Tip of the Spear Pt. 05

"Not like you did last time," Ryan said, causing her to smile.

"As much pleasure as it would give me, I'm sure your wife wouldn't like that very much," she said.

"No, she wouldn't," Ryan said. "In fact, she'd like to see you while you're still here."

"What?" Thomas asked. Ryan held up his hand to quiet the federal agent.

"I would like very much to meet the woman who won your heart," Mercedes said.

"In the meantime, I'd like you tell me what happened to you, Mercedes," Ryan said. "After all, you're no longer employed and I doubt they'd be willing to give you a good reference."

"After you rescued me, I went back to university and finished my studies," she said. "I met a man -- Roberto -- and we were together for a couple of years. It was wonderful at first, but then he became overbearing and demanding. I tried to accommodate him, but it was simply too much. When I caught him with another woman, I ended the relationship.

"After I graduated, Papa introduced me to another man -- Ernesto. He wanted me to marry him, and I tried to accommodate him. Ernesto was much older and much more demanding than Roberto. Eventually, he became abusive. He... hurt me... more than once. I told Papa, but he didn't seem to care.

"I finally had enough and fled Ecuador for the United States. I had hoped to find you, but no one knew where you were. I met a woman at a club and was recruited into MMAS," she said.

"Do you know the name of the woman who recruited you?" Thomas asked.

"Her name was Pat Witherspoon," Mercedes said. "I told her my story and she promised that no man would ever hurt or abuse me again. She set me up for special training."

"What kind of training?" Ryan asked.

"All kinds. I learned languages, guns, fighting, all kinds of things she said I would need to know in the final struggle against patriarchy," she said.

"And what did you do after this training?" Ryan asked.

"I was what you might call a verifier... a private investigator," she said. "I would verify claims of infidelity made by the company's clients. Once I had proof, I would turn it over to the client. What they did with it afterward was up to them."

"Were you aware of what might happen after you provided this proof?" Ryan asked.

"I knew something bad might happen to the cheating spouse, but I didn't know exactly what," she said. "It was not my place to know, and I knew better than to ask." Ryan looked at Thomas before continuing.

"Did you ever participate in this punishment?" Thomas asked. She shook her head.

"No, never," she said. "The company and the clients used other contractors for that. There was a period of time the company went dark. It was during this time that I heard from AG."

"Do you know who this AG person is?" Ryan asked.

"Her name is Allison Gatsby," Mercedes said. "I don't know where she is located, but I know it's not in the United States."

"And you began working for Allison Gatsby?"

"Yes, doing pretty much the same thing as I did for the old organization," she said.

"Is she the one who sent you here?" Ryan asked. Mercedes nodded her head.

"Yes," she said.

"Did you know anything about what happened to Commissioner Higgins?" Ryan asked.

"I know what I saw in the news. I also know that AG was using Mrs. Higgins for some kind of experiment in control," Mercedes said. "I warned her but she didn't listen. She knew nothing about this place or the people who live here. She pushed Higgins too hard, too fast." Ryan took the tablet from Ron and set it on the table in front of her.

"Can you give us access to this?" Ryan asked.

"I would not turn that on yet, if I were you," she suggested.

"Why is that?" Ryan asked.

"A destructive payload will be downloaded to the MAC address associated with the tablet as soon as it connects to the Internet," she said. "That's part of Allison's upgraded protocol." Ryan looked at Ron.

"MAC address?" Ryan asked.

"Yes. Every network adapter has its own unique address," Ron said. "That includes the wireless adapters on tablets and cell phones. It's hard-coded into the adapter by the manufacturer."

"Can you do something to disable Internet access on this?" Ryan asked.

"It'll take me a bit, but I think I can do that," Ron said. He handed the tablet to Ron.

"Get to it," Ryan said.

"On it," Ron said, leaving the room with the tablet. Ryan turned back to Mercedes.

"Mercedes, this federal officer works with the task force that was formed to take down your MMAS," he told her. "Would you be willing to answer all of his questions?"

"You're with the Homefront Security Task Force?" she asked.

"Yes, I am, Ms. Garcia," he said. "You know about us?"

"Please, call me Mercedes," she said. "I know of your task force. And yes, I'll be more than happy to help you in any way that I can to bring these mother cunts down." Ryan smiled and nodded his head. He looked at Thomas.

