Arsenal: Legend Watcher #5

[spiritofvengeance]

Arsenal: Legend Watcher #5
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Guest starring the D.E.O...

Written By: Jim Crawbuck
Edited By: Mike Bowen

The air was stale and smelt of day-old cigarette residue. An old light bulb suspended by a dangling socket poorly illuminated its walls. The walls were damp and colored a grayish green. At the opposite side of an old wooden table sat a wide shouldered, thick man. His mood was somber. He obviously feels his punishment is just and needs to pay for his crimes.

“What’s with all the interest in this boy? He’s done nothing wrong”.

“I never said he did”, answers Roy.

“Then why the second set of investigators?”

“Second”? Roy and Chloe simultaneously inquire.

“Yeah, the man and woman team. They were here about two days ago”.

“Damn, a two-day jump. Tell him we want to protect the boy from people who might want to harm him”, suggests Chloe. Playing the part of Roy’s nagging wife: Chloe Sullivan.

“We have reason to believe there are organizations looking to harm this boy. We’re looking to keep him safe. That’s why it’s important we find him first”, reiterates Roy.

The sheriff laughs.

“That’s what they said. Same with the tall dark fella with the pointy eared mask who broke into my cell that same night” says the sheriff after he catches his breath.

“Pointy eared mask?” Chloe gasps in shock. That’s similar to the rumors buzzing around Gotham. The Batman. Roy has confirmed his existence. What would he be doing here?

“I’m going to tell you the same thing I told them. Nothing. I’m not causing anymore trouble for that kid. I accept I have to grow old and die in this overgrown outhouse but I don’t have to relive that awful night ever again. Not for you. Not for them”.

“You said you ‘Don’t want anymore trouble for the boy’ aren’t you scared for him? All these people after him?” Roy asks not missing a beat. The Bat? Well if the Bat has visited this guy then I’m definitely barking up the proper tree.

“Good angle Roy”, cheers Chloe.

“No. I said ‘I don’t want to cause trouble for him’. If he’s fated for trouble so be it. I’m just not going to cause it” says the sheriff.

“What if it’s your silence that leads to trouble for the boy? Wouldn’t that eat at your conscience?” Roy continues to interrogate.

The sheriff laughs again.

“No one’s going to harm that boy” insist the sheriff.

“How can you be so sure? Does this have something to do with the town attacking and murdering his dad and brother?” Roy prods further.

“You are full of surprises. You read the case file”, Chloe says with sarcastic undertones.

“You know about the lynch mob?”

“Lynch mob? Interesting?” Chloe repeats more for herself.

“I just don’t understand. Why go after William Glass?” Roy follows up.

“I wasn’t there”, reminds the sheriff.

“You got there with the fire department, right?”

“I was one of last to make it there. George was already reunited with his mother. Both William Sr. and Jr. were already dead along with twenty-two other residents. Most of them were completely incinerated”.

The sheriff looks down, grabs his brow with one hand and gently rubs his temples.

“What did William do?” Roy asks.

“It wasn’t either William they wanted. William Sr. was an astronaut whose team made several space trips. This town celebrated him like a hero.

“William Jr. couldn’t be more then thirteen. He was starting to get in some trouble at school but not enough to inspire a lynching party”.

The sheriff’s volume drops. He never looks up at Roy. He is staring at his feet, massaging his temple.

“Virginia! It was Virginia they were after!” cries Chloe in a rush of excitement.

Great. Backseat driver is literally in my ear.

Roy grimaces, tilts his head and covers his ear. He covers his receiver in such a way it creates feedback. He pretends the sheriff’s response upset him.

“So you do have some idea. George or Virginia? Who were they after?” Roy insists

Chloe jumps from the high-pitched squeal she gets in her ear.

“Okay Harper, you’re loud and clear. Sorry. That was my bad,” she apologizes.

“They’re all dead. I never got to ask,” the sheriff remains somber.

