full mask sitting on top of her back. Also trussed up, and with eyeless black masks over their heads, were cub reporter Keith Madden and the four cameramen. Six men in all black, fully masked, were surrounding them. And in front of them, facing Bettina, was a tall, broad-shouldered man, also wearing black. He was also wearing a black cape... and a black Darth Vader mask and helmet. It was actually a modified chemical mask.

"Is that you, Don?" Bettina asked, trying to show bravado, though she had just nearly been killed, and still faced death.

"You have failed me for the last time, Wurtzburg." said the masked man, his voice made deep and metallic, like the real Vader's, by the mask's electronics. "And you have attacked my family for the last time."

'Vader' turned and pointed, and Bettina watched in horror as the four videocameras and all the sound equipment were thrown onto the floor in a pile. The masked men brought out black tire irons (not crowbars), and proceeded to smash the equipment to bits. When they were done, nothing but shards of metal, plastic and glass remained.

"Show your face, you coward." Bettina challenged.

"Take them outside." said 'Vader'. The trussed up, masked crew were made to stand up. A black mask was put over Amber's head and face, and they were all marched out the north door.

And then the Darth Vader mask came off. Yes, of course it was me. Your Iron Crowbar is a drama queen. Who knew?

I looked malignantly at Bettina. "I'm not kidding." I said, keeping my voice low. "It's over. I'm going to destroy you. Completely and utterly."

"Going to kill me?" Bettina snarled.

"Harrumph. You wish." I said. "Oh, by the way... you recognize this place, don't you? You remember what Ned and his henchmen did to you here?" Bettina paled; she had remembered from the start that this was the warehouse where she had been brutally beaten and gang-raped. (Author's note: 'Case of the Murdered Lovers', Ch. 04-05.) "Excellent choice of locale to have this... final... discussion, don't you think?"

"God damn you to hell, Don Troy!"

I stepped up to Bettina and said "Don't worry. I'm not going to do that to you. And I'm not going to kill you, either, like Cindy was very much just about to do. Wow, I've never seen her that angry before. Amazing what becoming a mother does, how it changes a woman. Amazing what a mother will do to protect her child, n'est pas?." Bettina just glared hatefully at me.

"No, I'm not going to kill you, though I should." I whispered. Then I leaned over, like a vulture towering over her, and said: "I'm going to do much, much worse to you. I'm going to humiliate you, before your colleagues of the God-cursed Press. And why? Just because I can."

With that, and with a movement so fast that she could not hope to counter it, I grabbed Bettina and forced her to the floor on her belly. I zip-tied her hands behind her, and also zip-tied her legs so that she couldn't walk. I secured her cell phone; it was destined for the bottom of the River.

"Now you stay here." I said. "Maybe, if you're lucky, the Police will come and rescue you. Or maybe not." With that, I got up and walked to the west door, putting my Vader mask back on in case someone had eyes on the building...

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

Bettina found that the zip-tie that bound her hands was not all that tight. After a few minutes of effort, she was able to slip out of her bonds. She was then able to take her shoes off to get the bindings off her legs.

She got up and went to the north door, where everyone else had been taken. The sight that greeted her stunned her. All of the others were lying on their bellies in a neat row, their wrists and ankles tightly manacled. Further down the road she could see the four KXTC vans. They were all flaming wrecks, worthless hunks of metal burning fiercely out of control.

Part 22 - Regrets

8:30pm, Sunday, March 10th. The meeting at KXTC was a somber one.

"So all we have is Bettina and Amber's word that Cindy Ross and Teresa Croyle were at the site." said Burt West. "And they can just deny it, it's the word of two Medal-of-Valor-winning Police Officers versus yours, and we don't have a shred of proof that they were there."

By curious coincidence, all cell phones had failed to record anything at the warehouse; all the cameras had been rendered inoperable before Cindy Ross had shown up; and the vans's signals retransmitting from the cameras and audio to KXTC's headquarters has been jammed, and then put totally out of commission.

