The early morning sunlight shone through the skylights in the large criminal courtroom and several people milled about as DJ and Ken Lee argued in hushed tones.
“I don't want her here, I don't want to put her through this. It's bad enough what he did to her.” DJ said to Ken Lee, the two sitting in the back of the courtroom talking quietly.
“We may not have a choice. She's the primary witness. There may not be enough evidence without her. DJ, I understand what Julia went through was traumatic and you want her to let it go, but we need her.” Ken said
“Ken, if it comes to it, I'll bring her in on the trial, but I want to avo-” DJ began but was cut off
“All Rise, court is now in session” The bailiff said to the courtroom. As everyone was standing the judge exited her back office and made her way over to the bench and sat down. “The honorable Melinda Thomas presiding, please be seated and come to order.”
Once everyone was seated the judge looked down at the case file and said “Good afternoon everyone, today we are seeing the City of Norfolk versus Vincent Neros. Mr. Neros, You have been accused of smuggling and distribution of illegal narcotics. Do you wish to enter a plea at this time?”
The skinny man with glasses sitting beside Neros stood saying “Your Honor, I'd actually like to make a motion to dismiss.”
“On what grounds?” The judge asked, taken aback
“Although my client was on site when the raid took place. He was not involved in the dealings and goings on at that location. He was only present because he was visiting a friend who worked there. Your honor, my client was completely ignorant of the fact that any illegal activity was occurring at the location and there is insufficient evidence being presented to prove my client is guilty of anything.”
DJ's jaw dropped. The audacity of the man.
“Additionally, my client is in mourning, several of his friends were killed in the raid on the warehouse.
The judge turned to the district attorney who was prosecuting the case. “Mr. Allen? Do you have sufficient evidence to present a case against Mr. Neros?”
Standing, Allen cleared his throat and said “we believe so, your honor. We're nearly done building the case.”
The judge's eyes doubled in size at the same time Neros’s lawyer smiled. “Nearly Done? Mr. Allen, I know your posting to the position of district attorney is new, but I have seen you in this courtroom enough times to know that you,” she pointed at Allen “have a working knowledge of the law. One that includes the fact that you don't bring an unfinished case to trial.” She turned back to Neros,”Mr. Neros, I am going to delay this arraignment for thirty days. At that time we will reconvene.” She looked back at Allen. “At that time, if the prosecution is not prepared to present a case I will dismiss it.” she turned back to Neros and said “Mr. Neros, you are free to go.” She slammed her gavel down.
Outside the courtroom Neros sneered at DJ as he passed by. The crutches were loud as they impacted the tile floor.
Ken and DJ watched the elevator door close on Neros and turned when the door opened. Allen walked out and DJ immediately grabbed his arm looking at him accusatory.
Allen looked at the hand on his arm and up into the eyes of the two older men. “Look, the case just isn't strong enough. If we had pushed this we would have lost, and then we'd have been screwed. You can't try him for the same thing twice, it's called double jeopardy. If anything it's your fault.” When DJ’s eyebrows shot up he continued. “If you'd left even one of his thugs alive, we'd have had something, but you can't question a dead man.” Allen wrenched his arm out of DJs hand and walked to the elevator and pushed the button. He turned back as it opened and said “you've got thirty days, find me something more.” Then the elevator doors closed and he too disappeared.
Lee turned to DJ and said “now what?”
“Now, we follow the bastard.”
“With no warrant?” Lee questioned
“Were not cops Ken.”
“I know, but we've always used 'em before. And anything we find without the warrant we can’t use in the case.”
“Maybe, hmm” DJ thought for a moment and said, “I've got an idea.”
***********************
James paused as the phone in his pocket started to ring. Relaxing into the straps that held him against the ceiling of the enormous hanger he slipped the tool he was holding into its holder and dropped a fist sized bolt into a bag that hung from his waist.
Pulling the phone out he answered it, the ring tone already having told him who it was. “Did it work?” He asked before the caller could say hello.
“Yes and no,” an energetic male voice said. “The short answer is that it works, but not with everything. Specifically, it doesn’t work with organic material. It out right dies the moment it goes through the transference.”
“Ok I’ll come by tomorrow to take a closer look.” He said with a grimace looking down the three hundred feet below him. He looked along the rest of the crane’s tracks he was hanging from, trying to judge how many more bolts he would have to extract before he could tie off and remove it fully.
“Mr. Malaki, this isn’t a total loss, even without being able to affect organic material there are still countless applications, most of it storage which will be in very high demand. I can just imagine giant tractor-trailers that haul all kinds of things no longer being necessary. We could mail a letter and send more material then a fleet of trucks could dream, this will revolutionize the shipping industry.”
“I know Nick, and thank you; it’s just that I had a few ideas that I don’t think would otherwise be possible now. Let me get back to work, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Alright I’ll see you then, bye.”
James slid the phone back into his pocket. Gripping the beam overhead he began to pull himself along to the next tie bracket. He was removing the tracks of this massive crane that he had used to hold everything up while he worked on it. Now that most of it was done, he no longer needed the crane and it was time for it to go.
***************************
Bobby held the door to the DC branch of the FBI open for Gwen and Detective Williams, then followed them through.
“Thanks for dinner last night, that place was good.” William's said to Bobby
Gwen swiped her badge and passed through a turnstile when the light on top turned green. “ You two had dinner together last night?” She asked
Bobby performed the same action and passed through a neighboring turnstile. “Yeah,” Bobby said, chagrined. “I felt guilty for dragging him down here with the way things ended up, figured it was the least I could do. It was cool, he told me all about why he waited until the age of forty three to have his first kid.”