“I think you know. I think you sent them to take out Virginia. When they failed you waited eight years and went and did it yourself,” Roy slams his hand on the table and gets in the big man’s face.

“That’s not it at all, you snot nosed punk!” screams the sheriff.

Roy ignoring him continues. “Your wife walks in on it and you kill her, right? No witnesses. Sheriff Easton, you’re a disgrace”.

The sheriff reaches for Roy but is instantly jerked back into his chair. The clang of the chains echoes through the room filling the moment of silence that would’ve followed the sheriff’s emotional reaction. It seems both Roy and former Sheriff John Easton forgot that his legs and arms are chained to the floor.

“I loved my wife, and Virginia was my friend. I am everything I wanted to fight against when I was elected sheriff. I am a disgrace”. A tear runs from John’s face but the man still refuses to weep.

“So help me John. Finish on the same side you started,” Roy pleads.

“Virginia and I worked together for a long time,” the sheriff starts.

His glassy eyes seem empty. His gaze begins to wander. He speaks to Roy, being only an arms length away, but Roy knows that they are miles apart.

“I rode her coat tails to the top. We could find nearly anything or anyone. She was a psychic. She was so accurate that it became hard to hide that I was getting help. As word of her spread people wanted her to help them directly. Her percentage was still unworldly but it wasn’t one hundred. The more that people got bad news, the more prejudice against ‘her kind’ grew. That night it came to a head”.

“She wasn’t there so they burnt down the house with themselves in it?”

“No one knows what happened. The townspeople feared her even more after that. The rumor is she burnt them all with her black magic and resurrected her youngest son to do her bidding”.
“Because the boy lived?”

“Let’s not pretend they didn’t have any reason.

“The woman read minds, saw the future, and past events that she didn’t witness. She wasn’t your average street corner palm reader.

“The boy walked out through the flames. That fire killed twenty-five people. Nineteen of them were completely incinerated. Nothing left. That’s how hot it was burning. He just wandered out.

“Not to mention the fact that there’s no good reason that the fire ever even started. Unless you think them all spontaneously combusting at the same time is a more plausible theory.

“It was an illogical solution to an illogical string of events”.

Roy shakes his head, no. Then he lifts both hands towards the sheriff requesting he stop. He points at him looking for clarification.

“Hold on. You saw the boy walk out of the fire?”

“No. The fireman who brought him to his mother did. So did some of the other men in that truck”.

“You don’t find that a little hard to swallow”.

“I didn’t believe for years. I didn’t believe them until the night I got arrested…”

****

[spiritofvengeance]

FLASHBACK
“Out of the way boy” demands the sheriff.

George just stares him down over the barrel of his revolver.

The sheriff was in a panic; beads of sweat peppered his brow. His normally steady gun hand was quivering in both anger and fear. He doesn’t give warning, just fires off a round at George.

George takes a step backward to keep his balance.

“Call the police, Lilly” orders George, “I won’t let him hurt you”.

Lilly, the sheriff’s daughter, is crying huddled in the corner. She rocks herself trying to soothe her hysteria. She mumbles an incoherent prayer hoping this nightmare ends.

The sheriff unloads the rest of his clip into George. George takes a step backward with each impact and when the clip runs out he regains his ground.

“You killed my mother” sneers George. “Your town killed my family”.

The sheriff throws his gun at him. George catches it.

“The police are on the way. You are through” warns the disgruntled teenager.

“Go to hell, Demon Boy” screams the sheriff as he runs out the door.

George places himself in the doorway and watches the sheriff run to his car. The sheriff grabs the shotgun from the floor of the front seat.

Click. Click. BANG! George goes flying backward into the house. He tries to get to his feet. Click. Click. BANG! Down he goes again.

“Now you are really pissing me off!” yells George as he jumps up from the floor.

“Just die, you freak!” cries the sheriff as he desperately tries to reload.

George charges the much larger man and grabs the front of the shotgun.

The sheriff drops his ammo all over the ground.

George tries to wrestle the gun from him to no avail. He is quickly overpowered.
The sheriff cracks George on the head with the butt end of the gun.

