Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy (27 page)

Juan and Ruth walk into the Central Park precinct - he
feels great hesitation in just entering. The last time he
had been here his boss had been killed, Susan,
supposedly a friend of his, had turned out to be a
homicidal Guard and Chase, his ex-partner another
Guard had tried to kill him. There was something
forbidding about the place. Surprisingly he was
greeted like some kind of celebrity.
O’Brien, the massive Irish desk sergeant greets him
with, “Well, would you look at what the dogs of war
have dropped on our doorstep.”
Mr. O’Brien it’s good to be home,” Juan says in a
fake accented 'Irish brogue.’
“And it’s good to see you alive, and well,” says the
sergeant.
There was a small shrine to Lieutenant Bryan near his
office door; people had been placing flowers on it for
the past week. It looked like an Indian wedding. He
walked up the stairs and made his way slowly to his
own desk. It was piled high with mail, boxes and a
pile of folders.
The clerk, Jane, appears before him, saying, “Hi Juan,
good to have you back.”
Juan looks at his desk, falls into his chair and stares at
the pile.
Ruth looks at the pile, smiling and says, "You haven't
been keeping up with your work have you?"
"Really, oh by the way this is Agent Ruth Knowing
from the FBI," Juan says.
"Nice to meet you," Jane says while giving Juan the
look that says, ‘Why is she here?’
Juan continues to look at the piles of paper and files
and asks, “This is a welcome back joke, right?”
“No, this is all work for you,” she says dryly.
“I hate this job!” Juan says.
“It gets better, the new squad lieutenant wants to see
you, but prepare yourself, its Bill Black,” Jane says.
“Really? You’re just full of good news,” Juan retorts.
“No, I’m not kidding you, and he’s waiting for you to
kiss his ring,” Jane says with a smile.
“I hate that guy’s guts,” Juan says.
"That's a waste of energy," Ruth inserts into the
conversation.
“He loves you too Juan,” Jane replies sarcastically
looking at Ruth and wondering who she is.
Juan drags himself out of his chair, pushes Ruth
forward and the two of them go into Black’s office.
Bryans’ name is being scraped off the office door.
Bill stands up to greet Juan and Ruth, saying, “Good
to have you back Juan, and who is this young lady?”
looking at Ruth as if she was dinner.
"This is Ruth Knowing with the FBI," Juan says.
"Really, how about that," Bill responds.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Black," says Ruth.
They all shake hands. Bill is a very tall black man
who could have played basketball for the NBA. He
has sharp features and very keen eyes. His mouth
curled into a kind of sneer that often was read the
wrong way by others.
“Thanks Bill, congratulations on your promotion.
Isn’t it too soon to take the letters off the door, they
haven’t even had Bryan’s funeral yet?” Juan says.
Ignoring the comment Black responds, saying, “Sit
down Juan. I hope for both our sakes you and I are
going to get along. I know we‘ve not always seen eye
to eye but I have always thought you were a good
cop, and why is an FBI agent here with you?"
Juan sits back and looks at Bill, remembers why he is
there and takes out his FBI badge and sets it in front
of Bill saying, “Bill this may come as a big shock to
you, but I’m not a cop and Ruth is my partner. We
both work for the FBI and I was assigned here about a
year ago to investigate Detective Chase Stern. Now I
have been reassigned back here to track down an exRussian intelligence officer named Ivan Kolinski who
seems to be trying to poison a portion of New York
City with a lethal virus,” Juan says.
“I never liked you or your sense of humor, you're
kidding me and this is your new squeeze,” Bill says.
Juan looks at Bill as if he wants to tackle him right
here. "I’m married Bill and I have kids. This is my
FBI partner."
"It's true," Ruth says taking her badge out and placing
it on the desk.
"No one gets a partner that cute," Bill picks up the
badges and inspects them closely.
“Oh, it’s the truth, and I have been given the authority
to mobilize the entire city’s police force to carry out
my directives,” Juan says.
“If this is how our relationship is going to start, you
and your squeeze can get out of here right now,” Bill
responds.
“I’m not kidding Bill, and I must ask you to call my
boss, Special Agent Trip Wagner in Washington, his
boss, Special Agent Trip Wagner in Washington, his
8888 extension 246,” Juan says.
Bill picks up the phone, dials the number and hears
the familiar good morning and FBI greeting, enters
the extension and Trip answers the phone.
“Good morning this is Supervising Special Agent
Wagner.”
“Good morning, this is Bill Black, I’m a Lieutenant at
the Central Park Precinct in New York City and I
have a Juan Martinez and a Ruth Knowing here who
claim to be your agents on assignment here.”
“Yes, Lieutenant Black, that’s right, I’m glad they got
there so quickly. You’re to give them your full
departmental cooperation, we have very little time
and it could affect thousands of lives in your city.
