The Blood Eagle in the Big Easy

by K. A. Lange

  Her tone caught me by surprise as it was raw and gravelly. “I take it you were snooping again and watching things you shouldn’t.” I strode past her into my office and she quickly followed me in.

  She rolled her eyes as she gave me one of those big ‘eat shit and die’ smiles. “If by snooping and watching things I shouldn’t you actually mean doing my fucking job by watching your back and trying to minimize the damage you do? Then, yes I was snooping and watching stuff I shouldn’t!”

  “I didn’t give you access to the courts video surveillance system so you could spy on private meetings.” I retorted, stepping around my desk and pulling the chair out to sit.

  She stopped suddenly and stomped her heel of one of her overly priced stilettos in frustration into my nice hardwood floor as she spoke. Damn that was sure to leave a divot.

  “Since I installed that system you hardly ‘gave me’ access!” She placed one hand on her hip while pointing the other accusingly. “I was simply trying to save time by having the Delta team receive the briefing along with the courts.”

  God bless it! How the hell can she be so damn practical when it comes to business and need so much help in the rest of her life? “How did that work out for them?” Its really hard to sound indignant when the other person is making so much damn sense.

  “They got what they needed.” Turning she closed the door before giving me her full attention once more. “They were wise enough to vacate the room when things got personal.” No matter how hard she tried she wasn’t able to keep the mirth out of her voice. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “You act like it was my fault.” Throwing my hands up in disgust. She knew that there was bad blood between me and Leonard for as long as we had known each other. “Don’t you have something better to do than sit here and lecture me about things you don’t understand?” She hated the guy too, so I was at a loss as to why we were still discussing the matter.

  “Oh, like I don’t understand that you feel the need to randomly piss off the Gatekeeper as often as possible.” Turning loose of the paperwork she sat down and slid it across the desk too me pointing at it. “For the life of me, I don’t know how you think you can fix this!” Taking the opportunity to distract myself as she ranted I grabbed the file and opened it. “You may have pushed things too far and Comus will have little choice but to throw you out on your ass!” All the mirth and joy left her as she spoke. “As you can see Leonard is doing his best to tie up the court’s resources with useless and time consuming jobs outside the city limits.”

  To be honest not a bad plan on his behalf I thought as I shrugged and said “It wasn’t as if I actually expected them to fall in line and help in the matter.” Waving off the situation dismissively as I slid the file across the desk. “I was reporting to them out of duty, not out of respect or need.”

  “There is that, and the fact you couldn’t help yourself by insulting the Gatekeeper.” She sighed and she looked worried. “You may not need the courts protection but others do.” She looked at me with genuine concern in her eyes. “What will happen to them if Comus finds them guilty of assisting you?”

  That made me feel like a complete asshat. “I admit the fact that I do relish the opportunity to insult the little shit.” I looked up at her reassuringly. “I doubt Comus would side with Leonard.” I closed my eyes and leaned back in my chair as I thought about the situation. If I had to guess a decision would have to be made concerning Leonard when Comus arrived on King’s day.

  She sat back in her chair satisfied she’d made her point. “I have word from Rex, Zulu and the Muses that they want to meet with you as soon they are able to tear themselves away from Leonard’s riveting lectures about how things will proceed from here on out.” She rolled her eyes in disgust, loathing the man perhaps even more than I. “He is very intent on having Comus formally remove you from the courts.” She leaned forward as she lost herself in thought. “And having you put in chains afterward or exiled from the city at the very least.” She shook her head as she smiled sweetly at me. “You should count yourself lucky that Comus only shows up once a year, or he might throw you out just to shut Leonard up!”

  Her phone chirped alerting her to a new message and saving me from more of her lecture. As she read it she lit up like the cat who ate the canary. Pushing herself out of her chair she moved toward the door. “One last thing, Rex has sent word that there has been some unusual inquiries about a certain Francisco Galvez M.D.”

  My curiosity peaked as I completely forgot about Leonard and the MCC. “Do we have anything else on the man?” I honestly hadn’t expected for anyone to have a lead for me this fast.

  “We will know more shortly. I’ll let you know when something pops.” She shrugged once more and as an afterthought looked back. “In the future when you plan on pissing off the Gatekeeper please give me a heads up so I don’t have to scramble.”

  Chuckling at the comment I gave her a quick thumbs up. It isn’t as if I go in there with a plan to piss the guy off. “I am sure that my continued existence is a thorn in his side. So rest assured, for future reference if he see’s that I still draw breath he is going to be pissed off!”

  She rolled her eyes as she flipped me the bird. “God, I know how the man feels on a daily basis.” She shut the door before I had a chance to say something else annoying, or as I see it, funny and incredibly witty. I sat down at the desk and started reviewing the twenty year old notes of the previous encounter. About five minutes later my door opened and without lifting my gaze from my tablet I reminded her, “And you think I’m funny and incredibly handsome too.”

  That actually got a smile out of her. “In your dreams, but back here in reality we have some information on Dr. Galvez.”

  That shut me up as I quickly looked up from my reading. “Tell me! From the tone of your voice it would appear you have something interesting for me.”

