Vengeance is Mine Ch. 01

Teresa Croyle and SWAT Team Leader Robert Kalsu had come in behind me. Teresa affixed handcuffs to the first bodyguard and Kalsu to the second. Then they collected the bodyguards's weapons, putting them in evidence bags and handing them to Detective Teddy Parker and SWAT Team member Taylor Hawley.

I yelled "Oh, you shit eaters think you're gonna come into my Police Headquarters and draw guns on me? Really? Hold him up." Teresa held the man upright by pulling on his arms behind him, knowing what was coming.

*THWACK!* *THWACK!*

I swung my crowbar at the man's chest, hitting him right in the sternum. I'd made sure not to swing full-force, as a blow that powerful might literally crush in his chest and explode his heart, killing him. But my second swing was full-force into his belly. Worse than a punch in the gut, the pain went across his whole abdomen.

As he doubled over, Teresa knew to let him go, and my overhand swing caught the man squarely on the back along the shoulders. He went to the ground, his head bouncing off the carpet.

"God damn bastard." I muttered as I jabbed my booted toe into his face. Then I turned to the other man. "And you should be fired. You moved like pond water."

*THWACK!*

The man gasped and almost retched as the crowbar connected with his gut. I quickly swung my crowbar straight up, catching him in the face again.

"Take these two through full booking." I said.

"On what charges, sir?" asked Teddy Parker, as he and Hawley came forward.

"Assaulting Police Officers, with deadly weapons." I replied.

"Hey, you!" shouted Jeff Woolsey, his face beet red with fury. "Those are my bodyguards! They are licensed to carry weapons as part of their duties, and they were trying to protect me from you!"

"And they've done a lousy job of it." I replied. To my Officers, I said "Go! Full booking! Full charges!" Parker and Hawley roughly escorted the hurting bodyguards out. Teresa and Kalsu stayed, as my and the Chief's bodyguards. I turned my full attention to Jeff Woolsey.

"You son of a bitch!" the BigBenefitInsurance CEO yelled. "Why aren't you out there searching for George Aurus------ UHK!"

In less time than it is taking you to read this, I'd handed Teresa my red crowbar, then drew my service weapon and worked the slide, chambering a round. Then I attacked Jeff Woolsey. My left hand caught him by his shirt collar and necktie, and I drove him to the wall to the left of the office, to the right of the desk, over the sofa. Woolsey collapsed onto the sofa as I drove his head and neck into the wall.

"You call my mama a name again and I'll gouge your eyes out!" I said hoarsely. Then I said more loudly: "You think you can come in here and disrespect my Police Chief in his office like that? Huh?" I pressed the business end of my Beretta 96 Brigadier service weapon into his left cheek.

"You damn right I did!" yelled Woolsey, with untoward bravado. "He ain't shit, and you ain't shit------UHK!"

I'd jammed my pistol into his mouth. "Mr. Rudistan," I said to my jovial Vice Lieutenant, who had just come in, "this guy thinks he's a big shot. Whaddya say to that?"

"It's hard to be an important man, sir, when he's got a gun shoved down his throat." Rudistan said with great joviality.

"That's exactly right." I said. "Mitt Willis thought he was an important man... but he couldn't outrun the bullets that tore through his body. He dropped dead, right next to me. What about you, Woolsey? Can you outrun a bullet?" Woolsey said nothing, but stared malignantly at me.

*WHAP!*

I swung my gun backhand and connected with the side of Woolsey's head with it, cutting his temple and drawing blood "I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, YOU GOD DAMN PIECE OF SHIT! CAN. YOU. OUTRUN. A. BULLET?"

He still didn't answer, so I cocked the hammer and pressed the business end of the gun into Woolsey's forehead. He was now one twitch of my finger on the near hair-trigger of having his head blown off by a powerful .40 S&W round.

"If you're not going to answer," I said menacingly, "then let's find out the hard way, with a demonstration." The anteroom was filled with Detectives and Officers, and Teresa, Kalsu, and the Chief were still in the office with us. And no one was moving in the silence. No one knew if I really would pull the trigger, or not.

"Why aren't you out there looking for that bastard midget Aurus?" Woolsey said hoarsely.

"Why are you so obsessed with that?" I growled.

"Because David Palmer was my employee." said Woolsey.

"Employee?" I barked. "You act more as if he was a member of your family. What, was David Palmer your illegitimate son?" The flicker in his eyes showed me that I just might be right.

I took the gun off Woolsey's forehead and de-cocked it by flicking the safety on. Then I pulled him off the sofa and slung him to the floor. "Get the fuck out of my Headquarters. And don't come back. The next time I see you, I'm going to shoot you." Woolsey attempted to get up.

