Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years. Deus ex Tuna

Disclaimer: Daria is the creation of Glenn Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. Greater Tuna is the creation of Joe Sears, Jaston Williams, and Ed Howard. I don't own any of the above properties, and neither expect nor deserve any financial compensation for this work. I am writing for my own amusement and ego gratification.

Please gratify my ego with a nice review.

Rated "T" for language. Members of the Steel Hand gang are NOT nice people. They use naughty words.

Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years*Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years*Daria Ravenclaw: The Highland Years

Her dad put on the brakes short of the next intersection, and Daria watched the schoolchildren and teachers crossing the street in a churning whirlpool and fright and consternation. She took a break from looking in the side mirror to see if the gangsters had gotten out of their Saturn and gave a brief look at the sign on the rear door of the nearest school bus to see where the children had come from.

Daria read the lettering on the nearest school bus's rear door: Greater Tuna Independent School District. She clenched her teeth. Who else but idiots from Tuna would schedule a field trip to Highland during the middle of a flipping gang war, Daria thought with disgust and bitterness. She watched another group of students cross the street from their bus over to the other side and the entrance to the Settles Hotel, then got an idea. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stripped off her jacket, then reached behind her and put on Quinn's jacket and knitted cap. She tilted the side mirror on her side. She couldn't see the gangsters' Saturn, which meant: they couldn't see her either.

"Dad, let me out here," said Daria, taking off her glasses and putting them in the pocket of Quinn's jacket. Her eyesight was poor but she could see well enough to safely cross streets with slow-moving traffic. "I changed my appearance, I don't look like I did when we left the drug store, and I can blend in with the kids from Tuna. I can follow them into the Settles and hide while you lose the creeps."

Jake's first impulse was to say no, then order her to stay in the car. They were in an extremely dangerous situation and he didn't want the gangsters to get hold of her. But he was also aware that he might not be able to protect her; all he might be doing was playing a long, losing game where the bad guys would win in the end and kill him and Daria. But one thing he'd learned about his oldest was that she was not only smart and was fast on her feet, but she was careful. Something told him that her plan would work.

He took a deep breath, feeling the pain and fear roil through him, but his girl had found a solution that protected her. Jake realized that they had less than seconds to decide.

"Do it," he said, taking Daria's hand and giving it a brief squeeze. "Tell Mom what's up. I love you, kiddo."

Daria opened the door and stepped out. She walked over to a parked car, crossed in front of it, then vanished momentarily from Jake's sight. Jake's heart felt like it was beating in his mouth. He saw her again as she crossed the street with a clutch of Tuna school children. She looks almost like Quinn, thought Jake and she looked like she was blending in with the other children. He thought of what he and Daria had just done. Helen was going to kill him, but that was for later—if he lived through this. He had to take it on faith that his little girl had gotten away. Jake didn't want faith, he wanted certainty. The children and teachers finally cleared the intersection, the traffic lights changed, and traffic began moving again. He looked in his rear view mirror and saw the driver of the Ford Saturn looking at him.

Jake followed the line of cars in front of him. He looked in his rear-view mirror. The Saturn was still following him, and both of the men he'd seen earlier were still in the car. A rental van that had taken a space between him and the gangers changed lanes and Jake caught a glimpse of the other guy in the Saturn. Both gangers were in their car, they were still following him, and they didn't have his little girl. He scowled. He could now drive like a maniac and he no longer had to worry about Daria's safety. Game on, you SOB.

Jake drove on. He looked in the side mirror and saw that the Saturn was still following him. He lowered his window stuck out his arm and shot the other driver the finger. He grinned like a maniac when he looked in his side view mirror and saw that the gangster in the Saturn had seen it.

Jake now began to change lanes and make more turns. He also began to drive more aggressively. He blew through one intersection where cops were directing traffic. Some cars that had begun crossing the intersection screeched to a halt and angrily honked their horns at him. I'm probably going to jail, thought Jake. Helen might kill him later if the cops busted him, but these guys would try to kill him for real.

He found himself near one of the active construction sites, one he'd seen that morning from the fifth floor of the Aylesford. The city had been making progress while he and the girls had checked into the hotel; they'd started reburying the new pipe. Every day they'd bury at least twenty to thirty feet more. He decided to try to cut across the construction site, then get onto the street beyond it. He'd have to risk hitting backhoes, construction workers, dump trucks, or driving into the ditch that the workers had laid for the pipes but were now filling in.

The risks were high but the rewards were big. He might get bogged down in the dirt. He might hit some construction workers. The way out might be blocked. But the gangsters would be trapped in the construction site.

So where was the gate? There, he said to himself. He made a sharp right turn over the curb and drove into the construction site.

He drove into the construction site. There wasn't anyone in the driveway, thank G*d, but there was a dump truck paused with its rear gate about one and a half car's widths between the ditch and the truck's rear bumper. Jake saw the puff of smoke from the dump truck's exhaust; it was about to back up. He changed gear and pressed his foot onto the accelerator.

The dump truck was in motion when Jake took the street rod across its path. Jake worried about getting hit, but he was more worried about what would happen when he busted through the chain-link fence beyond it. He prayed that there wouldn't be any moving cars on the street or looky-loos on the sidewalk when he burst through the fence. No other cars, no pedestrians, thought Jake. He hoped and prayed that it would stay that way.