  She glanced at her tablet as she spoke. “I just sent you the file. Mr. Galvez is a native of Puerto Rico who moved to the states in the early seventies. After arriving he attended medical school at Tulane here in New Orleans.” She walked around and took her seat once more before continuing. “He specializes in geriatric psychiatric care and this is truly an odd combination, renal failure.” She looked up at me as if she were expecting me to say something. Seeing no reaction from me she continued. “Dr. Galvez owns a facility on the Lakefront out in the East on Hayne Blvd. The place has a clean track record according to the state inspections.”

  My hopes were quickly being dashed with each word she spoke. “I don’t see anything special about that in the least. I think you might be losing your touch...” She rolled her eyes and cut me off before I had a chance to finish a zinger I had been waiting to use for weeks.

  She pointed at her tablet. “If you were reading the file that I sent to you a couple of minutes ago you would have already found the coup de gras!” But since you are waiting for me to spoon feed you I guess I should continue.” I bowed at her magnanimous gesture and waved for her to continue. “You should note I never said he always practiced here in the city. In the early 80’s he had a satellite office in Maine which didn’t close down until 1993.”

  That caught my attention, hitting me like a ton of bricks. This man was possibly one of the five cult members that got away. The scumbag always had ties to the very city I lived in and I never caught wind of it. Maybe I was the one losing my touch. “Kira can you pull all the records for both the city in Maine and New Orleans to see if we have any other people in common? You may have found the common thread that has always eluded us till now.”

  Kira beamed at my praise. “It is already underway. It will take a bit longer than normal since the records in Maine may be hard to acquire. It would seem that someone burned most of the city to the ground. For the life of me I don’t have a clue who that could have been. You wouldn’t happen to have any ideas, do you?”

  I squirmed uncomfortably as I thought about the possibility of lo
sing our best lead due to something I did twenty years ago. “Those were trying times. I admit that I might have gotten a little carried away in my haste to eliminate the enemy.”

  She was clearly enjoying my discomfort as she chuckled at how I was trying to downplay my zealous pursuit of the enemy. “ You think?” She held her side as she laughed. “You? You would never get carried away in your haste to it eliminate the enemy.”

  As much as I hated to admit it she had a point. “What are you trying to say?”

  “I dunno?” She giggled. “You’re trigger happy? Perhaps even a bit of a firebug at times.” She was nearly in tears at this point. “You make the term shoot first and ask questions later feel inadequate on a good day.”

  I waved her off. “Like you have any room to talk.”

  She smirked. “Where do you think I learned it?” As she pointed at me.

  “Fine I surrender.” Throwing my hands up I conceded her point. “Just find something we can use and all kidding aside thanks, you did a great job.”

  Something in my voice must have alerted Kira as she looked at me for a moment, her expression turning somber. “Are you feeling alright?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping. The dream is back but this time there are more details in it.”

  Kira leaned forward in her seat, as her full of pain and worry. “Like what?”

  “There’s fire and smoke and I swear I think I hear someone calling to me.” The words left me as a mere whisper and I wasn’t about to tell her what I heard.

  Her forehead furrowed slightly as she spoke softly. “You don’t think it’s the “other thing” do you?”

  Leaning against my forearms I drew strength from feeling something solid underneath me. “Nah that hasn’t changed. That’s just an open frequency with a repeating signal of some sort every two weeks.”

  “At least it’s consistent I suppose. You will let me know if anything changes right?” Kira inquired.

  Holding up three fingers on my right hand like one of those scouts I gave her my most serious look. “I promise.”

  Let me explain. About a year ago I started hearing something strange that no one else could hear. I couldn't figure out what it was on my own so I had my firm's staff doctor run an MRI. I am not exactly partial to lending my body to the local medical facilities for several reasons, privacy being among them. Since the staff doctor is also my assistant Kira, I was fairly secure in the fact that whatever was going on wouldn’t be leaked. What she found was a tiny gemstone no larger than the head of a pin embedded deep in my ear canal.

  Without being too intrusive she was able to discern the stones composition. We both recognized it as a miniscule version of a gem I kept safely tucked away at home. After calibrating the machine to a more sensitive level to perform a full body scan and several hours later we had our results. There were hundreds of millions of microscopic crystalline stones throughout my entire body. They coalesced and pulsated throughout my entire being as if they were alive, and we theorized that something must have recently activated the crystals higher functions triggering new abilities in me. Without too much effort we determined that they were the source of my shields and possibly much more. Since their activation I have been able to tap into data streams, access and control computers or even cell phones after touching them once. It was as if I was suddenly hardwired into the internet. Most of the time I now used tablets or phones merely for show or habit since I more or less absorbed the knowledge I needed.

  Due to the information overload that I received the first two weeks nearly killed me and now Kira and I were wary of how this would affect me long term. There was also something more worrisome that I had kept to myself. There was old information stored inside of me, information I felt I should recognize but when I tried to access it, it slipped out of reach of my minds eye. The one thing I had told her about and regretted almost immediately was the fact that there was some sort of open frequency with a repeating pattern transmitting every few weeks, like some sort of SOS.

