Terry Neale - Jo-el

I sat on the sofa next to her and took her hands in mine. “I’ve told you about what happened to me, Maggie. You know my plan is to eliminate evil around the world as best as I can, to crush the criminal class. I’ll tell you why in a minute.” I bowed my head and told her about Yerchenkov and his billionaire friend. “Sally, informed me that Yerchenkov‘s friend had a team of thugs in DC, they were planning to abduct Pippa Moran, she’s a CIA agent who I met a few days ago. She knows a lot about me. She knows I’m Dave Murphy. Somehow they must have found out and they planned to use her to get to me.”

“So you killed them. Dad, damn, you can’t do that? That’s so illegal, I don’t know where to start. There’s a thing called due process in the States. You can’t take the law into your own hands just because you want to.”

Then I saw her face contort, wrinkles line her brow, her mouth drop open. She stood up and stepped away from me. I knew what she’d just figured out, what I didn’t know was how she would react.

She was at the window, as far from me as she could get in the suite. She turned and stared at me, the daughterly love had vanished, she had fear written across her face. “I’m at risk, aren’t I? If you try eliminating all the criminals around the world, they’ll come after me. And Sean, too. You must tell him. I’m not safe. Oh my God! They’ll do anything to get you and there’s people who know who you really are. Every criminal in the world will be your enemy and there are some nasty people out there. They have to kill you. They will band together to find you. Oh, my God!” she paused, then said. “My life is over.”

I went over to hold her in my arms.

“Don’t touch me,” she shook her arm as if I had a disease and moved away from me.

“I can protect you, Maggie.” But that wasn’t where her head was at. It was the fear, always looking over your shoulder, how could she continue to live the life she’d chosen with Adam? “Maggie, you need to hear why? Let me explain. But she wasn’t listening, she was close to the door. She didn’t look at me as she left.”

I poured myself a drink and sat alone staring at the far wall, seeing nothing. Around and around my mind wandered, over and over the same crazy issue. I couldn’t shake it away. Maggie and Sean. How small our worlds are in the scheme of the things? How petty our problems? Yet to each of us our problems are like the tallest mountains to climb. To us, insurmountable.

I woke with a dull headache. It was Tuesday, two weeks had passed since my first encounter with Ka-el. As I lay there searching through the fog in my brain I could feel an immense sadness. Not in a million years could I have predicted the events of the past two weeks. I wanted it all to go away, I wanted my life back. I didn’t want all the crazy power I’d been given. What seemed like a fairy-tale had become a nightmare. I wished to God that I hadn’t ridden down highway twenty-five and found that box of madness. I didn’t want to be a Superhero, if that was what I’d become.

I showered and dressed, then ate alone in the restaurant downstairs. My brain cleared and I perked up with my third dose of caffeine. My initial, dour mood slowly faded. Back in the suite I called Sally.

“What happened yesterday, Sally? Why did the network fail?” I’m sure my concern was very evident.

“Overload,” she answered, unemotionally.

“That’s it?”

Sally nodded. “I was monitoring the rape cases, remember you dumped that on me. I’m watching Sean and Maggie.”

“Maggie was here,” I objected.

“Okay, Sean. Then there’s the criminal groups, you’ve started a firestorm, Jo-el.”

“Wait a minute with that, how many rape cases do we have?”

“One hundred and forty-seven.”

“Jeez!”

“Ninety-two of the perps didn’t see you on CNN and didn’t hear about it, either.”

“Okay,” I thought for a moment. “Send the ninety-two an email with a link to my warning, I’ll give them another day. Send videos of the fifty-five losers to the local police. Now tell me what happened at Pippa’s apartment?”

“The forth guy in the car, the driver, heard the police sirens and left in a hurry. The three dead guys are in the morgue. One little problem?” She said, waiting to see my reaction, damn woman was becoming more human every day.

“What?” I was calm, or relatively.

“One of the three you wasted hadn’t actually killed anyone. He’d put a couple of guys in hospital, but he was young and new to the team. He’s not known to the police; the other guys have form.”

“So we, that’s ‘we’ Sally, not me, killed a guy without a police record.” I thought about it for a moment and just didn’t seem to care. He was on the broken path and no doubt would whack someone one day.

“What’s Pippa up to?”

“She’s very frightened. The CIA figured it all out during the night. They’ve got a guard on her.”

“Before we get to these criminal groups, what’s Maggie doing?”

“She’s taken another day off, she called your cell about twenty minutes ago and wants to see you.”

“Where is my cell phone?”

“The FBI have it in lock up, it’s turned off.”

I looked strangely at Sally. She could receive my text messages even with the phone off. “Can you text her to come to the hotel?” Sally nodded.

“Anything with Sean?”

“No, he went back to work this morning, doesn’t suspect you I guess. Wants to forget the incident.”

“Text him and see if I can have lunch with him.”

“Okay.”

“Now, tell me about the criminal groups.”

“You might want to sit down.” I gave Sally a funny look but sat on the sofa anyway. “They realize where you’re going, Jo-el and they’re scared, which is not a condition most of them are used to. Most are very rich and only semi-illegal, they have legitimate businesses and enormous weight and influence with local politicians and police. So, they’ve been talking to each other, which is also very unusual and they’re starting to make plans. The one fundamental decision they’ve all agreed on is that you have to go.” She paused. “And as soon as possible.”

“Have they figured out how to get rid of me?”

“No. But the FBI and CIA found out who you are, pretty quick.”

“Yea, my mistake.” I stood up and walked around the hotel suite. “I’m pretty sure I can dodge these guys alone, it’s just Sean and Maggie that worry me. I need to think what to do with them.”

“So you’ve written off Pippa, then?”

“Oh, right and Pippa. So, what’s their plan?”

“Well the good news is they’re arguing. The top guys aren’t used to democracy, they’re more into the dictator M.O. So far they’ve not agreed on any specific action, which gives you a chance to strike.”

“What do you have in mind?” One-man army, our Sally. Or should I say, one woman.

“As soon as I recognize they are plotting your death, I’ll whack them.”

“Simple enough. I like it.” I smiled.

“So I have your blessing to start.”

I guess having your finger on the nuclear button causes a tad of consternation, I felt my heart beat rise and head begin to sweat. “How many do you have on the list, so far?”

“Eighteen.”

“Show me some of them, I want to understand who these people are.”

Sally placed the disc monitor in the air and an image of a white, old man, maybe in his seventies, in a business suit appeared. He was sitting at an ornate table in a large, oak-paneled office. Around the table were six other men, similarly dressed of varying ages. None of them were smiling. The old man spoke.