*WHUMP!*

I had raised my foot and made solid boot-to-ass contact with Woolsey's posterior. He went sprawling, then as he tried to get up again, I kicked him in the ass again. "Men walk. You're not a man. You will crawl out of this office."

Woolsey was about to try to get up again, but as I moved forward, Rudistan and Kalsu stepped in. "We've got him, sir." Rudistan said. They grabbed his arms and half-dragged him out.

"What about my guards?" Woolsey yelled in the anteroom.

"You can pick them up in ten years." I yelled back. "When they've finished their prison sentences."

As Woolsey was forcibly escorted out of Headquarters, I turned and saw that the Chief had not moved an inch the entire time. "Well, Mis-ter Crowbarrrr," he said, "I guess Mr. Wool-seeeee will not be making a further nuisance of himself with the T-C-P-Deeee."

"If he knows what's good for him, he won't." I replied, coming down off the adrenaline high of the personal combat I'd just engaged in with the Enemy. "But I have the feeling that that guy is so arrogant, he won't get the message." Teresa nodded vigorously in agreement.

Jack Muscone had watched the whole thing from the door to the Chief's office. When he caught my eye, he said "My new team is on the way here. You guys want to meet them?"

Part 4 - New Team Lazarus

10:00am, Friday, April 9th. Paperwork. The bane of a cop's existence. I had learned a long time ago to get paperwork done as quickly and completely as possible, and today was no exception.

I'd finished my paperwork on the Woolsey incident, giving my side of it, anyway, and begun the formal process to charge the bodyguards with felony crimes, when my landline phone buzzed. My assistant Helena said the Jack Muscone's FBI team was in the Main Conference Room.

When I came out of my office, Teresa was coming up the hallway, also having been called. We went to the Main Conference Room, where I knocked on the door then opened it and walked on in.

Chief Moynahan was in his normal seat at the near end of the table. FBI SAC Jack Muscone was at the far end of the table. To Muscone's right was Chief Deputy Sheriff Cindy Ross, and to her right was TCPD Captain of Detectives Claire Michaels. Deputy Police Chief Tanya P. Muscone had parked her wheelchair to the Chief's right. To her left was FBI SSA Julius Jefferson. To his right in line were Special Agent Tracy Stone and two Special Agents that were new to the team.

Jack Muscone said "This is Special Agent Steven Gable." I shook hands with a handsome white man of medium height in his upper 20s to early 30s, with wavy black hair. I sensed competence in him... then again, I'd always sensed competence in Martin Nash, too, and that hadn't been right. But I digress...

"And this is Christy Cassidy." Muscone said. Christy was short like Tracy Stone was, but Christy was wearing patent leather black pumps with over four inch spike heels, shaping her curvy legs and fine ass to perfection. Christy's hair was raven black and her face was pretty, with warm eyes and full lips. She was wearing a clingy bright white dress with black panels along the sides, and the dress showed off her large breasts and saucy hips. This woman was 'porn star' quality, I thought to myself.

"Hello again, Commander." Christy said. She did not shake my hand but instead wrapped her arms around me in a very warm hug. With that invitation, I gave her a warm hug back.

"Hello again, yourself." I replied. After reluctantly ending the hug, I introduced the new Agents to Teresa, then Teresa and I went and sat on the far side of the table, me to the Chief's left, and Teresa to my left.

"You guys know each other?" Julius Jefferson asked as Teresa and I sat down, meaning me and Christy.

I looked at her and she nodded, so I said "Yes, I met her during the Bundy McGinty case. She was undercover at the 'Bangkok' bar. And she helped me greatly, at risk to herself." (Author's note: 'One Night In Bangkok', especially Ch. 04 for the sex.)

Tracy Stone astutely said "Ohhhh, so that's why you wore that hot dress today. You knew you'd be seeing the Iron Crowbar again." Tracy was wearing a nice blouse and jacket, but was wearing pants and more sensible shoes. The male Agents were wearing ubiquitous FBI suits and ties.

"Guilty as charged." Christy said, with a flirtatious look and smile my way.

Tanya's eyes were twinkling as she mischievously said "The Iron Crowbar. Irresistible chick magnet." A red crowbar was waved in her general direction.

"I'm flattered." I said. "But why don't we talk shop, for now?"

"Yezzzz, let's dooooo." drawled the Chief. "Mr. Muscone?"

"Thanks, Chief." said Jack Muscone. "First of all, I wish I could do what I didn't see the Iron Crowbar do to Jeff Woolsey."

