Chương 75: Big

"Ah, for fuck's sakes, I just got here!" The voice came from a man with a thick, obnoxiously so, Australian accent. I was in a warehouse full of cars, while he stood on a walkway above. Scattered all around me were several unconscious men. Their present status of kissing concrete was my fault. This was another "raid," though this one wasn't on the ADU. Outside of trees cropping up, they've been keeping quiet.

Instead I was dealing with a recent presence in Charlottesville, a supervillain by the moniker of Motor-Runner. He'd been run out of his home country and to the United States about twenty years ago, and has been popped like a zit out of nearly every state since. He had a business model around him and any cronies he hired stealing cars and fencing them alongside the smuggling and export of weapons and general contraband.

the reason he was considered a supervillain, was because those stolen cars by him were controlled by him. The son of a bitch could move vehicles with his mind. And, presently, he had a pair of muscle cars at either side of me, their engines roaring with excitement.

"Doesn't matter. Get your ass down here already before I kick it down here," I warned him.

"I'm not doing shit and you're not doing shit, yank! You get the Hell out of me warehouse or you'll start kissing grill!"

"Is that a threat?"

"It's only a threat if you don't follow up on it!" VRRRRRRM Both cars sped into me. Holding my hands out, I caught both by the hood. Dirt and dust kicked in as the cars' engines roared in my ears while I tried to keep my senses. I was dragging out more and more of my strength until I could hit that plateau point where horsepower couldn't overpower me. Unfortunately, it seemed like Motor-Runner was completely content with letting these things scrap themselves. Couldn't let them keep going.

My fingers dug into the grills, tearing through metal and polymer and alloys until I had a full grasp on both. Swinging my arms up, I tossed them towards either side of the villain, the cars cleanly tearing through the catwalk and causing the section he was standing on to fall and take him for the ride. As he landed with a CLANG, he groaned out.

"Son of a bitch, you coulda' killed me!"

"You tried to run me over with two cars."

"Uh-uh. Tried to run you over with two cars and a truck."

"What the Hell are you-" HOOOOOONK HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK The warehouse wall exploded in splinters of wood and bent metal as a fucking garbage truck came piling towards me. Where the Hell do you even get one of those without people finding out? Then again, I was here, so clearly someone found out. I put everything I could into my arms and legs as it came slamming into me, managing to hold it back as its own engine howled like a raging beast.

"You're a fucking lunatic!" I yelled out, barely audible over the metal behemoth prepared to flatten me. In the corner of my eye, I could see him standing up and shrugging.

"Well when you're in the position of going to jail or adding another notch to my belt, I'm gonna pick the one where I stay out of the orange skivvies, kiddo! And while you're busy..." I saw his left arm move towards his shirt, but I couldn't see where it was. After a few seconds he yelled a "Fuckin' Hell! Dropped it, where did-" Gun. He dropped a gun. What else would he have been reaching for? Turning my head, the truck pushing slightly closer to me, I used the new angle to actually check around.

"-it go?" A glint in my eye. Pistol. Big ugly one, just laying on the concrete. No time to leap for it. If that truck kept going past me, out the other wall, it could run over people. Had to try something else. I let it gain another inch on me as I quickly repositioned one hand palm up on the grill, putting more force in. Started getting tinnitus from how tensed up I was. Building up muscle in the past couple of weeks has made a small difference, but not enough.

Pushing and pushing, I could feel less vibrations as two of the wheels on the truck went free before KLONG The truck landed, side first, onto the ground and more importantly on top of his pistol. Motor-Runner yelped and recoiled away from his attempt to grab onto it to avoid being crushed. We then stood there. Me panting, him like a deer in headlights.

"... Any chance I could get arrested un-punched?" Part of me wanted to say no, but I considered something. He had henchmen. Hired henchmen. He had access to the Virginia HenchNet. He was a lead. Lunging from my spot, I dug my heels in right in front of him and grabbed him by the collar to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.

"You answer some questions, and I call you in as an arrest without breaking your nose. Deal?"

"You got a wire?" I tilted my head a little.

"Do you think I'm gonna ask anything they don't already know? And do you think you're gonna have an easier time pleading the fifth without your teeth?" He shook his head, sighing.

"Well shit, mate, sounds square to me then, I guess."

"You sound real calm given you're gonna end up in the Firmament."

