by Ben Winston
So Greg kept his mouth shut. Two of the officers put their guns away, and roughly grabbed him under his arms and lifted him up. They then threw him, hard, against one of the police cars and very roughly began to frisk him. They cleaned out his pockets, and threw his keys, and cell phone up on the trunk of the car in front of him. When they jerked his arms down and around his back to put cuffs on him, one of the officers slammed him against the car again.
“Where are your little whores, Punk?”
Since the officer had told him to shut up, Greg didn't answer. He got slammed against the cruiser again, this time harder, making him grunt.
“I said, where are the girls at, you little fuck?” the cop asked again, angrily.
“Excuse me, Officer, but you told me to shut up. Will you shoot me if I answer you?”
The officer punched Greg hard in the kidneys with his night-stick, making Greg cry out in pain. “Don't be a fuckin' moron, you sick bastard! Answer me, or I might just have to beat the shit out of you for resisting arrest!”
“In that case, I refuse to answer any more of your questions until my parents and my attorney are present. Until then, I chose to exercise my right to remain silent,” Greg replied. He knew it was coming, but it still hurt none the less.
The cop spun him around, and punched him in the gut, again with the short end of the night-stick. Greg replied by puking on the cops shoes, and falling to his knees. The cop then kicked him in the head, slamming Greg’s head back, into the front fender of the cruiser.
Greg slumped to the ground, but still refused to answer. He turned his head slightly, and spit out the blood from a cut lip. He looked up at the cop just as the snarling man drew back with his night-stick and hit him in the left arm. Greg thought he heard the bone break, and the pain was incredible, making him slightly light headed. But still he didn't speak, at this point, he doubted he could even if he wanted to. Another blow hit him in the head, hard, and the world went away.
In the bunker, the girls, and through the telepresence equipment, Jon and Sharon watched the attack and beating of Greg. Jolene, with tears in her eyes, was physically restraining Mandi. Bella stood and watched with balled up fists and tears of anger and frustration on her face.
“We have to do something! That fucking cop is beating him to death! Look! Greg's not even conscious anymore! Why didn't he fight back?” Bella asked.
Sharon was mad too, but was controlling it better than the girls. “Bella, he didn't fight back because he would have killed that policeman, and any of the others that would have jumped in, one of the other trigger happy assholes would have most likely shot him, and he might not have survived.”
“So, why can't one of us go help him? I hate just standing here and watching this! We don't even know what the hell's going on!” Bella replied, almost yelling.
One of the other policemen stopped his comrade once Greg fell unconscious. It was clear however, that the brutal policeman wanted to continue beating the defenseless Greg. Everyone watched as the police picked up Greg's unconscious body, and stuffed him into a police car. The car pulled away as the rest of the policemen had a discussion in front of the house.
Even as sensitive as the security systems audio equipment was, no one could hear what the men had said to each other. However, they soon broke up, and most left, while one police cruiser remained to watch the house. Since it was still daylight, Bella hoped that some of the neighbors had filmed the senseless beating of their friend.
Jon got the girl's attention. “You three stay put! We're on our way home. Carl is following Jared to the police station with a platoon of Marines. I made sure that the video feed was piped to him as well. Don't worry, we'll get Greg away from those assholes as quickly as possible. But until we know what the hell's going on, stay put! You heard that cop; they're after you as well.”
“Jon, the police network has warrants out for the arrest of Greg, Bella, Jolene, and Mandi. Physical descriptions are included in the system. There is a high probability that the Drellian Rangers will locate this information if it is not removed from the computer system. If they locate the information, this entire area could very well be destroyed. You must hurry,” Abraxis urged.
Bella turned to him. “Abraxis, see what you can do to remove or modify the information. I'm afraid stealth is a lower priority to getting that information removed. If you have to dump the whole computer system, do it! That information cannot be spread to other law enforcement computers.”
Abraxis bowed. “At once, Ranger.”
Jon, now on his speaker phone, asked. “Abraxis, can you tell me what the charges are, and where they originated from?”
“The charges are possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. Possession of a controlled substance in a public educational facility. Possession with the intent to distribute child pornography, trespassing, voyeurism, suspicion of statutory rape with insertion with a child under the age of sixteen. Possession of an illegal firearm, possession of a firearm in a no guns area. Public lewdness, indecent exposure, indecent exposure to a minor child. I should add that all of these charges have been brought by the district attorney, acting on information received from a confidential informant,” Abraxis replied. “The notes indicate there is a considerable amount of evidence.”
“That fucking bastard! I'll have his balls hanging in the bunker for this! I'll...” Bella growled.
“You will do no such thing, Bella!” Sharon said, shocking the young woman. “You leave that little weasel, and his family, to us. You worry about information control. Make damn sure there is nothing that can lead the Drellian team here. Consider this your first mission! Just think about how many people will die if you don't get it done! Mandi?”
“Yeah, Sharon?” the girl asked, she was still mad, but it seemed to be under control for the time being.
“Do you remember when your father caught you hacking into the utility companies and 'fixing' our bills?” Sharon asked.