"Happy?" he asked.

"Very much so," Thomas said. "Thank you, Mercedes."

"You are welcome," she said. "By the way, do you know an Oscar Warren?"

"I've heard of Special Agent Warren, but I've never met the man personally," Thomas said. "Why?" She smiled.

"He was one of MMAS' main targets," she said. "He was the biggest pain in their collective asses." Thomas smiled.

"So I've heard," he said. Ryan's phone buzzed, so he pulled it out and read the message he just received. He sent a reply and turned to Mercedes.

"Looks like you have a visitor," he said. Everyone looked at him, surprised. "It's alright, it's just Beverly. She wants to meet you. Are you up to that?" Mercedes smiled.

"I would love to meet her," she said. A few minutes later, they heard a tap on the door. Ray opened the door and let Beverly in. Ryan stood up and introduced the two women, then motioned for everyone else to leave and go to the observation room next door.

"Are you sure this is wise?" Thomas asked.

"No, but what the hell," Ryan said. Beverly sat down in the seat Ryan vacated as the men left the room.

"What do you think?" Ryan asked Thomas when they got into the observation room.

"She would be a tremendous asset," Thomas said. "I'd like to take her someplace safe, though. I have a feeling that once this Gatsby knows she still alive, she's going to send someone here to take her out."

"Do you have someplace you can take her?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, it's a secure base. Complete with a reinforced Marine battalion," Thomas said. "I'll need to speak with my superiors first, though."

"Of course," Ryan said. Thomas pulled out his phone as he left the room.

"The DA is gonna want a statement from her. He may even want her to testify. You know that, right?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, I figured that," Ryan said. "Give him a call if you would. Let him take his statement. We'll need to talk to him about having her testify in open court. I'm sure he can find a way to get her testimony without exposing her to danger."

"Got it," Ray said before he left the room. Ryan turned back to the observation window and watched the two women talk. They seemed to be getting along rather well. Too well, perhaps. Somehow, even with the volume turned all the way down, he suspected they were talking about him.

"No wonder my ears are burning," he thought.

...

The women were still talking and giggling when Marvin came into the observation room. Ryan looked up when he heard the door open.

"What's going on in there?" Marvin asked.

"Two girls talking about whatever it is girls talk about," Ryan said. "Don't worry, it's all being recorded. So far, they're just swapping stories, makeup tips and, well, stories about me."

"Ah. You sure that's wise, Sheriff?" Marvin asked.

"I admit it's unorthodox, but under the circumstances, I wanted Ms. Garcia to feel as comfortable as possible," Ryan said. "The more she trusts us, the more cooperative she'll be."

"I hope you're right," Marvin said. "Well, let's get this done, shall we?" They left the observation room and walked back into the interview room.

"Mercedes, this is District Attorney Marvin Olmstead," Ryan said. "He's here to take your statement."

"Oh, okay," Mercedes said, standing up. Beverly stood with her. "Beverly, it was so nice talking with you. I'm glad I finally got to meet you."

"I'm glad, too," Beverly said. "Maybe we can do it again sometime."

"I would like that very much," Mercedes told her. "Take care of him, okay?"

"I will," Beverly said. They hugged each other for a few moments before Marvin sat down. Beverly walked out, giving Ryan a mysterious smile as she left. Ryan followed her out into the hallway.

"I trust you had a good visit," he said.

"It was very nice," she said. "Don't worry, we only talked about you maybe 80 percent of the time."

"I felt my ears burning," he said. "You know everything said in that room is recorded, right?"

"I figured that," she said.

"But I promise not to invade your privacy. I'll pull the recording," he said.

"Thank you. I appreciate that. I've got to get back to my chickens. I'll see you when you get home. Love you," she said, giving him a kiss.

"Love you too," he said, returning her kiss. He returned to the interview room and listened as Mercedes answered Marvin's questions. His ears caught the back and forth between them, but his mind was on the conversation between Beverly and Mercedes. Finally, Marvin finished and turned to Ryan.

"I think we got everything we need, Sheriff," Marvin said. He turned back to Mercedes. "Would you be willing to testify to this in court?" Ryan spoke up before Mercedes could answer.

"Is there any way she can do that securely?" he asked.

"I'll have to clear that with the judge, but given the circumstances, I think something can be arranged," Marvin answered.