This is a potential national emergency. Let me talk to
Juan, please,” Trip says.
“Yes sir,” Bill hands the phone to Juan.
"Yes Trip, OK I will, I will, yes, no problem," Juan
says as he hands the phone back to Bill who hangs it
up.
“How do I know that’s a real phone number?” Bill
asks in amazement.
Juan sits forward in his chair and puts his hands on
the desk. “Bill this is a potential national disaster and
I need your help, not your enormous ego. Look at me,
and listen carefully. The reason that we have not
called out the National Guard is because we have no
idea where the threat is coming from. We only know
we have very little time to stop it. Do you understand
me?” Juan asks.
“Yes, I’m still processing that you’re really an FBI
agent, you're too short man,” Bill says.
"He is but they want Juan back in DC as soon as
possible, Trip just told him that too," Ruth pipes up.
"How do you know that?" Bill asks.
"Good hearing," says Ruth sheepishly knowing she
has not helped as Juan gives her a nasty look.
“Bill, look at me and pull it together,” Juan says,”
there is someone out there with something that could
kill thousands of our citizens at any moment. I really
need your help to do the following things.”
“Sure Juan, I’m still processing that you’re an FBI
agent, what do you need for me to do?”
“Good, We need any reports of unusual deaths within
the last 48 hours, especially by unknown causes; you
know diseases, poisons and such,“ Juan said and then
continued for several minutes with a long list of
requests while Bill took notes like a lost school boy.
At that moment Jane knocks on the door and enters.
“Sorry Bill!” Jane says, “Juan, I just want to remind
you about our conversation when you were in the
helicopter…”
“Shoot!” Juan says, before Bill can get a word out.
Jane says, “We had what we thought was a whack job
in here yesterday. A truck driver, a tiny guy to be
driving a big truck, anyway he said his partner was
killed or died, and he brought in a box of envelopes
that he says are poison. They're supposedly destined
for the Electric Company, He said his partner licked
one of the envelopes and the guy died a few minutes
later. He brought you a whole case of these
supposedly lethal envelopes. Anyway I wouldn’t have
really bothered you with this, but the same guy just
now called 911 from a warehouse in the Bronx;
saying he was stabbed in the chest with an ice pick by
a crazy Russian.”
“Nice,” Bill says.
Juan jumps up and says, “Let me see the box.”
“Sure,” Jane says.
“We may have stumbled into some real luck, maybe
not poison but a virus,” Juan says as he walks to his
desk. He indicates for Ruth to open the box
carefully.”
"Why her," Bill asks.
"She has special abilities," Juan returns.
"Along with hearing like Superman?" Bill adds.
Ruth opens the box and takes out one of the
envelopes and Juan immediately responds, “Whoa!
Smells like fried chicken, take these down to the lab,
carefully, and have them checked for poison or
possibly a virus.”
Juan looks at Ruth, who jumps in, saying, "We don’t
really have time for a lab test," and at that moment
she takes one of the envelopes and runs her tongue
along the glue seam.
Bill yelps, "What are you doing, are you nuts?
Ruth takes a moment to let her system analyze the
glue and then says calmly, "This is very dangerous.
This is a lethal virus, do you have a plastic bag?"
Jane empties one of the small waste baskets and
hands it to Ruth as she puts the envelopes back in the
box and the box into the waste basket.
"How did you do that?" Bill asks.
"She is on a need to know basis," Juan says, "We
don't have time for normal briefings.”
"Got it," Bill says.
"Juan we’ve got to get to the Electric Company
immediately – hopefully before those envelopes can
be delivered," Ruth says.
"Right," Juan continues, "We need 10 good men, a
car and an armored truck now. And we’ve got to get
that truck driver to a safe place."
Ruth thinks for a moment and says, "I took care of the
team and the car. They’ll be downstairs in 10
minutes. Let's get moving."
"How did she do that?" Bill asks.
"Sorry Bill, need to know again," Juan says.
Bill stands with Jane, both of them looking very
confused as Juan and Ruth run down the stairs and
out the front of the building to greet their vehicles and
team. Bill looks at Jane and says, "How did all that
just happen?"
"She's a robot Bill, an android, and she’s synthetic!
Jesus you're dense," Jane says.
"Really! When do I get one of those? Let's go! I want
to watch this," he says as he runs down the stairs after
them.

Ivan was particularly happy as he backed the big
Mack truck into bay 27 at the Electric Company. He
had never driven a large truck into a loading dock
before and it took him ten tries before he was able to
line up the truck properly much to the chagrin of the
shipping and receiving manager. He finally got out of
the truck, walked to the desk and handed him the bill
of lading saying, "I have delivery,"

“How long have you been driving a truck champ?"
the manager asks?
"Not long," Ivan replies.