"Like fuck I am! I've never used me powers on a regular Joe, and I know how much I've stolen and it's only totalled out to three-quarters of a million last month!"

"Sounds like you're a shit business-man."

"I'm bloody efficient, is what I am! Now are you gonna ask your damn questions already?" I sighed, shaking my head.

"Yeah. You smuggle. Does that include drugs?"

"Fuck no! I sell cars, idiot! Guns and mad scientist tech, too, but mostly cars! At best I've got some goons fraudin' pain pills for side cash, but drugs ain't me business." Means nothing for now, could be lying or another branch of whatever hit Richmond.

"What about protection rackets? Having your idiots bust up corner stores for protection money?"

"That's not in the business model at all, mate! I do run a little bit of protection because some people will pay a lot of money to not get their shit boosted, but that's not for stores! You think a guy who runs the fuckin' Quickies has a Lambo? Hell no they don't! And no one's payin' shit for a 1993 Camry!" If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"How much is that 'little bit?'""Probably five to ten percent of me business. Seventy's cars and the rest is what else I've told you."

"Alright. But you've got lackeys. Where do you get them?"

"The fuckin' Virginia henchman group on Facebook! Where the Hell else is there? You think there's a seedy bar or somethin'? Get with the times, you're bleedin' younger than me!"

"Just wanted to confirm. And have you heard anything about protection rackets or drugs on it?" Motor-Runner almost belched out a laugh. It made me catch a whiff of his breath. Stunk of booze and immediately made me start doubting his words.

"Oh you're real juvie on this shit if you think anyone actually puts shit like that online. All we talk about is 'work opportunities,' either askin' for 'em or offerin' 'em. Most of them are just scabs. Find out yourself. Now, are you really wearin' a wire?"

"No. My ear-piece doesn't hear anything if I'm not touching it."

"Right, and I'm only tellin' you this because it ain't gonna get you fuckin' far anyway. Message Bobby 'Big Balls' Bassignon. Tell him you bought tickets to the Nashville Sox game. He'll let you join the group."

"Thank you." The glove on my right hand creaked as my fist clenched. Tiny little bit of strength.

"Hey wait wait you said you wouldn-" WHAM He crumpled to the ground in a heap. Could see he was breathing, so I didn't mind.

"I said I wouldn't break your nose. Nothing about knocking you out." I then tapped my ear-piece.

"You get all that?"

"I got it," came Tancred's voice.

"I just don't get why you decided to add in an interrogation when we just needed a capture. You're lucky Virginia's a one-party consent state."

"Because there was no momentum on the Richmond investigation. You said there was no way into the HenchNet. You've got one now."

"We don't exactly have time for that given we're still trying to deal with the fucking ecoterrorists!"

"The ones who've barely done anything but give all the lumberjacks in town new work?" My gaze cast across the warehouse as I spoke. It was mostly crates and shipping containers that were the intended decor. I just added some decoration with unconscious thugs and one ringleader. And three broken vehicles.

"You're getting complacent. And we don't really have time to be chatting over comms about this, I've also got a monitor on Flowstate talking a guy off a roof ledge. I sent the alert to the police, let them pick those idiots up. We'll debate this later."

"Fine." Silence on the comms line after that. I waited, until the police finally arrived. As they took to collecting all of the goons. Motor-Runner had woken up, though with the taser placed against his neck he seemed content to not weaponize any patrol vehicles. Instead, he opted to rant about how he was "Getting out of this shithole the second he got bail." Guess he didn't need the fifth amendment anyway.

After returning to the base, Tancred was there, and he led me up to the meeting room for an obvious discussion. For whichever reason, I was compelled to small-talk.

"Why don't you have an office?"

"Huh?"

"Been here for over a month now and I haven't seen any sign you have an office." Sam mentioned he had one, but I genuinely couldn't find it in my own navigations.

"I have an office in admin. I'm in it maybe two hours out of the week because I'm too busy chasing headless chickens like your stupid ass everywhere to sit down in it. And I paid eight hundred goddamn dollars for the best HVAC out of anywhere in the building!" Well, that explained that, and put a hard stop on the conversation until we finally made it to the meeting room. In there was him, Christian, and Chief Tancred.

"How'd it go with the ledge guy?" I asked Chris off the bat, hoping to maybe force some kind of positive tone before the Tancreds began trying to kill each other verbally.