"Good. Please do what you can," Ryan said.

"Alright," Marvin said.

"Will that work for you?" Ryan asked Mercedes.

"Yes, that will work," she said.

"I'll get on it," Marvin said before leaving. Ryan turned to Mercedes.

"You ready to go back? It's already past lunch time, but if you're hungry, I think I can get the kitchen to rustle up some grub," Ryan said.

"Something light would be fine," she said. "Thank you." He walked her to the small room where she spent the previous night. Before walking inside, she turned to face him.

"You're a very fortunate man, Ryan," she said. "Beverly is a wonderful woman and I can tell the two of you love each other very much. Take care of her, please."

"I will," Ryan said. She smiled and went into her room. Ryan turned to the deputy running that section and "requested" a light lunch for her.

"I'll take care of it, Sheriff," the female deputy said. Thomas met Ryan when he returned to his office.

"I spoke with my superiors," Thomas said. "They agreed to let her stay at Fort Apache."

"Fort Apache?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, that's the name of our secure base," Thomas said. "They're sending an aircraft here to pick her up. The flight will be here tomorrow morning. I'll escort her back east."

"Okay," Ryan said. "You know, I just had a thought about something."

"What's that?" Thomas asked.

"If this Gatsby woman sent Mercedes here to check up on Higgins and the Rodgers kids, wouldn't it stand to reason she might send someone to check up on Mercedes? Maybe verify that she really is dead? Or at the very least, monitor the website of our local paper?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, I suppose that would be a safe assumption," Thomas said. "You have something in mind?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Ryan said. He picked up his phone and made two calls. The first was to Jenny, the department's Public Information Officer.

"Jenny, I need you to step into my office for a minute, if you would please," Ryan said.

"On my way, Sheriff," she said. When she got there, he outlined what he wanted to do. She seemed shocked at first, but then understood when Ryan explained.

"You've seen those movies where someone faked their death to keep the bad guys from finding them?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah," Jenny said with a chuckle.

"That's basically what we're doing here," he said. "I need you to keep this under your hat. If you get any inquiries, send them directly to me. No tweets, no social media, nothing. Understand?"

"I got it," she said. "Who would've thought it -- Sheriff Ryan Caldwell, purveyor of fake news."

"Thank you," he said with a laugh. He then called Aaron Campbell, the editor of the local paper.

"Hey, Sheriff, what can I do for you?" Aaron asked.

"Listen, Aaron, I need a big favor from you," Ryan said. "Can you run a small story for me? Maybe put it somewhere online only -- not the print version. No questions asked."

"I suppose I can do that for ya," Aaron said.

"Good. Here's what I want it to say..." Aaron wrote as Ryan spoke into the phone. "Clean it up however you want, Aaron. I'm not a writer. Does all that make sense?"

"Is this for real, Sheriff? I don't recall seeing anything about this in the morning blotter," Aaron said.

"I know. That's because it's not real. But you didn't hear that from me. Put it up as soon as you possibly can. Let it stay up for a day, two days tops. Then pull it. If you get any inquiries, direct them to me personally," Ryan said.

"Are you sure about this?" Aaron asked. He had never put up a story that wasn't true before, and he had a hard time understanding why the Sheriff would want something like this posted.

"Absolutely, Aaron. It's crucial that it go up ASAP. Lives are in the balance here. Will you do that for me?" he asked.

"Well, alright, Sheriff, if you say so," Aaron said. "I can have it up in an hour. I'll keep it up one, two days, tops, then it's coming down. But promise me you'll tell me what this is all about someday, okay?"

"Off the record?" Ryan asked.

"Absolutely," Aaron said.

"Then you have my word," Ryan said. "But only after the Higgins trial. Thanks. I owe you."

"Damn straight you do, Sheriff," Aaron said. "I'll take care of this myself." Ryan hung up the phone and looked at Thomas.

"You know, Sheriff, I've worked with a lot of local LEOs in my time, but you are without a doubt the most... unique law enforcement officer I've ever run across," Thomas said. Ryan smiled at that.

"You don't know the half of it," Ryan said.

...

Allison sat in her flat, masturbating to the photo of Ryan that Mercedes had sent her. After her pet boy-toy licked her pussy clean, she dismissed him and pulled up her laptop to see if there was any word from Hard Rock.