"And no one else saw nor heard the voice of Commander Donald Troy." continued West. "Just a bunch of masked people in black clothing that easily snuck up on every one of you without being seen nor heard, that subdued you without a sound, much less a fight."

"And drugged us." said Scott Turnbull, Bettina's cameraman, still feeling groggy.

Yes, for some strange reason, when Uniformed Officers arrived with the Fire Department at the scene, no one was able to tell the Officers that they'd heard or seen anything. Bettina said that everyone was masked, and she couldn't identify anyone. She knew that there was no point mentioning to the Police that both their Police Commanders and their Captain of Operations had been there. They'd been left with no proof. Their equipment was destroyed, their cellphones taken and likely now in the River...

West said: "And those bastards left us with over three quarters of a million dollars in destroyed equipment, from the cameras to the vans and their electronic contents. Yeah, we have insurance, but it won't cover it all, and I have to explain it to the insurance company. This was... Jesus Christ, this is bad. And I haven't even mentioned that Cindy Ross could've killed you, Bettina and Amber."

"She would have," said Bettina, "if Teresa Cunt hadn't've stopped her."

"All right, everyone except Bettina and Amber can go" said West. "Go home, get some rest, go to the Hospital Emergency Room if you start getting really sick." Everyone scrambled to get out while the getting was good.

Once they were alone, West sat down at the end of the table, the women sitting on each side of him. "Well, ladies," he said, "it didn't work... yet again. Tell me once again what happened, and this time tell me what you weren't willing to say in front of everyone else."

The women told the story again, and Bettina said "The Iron Crowbar said that he wasn't going to kill me, that he was going to humiliate me in front of my Press colleagues."

"How?" asked West. "What does he have on you, Bettina? What is his nuclear option on you? I need to know."

"I have no idea." said Bettina. "There's not much he can do, without admitting being there tonight, or complicity in something himself, or breaking the law himself in some way."

"And you, Amber?" asked West. "Does he have anything left on you? I need the truth on this."

"Nothing I know of." said Amber. "The baby is born, and it doesn't matter now if the whole world knows it's Nick Eastwood's. They can't try me twice for the same crimes; all the legal stuff is behind me now."

"He must have something." said West, mostly to himself. "What? What could it be?"

"We still have one trump card." said Bettina. "We can reveal the name of Betsy's biological father to the world. Or we can withhold it, in exchange for Troy calling off the war."

"Oh, we're wayyyy beyond that now." said Amber. "We might as well put it out there."

"And you have proof of it?" West asked.

"Yes, Burt." said Bettina. "We have those photos of the dossier Laura Fredricson compiled. We verified the test data with sources at University Hospital, though they didn't know the names involved, but it's the same tests, so that's confirmed."

"Who sent you those photos from the dossier?" West asked. "And don't tell me 'a source'." he said, making air quotes.

"We're not totally sure." said Bettina. "It was sent to us, we didn't ask for it. It could be someone in Fredricson's office, or one of her students. And we're don't know why it was sent to us."

"And even when, not if but when, we run with this," said West, "what next?"

"Then we're out of bullets." said Amber. "We have nothing left on Troy, except to keep calling him the white nationalist he is, and keep accusing him of Police brutality."

West nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. Ladies, I'm pulling you both back from this. We'll let Lester Holder continue the racism angle against Troy. That's why I agreed to hire him back; Lester can go all-in on the racism accusations, and he'll have a lot of help from Eldrick X. Weaver, who was robbed of his rightful Mayoral win by a dirty 'Uncle Tom' judge."

"You two, though, need to scale back." West admonished. "Troy said he was going to go after you. Let's hold back until he lays his cards on the table. Then we'll deal with it, and then we can look for new avenues of attack. Okay, let's go home. Get some sleep, and we'll start again tomorrow morning."

