10:15 am

The Farm

It had been a long night and Dante and Simon were taking a break in the Ops center when Simon’s phone rang. Nikki and Eva were in there with them so he answered the phone on speaker and let Rob know that they were all there. Rob explained to them about meeting with the Director of the FBI and showing him the material on the laptop Simon had recovered from Benjamin. The Director met directly with the President and it was quickly determined that Simon’s old outfit, and everyone and everything associated with it, was a huge liability so as is the government’s style, they made it all go away. Any reference to any Ops or personnel were completely wiped from every system they had ever touched and the few assets that remained in the group were quickly reassigned to other branches of the government. Simon no longer existed and that was what they had all wanted to hear.

It was also immediately clear to the Director and the President that there was still a need for the services the group had performed. There are people out there that are too well protected to go after through legal channels. The Director tasked Rob’s group with filling the void that was left open and they developed protocols to make sure that no one person would be responsible for delegating the assignments. They had also developed an oversight system to ensure what happened before couldn’t happen again. Rob paused and then asked Simon what he thought about continuing to work with his group. Simon looked at Nikki and Dante and they both nodded at him,

“We will continue to work with you, but Dante and I are contractors, we don’t work for the government. We will help where our unique skills are needed and Nikki is going to remain part time…. Once she heals from her injuries” He finished, pinning Nikki with a hard stare. She rolled her eyes and reluctantly agreed that she might not be in top fighting form just yet, but she was more than capable in supporting the team from the farm.

With relief evident in Rob’s voice, he continued to explain the next task the team would be faced with and it was clear that their unique skills would definitely be needed to accomplish their goal. It’s not every day that you get tasked with eliminating a sitting federal court judge, but that was exactly the mission that the team was given. Rob continued to lay out the mission to the group while Nikki accessed the FBI server where all their files were stored so she could start working on a profile for the target. For years he has been working with one of the largest organized crime families in the capital and he has enough political connections that they need to remove him without raising any suspicion. Once they were done with the briefing, Dante and Simon returned to finish up with Chester. Dante had been working with his new Chinese throwing stars and was becoming quite proficient. Chester didn’t seem to be a fan of his new found skills though.

5:00 pm

It turns out that Chester is a molester. Yep, we figured as much and now that I have had a look at his browser history and private stash of porn, that just wasn’t going to continue. D has a special contempt for molesters and it was all I could do to reign the boy in… somewhat. First things first, we need to determine Mrs. Chester’s role in this fucked up situation. Second, we do what we do and lastly, make the world a better place. You know the drill, if you don’t by now, there is a good chance we will see you at the farm….

We made a house call. D is part monkey so I sent him up to the second story to install some fiber optic cameras I just got and the clarity was phenomenal. It’s too bad the only time our footage gets any air time is in Snatchchat videos, but they are just so darn effective in the terror phase. Anyway, it didn’t take long for the curtain to raise on what would be Chester’s encore performance. Shortly after the young lady went to bed, Chester led his wife into her room where he made her sit and watch the entire thing…or as much as we let happen before our intervention. The wife had tears streaming down her face, but she sat compliantly by and let it all happen. I know this is a fucked up situation, but I don’t care, there is no way any decent human being can sit by and let this happen to a child. If you are not willing to put yourself in front of that child and protect them from the world then you have no right to have them in your life. I don’t care if they are your natural child, relative, or in this case, a child that the state has entrusted you with their care.

Before this went on any further, I rang the doorbell, handed  D the taser and moved out of sight of the front door. When the door opened and Chester was standing there in a pair of shorts and a wife beater that was 2 sizes too small, D smiled at him, aimed the taser right at the offending appendage and let it rip. There is just something about that high pitched scream that makes me smile. We quickly went into the house and I found Mrs. Chester and I let her know in no uncertain way that we were displeased with her letting this piece of shit ruin both her and the young girl’s lives. She showed me the bruises and scars from the beatings she took trying to intervene and said she had just about given up and would have killed herself but she couldn’t leave the girl alone with her husband. She was planning to take her and run away but she hadn’t been able to secure enough money to take care of them both, Chester not letting her anywhere near their accounts. Fortunately, Chester had a change of heart about the family finances.