William's smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.
Gwen looked oddly at the two of them over her shoulder as she approached the security desk. “Good afternoon mam.” The guard greeted her.
“I have a Detective Williams from the NYPD with me.”
“Of course mam.” The guard pushed a button on his desk and the gate to the side of the turnstiles opened letting Williams through. “Detective, I'll need to see some ID and you'll have to sign in.” He said, handing Williams a clipboard.
After the formalities were completed the trio continued to the bank of elevators. “So why?” Gwen asked Williams.
“Why? Why what?” Williams was momentarily confused.
“Why the wait?”
“Oh.” Williams chuckled to himself. “Well, to put it simply, it was an accident. My wife and I had both been married before, neither of us had kids and we were old enough when we got together we decided not to have any. That was twelve years ago. Last year my wife was going through some major stress changing jobs and in the chaos we forgot her long term IUD was expiring. It came out on it's own and neither of us knew. So she got pregnant. To be honest, even though originally I did not want children, the day my son was born was the happiest day of my life.”
Gwen smiled at the story until she saw the enormous smile on Bobby's face looking back at her. “What are you grinning at?” She asked as they got in the elevator.
“Nothing” he shook his head. “I'm just glad to know that underneath that ice cold exterior rests a beating heart. One that's made all warm and snugly at the thought of babies.
“I'm not always a Bitch”.
“Your words, not mine.” Bobby said sheepishly
Gwen slapped him in the back of the head and Williams laughed at the unexpected wallop.
The door opened and they left the elevator following the twists and turns of the building halls. When at last they turned the corner to the CCI office they found Ronald leaning against the wall talking on the phone. He was facing away from them, looking through the glass on the door into the office. “-not yet.” Hearing the footsteps of those approaching he quickly looked over his shoulder and saw who was coming. “I gotta go, I'll call you later.” He said before hanging up. He opened the door and stepped inside holding it open for the newcomers.
“What's that about?” Gwen asked Ronald
“Just something personal, nevermind.” He replied quietly
“Boss, you're gonna love this,” Pete said.
Bobby, Gwen and Williams entered the room and Ronald closed the door as Bobby sat down on the edge of one of the desks. Pete's back was turned as he gestured at a map of the US with several dozen pins stuck in it. “We've been working on this all morning. All these yellow pins are sites he's hit and these red ones are companies he listed under according to the dept of labor and the other sources we've tracked him through.”
Gwen studied the map. There were hundreds of pins in the map. “He has sites across the country.”
“But none in Virginia or South Carolina.” Pops said. “Considering that his official residence is in South Carolina it made me wonder what is so important about Virginia. So I did some digging.” Pops continued while typing at his computer. “I studied his credit card records for the past few years and while there have been a number of flights, he seems more to prefer rental cars to move around the country. About half the rental cars on here were purchased in either Richmond or Arlington Virginia.”
“We're fairly certain that he is home based on I-95 somewhere between those two cities; Quantico or Fredericksburg areas maybe.” Pete finished for Pops. He turned toward the others, stopped for a second and said “Bobby, seriously? Get your ass off my desk. Why are you always sitting on MY desk? You have some real personal space issues.”
“Sorry,” Bobby said, standing up and rolling his eyes.
Pete sighed and continued. “I also did some digging on my side. There isn't a lot of real info out there, most of it is misinformation. But, I cracked open his middle school and high school records, and it turns out he won the science fair every single year through both. His grades were average but only because he never did any of the work. He got a near perfect score on every exam he ever took, including the SATs. No college.” Pete picked up a sheet of paper and continued. “In addition, superman here was also the state decathlon winner for three years. I also found some records of him training with” Pete looked down at the paper “Christoph Kuznetsov. I know I said that wrong. Anyway, this guy has black belts in three different martial arts and he's a world renowned freerunner.”
“What's a freerunner?” Williams asked
“They do Parkour.” Bobby said. “You know those guys that can run and jump across buildings, climb just about everything, tuck and roll out of every fall just right? Parkour is the formal sport whereas freerunning is more of an open freestyle. It sure explains that airport chase.”
“So not only is he an all star athlete, he's a genius too.” Ronald said.
Pete nodded in agreement. “But, there is so much deliberate misinformation about him out there I can't collect enough to begin making a profile on him.”
The room was quiet for a moment before Pops spoke up. “Boss, I just got a hit on one of his cards.” Pops was typing away as he spoke with enthusiasm. “Looks like he got another rental, it was about four hours ago. Want me to access the rental lot and get the Low Jack information?”
“Do it” Gwen said
Pop's fingers were moving frantically across his keyboard and after a minute he had results. He threw it up on the big monitor at the front of the room. They could all clearly see the dot moving northwest along I-70.
“Where is he headed?” Gwen asked nobody in particular.
Pete moved over to the map one the side of the wall and used his finger to parallel the rental GPS signal. “Pittsburgh, gotta be. He has three companies in that city and there is nothing else out that way for him.”
“Okay” Gwen took a breath and said. “Let's get ready to move.” She turned to Williams. “I'll not ask you to come. I honestly think there isn't much more you can tell us. But, if you want to join us, I'd appreciate it.”
Williams thought for a moment while watching the activity of the four agents preparing to leave. “Sure. This whole thing has my interest piqued now.”
Gwen nodded “alright, let's go”