"Hear hear!" said a chorus of Agents, and my Angels.

"What the hell is up with that guy?" Julius Jefferson asked. "He's been giving us a lot of crap, too."

With a cattiness few others could put into their voices, Teresa said "Like Lieutenant Rudistan said... Woolsey thinks he's an important man."

Jack Muscone said "As the CEO of BigBenefitInsurance, the largest insurance firm in the world, with ties to WorldBankTrust and the big banks and insurance firms in London, he's one of the (air quotes) 'Big Boys', the Crony Capitalists that think they rule the world. I would imagine that the greater shock to him this morning was not that he had a gun in his mouth ready to be fired, but that someone had the cojones to actually do that to him."

Teresa said "The Iron Crowbar. Totally devoid of fear." A red crowbar was waved in her direction.

"Says the Iron Wolf, herself devoid of fear." I replied. The Federal Agents were between amused and stunned at our banter.

Then I said "I did notice that even at the point of his death if my finger so much as twitched, he still had the bravado to whine about Aurus. He's definitely obsessed with getting Aurus, and I'm wondering why."

"Our bosses are not saying why, either." said Tracy Stone. "And it wasn't for lack of asking on my part."

"Nor mine." said Jack Muscone.

"I don't think they know, either." said Julius Jefferson. "They just know the Brass in Washington is coming down on them like a ton of bricks. And as an aside, I called Karina White, and she says the SBI has not been contacted by the Feds nor any politicians, at least that she knows of."

Karina White was formerly in the FBI, and had put together the FBI team sitting in the conference room with us now. She had retired and taken a job with the State Bureau of Investigation's Office of Ethics and Review (SBI-OER), the 'Internal Affairs' department for the State.

Chief Moynahan said "Governor Marshall mayyyy have been calllled, but she would give anyone trying to pressure her the verbal equivalent of the crowbar beatdown that Mister Crowbarrrr just gave Woolsey. Ditto that for SBI Inspector Britt Maxwell." Britt was the head of the SBI-OER, and the de facto Inspector General for all things State Government.

I said "The SBI has little jurisdiction in this. We have jurisdiction because David Palmer's murder at the hands of George Aurus was done in this County. And the Feds are claiming the jurisdiction that Aurus escaped from Federal Supermax prison... for the second time... and they're trying to recapture him." (Author's note: 'Red Squad', Ch. 04.)

"Just how did Aurus escape from that Supermax again?" Cindy Ross asked. "I know the Feds classified the information about his escape. But do any of you have any idea of what really happened, there?"

For some strange reason, all eyes went to me. And I did not disappoint them. I said with alacrity "That's an Easy Button answer: the Feds let him escape!. Well, the Swamp Frogs within the Federal Government opened the door and let Aurus walk right on out."

Everyone except Teresa looked totally stunned at that revelation. "Why?" several people gasped simultaneously.

I replied "Because they wanted something from him, or they wanted him to lead them to something... something they could not get from him even with (air quotes) 'enhanced interrogation', which I suspect they've been applying to him for a good long time. But Aurus isn't the one to be broken by any of the (air quotes) 'vaunted' Bob Rovers BAU unit."

I continued: "Sooo, they either cut Aurus a deal, and said they'd let him out if he'd help them find what they wanted; orrrrr, they arranged for him to 'escape', and were keeping tabs on him. Either way, he was better than them, and he easily slipped out of their grasp and went into the wind. And they had to classify the escape so that no one would find out that they'd let him escape."

"So what is it that they wanted him to find for them?" Julius Jefferson asked.

Cindy Ross said "The first time he was broken out, it was to find someone the Swamp Frogs wanted to capture and kill, Leonard Lotz." (Author's note: 'Shipping And Handling', Ch. 01.) "Did they want Aurus to find Lotz? Or maybe someone else?"

"Or McGinty's Materials?" asked Steve Gable, referring to the blackmail papers involved with the aforementioned McGinty case.

I said "I don't have much data, so this is speculation. And as such, it should be taken with grains of rock salt. I don't think they care about Leonard Lotz anymore. And while it could be someone who fears whatever is in McGinty's Materials, it's been a while now since McGinty died, and nothing came of the threat his Materials may have been."

I continued: "So I suspect it's something else, but don't ask me what. Just remember that at the time of Aurus breaking out the second time, Brendan Chapel was the Director of National Intelligence, and he's been the DNI until very recently. We know that Chapel had, and has, an insatiable appetite for money, so I'm theorizing with very limited data that George Aurus was let out in the hopes that he would lead the Swamp Frogs to something immensely valuable... and we are talking in at least the tens of millions of dollars."