“Yeah, you told me you appreciated it, but it was cheating and you made me promise not to do anymore hacking,” Mandi replied.
“Consider that promise negated. I don't want you to actually do anything, but I want you to find as much dirt on those assholes as you can, understood?” Sharon said.
Mandi's eyes glinted with evil intent as she understood what her mother had asked of her. “Consider it done, Mom. It'll give me something to do to get my mind off of all this shit.”
“Like I said, Squirt. Don't actually do anything to any of them. This is recon only, got it?”
“I understand. After all, if there are child porn images involved, they had to get them from somewhere didn't they?” Mandi said.
“Can I add something?” Bella asked.
“Sure,” Sharon said. “As long as it isn't an attack.”
“It's not, at least, not yet. There has always been a rumor that the Tannis family has control of all the stuff that goes on in this area, a lot of it they get away with because of bribes, kick-backs and favors. If we could dig up enough information on them, maybe we could put a few of them away,” Bella suggested.
“I think we should make sure the Tannis family is behind this, first,” Sharon said. “But I do agree, the information could be useful in the future.
“I bet I know where they got the porn from,” Jolene said, looking at Bella.
“Curious George!” Bella said, smacking her forehead. “Of course!”
“You lost me there girls, and hurry up, I'm almost at the police station,” Sharon said.
“A few years back, the school hired a man with Down Syndrome as a Janitor. He got the name 'Curious George' because he was always asking questions about things. However, he would only ever ask the boys. He was terrified of girls, apparently we scared the crap out of him,” Bella said.
Jolene picked up the narrative. “One day, someone found a small video camera in the girls locker room. When the school and police investigated, they couldn't find any proof as
to who put it there, so they blamed George. He was fired, and there was this big write-up about it in the newspaper and he was branded a pervert. However, he was never actually convicted; to this day, there still is no proof that George put it in there.”
“But he was terrified of girls, why would he want to film them? That just doesn't make sense,” Sharon replied.
“Exactly. Why would a man that was, for all intents and purposes, emotionally equivalent to a seven year old, want to sneak dirty pictures of girls? How could he do it in such a way that even the police couldn't prove it was him?” Bella asked. “He was framed. The most popular theory is that the boy's Phys-Ed teacher really did it, but again there is no proof.”
“Guys? Look, Jolly's folks are home,” Mandi pointed to one of the monitors.
“Okay, I'm at the cop-shop. Stay put until either Ned or Carla comes to get you. If the cop sees you, he'll most likely arrest all of you,” Sharon said. “Take care girls, and we'll get this dealt with as soon as we can.” Not waiting for an answer, she hung up.
Blane Residence
Shermandale, Utah
North American Continent
Earth, Sol System
Ned had barely gotten out of the car before the police officer got to him. Like he had always done, Ned walked around the car to open the door for Carla.
“Sir, I have a warrant for the arrest of your daughter, Ms Jolene Blane. Do you know where she is?” The officer said, not even bothering to introduce himself.
Ned looked at the young man. “Excuse me, you are?”
The man looked a little annoyed. “Deputy Sheriff Jerome Tannis. Sir, it is a felony to obstruct or aide a known fugitive, so I'll ask you again, where is your daughter?”
“Deputy,” Carla said as she stood up. “At the present moment, your idea is as good as ours. We stopped keeping tabs on her a long time ago... shortly after she made the honor roll at school. We haven't had the chance to obstruct anything, and she has yet to be convicted of a crime, so she is not a fugitive either. I'm very sorry we cannot help you, but we will not allow you to intimidate us either.”
Before the officer could reply, Ned spoke again. “I'm certain we know nothing of any investigation currently being conducted. So, I ask you what she is currently being investigated for.”
“Are you aware that your daughter is an admitted sexual deviant? She was seen holding hands, as well as kissing a minor child. That is called Statutory Rape. Evidence has also been discovered implicating her in the possession and distribution of a controlled substance, and a few other sick crimes. I will accompany you into the house to see if she is hiding in there. If she is, I will arrest the both of you for harboring a fugitive, and we can sort all this out down at the station,” the deputy said, getting mad.
“May I see your search warrant?” Ned asked.
“I'm attempting to serve an arrest warrant, I don't need one.”
“Excuse me officer, but this is still the United States of America. Unless I missed the revocation of more of our civil rights, you will wait out here, while we check our home for our daughter. Now that we know she is wanted for questioning by the police, we will certainly bring her down to the station if she is in there. Until then, please be so kind as to get off our property,” Ned replied in a no-nonsense voice.
“That's it, I'm placing you both under arrest for interfering with a police office while attempting to serve a warrant. Turn around and place you hands on the car,” the deputy ordered.
“Do you really want to be the one that bankrupts our town?” Ned replied. “If you put those cuffs on me, I will not only sue you, and the department, but the city and county as well. Just in case you are unaware of them, there are several cameras positioned around my property. They are equipped with high definition audio pick-ups.”
The Deputy snorted. “It's not admissible since I don't see a sign, and you failed to inform me that I was being recorded!”