George grabs the gun again after it makes contact with his head.

The sheriff whips George off his feet but fails to break his grasp.

George, still hanging on to an end of the gun, gets lifted and thrown through the police cars front windshield.

Then the sheriff starts making his way to the house but stops when he hears his car door open.

He turns too late to face George. George is already swinging his tire iron into the sheriff’s gut knocking the wind out of the big man.

Siren screams fill the air.

“You were once a good man,” screams George as he drops the iron.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

The sheriff is staring into Roy’s eyes. His voice quivers with shame.

“It’s not the tire iron that stopped me. It was what he said when he dropped it.
“‘The memory of a woman you killed. My mother saved your life. Live you bastard. Live with that!’

“This conversation is over Agent. That’s all I know. Guard!”

“Let him go for now Roy. We can always come back if we need to. I’ve got some stuff to look into and you have plans. I’ll call you with the new objective as soon as I’m done digging,” Chloe rattles off eager to start her research. “Chloe out”.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

Chloe slides into position at her desk computer. She starts feverishly typing, surfing and printing. She’s moving so fast even Johnny Quick would stop to take notice.

Firehouse give me: Westfield

Chloe starts organizing the papers she’s printing into files. She’s completely possessed by her enthusiasm. She starts collating like a machine.

Hell we got all these able bodies in-house maybe we can make up those two days.

Sheriff’s department: Bloomstien.

Cause of fire: Ziata.

I’ll look into this possible Gotham connection.

She grabs her three newly made files and hurries out of her office.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

Downstairs in the room Roy refers to as the pig-pen the six other agents are intently focused on their tasks.

Each separated by a cubicle, most seem devoted to their own 3’ by 3’ world they’ve created for themselves. One sound echoes through the room. The sound of an over exaggerated slurp from a coffee mug. This sound is followed up by a hardy “Ah!” The emotion of the room quickly turns tense. Each one of the agents tries to pretend as if they heard nothing.

Al rises from his cubicle. He slowly meanders around the room peering over each wall.

The heads of his co-workers gradually sink to an uncomfortable low, all of them sharing this thought: If I don’t make eye contact, Al will return to his seat.
But that’s not always the case.

Al finds an empty seat next to Agent Mike Westfield.

“Did you know that avocados won’t ripen if they are still on the vine?” Al asks sprawled out on the once vacant seat. He is armed with a full cup of coffee.

Mike slaps his hands to his face. He takes a deep breath and turns to face Al.

“No. No I didn’t,” sighs Mike.

There is a slight giggle from Dustin’s cubical. A small laugh born from a hint of glee he received from not being the one Al stopped at. Partly from trying to hide his curious smile from wondering ill relevant, boring conversation he will attempt to bring up.

“That’s funny, Dustin?” asks Al turning his attention for a moment.

“No. It’s…. Where did you learn that?” Dustin asks in an attempt to deflect Al’s inquiry.

“I watch ‘Good Eats’ on the Food Network every night” boasts Al.

“Oh, you like to cook,” says Dustin.

“No,” says the portly built agent, stretching his answer for an unreasonable amount of time.

“Then why watch?” asks Westfield.

“I eat” answers Al seriously.

Kevin, Dustin and Mike all laugh.

“How else will I be able to tell my wife what to make?” says Al confidently fronting. Then he gives a deep confident laugh.

The other agents laugh with him. They’ve seen and heard him with his wife before and know she wears the pants in their relationship.

“My wife would kill me just for thinking something like that out loud. Yours has no problem with that archaic way of thinking?” asks Ira looking to expose Al’s obvious lie.

“The man’s still the man” answers Al in continuing his front.

All the agents laugh again.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

Chloe bursts in the door. Her excitement is radiating off of her smile. She is a naturally contagious optimist. She has a youthful exuberance and a curiosity that’s infectious. Everyone in the room focuses their attention on their boss, not because they have to, but because they are drawn to it. Her smile is a genuine enthusiasm that forces her eyes into two small crescent moons. She hands out her files.