"Figures, worst parking job I've ever seen," he
rambles on.
"I have other skill," Ivan returns.
"I'm sure you do. Listen isn't this Big Ed's and Hank's
truck?" The clerk asks.
"Yes, Ed not well. Hank took him to hospital and ask
me deliver in emergency. I am not usually doing
this," Ivan says.
"Obviously, listen were really busy this morning,
you're going to have to wait your turn. So have a soda
or something and we'll get to you when we get to
you," he announces.
"Is there anything I can do speed process up?" Ivan
asks.
"Not really, I'll get back to you." and he walks off.
He doesn't like Ivan and he knows big Ed and Hank
well enough to know they would never let anyone
drive their truck. So he goes quietly back into the
warehouse and calls Hank.
In the meantime Ivan calls Charles and brings him up
to date on the situation. Charles is happy so Ivan is
happy. He sits on the edge of the shipping bay and
allows his legs to dangle off the edge of the dock. A
long chapter is about to come to an end. His virus is
going to be used to make the world a better place. He
has Charles’ approval and was happy as a clam. For
the next half-hour he has pleasant dreams of
homicidal viruses killing people all over New York.
Suddenly he is rudely awakened from his reverie and
who should be standing in front of him to ruin his day
but tiny little Hank. Ivan looks surprised at Hank
being there and says, "Good trick, you're alive?" and
smiles.
"The shipping dispatcher called me so I took a cab
and here I am to complete my revenge,” says Hank.
"Where is your gun?" says Ivan.
"It's around," Hank explains.
"So, how you intend kill this big Russian Ivan?" Ivan
smiles again.
"I'm going to kill you with my bare hands," Hank
says with great enthusiasm.
"Really" Ivan jumps down from the dock and stands
in front of Hank. This is truly David and Goliath. But
Hank just stands there as all of a sudden Juan, Ruth
and a SWAT team appear out of nowhere.
"I have friends," Hank explains.
At that moment Ivan reacts by jumping into the cab of
the truck and tries to back the truck out. But Juan has
the armored squad vehicle parked right in the way
and the truck runs into it with a great crash. Ivan
jumps out of the cab and runs to the back of the truck,
reaches in and takes two AK47's one in each hand
and points them at the police.
Juan shouts through a loud speaker, "It's over Ivan,
put the weapons down." The armored truck moves
away revealing a line of SWAT officers in full body
armor all with guns pointed at Ivan as he paces back
and forth almost hyperventilating.
"You sneaky Americans!" he screams. Several
snipers have had him in their sights since the vehicle
had moved. Ivan falls to his knees and begins to sob,
"It was great plan, I worked so hard for this." Then he
screams again, "You weak Americans."
At that exact moment somehow the truck comes out
of gear and starts to roll backwards. Ivan sobs as the
truck rolls right over him crushing him like a snail
under a boot. Again the truck finally comes to a rest
and sheepishly Hank gets out of the cab with his
hands in the air, shouting, don't shoot!"
Juan yells through the loud speaker, "Stand down,
everyone!"
He then goes over to Hank who says, "I don't know
what happened. I was just checking to see if
everything was alright and hide from Ivan when it
slipped out of gear. I must have rolled on the gear
shift."
"Slipped?" Juan says not believing.
"I don't believe it slipped," Ruth exclaims.
"Then prove it" Hank says with a smile, "are you
going to arrest me?"
"No, it must have slipped when you tried to lie down
in the cab, right?" Juan says helpfully.
"Yeah, that’s it," Hank agrees.
"He's lying, Juan," Ruth complains as Hank walks
away with a broad grin.
"And what are you going to do about it?" Juan says
adding, "Partner?"
Ruth thinks for a moment and then smiles at Juan,
"Support my partner," Ruth says.
"Good idea! This thing with us could work," Juan
says, let me ask, “Do you like Spanish food?” and
they both start to walk away and let the police clean
up.
"I have a very good learning chip?" Ruth says, "And
I'm very cute."
"You are cute, but don’t tell my wife I said that," Juan
says with a smile.
Bill Black comes over to Juan and says, "Thanks
Juan, you just want to let that guy go?"
"Yeah, let him go. Let's just call it poetic justice, and
because of him a lot of people are not going to get
chicken flavored envelopes with a lethal virus on
them."
Ruth interrupts peevishly, "They want us back in
Washington immediately because there’s another
crisis, “You're not going to believe this," as she pulls
Juan aside, "Charles is not human either."
"He's a Guard?" Juan asks.
"No he's something else. I’ve already communicated
directly with him, I accidently allowed him to read
my mind and now knows about Ivan and the
envelopes and what happened here," Ruth says,
sounding puzzled.
"That's the trouble with you machines, you're an open
book to each other," Juan says ruefully.
Ruth smiles, "And you think you're not?"