Once we had Chester wrapped up nice and tight in a brand new barb wire snuggy and tucked into the transport, we brought the young girl down and told her that Chester was going to go away….permanently. We asked if she wanted us to take her somewhere else but she said she wanted to stay with Mrs. Chester, that she was really decent to her and that Chester had terrorized both of them. Once Chester had signed over the house, cars, and all of their bank accounts, he really was enthusiastic about doing so, I told Mrs. Chester that an attorney would be contacting her so she could begin proceedings to adopt the girl. Chester apparently skipped town with his mistress, or at least that was the letter that he left for them. Dante pulled the girl aside and said something to her and she pulled him into a big hug and thanked him several times. I told Mrs. Chester that we would check on them from time to time to make sure they were ok. It was now time to show Chester just how much we hate molesters.

11:40 am

The Farm

Simon was at his work station in the Ops center with Eva in his left arm and was typing away one handed at his keyboard, whispering to her the entire time. Nikki was asleep in the recliner that they had brought into the Ops Center so she could rock and feed the baby and still be part of the team. Dante stood inside the room taking it all in when Simon asked without looking up,

“What’s going on Dante, you haven’t been the same since we ran into Chester yesterday? Are you ok?”  He leaned back and shifted the baby to his other arm and brought his eyes up to take in Dante. He knew that there was something on Dante’s mind and he also knew enough about him to know he would tell him in his own time. Dante was studying the floor intently when he finally let out a long breath and looked up at Simon,

“After my mom abandoned me, I was put into the foster care system.” He paused for a few seconds and then continued, “The first home they put me in seemed to be pretty nice. The house was clean, there was food and everything seemed ok… for a while. It didn’t take long and about a week after I arrived, the father came to… “check on me” one night. Until that night, I had thought that being abandoned by your own family was the worst thing that could happen to you. I was wrong…” He cast his eyes back down to the floor for several more seconds, taking deep breaths trying to calm himself. Simon shifted the baby again and said,

“I’m sorry that happened to you Dante, but it was part of what makes you who you are today. Use it, that fury inside you. Use it to make sure others don’t get a chance to hurt people like you were hurt. Your instincts are spot on again, check this out.” He clicked some keys and Chester’s profile showed up on the screen under the state’s Foster Care Network.  Simon clicked several more keys and up came a profile of the young girl that they saw in the car with Chester. 13 years old, this was her 7th foster home.

Nikki had awoken and heard Dante’s admission. She stood up from the chair, walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. She held him for several long seconds letting him feel the love she had for him and then she pulled back and regarded the 2 men,

“Don’t you 2 have a night op to prep for?” She leaned forward, kissed Simon and then took the baby and went up the stairs.

11:15 am

I met Chester today. As usual, I wasn’t looking but they just can’t take no for an answer and come looking for me anyway. Before we get into that though, I owe you a Q&A. Here is one that is thought provoking, “What do you fear the most?” I will tell you that I’ve had everything and I’ve lost everything. I think that if people are really true to themselves, their biggest fear would be losing all that they have. Power, status, wealth, love, possessions. I have had it all and I have lost it all and it didn’t really matter in the end. The only thing that really scares me is that the Rage will get out one day and he won’t come back. Thankfully, I have some people in my life now that seem willing to make sure that doesn’t happen, but with all of these volunteers pushing the envelope, who knows. I can tell you that you don’t want to be anywhere near if that ever happens. Just ask Chester…

D and I were on our way to the farm with very precious cargo in the car with us. We were at a red stop light and as I was skipping through my songs on Pandora, D tells me to nonchalantly check out the car in front of us. Thankfully, we were in the new chase car and I had just finished installing the surveillance gear last week so I flipped the switch and glanced up at the car. The car was a small 4 door sedan and there was a driver and a single front seat passenger. The driver looked to be in his mid to late 40’s, balding, and about 30 pounds overweight. The passenger was a young girl, maybe 12 or 13. Chester had his hand resting on the back of the passenger seat and he kept running his finger up the side of the girl’s face and she would shrink away from his touch as far as she could to the passenger door. Just as the light turned green, Chester grabbed her by the hair, pulled her toward him and smacked her in the face. I started to grab the door handle, the Rage wanting to go make an introduction, when Chester finally realized that the light had changed and went peeling away.