“I need to catch up to a rival investigation that’s got a two day jump on us. What do we say team? I think we can make this happen. Agent Westfield, I need to find the location and name of the man who brought a young George Glass to his mother the night his brother and father died”.

“Sure thing, Captain. That’s what I do best,” complies Mike.

“Bloomstien, I need to know the status of the arresting officer in the John Easton case. Any names pop up of who was with him, I want them too” Chloe says handing out assignments like they are prizes.

“On it”, replies Ira.

“Agent Ziata, I got a hard one for you. I need to know anything you can find out about the fire that destroyed the Glass’s house”.

“No prob”, answers Al.

“Everyone else stay on whatever you were working on”.

Vinny slides his seat right back into his cubical and dials the phone.
The three newly assigned agents hit their computers.
Chloe leaves.

Kevin makes his way to the door.

“Kev, if you’re leaving can you pick me up some coffee?” asks Dustin.

“Sure, kid” says Kevin.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

In a Lex Corp building, Mr. Illard is playing with his thinning black hair in the mirror.

“Go ahead. I got you on speaker”.

“I’m with him right now” says the voice from the speakerphone.

“Excellent. We hit a little delay. I have Thomas here getting equipment. It seems that we can now confirm that the targets are Meta. How long can you detain the agent?”

“Definitely for the rest of the night. I believe I might be able keep him occupied for the better part of tomorrow”.

“Good, good, good. I like the way you operate Kelly. Keep it up, my pretty”.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

At the hotel where Roy Harper is staying, Candi walks out of the ladies room with her cell phone on her ear. She peeks her head into the restaurant area and sees Roy sitting in the distance. She blows him a kiss. He pretends to catch it.

“Will do sir. I’ll make you proud” she says into the phone and hangs up.

Roy is watching her approach. His phone vibrates in his pocket. He checks the phone under the table, the name attached to the caller is Chloe. He mutes the ring and places the phone on the table.

Next time that phone rings Roy, your time is up. I don’t care what this broad looks like. That phone is her hourglass.

Candi sits at the table across from Roy. As she sits the waiter hurries over.

“Dessert?” the waiter asks.

Roy looks to Candi for an answer.

“I was thinking some privacy, some small talk, maybe a bottle of wine” she says gazing lustfully into Roy’s eyes.

“Check” calls Roy.

The waiter hands him a booklet holding the check. As Roy reaches to his wallet, Candi walks her hand across the table over to Roy’s arm. When her fingers pass the phone she turns it off. Roy is too preoccupied with the waiter to notice. She caresses Roy’s arm while he pays the bill. He gently takes Candi’s hand after he settles the bill. He leads her around the table to his side then he extends his elbow to her. She giggles and they interlock arms. Roy lovingly pats her hand and escorts her to the elevator.

Harper you’ve done it again.

Chloe is frantically pacing in her office. She hangs up her phone and knocks on her desk.

Damn it, Harper. Why do you tie my hands like this? I have no choice. I can’t wait around while you play Romeo.

Chloe presses her intercom.

“Duke?”

“Yes Chloe” he answers.

“I need Agents Calvi and Draper”.

“ASAP?”

“Faster”.

“You got it”.

Chloe gathers the information she needs to redistribute.

How does he turn off his phone? Come on Roy. Dumb, just plain dumb. Three unanswered phone calls is my limit. I think that’s more than fair.

Within minutes Vinny and Kevin enter the office.

“Don’t get comfortable boys. Here’s a case file for each of you. Study them during your ride there. Your first objective is interviewing Leo Fink, arresting officer. Agent Westfield found him despite his name change. You’ll be updated on the fly. You are to update me in the same fashion”.

“What about Harper?” Kevin asks.

“If you bump into him tell him he’s off the case. If not he’s not on your priority list. Don’t, I repeat don’t, waste time looking for him. Am I clear?”

“Crystal” ensures Vinny.

To be continued...