"Drug stash?" asked Jack Muscone. "Art? Cash? The Statue of Artemis?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Brendan Chapel is no longer the DNI, thank God. But that means that the Swamp Frogs's desire to find Aurus is not about money, anymore. They want to find Aurus for one reason only: to kill him."

"So we need to find him before the Swamp Frogs dooooo." drawled the Chief.

"If he's still here in our County, Chief." I replied. "And there's really no reason for him to be hanging around here."

Jack Muscone said "Unless he wants to steal the Statue of Artemis from the University Museum, which just got possession of it from Pottsville. And the reason I bring that up... is because the Bob Rovers BAU Team believes that the Statue is Aurus's next theft target."

Teresa said, again cattily, "Even though they were dead wrong about Aurus trying to steal the Lost Greuze." (Author's note: 'Send In The Clowns'.)

Muscone: "They're still claiming that it was Aurus behind that, even though the Iron Crowbar caught the real perps, and has time and again clearly demonstrated how stupidly incompetent the Rovers BAU team really is."

Cindy said "Why can't we consult with a decent BAU Team, like the Aaron Russo BAU Team?" (Author's note: 'Cool For The Summer'.)

"Because they're not Swamp Frogs." I said. "They're not corrupt enough, like the Rovers BAU Team is."

Chief Moynahan astutely said: "It soundzzz like blaming Aurus is the Swamp Frogs's excuse to be in our Coun-teee."

Muscone said "Yes, that may be what it's about. And it segues into what we came here to tell you. The new Director of National Intelligence, Susan Price, has told the Director of the FBI to take orders from Dr. Robin Isley of the National Security Agency. And Isley put the Rovers BAU Team in charge of finding Aurus."

"Good luck to 'em." I said, perhaps just a bit sarcastically.

Muscone: "But that's not the worst of it. Isley has essentially put together her own FBI Team. Martin Nash of the OPR Division is attached to it sometimes, but the real threat actors on it are Lindsey Black, Karl Coleman, Nancy Harding, and Cabe Andrews."

I knew Nancy Harding (Author's note: 'Big In Japan', especially Ch. 05.), but I had not heard of Cabe Andrews. "Who is Cabe Andrews?" I asked.

"He's been an FBI Agent for eight years." said Jack Muscone. "He was part of the FBI's SWAT Team in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and also had assignments in Washington, D.C. and the sewer that is Wilmington, Delaware. He apparently got himself noticed by Robin Isley, and she added him to the team when she pulled Lindsey Black, Karl Coleman, and Nancy Harding out of the ATF."

"Wow." Teresa said unhappily. "So they have no less than eight Federal Agents on their combined team."

"That's not a team." I said. "That's a small army------"

*CHIME!*

The chime was Jack Muscone's iPhone. He said "It's EAD Owen Lange. He wants to talk to us via videoconference."

Chief Moynahan said "Call him up." Cindy got up and went around Claire, and Jack Muscone slid over into the seat Cindy had occupying, so that everyone could see the monitor on the wall above the seat at the far end.

As she moved, Cindy looked right at me and said "Give him a chance to speak, eh?" Typical Canadian, I thought to myself of my first cousin Cindy.

The video connection was quickly made, and EAD Owen Lange appeared on the monitor. He was not alone. The 'harassed' face and bald head of FBI Deputy Director Lawrence Lance also appeared, as they were sitting side-by-side.

"First of all," EAD Lange said, "I want to apologize to you, Commander Muscone, and also to your fellow Police Officers, for my behavior and inexcusable words this morning. And I don't blame you for walking out with her, Jack."

Maybe it was my glare at him that connoted that his apology was not accepted. Or maybe it was the well-known and well-feared 'Teresa Cunt' look that my Iron Wolf was exhibiting. Either way, he was on treacherous ground, and he knew it.

The Chief moved hastily to move things along. "Thank you for that, Mr. Lannnnng." he drawled. "You have some information for us?"

"Yes." said Lawrence Lance. "I've just learned that Robin Isley did an end-run around me, with the blessing of the FBI Director. They've sent not only the Bob Rovers BAU Team to your County, but Isley's little group. They're officially listed as FBI Agents, but are (air quotes) 'attached' to the National Security Agency. So I can't do anything about it."

Owen Lange said "Deputy Director Lance and I still have friends in the Intelligence Community. And we've learned that what they want to do is set a trap for Aurus, using the Statue of Artemis at the University Museum."