Normally, we would have followed to see all that we could see, but Chester would have to wait for another day. It was time to get my family home. D and I had installed a few more goodies out at the farm in response to the attack. You would probably have a better chance making it inside the Oval office than you would  making an unannounced visit to the farm, but try if you must, we like the practice. It’s amazing the advancements they have made with laser and ultrasound technologies. I can now slice, dice, and scramble a human being with the touch of a button. Heck, we might just use Chester to test the new equipment. Ragesearch continues with that poster child for abortion. “Parents, don’t let this happen to you.” Stay tuned.

6:35 pm

Rob McShay’s House

Rob came in to his kitchen through the door leading out to the garage and when he saw the laptop sitting on his counter, he stopped in his tracks.

“I’m sorry to let myself in, but I needed to be discreet.” Rob set his briefcase on the counter and opened the door to the refrigerator,

“You want a beer?” He asked Simon as he reached in and pulled one out for himself.

“No thank you. I really am sorry I broke in, but that laptop holds the secrets that put Nikki in the hospital and started me on the journey I have been on since my wife’s death. I’m sure you already know that I used to work for the government. The outfit I was working for was run by one man and he was tasked with eliminating risks to the security of our country. We weren’t restrained by the same set of rules that you have to abide by in the FBI. The director answers to a committee and once they determine a verifiable threat to the United States, we were tasked to go eliminate the problem. Sometimes, it was brutal and messy to send a message. Sometimes, people would just disappear and no one would be the wiser. Most of the time, the target died of natural causes. As time went on, I found out that the director was using his position to further his own ambitions. Once I found out, I made plans to leave the organization and the director must have figured it out because he sanctioned my execution. Fortunately for me….not so much for him….they missed. Three times now.” Simon paused, letting that sink in for a moment and then he continued,

“The contents of that laptop show exactly what the director was up to and at least 7 of the executions had nothing to do with national security, but all of their deaths had a positive outcome for the director personally. I also found his offshore accounts and left that information on the laptop. Most of it anyway. You are the only man I trust Rob and I am leaving this for you to deal with as you see fit. I will add that I have taken steps to insure that in the event of my untimely demise, the contents of that laptop will go public worldwide. The fall out would certainly eliminate the current administration and could even destabilize our relationship with our allies. Some of the problems we eliminated were in other countries, not all unfriendly to the US.” Rob sat down at one of the stools at the bar and finished his beer, clearly rattled by Simon’s information. Simon rose from the table and headed toward the back door where he turned and faced Rob,

“Thank you for what you did for Nikki, she is getting better by the day and is anxious to get back to work, even though she isn’t strong enough to do so. D and I are ready when you need us.” Simon nodded once and disappeared out the back door. Rob went to the bar in the living room, needing something significantly stronger than a beer to digest all that he had just heard.

3:15 pm

I know you appreciate when we follow up with some of our past acquaintances to see if they are heeding my warnings or if they have reverted to the behavior that got the Rage’s attention in the first place. I had some time and we were close so I went to check on my little buddy sticky and his tormentor Mikey. Remember Mikey, the little twat that smashed my young buddy’s ice cream all over him? Well, you will be happy to know that Mikey has heeded our warnings and has given up his bullying ways. He did pee his pants when he saw me again, but that’s the price you pay for being a bully. Sticky is doing just fine and is enjoying his ice cream in peace. He mysteriously won free ice cream for a year from his local DQ.

You know who wishes he had some DQ, Benjamin. It might have helped soothe the burns. Well, soothe might be too strong of a word. It’s a moot point anyway, I broke Benjamin. I asked him very nicely for the password to his laptop and he was reluctant. So, I tried a new technique. Fire and ice. Yep, I wasn’t kidding about the gas and a match. Instead of gas though, I found some high proof liquor in the cabinet that Ben was happy to donate to the cause. It smells a lot better than the gas and I don’t mind a nice shot now and again.  

After his initial refusal to divulge the information, I poured some of the expensive liquor on Ben’s right arm. He’s right handed. Then I lit it on fire. I was careful to put the fire out before it totally burned through all the nerves or what would be the point of the dry ice??? I can’t really tell which was more uncomfortable, the volume of the screaming seemed to be at the same level. There is a particular line in Breaking Benjamin’s Evil Angel that I really like so I shared it with Ben several times,

“No, don’t leave me to die here, help me survive here.” Fortunately, he didn’t…….