Amber got up and left. Bettina did not. She was in a 'reverie', lost in thought. West said "Bettina, you okay?"

Bettina said "I almost wish that Ross had split my head in two, or the Iron Crowbar had killed me on the spot. This... the waiting, the wondering... is worse. Much worse."

"Yeah, I know." said West. "And I know his wife has the Psychology degrees, but she's not the best master of it in that family, may God damn him..."

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

Meanwhile...

The last glimmer of the setting sun could be seen on the western horizon as Laura turned on the gas to the fire pot on the back deck. She heard the cars drive up and saw the headlights come up the driveway to the front.

A moment later, Teresa brought Cindy inside. Callie Carrington was holding Betsy, who let out a squeal of happiness at the sight of Cindy, who took her baby into her arms for a long hug.

"Rough day at the office?" Callie said, meaning it humorously. The look on Teresa's face conveyed the appropriate warning.

"Worse." said Cindy. She handed Betsy off to Teresa for a hug, then received one from Callie, who realized that Cindy was crying as she held her.

"We've got supper cooking." Callie said. "You'll feel better after you eat."

"Thanks." said Cindy. "If you guys don't mind, I need a moment alone on the deck." As she turned for the back door, she found Carole Troy in front of her, holding one of her dad's trenchcoats.

"Here, Aunt Cindy." Carole said. "Better wrap up warm. There's an east wind blowing. And it's cold out there, even with the fire in the pot. "

"Aw, thank you, Sweetie." Cindy said. She hugged Carole, then put the trenchcoat on, finding it way too tall, but not too big in the shoulders and chest. She went outside and sat down on the metal mesh loveseat, and turned her thoughts inward... deeply inward.

What seemed like a long time later, but was only moments, she came back to find Callie coming up to her, with two drinks in her hands. She gave one to Cindy, then sat down by her in the loveseat.

"Canadian." Cindy said as she downed most of the drink in two gulps. "I needed that."

"What happened?" Callie asked.

"I almost murdered two reporters. In cold blood." Cindy said, looking at the flames in the fire pot in front of them. "They're doing everything they can to take Betsy from us. And do you want to know why? They said they're doing it just to show they can. They want to ruin that child's life, and ours, just to prove some alpha-male point... even though they're two women."

"Is Betsy in danger?" Callie asked.

"She's very much in danger of being taken from us." Cindy said. "They'll put her in a foster home, and we can only hope and pray that it's a good family. And I'll never see her... again..." She began sobbing.

"Maybe Don can help us." Callie said as she put her arm around her fiancée to comfort her.

"Even my dad can't help, if DFACS comes for Betsy." Cindy said forlornly.

"Well, we're staying here tonight." Callie said. "If they do come before tomorrow, they'll find our condo empty. And if they come up here, they'd better bring an Army battalion with them. But... I think it'll be okay."

Seeing as she was not getting through, she said "I'm going to go back in and feed Betsy before we all eat." She got up and left, leaving Cindy with the night, and the sparkling light of a train coming out of the western horizon towards Town...

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

The night air was growing colder when Cindy heard footsteps behind her. Thinking it was Callie coming to get her for dinner, she turned around. It was not Callie.

"You are sitting on my side of the seat." I said as I came around. "Scoot over." Cindy scooted to the left side, and I sat down on the right side, as I normally do. I was wearing a trenchcoat also, courtesy of Carole's raiding of the coat closet.

"We should put a plaque on that side, saying it's yours only." Cindy quipped, though showing no humor in her face nor voice.

"Bowser might not approve." I replied. "And if I have my choice, I'll die sitting right here, in my old age, watching over my Town." I felt Cindy's eyes moving to peer at me as I watched over my Town.

After a moment, I looked at her and said "Nice fashion statement in outerwear, there."

Cindy smiled for the first time. "Carole brought it to me, said to 'bundle up warm, there's an east wind blowing'. She doesn't know how right she really is."

"Oh, I think she does." I said. "She bears watching. Five years old, and she bears watching already."