She pulled up the website for the local paper, knowing that it was updated two or three times a day with various items, mostly boring stories about high school sports or business openings. She searched until she found what she was looking for -- a small story with a headline that read, "Unidentified Woman Found Dead, Police Investigating."

A smile broke across her face as she read the story. It seems the body of an unidentified woman was found in a local motel Tuesday afternoon. According to the story, the woman came to Hard Rock from Cancun on Sunday. It's not known how or why the woman died, but police say a hand print was seen on the side of her neck. The report said Sheriff Caldwell was investigating the matter himself and would not release the victim's name until next of kin had been notified.

Allison was certain from the description in the article that the woman had to be Mercedes. The timeline seemed right and the hand print would have happened when Mercedes slapped the side of her neck, breaking the poison capsule next to her carotid artery. Breathing a sigh of relief, she closed out of the website and went into her bedroom. There, she grabbed a giant dildo and laughed as she fucked herself with it to orgasm.

...

Jake Callender shook his head in disbelief as he went through the boxes of evidence left the previous Friday by the District Attorney's office. Some of the stuff he saw so far was just... sickening. He had seen a lot in his career, but this was beyond anything he had ever dealt with before.

He knew there was no way he could adequately defend all three of his clients by himself, not with the charges they faced and the mountain of evidence that he had been given. So he enlisted the aid of three other attorneys and paralegals in his office and formed a team. Each of the defendants would have an attorney assigned, while Jake would remain in the lead. There was no other way he could see handling this.

The first day he brought them together, he held up a bottle of scented lamp oil. Across the bottle in black magic marker was written, "Midnight."

"We're gonna be burning an awful lot of this over the next few weeks," he told them. "Whatever you had planned, cancel it. We'll be working nights, weekends, whatever it takes to get through this. If necessary, I'll bring in some cots and we'll sleep here. Nothing else matters right now but this case. Any questions?"

"You really sure about this, Jake?" Bob Wright, one of the other lawyers, asked. "From what I've seen, the DA has an open-and-shut case."

"You see that mountain of stuff they left us?" Jake asked. "Somewhere in all that is something we can use. Maybe there's some mitigating circumstances. Maybe we can find something that'll keep our clients out of the execution chamber. But there's far too much for me to go through by myself."

"Well, alright. Let's dig in and see what we can find," Bob said.

Despite his bravado, Jake really didn't see any other outcome than a guilty verdict, which, if the DA had his way, would result in the death penalty. Worse yet, the district attorney was pushing for the three defendants to be declared domestic extremists, putting them under the umbrella of the recently-passed Enhanced Patriot Act. A guilty verdict under those conditions meant an instant death penalty with no appeals.

His only hope was to delay, preferably with a change of venue to someplace where he could find a jury less prone to find his clients guilty.

...

Ryan came home to find his wife humming as she fixed their dinner. He stepped behind her and kissed her neck as he wrapped his arms around her. She smiled, turned and kissed him back.

"It's so good to have you home," she said.

"It's good to be home," he told her. "You're in an exceptionally good mood today."

"Well, I've been thinking about my husband," she said.

"Oh, really?" he asked.

"Or to be more precise, what I plan to do to him tonight," she purred, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Now you've piqued my curiosity," he said. She giggled as she turned back to her work.

"You'll just have to wait," she said. He kissed her again and went upstairs to change out of his uniform. After dinner, dessert and some time in front of the television, Beverly grabbed his hand and led him upstairs. When they got into the bedroom, she undressed him, then removed her clothing.

"Aren't you going to climb in?" she asked, holding the covers back. He smiled and got under the covers. She climbed on top of him, naked and kissed his face as she worked his hard cock inside her.

"You have no idea how much I love and adore you, my husband," she whispered. Something about this seemed vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Not half as much as I love and adore you, my lovely wife," he said. She kept kissing him as she slid back and forth on his cock. Then she kissed him on the lips, taking his lower lip into her mouth. She began sucking gently on his lower lip, then it hit him. This was exactly what Mercedes did to him all those years ago.

"Where did you get the idea to do this?" he asked as she moved herself back and forth on his cock.

"Mercedes told me," she said quietly. "You're not upset, are you?" He smiled as he felt her warm, wet pussy clamp down on him.

"I could never be upset with you," he said. "Anything that gets us together like this is just fine with me."