It took both arms, his lap, which really changed the pitch of the screaming, and I was just about to start on his face when he gave up the goods. Unfortunately for him, I kept seeing visions of my dead wife’s battered body,  my lady in a hospital room, tubes sticking out of her and a huge bandage on her head. I saw my daughter fighting for her life in that incubator. I had one more shot and then I let Ben finish the bottle……

1:15 am

Outside undisclosed residence in Northern, Va

“He’s getting ready to leave.” Simon’s voice came over Dante’s com.

Dante readied himself as the rear doors of the limo opened and the 2 bodyguards stepped out and moved toward the front door of the house. Once they were in position, the front door opened and out stepped Benjamin. The three walked quickly toward the limo and when they were halfway there, first one and then the other guard crumpled to the ground, both clutching at the darts in their necks. Benjamin had a moment of indecision, go toward the limo or back toward the house. The driver’s door opened a second later and after 2 steps in that direction, the driver fell to the ground where he stood. As Benjamin turned toward the house, Dante’s dart hit him in the neck and he took one more step and his legs stopped working. Simon came out from behind his perch on the other side of the limo, tranq rifle slung over his shoulder, and they loaded Benjamin in the back of the limo and the other 3 men in the trunk, which took some doing. When they were finished they drove to Benjamin’s house. The information they needed was stored somewhere inside.

Getting into the house was easy, there was a controller on the visor of the limo that opened both the security gate and the garage door. Once they closed the garage, Dante and Simon quickly cleared the inside of the house and found Benjamin’s chef sleeping peacefully in her room. Thanks to a well placed dart, she will stay that way for the duration of their stay. After properly securing the 3 body guards in the garage, they took Benjamin into the house and down into his wine cellar. It was nice of him to have such a soundproof location where they could get to know each other better.

The effect of Dante’s dart began wearing off and Benjamin started moving slightly. Simon had his face covered the entire time they were moving Benjamin, who was fully aware of his surroundings but couldn’t move. When Simon saw that he was regaining some control of his body, he stepped in front of Benjamin and removed the hoodie that was covering his head. Benjamin stared at Simon for a few seconds and then you could see the realization take hold and his eyes grew wide. Simon smiled a malevolent smile at him and said,

“Hi Benjamin, it’s been a while.” Then he leaned forward and punched him in the face and out he went. The 2 men worked with the piano wire Simon had brought in his bag of tricks to fully secure Benjamin and they patiently waited for him to regain consciousness, Simon was busy with his IPOD, no doubt queing up some Breaking Benjamin. Dante was sure he heard the lead in for Evil Angel playing through his headphones. Simon loves that song.

9:55 pm

I told you we would get back to it so Q&A time. I got a ton of questions asking what happened to Eve. Let’s just say that my young associate has done an extensive investigation and determined that she is worth saving. Interestingly, he also volunteered to “keep an eye on her” to make sure she gets that chance. Come to think about it, I also noticed that D is listening to music a lot more, humming and on occasion, I have heard him singing. It’s in those moments that I realize we don’t actually share any DNA because the boy has skills. His singing would definitely not do for a Rage terror technique.

I segue into singing because we are going to break Benjamin and he is going to sing for us. Benjamin runs a very clandestine organization tasked with eliminating threats to the country. The problem is, who makes those decisions? Benjamin has been taking that task on his own shoulders and making them as he sees fit, regardless of its effect on national security. His problem with me is that I know where, and how, some of those problems got solved. This is the guy that set Tango on me in the first place and just like Tango, he thought he had succeeded.