  Lately the large crystal I had hidden away at home glowed every time I went near the thing. I don’t actually know what it is. I found the crystal in my jacket pocket all those years ago while hiding in a cave, trying to stay warm and survive, while attempting to remember who I was. After Kira discovered crystals, I retrieved the items that I’d possessed when I first woke, including the large crystal from my secured research facilities. The sudden urge to find from whence I’d came was upon me. Again I thought maybe these trinkets of my past might hold the key to the knowledge I sought.

  Nearly all of the advanced technology used by my firm had been reversed engineered from these items. Some of them were so advanced that not even the most brilliant of today’s scientists could comprehend their inner workings. Several of my applied science divisions worked around the clock trying to unlock their secrets. For now they would have to be happy with the detailed scans and notes until I could find out the truth of the matter. There were two things they agreed on. First the technology was based off of some type of crystalyn fractal mathematics which allowed the items to hold untold power on a scale unheard of by today’s standard. Secondly the earth’s collective knowledge could fit in one of the smallest of the crystals they discovered. They promised me that one day they would unlock the crystals secrets and when they did the untold knowledge and power that it held would be available to whoever wielded the items. That made me less than comfortable when I thought about it for too long.

  “OK, back to the subject at hand. I am betting that you would like to pay this crackpot doctor a visit sooner than later?” Kira said with a smile.

  “Finally a woman who understands me!” Dr. Galvez was a flesh and blood mortal who I could do something about and not some ethereal voice from the great beyond like the one in my dream. That little fact brought a lightness to my soul.

  She rolled her eyes at me. “I will pull my new car around since your’s hasn’t arrived just yet.” Something about the way she laughed worried me as she gave me a wink on her way out the door.

  “You know ya love me...” I called after her.

  “That’s hardly the point...” I heard her call back.

  Putting my tablet away I walked across the room and grabbed my empty shoulder harness and slipped into it. After I turned and placed my thumb in a slight indentation on the counter and waited for the jab of the needle prick to occur. The computer analyzed the blood droplet that it had collected, and once completed a small section of the bookcase slid open to reveal my arsenal. I had to move a few Magpul Modular assault pistols to one side before I found what I was looking for, two Beretta special duty PX4 Storm pistols. They were small enough to easily conceal and with 45mm loads, large enough to put your victim to the floor permanently. Making sure they were loaded before securing them in their holster, I grabbed my jacket off the rack and headed for the door.

  I hurried through the building and out the side door to find Kira was waiting for me in her new Hummer. Her new pink Hummer! The sheer magnitude of its pinkness stopped me dead in my tracks. As I took a closer look I could see two of my personal security officers were sitting uncomfortably in the back seat. I don’t have a problem with pink, but tacky pepto bismol pink with matching seats and bright blue fluffy fringe is just in bad taste, no matter who you are.

  Kira looked at me as she rolled down the window and yelled. “Come on get in! What are you chicken or something?”

  I could only imagine the look of horror on my face. This thing was repellant. “You can’t be serious. You actually paid money for this thing? No amount of goading me will make me feel any better about setting one foot inside that thing let alone riding in it! We run a security firm. Did you forget about the ‘being inconspicuous’ part of the job?”

  She threw back her head and laughed. “I believe this is the perfect thing to cure that ego of yours! Now get in we got places to go.”

  Hanging my head in shame as I slowly opened the door, I saw
the pink and white cow spotted carpet and thought I was going to be sick. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “Buckle up buttercup because I am not paying a $180.00 ticket cause your a pussy.”

  Grabbing the rhinestoned seatbelt strap I felt ill. “You could have maybe toned it down just a bit?”

  “And miss the look on your face. Oh no no no no... this is worth every last penny I paid for it on ebay! OMG you actually look queasy, my life is complete!” She cackled as she turned into traffic.

  “God hates it when you gloat you know.” I said callously.

  “It’s a good thing that we are on such a good standing relationship with the big guy upstairs or else I would be worried. Now sit back and enjoy the ride. Oh and smile...” She said as she held up her phone and snapped a photo of me before I had time to react. This could come back to haunt me in so many ways. It’s a good thing she is family or I might have had the urge to kill her for this little stunt.

  “Just drive, and just so you know, things have a way of coming around. Hell, who knows, someone might show Nora your baby photos.” I growled.

  Her face suddenly froze and she looked a little ill. “You wouldn’t dare...”

  “You’re joking right? You don’t know me very well then do you?” I said with a smile now that I had her full attention.

  “But I like Nora and she sort of understands my crazy job and my wacko boss. I don’t think she is ready for the baby photo’s just yet. Please don’t do it. I am begging you.”

  I shrugged. “That all depends on where that photo of me winds up now doesn’t it. I am happy for you and Nora though.”

  She gave me her biggest sweetest innocent smiles. “Thanks pops you're the best.”

  “Of course I am.” I agreed.

  “You know when I say ‘you’re the best’, that just means that I am trying to get you to do what I want right?”

  I smirked and said. “Child not only did I raise you but I taught you everything you know. And yes I know that’s what is happening but it’s still nice to hear once and again.” Did I forget to mention that Kira is my daughter?