"Oh, it went good!" He said, putting on a smile, still in his costume sans his headgear.

"He had a divorce right after getting laid off, so he's been taking things pretty... pretty badly. I managed to convince him to talk to a therapist, though. His sister came and picked him up too, so I don't think he'll be lonely!" Laid off, huh?

"Did he happen to work at a lumber mill?" His eyebrows raised, and both Tancreds shot a look at me.

"... Yeah. How'd you figure that?"

"That Paul Bull-nyan guy,""We're not going with that name," Agent Tancred interjected.

"I actually keep using that after he said it the first time," Chief Tancred added. The two glared at each other. I took a deep breath as I slipped my mask off, sitting it on the table.

"As I was saying. He was talking about buying back a lumber mill with gold in the bank. Remember that?" I glanced to the auditor, and he hummed.

"Oh. Huh. You're right." Chief Tancred spoke up again.

"There's been a few family-owned mills that have been taken with eminent domain. Others are shutting down for legal reasons. We've lost maybe ten in the past year and a half." Resting my hands on my hips, my head tilted a bit.

"And you don't find that even the least bit strange?"

"Well, not entirely. While Virginia's top five in hardwood, Charlottesville is not the home for it. There's some presence in the surrounding Albemarle county, but most of the state's timber industry is down in Brunswick." I knew that name. It was- "South of Richmond," I blurted out.

"But Brunswick's still doing fine in timber. And Richmond isn't adjacent to Brunswick, it's immersed in Henrico." Agent Tancred spoke up.

"Remember that communication issue? The one with Richmond?" The police chief pursed her lips.

"Shit. Do you think...?" I shook my head.

"It's clearly not just Richmond with corruption issues." The auditor then spoke up again.

"Well! Ain't that just a coinky-dink? Suppose it makes it relevant to this conversation. Leo here managed to get some insights on the Virginia HenchNet by questioning that freak Motor-Runner. You two read the transcripts already?" Chris and Wendy nodded, and Chris spoke up.

"Is the Virginia HenchNet even that big?" The police chief nodded.

"Huge. What happens is they get a lot of out-of-state work from people up in Maryland and DC. DC doesn't have a big HenchNet due to the fact it's pretty damn hard to commit organized crime there unless your name's on a winning ballot. So they look past the Potomac. Not a big presence in Charlottesville, as I said, however."

"Until lately," I brought up.

"Yeah. Lines up too damn well with you all making your way onto the scene." She shoots a look at Agent Tancred.

"Hey! I'll have you know grassroots criminality is only alleged-""Abichail," she started.

"We literally were in the same office."

"Yeah but they weren't CIA!" He gestured to us.

"So to them, it's alleged! I'd like for them to not wake up with two bullets in the back of their head." She scoffed.

"Anyways. I swear to God I have nothing to do with it, neither does the Commission. That kind of shit was SAC. You and I were GRS, you know that's not in our handbook."

"No, but the GRS isn't much better."

"Tangent!" The auditor threw his hands up in the air.

"Regardless. We have an in. There's clear HenchNet activity. I wanted to focus on this after the ADU was dealt with, but the ADU is running slow, and based on Leo and I's observations, they might be connected." Wendy crossed her arms.

"And?"

"And I think that means we have the capacity to field an investigation. An undercover one."

"With who?" He gestured to Chris and I.

"Team lead and the analyst."

"I'm the analyst?" I inquired, surprised by the role. Tancred looked back at me.

"On paper you're our heavy operator but I've been noting tactical analyst credentials. There's a reason you got to do a second raid and May didn't."

"Yeah, but she's second in command."

"Meaning she's gonna be handling things while team lead and you are busy playing thug." Chris frowned.

"I don't know if I could really do that, Agent Tank. I don't want to stop criminals by deceiving them. We'd be sinking to their level. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." The auditor sighed.

"They're not gonna let a young woman into hench operations. And Jairo is too visually distinct. You and Leo are the only normal-looking young men. Leo's also been putting on muscle, so he can handle all the thug shit. You just need to be attentive and charismatic. I'll be letting Mr. Dyrdek and Mr. Gabriel know to help you with undercover performances." Chris sighed, dejected. Meanwhile, I could feel my heart pounding. I was able to actually take down the people who killed Darrell.

I could actually solve what put me in this fucking mess.