Other than that mistake, he doesn’t make many. He keeps all of his records out of any other databases so there is no opening there. The one thing he couldn’t hide was that he was an employee of the government, which means he is getting paid. They don’t exactly issue paychecks to these type of people, but they route the payments through a maze of shell companies. Benjamin takes it one step further, he takes his ultimate payment in prepaid credit cards. Just like prepaid cell phones, no ID required. No trail either. Almost…

I found several receipts for the same restaurant, and after borrowing their security cameras, I found him. And a lovely lady who should have exercised better male selection criteria. Once I had my sights on her, we found out that she lives not too far from said establishment. This is our opening. Benjamin travels with bodyguards and lives and works in the equivalent of a fortress, but when he is visiting the young lady’s residence, his guards wait in the limo outside. She has her own security system protecting inside the house so Benny feels all warm and cozy when he is there. Speaking of warm and cozy, do you remember the can of gas and the match…

10:55 am

Undisclosed Healthcare Facility outside Charlottesville

Dante was sitting in the chair holding the baby, Nikki was sitting up in the bed watching the 2 of them when the door opened and Simon walked in, his piercing eyes going straight to Nikki. He approached her bed and handed her a single red rose,

“Hello Butterfly” He said with his deep voice, smiling down at her. Nikki’s eyes got wide and her hand went instinctively to the pendant hanging around her neck. She blinked several times, staring at Simon. As tears began falling, she said,

“Simon..” She held her hand out and Simon took it, a huge smile overtaking his face. She turned and looked over at Dante and the baby, “Dante” she said, holding out her other hand. He rose and came over and sat next to her on the bed.

“I remember… I remember going to the warehouse with Dante and then nothing until I woke up here. What happened?” She asked as Dante handed her the baby.

Simon and Dante filled her in on the blast and “some” of what happened since. They could see signs of the old Nikki returning, she was getting more and more angry as they explained who had set this whole thing in motion and that they had sent men to attack the 2 of them at the farm. Their relief at the return of her memory was short lived when she demanded a laptop and a cell phone.

“Easy Butterfly, we need to get you healthy and besides, we already have a plan. We just wanted to make sure you were alright before we….engage.” Simon said trying to calm her down. 20 minutes later he was barely making a dent when Nikki looked at Simon and said,

“What are we going to name her?” Dropping her eyes down to the little bundle of Rage in her arms. Simon looked at her, glanced over at Dante and said,

“I was thinking we could name her Eva Simone…..Sebastian.” He finished, showing her the smile that led to the little bundle of Rage in the first place. Nikki smiled back at him,

“That’s perfect, my grandmother would be so proud. She would have loved Eva so much.” Smiling down at the baby. She looked back up at Simon and said,

“I don’t remember telling you my grandmother’s name?” Eyebrow raised. Simon just smiled back at her.

4:15 pm

I have to bypass the Q&A today because I have a good story to tell you, but fret not, we will get back to it soon enough.

Bad news for Adam, the apple bit back. And by apple, you know I mean the Rage. This little fucker was even more twisted than we had first thought. D doesn’t say a lot, but he is always studying, watching, learning and I have come to respect and trust his instincts so when he suspected some foul play was amiss, we had to get to the bottom of the mystery. The Rage has his own polygraph. He holds and ice pick about a half inch from the subject’s eye and says with as much malice as he can, which is a lot,

“If you lie to me, I will slowly drive this ice pick into your eye” pause for dramatic effect. “And then we do it again on the other eye. You can imagine where we go from there.” His face right in the subject’s, never blinking. It hasn’t failed us yet. We quickly determined that Adam knew the other men in his crew from childhood and they have been up to no good ever since. Eve, on the other hand, got sucked into this den of dickery because she was trying to save her older sister. Adam started dating her sister about a year ago, got her hooked on drugs and is basically holding her prisoner in his house, threatening to OD her if Eve didn’t work with him and his gang of ass zits. D and I visited said abode and found exactly what he said we would. See, the lie detector is infallible. We took the girl to a facility to help get her clean and we introduced Adam to the Rage’s version of home improvement. Remember the router, turns out we didn’t even need the scroll saw, the router was too much fun by itself. Makes a hell of a mess though.

We left the men, let’s just say “secured”, at the group’s warehouse where they were housing their stolen goods. We informed the authorities that the men had a moment of regret and wanted to turn themselves in. We took Adam’s truck back and left it at his employer’s lot with a letter of resignation taped to the steering wheel. Adam was going to walk across Europe and find himself. Good luck with that, there isn’t anything left to find.

Feeling satisfied that we, once again, helped make the world a little better by taking out the trash, it’s time to go see how my ladies are doing. It’s supposed to rain tonight while I will be traveling so please make sure your headlights are on and you are driving courteously, the Rage still wants to give the scroll saw a whack and we have an opening at the farm.