“You know, for a policeman, you don't know very much about the law, do you? Besides, you're wrong about the sign. It's attached to the fence, next to the gate that has been destroyed. There's another one by the front door. The system is monitored around the clock by the security at StealthCon because I'm a department head.
“So, Deputy Tannis, I suggest you remove yourself from our property before security arrives to haul you away to the Brig.” Ned replied.
The man stood there thinking. He was clearly pissed off about his loss of authority in this situation. However, there was no way he was going to sit in a cell surrounded by Marines until the Sheriff got around to getting him out.
“Fine, but I will wait in my car, right there. If I see her, I will arrest her immediately! Do you understand?”
“As long as she isn't on our property, and we are not taking her to the station ourselves, yes we understand. If you attempt anything other than that, we will file suit against you in Federal court for harassment of a government employee, and his daughter.”
Deputy Strom narrowed his eyes at the man. “Why do you need such a sophisticated surveillance system, anyway?”
“I'm afraid, Deputy, that you do not have the clearance for me to answer that question. You can apply for a clearance at the StealthCon offices here in town if you wish.” Ned replied. He walked away from the officer then, effectively ending any further question by the moron.
He closed and locked the door, and was heading for the back yard when His wife, Elizabeth stopped him. “Wait, Ned. We have no way of knowing if they are watching the backyard. If we head out there now, we'll lead them right to the girls.”
Ned sighed. “You're right of course. Have you talked to her on the intercom?”
“Yeah, they had to sit and watch Greg almost beat to death by those police. He even surrendered with out a fight. Mandi's working on something for her mother, and Jolene and Izzy are helping Abraxis with information control,”
“So, how do we get food out to them?” Ned asked.
“We won't need to for a couple of days. We just restocked the bunker, and the cistern is full. The girls are okay, just really pissed off. Rescuing Greg for them is going to be up to us.”
Ned agreed and led her into his den. Once there he turned the television on, to see if any of this had made it into the news yet. As far as he could tell, nothing was being said about it, yet. Leaving the big screen on, he dialed Jon's cell number.
Shale County Law Enforcement Center
Shermandale, Utah
North American Continent
Earth, Sol System
The first person to arrive at the police station was a very pissed off Jared. He walked up to the sergeant's desk and rang the bell. He waited a minute, then rang the bell again. When that still didn't get anyone's attention, be got as close to the microphone built into the bullet proof glass as he could and yelled.
“You lazy, coffee-swilling, bastards have about thirty seconds to get your fat, donut-eating, asses out here before I decide to call the local FBI office to investigate the rampant corruption in this department!”
“Just who the fuck do you think you are, asshole?” a fat sergeant looked up from his desk.
Jared smiled without warmth at the big-mouth. He had a huge mug of coffee and a carton of donuts sitting on his desk. “I'm the father of the boy one of your dumb fucking officers just about beat to death for no reason! I'm also Special Investigator Jared Adams of the DOD. So get off your fat ass and let me in to see my son! NOW!"
“Cool yer jets Roger-Ramjet! I'll get to you when I get to you! Now, shut the fuck-up, and take a seat!” the fat cop said.
Jared stepped to the side, reached up and unplugged the security camera. Then took out a paper clip, straightened it out, and shorted out the contacts holding the door closed. He was across the room, and had the fat sergeant on the floor before he could even flinch.
“Would you prefer to spend your retirement with your grand-kids, or have them enjoy your life insurance?” Jared asked.
&n
bsp; “W-what d.do you want?” Sergeant Tibbits asked.
“I only want to know what hospital they took my son to. I called the local one, and he isn't there,” Jarad asked.
“He's in a holding cell... In-in back,” Tibbits said fearfully. He knew that the boy was in bad shape, and probably should have been taken to the hospital, but...
“Really? Why wasn't he taken in and treated after the beating he took?” Jared asked getting more pissed.
“That would have gone on Henry's record. One more brutality charge and he gets fired,” Tibbits replied. “So he put the boy in holding.”
“I'm going to go in back now, and take my son to the hospital. Very shortly, General Carl Hollister will arrive with a full platoon of Marines. I would say that you idiots have fucked-up for the last time.”
“But, we only acted on the evidence given to us! We can't ignore something like that!” Tibbits said.
“No, that much we can agree on. You also don't know my son, or you would have laughed at it. I'm not pissed because of that. I'm pissed because when your officers arrested my son, he happened to be on the phone with me.
“I heard and recorded the entire thing, including my son getting beat because he was doing what they told him to do. He did not resist in anyway. Hell, he didn't even try to fight back or defend himself while your officers stood around and watched this 'Henry' person beat him into unconsciousness. That's why I'm pissed. It's your fucking job to protect him! Even if he is a suspect, he is still under your protection. Get it?” Jared said.
He dropped the fat fucker, and pointed to a door. “Is that the way I need to go?”
Tibbits just nodded.
Jared tried the door and found it locked. Instead of picking the lock, he returned to Tibbits’ desk and pressed the hidden button, unlocking the door.
He walked back into a room full of desks. In one corner was the holding cell with Greg in it, lying on a cot. Several officers were in the room, and when Jared began making his way toward the cell, one of them stood up.