Jake flattened the fence, the chain link making a scraping sound on the bottom of the street rod as he drove across it, followed by a couple of bumps as the tires dropped from the curb onto the street. He turned left and hoped that he wasn't being pursued.

-(((O-O)))-

Snake was still chasing Family Man and his brat. The school busses and the children crossing the street might have been a good time to grab Family Man and his kid, but there were dozens of potential witnesses. Snake wondered just what had gotten into Family Man. He'd gotten a bug up his butt and started driving a lot more aggressively after the kiddies cleared the intersection. Family Man shooting the finger at him didn't improve his mood. He was now p.o'ed; he was going to beat the crap out of Family Man when he finally caught up with him.

Family Man suddenly turned right into a construction site. Snake followed after him, paying little attention to construction workers who'd seemingly appeared from nowhere, gesturing at him to try to make him stop. They ran and jumped to either side, trying to avoid getting clipped by Snake's Saturn. Family Man cut right across the path of a backing dump truck and then knocked down a chain link fence on the other side, turning left on the street beyond.

Rage surged through Snake as he saw Family Man getting away. Like hell you are, he thought, putting his foot on the gas.

"Watch out!" yelled Jack. The dump truck was still backing up. It had largely blocked the path that Family Man had made through the site. If the idiot in the dump truck was still backing up, Snake didn't want to be in its path. Snake yanked the steering wheel to the right, then gunned the engine. There was nothing between him and the fence except a line of chicken-shit little orange flags. The Saturn surged forward and then drove over the lip of the ditch, where the weight of his car's front end caused his car to tip down and slide into the ditch. The dump truck continued backing up, then dropped a load of dirt into the ditch, blocking the Saturn's drive-side door.

-(((O-O)))-

Jake was now on pavement. He took several deep breaths and realized that he was now on a street that could take him over to Interstate Highway 20. He looked up in his rear-view mirror. No sign of the gangsters' blue Saturn. He passed an intersection where a Texas Farm Ranch road crossed I-20's access roads and under I-20. He turned right onto the access road, then saw an entrance ramp to I-20. He made a gentle left turn and got on to the Interstate. A sign said that he was on the road to Sweetwater.

Ten miles later, Jake felt relaxed enough to turn on the radio. There was still no sign of the gangers and their blue Saturn. The news station had nothing about the gang war, just stuff about the presidential primaries, the Democrats' continuing clashes with the Reagan administration, and Reagan's discussions with the Soviet Union.

What to do now? He had an idea. It sounded stupid, but he didn't want to be in Highland for a while. I'll drive to Sweetwater, he told himself. I can call Helen from there."

Jake had gone thirty miles down the Interstate before the news station broke its coverage of the national sports scene to report the latest development in Highland's gang war. A couple of gunmen from Sickles' gang had just had a confrontation with police in downtown Highland. They'd been chasing another car through a construction site, then one of the gang members was shot by a police officer who'd seen the car chase, set off in pursuit and tried to arrest the driver.

The announcer said that there'd be more about the story, but first, there'd be messages from the station's sponsors. Jake listened tensely through the commercials for more detail. The announcer gave a brief recap, then added "They then drove into a ditch where one of the gang members exchanged shots with a deputy sheriff who'd followed them into the construction site. One of the gang members is dead, the other is under guard at the county hospital with a severe concussion. Law enforcement is seeking the driver of the car Reinhart's gang members were pursuing for questioning."

Jake sighed with relief. He and Daria were safe from the gang members, but he now had the problem of dealing with jittery cops. He'd packed his mobile cell phone with him, so he could call Helen for advice. He could pull off at the rest stop east of Roscoe and call her from there. He continued driving East, the cops didn't notice him, and he pulled off onto the rest stop's parking area.

-(((O-O)))—

Jake's return to Highland was anything but a Roman triumph. Helen had raged at him over the phone and asked him what the Hell he'd been thinking. He did learn that Daria was safe; she'd followed the school children from Tuna into the Settles Hotel and then called Helen, although Helen wondered out loud why Daria had begged her not to pick her up from the Settles for a couple of hours. Jake drove on to Sweetwater, found a coffee shop, then surrendered himself to several Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who'd been having dinner there.

The next couple of days were free from gang clashes and drive-bys. Los Boys and the Riders both laid low, but that didn't mean that things were now quiet. Snake's and Jack's car wreck gave the authorities leads as to where the Steel Hand gang had hide-outs or stash houses. The police swung into action and made several raids. At one house, the residence where Snake's stolen car had been registered, the police made a grim discovery: the bodies of the older woman who'd been living there and a young girl the woman had been minding. Both had been shot in the head and stuffed into a freezer.

The tide had turned against the Steel Hand. The discovery of the bodies had infuriated not only the police but also many members of Highland's underworld. People who normally didn't co-operate with the police tipped them off as to the gang's possible whereabouts.

Reinhart Sickles wasn't going to go down without a fight. His gang made one last drive-by a house which he thought was used by a pot dealer connected to the Boys, a house about a mile and a half away from Whirlwind Drive and Daria's neighborhood. Nobody was hurt when the shooters in the Hands' car sprayed the house with bullets, but the neighbors had been terrified.

That was the last drive-by. Tipped off by informers, the Texas Rangers raided a Steel Hand safe house and arrested a couple of the Hand's remaining members, but the police failed to arrest Sickles and his remaining top men.