"Don..." Cindy started, then said "Did you kill them?"

"No, they're not dead." I said, understanding. "But when I'm done with them, they will wish... they... were."

"How did you know?" Cindy asked. "How did you know I'd called them there? I never told you, nor Teresa, nor even my father."

"You will have to work much harder if you wish to deceive me." I said. "I do admit that it was an excellent touch to call Bettina to the same place she was brutalized all those years ago. But it also made it easier to find you."

"Don..." Cindy said, her voice sounding miserable, "I almost murdered two people today. In cold blood. They were goading me about taking Betsy from me, and all I could think about was that precious baby..." She struggled to regain control, and not break down crying. "I guess... I guess I know how you must've felt when Carole was chained to that chair in that warehouse."

"Yes." I said. "Becoming a parent changes one's perspectives."

"How do you deal with it?" Cindy asked. "How do you deal with the fear that your enemies might come against you through your children? Like they have... several times already."

"It's my greatest fear, and Laura's." I said. "As to how I deal with it..." I turned and looked Cindy straight in the eyes as I said: "Fear is a luxury... that I cannot afford."

Cindy nodded, then said "You know what's the worst thing about all this? I actually took up for those bitches, and their colleagues of the Press. Against you. And you were right, all along, and I was wrong. You were right to curse me out, you've been right to wage war on those bastards all along. They not only are trying to harm me and my baby, they drove a wedge between me and the one person who has been there for me all this time, who has had my back, who brought me the truth of my family... who is my family. And I went against you... for them! Oh God, I'm so ashamed!"

Cindy's face fell into her hands as she began crying, sobs racking her body as Chief Griswold had cried in grief over the loss of his son. I put my arm around Cindy and pulled her to me.

"It's okay." I said. "Nothing to be ashamed about. Now you know. Now you have seen the depths of their unappeasable hatred. And now, we will work together to annihilate them, Crowbars united and unstoppable."

Cindy recovered, then said "You and your dramatic speeches. You're as bad as Sheriff Griswold was when he was Police Chief, always quoting Klingon scripture to us." That made me laugh, partly because Cindy was right about both me and Griswold and our dramatics.

"So... what about Betsy?" Cindy asked. "They're going to come after her harder than ever now."

"Now that offends me." I said. "I can understand you taking the Press's side, though I never agreed with your position. But haven't you figured out by now... that I always take care of my people?"

Cindy just nodded. After a moment, I said "Let's go back in, and eat. I'm starving. It's been a... busy weekend, wouldn't you say?"

Cindy laughed. "Yeah, except for that Captain of Operations of yours, just twiddling her thumbs all day." That made me laugh as we got up and went back inside...

Part 23 - Your Iron Crowbar At Work

At 6:55am, Monday, March 11th, Sheriff Antonio Griswold came into the Chief's Conference Room at Police Headquarters. His eyes lit up as he saw his Police Commander and Deputy Chief already there, sitting and talking amiably. He was an excellent Detective himself, and he made the proper deductions.

"Now that is what I like to see!" he growled happily. "You two young whippersnappers finally made up."

"Yes sir." I said. "And may the living God have mercy on KXTC's worthless souls." Cindy nodded vigorously in agreement.

We were soon joined by my other Angels and the Police Chief. "As you like to say, Commanderrrr..." said Chief Moynahan, "let's watch some TV." We turned on the monitor...

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" said the redheaded MILF reporterette at 7:00am, from the anchor desk at the KXTC studios. They were a wee bit short of mobile vans and cameras at the moment, I surmised.

Bettina began: "Channel Two News has learned multiple lawsuits will be filed against the Department of Family and Children Services, or DFACS, and the State Legislature will make harsh inquires about DFACS, after KXTC's hard-hitting investigative reporting on the abuse of the normal adoption process that allowed Town & County Deputy Chief Cindy Ross to break in line and be awarded custody of a baby."